Tag: europe

Categories
in germany

the watershed

once, on a US mini-roadtrip, we passed by a sign on the highway saying “great continental divide”. i googled it and found out that there’s a sort of line, west of which the water flows to the pacific ocean, and east to the atlantic ocean. it was obvious, but somehow i had never thought of it, and it blew my mind! to think that 2 drops of water, hitting the ground a couple of meters apart could end up in two different sides of the country, thousands of miles apart? just… wow.

it’s no secret i love roadtrips, but i think what i like the most in them is actually this kind of random little things – the unexpected curiosities that you only notice because you’re in a new place and everything is foreign. so when we were researching for our bavaria roadtrip last april, i noticed by chance that we would drive across the european watershed drainage divide: the one separating the rhine from the danube… i knew I wanted to see that!

i knew more or less where it would be, but in the end we ended up noticing it by accident, while driving by. i made us turn around to get a proper photo:

wasserscheide_

and there it is, so unassuming, yet so significant! on one side of this line, water flows into the rhine drainage basin, ending up in the atlantic, off the coast of the netherlands. on the other, the water will eventually join the danube, crossing 10 countries until it finally arrives on the black sea.

so cool! :)

Categories
postcrossing traveling

suomi

\\\

attending a big international postcrossing meet-up has been a dream which so far had been put on hold – for the great part of the last few years we were far away when these happened. not this time though, so we said, why not? we were in europe, the trip is quick and plane tickets are not that expensive, we didn’t know helsinki (but were extremely curious), and after a summer working from home, we could use a vacation. also, our dear friends nathalie and mikko live in helsinki, so it was a very nice opportunity to visit them :)

so we came to helsinki on a mission, but boy, were we in for a treat. stay tuned for an avalanche of nordic posts! :)

Categories
links and ideas on the big screen

“my dream is for europe to become a huge melting-pot. we need to melt”


BONO: Your desire for Europe is extraordinary to me, but you’ve followed through on it. I mean, is this where the languages come in? Did you learn French and German at school?

EDDIE: I learnt French at school but stopped when I was 16. When I first visited France, I’d go into a bar or restaurant and say, “Qu’est-ce que ils?”. I’d just keep going with my broken French. My rule was, communication first, grammar second.

BONO: I’m amazed that you can do stand-up in French.

EDDIE: Absolutely. My dream is for Europe to become a huge melting-pot. We need to be a melting-pot. We need to melt. So my doing a gig in French is to kick the melting-pot up. I want to do gigs in German, Russian, Spanish. And Arabic, because I was born in an Arabic country and the 9/11 thing.

BONO: Do you consider yourself European?

EDDIE: I consider myself British-European, like there are African- Americans and Italian- Americans. You can be Irish-European. Whether you’re Northern or Southern Irish, there’s this umbrella of Europeanness. I think if we can make it work in Europe, it’s almost a blueprint for the future of the world. If we can get all these countries, with all their languages, coming together to work in some shape or form, then the whole world can work. And if we can’t get it working in Europe, the world has got no chance. Those are the stakes.

from an interview with eddie izzard to the independent. the man has a brilliant comedy style that we can’t seem to get enough of – plus, a political conscience, and a love for researching stuff on wikipedia. if you go beyond the death star canteen lego sketches on youtube, you’ll find a peculiar comedian, worth exploring.

photo by davemorris on flickr.