Bill Murray's Blog, page 151
July 11, 2012
World Transport - Wednesday HDRs
Taken from the train platform in Spiez, a little town on the Thunersee, between Interlaken and Thun, in Switzerland.
The mercado in Addia Ababa, Ethiopia. They call it the world's largest outdoor market and it really is huge. It's blocks and blocks and blocks both long and wide.
Out in the countryside in St. Helena, a British territory in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Kind of frozen in time.
Along the side of the road in rural Uganda.
Fremantle, the port near Perth, on Australia's I...
July 9, 2012
Nice to Meet You. Here's a Picture of You and Your Wife.
If you post something to Facebook you obviously don't expect it to stay private. Even so, this feels a little creepy of British Airways.
July 6, 2012
Congolese Border Tales
Whenever I read a story with news like this:
"Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have taken a major border post after clashes with government troops...."
I think about a visit to a safari camp in Uganda a few years back, just near the border with Congo. It was small, only ten tents and the proprietor, a stereotypical grizzled white African character I'll call Dave, said he'd take out three of the tents and only have seven if he had his way but he was only working for the man, j...
June 29, 2012
Friday Photo Quiz #154 - Where in the World?
Utterly discouraging architecture from a European capital:
Can you name this European capital? The country?
The answer is below.
And the answer is ............................................................... it's Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. To be fair, these photos are years old - from our 1997 visit, only about eight months after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic. Maybe it's much prettier now.
There are more photos from Belgrade in the Former Yugoslavia Gallery at Earthphoto...
June 28, 2012
June 27, 2012
Trouble Everywhere, All at Once
The Middle East was the center of the universe last weekend, as the world watched the Egyptian election results and Syria's downing of that Turkish F-4. Tomorrow the North Atlantic moves to the center, with the Obamacare ruling on this side of the ocean and the 1,437th Euro summit on the other.
As the potential first country out of the Eurozone, you'd think Greece would be under enough pressure. But consider its geographical position.
To the east: The Aviationist blog has published a video...
June 26, 2012
June 25, 2012
Havana, Right Now
With travel to Cuba now open to Americans, here’s what you’ll find if you visit right now.
Havana, Cuba, March 2012: We jump into a priceless, ‘50s vintage yellow convertible taxi and ask for a ride to ‘Old Havana.’ Where in Old Havana? We don’t know. We shrug, everybody smiles and we just go.
Ramon the Cabbie pulls to the curb, fumbles in the glove box, pulls out a preposterously big cigar, stuffs it in my mouth, gives me a light and puts his cowboy hat on my head. Everything is fabulous.
W...
June 22, 2012
Friday Photo Quiz #153 - Where in the World?
Oh, very very strange. Where could this be?
Looks like the desert. But this country ranks 17th in the world with 7,200 kilometers of coastline, much of it lined with expensive resorts. Care to take a guess?
The answer is below.
And the answer is ............................................................... it's Cappadocia, in eastern Turkey. Turkey's Mediterranean shore is about 1000 miles long and jam-packed with holiday resorts mostly frequented by European package tourists.
There...
June 21, 2012
Weekend Reading
Two commendable reads:
Jumping Through Hoops - on the London Olympics
If Only They Could Talk - about the moai on Easter Island
