The Basques (also known as Euskaldunak) are an ethnic group with their own culture and language whose historical home straddles the Pyrenees mountains, occupying northern Spain and southwestern France.
What makes the Basques so intriguing? Let’s start with language. I’m sure you’ve heard of some of the major language families, such as Romance Languages (e.g. Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese), Germanic Languages (e.g. English, German, Dutch, Swedish), and Slavic Languages (e.g. Russian, Polish, Czech, Serbian). These are groups of related languages that all evolved from a common ancestral language. In fact, languages all over the world can mostly be grouped into “families”… but Basque (Euskara) doesn’t fit into any of them. It is a language isolate, meaning that is bears no relationship at all to any other surviving language. Its origins are utterly mysterious, and the culture it belongs to… oh boy.
By the time the urban footprint of London really began to expand in the 18th century, Hampstead Village had become kind of a trendy place to be for Londons affluent intelligentsia, since it was beautiful, clean, and within striking distance of London. Likewise, the giant natural area now known as Hampstead Heath—which served as a shared backyard for this community—became the focal point of conservation efforts in the face of London’s creeping urban sprawl. Luckily, Hampstead already boasted an impressive roster of rich and influential residents who had the muscle to bring this conservation to reality. The result? Both Hampstead Village & Heath have grown into the stuff of postcards; a beautiful and secluded getaway from the hustle and bustle of London.
Little by little I am visiting other places in the UK besides London. Believe it or not, Brighton was only the 3rd non-London location that I’d visited… but we’re not even going to see much of the city on this trip (we’ll come back for that soon). Today, we’re going to continue coverage of the European football/soccer circuit with an English Premier League match in Brighton. The match is Brighton & Hove Albion (a.k.a “Brighton”) v. Wolverhampton Wanderers (a.k.a. “Wolves). Here’s exactly where this match took place: Brighton’s AmEx Stadium, also known by its non-sponsorship name, Falmer Stadium.
Bath is a small town of about 94,000 people in the county of Somerset. By train, it is about 2 hours west of London, and it’s closely neighbored by Bristol and the Welsh border to the northwest. By all accounts, this is one of the most beloved and beautiful little towns in the South of England. There are lots of other sub-regions of the British Isles that I’m sure have lots of other beautiful towns… but in terms of day trips out of London, Bath is definitely in the top 3.
There is more to know about Bath of course—including the super un-creative way it got its name—but I’ll cover those details in due course. For now, here’s the map. You can enter into this place as uninformed as I was when my train rolled up one morning in late October.
Aix, like nearly everything in this part of the world, has a recorded history that stretches back well before the birth of Christ. Whenever I write these articles, I’ll always take a quick dive into the proverbial pool of history to see if there’s anything notable I should highlight… and in the case if Aix, I mostly came up empty-handed. In fact, the most interesting thing I dug up during my research—aside from the recent unearthing of a Roman amphitheater in a nearby suburb—was an interesting Medieval legend about a Dragon that supposedly sat on a nearby hill atop a pile of bones, both human and animal. This legend is interesting, because—although the presence of a Dragon cannot be confirmed—the pile of bones was known to be very real! It’s been the subject of numerous scientific inquiries to identify all of the original owners. There’s a really interesting article about this called “The Dragon at the bus-stop” that feels like it sets the scene quite well for a children’s fantasy novel.
So, with that in mind, the history of Aix feels relatively uncomplicated in my head. For all the history buffs, the history is there! But, for the rest of us, I don’t think you’re doing this place a huge disservice by just enjoying it for what it is now: a magical little place in the South of France.
There is a an urban offshoot of the nearby Danube River that snakes its way through urban Vienna where street artists have had a field day. This offshoot is called Donaukanal and you can actually walk along its banks for almost its entire 17 km length. I didn’t walk the entire length because, when you start to exit its super urban stretches, the murals start to be replaced with greenery (which is arguably much nicer than endless concrete and paint), but the stretches that I did cover were an absolute treasure trove of street art.
I’ve been forced to reference Vienna’s history books more than once now, but today is where we’re going to take a deep dive into those history books. And we’re going to do so with the aim of exploring one particular character in Vienna’s story: the House of Habsburg.
The House of Habsburg is one of the most important dynasties in European history. Their origins are bit murky, but their collective ascent to nobility as a family can be traced all the way back to the 900s. They were lords controlling patches of territory in central Europe who—over the course of generations—fought their way to the very top. Starting in 1440 when they were at the helm of the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburgs were in control of major world powers until the early 1900s.
Growing up, before I really started to get obsessed with maps and traveling, I always had a vague awareness of Vienna—not because of its geopolitical significance, or because it was the capital of an important European country—but because of the arts. In this article, we’re going to jump head-first into the world of classical art and culture that has become a calling-card for Vienna. I definitely did not have time to do everything that this city has to offer, but I was able to make the most of the time I did have thanks to my man on the inside.
Vienna. It has got a reputation for being one of the most beautiful and most “livable” cities not just in Europe, but in the whole world. And that reputation is very well-deserved! But to me, the geopolitical angle is much more interesting that the generic wiki-tourism preamble. So, why am I saying that Vienna is the “Spy Capital of the World”? Well, I can’t take credit for this designation; it’s a “thing.” If you look it up on YouTube, you’ll find all sorts of interesting explainer videos on this (here’s a good one from Versed). I actually think this is a really good segue into explaining Vienna as it stands today, so here’s the quick version…
Similar to my sentiments about the street art I found in Naples, I think the street art of Paris feels quite unique in the context of the murals I’ve seen overall. Indeed, these pieces of art like there were directly inspired by and connected to the city around them—which is not always the case! In North America—where there are some incredible works of art tucked away down alleyways in cities like Toronto or San Francisco—the artistry can weirdly begin to blend together after a few cities. Perhaps this is a symptom of the cultural homogeneity of the continent at large, or maybe I’m just looking for meaning in a place where this none to be found… but the murals I saw in Paris definitely felt like they belonged here.
