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Where kites fly above the fort.
This entry was posted in Asia, Sri Lanka and tagged Asia, Astronomy, Buddha, Buddhist, Cargo, Ceylon, Dutch, Dutch Hospital, Galle, Galle Fort, Galle Railway station, Holland, Indian Ocean, Islam, Kite, Lloyd's, Madrasah, Muslim, Netherlands, Rampart Street, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shipping, Sri Lanka, Sunset, Tropics, Twilight, Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC. Bookmark the permalink.
Beautiful work once again, Fabrizio. The passage about the group of men staring off into the horizon is particularly evocative. There is a romantic melancholy about old colonial outposts.
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Hi Julie, thanks for your words! I really liked Galle, it was melancholic, exotic and familiar at the same time and despite being a bit touristy it was also a great insight on the local life…
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Lovely piece. And another reminder to those of us in the new world that the old world has a long history, and a beauty all its own.
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Hi Dave, thanks for reading. I daresay that it’s not just for you in the new world, how many in “Old Europe” know that the Chinese used to do the same intercontinental voyages our ancestrors did but not on bathtubs but in enormous fleets with 300-foot-cruisers, before we dared leaving Gibraltar?
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This is truly transporting. I just need to google Galle now in my geographically challenged condition.
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Hi Manja! It’s towards the south of the tear-shaped island that is Ceylon 🙂
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Thank you. 🙂 I had a look and tried to make Google calculate how much time the drive from here to there would take but it capitulated. 😀
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It might be a while, from Slovenia!
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I’m in the south of Tuscany (originally from Slovenia), but yeah. 😀
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Beautiful! I love how you blend the past and the present in your words and photographs.
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Thanks Jolandi! In Galle it’s hard not to be transported back in time, it feels like the age of the clippers had only taken a brief respite…
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Quite interesting. I’d never heard of Galle before. Had to “map” it up. Ceylon, eh? Thank you fo r the trip.
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Indeed, Ceylon/Sri Lanka. Call me an old imperialist, but I love the old name better…
Merci pour lire!
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Pas de quoi. Et je suis d’accord. I say Ceylan (en french) or Bombay. What is your first language? Español, vdd?
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Italiano! 🙂
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Italiano makes sense. (Fabrizio) But then I misunderstood. You were not referring to the Spanish Civil war, but to the struggles – in Italy – between the communist party and the Duce’s followers?
(A bit like Don Camilo’s movies?) 😉
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Yes and no Brian. There has been the Resistenza, sure, but I’ve had relatives who went to Spain during their civil war. One as a Republican volunteer, the other as a Franco volun…told. The Army sent a lot of people and equipment to support Franco, I’m told.
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The International brigades then. And yes Mussolini would have supported Franco. Strange things happen in wars. My father was raised in the Suez canal, two of his friends were franco-italian: D’Orso. One fought with the Free French Forces, the other in the Italian Army. 🙂
Arrivederci.
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