Tag Archives: Christianity
Jérusalem la nuit.
It’s not a long ride from Ben Gurion to Jerusalem, especially if it’s 4 AM and there’s little, in terms of traffic, to slow down our yellow-and-white sherut van. We weave in and out of the most conservative neighbourhoods of … Continue reading
Posted in Israel, Middle East
Tagged Bethlehem, Bread, Bus, Checkpoint 300, Christianity, Church, Coffee, Damascus Gate, Dawn, Ethiopian, Ethiopian monastery, Franciscan order, Frankincense, Haredim, Holy Sepulchre, Islam, Israel, Jerusalem, Middle East, New Gate, Old city, Palestine, Sepulchre, Sherut, stone
21 Comments
The first globe-trotter.
We live in an age where travel is becoming a commodity. £300 return fares, London-New York, non-stop. £60 tickets for the train to Paris. Competition has brought low fares and low fares have shrunk the world: the jet set is … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Iceland
Tagged Þorfinnur, Þorfinnur Karlsefni, Þorstein, Canada, Christianity, Drakkar, Eirik, Eirik the Red, Far travelled, First Nations, First white, Globe Trotter, Greenland, Guðriður, Guðriður Þorbjarnardóttir, Iceland, Laugarbrekka, Leif Eiriksson, Leifur, Middle Age, Norway, Nun, Pilgrimage, Pope, Rome, Saga, Sailing, Ship, Snæfellsnes, Snorri, Travel, Traveller, Víðförla, Viking, Vinland, Well travelled, X century, XI century
27 Comments
Remembrance for scatterbrains.
Landing takes place at night. We descend into the warm Mediterranean air, those of us sat on the left-hand side being treated to a royal view of the entire city of Beirut lying, invitingly, beneath us. Here is Ras Beirut, … Continue reading
Posted in Lebanon, Middle East
Tagged Alawite, Architecture, Asia, Beirut, Beit Beirut, Christianity, Civil War, Demarcation Line, Druze, Green Line, Hamas, Hezbollah, Holiday Inn Beirut, Iftar, Iran, Lebanese Civil War, Marina, Maronite, Martyrs' Monument, Middle East, Nightlife, People, Photography, Ramadan, Religion, Skyscrapers, Street photography, Taif, Travel, Urban photography, War
18 Comments
To the last city.
No, that’s a misnomer. Tashkent was, if anything, Uzbekistan’s first city, at least in the modern sense of the term. First one to be occupied by the Russians, first one to be reached by a railroad, first to host all … Continue reading
Posted in Central Asia, Uzbekistan
Tagged Asia, Central Asia, Christianity, City, Cityscape, Cycling, Earthquake, Food, G55 AMG, Hotel Uzbekistan, Islam, Islam Karimov, Karimov, Kazakhstan, Korean, Kosmonavtlar, Lenin, Marx, Mercedes, Mirobod, Soviet, Soviet Union, Street photography, Urban photography, USSR, Uzbek Koreans, Uzbekistan
11 Comments
Chaos theory applied to abbeys.
Sometimes you don’t make it, sometimes you break it. Ian Malcom explained it in Jurassic Park, circa 1993. A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine. A single valley, two abbeys, … Continue reading
Posted in Europe, Italy, Toscana
Tagged 1348 Plague, Abbey, Black Death, Chaos Theory, Christianity, Cistercian, Faith, Galgano, Italia, Italy, Jurassic Park, Knights, Middle Ages, Monks, Nunnery, San Galgano, Sant'Antimo, Sword in stone, Toscana, Tuscany, Val d'Orcia
14 Comments
Weren’t all they supposed to be madmen?
Lunatics. Zealots. Religious fanatics. These were a few of the attributes that friends and acquaintances slapped on the people of Iran whenever the topic came up. Unrequested opinions were offered, together with garbled memories of articles penned down by the … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Iran
Tagged Asia, Christianity, Farsi, Fox news, Hezbollah, Iran, Isfahan, Islam, Middle East, People, Street, Street photography, Terrorism, Travel
17 Comments
An afternoon south of the river: finding Armenians in Iran and how civilization begun.
“…a wicked regime where anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial is official ideology, and with […] killing of women just because they’re women” – Sarah Palin The south bank of the dried Zāyanderūd river is Armenian at heart. This piece of Iran, long … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Iran
Tagged Armenia, Assyrian, Christianity, Church, Clay, Cob, Farsi, Iran, Isfahan, Islam, Mesopotamia, Middle East, Mosques, Mud, Mud wall, Sumeric, Sun baked bricks, Ur, Vank
3 Comments
People of the Book.
Cynics would say that, were copyright infringement laws to exist back then, the Apostles and Prophet Muhammad would’ve landed in court, for the similarities and reciprocal borrowings between Judaism, Christianity and Islam are staggering. This holds true for the theory but also … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Israel
Tagged Christianity, Coptic, Islam, Israel, Judaism, People of the Book
6 Comments
(Not finding) my religion in the Holy Land: confession of a sceptical in Jerusalem.
For some people, the moment of detachment from a religious view they used to hold is a momentous one, the culmination of days – perhaps months – of introspection, self-assessment and doubt. In my case, instead, I cannot point out … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Faith, Israel
Tagged Abraham, Al Aqsa, Allah, Christianity, Conflict, Dome of the Rock, God, Hebrew, Holy Land, Holy Sepulchre, Isaac, Islam, Israel, Jerusalem, Jesus, Jordan, Judaism, King of Jordan, Moshe Dayan, Muhammad, Muslim, Temple Mount, Wailing wall, Wall, War, Western wall
6 Comments
Nuns
The group of nuns emerged from Zagreb’s Cathedral and immediately stopped in the piazza, gesticulating feverishly as they spoke with each other in a deluge of fast-paced Croatian. Initially they didn’t seem to notice the man approaching them. A backpacker, … Continue reading
