There’s no place like Zverynas
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This week we look at parades, journalism, amputations and isolated communities living in the woods... Only on babelblogs
Summer is back, bloggers put their flip-flops and sunglasses on and investigate what’s on in lazy summer European cities.
Back in Europe (finally!)
Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French president, surprised his people on election night claiming ‘Now France is back in Europe’ (- I personally never noted its absence). He also decided that 14 July (the French national holiday that commemorates that jolly day of the Storming of the Bastille and the beginning of a bloody and violent revolution) would be the opportunity to have a European parade in Paris! For those of you who couldn’t make it there, have a look at paris.cafebabel.com. Preparations, ambience, pictures, the best speeches and people’s comments… it’s all there.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
From Paris to London, or, to be more precise, to the London Science Museum. The london.cafebabel.com team seems to be very active: most if not all of them are students, some of them also work, and they blog a lot, giving opinions and suggestions on intteresting places to visit in London. This time Karo and Nina report on their trip to the British Science Museum's exhibition on the history of medicine. As you may guess, this is not for sensitive people or those with doctor’s appointments coming up. Unless of course you really want to find out about medieval techniques of amputation and kidney dialysis. You have been warned.
Visit e-stonia
This week’s must is tallinn.cafebabel.com. And not just because I went to Tallinn with four other cafebabel.com journalists and felt absolutely overwhelmed by the local team’s hospitality and helpfulness. No. tallin.cafebabel.com is simply a very interesting blog. Run by Giovanni, an Italian (sorry, Sardinian) resident in the Estonian capital, this blog gives a fresh, European point of view on this unique city. With a population of ca 400 000 people, the two main Ethnic groups are Estonians and Russians. Riots shake it up from time to time, but its high level of technological development gives it a progressive pull. For all this and more Tallinn and our backstage video of the city on the ground are definitely worth a peek.
All about Zverynas (whatever that is)
Since we’re in this part of Europe, I cannot but mention the Vilnus team and their blog: vilnus.cafebabel.com. Among lots of tips and comments on citizen journalism there are also some very interesting articles. One of these in particular caught my eye, mainly out of curiosity for a strange-sounding word in the title: ‘Zverynas’. This is the name of one of Vilnus’s many small communities that are the result of the city’s troubled history. Zverynas is separated from the rest of the city by the river, borders onto woods only on the other side, and has almost no traffic… sound like a fairy tale? Read more about it before jumping to conclusions…