Manchester

Storyline: 50 years later
Strolling along the Ship Canal

Does this grey, wet and cold city deserve more posts? To begin with Alex summarized our experience well in his two posts. Yet I enjoyed it a lot, so maybe there are few more words to be said. A short walk in London and the train trip from Euston London to Piccadilly Manchester aside, this was my first impression of England. Grey, wet, dull and cold…Manchester skies so low, almost touching the canal (was this like Jacques Brel’s song “Le plat pays” about Belgium, where I spent a few years of my life?). Not much different on the other side of the North Sea. The photos we took make a lovely black and white canvas.  Continue reading “Manchester” →

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Going “home”

Storyline: 50 years later
Bus #33 that took us to Alex’s childhood home

April 12 2018:

Today we are truly visiting my past. We are going to see the house where I lived for my first 13+ years. Last night we researched how to get there on the transit system and found that one bus would take us from Piccadilly Gardens through Salford and Eccles and onwards to Winton. Of course, it’s all Greater Manchester now, and I’m not sure that Winton exists; but the old neighbourhood does.  Continue reading “Going “home”” →

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Homeland at last

Storyline: 50 years later
Heart attack brunch, across from Euston railway station

April 11 2018:

Made it through the first full day in my homeland in fifty years. Just. We arrived in London yesterday morning and, jet-lagged and half asleep, had a very filling brunch of much fried, greasy and delicious breakfast food. Spent two hours half-awake on the train to Manchester and, after checking into our small but comfy hotel room on the border of Chinatown and the Gay village, went on a search for a veggie-rich, grease-poor light dinner.  Continue reading “Homeland at last” →

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Grey, gray and efficient

Storyline: 50 years later
At Euston, with all our luggage for 6 weeks

This is Alex’s first revisit after 50 years and Diana’s first time in England. First impression – dull, grey and efficient. Very efficient from a Canadian perspective. The public transportation system, that is. Sleep deprived and exhausted from a redeye flight from Toronto we found it very easy to navigate through London’s maze of trains, Tube and buses. It was early morning there, and by the end of the day we had to be in Manchester.  We had chosen, yes you guessed it, to take a train. And no, it wasn’t for that train that we booked the transoceanic flight to London, not to Manchester. If was the cheapest flight that would take us to UK and then bring us back from Bulgaria.   Continue reading “Grey, gray and efficient” →

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Dora

Dora, credit Milan Milanov

August this year marked 20 years since my best childhood friend left this world. I wrote the verses below in 1998, shortly after I learned about her tragic departure. As far as I know, it was a surgical error that should have never happened. At that time I had been in Canada for about three years. Writing, especially poetry, in a language learned in adult life can never be the same as writing in one’s mother tongue. But poetry was part of my learning process, and also the best way to express my feelings. Continue reading “Dora” →

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Vidin to Craiova, the Romanian part

Storyline: Vidin to Ruse Bulgaria via Romania by train Jul – Aug, 2017
Calafat-Craiova, hay bales

There are some 119 km of railroad between Vidin, Bulgaria and Craiova, Romania. Of this, it’s about 30 km from Vidin to Golenţi railway station near Calafat, on new tracks built across the New Europe Bridge (also know as Danube 2 bridge). The bridge was opened in 2013 and the first passenger train between Vidin and Golenţi ran in May 2014.   Continue reading “Vidin to Craiova, the Romanian part” →

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