Tuesday, April 9, 2013

ROW Lecture Tour 2013 Latvia

As mentioned in my last post, my next port of call was Riga in Latvia, and of course, more snow. On one of the days I was there the day commenced with a cloudless sky and gradually deteriorated into cloud, rain, sleet and snow. So there it all was in the one day.

The streets in Riga were still very laden with snow, and in many instances very icy and slippery as well, which made walking along them quite hazardous at times.


My very helpful and delightful hosts and their family, without whom my lectures would not have been successful, or even possible. I felt extremely priveldged that their eldest daughter came and held my hand for this photo.
The hotel in the background, is indeed a most interesting place. It is named after the famous scientist Albert Einstein, with numerous quotations by him and other famous, and less famous people, to be found all over, even in the elevators. I would love to have had the time to have made copies of them, and to have shared them with you. Of necessity, that project will require to wait for another time.


Fortunately we had the time to visit the families farm about one hour's drive from Riga toward the Russian border.
Here I am in the blue beanie, sunglasses against the glare from the snow, wearing a ski jacket so kindly lent to me for the occasion. For although I had cold weather gear, the added protection was a real blessing.
In the background can be seen an old windmill for the grinding of the corn which came from the farms. The old mill-stones are still to be found in it.


The sauna is considered an important and necessary part of these northern climate homes with some still following the traditional way of following it by a dive through the ice to the waters below. When I say dive, many may think I am referring to doing so head-first. And this is definitely not the case, for as the local people point out, this is extremely dangerous and the insertion of our bodies should be feet first, and slow at that.
I thought I had taken another couple of photos to share with you. I must have been mistaken. So that is all for this time.



Saturday, April 6, 2013

ROW Lecture Tour 2013

I am very aware that I have been very lax in my postings over the past few months, and apologise to my readers for this. My excuse, and yes I do have an excuse as it happens, is that I just ran out of time to fit everything into each day as I wished to. For the last twelve months I have been working as much as I possibly can on my new home to replace the one lost in the fire, whilst at the same time, maintaining the farm and caring for the clients. In the meantime I have had to find time for myself and to sleep. Suffice it to say, I have been able to achieve them all satisfactorarily, with the exception of my blog.
As I have now commenced on my annual Round the World Lecture Tour, having so far been in India, Croatia, Slovenia, and now Latvia, with my next stop being Germany, hope to rectify somewhat my laxity over the next few weeks.

So
on with the show with our first port of call being India with its ever present cows roaming the streets.


This was a local park in Bangalore and the cement block windowless house in which the caretaker lived with his family, and, as can be seen, it satellite dish for TV reception.


The park was surrounded by up-market houses and apartments all of which had diesel generators to supplement the unreliabale mains supply. Here again we see the great disparity of rich and poor.



Most of the house have little, if any, land around them on which to plant trees or grow vegetables, so in some instances you find the enterprising occupiers using the streets for the growing of food, such as cocoanuts in the top picture and a jak fruit tree and mango in the lower one.


The trains in India are inevatably crowded and not so clean, an experience not to be missed if you wish to experience life as it really is, and contact with the people in a way that you will not do if you travel the usual tourist way. I spent many hours on such trains, 8 hours or more, at times, mixing and meeting with some very lovely and friendly people.


Many homes in India do not have running water, and it has to be collected from the village well or tap in the locality and carried home in jars as seen here.




There are many areas in India where Communism and the ideals of Socialism are held very highly, with small communes to be found where the people farm and live collectively, such as this one in Kerala


Although not to be found as frequently as one might wish, sugar cane juice is readily available, freshly made, on the spot, for the thirsty traveller.



As mentioned earlier, travelling on the local trains enabled one to have real contact with the local people. These two families were travelling from Bangalore to visit friends in Kochin, being friends, and as well, enthusiastic organic farmers.

And now the ime has come to leave this tropical paradise with temperatures in the high 30's and travl onwards to arrive in Croatia, to snow.


Here I am with my translator on the left and the interviewer for local TV on the right


And then to Slovenia, and more snow. As in Croatia, the snow was not nearly so heavy in the towns and cities, with these photos taken at 3 thousand metres in the mountains.


And thence on to Latvia and more snow, but that is all till next time.