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14 January 2015Greetings Friends and Family,Sorry I missed sending out Christmas and New Years greetings at the correct time last month, although I’m sure you had a good time nonetheless (or not, but it wasn’t my fault). My excuse for not writing is travel- specifically to Prague, Budapest and Vienna- and the thought that I should be outdoors absorbing the new world around me rather than inside at the computer. I have been posting pictures on Facebook, which you can access if you want to do the “friend” thing. This isn’t necessary though as I have been writing this travelogue on and off since July with many of the same pictures. However I’ve added to my mailing list this time the addresses of people who although precious old friends are in the habit of exchanging mail just once per year. If you are in this group, I better catch you up on my situation before starting the next episode. If you aren’t, skip forward past my numbered paragraphs and old pictures to the Prague subtitle. Updating: I am on sabbatical leave from the University of Vermont, gathering the information needed to write a book. This won’t be a novel but rather a work of science, so chances are that few of you will ever read it. I have found a nice quiet place to work at the field station of the biology department of the University of Helsinki, which is near Lammi in Finland. I live in the woods by a lake but have a nice office, a little studio apartment and lots of people to eat lunch with in the station’s cafeteria. Unlike in the US, saunas are a big part of social life here and I have access to two of them, one in my basement and one by the lake. We have water jets running at the end of the lake wharf to keep ice from forming where we are expected to plunge in. Finns also are crazy about picking mushrooms and berries, but those are sleeping for the season. As for skiing, we’ve got snow now but I wasn’t able to get my skis into my little suitcase. Besides it’s dark most of the time this far north in winter. I came here in July flying from Washington, D.C. after celebrating the 4th there with son Nathan. Nathan was packing to move to Boston that week, and I left him my car for the move and to get around up north. He is now working at the Kennedy Center at Harvard University doing research on US- China relations. It’s a temporary position, but still cool.Besides learning what it’s like to be a Finn and reading lots of papers on lakes, I’ve made a few trips away from Lammi. The first was to Tallin, Estonia, which is a ferry ride away from Helsinki. I saw a Rick Steves show on this well-preserved medieval city on TV a couple years ago and thus had it on my personal bucket list well before seeing how close it is on the map. It truly is a fairy tale like city, at least its Old Town. Outside Old Town is a zone of old Soviet style housing which you may want to avoid if you go there. The city is becoming a tourist center but this isn’t all bad; it means lots of nice outdoor restaurants with good local food and wine. My major trip of the year though was with niece Rachel Fox. We drove the length of Finland to Finnish Lapland then over the mountains to the fjords of Norway, and back again. It was great to have someone in excellent shape to hike with who also likes beer and good food and enjoys geography and history. Yeah, Rachel! And yes, we found reindeer and Laplanders too.Another ferry trip, this time in late fall, was to St. Petersburg, Russia with a Canadian-Finnish family I’ve gotten to know. We took a “cruise” so that we wouldn’t need a visa. The deal is that you have to sleep on the ship, which is Russian owned. Unfortunately, we were in town on a Wednesday when all museums are closed, so we mostly got the outside view of buildings. Nevertheless I got a feel for the place, and was impressed that we got free vodka shots with our lunch. Surprisingly Russian stroganoff came on potatoes not noodles. Finally, I travelled to Prague, Czech Republic, on Dec. 24 to spend six days with Nathan in this city before going on to Hungary to meet limnologists working on Lake Balaton, which will be discussed in my book. Tallin, Estonia With work buddies in south Finland Hiking in Finnish Lapland Curious reindeer in LaplandNorway fjord A St. Petersburg churchPrague:The original plan was for Nathan to come to Helsinki and Lammi over the holidays, but even southern Finland is dark for about 18 hours per day around winter solstice, so we checked out places south that would offer a more urban experience. While in Italy some years ago I heard from the people there that Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The reason is that is it is over 1000 years old, has at times been a cultural center with considerable wealth, and most unique for a European city, it survived the two world wars without much damage. It was bombed just once- by young Americans pilots who mistook it for Dresden, Germany (excuse, no GPS). Niece Rachel expected to be stationed in Germany and could meet us in Prague for the holidays, which also cinched the choice. However, she ended up in Sierra Leone helping with the Ebola effort instead.I flew down from Helsinki on Dec. 24 after a scary drive in the dark in fog that morning. Nathan departed the same day via Montreal but arrived a day later. On the plane he picked up a nasty Canadian flu. We didn’t know he was sick though so I drug him off to the Christmas markets shortly after he arrived at our rented apartment. Then we took a three-hour walking tour through Old Town with a guide in cold weather. Christmas market pictures follow. These markets are present in every town square, but here you see the one in Old Town. Trdelnik is dough with sugar and spices cooked over a fire on a stick. Other pictures from the downtown walking tour: Left to right: Municipal Hall; Nathan visiting the ghost of Mozart’s Phantom of the Opera, first performed in the theatre across the street from him; and an alcove surviving from 12th century Charles Univ. (Einstein taught here but was fired for incompetence, in teaching it seems). The astronomical clock, which gives month, day, phases of the moon and more, as well as time; the Jewish Old-New Synagogue with a bottom clock that has Hebrew letters instead of numbers and moves counterclockwise because Hebrew is read backwards from right to left (clockmaker’s reasoning); Nathan honoring Dvorak, another Prague composer; and the Powder Tower, once a city gate but then just a place to store gunpowder.On day 2 we took yet another historical walking tour, this time to the city palace complex, which is the largest Gothic castle in Europe. (Sorry about throwing out royal words at random. Nathan tells me that castles are fortified and palaces are not). This adventure also was mostly outdoors and cold. View from Old Town church.In the SquareSt. Vitus ChurchBy the end Nathan had a fever and was coughing. Still we learned a lot and had a hearty meal with excellent local beer too boot. We learned on our tour, by the way, that Czechs have the highest per capita beer consumption rate of any people in the world. No wonder, pilsner was invented here, microbreweries abound, and beer on tap is cheaper than bottled water. Nathan ended up in bed most of the third day while I went to museums. He rallied that evening however for dinner though and a Mozart concert in one of the halls where Mozart performed as a child. Below are pictures of Czech humor, which is mostly political it seems. Remember that the first Czech president was a poet. These are very interesting people. The babies at left have bar codes instead of faces to indicate human devaluation under Communism; in the middle, we see the Czech opinion of Russians in the doll painting (and yes, I did go inside); and finally at right, the Czech president and prime minister are displayed peeing on the country. They swivel back and forth to cover all townships (note that the pool is in the shape of Czechoslovakia). On the fourth day we got snow, which made the city more photogenic. We mostly shopped, drank cappuccino in quaint cafes and did sight seeing on our own since Nathan was still slow. On the other hand, we did manage to climb long flights of stairs up two city towers, and take pictures. One was the tower of the Tyn Church (which has the astronomical clock), and the other the guard tower to the Charles Bridge. You can see the guard tower in the middle background of the photo of Nathan standing in front of the Vltava River (top picture row). From Tyn tower From guard towerThe Swedish army was stopped from plundering the city at this guard tower some several centuries ago. Nathan and I speculated that our ancestors- mostly military men, it seems- may well have been in this group turned away. Thus we snickered in the town, “In at last”. Views down to the bridge constructed in the 14th century and well adorned with statues. It is as you can see popular with tourists (and swans). The final picture I provide is just to prove that I was there. I enjoyed the winged lion statues in Venice, and thus was attracted to this character. However he proved snarly and unfriendly. I’ll write another letter soon. The last night in Prague we spent at the airport hotel. Nathan had to get check in for his flight around 5 am, and I took the airport shuttle bus to the train station, where I boarded a clipper for Budapest. My next letter will be about Hungary. A word of preview: flu. In the next adventure, I am the person ill and possibly infecting others (I sure hope I didn’t; I haven’t dared ask).Cheers to you all. May this be the best of years for you.Love,Suzanne ................
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