Welcome to hidden europe 21. This issue of the travel magazine features Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, Atarazanas market in Málaga, camps of migrants from Africa in Malta, Moldova, the River Thames and more.
hidden europe 21
This issue of the travel magazine hidden europe features Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, Atarazanas market malaga, camps of migrants from Africa in malta, Moldova and the river Thames.
Picture above:
Memories on Svetlogorsk beach, Russia (photo © Anna Johansson).
Summary
This issue of the travel magazine hidden europe features Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, Atarazanas market malaga, camps of migrants from Africa in malta, Moldova and the river Thames.
With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Baltic port of Kaliningrad found itself strangely isolated from the rest of Russia. Hemmed in by the European Union, the city of Kaliningrad is rethinking its role in the modern world. It is a remarkable city in a remarkable region.
"Tear it down," shouted the reformers who wanted to modernise Málaga in the mid-nineteenth century. But fortunately the old Atarazanas, once a shipyard, survived and in 1879 it opened as a public market - a focal point for Málaga life.
Away from the glitz of the tourist resorts, tucked away on the south coast of Malta, are the refugee camps that house migrants from Africa. The men and women who live in the camps are constantly reminded that there is no space for them on the island.
Moldova is a small, landlocked territory that is more than just beetroot and babushki. We explore the capital, Chisinau, and take a look at Tiraspol, the city that heads up the secessionist Transnistria area.
London has rediscovered its river as the Thames develops into a low-carbon highway through the very heart of the city. The 'sweet Thames', which TS Eliot mourned as being the preserve of rats and rattling bones, is regaining its former vitality. Even commuters travel to work by boat these days.
We take a look at commercial helicopter routes around Europe, both past and present. There are areas in Europe where helicopter services are still very much a part of the regular transport network. Examples include the Faroe Islands, the Scilly Isles, Isole Tremiti in the Adriatic and the Gulf of Finland.
The tale of three men, each of whom took a very unconventional approach to travelling around Europe.
The Via Sacra is an inspired initiative that foregrounds the religious heritage of a particularly beautiful part of central Europe - the area where Bohemia (Czech Republic), Polish Silesia and the German State of Saxony converge.
When did you last see a bottle of Unicum for sale outside Hungary? We try out a few drinks that are inexorably associated with a particular region: from Kvint to kvass, from Irn-Bru to Almdudler.
The Estonian half of the town is called Valga and the Latvian side Valka. During the days of the Soviet Union, Moscow imposed a civic unity on the dual community. Now, with the extension of the Schengen area to include the Baltic States, that unity has returned.
A new edition of Helen Martin's book on the Lot region of southwest France is much to be welcomed. Textured prose that nicely evokes a sense of the region's limestone landscapes. Get a flavour of this new edition.
A note from the remote border region on the Barents Sea coast where Russia and Norway share a common frontier.
We look inside one of the traditional Andalucian restaurants that does a roaring lunchtime trade in Málaga.
A chance to pick up the threads of earlier issues of hidden europe. From chess boxing to the knotty question of what folk from the Greek island of Lesbos should call themselves. Lesbians, perhaps?
We are great fans of quirky museums. The Museum of Plagiarism in the German town of Solingen is definitely worth a visit.
Route indexing services seem to be all the rage with many new websites offering advice on who flies where, and each claiming to be better than its rivals. Harefares invited us to cast an eye over their website, which they claim is the most complete for the continent. It turned out to be sorely wanting.
The best chicken soup this side of the Volga? Look to a Kazakh restaurant in Vilnius! The Baltic States are not just meat and potato country. You'll find exotic restaurants aplenty from Uzbek to Armenian, Georgian to Azeri.
A look ahead at hidden europe 22