The Hunger Diary: My father and the Dutch famine
A chance discovery sheds light on the last famine in Western Europe: The Hunger Winter of 1944-45.
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Europe
Ukraine revisited: Invasion rekindles memories of long-ago trip
Towering monuments, vibrant cities, and a national identity which has somehow survived Soviet oppression and a turbulent history — those are a few of my memories from a trip to Ukraine long before the Russian invasion.
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The Bone Church of Kutná Hora: Final resting place of 40,000 people or macabre tourist attraction?
The monks of Sedlec Abbey, in what is now the Czech Republic, turned a problem into a morbid masterpiece.
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Portmeirion of the south: How the most remarkable village in Wales was almost built in New Zealand
Village’s creator had a “serious flirtation” with an island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf before choosing a bay near his home in Wales instead.
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Being Dutch: What my heritage means to me
What does it mean to be a New Zealander of Dutch descent? And what if the country of my ancestors decides I no longer belong?
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Albania in pictures
Destroyed factories, looted manhole covers, stunning scenery and staggering generosity: That was Albania in 1999.
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Czechostalgia: A photographic ramble through 1990s Bohemia
Snow-covered landscapes, peeling plasterwork and views from my window: A sentimental selection of photos from Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic in the early 1990s.
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Far from home: The Czechs of Romania’s Banat Mountains
How a familiar tune in a remote corner of the Balkans led a hiker to rediscover a long-lost ethnic minority.
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Is this the world’s most bizarre place for a castle?
It has everything you’d ever want in a medieval castle. There’s only one problem: It’s in the middle of a giant steel mill.
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Former Yugoslavia in pictures
Images of the dizzyingly diverse former Yugoslav republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia.
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Cares Gorge: Is this Spain’s best one-day walk?
The Cares Trail clings to the side of a 1.5km-deep gorge in the Picos de Europa mountains of northern Spain.
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Spain and Portugal in pictures
A wonder of modern architecture, a spectacular mountain range, one of Europe’s deepest canyons, and the charming city that gave port wine – and a country – its name.
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The Girl Fair: Matchmaking centuries before Tinder
Long before dating apps Romanian villagers would bring their daughters to a remote mountaintop in the hope of finding love.
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Bagpipes in Bohemia: A festival full of surpises
The world’s biggest bagpipe festival is not in Scotland but in an obscure, post-industrial town in the Czech Republic.
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The Merry Cemetery: Where folk art conquers grief
Anyone who tries to tell you death is no laughing matter clearly hasn’t been to Romania’s Merry Cemetery.
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Is this the world’s strangest parade?
The 500th anniversary of the death of one of history’s most original — and macabre — artists deserves a parade. But an ordinary parade just won’t do.
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Transnistria: How to visit a country that doesn’t exist
A Soviet time warp and unrecognised breakaway state, Transnistria is one of the strangest places in Europe.
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Bohemia’s bagpipe festival in pictures
Every two years the International Bagpipe Festival draws pipers from all over Europe — and occasionally from as far away as New Zealand — to a small town in the Czech Republic.
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Why you should visit Europe’s least touristy country
A lively capital, an ancient cave monastery, the world’s biggest wine cellars and a Soviet time warp await visitors to Europe’s least touristy country.
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Romania’s singing sheepdogs
One of my favourite experiences during my last visit to Romania involved a chance encounter with a shepherd, a pack of singing sheepdogs and a 19th-century-style road crash involving a horse-drawn cart.
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