Vienna

Reaching Vienna, where I lived several years ago and where the Ottomans besieged the city in both 1529 and 1683, feels like crossing some sort of threshold.

I revisited the Ring and Naschmarkt food market, which is still on a par with the Borough, and met with friends and their growing families. In the Prückl cafe this morning I was able to take time to catch up on news in Die Presse and to briefly contemplate the language I will use and the edge of Europe we will soon traverse.

Traditional Mongolian script originated from Sogdian letters of Aramaic origin, used until 1941 in Mongolia when an adapted cyrillic alphabet was adopted; still under the MPR (Mongolian People's Republic was formed 1924)and which is still used after the democratic revolution of 1990.

Tonight we board a train for Berlin and the East will grow closer still than in the Naschmarkt.

Training

We have begun the train journey towards Ulaanbaatar by Eurostar from London to Paris, then by sleeper to Rome, to Naples, Sorrento and now Florence. Drawing statues and buildings in Piazza delle Signorie today I was thinking about Western European history, having sat in the same spot 20 years ago, and how much I have still to learn about Mongolia. I have a copy of "Modern Mongolia a Concise History" with me (Tsetsendambyn Batbayar UB 2002) and have been discovering facts like ..

. Mongolia is similar in land size to Alaska
. It has 257 cloudless days per annum on average
. 1% of the land is arable
. 8 to 10% is forested
. the rest is pasture including semi'desert

Batbayar also points out that the Mongol people have nothing in common with the Chinese in their way of life or language. 90% of the population of Mongolia is made up of subgroups of the Mongol nationality, the largest being Khalka.

This will be quite a change for me from my home London, which I enjoy for being cosmopolitan and multicultural. However the isolation of Ulaanbaatar and its time zone should be points of some familiarity in relation to Perth. The summer in Italy, surrounded by travelling Italian, German, Australian and English folk etc with good coffee, summer berries and pizza will become stranger as we move east.

Later this week, en route from Venice to Berlin, we will stay in Vienna, minding some friends' cats, Gina and Kisses.

Itinerary

Tuesday 17 July London to Paris

Wednesday 18 July Paris to Rome (overnight)

Saturday 21 July Rome to Naples

Sunday 22 July Naples to Florence

Wednesday 25 July Florence to Venice

Wednesday 25 July Venice to Vienna (overnight)

Sunday 29 July Vienna to Berlin (overnight)

Tuesday 31 July Berlin to Warsaw (overnight)

Wednesday 1 Aug Warsaw to Moscow (overnight)

Saturday 4 Aug Moscow to Yekaterinburg (overnight)

Wednesday 8 Aug Yekaterinburg to Novosibirsk (overnight)

Friday 10 Aug Novosibirsk to Irkutsk (overnight)

Thursday 16 Aug Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar (overnight)

Saturday 18 Aug Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar preparations

I travel to the Mongolian Capital, Ulaanbaatar in August, to work as Architecture Teacher Trainer at the independent Construction Technology College, БАРИЛГЫН ТЕХНОЛОГИЙН КОЛЛЕЖ (www.ctc.edu.mn).

Mongolia is a developing country, and I have been reading in the VSO notes that forty percent of the country’s population of 2.7 million people currently live below the poverty line. 34 percent of the population depend directly on livestock for their livelihoods, and a further 26 percent is indirectly dependent upon livestock. With 33 million domestic animals, Mongolia is known as a 'land of livestock'; most of the population are traditional nomadic herders. I found it interesting that huge sections of the population today continue to live in the Ger, the traditional felt circular dwelling of choice in Mongolia for more than 1,000 years.

The country is rich in minerals such as oil, coal and gas, and while mining is hugely important to the economy, it is becoming apparent that recent development in industry has created significant environmental damage. The environmental movement in Mongolia appeared in the world media in April 2007. I suddenly noticed in a London newspaper an award of what is reputedly the world’s biggest environmental prize to Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, who inspired the formation of the Mongolia Nature Protection Coalition. The Goldman Environmental Prize is apparently the world’s biggest accolade for grassroots environmental activists. I can imagine rural communities in Mongolia are undergoing massive change in the country’s transition from a centralized command economy to a market economy. Many state-owned factories have closed, with losses of jobs and the poor moving back to the land, further stretching the already depleted resources of the countryside. The work of Tstsegee Munkhbayar has increased the profile of a popular movement to restore the vitally important Onggi river. (www.goldmanprize.org)

Itinerary

Itinerary

Tuesday 17 July London to Paris

Wednesday 18 July Paris to Rome (overnight)

Saturday 21 July Rome to Naples

Sunday 22 July Naples to Florence

Wednesday 25 July Florence to Venice

Wednesday 25 July Venice to Vienna (overnight)

Sunday 29 July Vienna to Berlin (overnight)

Tuesday 31 July Berlin to Warsaw (overnight)

Wednesday 1 Aug Warsaw to Moscow (overnight)

Saturday 4 Aug Moscow to Yekaterinburg (overnight)

Wednesday 8 Aug Yekaterinburg to Novosibirsk (overnight)

Friday 10 Aug Novosibirsk to Irkutsk (overnight)

Thursday 16 Aug Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar (overnight)

Saturday 18 Aug Ulaanbaatar

Mongolia - Architecture Teacher Training

by Denny Walther 2003

gregory.cowan.com/mongolia

Happy New Year

You Tube New Year

Photos from nomadologist.

Seoul

Bikes and urban space

Recently saw some cyclists putting the spaces below the Hayward at London's Southbank to ingenious use.

Resonance FM's recent interview for the Bike Show with the artist Julia Lohmann impressed me; combining journeying across London with animal ethics, sustainability and an impromptu chat along the way with some bicycle space hijackers.


Clare

Twenty First Century Thinking

Nineteenth century - style planning principles for the 2012 Olympics suggest replacing this sustainable urban garden with a footpath.

"A campaign to save century-old allotments due to be bulldozed to make way for Olympic development is gathering momentum.
According to the revised masterplan for the Olympic site, the Manor Gardening Society allotments in Waterden Road, Stratford, will be replaced by a footpath.
Campaigners say the strategy will destroy a working example of a sustainable environment, a diverse community and source of local food production contradicting the promised Olympic legacy."

Full Story
Observer, Monday 3 July
Green Belt Movement - Wangari Matthai

More Music - less fighting!

Ronnie Shellist is doing some nice work on blues harmonica, not a genre I usually follow; but this is great.

Even better, and with the simplest instruments, check out this percussionist playing batacuda des baldes. Arm power. Wow.

Does Architecture really rock?

Famous in Japan They were funny and the lyrics were entertaining. Nice that they don't take the whole thing too seriously.
Menage a Trois won some sort of prize

You tube favourites

You Tube video faves...

Veruca Salt's costumey bicycles in Shutterbug (with very 90's music..)

A humorous and poignant animated piece (5 minutes): The Immigration Debate

This music on the analog synthesiser is quite cool; a guy called MooTBooXLe.

Thanks for sponsoring me to cycle to Brighton

Thank you for supporting me on the gruelling ride with Team Brompton to benefit British Heart Foundation...
(Sponsorship Page)

Peace: This Blog is dedicated to The Unpeople