John M. Edwards chows down on subpar "Vulgarian" grub and survives a dangerous dispute over a restaurant bill in the Balkans. Oh well, there is always the region's lip-smacking yogurt. . . . Bulgaria has by far the best yogurt in the world, partly because they invented it. They also are (supposedly) responsible for the regional cuisine shared by many of its neighbors: Bulgar wheat, stuffed grape leaves, baklava, kebabs, goat cheese, and … [Read more...]
Best way to travel to Prague: Win online poker tournament at 888poker, get a trip to Prague and Fly on Fighter JET!
Prague and Poker, this has a nice ring to it, right?! 888 Poker recently reached out to me to help promote a trip to Prague, Czech Republic they are giving away with a win of an online poker tournament at 888 Poker. Launched in 1997 in Europe, 888 Poker is currently one of the largest poker networks in the world with good presence in the USA, Australia and in Europe. With more that 10 million registered members world wide - there are always … [Read more...]
Beirut in the Baltics
John M. Edwards is drawn into the Wild Wild East of “Europe Minor.” After the collapse of communism in the USSR, inflation in the freshly minted Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia rolled up the ruble into the cheapest toilet paper around, so I decided to go East and stock up. I needed a cheap place to wipe my ass because I was then unemployed, and an Orwellian year of freelancing in Paris had left me as restless … [Read more...]
The New Alchemists of Prague
Prague Spring Break: Bohemian Rhapsody or Bozo Nightmare? The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Time Traveler in Prague In a possessed city Kafka called “a mother with claws,” John M. Edwards discovers the unbearable lightness of being a tourist in overcrowded Prague. Here a cost comparison of Communist and Capitalist Prague reveals a long history of alchemy and occupation, sorcery and intrigue, apparatchik chic and uneasy redemption. Welcome … [Read more...]
A Trace of Thrace: Balkan Adventure
In Plovdiv, Bulgaria, John M. Edwards snitches on the mystery-shrouded Balkans’ best-kept secret: an ancient (and enduring) heresy I was on the way slow train from Budapest through the Balkans, on my way to Bulgaria, chainsmoking and guzzling Egri Bikavier (Bull’s Blood) wine, when the train came to a juddering halt and was boarded by heavily armed Serbian soldiers. A Serb with an impressive handlebar moustache and an assault rifle demanded … [Read more...]
Waltzing through the Kaffehaus Kultura Vienna
“The [Café] Central is a place for people who have to kill time, so as not to be killed by it. . . .” --Alfred Polgar “I AM SIGMUND SPIELBERG!!!” The obviously unemployable flaneur with umlaut eyes landed at my marble-topped table without a proper invite, brusquely pushing aside a Thonet wooden chair. Brandishing a copy of Der Spiegel on a wooden rolling pin in his left hand, and reeking from an unfortunate cologne resembling turning … [Read more...]
Kutna Hora and the Chapel of Bones
John M. Edwards mispronounces the naughty-sounding destination “Kutna Hora” at a train station in Prague, a surreal stage set straight out of the Quentin Tarantino/Eli Roth shocker “HOSTEL,” set in Slovakia but filmed in the Czech Republic. . . . At Hlavni Nadrazi, Prague’s main train station, the large ugly lady in Aeroflot chic flinched when I ordered a roundtrip to the naughty-sounding “Kutna Hora,” mispronouncing my destination on purpose. … [Read more...]
Investigating Legendary Party Thrower Jim Haynes
It was through my fellow American expat friend, “The Famous Zack,” a black Christian science-fiction writer originally from Ohio, with a short story coming up back then in the now-defunct “AMAZING STORIES,” that I first heard about the wild parties thrown by the legendary Jim Haynes, whom some sour-grape artists deemed an apocryphal “traitor.” So well known was Haynes as a manic socialite host that he even felt propelled to write a … [Read more...]
The Best Artist in Slovakia
John M. Edwards pulls up his proverbial time machine into communist Slovakia (1989), where appearances are illusory and life is lived on a virtual movie set. . . . “I AM THE BEST ARTIST IN SLOVAKIA!” The Best Artist in Slovakia bruited. With a cavalier wave of his hand, curved like a grinning alligator shadow puppet, he added in slow mo, “I paint you a picture you would not believe!” “Oh, really?” I said with a terse forced smile. “I really … [Read more...]
Cesky Krumlov: The Real Bohemia
John M. Edwards checks out the new Czech Republic’s “Cesky Krumlov,” where real “Bohemians” come from. . . . On my first visit to communist Czechoslovakia in 1989 (right before the Velvet Revolution), I drove down in my rented and probably bugged Skoda car to the legendary Bohemian locus of magnetic Cesky Krumlov, the most stylish picturesque village in the country. I realized to be truly “Bohemian,” you had to actually be from the … [Read more...]