Month: January 2013

Story of the day: Last Tango in Finland

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The snow has gone and so (nearly) has January. So pick up the tone with one of my more offbeat stories for The Observer.

I uncovered this idea on a trip to Finland and, having already worked the sauna and suicide motif, this seemed another great to look at a familiar destination in a new light.

Even if it did mean me, ugh, taking to the dancefloor.

Here’s an extract:

The Finns took tango to their hearts, but also brought a dour sense of Nordic gloom to the music, tempering the Argentine ardour with a dash of minor-key melancholy, and adopting some of the rhythmic characteristics of traditional Finnish folk dances.

Contemporary Finnish tango ballads speak of lost love, dark winter nights alone and your girlfriend running off with your best mate.

“Melancholy is beautiful to the Finnish soul. The sadder the tango, the more Finnish people love it,’ says Maarit Niiniluoto, a tango historian. ‘The paradox of longing for someone while dancing very close appeals strongly to Finns.”

Read the full story, Lapp Dancers and Latin Lovers.

Have you been to Seinajoki? Is there another great angle on Finland I’ve missed?

Post your comments below.

Story of the day: St Dwynwen’s Day in Wales

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Today was St Dwynen’s Day in Wales and I’ve been appropriately otherwise engaged until now.

I’ve covered this story several times for different publications. Today’s link is to a piece for the Daily Telegraph.

Here’s an extract:

Wales celebrates St Dwynwen’s Day, the Welsh equivalent of St Valentine’s Day.

Lovers may exchange gifts of love spoons or love poetry-engraved jewellery; some may get down on one knee on Llanddwyn Beach in Anglesey; others may cast their unrequited wishes into her ancient well as lovelorn disciples of Dwynwen have done for centuries.

“In Wales, for love see tragedy,” says Angharad Wynne, a heritage consultant, as we meet in the island’s hub, Beaumaris, to explore a triumvirate of love-inspired Welsh folk legends.

“I think the poignancy of Dwynwen’s story rather appeals to the Celtic soul,” she adds.

Read the full story, On the island of true love.

How have you been spending St Dwynwen’s Day? Do you have other Welsh folk legends to share?

Post your comments below.

* Update: A second story appeared after this post for the Daily Mail.

Read the story, Valentine’s Day the Welsh Way.

Story of the day: Nostalgie in East Berlin

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Everyone loves Berlin. The sites, the clubbing, the Cold War frisson of tinker-tailor espionage.

For me, it holds a personal lure as I visited as a 16-year-old German A Level student at a time that the Berlin Wall was still a wall and people still got shot trying to climb it.

We even crossed Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin for the day with our German teacher Mr Robson.

That’s why I particularly enjoyed researching this story for the Daily Express, revisiting the now-unified Berlin.

I was delving into the local nostalgia towards the old East, a trend sparked the film, The Lives of Others.

Here’s an extract:

Ostel, located just behind Ostbahnhof in the city’s north-east, has only been open three months but it’s already packed with a mix of German backpackers and curious foreign visitors with a penchant for retro design.

Daniel was born at nearby Alexanderplatz and was aged 18 when the Berlin Wall fell. “It was a good life in the GDR for kids,” he remembers, “with lots to do very cheaply.”

This fascination with GDR culture has spawned its own social phenomenon, Ostalgie, a contraction of “ost” (east) and “nostalgie” (nostalgia). The Ostel name is a play on this.

“I think Ostel is at the limit of good taste,” says Robert Rückel, director of the new GDR Museum, which tells the story of everyday life in the East via a series of compelling exhibits and newsreel footage. “We have to balance this nostalgia with an objective view of life in East Berlin at this time.”

Read the full story, Now the Cold War is cool in East Berlin.

Do you have a memory of East Berlin? Or do you know where Mr Robson is now?

Post your comments below.

And if you want a reminder of the film, here’s the trailer.

Story of the day: Best foot forward in Bolivia

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Following on from yesterday’s trip to the Bolivian Amazon, a trip to the Altiplano seemed in order.

This story from the Independent focuses on a little-known hiking trail from La Paz.

It’s no easy stroll and facilities are, at best, limited. Don’t even get me started on the feral dogs along the way.

But the scenery is stunning.

Here’s an extract:

The final leg of the trek descends towards Chairo, a village on the shores of the River Huarinilla, where buses and trucks connect to Coroico, the transport hub of the Yungas.

It’s a soft decline for the first hour but then, just when you think it’s all over, there’s one final crushing irony: a steep descent over loose stone fragments in a zigzag formation.

Halfway down, scrawled across a huge trailside rock, some graffiti reads: “I’d prefer to die of the pain in my feet than to continue walking on my knees.”

Read the full story, Feet of Endurance.

Have you walked this trail? What’s your favourite South America hike?

Post your comments below.