Your favorites places in Europe....

From now one of my favourite places in Europe is Sintra, ahhhhh, what a place. i'll try to post some photos, incredible. It's a small town near Lisbon, surrounded by woods and mountains where you can find 1 castle, 4 palaces and some beautiful chapels, and all perfectly integrated with the environment. A magical and perfect town.

 

Sandu, just to make this clear, I'm not arguing with you, just discussing. But don't you think that South Eastern Europe is Eastern Europe as well, just slightly more specified? Just like Spain can be said to be in either Western or Southern Europe, and, if one wishes to be more specific for one reason or another, can also be said to be in South Western Europe? It all depends on the context. So if one wishes to travel through Eastern Europe, I don't think it's wrong to include South Eastern Europe in this. Do you? Now, if you're not talking about travelling, but in strictly political terms, then I would agree that it's a clumsy definition because you would insinuate that they were all part of the so-called "East Block". As far as I know, Romania, just like Yugoslavia, distanced itself very much from the Soviet Union soon after WW2, both under Gheorghiu-Dej and Ceausescu. Something they never seem to get any credit for.

I know what I mean to say, but I'm not sure my point gets through in how I say it. I have to admit though, that although I could consider Finland being in North Eastern Europe in geographical terms, I would never call it just Eastern. So I should probably surrender here.

While we're on this topic... I encountered a guy last week who argued that Bosnia is not in Europe at all. He claimed it all had to do with recent political events that Bosnia is nowadays considered a part of Europe, and he thought that they have a completely different culture than the rest of Europe. I would (possibly) expect something like that from an American (no offense, honestly, but you know how it is), but this guy was British. Bizarre, isn't it?

peace,
-Pat

 

Ah, I'm reading...

"The geometrical center of Europe lies in eastern Lithuania near the
village of Bernotai."

 

And the geographical centre is supposedly on the top of the mountain Kragule in Slovakia. Whatever the difference is.

 

Hi Shadowplay, look I understand and I agree with your point of view. Of course it's subjective and depends on context. But, true, that British guy must be really... OK, I don't want to say the word.

Well, I started this correcting a guy who was correcting someone else who said Eastern Europe meaning the former Eastern Block. And unfortunately his correction was a pure demonstration of ignorance. Anyway, we can disscuss about Ceausescu and Gheorghiu-Dej, if you wish, but i don't think you can place a country in a place or another on so transitory historical realities. Even the idea of Eastern Block is meaningless now.

But, combining both geographically and historical criteria, I think we can divide Europe in some regions, and tell me if you agree with my division:
1) Northern Europe, protestant and catholic, with a certain Swedish expression in its culture: The Scandinavian and Baltic countries.
2) Western Europe, catholic and protestant, with well defined cultures with many unique traits: UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Holland.
3) Central Europe, catholic and protestant, dominated by German influence: Germany, Austria, Swizzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakya, Slovenia, Croatia.
4) South Eastern Europe, christian ortohodox and muslim, based on Byzantine heritage: Serbia and Montenegro, Romania, Moldova, Bosnia-Hetzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Albania, Turkey.
5) Eastern Europe, orthodox, based on Russian civilisation: Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
6) Caucasus, orthodox and muslim, with interesting and unique cultures: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaidjan.

 

A well thought through categorisation (I don't like the word 'division', it has only negative connotations to me). I agree, but I think most people would either put Germany in group 2 or move the benelux countries to group 3. Tough call though, since the Germanic influence on most of the countries in group 3 is pretty obvious, and the benelux relation to France is undeniable also.

And about the Ceasescu thing, I brought it up only because of the fact that most people in 'my' part of Europe think in exactly those terms; who was 'West' and who was 'East' during the Cold War. Their knowledge of history doesn't stretch further than that. If you read any article about the EU enlargement from Western European newspapers, it's almost guaranteed that they'll refer to Poland, Slovenia etc as either "Eastern European" or "former communist" countries every single time. Like communism has been around forever. It tires me to death.

peace,
-Pat

 

Oh, yes, there are many transition areas, and I detailed an example talking about Romania, who is part of South Eastern Europe, but also has much in common with Central Europe. Benelux is another. Or Lithuania which has a lot both with the Swedish dominated Baltic area but also with Poland.

Now, I noticed the "Westerners" are very ignorant about the former Eastern Block, and if it's tiring for you, it's anoying to me. But between 1945 and 1989 Eastern Block was a reality. Yes, Tito and Ceausescu had their disagreements with USSR, they acted like rebels, but they were still part of the same "world". Do you know why did Hrushtchev redraw the Red Army from Romania in june 1958 allowing Gheorghiu-Dej to start rebeling against his masters in the '60s? Because he wanted to show to the free world his "good" intentions and Romania was the only Eastern Block country who had no capitalistic neighbour. The already rebelious Yugoslavia was communist after all...