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hbanziger
Apr 9, 20225 min read
F - 134 : Galata, Genoa and the Ottomans
Galata Tower - View from the East - Tokapi Palace, Hagia Sophia & Blue Mosque in the back The Galata Tower is one of Istanbul’s most...
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hbanziger
Mar 22, 20225 min read
F - 151 : Ethnic Cleansing 100 Years ago
Muslim Refugees in 1922 - the Steamboat at the back is from the Turkish Red Crescent When sailing along the Turkish-Greek border in the...
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hbanziger
Mar 2, 20225 min read
F - 167 : Honey versus Cruise Missiles
At times when cruise missiles and artillery shells rain down on civilians in Kiev and Kharkov, it is worth remembering that human...
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hbanziger
Feb 14, 20224 min read
F - 183: Yoghurt - Neither Greek nor Turkish
Love watching Greek and Turkish people arguing about the origin of “their” yoghurt. They are passionate and argue like football fans....
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hbanziger
Feb 8, 20225 min read
F - 189 : Stirrups and Bow - Innovations that Changed World History
Love asking questions for which you can’t easily find an answers in traditional history books. One of them is why the Seljuk and Ottoman...
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hbanziger
Jan 25, 20225 min read
F -203 : The Sultanate of Women
There are many fascinating aspects of the Ottoman Empire which we are going to discover this summer. One of them is the Sultanate of...
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hbanziger
Jan 16, 20225 min read
F - 212 : Greeks - Turks : A Family Dispute
Turkish coffee or Greek coffee? If you order Turkish Coffee in Greece, the waiters tend to ignore you or look at you with big eyes. How...
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hbanziger
Jul 28, 20214 min read
E + 17 : Green Banner over San Angelo?
Yesterday was a new first – except for the crew going shopping in Gallipoli, we did not set foot on land the whole day. The idea was to...
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hbanziger
Apr 25, 20214 min read
E - 79 : The Power of Public Opinion - How Greece won its Independence
The other day, I came across a beautiful article in the Wall Street Journal "How Poetry won Independence for Greece". At the occasion of...
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hbanziger
Jul 31, 20193 min read
C + 6 : Catholic in the East - Orthodox in the West - Crossing Religious Borders Several Times
Last night we anchored close to a place called Stari Milni (Old Mill) under an impressive range of lime stone mountains. When we woke up...
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hbanziger
Jul 28, 20192 min read
C + 3 : Crossing into Montenegro
After three days in Albania, we left this morning for Montenegro. The wind had calmed down but there was still a rough swell from the...
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hbanziger
Jul 26, 20192 min read
C + 1 : Suleyman's Harbour
This morning we set sail at seven for Vlore and shipped around the Karaburun Peninsula which was dotted with hundreds of Enver Hoxha's...
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hbanziger
Jul 22, 20193 min read
C - 7 : Harassing Venice on the Cheap
When flying from Vienna to Venice, book an F seat on the right hand side of the plane. About 10 minutes before lnding, look out of the...
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hbanziger
Jul 8, 20193 min read
C - 17 : Republic of Ragusa
When visiting Dubrovnik the first time 30 years ago, I thought "feels and looks like Venice" and automatically assumed it was a Venetian...
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hbanziger
Jun 27, 20194 min read
C - 27 : Asymmetric Warfare in the Adriatic
On C + 4 the Dragonfly, our sailboat, will reach Ulcinj in Montenegro, the (in)famous pirates' nest. It was a thorn in the flesh of the...
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hbanziger
Jun 26, 20192 min read
C - 28 : The Time before Albania
Long before Albania became an independent Kingdom in 1912, there was Albania Veneta, a geographical term, which the Serene Republic used...
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hbanziger
Aug 15, 20182 min read
B + 19 : Tel Aviv - Jaffa : Not going further south
We arrived today at the further most southern point of our trip this year: Herzliya Marina - 15 min north of Tel Aviv. The Carpe Diem is...
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hbanziger
Aug 9, 20182 min read
B + 13 : How Marco Polo found the time to dictate his adventures and publish a book
What a splendid morning to wake up. The sea was very calm and we could see Yumurtalik or Laiazzo in the distance. In 1294, Venice and...
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hbanziger
Aug 5, 20182 min read
B + 9 : A Phoenician Town & a Seljuk Fort
Once on the boat last evening, we sailed a bit further east to gain some time for today. There is an old Phoenician settlement we want to...
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