Author: The Humble Fabulist

Hello and welcome to my journal! Originally from Thessaloniki, Greece but living in Northern Europe for the past 30 years -the last ten of which in my adopted hometown Brussels, I try to surround myself with nice people & music & visual art & dance, because they make everyday life bearable & beautiful & rich. This is my growing collection of life’s little pleasures I wanted to share with you, but mainly keep and remember so that they don’t fade away… Since end of August 2016, my path brought me to the Big Apple. While I try to absorb the differences in life & culture, and try to grasp the sheer size of New York, I’ll be sharing my impressions in The Humble Fabulist.

Roosevelt Island Cherry Blossom Festival

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The cherries blossomed late in 2018. But once the did, they were glorious.

To celebrate the cherry blossom season, every year, Roosevelt Island holds a Japanese cultural event with music, dance and performances. I loved the Taiko Drumming, and I wasn’t the only one. That long line you see above, was to catch the aerial tram to Roosevelt Island. I’d never seen such a long line at the station before – nor such crowds on tiny Roosevelt Island.

April 21st, 2018

Charles Towne Landing

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In 1663, a group of eight aristocratic Englishmen received an amazing gift from their king: a giant piece of North America’s Atlantic coastline called ”Carolina”. King Charles II’s land grant gave these men – known as the ”Lords Proprietors” – millions of square miles of land between present-day Charleston and the Pacific Ocean. According the the king’s degree – but without permission from the native people already living here – these group of English lords assumed almost king-like power over the soon-to-be-formed colony of Carolina. 

It was 1670, when the Lords landed here and went on to establish the birthplace of the Carolina colony. Aboard their ship, were a group of free men and a few women, as well as slaves brought from Barbados, but descended from centuries-old cultures and kingdoms of West Africa.

Today, Charles Towne Landing is a State Historic Site introducing visitors to the brutal beginnings of Charleston – a city built on slavery and land appropriation – with an exhibition space appealing to history aficionados of all ages, a replica 17th-century cargo ship one can board and explore, wonderful gardens with an oak alley, trails for hiking, a natural habitat zoo… in short so interesting, they had to kick us out at 5 p.m. because they closing!

Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site

Charleston, SC

April 13th, 2018

Private Edgar Perry [aka Edgar Allan Poe]

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The time Poe spent on Sullivan’s Island may have been short but it stayed with him forever, feeding his imagination and stories he wrote years later, such as “The Gold-Bug,” published in 1843. A story that follows Mr. William Legrand, a man of an ancient Huguenot family who found refuge on Sullivan’s Island where he was bitten by a bug of a brilliant-gold colour… or, was it real gold…?

But Sullivan’s Island didn’t forget Poe either; for all these years later, we can still walk along Poe Avenue, or Raven Drive, or even satisfy some of our basic needs with a hamburger and a beer, in Poe’s Tavern.

Poe’s Tavern @ Sullivan’s Island, SC

April 12th, 2018