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.

That’s All Folks

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After four unforgettable years, it was time to move on. Another country, another ocean, a new continent in the Southern Hemisphere. A series of very fortunate events would bring us to the faraway land that is New Zealand, and not a moment too soon. Because of Covid-19, our trip would be longer than usual, flying to Greece first, for a family reunion, then on to Auckland via Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. Almost full circle around the Globe.

We’ll stay in Athens for the next few days, before I figure out which is the best platform to go on sharing our New Zealand memories, as this blog has almost reached its maximum storage space.

Meanwhile, let’s bid farewell to the City with the most New Yorky picture of them all:

Good bye New York City, thank you for four amazing years!

August 1st, 2020

In Hopper’s footsteps

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The Artist may no longer be present, but his house still is… here on the dunes of Fisher Beach, in Truro.

The house is a private property, not open to the public, but the walk on the beach was great, and the chance to follow in Hopper’s footsteps and see the landscape where he lived and worked for so many years (if you can ignore some the newer constructions along the way, that is), was one of the most inspiring moments of our Cape Cod trip.

Truro, MA

July 11th, 2020

Marconi South Wellfleet Station

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From this site on January 18, 1903, Marconi sent the first two-way transatlantic wireless communication between the US and Europe, to Cornwall, England. It was a message from US President Theodore Roosevelt to British King Edward VII.

Wireless communication helped save hundreds of lives on board the Titanic in 1912 after a distress signal sent out by the ship’s radio operator was picked up by the ”Marconi Man” aboard the RMS Carpathia, about 60 nautical miles away from the Titanic. In turn, the disaster led to laws for improving radio communications and safety at sea.

The station was decommissioned in 1917 and most of the equipment that was not salvaged, has succumbed to erosion and fallen into the sea. Still, standing here trying to imagine what Marconi would have heard back then, was fascinating. And the walk to the adjacent White Cedar Swamp Trail, a welcome and shady break from the heat.

July 9th, 2020

Hopperscape

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Edward Hopper spent every summer of his life in Cape Cod, from 1930 – the first time he visited – until his death in 1967. And while a lot will have changed from the time he produced some of his most distinctive works in Cape Cod, there is something unmistakably Hopperesque in this landscape.

Images of the Wood End Lighthouse which, seen from a sailboat, would have looked a lot like the one from ”The Long Leg”, Hopper’s painting of 1930; and Highland Lighthouse, which Hopper depicted in watercolour, again in 1930 – although the lighthouse has since been moved 450 feet away from the eroding cliff’s edge, to safer ground.

Provincetown & Truro, MA

July 7th, 2020