The three of us are all back this week so tune in to listen to the new and improved Tuesday Morning Special Blend Line-up. With that kind of tag line how could we not be the #1 morning show in Ottawa? Disregarding commercial cliches at 7:30 Adam will be talking with Councilor Clive Doucet regarding his latest proposal involving Lansdowne and the NCC. As per usual we air on 93.1 CKCU FM in Ottawa and at www.ckcufm.com for everyone else.

CTV Ottawa’s studios go up in flames but thousands of historical broadcasts are saved by building supervisor.

First Saskatchewan, then Ottawa cut funding to the First Nation’s University and now it is closing its doors.

G7 Finance Ministers trek up to the Arctic for a weekend of winter fun.

The Conscription Crisis: Afghanistan version

Jack Layton is diagnosed with prostate cancer

In more Lansdowne related news, two Ottawa architects are chosen to design the site.

Now the medical isotope crisis has gotten really bad as the Dutch reactor goes offline.

Being in Gallipoli I would be remiss not to post this amazing song written by Eric Bogel and later covered by The Pogues. It tells the story of one Australian soldier who is wounded at Gallipoli. A couple of interesting notes about the song:

1) The ANZAC forces never did land at Suvla Bay, that landing was British forces

2) They didn’t have tin hats at Gallipoli. Metal helmets for soldiers in the Allied armies didn’t become standard until 1916, almost a full year after landing at Gallipoli and after all the forces had been evacuated from the peninsula.

Still an excellent song though. Enjoy!

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda – Eric Bogel

Here is a quick and concise summary of what I have seen so far on my journey across Eastern Europe.

After leaving Istanbul Angela and I went first to Thessaloniki. Excellent city with an amazing Byzantine museum and really well preserved Roman ruins. Also got to hike up to the highest point of the city and walk along the city walls built in 392AD. As well the Greek food was the best I’ve ever had. While Mike may find it terrifying, the tzatiki was amazing. We couchsurfed with a really nice couple of University profs who lived in a suburb about a 45 minute bus ride from downtown. They cooked for us each night gave us a map of the city. We left by train to Sofia.

The train ride took 6 hours and we got in to Sofia at midnight only to have the police kick us out of the railway station while we waited for our couchsurfing host. He did show up and we stayed for three nights in Sofia. Such a shit-awful city if there ever was one. It is a strange combination of 1950s Soviet architecture and vehicles combined with unchecked modernization and environment destruction. However the first day there our host took us up Mt. Vitosh which is outside the city and is beautiful. The summit is 3238m high and they serve the best soup and tea in this little stone cabin that I have ever had.

That night him and his friend took us out to experience Sofia’s ‘famous’ night life. Apparently there was a NY Times article about it. I don’t get it. I mean, granted, I am not a fan of the clubs but even this one famous live music venue we went too right by Sofia University was just like Olivers with a band that sounded like they were from 1997. Judging by the packed house though and the music playing at the other two places we went to, the mid 90’s are very popular in Sofia.

We then took the train from Sofia to Bucharest, the entire experience was interesting to say the least and is described (with pictures) here. In Bucharest we stayed in the best hostel I’ve ever stayed in; super cheap, excellent breakfast and incredibly clean. It was called Butterfly Villa and I would recommend it without a doubt. Bucharest is a really interesting city that has done much to modernize itself without destroying the charms of the city. Certainly some of the sections of the city are run down and crappy but overall its a really interesting mix of the middle ages and 21st century.

I visited the original Palace built in 1440 and recently excavated, the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church’s Palace, lots of old churches, The National History Museum and the National Military Museum. As well their war memorial is set in the gorgeous park about a 30 minute walk from the city centre and puts ours to shame. Granted their country was occupied from 1916 to 1918 by the Germans so maybe they have more to remember and be bitter about. The highlight was the Parliamentary Palace which houses the Romanian Parliament and is the 2nd largest building in the world after the Pentagon. It is incredibly ornate and took 10 years to build. Our tour (which was free for students) took and hour and showed us only 5% of the entire building.

After Bucharest Angela flew home so I was on my own and headed to Transylvania. I spent three days in the Medieval town of Brasov. The first day I visited Bran Castle (Dracula’s castle) and had amazing Romanian food in a really fancy restaurant for less then $10 CND. The other two days I spent bumming around the town and taking the cable car up to Mt. Tampa which is only 978m but gives a great view of the city. Plus I went to lots of graveyards. I like graveyards and Transylvania has lots with incredibly detailed tombstones. Unfortunately despite hanging around graveyards at night I didn’t come across any undead.

My couchsurfing host in Brasov was an American girl on exchange at Brasvov. While being your standard No-Logo enthusiast her other three couchsurfing guests were really interesting. All three were from Georgia (The country) so I had a long discussion with them about the politics and history of their country. They are not big fans of Russia right now…

I left Brasov by train and got it all the way to Istanbul with a 2 hour layover in Bucharest. Took 25 hours but I had a bed in a private room all for less than 70$ CND. As soon as I hit Istanbul I got the metro to the Otogar (Bus Station which is the biggest and busiest bus station you will ever see in your life) and took the bus to my current location, the town of Eceabat. While Eceabat is a little fishing village the Gallipoli battlefields are only 10 km away. I spent yesterday exploring the battlefields and today exploring the larger town across the straits called Chanankkale. An excellent military museum in a 15th century Ottoman castle was the highlight. However eventually the weather drove me back to my hostel as it is 2 degrees with snow and the wind is blowing at about 70km/hr right now.

Tomorrow I head to Ephesus, the most well preserved Roman city in the world. It also is home to The Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

I am currently in a Romanian town called Brasov which lies right in the heart of Transylvania. I visited Dracula’s Castle yesterday (actually called Bran Castle in the town of Bran) and today climbed Tampa Mountain with the help of a cable car for most of it. Unfortunately I do not have access to wireless internet as my couchsurfing host doesn’t have wifi. Once I get access to wifi I will update with pictures. Until then I am off to bed and my own vampire dreams. Stay tuned!

Angela and I got out to explore Bucharest today and I am incredibly impressed. Despite having heard mostly negative reports from other travelers who have passed through the city I was excited by the label the city receives of “Little Paris.” While I would not go that far, it certainly has its charms. If anything it is really nice to be able to understand signs again. Since Romanian is a romance language my knowledge of French means I can figure out menus, maps and street names with a much greater degree of accuracy than in Sofia or Thesseloniki. Yay for a Latin based alphabet!

In regards to the actual city itself, it seems the Romanians have made a tremendous effort to restore and preserve the city’s past. While many of the buildings are run down and showing their years, many more have been beautifully restored. Beyond the history the city feels alive. Angela and I were in the major retail section of Bucharest and it was amazing. Everywhere was packed and the entire city was buzzing. Then you dart down a back road and come across a 300 year old church with the most amazing frescoes I’ve ever seen. Bucharest is an odd conglomeration of Soviet architecture, modern European economic progress and a strong sense of history and tradition.

Some photos are included below. Tomorrow we are off to the Village Museum and to experience the Presidential Palace.

Orthodox Chapel in the heart of modern Bucharest. Dates from 1805

The frescoes in the chapel pictured above.

Romania's Military History Museum

The National Bank of Romania

Not everything is wonderful in Bucharest, the city has a big problem with stray dogs hanging out everywhere.

I know I have been a bad blogger and not updated in a long time. I however will fix that shortly and start to update with pictures and thoughts from my travels. However first some pictures from our train trip from Sofia to Bucharest. Our train was delayed departing from Sofia Station for 2 hours. Apparently this was newsworthy as four tv news crews showed up to cover the train delays and one of them interviewed Angela and I as English visitors whose travel plans were delayed. So somewhere on Bulgarian tv tonight Angela and I are telling the reporter that we are cold but really enjoyed Sofia and found the train station really nice. This is of course a lie. The train station is large and drafty, a perfect example of Soviet style architecture but exceptionally cold to wait in during the Bulgarian winter.

The two features of the train ride are amazing mountains and industrial decay. Both are presented below. What is really incredible in Bulgaria is the level of poverty present in Bulgaria. Especially in the small cities the train passes through, the levels of industrial decay is astounding. It makes  upstate New York look like a thriving mecca of industrial activity.

The Bulgarian mountains outside of Sofia

Limestone cliffs outside of Sofia

Soviet era industry and the decay that came with the 'fall of the wall.'

In Soviet Bulgaria cement factory makes you!

Worlds has begun. With nine rounds over three days its a pretty intellectually exhausting slog but also the ultimate thrill for a debate junkie like myself.

For those readers who are not familiar with how world’s style debating works here is a quick primer for everyone before I give a round by round breakdown. World’s style is known as British Parliamentary debate. In a BP debate there are four teams, two teams in favour of the resolution and two opposed. The debate topic or resolution is given out 15 minutes before the round and teams have to prepare by themselves with only the ability to access any physical reference materials they have brought with them, so no iPhones or laptops allowed. After the end of the debate the judges (generally a panel of 3 or 5) rank the teams from first to forth. First place receives 3 points, second 2 points, third 1 point and finally zero points for a dreaded forth. At the end of the nine preliminary in-rounds rounds the top 32 teams ranked based on their points totals make the out-rounds or the elimination rounds. This is called making the break and is a big deal in the debate community. Just saying “I broke at worlds” is enough to earn you debate street cred anywhere.  The general idea at most tournaments is if you take two points in every round then you will break. So at worlds this means 18 points.

So on to how Andrew and I did. The resolution for round one was This house would (thw) ban labour unions. Andrew and I were second proposition and took a 3rd place. First was a very good team from Melbourne and second was a strong team from Vermont.

In our second round the resolution was This House Believes That (THBT) Developing countries should fully fund the university tuition of female students. We took a first in this round getting us back onto pace with four points.

Finally in round three the resolution was THW give financial incentives for marriages of mixed ethnicity or religion. We took a second in this round to a strong team from Galloway in Ireland.

Ultimately this put as at 6 points after day one. Andrew and I were still shaking the rust off and I wasn’t exceptionally pleased with how I debated today but after a good nights sleep we will be ready for action tomorrow. We are where we want to be in terms of points but are hoping for a little bit more consistency tomorrow. Stay tuned!

I left Ottawa yesterday night at 10:05pm and flew directly to Heathrow.  I was originally routed through Washington DC. but seeing as they received something along the line of two feet of snow that wasn’t happening. Thankfully a very kind United Airlines employee was willing to sit on hold with Air Canada to get me onto the Ottawa-London flight. All told it worked out better for me despite a couple of nerve-racking hours waiting to see if I would actually get out of the country.

After watching District 9 on the plane (its an excellent sci-fi/action as a side note) I arrived at 9:30am in Heathrow Airport. It took me an hour to get my bags and make my way to the London Underground then another hour on the Piccadilly Line to get to my hostel in an area called Swiss Cottage. Conveniently enough  it is all of a three minute walk from the tube station to the hostel. After dropping off my bags it was time to explore London and being the good history student that I am, I went to the Imperial War Museum to geek out for the rest of the day. The museum covers Britain and the Commonwealth’s involvement in conflicts after 1914. This means the first major engagement covered is World War One and it effectively ends with Gulf War One.

British 15''naval guns outside of The Imperial War Museum in London

The major display in the museum is the main gallery which features vehicles and guns from the past 100 years of military conflict. What is incredibly impressive is the breadth of artifacts on display. While heavy on guns and vehicles from the two world wars, there is an even number of British and German artifacts. As well room has been made for the more modern as a Polaris submarine launched nuclear missile and captured Argentinian artillery pieces sit beside Sherman tanks. I’ve included some highlights below:

Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery's personal tank he used in the Egyptian desert in 1942

A German V-1 Rocket, desiged by a man who later helped put American's on the moon

A P51 Mustang that served in the Canadian Air Force and was a gift by the Canadian government. The museum promptly repainted it in American colours.

Argentinian artillery piece captured by British forces during the Falkland War

The Me 262, the first jet fighter.

Beyond the impressive collection of vehicles however the museum is also serves an excellent interpretive function presenting Britain and the Commonwealth’s role over the past 100 years.  Some of the artifacts hidden away in the exhibits are absolutely amazing. There is also a personal sense of gratification at finding a hidden treasure despite the fact that thousands of other people had already seen the same thing that day. My two favourite examples are below:

German bronze eagle from the roof of the Reichstag. Donated to the museum by that soviet soldier. Yeah, the one from the picture. You know the one.

A German Enigma machine. Captured in Norway not in the Atlantic but still...

Tomorrow I fly out to Istanbul after meeting up with Angela. I’m very excited but I was glad for the day in London.

This will be my last live show before I head off to Europe for two months. Never fear though as Mike will be sticking around in the new year. At 8:30 we will be speaking with Lynne Wolfson who is biking across Africa. As per usual we air on 93.1 CKCU FM in Ottawa and at www.ckcufm.com for those in the rest of the world.

Copenhagen talks heat up…bad puns aside Gordon Brown arrives today amid complaints from the G77-China block. All this while Danish police detain 968 people during protests in the city.

Remember that prisoner transfer agreement Canada made with Afghanistan to ensure detainees weren’t tortured? It seems Afghanistan might not be keeping up its end of the bargain.

The Canadian Senate says Canada’s Coast Guard should have guns…and not just little ones either.

Larry O’Brien wants to freeze public workers wages to save Ottawa money.

A new cellphone provider in Canada?

France to spend 1.1 Billion dollars to digitize its archives. Pay attention LAC.

Hassan Almrie can no longer be held on a Security Certificate says The Federal Court.

This is Adam’s second last week here before he heads off to Europe. the countdown is on. This week at 8:30am Mike will be talking with Rex Murphy, Canadian political commentator, host of Cross Country Check-up and the author of the new book Points of View. As per usual we air from 7-9am on 93.1 CKCU FM in Ottawa and at www.ckcufm.com for the rest of you.

Pirate Radio: The Ottawa Version

HST: coming to a store near you. At least if you live in BC or Ontario that is.

Copenhagen Climate Summit
- 20 Protesters climb West Block to put a banner…and are arrested
- Gordon Brown says EU has to cut back more
- US Promises to regulate emissions

Maybe not everyone in Switzerland thinks banning minarets is a good idea.

US and NATO agree to send more troops to Afghanistan.
- NATO to send 7000
- US to send 30 000 and commit for the long term

Toronto gets to host the G20 summit next summer.