The Christianville Spirit: My Fascination with Europe II

The Christianville Spirit

The Spirit that Brings Hope

July 15th, 2020-TCS # 696

Hæ, Ahoj, and Cześć, My Readers! Wow! Another Triple Greetings for Three Very Different Countries with Three Very Unique and Challenging Languages! The First is Icelandic for “Hey” (Pronounced like It Sounds). The Second is more Challenging than Iceland. It is The Czech Republic (or Czechia in English). The Greeting is Czech for Hello. Although, Even It is said, You may sound like a Pirate. Finally, A Very Challenging-Appearing Greeting. It is actually means Hello in Polish! Now, Contrary to what looks hard to say, It is pronounced “Chest” like the Chest Part of Your Body or in other words, the part of your body that covers Your Heart. These Greetings are One of Many Reasons why The Continent of Europe is Fascinating to Me. Think of This as Part 2 of My Fascination with Europe  Newsletter, Which I am going to Rerun in a Little Bit Here! So, as Briefly Mentioned in Last Week’s Newsletter about “Local Letters” or “Alien Letters” as I call them; That is another Reason Europe fascinates me! With Such a Dense Continent and So Many Languages with Each comes “Local Letters with some “Alien Letters”. In Other Words, Letters that are Only Used in That Language. Like 

The Swedish A (Å), 

The Czech R (Ř), 

The Icelandic O (ð), 

Icelandic Capitol (Ð) 

and, For Added Measure The Polish Letter L known as “The Stroke” (Ł and ł, Upper and Lower Cases). That is A lot of “Alien Letters”! Actually, There was Countries like Poland or Slovakia that have over 26 Letters. Slovakia, according to Recent Research has 46 Letters! Yes, You read that correctly! 46 Letters! and Poland, In Case You are wondering have 32 Letters! I know that Slovaks and Poles consider that Normal but, I can not imagine learning 46 Letters in Slovakia (SK) or 32 Letters in Poland (PL) as a Child. Imagine Expatting There and Learning all that! Meaning No Offense to anyone in The Process here! That is Enough to blow My Mind of Fascination! Of Course, I mentioned The Following before

The Czech Republic (Czechia, as it is now referred to in English) is Quite an Interesting Country and Language. Czech is most definitely not an Easy Language but, An Interesting One. I have been Very Fascinated lately with The Czech Republic as well as It’s Language. So Many “Funky” Letters in their Alphabet! The One that is The Most “Funky” and Unique Letter in The Czech Alphabet is The Letter R with a Mark over It. To Me, It looks like The Letter R with a Small V over it. Anyway, It looks like This (Ř) It is said that It is Impossible to Pronounce but, It is Pronounced “Aerch” and That is in The Single Form and The Ř is Pronounced Very Differently from The Single. Now, Let’s Bear in Mind that Czech People will tell you that takes a Long Time to Learn that Letter. So, The Final  Reason before I rerun The Original “My Fascination with Europe” Newsletter. So, I found out about Two Weeks ago that Google Street View is Finally Online in The Country of Austria (A)! Street View was Ready to go a Couple Years ago but, The Privacy Law organization of Austria said No. both Germany and Austria both have Strict Privacy Laws but, I digress. They finally agreed to Allow Street View in The Country with One Condition, an Asterisk*. The Privacy Commission has to Review Each Picture. Several Years Later, It is Done and Street View is Alive in All of Austria! So, I took the Opportunity and Cyber-drove across Austria, in including The Most Beautiful Region of Austria, The Tyrol Region. Now, a Bit of Asterisk* Situation here! Not all of The “Tyrol Region” is in Austria. As of Today, Anyway. You See, The “Tyrol Region” was founded in Austria and Even at One Point extended into What is now Italia (I). It is seen in a Unique Way. I call it The “Language Anomaly” because, at Least in The Italian Tirol Region, Due to Historical Aspect of It, They speak Two Languages. German (from Historical Tyrol) and Italian (Home Language). That sort of Makes sense until You consider The Town names. Seriously, They have Road Signs in Both German and Italian in The Tirol Region. So, There is Two Names is roughly The Same City. For Example, Brenner (A) / Brennero (I). Signs say “Brenner (I) when leaving Innsbruck and When You come into Italia (Italy), They say Brenner/Brennero. Coming from Italia, The Signs say both. Finally, The Southern Most City of The Tirol Region is The City of Bolzano but, In German, It is known as Bozen. the (A) Next to Bozen in This Context, The German Version of It. But, It is known as Bozen (A) / Bolzano (I). Anyway, I hope You enjoyed This History and Geography Lesson! Now, It is Time for The Original! Enjoy The Fascination!

This Newsletter was Originally written on July 13th of 2016 (Refer to Newsletter 504)

Hej, Ciao, and Bonjour, My Readers. I am saying Hello to You in Three of My Favorite Languages; Swedish, Italian, and French. Funny, My Mom’s Side of The Family is both German and Italian. Personally, I like the Italian Side, The Food and Music side of them. But, Of Course, Who wouldn’t like Italian Food! If You didn’t, an Angry Grandmother would be after You. You-a No Like-a My Food?! Anyway, on to This Week’s Newsletter. So, In My Newsletters in The Past, I have mentioned about wanting to Expat to Europe, My Fascination about Europe, All about Europe. So, I am sure that Most of You are wondering Why exactly. Well, There are quite a Few Reasons Why. So, Let Me Explain. Now, I have to say, bearing in Mind, that to some people This is a One of those Oh-So-Sensitive Political Situations, But, I am going to make this more about The Fascination and Passion for This Part of The World. So, Here We Go! The First Reason is something that for Most of The World is most likely The Craziest Idea but If You see a Map of Europe, You would understand why. It is something called Schengen. As In The Schengen Agreement. What is that? Well, It is basically an Agreement named after a Town called Schengen in Luxembourg that is literally a stones throw from France and Germany. That is All! Just Kidding! There is much more! The Best Thing (or Worst thing to some people) is the fact that You can Freely Travel between Countries (in Europe, They refer to them as “Members States”) without having to Stop at The Border Crossing and Have Your Passport Ready. You just drive across The Border and Continue on, that is as long You follow the Rules in Imports and Exports. Now, The Police of The “Member State”, will check Your Passport at Your Hotel or Other Business. That is only so “Member States” can make sure that You are following The Rules. Now, The Best Part of Schengen (“Freedom of Movement”, Europeans say) is that You can Live in One Country and Work in another. For Example, You could live in France and Work in Italy and Vice Versa. Schengen covers Most Countries across Europe with the Exception of a Few. Now, There is an Option that You can Opt-Out of Schengen. Countries like The United Kingdom opted-out of Schengen but, Oddly, They have their own “Freedom of Movement” Condition in Their Area. One of My Favorite Youtubers, CGP Grey (Who explains Europe very well!) claims that because The UK is part of The British Isles and They are an Island, that they should not do Schengen. That is Okay though. So, The Next Reason, It ties together with The Schengen Agreement, in fact It kinda led to The Schengen Agreement. After World War II, Europe was torn a part and Europe needed to a way to come together via something that was then The European Community, now known as The European Union. So, Just so We are Clear, some “Member States” are not part of The European Union but, are part of the “Schengen Area” like Norway and Iceland. The People of The European Union came up with the Name, “Member States”. To Explain how Schengen and The European Union (or EU) work, is that it is like The “Member States” are sort of like Their Own US State, only with Different Flags, Road Signs, Country Sign, and Language. Basically, Crossing International Lines in Europe, to an American is like Crossing a State Line only with The Things I mentioned above, hence the Term “Member State”. When You do cross a Border, You see a Sign that has The Country’s Name in It’s Own Language usually with The European Union’s Blue Flag with a Circle of Stars instead of a “Welcome to “Member State” like The US. For My Favorite “Member States”, You would see Italia for Italy, France for France, and Sverige for Sweden. By The Way, I have Many More Favorite (actually, Favourite) “Members States” but, those are a Few Examples. After You see “Welcome” Sign, Then You see the Speed Limits Sign (A Speed for Inside “Urban Areas”, Outside “Urban Area”, and Motorways) usually The Speed of Motorways is about 120 to 130 Kilometers an Hour. (That is except for Germany’s Motorways or “Autobahn”) 

Now, The Whole Thing that I mentioned about Flags, Road Signs, Country Sign, and Language is a Fascination of it’s Own. It is Amazing how You can drive across Europe and See/Read Signs that are in Different Languages. Each Member State has it’s own Road Signs in Different Fonts AND Languages. Talk about a Road Geeks Dream, right there! Each Country has a Different Flag on top of that, and It’s own Country Sign to make it easier for Europeans to know what Country is What and By The Way, Some of the “Country Signs” are confusing. So, One Time I was googling pictures of Road Signs around The World, when I came across a Sign that had “Country Signs” and Capitol Cities of those Countries. As I explained one time about How Close Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria are. I found a Road Sign Pointing to Those Cities and More. I will post The Picture of Them on My Newsletter.

 

One Sign going Strait says

 E-59 (called European Routes) to:

 “Wien” (Vienna, the Capitol of Austria), 

Then, on The Right side You have 

E-60 West to Linz/St.Pollen with D. 

D means Deutschland (Germany), 

and 

E-60 East says: 

CZ (Czech Republic),

 SK (Slovakia), and 

H (Hungary). 

Further down, E-59, You will see a Sign that

 says The Following: 

“Wien-Centrum” (Vienna City Center), 

Prague-CZ (Capitol of Czech Republic), 

Bratislava-SK (Capitol of Slovakia), and 

Budapest-H (Capitol of Hungary). 

Another Sign I saw and Took a Screenshot of a Sign with Wien and E-60 with  The Country Signs of 

H (Hungary), 

SK (Slovakia), 

SLO (Slovenia)

and 

The easiest one, I (Italia).

 So, While We are talking about Roads, Europe has an Interstate-like System called The E-Road System. I found out yesterday that They are called European Routes. Think of it was an Interstate, only an Inter-Member State. Hehe, Get It? Anyway, These European Routes (or E-Roads) take you across Europe from One Member State (or Country) to Another. I could tell you how to get from Malmö to Milano, Italia. E-20 to E-45, E-45 to E-43, and E-43 to E-35 respectively. I could tell you what Member States too! 

Danmark (Denmark), 

Deutschland (Germany), 

Öesterreich (Austria), 

Suisse (Switzerland), 

and Italia (Italy), 

again respectfully. I will tell My Mom that and Her Head would Explode. Like What to Where?! And, Finally, The Final Fascination, You can literally drive on a Train to go from France to The United Kingdom or Vice Versa. So, The Fact that You can do that is just beyond Crazy! It is much shorter, I am told to drive onto the “Eurotunnel” versus going on The Ferry. Just remember, as They say to Drive on The Left in The UK and Right in France. In Case, You are wondering The UK and Ireland are The Only Ones in Europe  who drive on The Left. All in all, Europe is a Very Fascinating Part of The World and I really want to see it’s Fascinations before They are all gone. I am thinking that I might have to start a Go Fund Me account to help me do this!

Thanks (Takk and Grazie) for reading The Christianville Spirit. Oh! The Places You can see in The World!