Ah... those precious moments of clarity....
Looking up a couple of things in Thomas Pynchon's masterpiece Gravity's Rainbow I remembered a witty song appearing in one of the first chapters:
Nobody knows where it is on the map
Who'd ever think it could start such a flap?
Each Montenegran and Serbian too,
Waitin' for something, right outa the blue - oh honey!
Pack up my Gladstone 'n' brush off my suit,
And then light me up my big fat cigar -
If ya want my address, it's
That Orient Express
To the sanjak of Novi Pazar!
Who'd ever think it could start such a flap?
Each Montenegran and Serbian too,
Waitin' for something, right outa the blue - oh honey!
Pack up my Gladstone 'n' brush off my suit,
And then light me up my big fat cigar -
If ya want my address, it's
That Orient Express
To the sanjak of Novi Pazar!
The idea of passing from the Middle East to the Balkan Issue in less than a month! And to trace the route of the Orient Express (even in an erratic way...) Alternating imperial luxury and balkan seediness, over a period of a couple of weeks! What an idea!
Now is the time for decisions! Leaving tomorrow for my first port of call!
PS I: A gladstone is the typical hinged leather suitcase (named after the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone).
"What a way for a fashionable painter to travel, a Gladstone bag and an ulster"
- Dorian Gray.
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
PS II: My first port of call? A hint: Even old New York was once New Amsterdam...
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