#Europe Central

[quotespile]

Self-deception is a pessimistic definition of optimism.

William T. Vollmann, Europe Central

[philosophybitmaps]

[renegade-hierophant]

Slovak traditional highland axe dance

EDIT: If you'd like to play a character like these guys in a video game, check out Hellish Quart.

[gemsofgreece]

Temple of Poseidon, Cape Sounion.  Photo: catrin_pl (IG)

[burr-ell]

What I love about Spy x Family's recent chapters concerning Martha and Henry—two secondary characters with little direct connection to the plot as we've known it—is that Endo's taking the opportunity to once again hammer home what the story's actual stakes are. The idea of potential conflict between Ostania and Westalis isn't just window dressing for a wacky wholesome badass family gimmick—the previous wars are real events that various characters lived through, and all of them are in some way affected by it and have good reasons to want to avoid another one. This is primarily an action-adventure/slice-of-life manga with a lot of sendups to spy movies and pop culture of the 60s, but I think those things hold much more weight with the thematic underpinning of the horrors of war and the ruin it leaves behind.

[chechula]

Sketch for this was in my diary for 6 years. That boy was just so sure that America was a fantasy land so for a moment I also believed him ♥

[allthingseurope]

Karlstejn Castle, Czech Republic (by bialobrody)

[pagan-stitches]

WIP

[sadclowncentral]

there has been some discussion on here that people should not call themselves central european, as that "doesn't exist, there is only the west and the (ex-soviet) east".

so here is the story of how my parents met. it's a long one snd it features a world war, the cold war and the iron curtain, but i promise it is a love story. here goes:

1936. my german grandfather lives in a small village in eastern pomerania, then germany, with his mother. my polish side of the family, part of an indigenious slavic minority, the kashubians, lives just six kilometers east across the border in poland.

1939. germany invades poland. with the front and the border moving east, my kashubian grandfather is incidentally born on german territory as a german citizen. he is the youngest of eleven - all his siblings are polish citizens.

1942. my german grandfather is drafted into the army and taken as a prisoner of war. the same year, my kashubian grandfather is murdered in a concentration camp for collusion against nazi germany.

1945. my german grandfather has returned from russia. the border has moved, west this time, and his old home is in poland now, and behind the iron curtain. he decides to stay in western germany.

1946. my kashubian great-grandmother, a widowed woman with eleven children, has lost her house during the war. she moves into an abandoned home in a now polish recovered territories.

1982. it's the height of the cold war. my german grandfather has not stopped wondering what has happened to his old home. with a sailing ship, he and my father make it to poland and to his old house. my kashubian grandfather, now married and father of seven children, opens the door. and in true kashubian hospitality, invites them to stay the night. my parents, both teenagers, and without a shared language, meet for the first time. and fall in love.

1987. my father is discharged from the west german army because of his frequent travels behind the iron curtain to visit his girlfriend. my mother gets a german passport issued without a citizen test as her father is technically german.

1996. the berlin wall has fallen, but more importantly, my parents are getting married in poland. their families got over the language barrier, and my grandfathers have gotten over their different sides in the war. the reception is in three languages - german, kashubian, and polish. in the house both my grandfathers grew up in.

a few years later, my brother and i are born. german- polish- kashubian. with two passports and three mother tongues. and then again. from one single house in germany- poland- recovered-territories- kashubia- pomerania.

so we just say we are central european.

[profesors]

🔸Serbian girl dressed in serbian traditional clothes from Central Serbia 🇷🇸

🔸Time : 1870s

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

shell necklace made of river mussels

stroked pottery culture, 4800-4400 BC

found in Šárka, Czech Republic

[iotakaptur0]

looks to the trees

[mybeautifulpoland]

Toruń, Poland by opal.i.chabry

[haveyouseenthisbirdpoll]

Photo source

Map source

[gemsofgreece]

Athens by chris_kap.21 on Instagram.