What is "Europe"
Trip Start
Jun 17, ????
1
12
36
Trip End
Ongoing
West Sussex,
United Kingdom
Sunday, January 1, 1989
I love Europe. I know, I live here, so I'm bound to be biased! To me, it is a continent full of fascinating culture and history, beautiful cities, wonderful scenery and superb food and wine. There are many great places to live in this world, and feel privileged to live somewhere with such a fantastic continent on my doorstep. There is very little of Europe that I couldn't reach for a weekend, and big chunks in the North that are good for a day trip. Bliss! The days I've spent strolling round ancient towns and cities, the long meals I've enjoyed on pavement cafes, the glorious mountains, the history!
I'm also a big fan of the EU. The scars of WW2 are etched across pretty much any European country you care to visit - and a countless non-European cities too. The Empires of Europe had been in conflict with one another for centuries and then someone finally had the sense to create a common economic interest and suddenly war with the French is unthinkable - yes, we slag them off along with every other European nation - but then the Scots slag off the English, the Southern Softies mock the Northern Monkeys and there is no more question of civil war than there is of an inter-European war. So, for bringing peace in the space of a generation, the EU is the best thing that has happened here in millennia.
Anyway, I'm wandering off topic because I am trying to explore Geographic Europe and not political Europe. Of course there would be some advantages to limiting my vists to EU countries - there are only 25 of them for a start - plus a handful of accession countries. There is also a clear list of members and no ambiguity about who's in and who's out. However, this is not nearly challenging enough for me!
Some friends (Macca springs to mind) have suggested basing my criteria on participation in the UEFA cup. Others point to Eurovision as a good rule of thumb on Europeanness. Neither of these appeal to me given the somewhat arbitrary nature of who gets in. Israel? I've been there and it was definitely in the Middle East!
You'd think that the continent of Europe was pretty clear cut, but annoyingly not all maps are the same. I'm therefore currently using the Ordnane Survey Political world map. This puts the Eastern boundary of Europe in a straight line through Russia down the 30' East line. It then neatly circumvents Kazakhstan (and with apologies to Borat, thank f for that). It then tiptoes over the top of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Finally, it nips the little bit of Turkey west of Istanbul.
Now, I have heard that the dividing line in Russia is the Urals and I've also seen maps that put Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in Europe. The first fact doesn't make any difference - I'll be visiting Russia as soon as you can fly to St Petersburg from Gatwick on an airline without reviews that scare. The second means that those three countries are at the bottom of my list - if I manage everywhere else and they aren't actual war zones I might make the effort.
The lasy decade has seem a proliferation of new European countries out of what were regions of a larger regime. I think that there is a good chance that Kosovo will be a separate country before I complete my tour. I suppose the Basque region might be, but it doesn't seem very likely just now. My map is copyright dated 1996, so Serbia and Montenegro are lumped together as Czechoslovakia - they appear separately on my list. Other than that, it is still accurate so far as Europe is concerned ... I think.
