Andorra: ever heard of it?

I fancy myself a well-traveled person. I was an international affairs major in college. But I had never heard of Andorra -- until I saw it on my alphabetical list of countries recognized by the United Nations. Before doing any research I thought it was in Africa, but was schooled by a girlfriend of mine when she informed me that it was a microstate in the Pyrenees between Spain and France.

So rather than being a travel vlog, today's trip by sofa is an engaging history lesson on the 16th smallest nation in the world, courtesy of Simon Whistler. You're welcome.

Algeria: Rock the Casbah.

The Sharif don't like it

Rockin' the Casbah

Rockin' the Casbah

The Sharif don't like it

Rockin' the Casbah

Rockin' the Casbah

- Rock the Casbah by The Clash

I had no idea what this song meant when I first heard it as a teenager in the 1980s. I could have sworn that the first line of the song was about two women, Charlene or Diane, and the singer was trying to pick one of them based on how they were doing something called the casbar. It was quicker for me to understand existentialism by Albert Camus' famous tome, L'Etranger (which I read in the original French) than to figure out what Joe Strummer meant singing about those women.

Fast forward to today. I finally had a chance to research the song's lyrics, what they mean, and even their place in cultural history. The song was banned from American radio following the September 11 attacks for being inappropriate. I watched the video for the first time ever today and still can't figure out what a Hasidic Jewish man, an armadillo, and an oil rig have to do with a Mediterranean citadel.

All of this is pretext for today's sofa adventure to the Casbah in Algiers, made possible by France 24. Even though I run the risk of some people not understanding French, I chose to share it provides the most compelling images of the Casbah renovation I have seen.

  

The Albania Riviera.

In researching this week's destination, I realized that I know very little about Albania. I did not realize that Mother Teresa was born in Albania, nor did I know that the Albanian Riviera was a thing. The host of this video is David Hoffman, the creator the David's Been Here website. You can visit a lot of beaches and see a lot of Albanian cuisine in 33 minutes!

 

First stop: Afghanistan.

It has been almost a year that we have been living through the pandemic. The thing I miss the most is the ability to travel to faraway places...to learn...to explore a different culture...to be transformed. That's why I decided to launch this blog as a means to catalogue weekly travels...from my sofa. It is my goal to watch a video of 30 minutes or less that depicts some aspect of a country, starting with Afghanistan and ending with Zimbabwe.

This first video comes courtesy of Drew Binsky, a vlogger aiming to visit every country on earth. I came across Drew when I was looking for a segment on the Buddhas of Bamiyan. To date, Drew has been to 194 out of 197 countries. 

I remember the reading about how the Taliban destroyed the Buddha statues in Afghanistan in March 2001 and feeling so sad and so angry. This video runs just over 21 minutes and includes some annoying commercials that you can skip, as well as some pandemic and child safety practices that you need to appreciate in their cultural context. That said, it offers a succinct and overview of the Bamiyan region.