BY
Usha Vaidyanathan
Just finished a delightful book titled “Little is the Light -Nostalgic travels in the mini-states of Europe” by
Vitali Vitaliev. The title describes it all leaving no room for imagination and yes that is what it is – a travelogue covering several of the smallest states quite literally dotting the map of Europe:
Liechtenstein, San Marino, Mount Athos, Isle of Man, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Gibraltar, Andorra, Malta, Monaco, Seborga.
Some of these are already popular tourist destinations, some attractive as tax havens a few mini industrial powers and some of them were recently formed.
I find travelogues tedious and avoid them as a rule. I prefer to discover places on my own rather than read someone else’s impressions. A couple of times I had allowed myself to be led by others’ opinions proved to be a great disappointment for me. Each one of us looks for different things in a new place and it has to be felt first hand.
I must confess that the only reason I picked up the book was because it was on sale at landmark and a hardback copy was available at a mere Rs.50! But the book turned out to be a lottery at that price – much like some of the countries like Bahrain and Qatar which I visited with a lot of apprehension but which turned out to be great experiences.
Two important factors make the book very interesting. First, the author’s interesting comparisons with other countries and with his experiences in communist Russia to draw parallels or contrasts with the tiny states he writes about in the book. This takes one on a philosophical journey on the nature of Power and the reaction of people to Power and what makes certain forms of government successful and others so rotten.
The second is the author’s sense of humor and the easy style of writing. It is almost like sharing the tales of his voyages with the author on a lazy afternoon over endless cups of tea with him talking about a trip with leisurely digressions on Vodka drinking, the ubiquitous American tourists in Europe, annihilation of borders, the European community and of the hellish life in Communist Russia where he grew up and its pretentious claims.
Here’s an example. During the train journey in Switzerland on his way to the alpine principality of Liechtenstein, the author’s thoughts wander towards military service which is compulsory in Switzerland.
"Military service is compulsory in Switzerland and every male is drafted for several weeks once a year until he reaches a fairly mature age. In between the call-ups he is supposed to store his arms and military equipment at home, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched to assume that you can find a couple of mortars and machine-guns, to say nothing of bullets and grenades under every Swiss bed.
Can there be a connection here with Switzerland’s constantly declining birth rate?"
These kinds of mischievous and funny thoughts that the author shares with us makes it seem like a friendly conversation rather than a boring monologue on the history and geography of the place.
Here’s another that crosses his mind on seeing a Chinese restaurant in Liechtenstein:
"Looking for the house where Beethoven was born in Bonn, I eventually discovered that it was fully occupied by a Chinese restaurant. had Beethoven been alive, he would have had to write a Yum Cha Sonata."
!!
The countries themselves are fascinating, each in its own way. Like people with interesting little habits, different cultures have quaint customs which are always interesting to read about. For someone who is used to the size and population of a country like India, the size and population of these countries itself is a fascinating fact. Just to give a few examples of the approximate area and population of some of these:
Liechtenstein (160 sq km, 34250), San Marino: (62 sq.km, 23000), Mount Athos: (390 sq. Km, 2250).
Here are some more facts which might sound like urban legends or fabrications of a fertile mind were it not from a serious travelogue:
Liechtenstein:
The police force consists of 55 policemen who are the only uniformed people in the country. With a very low crime rate, a policeman’s main duty in Liechtenstein is to make sure that the shops observe their opening and closing hours.
"The prison itself is a set of bright, sun-lit rooms with breathtaking view of alps from the windows. Instead of iron bars, the windows were supplied with neat electric curtains that could be drawn at the push of a button. There were paintings on the walls as the government regulation specified that the prison must sped one percent of their budget on works of art. Their meals were delivered to the prisoners thrice a day from a restaurant nearby by a van with the words “gourmet Service” on its sides. On top of it all, the prisoners were paid for each day of their detention."
At the time of the author’s visit, the 13 inmates of the prison were all illegal immigrants.
San Marino: In San Marino the calendar officially begins in 301 AD, the year of the country’s foundation. So it is 1706 in San Marino now.
Mount Athos: is a self governing Orthodox monastic mini-state on the Halkidiki peninsula in Northern Greece. The Holy Mountain (another name for Mount Athos) is one of the world’s exclusive places and the number of foreign visitors is limited to no more than ten a week.
Some 1700 monks and hermits live in twenty monasteries and lots of abbeys, sketes, cells and huts. The country has the lowest population of females : 0. Women are not allowed : not even the Queen of England.
The monks live by the Julian calendar.
“indeed, modern time does not exist on the Holy Mountain. as we found out later in the journey, clocks in some monasteries are set to midnight at sunset. In others they were set to midday at dawn. This made fixing any kind of appointment on Mount Athos a pretty hopeless business, which didn’t seem to bother the monks, whose only appointments were with God.”
Isle of Man:
"Brian Stowell’s profession is among the world’s rarest; he is one of the two people on our planet teaching the ancient Gaelic language of Manx...
Out of a population of 70,000 only about fifty islanders are fluent in Manx these days and fewer than 700 can get by it."
Luxembourg:
The country has Europe’s largest percentage of immigrant population at 30%. It was foreign workers who helped Luxembourg achieve the world’s highest living standard in the postwar era while many of the natives had gone to America seeking wealth.
The Faroe Islands:
The country is mountainous and is marked by its total lack of flowers and trees. The reason : the 80000 sheep – almost twice the human population of the islands are the reason why trees are absent and the wind does not favor blooming of flowers.
It is a football crazy nation with 400 men's and 25 women’s football teams and the islands’ population is 49,000.
Seborga:
“In the 1960s, Giorgio Carbone, the son of a local flower farmer and a flower farmer himself, decided to revive Seborga’s statehood. he proclaimed himself Prince Giorgio I and started campaigning for the village’s separation from Italy and complete independence. By the early nineties, he had managed to lure into his camp (or rather into his self-proclaimed principality) not only all 350 residents of Seborga, but also about 2000 people from several neighboring village communes who were obviously fed- up with the unending scandal and corruption of Italian politics, as well as the high Italian taxes...The Italian government stays mum, ignoring all developments in Seborga.”
The prince has written his principality’s constitution and at the time of the author’s visit, he had fourteen cabinet ministers reporting to him and an army of five soldiers!
Charming? quaint? unbelievable? absurd? bizarre ?
Opening up the mind to the wonders of human nature – that is what travel does and to widen ones perspective to know what one has always known is not always the best and the correct way of life. Travel to these small states can sometimes be much more difficult and cumbersome than to the larger and more popular tourist destinations and the stay itself may be too expensive or too uncomfortable. It is quite possible that many of these described in this book may be out of the reach for the ordinary budget traveler not to mention the visa complications. A good alternative is a journey through the eyes of the author which is well worth the time.
