19 Comments
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Alison's avatar

You might enjoy Beatriz Williams’ latest novel, Husbands and Lovers, which has a Hungarian WWII storyline (among others).

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Jane Roper's avatar

Cool -- I will take a look. Thanks!

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Nancy's avatar

I did the sound of music dance in the hills of Switzerland. But I relate and worry about similar things in my travels abroad. What a thoughtful and delightful post. thank you, I just became a subscriber!

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Jane Roper's avatar

I appreciate it!

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Randy Susan Meyers's avatar

Not many could do a travelogue-slash-make-sure-to-vote combo. Kudos!!

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Crystal King's avatar

Such a great post! And if you want to keep going on your Von Trapp experience, you only need to go up to Vermont where the family has a lodge and a brewing company. https://www.trappfamily.com/

Also, in Italy they gave up on the toilets. The seats of most of them in public places are just missing, broken because Asian tourists kept standing on them to squat.

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Jane Roper's avatar

Yes! I've driven past the Trapp family lodge a bunch of times but haven't ever gone - need to rectify that.

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Sarah McCraw Crow's avatar

Well said! It is a scary time. But on a lighter note, my best friend and I did an all-day Sound of Music tour too, when we were traveling Europe in college. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

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Joanna Del Ro's avatar

Great trip overview, Jane! Glad you all had a blast! Takes me back to my 6 months spent in Hungary in 93’ - I need to get back there!

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Daniel Urgo's avatar

This article is hilarious. While your inability to see that it is in fact your leftist friends that are protesting and attacking people of the jewish race today is even funnier. Maybe scary is the word, not funny. Its either you know exactly what you’re doing by flat out lying and using that same propaganda you seem to be so against or you’re just that dumb, deaf, and blind as a “journalist” you cant see the truth. “Journalist?!?” Now that is definitely funny

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Daniel Urgo's avatar

This article is hilarious. While your inability to see that it is in fact your leftist friends that are protesting and attacking people of the jewish race today is even funnier. Maybe scary is the word, not funny. Its either you know exactly what you’re doing by flat out lying and using that same propaganda you seem to be so against or you’re just that dumb, deaf, and blind as a “journalist” you cant see the truth. “Journalist?!?” Now that is definitely funny

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Daniel Urgo's avatar

This article is hilarious. While your inability to see that it is in fact your leftist friends that are protesting and attacking people of the jewish race today is even funnier. Maybe scary is the word, not funny. Its either you know exactly what you’re doing by flat out lying and using that same propaganda you seem to be so against or you’re just that dumb, deaf, and blind as a “journalist” you cant see the truth. “Journalist?!?” Now that is definitely funny

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Daniel Urgo's avatar

This article is hilarious. While your inability to see that it is in fact your leftist friends that are protesting and attacking people of the jewish race today is even funnier. Maybe scary is the word, not funny. Its either you know exactly what you’re doing by flat out lying and using that same propaganda you seem to be so against or you’re just that dumb, deaf, and blind as a “journalist” you cant see the truth. “Journalist?!?” Now that is definitely funny

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Jane Roper's avatar

Daniel: I am not a journalist nor have I ever claimed to be one. This is a personal essay.

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John's avatar

You realize the Austrian government that Capt Von Trapp was loyal to was facist right? Christian Conservative facist in fact.

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Jane Roper's avatar

Yes, though I don't know what his personal ideologies were, do you? Or if he was even still in the military when the fascist government came to power? It doesn't really matter, though. What matters in the context of my post—especially since I'm referring to the character in the movie—is that he was opposed to Nazi ideology and anti-Semitism, refused to serve Hitler, and got the hell out of Europe.

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John's avatar

The nazi idealogy he was opposed to was how modern they were. They opposed the church. Read Austrian history or listen to The Rise of History podcast on Spotify from the UK. Very informative.

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John's avatar

We know because of the Kruckenkreuz he wore to the party. He was anti nazi because of Austro facism nationalism. It was facist vs facist.

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Jane Roper's avatar

Very interesting!

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