Melange ASMR

Today's maps are gifts from the postbox, sent in by Fred and Colette. I love that they fit thematically! The beautiful maps of Hawai'i with the volcanoes from Colette, and the wonderfully detailed info on human settlement in the Pacific from Fred. 

I hope you enjoy this quiet exploration. And as I've mentioned on the community tab, a little head-ups: We might have to skip one week because June is unexpectedly busy, but after that we'll finally get to Lord of the Rings! Thank you, everyone, for your patience and all the kind words on the videos 💕

For a visual version, please have a look at my youtube channel. (Click here for episode).

Hello! I figured I'd show you some Austrian specialties today. The first one is Uhudler, a type of wine that tastes of wild strawberries and can only be produced in a small region in the very East of Austria. The second one is Styrian pumpkin seed oil, a favourite of some of my friends who moved here from abroad. And the third one you'll find at pretty much every breakfast table, a little breadroll called Kaisersemmel.

For a visual version, have a look at my youtube channel (link to episode).

Are you in the mood for some mythology? Let's look at an ancient creation myth from one of the cradles of civilisation, Mesopotamia. The Babylonian story tells about Marduk, the greatest god in the pantheon, and how he created the world by slaying Tiamat, a sea-monster and mother of all other gods. The tablets with the text were found during excavations in the 18th century, but some parts of the story lived on since ancient times, through a retelling in the Genesis.

For a visual version, have a look at my youtube channel (click here for episode).

It looks like Prague and Czechia have been popular destinations with Austrians for a while, considering how many old tour guides and maps I've been able to find in thrift stores and book boxes. It's neat to see how these books have been changing and what kind of info they presented as various points in time. So let's start with a newer book and then go back to Czechoslovakia in the 90s, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and then all the way back to the 50s...

For a visual version, have a look at my youtube channel (link to episode).

Katie has sent me an absolute treasure trove of maps! We're starting with some vintage ones of New Hampshire, her beautiful home state and from the looks of it a fantastic place to go hiking. I particularly like the look of those lakes in the middle of the mountains... Thank you, Katie!!! 💜

If you'd like to watch along, please click here for the youtube video.

It's time to finally look at some languages again and I have to say, this region has been the most challenging to prepare so far. There is such a wealth of languages in the Cacausus mountains, with some that we've talked about before, and some isolate and native to this region alone. Get comfy and let's slowly work our way through the map 💖 Before we start, though, thank you so much for all the well-wishes last week! 

Content note: There's mention of the Armenian and the Circassian genocide.

Cat appears from 14:33 to 22:45.

If you'd like to watch along, please click here for the youtube video.

I was super sleepy when we filmed this which honestly might be a little noticeable. So get cozy and let's drift off together to this map of the Yosemite National Park 😴😴

Mystery person who sent this to me, who are you? 💛

If you'd like to watch along, click here for the youtube video.

Today we're looking at a place that is so incredibly big, I'm still struggling wrapping my head around it. The Great Lakes along the Canada-US-border! Turns out, Lake Superior alone is as big as my (arguably small) home country... Wow!

A big thank you to Claire for sharing the infos on the Great Lakes with me, and to Isi of course, who sent me a beautiful surprise package with the map of Canada 🧡

If you prefer to watch this episode, click here for my youtube channel.

Today we're looking at a bit of a mysterious aspect of ancient history: the Scythians. I've come across the name quite often, but always in the margins or as a side-note and it made me curious to find out more about this civilization of Eastern Europe during the Hellenistic period. I hope you find this relaxing and interesting, and if at some point, you're wondering whether you should drift off to sleep rather than keep listening: absolutely, go to sleep 💖💖

For the video version, click here.

Ever wondered why both London and Paris have a "Temple" station? Let's go back all the way to the Middle Ages and the time of the crusades to get to the origin of that. I find the story of the Templars so fascinating and just love the fact that you can still find their traces in today's cityscapes, hundreds of years later.

For the visual version, please click here.