July 15, 2010

Happy Birthday, Colin

The second oldest sibling in my family turns 24 today.  My sister got pictures from an active geyser field in Chile and my youngest brother got pictures from gigantic boulders in New Zealand, but Colin gets pictures from the gray, concrete, formerly Communist city of Skopje.  Sorry, Colin.  It's nothing personal, just bad timing.
Happy Birthday in Macedonian


In 1963, Skopje was hit with an earthquake that destroyed approximately 80% of the city's buildings, ruining much of its neoclassical architectural legacy.  Josip Tito, the leader of communist/socialist (depending on whom you ask) Yugoslavia, set to rebuild it as a model of communist/socialist world and the result is unsurprisingly a fairly ugly city.  There are some areas that retain some level of charm, but it was difficult to get a decent picture for Colin's birthday.  Here are a couple from the Kale Fortress, which dates back to the sixth century.
Posted by Jeff at 11:00 AM
Labels:

11 comments:

  1. Lucie7/15/10, 11:09 AM

    Happy birthday, Colin! What a great birthday gift from his older brother and sister-in-law! The specialized birthday sign wins, AGAIN, the prize! You could have smiled a bit more in the first picture, Jeffrey. The bottom pics are way better with both of you flashing your disarming smiles.
    Thanks for thinking of your little brother, guys.
    Love ya, xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Liam7/15/10, 11:26 AM

    Happy birthday Colin! It actually looks like a very nice place to be in.(Wellllll,mabe not for the top picture)(sorry I'm not trying to be mean)I would like that place a lot too if it was for my birday.Well,ANY place would be good because I know you're thinking of me. On the third picture, it looks like a castle, is it? Do you know what its called? It's nice that your thinking of everybody. I hope you have a fantastic bithday Colin!
    Love All Three of You
    Liam

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeff7/15/10, 11:29 AM

    Liam, it's the same Kale Fortress I mentioned just above. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kale_Fortress

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mike Freeman7/15/10, 12:27 PM

    I'm pretty sure the top photo is the greatest birthday gift anyone could ask for. It says "you're getting old now, nothing to look forward to anymore, good luck with that" all in one photo. I even like how you made it black and white to make it just a little bit sadder. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lucie7/15/10, 1:30 PM

    You got that right, Mike! It's à-la-communist style and that is why I prefer the bottom two which radiate optimism and happiness.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Colin7/15/10, 2:00 PM

    It is fitting, I guess. I've always looked up to Jeff the way the people looked up to leaders like Mao Zedong: Out of fear and because he didn't give me a choice... Thank you both for the great present, it gave me something to smile about after I woke up from sleeping on the floor at andrew's place. I hope you guys are doing great and I can't wait to see you both once you get back.

    ReplyDelete
  7. colin7/15/10, 2:29 PM

    And thank you for the Birthday wishes Liam. I miss you guys a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Mike Freeman7/15/10, 3:35 PM

    I feel this is a bit more fitting.

    http://i.imgur.com/jLZCG.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jeff7/17/10, 3:27 AM

    Perfect, Mike

    ReplyDelete
  10. Kiersten7/23/10, 2:02 PM

    I posted on this one! Well, since it didn't show: Happy Birthday Colin! You are getting to be quite the photography artist. The first picture was very well done. <3, Kiersten

    ReplyDelete
  11. lee7/24/10, 3:56 AM

    They would not let me in the pictures, but Happy Birthday 2U. I just signed it in sign language but of course you did not see it.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)