With Bryan O'Brien in Europe
THOS, a tiny self- ° governing state under | Greek suzerainty, lies on a mountainous peninsula Projecting into the Aegean Sea. Its population consists of about | 5000 monks and 2000 lay brothers and peas- — ants. Women, and even female animals, are — barred. In the past thou- © sand years no more than © half a dozen women have 3 set foot on the peninsula. © Three or four did so dis- | guised as men, and one or two others were sheltered by the monks in times of great danger. Because of its inaccessible position Athos is not frequently included in the itineraries of even male tourists, But to do so is to step back into the world of the Middle Ages, and the few who have count the experience one of their most interesting. Bryan O’Brien, an NZBS broadcaster who visited Athos
| recently, -describes:.1t; as... "a survival of the Byzantine Empire in the 20th. Century." Soon he will be describing the place for listeners in a series of talks to be broadcast by the ZB stations, 2ZA and 1XH. Though women are barred on Athos, there is no ban on information, and it is in the Women’s Hour that the talks will be broadcast. Back from a ten months’ Continental tour, which took in all the countries of Western Europe, including the principalities, Bryan O’Brien will be giving 12 talks, several of which will be of special interest to women listeners. Among them will be accounts of some strange buildings, including the cave dwellings of Andalusia and the valley of the Loire which are hacked out of sandstone but are often very snug and comfortable. Our picture shows a building encountered during travels in Norway, the "stavkirk" | at Borgund, which is built almost entirely of wooden slats. In two other talks, Mr. O’Brien covers aspects of living in. Great Britain and Europe, with particular attention to the cost of necessities. Further talks in the series deal with Turkey, Berlin, and Salzburg and its festival. In his determination to see something of every territory in "accessible Europe," Bryan O’Brien travelled some 26,900 miles by car. He found Germany offered the greatest variety of beauty and interest, though Norway surpassed it in the magnificence of some of its beauty spots. "Throughout the trip," he told The Listener, "I had the most extraordinary luck. For instance, I arrived in Venice, quite by accident, on the Feast of St. Salvatore-the one day of the year in which there is the great parade of boats on the Grand Canal." ' Bryan O’Brien’s talks will be broadcast in the Women’s Hour on Mondays from all ZBs, 2ZA and 1XH. They start first from 2ZB and 2ZA, on May 31.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 775, 28 May 1954, Page 18
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452With Bryan O'Brien in Europe New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 775, 28 May 1954, Page 18
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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