Wildfires Ravage Southern Europe and Middle East
On July 5, 2025, wildfires erupted across Mediterranean countries including Greece, Turkey, France, and Syria, fueled by record-breaking heat and prolonged drought.
Culture
Fasinada: The Ancient Maritime Tradition That Continues Every July 22 in Perast
Every July 22nd at sunset, the picturesque town of Perast in Montenegro's Bay of Kotor becomes the stage for one of the Mediterraneans most enduring traditions. Small wooden boats decorated with branches and filled with stones form a ceremonial procession around Our Lady of the Rocks—the Adriatic's only artificial island. This ancient ritual, known as Fasinada, dates back to 1452 when local sailors discovered an image of the Virgin Mary on a rock in the bay. For over five centuries, the community has gathered annually to throw stones around the island, gradually building and maintaining this remarkable man-made sanctuary through collective devotion.
New Power Struggles in the Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea has become a theater of unprecedented geopolitical upheaval, with traditional power structures crumbling amid dramatic regional transformations. The December 2024 fall of Syria's Assad regime has fundamentally altered the strategic landscape, forcing Russia to evacuate its naval forces from Tartus and ending Moscow's 50-year Mediterranean foothold. Meanwhile, President Trump's return to office in January 2025 has introduced new variables, with his transactional foreign policy approach and emphasis on negotiating an end to the Ukraine war potentially reshaping the entire European security architecture. As energy competition intensifies around disputed Eastern Mediterranean gas reserves, migration flows become weaponized, and traditional alliances fracture, the ancient crossroads of three continents is once again becoming the testing ground for 21st-century power dynamics.
The Polako Principle: Lessons on Living from the Mediterranean
Here in the Balkans, you will often hear the word polako. It translates to slowly or take it easy, but its meaning is much deeper. Polako is a conscious rejection of haste. It is the permission to savor a moment, to finish a conversation without glancing at your watch, to do one thing at a time with your full attention. It’s not about being unproductive; it’s about understanding that a relentless pace leads to burnout, not brilliance, and that the most important things in life—relationships, good food, peace of mind—cannot be rushed.