Category: Contest

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. Country first, then city and/or state. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@theatlantic.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book, courtesy of Blurb. Have at it.

This week’s contest was quite a bit easier than last week’s. A reader writes:

OK, this is now getting fun. I see snow on the ground, so it has to be somewhere cold enough in July to hold that kind of precipitation. I don’t believe there is much snow in anything habitable or urban right now in Europe, which would be my first guess given the architecture (new and old) and bullet-spangled buildings. So I want to shift to the southern hemisphere as I do not believe this is anything Himalayan or former-Soviet. There is only one country I can think of with similar architecture, flora, and weather and that is South Africa. I’ll go with Cape Town.

The snow is a red herring; the photo was taken in the winter (though emailed to us in July). Another writes:

The snow on the ground eliminates a lot of possible locations (it ain’t Africa, Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank, etc.), and the location is hilly as well.  I have to think it’s in the former Yugoslavia, and I’m going to go with Pristina, Kosovo.

Another:

Grozny, Chechnya?  Looks like heavy gunfire pretty recently with time to rebuild. Snow on ground shifts time of year from present, but that’s my guess.

Another:

This was difficult (as usual), but I’ll put my money on Tskhinvali

in South Ossetia. My initial guesses (based on the bullet-ridden wall) were Kosovo, Chechnya or South Ossetia. The buildings suggest Eastern European/Caucuses-region architecture. There are a few modern apartment complexes in view, so I discounted the possibility that it would be Chechnya (which was heavily damaged and impoverished after the conflict). The fact the main building still remains damaged suggests that any conflict was recent (so discounting Kosovo). The only town in South Ossetia that could be as built-up as this picture suggests is Tskhinvali.

Another:

Tskhinvali? Obvious bullet holes first made me think of Africa, then I saw the snow.  The buildings seemed to represent Georgia better than the Balkan damage of the last decade.

P.S.  I’m not just participating for a copy of the book; I teach 7th grade Social Studies and have offered a reward if any of my former students wins the contest before I do.  So my reputation amongst “my minions” is at stake.

Another:

I was going to guess the Republic of Georgia, but something made me change my mind. I’m going to move a little westward and guess Turkey. The picture brought to mind the novel “Snow” by Orhan Pamuk, so I’ll go ahead and guess the city that the novel takes place in: Kars, Turkey.  Can’t wait to find out I wasn’t even on the right continent.

Not the right continent. Another:

This is a depressingly common sight in Croatia and Bosnia fifteen years after the last shots were fired, too common for me to make anything more than a wild guess of which town or city this house stands in. Unfinished three- or four-story houses are another all-too-common sight in this land of big dreams and poor planning. My guess is Karlovac, Croatia.

Another:

Tropoje, Albania? Clearly European architecture. Impacts indicate ordinance less than .50 cal. The size and disposition of the houses indicates a city less destroyed than one would expect in Chechnya, and greater in population than what one finds in South Ossetia.  I don’t think the caliber weapons and the type of engagement indicated thereby fit with either of those either.  Tropoje is a guess based on the assumption of a conflict related to Kosovo.

Another:

My best guess is somewhere in Bosnia & Herzegovina.  Sarajevo fits the bill, but that is too obvious.  You like your views a little wonky.  Tuzla was a major flash-point in the ethnic wars of the former Yugoslavia and very close to Serbia, making it my best guess.

Another:

Srebrenica immediately came to mind when I saw the photograph, so this a gut-feeling guess.

Another:

Because everyone and their mother is going to guess Sarajevo, I’m going with Germany, East Berlin.

Everyone and their mother were correct. The following is the most impressive entry we received (and since the reader also correctly guessed Lausanne last week, he doubly deserves this week’s prize of a Blurb window book):

Oof, this is much harder to pin to down than last week. OK, start with clues:

Bullet holes = former war zone, recent enough to have not been fully repaired
New buildings in mid- and background = war over sufficiently long enough for some rebuilding
Snow on ground and pitched roofs = somewhere it snows/rains regularly
Architecture = Europe

So we’re clearly in the Balkans, and either in Kosovo or Bosnia – Dubrovnik and Osijek (the main Croatian towns that might still have war damage) would not, I’m guessing, have this kind of dense modernist residential area. A Google search for “bullet holes Sarajevo” returns this photo of a mortar-damaged wall, taken in 1997 by Masaki Hirano, that has the same colour paint as the wall in the contest photo. Photos of Pristina suggest different architecture (also, the fighting in Kosovo lasted for a much shorter time, making it, I guess, less likely that there would be extensive damage to non-strategic residential areas – no siege, so no entrenched front lines). Then, with a little more digging, I found this photo – of the same building, taken from a different angle. Unfortunately, the blog post isn’t entirely clear where it’s of – could be Sarajevo or Mostar – but based on the Hirano picture, I’m going to go with Sarajevo, Bosnia as this week’s answer.

Unfortunately, having never been there, I don’t know the city well enough to figure out the exact location on Google maps. I also have never asked anyone to marry me there, nor do I have time to get there and back for a photo before Tuesday. However, if it swings the prize my way, I can link the city to Kevin Bacon in three moves:

1) The 2007 film, The Hunting Party, directed by Richard Shephard, starred Richard Gere as Simon Hunt, a TV journalist who goes into a downward spiral reporting on the Bosnian war
2) In 1990, Richard Gere starred in Pretty Woman alongside Julia Roberts
3) Julia Roberts appeared alongside Kevin Bacon in the film Flatliners, also released in 1990.

Gotta be worth a try, right?

Well worth one. Some honorable mentions:

Sarajevo? This is the best I’ve felt so far regarding the contest, but there is no way I can compete with folks who actually travel to or google map the exact location to the actual coordinates. Gosh, you would think Dish readers could find Bin Laden if you made it into a contest!

Another:

This is clearly from one of the war-torn countries of the Balkans. I was in Bosnia last summer, and this photograph definitely remind me of Sarajevo, where the “Sarajevo roses” – holes in the sidewalk from mortar shells that have been filled in with red paint – are next to gleaming new buildings, which in turn are side-by-side with buildings covered with bullet holes, even to this day, 15 years after the war ended.

Another:

The bullet holes in the concrete wall make me think of this video of Russian dissident, writer and crackpot Eduard Limonov hanging with accused war criminal Radovan Karadzic and firing rounds from a sniper rifle into Sarajevo.  So that’s my guess.

From the YouTube caption:

Episode from “Serbian Epic”, by Pawel Pawlikowski and Lazar Stojanovi?, 1992.  Evidence exhibit at the Hague International War Crimes Tribunal, ICTY

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. Country first, then city and/or state. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@theatlantic.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book, courtesy of Blurb. Have at it.

A reader writes:

Most of the time when I read blog comments I am disheartened by the sheer level of stupidity in the world. However, when I read the comments on your blog (edited, but still), I am reassured by the knowledge that there are thoughtful, intelligent readers out there. This contest alone proves that.

I’m constantly staggered by the sheer quality of writing and global knowledge of Dish readers. Another writes:

For the sake of truthfulness, your reader did NOT have a picture of the window from which the photo of the fountain was taken.

He or she has a picture of the building on the right, as evidenced by the two cars parked on the spots  behind the fountain, and the 1728 just visible on the lower right. The original picture was taken by my brother Grégoire, just a few days after you posted the window view of my backyard in Los Angeles last year. He was a bit crushed that his didn’t make the cut then. He’s now very proud!

He has since moved to another part of Lausanne with his wife and their adorable one year old, and they enjoy a breathtaking view of Lake Geneva and the French Alps! This week, they’re vacationing in Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland – without internet access, voluntarily – and I’ve been texting them updates on the contest!

Here’s a shot of the building it was taken from (Rue Cité-Devant #12), with the gorgeous cathedral in the background. The fountain and plaza are between the two buildings on the right (you can recognize the stone pattern on the building which is sticking out).

Phew! Glad that’s clarified. Now back to more important world issues.

Readers are starting to get scary-good at this game. One writes:

Alright you bastard. This is the first one that looked familiar to me but only in a general way. I can’t make out any specific clues, even when zooming in Photoshop. Sicily is as close as I can get. I can’t see as how anyone gets closer than that, even using Google Maps/Google Earth as has been done previously.

Another writes:

The cobblestone courtyard indicates it’s not North America and the 1728 (or 1723?) inscription on the fountain indicates it’s probably not South America either. Also, there’s that peaked roof in the background.  That’s French (well, there’s a neighborhood like that in Long Beach, CA, but that’s not Long Beach).  So it feels southern French to us, because of the tile roofs. Something Provencal.  It’s not Corsica, as the mountain in the distance isn’t big enough.  My wife and I are going with Marseilles.

Another:

Not many clues to go on here. 1728? Nothing much happened according to Wikipedia. I’m not an expert but the blue car looks like a Peugeot, suggesting perhaps a French-speaking country. The pointy building behind the corrugated roof is reminiscent of central Europe. It also appears to be rather mountainous. So I’m going to guess St. Etienne, France.

Another:

This one isn’t as easy as last week’s.  I lean towards Europe, though the cloud cover seems to indicate it is not Mediterranean like I would have liked to guess.  The mountain in the background indicates a rough terrain, perhaps the Basque region?  I glanced into any 1728 references of Basques, and came up with possibly Spain, specifically Azpeitia – maybe the Sanctuary of Loyola?

Another:

I think this is a view from inside the University of Havana, Cuba, overlooking a fountain commemorating its founding in 1728.  (I looked up other 1728 establishments, but somehow I don’t think this one is the Swedish Academy of Sciences in Uppsala.)

Another:

Western Europe for sure, but the architecture looks wrong for UK/Ireland. Also quite certain it’s not Benulux, Scandinavia, Iberia or anywhere near the Alps … which leaves us the big three.  It doesn’t look dry or semi-tropical enough for Italy or southern France. The parking sign is definitely not a German one, and the license plate seems to be yellow (also not German).  So, best guess: Sedan, France.

Another:

I recognize many aspects as familiar but I couldn’t place the location … then I saw the pattern of the paving tiles!

I lived for 5 years or so in Northern Germany, as a street musician. I sat on, stood on, and stared at this exact pattern of paving the whole fucking time. I even took a photo of the pattern to use as a background for the back cover of a CD I produced. Does it help me? Not likely. It’s Germany, I’m sure of – the tall roofed house, the street sign and lamp, the masonry – but even then these styles are common throughout that part of Europe. Hmmm. I’ve spent far too long on this already so I’m going with Hildesheim.

Another:

Not a lot of internet research or anything, but this looks an awfully lot like a little Plaza that I wandered into when I was exploring Cusco, in Peru.

Another:

The stonework and window treatments suggest a Venetian influence.  The tile and mountains make me think Croatia.  Could this be the old town in Korcula?

Another:

This jumped out at me as looking a lot like where I took my honeymoon – Porto, Portugal.   I actually looked at my pictures from the Porto Se Cathedral, but could not confirm that this was it.  I was going to try Google Images, but that sorta takes the sport out of the contest, no?

Another:

Just a guess here since I don’t have the time to do the satellite analysis. The fountain looks typically Swiss, as do the mountains in the background. It all seems to be facing east, so I’m guessing Neuchatel.  I happen to be living in Switzerland right now, so I am probably biased towards seeing Switzerland everywhere.

Another:

Salzburg, Austria? The cobblestone pattern, courtyard aesthetic, date on the parkitecture, and solidity of the buildings walls suggest Europe – the orderly painted parking lines urge me toward the north.  The restoration of the building evident suggests perhaps a rebuilt German city.  But the yellow paint from where the photo was taken reminds me of the Salzburg.  And while the distant relief seems perhaps too low and the turquoise roof tops that are also distinctive in that city are absent, I’m sticking to my initial guess.  And since your obsessive readership will no doubt nail this down to the precise GPS latitude and longitude, I’ll guess somewhere near Mozart’s home on the western bank of the river in the hopes of being close enough.

Another:

This photo was taken in Lausanne, Switzerland, from a building overlooking Rue Cité-Devant at approximately 2/3 of the way from the Cathédrale to the Château Saint-Maire.  The view looks westerly past the Gymnase de la Cité toward the Palais de Rumine and the Place de la Riponne.  Coordinates approximately 46° 31’25.85 N, 6° 38’07.79 E.

Correct! Another reader was even more impressive:

This one was tough to crack, but there are bunch of clues that help narrow it down. First, the combination of an obviously European landscape, the yellow road paint, style of cobbles, white license plates on the car, design of the speed limit sign and lamppost all suggest Switzerland; the architecture (both close-up and in the distance) and roof tiles further narrow it down to the French-speaking part.

Definitely not Geneva: I live there and there isn’t anywhere that looks like that. The angle and length of the shadows suggests that the photographer is facing somewhere between West and North – which would make it likely that the hills in the background are the Jura mountains, which rules out Neuchatel. Basel and Bern don’t have the right topography in their old towns to get the landscape, and Yverdon is too flat.

Which leaves Lausanne. The fact the photographer wasn’t facing South was a bit of a head-scratcher for a while. Nevertheless, with a little help from Google maps, it’s possible to pinpoint the exact location: it’s taken from a West-facing first floor window (2nd floor in U.S. terminology) at the Amis de la Cité building on Rue Cité-Devant 11bis, Lausanne. Google map here.

More impressive still:

I found a photo of the window from which the picture is taken:

Another ups the ante forevermore:

I am an Australian living in Switzerland and have enjoyed your blog for several years. My family has been enjoying the VFYW contest and we were delighted to see one in our part of the world.  The architecture was clearly Swiss Vaudois, the mountains looked more like the Jura than the Alps, the height of the city made it most likely Lausanne, and the street looked like it was in the lanes behind the Cathedral.  So it was a good excuse to take my visiting parents for a Sunday drive and go VFYW hunting. Sure enough we had guessed correctly and found the fountain:

Thanks for a fun afternoon.

Thanks to you!  Despite these impressive feats of Dishness – and 11 correct guesses in all – we just have to award the photo book to this couple (how could you not?):

It’s Lausanne, Switzerland! Just today I was walking there with my wife. It’s on a road called Rue Cité-Devant, which goes from the back of the beautiful Cathedral up to the Castle. Really a must-see. It’s a picture taken from Rue Cité Devant #12 it would seem. The mountains in the back are the Jura mountains.

I knew I wanted to marry my wife when she and I stopped at that very fountain for a sip of water last year!

I love this contest!

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. Country first, then city and/or state. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@theatlantic.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book, courtesy of Blurb. Have at it.

A reader writes:

Okay, now you guys are just being spiteful.

Another writes:

At this rate, next week we will see the view of an alley from a basement flat.

Another:

Okay – I’m gonna look foolish, since some specialist in the genus arecaceae will know just what palm trees those are and some ex-pat car enthusiast will ID the car based on the window shape (and then know in which country the preponderance of cars are white) and some devoted Dish reader will be reminded of the vacation they took the week after they finished their year in the Peace Corps and …

I’m feeling a bit unqualified here. But I will hazard a guess based on: window tape indicating a recent storm and “UN” visible on car equaling the presence of a UN affiliated agency. So my guess is Belize, Belmopan, specifically 7 Constitution Drive (which is the offices of UNDP in Belize where hurricane Alex recently came ashore). It’s worth a shot!

Another:

Given the only obvious clue – the UN vehicle – I assume this location must have a large UN mission. Along with the African-looking vegetation, I’m going to guess Monrovia, Liberia.

Another:

The UN currently has 14 active deployments around the world in as many countries (Central African Republic – Chad – Congo – Côte d’Ivoire – Cyprus – East Timor –
Golan Heights – Haiti – Kosovo – Lebanon – Liberia – Sudan – Syria – Western Sahara).

The presence of palm trees indicates a tropical, subtropical or warm temperate climate. The white flowers are either from a Bougainvillea vine tree or from a Wisteria vine tree, but most likely the former. These are found usually in great numbers in former British colonies and the Caribbean islands. That leaves us with Cyprus and Haiti. The wrought iron wall with its metal gate is typical of Port-au-Prince. This picture was taken most probably in the Pétionville commune where a large number of diplomats and foreign workers reside.

Another:

Please don’t let these puzzles devolve to tests of the Botany PhD I don’t have.

Another:

As I was googling UN cars, I realized that most of them are painted with a different UN logo. The closest logo to the one in the picture belonged to a Ivory Coast UN car, so that’s my guess. To narrow it further within its capital, Abidjan, I’ll guess the area of Cocody.

Another:

The UN vehicle is labeled in black, which usually means it belongs to a political or peacemaking office rather than to one of the humanitarian agencies, which use blue. Second, the garden fence looks pretty minimally secured. This doesn’t look to be a place with a high crime rate or endemic violence, which rules out quite a few more possible locations, leaving – by my methods – Cyprus and East Timor (otherwise known as Timor-Leste). Let’s say Cyprus and see what happens.

Another:

Hot climate. What looks like security fencing. And a white UN vehicle parked outside. That all suggests Gaza City.

Another:

The U.N. car and vegetation have me focused on two places: Congo or East Timor. I suppose a U.N. car could be anywhere it wanted to, and not just in a place with a current peacekeeping operation, but I have to cling to something. It’s scandalous in 2010 that a Google search for “trees in kinshasa” only turns up two hits. (At the very least, there must be a band with that name currently playing a rec center somewhere.) But the trees “feel” more like Kinshasa, so I’ll go with that.

Another:

The two clues I guess are the UN vehicle outside the gate, and the OPEN gate itself. So this mean strong UN presence but low security situation, which will rule out Haiti, PNG, most of African countries. Difficult to say but my gut feeling tells me Timor Leste or Sri Lanka … I’ll go for Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Another:

Hey, I have an idea. Why not make the next VFYW an inner patio? Seriously, I get the feeling this is harder each week. The only saving grace is that having a UN police car narrows the field considerably, along with the apparent tropical climate. I’m going to guess Dili, East Timor. How many continents was I off?

None!  About two dozen readers correctly guessed Dili.  But the first was David A. (Congrats, we will get you a book ASAP.)  Everyone else tune in Saturday for the next contest.

by Chris Bodenner

You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. Country first, then city and/or state. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@theatlantic.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.

by Chris Bodenner

A reader writes:

You said you’d make it harder but *#&@ me!

We have a Jaguar XJ (appears to be right-hand drive), a European-looking white stone house and a few temperate-climate plants. So I’ll take Nicosea, Cyprus. It’s a warm country with a UK connection that drives on the left and has yellow number plates.

Is anyone else embarrassed by their desperation to solve these things? (Spend ten minutes browsing “License Plates of the World” and you might agree.)

Another writes:

An old beat up Jag.  A banana tree. A tropical, possibly fruit tree, possibly mango.  Is that papaya next to the banana?  Spanish glasswork on the doors and maybe moorish/Al-Andalus white property wall and stone arches over the windows.  Dilapidation.  Maybe Havana?

Another

When I saw the photo it looked instantly familiar.  The vegetation, the house, the Ambassador and license plate all look like Southern India … Tamil Nadu, Chennai.  I was just there in February visiting friends.

Another:

I am currently in Chennai, South India, attending to a family emergency. The trees (including the small banana tree) are very indicative of this region. The car, however, is not Indian. The yellow license plate can indicate a foreign consul’s vehicle in India but I am going to guess the picture was taken across the Palk Strait in Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka.

Another:

Instinctively, I say the south of France (must be the foliage and the characteristic light).  The yellow license plate on the Jag may support a French locale.  The walls, the Jag, and the property expanse suggest an older wealthy area. I’m going to say St. Jean Cap Ferrat to the east of Nice.  Specifically, a neighbor to the late David Niven’s house (i.e.).

Another:

The crazy mix of wires running into the house next door reminds me of Beirut, Lebanon, where several of my aunts and uncles live. The people there were nothing if not creative in figuring out how to get electricity, phone, cable, etc., after basic services collapsed during the civil war. The architecture, vegetation, and light also seem to be consistent with Beirut.

Another:

Fascinating, Watson. Let’s start with the architecture. [160 words later…] Bottom line? I have NO FUCKING CLUE!  Gated community in Chihuahua, Mexico?

Another:

My guess is Gibraltar.  My first impression was someplace in Latin America.  Then I noticed that the Jaguar seems to have British plates.  So, I believe it is someplace with British plates, tropical foliage, and architecture that feels Spanish.  Gibraltar.

Another:

Bangalore, India. My gut instinct was Tblisi, Georgia, but the Jaguar steered me towards a former British colony. So, a guess.

Good call with a former British colony. Another:

I think the car pictured may be a Jaguar which, if so, would mean that this is probably somewhere British. But it’s not Britain. So I’ll guess that this is Bermuda and, if so, probably somewhere in the capital, Hamilton. Probably only out by 12000 miles, I know…

Only 7300 miles. Another:

I believe that the photo view is of Monrovia, Liberia, most likely in the neighborhood of Sinkor.  I was an American college exchange student in Liberia in 1983 and clearly recall glass-shards on the top of the protective walls surrounding the more affluent homes in Monrovia.  The Jaguar appears to have the orange colored Liberian car tag.  Also, the trees are consistent with the ones I remember in Liberia.

Closer. Another:

Tougher, we hope. You have until noon on Tuesday to guess it. Country first, then city and/or state. If no one guesses the exact location, proximity counts.  Be sure to email entries to VFYWcontest@theatlantic.com. Winner gets a free The View From Your Window book. Have at it.