Week 7-Tourism-Libya-Karel Junior De Groote

Good evening,

At the moment we are in the “Corinthia Hotel Tripoli”. It’s a cheap and nice hotel. The culture is very different of ours. The people here are amazing and so friendly. To be honest, I could live here. After a few days here in Libya we discovered a lot.

In our hotel we have a lot of Belgium’s, Russians and Dutch people. The Russians are often very annoying and very noisy. Our hotel provides a buffet as dinner and as we discovered now is that Russians are very attracted to a buffet.

In the beginning of our week here we went to the information centre. We took some flyers of the desk, and I started reading some chapters about tourism. What I didn’t know is that Libya is the crossroads of the history, continents and the ancient empires. A lot of people are coming over here to visit the beautiful deserts. You can join different kind of safari’s here. We joined such a safari, and I can say that it’s a very special activity to do.

After different kind of activities we went to some locals to see how they live. In the village we met somebody that we know from Belgium. He told us that each year the visitors to Libya are growing. The country is best known for its ancient Greek and Roman ruins. So we started heading toward the ancient ruins of Libya. We went with the bus to visit the ruins and it was amazing! When we were travelling to the ruins there was a lot of agents and militaries to protect the tourists. Now at the moment it isn’t so safe here. But in a few days we’re moving forward to another country.

I’ve heard also of Libya that they are trying to attract new tourists again with increasing their hotels. I have to leave you guys because I’m very tired.

Cya next week,

Greetings from Karel J

Sources: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/libya

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Libya

http://www.google.be/search?hl=nl&cp=13&gs_id=0&xhr=t&q=libya+tourism&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4ACAW_nl___BE401&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1214&bih=535&ion=1&wrapid=tljp133607542330800&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=i-SiT5_jGMOe-waroKjdCA

Week 7: Culture in Libya - Thomas De Saffel

Hello everyone, I am back again with a new adventure and a new visit to a specific country. Today, Libya is at his turn. A country that is located in North-Africa. Recently, the country was much in the news because of the Libyan civil war. Rebels supported by the Allies, fought against the army of Moammar Al-Quadhafi. But luckily, Quadhafi was defeated in time. So I can visit the country easily without being frightened. 

Libya has the same culture as most of his neighbouring countries and in general the whole Arabic community in North-Africa. The country considers to use Arabic as the only official language. So it's obvious that this language is important to this country. 

The Libyan cuisine is very similar to the cuisine in the Sahara. The Libyan food contains couscous, bazeen, which is a type unsweetened cake. I have eaten it in Benghazi. It's very delicious. The main ingredient is barley flour and is mostly served with a tomato sauce, eggs, potatoes and mutton. I tasted something new in this culture and I am impressed how simple the meal is made but it tastes so good. Shurba is also something that I never heard before. It's a kind of soup. The 4 main ingredients of traditional food in Libya are olives, palm dates, grains and milk. 

There are still a couple of old temples from the ancient Greek and Roman eras. One of them is the temple of Zeus in Cyrene. The temple is a big attraction that attracts a lot of tourists to Cyrene. I saw the temple with my own eyes. Don't underestimate it, these buildings are still miracles in the world. The architecture of the ancient Greek eras is still very interesting. 

Libya has also traditional music and various dances. Tuareg music and dance are very popular in the south of the country. I tried to take some attempts so I could dance with the local community. But it wasn't easy to learn a dance in one eve. But after a time, you learned the dance a little bit and it wasn't a shame to proof this. But it was certain that I couldn't reach the style and the smoothness from the local community.

Ok everyone, that was it for this week. I hope I gave you some new facts and new information about other cultures. Within 2 weeks, you can follow me again. I will continue my African tour to the Central African Republic. Cheers!

Thomas De Saffel

Sources;

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazeen
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya

Week 7: Libya - Michiel Houwen

Dear Followers!

We just arrived in Libya and we are currently situated in Tripoli, which is the capital of Libya. Yesterday we took the plane in Athens to arrive, 2 hours and about 1000 km later, in magnificent Tripoli.  There are about 2.2 million people living in this city, which is quite a lot. I thought, before arriving, that this would be a tense place due to the Libyan Civil war that took place here in 2011 but I was quite surprised when it turned out to be a calm atmosphere after all…

Tripoli is one of the most important regions in Libya because it is the leading centre of banking, finance, and communication. Many large international and national corporations locate their headquarters and home offices in Tripoli. The city is also home of the Tripoli International Fair. This is an important annual international industrial, agricultural and commercial event situated on Omar Muktar Street.

Due to the rise in tourism there has been a rising demand for new hotels in the city. One of them many main sights in Tripoli is the old town called Medina. This is actually a small town which is unharmed by mass-tourism. Some of the buildings here were constructed by Italian colonial rulers but later taken down by the mighty Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed in October 2011.  

When we went to the borders of Tripoli we could notice there were a lot of deserts. The Libyan Desert covers up to 90% of Libya, which is an interesting fact. Temperatures in the desert can be extremely dangerous, with a record of 57°C. I wouldn’t want to be lost in a place like this!

Anyways, Karel De Groote just asked me if I wanted to go sightsee some new spots around town so I will have to turn off my laptop and go look at some amazing places, see you in two weeks!

Take care my friends. Bessalama!

Sources: http://goafrica.about.com/od/africanlanguages/a/goodbye.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripoli#Libyan_civil_war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripoli

Week 6: Greece - Economy Thibaut De Bruyker

Greece has been great!  Yesterday evening I met a Greek economist in a local pub. This friendly guy was the first one who could clearly tell what is going on with the Greek economy. I’ll try to summarise here in my blog, what this friendly man explained to me.

He started by making sure that I was aware of the fact that Greece is in a very bad economic situation. Rating agency Standard & Pours has downgraded Greek debt to a very low rating, which means it views Greece as a highly risky place to invest.

At this moment I asked the guy; of all European countries why Greece?

He answered me that Greece has been living beyond its means in recent years, and its rising level of debt has placed a huge pressure on the country’s economy. The Greek government borrowed heavily and spend a lot during the past decade.

Maybe I was a bit selfish but maybe you are concerned of the same thing as I was. Do we have to be afraid this has any effect on other European countries?

The economist laughs and calms me down with the words “don’t be afraid to ask, this is probably the first and the last time we’ll see each other.”

To answer to the question; everyone who trades with the Eurozone is affected because of the impact on the common European currency.

So are there plans to make sure Greece’s economy returns back to normal?

Yes, Greek government pledged to make further spending cuts and tax increases on top of other measurements already taken. There will be a lot of sacrifices for Greece and especially for the Greeks. These Greeks have been active the last year, with (violent) public protests.

This man knew what he was talking about I thought, therefore I asked him what he thought was the solution for this Greek crisis.

What he said was a bit shocking; he wanted Greece to leave the euro. A country that left the euro could allow its currency to fall in value and thus improve its competitiveness. But there are also downsides to this idea. Investors could fear other countries to follow, potentially leading to the break-up of the monetary union itself.

To say goodbye to all of you I want to say that you don’t have to be afraid to book your holiday to Greece because I haven’t noticed anything of the Greek economic problems AT ALL!

 Source

Week 6 Greece - Tourism - Vincent Petit

Hello dear friends and followers, I’m back! I know it’s been a long time, but there was so much to do last week in Bulgaria. We did a lot of exclusive parties and there were moments that I will never forget. Time goes by so fast, we are already halfway our journey and it seems like it was yesterday that we started our trip around the world in Belarus.

We are in Greece this week and I’m now blogging live from Athena. The weather is beautiful! The sun is shining and it’s 21 °C. I’m sitting with my friends next to the famous Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis and I just saw an interesting YouTube video on my iPad of the Parthenon.

This magnificent temple is dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. The Parthenon is one of the world's greatest cultural monuments and it’s the most important building of Classical Greece. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the highest points of Greek art.

This week we will take things slow. Everybody is tired from last week. So this afternoon we will enjoy the beautiful landscapes and take a few pictures. The rest of the week we’ll relax on the beach and do some sports.   

This was my blog for this week. I hope you like it. I’ll be back within two weeks when we are traveling through Chad. Keep following our blog friends. Next week we will be in Libya, I never been in Africa before, so it’s going to be a new experience for me and I really look forward to it.

Have fun this week!

Vincent Petit 2MA03

Sources:

·         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wO0VglnxK4&hd=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon

Week 5: Bulgaria - Tourism - Michiel Houwen

Dear followers!

What an epic journey this has been so far, unbelievable. Sometimes I wish this trip would never end but then I have to face the fact that I’m going to have to return to the real world, Belgium, some day. But hey, this is only week five, seven more to go! Woohoo!

Anyways, what about I tell you something about the country we’re currently in, eh? The fact that we are moving more south every week makes me one hell of a happy person, I love the sun. Yesterday we arrived in Bulgaria, one of the most visited destinations in Southeast Europe! We are currently resided in the capital of this beautiful country: Sofia. The name itself puts a smile on my face, I should write it down in my how-to-name-my-future-daughter booklet.   

Enough with the nonsense, let’s talk about Bulgarian tourism! Tourism is vital for this country, that’s why you have all different kinds of tourism in this country: cultural-, historic-, eco-, and architectural tourism. Sofia mainly thrives on its historic tourism with main sights like the Tsarigrad Road, the National Assembly Square, and the Sofia University. Most tourists here come from Romania, about 1.5 million each year, followed by Greece and Turkey. During summer, the most lucrative attractions are the summer resorts like Albena and Golden Sands. Alas it’s still a bit too ‘cold’ in April to enjoy these resorts but that’s okay; we don’t make this adventurous trip just to be lazy. The perfect months to visit Bulgaria to enjoy the summer resorts are June, July, and August. Then temperatures rise up to 37°C.

I hope you all learned something today. This country is one of the most beautiful ones we had so far but I’m sure there will be other upcoming countries that can do better.

Take care my friends! Dovijdane!

Sources: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_bulgarian_of_goodbye

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Bulgaria

Week 5-Culture-Bulgaria-Karel Junior De Groote

Hello everyone,

The weeks passes very fast,

Tomorrow we go to Greece but now we’re still in Bulgaria. It was fantastic. I really didn’t knew that Bulgaria has so much to see, and so much to offer for our cultural mind. It’s a country that offers different kind of things: music, horses, churches, religions,… I will try to list a few things which I concluded as my most favorite cultural places I saw in Bulgaria.

When we arrived in Bulgaria we went in the suburbs of the city. In nearly each family I saw a beautiful music instrument. They call it the “Gudulka”. It’s an traditional folk instrument. It looks like a violin and a guitar. The sound is awesome! A family invited us to join them for dinner. After the dinner their daughter played a gorgeous song for us. I got tears in my eyes. They told us that it is an tradition of over 1000 years old. It was already noon and we still had to go to the center.

 I think the second or the third day we went to visit the “Alexander Nevsky Cathedra”l and the “Sofia Synagogue”. The Cathedral is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world. In the afternoon we went to a Jewish community with less than 2000 people. I couldn’t believe my eyes how such a small community could have everything. They had a butcher, a baker,…

Back in our hotel I tasted something new I never tasted before. It was “Tarator”. Everyone, if you have the chance to taste it, try it!!  It is served as an appetizer or as a side dish along with some salad from the local farmers. It’s a very popular dish and especially in the summer.

Another day we went to a museum. We have seen a very old painting. It was from the painter “Ivan Angelov”. I’m not really art minded but I did my best. My friend said it’s Thracian art. Anyway, I’m not a specialist in paintings so I can’t tell enough about this.

Regretfully I will have to leave you guys and hopefully I see you next week back!

Pozdravyavam

Karel Junior De Groote

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Bulgaria

http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Bulgaria.html

http://www.google.be/search?hl=nl&rlz=1T4ACAW_nl___BE401&q=Bulgaria%20culture&gs_upl=0l0l1l2242804lllllllllll0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=xrOhT-HANsOe-waroKjdCA&biw=1143&bih=503&sei=zbOhT77ODoefOqb1iPcI

Week 5: Bulgaria- Economy - Thomas De Saffel

Hallo everyone, this is Thomas De Saffel again. Now, I am landed in South-East Europe to talk about the economy in Bulgaria. I am almost in Asia so it's very special to be here.

When I arrived in Bulgaria by plane, I thought I would see an agricultural country with a predominantly rural population. But I was totally wrong. Bulgaria has an industrial economy with scientific and technological research as its top priorities. These changes became very obvious when I visited the financial centre of Bulgaria, Sofia. It's the capital of Bulgaria as well. The capital has a lot of modern buildings. Many West-European and American multinationals settle new establishments. Nowadays, the economy is doing back well again. Bulgaria has a lot of important raw materials. I visited a factory where they processes copper and iron. Very interesting is how they make copper wires in different sizes and widths. But oil is here also important. There are a lot of oil refineries. At the oil refineries, a lot of big buildings are settled to store the new oil. I see this for the first time, in spite of you can see this in your own country as well. But the difference is that I am in a land of origin and I may check it out how an oil refinery processes the oil. There hangs a typical petrol smell in the building but after all a guide explains me everything in hesitating English. After the visits, I went to the financial centre. Bulgaria still has his own currency, the Lev. The country is not part of the European Union. So everything in the country is a lot cheaper than in European countries. For example, I bought a coffee in the Starbucks for 70 cents. A big difference if you buy the same coffee in London where you pay 2 Euros.

I hope I gave you essential information about this country. Every country changes. Bulgaria is not a country with a lot of old buildings anymore. That time is over. The country develops quickly in a modern area. A must see, ladies and gentlemen!

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia

Week 4 Hungary – Culture - Vincent Petit

Hello fellow bloggers! Last week we had an amazing time in Slovakia. Now we are in week four of our journey around the world and so far the trip went very well. We are enjoying  a delicious cup of coffee in the centre of Budapest, Hungary. If you ever have the chance to travel to this beautiful city you definitely have to know something about the culture. The Hungarian people and the Hungarian culture is a fascinating topic and learning something about their traditions will enhance your travel.

Literature:
Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and boasts rich folk traditions of embroidery, pottery, carving and decorated buildings.
This country has a profound literary tradition, yet many of its writers and poets are not so popular abroad due to the limited prevalence of the Hungarian language. In 2002, the Nobel Prize in Literature was won by Imre Kertesz. Inventions such as the ballpoint pen, the BASIC programming language and the electronic railway engine were done by Hungarians.

Film:
The film industry of Hungary had a first big hit in the 1930s when it developed comedies. Especially in Germany many Hungarian films won international acclaim. There was a second golden period of Hungary’s film-making industry when the art film of Miklos Jancso won public acclaim.

Music:Hungary has world famous gifted musicians in Classical and Jazz music. The first Hungarian kind of music was folk music. Today, Hungarian music ranges from the rhapsodies of Franz Liszt to folk and Roma music.

Etiquette:A Hungarian man enters first into a pub, restaurant, coffeehouse, or other public establishment and it’s customary for men to walk on the left side of women.

 So, fellow travelers, I just took the last sip of my coffee. We are ready to explore Budapest and its culture. Hopefully the information I’ve given you is useful. I’ll continue with blogging within two weeks, when we are in Greece. I really look forward to visit that country.

Vincent Petit 2MA03

Sources:

·         http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Hungary.html

·         http://www.europe-cities.com/en/648/hungary/culture/?page=3

Week 4: Hungary - Nightlife - Michiel Houwen

Hello my dear followers!

It’s been a long time since you’ve heard some novelties from my part but I hope my friends did a great job keeping you up-to-date! In the meantime we have arrived in Hungary and if I had to describe this country in one word it would be: amazing! One of the most amazing things about Budapest, the capital of Hungary, is that it has this unique nightlife scene. It’s no way close to what for example Ghent could offer us. Every club and pub here comes with a nice ‘kertek’; which basically means that there are outdoor drinking spots.

This is definitely the place I want to be at right now, last week’s been pretty hectic but now Budapest’s so kind of offering me the chance to listen to some good old jazzy sound and delicious cocktails; this is life for me! Last night, when we arrived in Budapest around 10pm, we had this tremendous idea of going to a nightclub despite the fact that we were extremely tired. I’ll be honest:  I don’t regret our choice. First we visited the A38. This club, situated by a river (I forgot the name, woops), had some incredible DJ’s. These weren’t the only ones who were incredible; there were some astounding hot girls as well. The music went from deep house to electro and then back to house again. Finally we ended up in Klub Vittula and we got pretty wasted by the time we went back to our hostel… The manager yelled something in Hungarian but we forgot to pay any attention. 

As I am typing this I see that Vincent is waking up but he doesn’t look like he'll be doing a lot today. I’ll probably suggest we do some sightseeing because apparently Hungary’s nightlife isn’t the only thing that is fabulous.

Take care dear followers! Viszlát!

Sources: http://www.budapest-life.com/budapest/nightlife
                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary

Week 4: Hungary: attractions - Thibaut De Bruyker

Hello world!

Today I’m going to write a little about the country we’ve been discovering this week, Hungary. This is a country that you don't automatically link to some sort of product or a certain type of people. Nevertheless this boring country has a lot to offer. There are a lot of amazing attractions in Hungary and in this blogpost you can read about my personal experiences.

One thing I’ve learned about this country is that you can find thermal spa’s everywhere. Apparently Hungarian people prefer to use the power of their thermal springs instead of taking medication. In Budapest, the mecca of thermal spas, we went to “Lukcs bath”. This was a really good experience, we were threated like kings and queens. 

We’ve visited also Margaret Island, that’s a small island in the middle of Budapest with beautiful trees and flowers. There’s also a water tower, an open-air theatre and some hotels on the island. Hungary is a romantic city, at the evening of early in the morning couples go to the Castle District and have a very nice romantic view together. Talking about romantic activities, the Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slaval Karst are the most beautiful Caves I’ve ever seen, not that I’ve seen a lot of caves. At least they are prettier than the ones I’d seen before. 

City Park in Budapest is a very beautiful park in which there’s always a lot of movement. People spend their free time in the park and lay on the grass, go for a walk with the dog, play some football or just walk through it on their way to work or school. Next to the park there’s the Museum Of Fine Arts, which you have to go visit when you get the chance. The Budapest Zoo and Botanical Garden is a very big Zoo, but not really a must see. We went there and it was a lot of fun but this Zoo was not different from others. And the last thing we visited was the Statue Park, in which 42 statues of political Hungarian (ex-) leaders stand.

I hope I’ve convinced at least one reader of my blog, to travel to Hungary and discover all of this beauty by himself.

Köszönöm és viszlát

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Week 3-Economy-Slovakia-Karel Junior De Groote

Goodmorning dear colleagues,

I just woke up, and I thought let me keep the homefront again up-to-date. Well as you know is Slovakia a member of Europe. A short history about Slovakia. Slovakia joined the Eurozone in 2009.Since then the economy advanced from a centrally planned economy to a market-driven economy. It has nearly completed his privatizations. Like the bank sector is nearly privatized and more and more foreign investors are joining here. This was a little history so you can understand what I will tell you later on.

Yesterday I went to a pub with some friends it called itself “Slovi”. I have no idea what it means but it looked very to cool to step in. When we were  drinking a beer some locals heard our accent and they asked where we from. Anyway, the man started talking about 2008. Slovakia their exchange rate against the euro was very bad. I think the man said that it was 30 Slovak koruna for 1 euro. He told us that the life in Slovakia is much better with the euro now. They have the support of the other countries when they are in trouble and the employment is much better than ever before. He was so convinced about his life in Slovakia that he gave us a beer for free. And I will tell you more. Slovakia was first an aid re ceiver from the World Bank, and now they are an aid provider.

During my days in Slovakia I have seen a lot of foreign people. I couldn’t realize why. They were from everywhere over the world. I have heard that Slovakia is very interesting because of the low taxes and the low wages that we have to pay as a foreign customer. This could be interesting for us as Belgium people because we have to pay for people who doesn’t work, who are sick, and so on...

Today we will visit also the Financial district and the National Bank of Slovakia. At the end of this day we go again to our favorite place in Slovakia. We go to the “Shopping Palace”. It is a very big mall with hundreds of shops inside. Like Astrid Brian would say: “It’s amazing!”.

Goodbye everyone!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovakia

Week 3: Nightlife in Bratislava, Slovakia - Thomas De Saffel

Hello readers and followers, this is Thomas again and now I will give you a more detailed view about the nightlife in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic. This is a new challenge for me and I think it will be more funny for you to read. This is the most important city in Slovakia and everything is here present to get a good evening.

The whole day, I was waiting that it became evening. I never came in this country and city this far so I was very excited to see the nightlife here. I read on a site that the biggest club nights, of course, are Friday and Saturday, but Thursdays and even Wednesdays can get reasonably lively at some of the more popular venues. So there are a lot of opportunities. Around 10 pm, I and the companions began walking through the busy streets of Bratislava. We were walking to the centre of Bratislava because the biggest parties were there and we were searching for decent venues. We came to the Kartell Club, a club that is located around the Presidential palace. It was a more luxurious club with top DJs from Bratislava. When we entered the club, we got a free welcome drink. So that was very nice. It was not very big but it was a decent club. The prices were not too high and the atmosphere was amazing over there. We also read in the club that if we should come back, they would have offered us a free ride to the club so that is a very good service. After 2 hours, we agreed to visit another party. The Kartell club is a decent place to get the party started.

We walked further in the centre and there were a lot of clubs present. But the choice depends on which genre you like and which area in the centre you are in. We came to the Duplex club. It's a dance club with an upscale audience where mostly house and dance music is played by a live DJ. The prices were normal for a decent club. Everyone was here very social. We met some guys from Italy and Latvia. After 1 hour, we planned to visit the biggest club in Bratislava, the Dopler Club.

The Dopler Club, is located further from the centre. It's a place for big and special events. The size is enormous. The party that was going on, gave us the ultimate party for that night. The Dopler Club is a real suggestion that had to be in your head when you visit Bratislava.

In general, you can say that there are a lot of opportunities for everyone. It depends on which genre you like and the kind of audience that is available. There is also a possibility to learn new friends. Most of the people are very social. So take your bags and visit Bratislava!

Thomas De Saffel

Source: http://www.bratislavaguide.com/bratislava-clubs