Week 12- Madagascar - Vincent Sonneville
The last week had finally arrived. We couldn’t believe how fast the time had passed and were thinking about leaving. Still, we had another week to enjoy and that kept us positive! Landing in Antananariyo we realised we hadn’t really planned out exactly what we were going to do in Madagascar, it was our final stop so we always figured we’d have it plannend out by the time we got there. Luckily we had booked a hotel for one night in the capital’s city center. At the hotel, we first enjoyed a round of drinks on the house. The drink was called Malagasy, a national beverage made from lychees. After chatting for a while we met a man named Patrick, an Englishman who had come to live in Madagascar after a devastating tsunami in 2004. He had often come on vacation with his parents when he was younger and fell in love with the country. After hearing about the the tsunami he decided move to Madagascar permanently and set up a sanctuary for people affected by natural disasters. Coincidentally he was looking for volunteers to help clean the remaining ruins of a town where close to 1000 people were left homeless. We had the time so of course we said yes!
Leaving the sanctuary was bittersweet, Patrick talked about the devastating effects natural disasters have on the economy of Madagascar. He explained how most of the crops that were grown often rotted and that towns with little infrastructure were destroyed instantly. People who had little to begin with were left with nothing. No wonder developing countries stay poor.
The rest of the week we spent trekking through the Andasibe rainforest and visiting the Vakona Lodges’s lemur island, a sanctuary for lemurs. Our last night we spent on the beach.
maandag 20 mei 2013
Week 11 – Hai District, Tanzania – Vincent Sonneville
Week
11 – Hai District, Tanzania – Vincent Sonneville
In Tanzania we
decided to do things differently. Instead of flying to the capital first, we landed
in the Kilimanjaro region which is divided into 7 districts. Our airport was
located in the “Hai District”. Our group existed out of people who all love to
go hiking and camping, therefore we couldn’t let the opportunity to go hiking
through the Mt. Kilimanjaro area go by us. Our plan was to go to the mountain
by bus and from there we’d be travelling by foot (camping, hiking) for about 2-3 days and we
loved it. The sightseeing was incredible, there was so much nature untouched by
human hands, nature in its purest form. We found a hiking route where we could get
higher up the mountain without having the need of any climbing equipment. I can’t
say enough what a wonderful experience this was. We felt like we were living in
an entire different world. Our lives back at home seemed unreal and ridiculous.
Why would we live in such chaos when we can live in this ‘sea of tranquility’.
On the third day though these feelings had passed a bit and we were rather
happy to move on with our trip.
For this part we had made plans at the beginning of our trip with a special travel agency. We would visit a small village not far from where we made camp and would stay there for another 2 days. Our goal was to learn something more about the culture and lifestyle of these people and meanwhile learning the children, and everyone who wanted to join, to speak English. This was something some travelling agencies frequently do, and we were handed a manual with pointer about what we were supposed to teach them and which exercises to do… Of course there was a man in the village who speaks English fluently to help people like us, who want to teach English, with some pointers and tips. After these 2 days we all felt very content with ourselves and felt like we really did something useful.
For this part we had made plans at the beginning of our trip with a special travel agency. We would visit a small village not far from where we made camp and would stay there for another 2 days. Our goal was to learn something more about the culture and lifestyle of these people and meanwhile learning the children, and everyone who wanted to join, to speak English. This was something some travelling agencies frequently do, and we were handed a manual with pointer about what we were supposed to teach them and which exercises to do… Of course there was a man in the village who speaks English fluently to help people like us, who want to teach English, with some pointers and tips. After these 2 days we all felt very content with ourselves and felt like we really did something useful.
It was time to
make a last stop in Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania, and prepare for our flight
to our last stop, Madagascar.
Week 10 – Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of Congo
Week 10 – Kinshasa - Democratic Republic of
Congo
Ok, so after
visiting Chad, we took a small airplane from Sarh to the Central African
Republic. It wasn’t meant to be though since 2 of my friends fell ill with fevers
stomach complaints on our second day there.
So now we’re in
Kinshasa, Congo! In order to enter Congo though we first had to prove that we
had gotten a yellow fever vaccination, luckily we were prepared for that and we
got through. Now, this country has so much history that we couldn’t help but
having a ton of respect for the inhabitants, the environment, … and basically everything.
Kinshasa is located along the south bank of the Congo river, which is the 2nd
largest river in Africa.
We were staying in
the West side of Congo and luckily the war zones are in the north-eastern areas,
however I must say that during our time in Kinshasa we often didn’t feel safe
when walking around. The gap between the rich and the poor is huge and crime is
ever present. Almost everywhere we went we saw streetchildren. Watching us with
unpleasant eyes or not watching us at all, living in misery, day in day out. A
local shop owner told us that there are approximately 20.000 children living on
the streets of which a quarter are beggars.
We decided to
leave this behind and visit some things we found on tripadvisor. Lola Ya Bonobo
was our first stop. A reservation park for Bonobos. This was an amazing day,
the Bonobos seemed incredibly intelligent and we could look at them for hours,
not once feeling bored. The seemed also seemed extremely committed to their
tasks of taking care of them.
We also visited the Kinshasa University which was unbelievable to see. This showed us once again how big the gap was between the rich and the poor.
For the rest of our week we travelled around most of the time by bus, we did make sure though to always stay in group with some other tourists we met when heading for more secluded areas.
We also visited the Kinshasa University which was unbelievable to see. This showed us once again how big the gap was between the rich and the poor.
For the rest of our week we travelled around most of the time by bus, we did make sure though to always stay in group with some other tourists we met when heading for more secluded areas.
Week 8 – N’Djamena, Chad – Vincent Sonneville
Week 8 – N’Djamena, Chad – Vincent Sonneville
Chad is located
right beneath Lybia so you’d think that the travel distance won’t be that much.
The thing is however that Chad is divided in 3 distinct areas. The Savannah in
the south, the Sahelian belt in the center and the Sahara desert in the north.
This means that there’s a lot of desert to cross before you can reach the more
populated areas. So after our flight we came to land on the N’Djamena (the
capital of Chad) airport. We arrived in the evening and were pretty exhausted
by now. So the first thing we did was find a cheap place to spend the night.
The next day we
made plans to first travel to a city north of N’Djamena, Bol, which is located
directly next to Lake Chad. My father actually told me that this was worth
paying a visit since this is a historical shallow lake in Africa. The
intriguing thing is that this lake has shrunk for 95% from about 1963 to 1998,
and that recent pictures (2007) show that it’s growing in size again. It also
provides 30 million people with water so of course we had to see this.
When we got there,
it was kind of weird to see such a vast amount of water in Africa. We saw some
nice views and visited the city Bol for the rest of the day.
When we returned
back to N’Djamena we found out that there wasn’t very much to do around here so
we planned a trip with a travel agency to the city Sarh. This was a bus ride of
about 460 kilometers through a lot of Savannah, at an average temperature of 30
degrees it’s needless to say that this was a bus ride we wouldn’t forget so
quickly. Once arrived though, we headed straight to the reason why we went to
Sarh; The Zakouma National Park. This park is home to 44 different kinds of
great mammals and numerous types of exotic birds. We were lucky to be there in
March, since this is the time the animals congregate around watering holes.
Week 7 – Tripoli, Lybia – Vincent Sonneville
Week 7 –Tripoli, Lybia – Vincent Sonneville
After a short but
terrible flight, 1h40min with heavy turbulence and crying babies, we arrived at
Tripoli, the capital of the Arabic country Lybia. This was the first time we
travelled outside of Europe for all of us so we were very excited. For
starters, the weather. When we left Athens it was quite cloudy and we all wore
jeans and a warm sweater. These however were quickly changed in the airport’s
toilets for shorts and t-shirts. We felt ready to go exploring. We had done
some research and found out that with its 1,8 million square kilometers, Lybia
is the 17th largest country in the world. This is of course because
of its vast Sahara landscapes, which makes up for 92% of the Lybian territory.
We found out that
in a matter of years the flow of tourists had risen from 140.000 to 1.000.000,
and they’d all come for the same reason, archeological exploration. We were
amazed to find a variety of architectural influences in Lybia such as Roman,
Greek and Turkish. Especially some of the mosques we visited such as the Gurgi
Mosque bore several influences. We also went to visit the Red Castle, probably
the most dominant building in Tripoli and has a great museum next to it.
Of course we had
to try the Lybian cuisine, so we stopped at an intriguing restaurant sign which
said “baby camel”. It was actually served in a clay jar which the waiter broke
with a hammer right in front of you. It tasted amazing however, the meat was
incredibly soft and juicy and we all enjoyed our meal.
We then decided
that we should really visit the Sahara, so after some research we quickly found
a tour bus which could take us there. If have to say, it was nothing like I’ve
ever seen before. This desert spreads so far, everywhere you look, we felt so puny
standing there.
Week 6 - Athens, Greece – Vincent Sonneville
Week 6 - Athens, Greece – Vincent Sonneville
Our next stop was
Greece. We didn’t however spend our days strolling alongside iconic white and
blue painted houses and eating Gyros… we were curious about the development of
the economic situation and about the famous historic architectural buildings,
and maybe having one or two Gyros’, they’re too good to ignore.
Due to the lack of
political and economical stability in Greece lately, we found that people were
very edgy about those subjects when we asked them about it. The population
seemed to be in a constant state of frustration about these things. We even
heard that 2 weeks before we arrived, a small “civil war” took place where 60.000
men and women gathered to protest against the savings policy of the government.
We were lucky to have been caught in that.
When in Athens
however, it’s self-evident to visit the Acropolis to see the famous Parthenon.
This stone temple was built in the 5th
century B.C. and is an amazing example
of Greek architecture. We purchased our tickets and entered the Acropolis,
ready to explore this amazing piece of history. Due to its fragile condition the
Parthenon wasn’t open for visitors, but walking around the temple was great
too. The detailed Doric columns and the ornate figures carved in stone really
made us admire the old Greeks more and more. After that we visited the
Acropolis museum, which houses a lot of artifacts that once held place in the
Parthenon itself.
This was an
amazing idea, we’re so glad to have witnessed this beauty and a bonus was that
the view on top of the Acropolis is regarded as one of the best on earth. It
was a bright day and we were able to see all of Athens and the beginning of the
Aegean sea beyond.
Week 4 - Budapest, Hungary – Vincent Sonneville
Week 4 - Budapest, Hungary – Vincent Sonneville
Buda vs Pest
After making a
quick visit to Slowakia, which was lovely we were on our way to Budapest,
Hungary. I was very excited for this week. Our first stop, oddly enough, was
the Chain bridge or in Hungarian, Szechenyi lanchid. We arrived at night and
heard it was especially beautiful at nightfall so we thought why not?
The next few days
we spent walking through every crevice of Budapest. There was so much to do and
see we didn’t know where to start. The first thing we were curious about was
the separation of the city by the Danube River. On the right side there was
Pest and on the left Buda. Our hotel was in Pest, the livelier commercial side
of Budapest. Buda we discovered is more romantic, certainly quieter and has
incredible views of the entire city. Similar to the Seine that runs through
Paris, the Danube was and still is today a very important aspect of economic
and financial life in Budapest. Historians explained how crucial the river,
which is the second largest in Europe, was to the success of economic growth
and trade with other countries. Merchants that had traveled all around the
world came together on the waters of the Danube to trade and sail to other
cities.
Thinking of the
week we had spent in Warsaw, we decided to also go visit the Jewish shoe memorial
along the banks of the river Danube promenade. The memorial represents a large
group of Jewish inhabitants that were forced to take their shoes off before
being shot and left to die during the Second World War.
Our last day we
decided to go to the Szepmuveszeti Museum of Art. The museum has over 100,000
pieces all collected from around the world. We walked through the museums six
departments; Egyptian, Antique, Old sculpture gallery, Old painter gallery,
Modern collection, Graphics collection, not a single one of us could take our
eyes off the walls around us.
Week 2 - Warsaw, Poland – Vincent Sonneville
Week 2 - Warsaw, Poland – Vincent Sonneville
World War 2
Our journey began
in Belarus, but we didn’t do many interesting things over there. That’s why I’ll
start this blog with our second week in Warsaw, Poland. Uncomfortably sitting
in my aisle seat I was eagerly waiting to hear the screeching sound of our
aircrafts tires hitting the ground. We were all dying to get off the plane…
even if the flight was only 2 hours long. It wasn’t just an ordinary landing,
it was the first landing of many. For the next 8 weeks my friends and I were
going to see a part of the world we thought we would only see in our dreams.
Our first stop,
apart from our little hotel in the middle of Warsaw was Old Town. This is an area of Warsaw that is prized for
its modernization. After the two world wars had passed, there was practically
nothing left there but dirt and rubble. The entire city was rebuilt and turned
into a place where people could enjoy again and come to commemorate all that
had been there before it was all destroyed. The town was lively and booming
with tourists who were all there for the same reason we were.
Next we decided to
walk through what is known as the Former Jewish Ghetto in a different part of
Warsaw called Mirow and Maranow. This place really gives you the creeps. A part
of me still felt like I was back in the 1940’s. Looking around you could really
tell people had suffered here in the past. The streets were lined with communist
apartment buildings and market squares. Luckily all the main historic sights
were clustered together in one area, so we didn’t have to walk too far because
it was starting to rain.
To honour and
mourn those who had suffered and died during the second world war we decided to
visit the Treblinka concentration camp, about 70-80 kilometers northeast of
Warsaw. This really touched the hearts of everyone in the group, the girls even
had tears in their eyes. Still, at the end of the day sitting in the bus on our
way back to Warsaw, we were glad to have been able to pay our respects.
After soaking up
all the history we decided to spend the rest of our time discovering Warsaw,
looking at local shops, restaurants and of course bars.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005193
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