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.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten