Visit to Milano

Milan, the utopia for shopping-lovers! As you will expect, I was really looking forward to visit this city.

When we arrived the plan was to take the Linate airport bus to the airport where we knew the Crowne Plaza operated a free hotel shuttle to their hotel where we had booked a room for 3 nights. This worked well and we checked in at the hotel around 5pm. We put our bags in the room and went  searching for a supermarket and a restaurant for dinner. After plundering the supermarket we found a great little Italian restaurant, called ‘Il Cedro’ in San Donato Milanese, where we enjoyed a large fresh pizza. Back at the room we slept almost directly, exhausted from another busy day with another to follow tomorrow.

The first thing in the morning we did was finding a tourist shop, so we could ask some more information about the bus-system in Milan. We found out that we could get a 3 Euro day tripper card that we could use on the subway, buses, trams etc around the region. Being quite an expert by now at reading foreign automatic ticket dispensing machines I quickly found the appropriate ticket type and paid 3 euro each for our "Abbonamento Giornaliero Urbano".

We immediately used our tickets to go to Duomo, an enormous church. Our mouths fell open as we got out of the subway and our eyes fell on the wonderful Duomo.

Quite a breath-taking sight!  From here we went to Piazza Mercanti and then up Via Dante, window shopping at the expensive Italian clothes. Is it is only window shopping, we didn't spend there much time, we decided that our next stop would be Santa Maria della Grazie, the home of the original ‘Last Supper’ painting created by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 1460’s. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to actually see it in real life as the tickets are sold out 2 weeks in advance! Too bad :(

For getting back to the hotel we took a city tour, by bus. This is a great way to see the city and it will save the feet!

Again it was a very exhausting day, so we went to bed early.

The next day we didn't do much of visiting, we went shopping, in the more payable part of the city off course.

See you within a week!

Kisses Marlies
xxxx

Italy, here we come!

Mmmmm! I’ve been looking forward to visit this country! Weather is always nice, I love it! J

We will stay only one week in Italy, so we decided to visit the most important places. We booked a hotel in the middle of Rome! I think it’s possible to visit this capital in three days.

Rome is located in the Lazio region of central Italy on the Tiber river.
According to Roman tradition, the city was founded by Romulus on 21 April 753 BC. The legendary origin of the city tells that Romulus and Remus decided to build a city.

This city only, has ca. 2,7 million inhabitants! That’s almost a quarter of Belgium, unbelievable! Rome’s metropolitan area is also the largest in Italy with some 4,2 million residents of Province of Rome.

We also found out that, in 2007, Rome was the 11th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. How amazing! The city is one of Europe's and the world's most successful city brands. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.  Monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are amongst the world's 50 most visited tourist destinations.

Rome constitutes one of Italy's 8,101 communes and is divided into 20 administrative areas, called municipi or municipalities. They were created in 1972 for administrative reasons to increase decentralization in the city. Each municipality is governed by a president and a council of four members who are elected by the residents of the municipality every five years.

Rome is also the national capital of Italy and is the seat of the Italian Government. The official residences of the President of the Italian Republic and the Italian Prime Minister, the seats of both houses of the Italian Parliament and that of the Italian Constitutional Court are located in the historic centre.

Rome enjoys a Mediterranean climate, typical of the Mediterranean coasts of Italy. Spring and autumn are mild to warm. In August, the maximum temperature is about 30 °C.

Rome is predominantly Roman Catholic, and the city has been an important centre of religion and pilgrimage for centuries, the base of the ancient Roman Religion.

Despite the fact that Rome is home to the Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica, Rome's cathedral is the Basilica of St. John Lateran, located to the south-east of the city-centre. There are around 900 churches in Rome in total.

Rome is a city famous for its numerous fountains, built in all different styles, from Classical and Medieval, to Baroque and Neoclassical. The city has had fountains for more than two thousand years.

Of course, the Trevi Fountain is one of the most famous fountains in the world. We had to throw a coin over our shoulder en than had to make a wish. Now I hope my wish will come true J !

Hear you soon!

Kiss, Charlotte

Our last days on the African continent (by Lieze)

Thursday 17 March

Hello everybody!

As Leen already told you, we started our last week on the African continent.

Today we continued our trip through Tunisia and we arrived at Kairouan, also known as “the city of 50 mosques”. After Mecca and Medina is this city in north-central Tunisia the third holiest city in Islam.

When we arrived at Kairouan, we immediately saw the strong and powerful minaret of the Great Mosque of Sidi-Uqba. And next to its impressive measurements, the minaret is also the oldest of the world.

As we are non-muslims, we could not enter the mosque but by looking inside the doorway, we could catch a glimpse of the marble columns! It is known that there are over 400 columns of marble and granite, but local inhabitant told us about a legend which says that it’s impossible to count them without going blind! Although it’s just a story, we wisely decided not to count them and we moved on to the medina of the city. In the souks are hundreds of little shops with souvenirs, spices and other food, but what you see the most is carpet shops. That’s not really surprising when you know that Kairouan is the oldest and most renowned carpet centre of Tunisia. When you see all those colours and patterns, it’s almost unbelievable that the carpets are handmade. You’d think that the creativity of the weavers is inexhaustible!

As there are countless little alleyways in the souks it was very difficult to find our way back out, so when we arrived at our hotel, it was already getting dark.

After dinner, we decided to go to bed early because tomorrow, we’re travelling further to the north.

Friday 18 March

Around 8 p.m. we left Kairouan for Tunis. The plan was to drive immediately to the capital of Tunisia but when we were driving for about one hour, we passed Sousse. Because this is also a very famous city, we decided to have a stop. And what was meant to be a quick stop-over turned out into a visit of a whole day!

This “pearl of the Sahel” has a very mild climate (it was about 20°C at noon) so it was very pleasant to visit the city.

Although it’s a very touristic place and there are a lot of hotels and resorts, the city hasn’t lost its charms.

As there is a lot to do and we didn’t have much time, we had to make a difficult decision: either we would visit the museum and some well-preserved catacombs, or we would spend the day shopping (because here in Sousse, we found the first decent shopping centre in weeks!).

We all really wanted to go shopping but we found it a pity if we would ignore the culture of the city, which is also on the UNESCO-list of world heritage. That’s why we’d decided to visit only the museum (and not the catacombs) and to go shopping afterwards.

The Archaeological Museum in Sousse exhibits a very large collection of mosaics, masks and statues dating from the Roman occupation. And the breath-taking Head of Medusa seems to hold your gaze when you enter the building!

In the afternoon we went to the shopping centre and we couldn’t believe our eyes! We hadn’t seen such a shopping complex since the start of our journey and we all really enjoyed this shopping moment! Everybody bought some souvenirs and I found a beautiful water pipe.

But as we still had to drive two hours to Tunis (fortunately there’s a decent motorway between Sousse and Tunis!), we decided to leave about 4.30 p.m.

So this stop today wasn’t foreseen on our planning but we all loved it!

Talk to you soon,

Lieze

Sunday 20 March

Dear friends and family,

Today was already our last day in Africa! We’ve spent the last two days in Tunis and it was a very big difference with the other cities we’ve visited in Tunisia. We were surprised to see all the modern buildings, such as banks, hotels, conference halls… But of course there’s still an ancient part too and there you find the famous medina. It’s a bit like the one in Sousse but much, much bigger and more touristic.

But because of the political commotion of the last few weeks, there aren’t many tourists now. After Ben Ali, the ex-president of Tunisia abdicated, the agitation stayed because the demonstrators aren’t satisfied with the promises of the government. And next to politics, there’s also a humanitarian crisis. There are hundreds of Libyans who flee to Tunisia because of the revolt in their country.

As tourists, we noticed that the atmosphere is very tense. We also read in a newspaper that the crime rate has increased so we have to make sure that we keep our bags close to ourselves all the time. Not easy when you constantly want to take pictures!

Oh right, that reminds me of yesterday. We went to Carthage, where you find a beautiful Roman site with theatres, temples, baths… Ok, perhaps you might think that those old ruins are boring and ugly, but imagine that, between the ruins, there are palm trees waving and on the background, there is the bright blue see and mountains of the Andes! I can assure you that it takes your breath away!

Furthermore, we also visited the National Bardo Museum where we’ve seen a large collection of mosaics.

Today, we went to Sidi Bou Saïd. The houses in this picturesque village are completely painted in white and blue and it looks like a fairy-tale; there are numerous gardens with jasmine-flowers, which smell lovely!

I’d never imagined that central and North Africa could be so beautiful and I’ve seen a lot of places I’d never heard of before. And although there’s still a lot to discover here on the African continent, I’m really looking forward to continue our journey through Europe!

Bye,

Lieze

First three days in Tunisia

After two weeks of travelling in Algeria we are now going to Tunisia which is situated on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Nile Delta. It is bordered by Algeria on the west and Libya on the south east. The weather in the north of the country has mild rainy winters and hot, dry summers and the south is desert.

From Monday until Wednesday we are going to make a trip through the desert. As you know thousands of little animals and insects live at night so hopefully we will not be attacked or plagued by them in the middle of the night!

Wish us good luck and after these three days we will write a whole report on our blog as we do not have any Internet in the desert.

Kiss from us all!

Hello darlings, we are back in the civilized world where we finally can have a proper shower and some normal food!

Off course you are all wondering how are three-day trip through the desert has been. Well so far this side of Tunisia has been fabulous! Before we could go to the Sahara (= desert) we were heading out to Tozeur, which is the gateway to it and we spent there our first day.

Tozeur is an oasis town, and contains a large palmary (= palm tree plantation). In Tunisia, you measure the strength of an oasis by the number of palm trees you can plant. According to the locals, this one possesses about 322-483 kilometers of area with 200,000 palm trees. The temperature in this city is normally very hot (± 37°C in July) and due to the heat everything shuts down in the afternoon and opens up again at night. But in March the weather is not too hot and not too cold or rainy. We could enjoy spending our time because it was about 20°C. Another important reason why we liked being here was because the people were really friendly, and the food was better than in the other countries. They serve French food and as France is bordered by Belgium we are a bit used to these types of menus.

Tozeur is also famous for its ornate brickwork. They build their buildings with some bricks sticking out, to form cool patterns and this gives a 3-dimensional look to the wall. Logically this is quite impressive! According to our guide Ali, this brickwork only exists in Tozeur and Nefta, a nearby town.

On our tour we also got to see some ruined towns. Ali told us that the Tunisians used to build their villages out of mud bricks which were perfectly safe, except when it rained. These people live in a desert so probably you think that it does not rain here. Well, that is not true: one day, in 1969, they had 12 continuous days of rain, and all the villages completely disappeared! Afterwards the population moved elsewhere, built more mud brick houses but a few years later this misery happened again! Eventually they learnt to use brickwork and now they do not worry anymore about the fact that rain will destroy their houses.

Today we could stay with a local family and they cooked a wonderful meal for us. We talked a lot and had some tea before going to bed. Unfortunately the beds were uncomfortable
because they were very hard, the mattresses were not like the ones we are used to! Nevertheless we slept well.

On our second day we headed out to see Ong Jemal (neck of the camel) which is a scenic part of the Sahara, and features a rather prominent rocky outcrop that looks like the neck of a camel, hence the name.
Actually there are quite a lot of camels in Ong Jamal and we got the opportunity to make a trip on them. That was HILARIOUS! When you want to get on that animal, he has to sit down; so he has to bow through his knees and then you can climb on his back in a saddle. The most funniest moment of all is when he has to get up again. First he bends forward but it is like you are falling off him and then suddenly he “jumps” on his hind legs. Then we were ready to leave but I swear, 15 minutes later we were still laughing because it was incredibly funny! We made a long trip and got to see beautiful places which are only accessible with camels or horses and not with cars.

When the evening was falling we cooked our own dinner in mess-tins, which was weird because we never did that before. Afterwards we placed our tents which luckily had mosquito nets, to protect us against insects.

On our last day of the three-day trip through the Sahara we went to Mos Espa. This was another big highlight as this is the place where several Star Wars episodes have been filmed.

Thankfully our guide was fabulous and gave us time enough to enjoy the amazing and breathtaking sights around us. We did not know that someone could talk so much about sand but he did and actually we must admit that it was very interesting.

When the night was falling we were a bit sad because it was our last evening in the desert and we had become friends with Ali and now we had to leave him. After having had dinner, we watched the beautiful sunset while toasting some marshmallows which Ali gave to us as a farewell gift to enjoy our last evening.

We had a great evening and are looking forward to the next cities we are going to visit.

See you soon!!
Leen -xx-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvZRHCz3PwE&feature=related
video of Luke Skywalker’s house in Star Wars

Algeria, I love it!

Dearest friends,

This week, we were travelling through Algeria (officially called "the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria", what a name for a country!). Algeria is bordered in the northeast by Tunisia, in the east by Libya, in the west by Morocca, in the southeast by Niger, and in the north by the Mediterranean Sea.

One of the cities that we have visited is El Oued, also called the "pearl of the Sahara". It is a very picturesque town that attracks many visitors en tourists.. The architecture is one of the most fascinating examples of desert architecture in the Sahara. Desert architecture is a human solution on how to use air and let in breezes to the maximum so that the temperatures inside is reduced as much as possible.

Something very special about this town is that it is watered by an underground river, which enables palm cultivation and the rare use (for the desert) of brick construction for housing.

El-Oued has a reputation of being a good place to shop, many of the products sold here, are not available in shops in other parts of Algeria. Carpets is one of the best buys, as well is leather Shoes. I have bought some delicious fruit over there.

It was such a nice town to visit! (http://lexicorient.com/algeria/eloued.htm)

Another town that we visited in Algeria is Djanet. Djanet is a charming laid back place, as close to the classical picture book of an oasis as it can be. There is nothing of special interest there, but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth while visiting.

It is a neat little town surrounded by low hills, with it's large palmeries, it looks very relaxing. This feeling is retained even after returning from a long trip into the deep desert, in contrast to most other saharan towns these days, that convey that 'return to civilisation' feeling with all the noise and polution.

 

 

 

In this picture you can see the market in Djanet, with local population. The local backery is open in the small hours before dawn, when most streks begin, so we could obtain fresh bread at the last minute of departure. Lovely!

 

So, this was it for this week.

I hope you are all well my friends!


Greetings,

Marlies

Second Week in Algeria!

MONDAY 7 MARCH 2011: VISITING DJELFA

Hello my friends!

Today we are travelling to Djelfa! This is the capital city of Djelfa province of Algeria. It has a population of almost 155,000 inhabitants and is situated between two cities, Bou Saãda and Laghouat.

Djelfa town is at a point of transition between the dry, steppelike High Plateaus of the north, with their chotts (intermittent salt lakes) and the Sahara. The town was founded in 1852 as a French military post on a geometric plan.

The city looks like we thought it was going to be. It’s very wide and flat. There was nothing to do over there, so we had the time to enjoy the nature while we were crossing the Sahara.

   

In the second picture, you can see 4 men from the local book shop. They were very nice and friendly and offered us something to drink, so we bought a booklet. There’s one little problem, we are unable to read Arabic ;-), but they were sooo nice to us!

That’s all we have experienced in this town, so I’ll write to you soon about our other visits!

See ya ! xx

TUESDAY 8 MARCH 2011: VISITING BOU SAADA

Good evening my friends!

Bou Saada means “place of happiness”. It’s a town and municipality in M’Sila Province, Algeria, situated 245 km south of Algiers. This city is traditionally an important market place producing and selling jewelry, metalwork, carpet and bousaadi knives.

There is also a textile mill in town. Even in modern times, Bou-Saada is an important trading post for nomads. There is also some national tourism during winter. Bou-Saada is well-connected with other urban centres by road. M'Sila is 70 km northeast, Biskra is 175 km east, Bordj Bou Arreridj 130 km northeast and Djelfa 120 km southwest. Bou-Saada has two quarters, the old medina (ksar) within the city walls with arched alleyways, and the French town to the south.

 This is the shield of the city.

I hope the next city is a little more interesting, because otherwise, I’ll travel forward instead of staying here in Algeria. It’s such a big country, but it’s so empty ! Although, nothing for me.

We’ll see what Tiaret brings us tomorrow!

Good night ! -XxX-

WEDNESDAY 9 MARCH 2011: VISITING TIARET

  = Tiaret, written in Berber ! 

Today we have visited Tiaret, one of the largest towns in the actual Algeria.

Population

 

Tiaret is a town of about 150,000 people, more than 99% are Muslim, located about 100 miles inland from the Mediterranean seacoast. Known variously as Tiaret, Tahert or Tihert, it is the main city in the province of Tiaret, an upland agricultural region in the Tell Atlas area of Algeria. The word "Tihert" means "station" in the local Berber dialect, and from ancient times Tiaret has been a station, or stopping place, for travelers, traders and armies.

Infrastructure & industry

 

A study by the University of Nice reported in 1992, significant areas contaminated by industrial pollution, and growing squatter settlements on the periphery.

The region is predominantly one of agriculture. There is a large airfield with a tower and terminal, at Abdelhafid Boussouf.

Politics

 

The province suffered massacres, killings, and bombings during the Algerian Civil War, though less so than areas closer to Algiers. The Africa Institute reported in a May, 2004 monograph that Tahert's more "arid and mountainous landscape has facilitated terrorist activities".

According to me, this city was the most important one, of the last three towns we have visited.
We have seen a lot, and we also went to a very good restaurant! (It's nice to eat something different than our Belgian food, but I'll really miss our French Fries!) ;-)

Keep following us, Belgians!

Kiss & Greetings!
Charlotte

Last four days of the first week in Algeria by Leen

Hello darlings! The next couple of days we are going to visit cities in northern Algeria, so first of all I am going to share some general information about this side of the country with you.

Oil and gas reserves were discovered here in Algeria in the 1950s but most Algerians live along the northern coast, which we are going to visit this week. The country supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe and energy exports are the backbone of the economy.

The capital of Algeria is Algiers and is also the largest city of the country. The modern part of Algiers is built on the level ground by the coast and the old part, the ancient city of the deys (a title given to the rulers of the Regency of Algiers under the Ottoman Empire), climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the citadel (casbah in Algerian), 122 meters above the sea.

Thursday 3 March 2011: visiting Oran

As we are crossing the country from south to north we visit the cities also in a certain order. From today until Sunday we are going to visit, from west to east: Oran, Algiers, Blida and Constantine.

Port of Oran

Oran is a major city on the northwestern Mediterranean coast of Algeria, and the second largest city of the country. This city is also a major port, and since the 1960s it has been the commercial, industrial, and educational centre of western Algeria. Sonatrach, the country’s biggest oil and gas company built a new congress centre in Oran where the 16^th International Conference & Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas was held last year. Because they expected to attract around 3,000 visitors and major companies from around the world, new hotels were built to accommodate all visitors.

        

For lunch we went to a restaurant and there we met a resident, whom told us that they have a popular local legend in Oran. This legend tells that in the period around 900 BC, there were sightings of lions in the area. The two last felines were killed in a mountain near the city of Oran, which is now known as La montagne des Lions ("The Mountain of Lions"). In fact, there are two giant lion statues in front of Oran's city hall, hence the twin lions' mountain is Oran's symbol.

    

  One of the two giant lion statues

Especially for my boyfriend Angelo, who I am really missing, I asked the man if there were any special sports events, like running competitions. He told me that Oran held its first international marathon on 10 November 2005. The event was sponsored by Toyota of Algeria and attracted runners from Morocco, Libya, Spain, France, and Kenya. The marathon served to publicize the health benefits of running and to provide a novel form of public entertainment for the city's residents.

So baby, maybe one day Belgium will be added to the list of participating countries, thanks to you. 

After a whole day visiting Oran we went back to the hotel to have a massage, a delicious dinner and to go early to bed, because tomorrow we are going to visit another city. But before we went to our rooms, we asked the receptionist if it would be save that we would visit Notre Dame d’Afirque and the Bay of Algiers tomorrow. Luckily for us, she said that peace fully returned after the severe riots between the police and the population on 12 February in the capital. Now we do not have to afraid to be attacked.

Goodnight and Cya 2morrow! Kisses!

Friday 4 March 2011: visiting Algiers

Friday morning:

GOOOODMORNING !! As we told you yesterday, we are going to visit Algiers, the country’s capital. Tonight we will post another message to describe our day.

-xx-

Friday evening:

Today it was another interesting day, as we learned that Algiers is built on the slopes of the Sahel Hills, which parallel the coast, and it extends for 16 km along the Bay of Algiers. The city faces east and north and forms a large amphitheatre of dazzling white buildings that dominate the harbor and the bay.

Algiers’ panorama

Before we went to the Notre Dame d'Afrique (Our Lady of Africa) we had to take a cable car. It was the first time in my life I sat in it so it was a new experience and actually I enjoyed it. While ‘driving’ to the basilica, which is located on the north side, on a 124 meters cliff, you get a nice view over the city and the Bay of Algiers.

The basilica was inaugurated in 1872, after fourteen years of construction! The church has a Neo-Byzantine style and can be considered to be a counter piece to the church of Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille, France. The inside of the church is a bit unusual as the choir is situated on the southeast instead of the usual east side of the building.

After we visited the basilica, we took the bus (ETUSA: urban and suburban bus transportation for Algiers) to the indoor water park, where we spent the afternoon.

Saturday 5 March 2011: visiting Blida

Blida is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers and lies surrounded with orchards and gardens, 190 meters above the sea. The abundant water of the Chiffa gorge (= canyon) provides power for large corn mills and several factories because the city has a flourishing trade, chiefly in oranges and flour. We visited the orange groves and Nouredinne Maurice, the fruit growers’ chief told us that the plantation contains over 50,000 trees. The Chiffa gorge also supplies the town, which has numerous fountains and irrigated gardens. In some of the public gardens there stand magnificent olive trees.

Nouredinne Maurice

The present town of Blida is French in character and has well-built modern streets with many arcades, several mosques, churches, extensive barracks and a large military hospital. The principal square is “Place d'Armes”. This place is surrounded by arcaded houses and shaded by trees.

We had an interesting day and I already ‘miss’ Nouredinne because he was such a charming, smart man. He even gave us some oranges as a present, that is very kind, isn’t it?!

Goodnight and sleep tight! Kiss !

Sunday 6 March 2011: visiting Constantine

Today it is our last day that we visit cities in North Algeria and our last stop is Constantine.

Constantine is the capital of Constantine Province in north-eastern Algeria. Slightly inland, it is about 80 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast. Regarded as the capital of eastern Algeria and the centre of its region, Constantine has a population of over 750,000 and this makes it the third largest city in the country after Algiers and Oran, which we visited earlier this week.

In Constantine we took a guided tour and our guide told us that the city is situated on a plateau at 640 meters above sea level and that it is framed by a deep ravine, which is crossed by a viaduct. Constantine is the railhead of a prosperous and diverse agricultural area. It is also a center of grain trade and therefore it has flour mills. They even have a tractor factory, and industries producing textiles, wool, linen, and leather goods, which are exported to the whole country and to Tunisia.

A viaduct crossing Constantine’s ravine

As we are students ourselves we visited later on the day Constantine’s universities: Mentouri, Zerzara, and The Islamic University of El amir Abdelkader. A teacher in one of the schools told us that the city will have another University town but for now this is still under construction.

Student of The Islamic University of El amir Abdelkader

                                         

Link to the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/world/africa/13algeria.html