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posted on: 30/11/2011 by | No comments yet

Day 27 - 25/07 - Aqaba (JOR) to Nwueba (EG)

Today I did not put an alarm but I woke up at 7 anyway. Since Greece I newer closed the curtains and as a result I wake up with the sun. I went to the bakery and bought breakfast. By minibus I went from Petra to Aqaba. I did not feel like burning on the beach in Aqaba so I shared a taxi to the harbor and bought my ticket for Nuewba in Egypt. 

The ferry didn’t leave in time and we arrived with a delay of more than 3 hours. Getting an Egyptian visa turned out to be very easy (yes I’m not a terrorist) and together with two American girls I shared a taxi to a so called ‘camp’. The camp exists out of one restaurant and a lot of huts around it, all next to the red sea. The camp was very peaceful and quite, but as I was warned Egyptians always want to overprice tourists. The price was thus too high for Egyptian standards and I decided to walk along the coast to find a better and cheaper camp.

Nuewba can’t really be called a town because there aren’t enough houses. It looks very deserted but has a very nice beach and the mountains on the other side.

I ended in the Soft Beach camp where I found a hut for the evening. I had fresh fish in the oven and enjoyed the beach and the beautiful scenery. 

Sleeping in a hut without fan isn’t a real pleasure and I had difficulties falling asleep. 

posted on: 29/07/2010 by | 1 comment

Day 28 - 26/07 - Frustration in Egypt

Today was supposed to be a very simple day. I just had to make it from Nuewba to Hughada: a short bus ride to Sharm el-Sjeikh and a connecting ferry to Hughada. Doing this I could travel from Hughada to Luxor, Luxor to Cairo and Cairo to Alexandria. The 1st of August I just had to go back to Cairo and take the plane to Hughada from which I will fly back to Belgium. Everything planed out!

So today I went to the bus station to find out that my ticket is more expensive than that of the Egyptians. Grrr…. I had not spoken Greek for a long time but I called the guy a ‘malaka’ and was so good to give him the translation in English.

In Sharm el-Sjeikh I had to take a taxi to the port because public transport is just not organized here. When I arrived at the port, still in time to catch the ferry, I found the gate to be closed. I asked the ‘guards’ why and they told me the ferry was in the dry dock. I was amazed that they knew this complicated English word, but less amused with the fun they had. There wasn’t going to be a ferry tomorrow as well, so as all foreigners do, they just told me to take a plane. Of course because all travelers just have a lot of money to waist. This time I did not speak any Greek and just called them crazy. Fair enough I thought.

From the port I just started walking. Only one possibility left, I had to find the bus station and change my trip. I had no idea at all where to find the bus station and so I decided to get more information in a hotel. I tried to ask people on the street where to find a fancy hotel so that I could talk to someone that spoke good English, something quite hard to find in Egypt.

By asking people on the street I found out that Sharm el-Sjeikh is a fancy place for Russian people. I hope that the people on the street were not representative for the Russian society, because there English was just crap. Even the question: ‘do you know where I can find a hotel’ couldn’t be answered. After a few attempts I finally found a British family who directed me to a fancy hotel where they spoke English. They wrote me down the name of the bus station in both Latin and Arabic and explained me where to take a minibus (Yes! There are minibuses in Egypt). After a dozen of taxi drivers explained me there were no minibuses at this time of the day I took the minibus and showed the driver the card. His English wasn’t good, my Russian neither and his Arabic needed some improvement as well. He took me to the wrong place and after more than an hour and a half a reached the bus station, only 10 minutes away from the place where he had picked me up.

I was lucky that there were busses at almost every hour; the only thing was that the busses running were ‘normal’ busses and not VIP, elite, royal or something else that looked very fancy. I didn’t care anymore about a long bus ride without sleeping and just bought the ticket. I got a seat in the back of the bus so I could stretch my legs in the aisle. My seat was broken, but worse was that there were no safety belts available and that the driver thought it was amusing to speed and then hit the brakes. As a result my body wanted to make a forward movement into the aisle. So I was there in my broken seat, or waiting to fall asleep or to be catapulted into the aisle and break the record aisle gliding before landing my head next to driver in the front window. Eventually I didn’t succeed in either and arrived early in Cairo early in the morning.

posted on: 29/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 29 - 27/07 - Cairo

At 7 AM I was already exploring downtown Cairo. I enjoyed it very much, no: ‘Taxi mister’, ‘you want sunglasses, mister’, ‘what about a watch’, but only me and locals going to work. I must say that playing the haggling game is nice for a few days, maybe a few weeks, but by now I’m done with it.

Coincidence brought me to a hotel I believed to be cheap. Nothing was less true and the owner took me to a cheaper place where they had dorm rooms. I didn’t like the staff there but just wanted to sleep and agreed on the dorm room. I could only enter the dorm after noon, because otherwise I had to pay for an extra night (Egyptian hospitality right?!) so I decided to explore the city together with F.K, a Korean guy I had met in the same place.

We explored the Old city, which is very nice. Wherever we came people were extremely friendly, they didn’t want to sell us anything and we were welcomed to Egypt almost every second minute. Travelers I had met from Turkey to Jordan had warned me that Egypt was the worst place for haggling and scams. I was very happy that we experienced Cairo in a different way. I really enjoyed it a lot.

The old city is a must. It is just very nice to wander around and my highlight was the oldest mosque in Egypt. The place is an oasis of peace and tranquility. We did what most Arabs do in the mosque, lay down and relax.

When in the afternoon we had returned to the hotel I saw how the owner was asking too much money from 4 travelers. So I told them in German and French that they were being scammed. The owner understood what I had said and got really mad. For him it was unacceptable that travelers warn each other. (Especially in Egypt I have the feeling that the hotel owners think that all tourists are walking ATM machines without brains, something as low ‘budget travelers’ is unknown to them.) He told me that I could just leave if I did not like the place and offered me the money I had given him earlier the same day. I did not have to think twice and took the money. I should, in the first place, have listened to my gut feeling, that was not happy with the place I stayed.

After 10 minutes F.K and I had found a cheaper and better place and we went to a very nice place to eat something. Since long I had a cheaper meal than in India or China. For half a euro I had a good meal, this is maybe why some travelers had called Egypt ’dirt cheap’.

After the meal we wanted to have tea and water pipe and so we found this very nice place and started talking to 2 Egyptians who also had tea and water pipe. They told us the (dirt cheap) price and we ordered the exact same thing. Only for us the price was going to be 5 times cheaper (expensive), so we decided to leave the place. I can’t understand why the price always skyrockets when a European face appears.

On the street a young man started talking to us and he took us to a small place where we got the tea and water pipe for the local price. I know that there is always something wrong when people start to talk to you without any reason. It is a golden rule and once again I ignored my gut feeling (second time in one day!), so the three of us went for tea and water pipe. We had a more or less nice conversation, although I could not stand the guy’s face. We each paid for what we had and then he wanted to take us to his shop. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened so we explained the guy that he got 2 minutes. In his shop an older men approached us and showed us what he had for sale. He was really pushy so I replied in a similar way (I hate it when people are like that). 2 minutes later we left the shop without ‘souvenirs’. On the way back to the hostel the most amazing thing happened: we found a supermarket with priced products!!! He or she who reads this will probably not understand how happy
we were. No haggling, fixed prices, Heaven!

F.K. and I went back to the first hostel to collect his bags, and there they refused to give back 60 Egyptian Pounds (he got it after 15 minutes) and we met an American couple who had been charged more than 4 times the normal price, my gut feeling had been correct and I was very happy I had left this place earlier this day.   

posted on: 29/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 30: 28/07 Cairo to Alexandria

When I think about Egypt, the first in my mind are the pyramids. Today I went to see them. I was warned that there would be a lot of tourists so I wanted to get there early. Therefore I wanted to take the 7.30 bus to Giza, but unfortunately I could not find the bus right away. People send me from one bus station to another and after 45 minutes I managed to find the bus.

Once on the bus it took another hour to get to the pyramids because of a traffic jam. The pyramids revealed themselves long before arriving at Giza. The biggest measures 146 meters and thus pops up above all buildings. Armed with a bottle of water I got off the bus and decided not to take neither a camel, nor a horse and not even a chariot to get to the entrance. My good old feet did the trick, which must have been very surprising and frustrating for the pushy locals.

Travelers had told me that some years ago there was no ticket office yet and visitors had to pay what was the price of the day. Nowadays there is an official ticket office that even had student discounts.

I wandered around the pyramids (using my good old feet) and was amazed by its size and the engineering skills that are required to build them. Amazing what they were capable of some 5000 years ago. On the Giza plateau there are 3 pyramids to be found (not difficult to find them), and a lot of tombs and stones. This was another highlight of the trip.

After the pyramids I went back to Cairo and ate another less-than-one-euro-but-very-good meal and went to the supermarket (fixed prices!). After picking up my bags I took the metro to the bus station. From the closest metro stop to the bus station it is a very interesting walk through a non touristic area. No ‘Hello!’, ‘welcome to Egypt’, ‘what’s your name? ’, people are so friendly and they don’t want to sell you anything. They are just happy to see a foreigner and have a little talk.

From Cairo to Alexandria there is a bus running every hour so I did not have to wait a long time. The bus took me all the way to Alexandria and from the bus station I took the non existing bus to the city center, instead of a taxi. I didn’t really end up where I wanted to be, because the ‘city center’ turned out to be a huge shopping center with the biggest Carrefour I have ever seen. I could have spent some days in Carrefour, just watching the fixed prices, but decided to go to the downtown area. People told me that it was very close and that I just had to cross the street. And indeed there it was: ‘Down town’ a huge resort. It must be said, they know how to pick their names. My third attempt was to go to the train station which was very close to the place I wanted to go. And as the saying goes: ‘the third attempt is the good attempt’. I made it all the way to the place I wanted to be. Wandered around, saw the coastline (Thessaloniki feeling!) and found a nice hotel.

posted on: 29/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 22: 20/07 - Nazareth and Jerusalem

I didn’t sleep that much tonight. We were up until late in the night and when I was finally in bed a guy was snoring in the room. Somebody had set his alarm at 7 and so I woke up early, not able to fall asleep again. I decided to get up, had breakfast (what was left from dinner last day) and around 10 AM I was hitchhiking to Nazareth, the place where Jesus grew up.

It took me three cars to get to Nazareth: 1) A musician with his two children who had Ukrainian roots and had played a concert in Germany a week before. 2) A truck driver who didn’t speak English and who offered me a strawberry-banana juice. 3) A tourist guide fluent in 5 languages. When I arrived in downtown Nazareth he had already explained what I had to visit and the history connected to those places.

Nazareth now is a city like there are so many in Israel, but it used to be the place where Jesus lived. I’m not religious, but still it gave me a special feeling to walk in the town. The Church of the Annunciation is the largest Christian church building in the Middle East. In Roman Catholic tradition, it marks the site where the Archangel Gabriel announced the future birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary, and, for me, it was the highlight of the town. The church has two levels. On the highest level people could be seated as in every Catholic Church. I had a very nice experience there. Since there was no mass, people were seated and taking pictures. At a certain moment one visiting priest started singing some psalms and the people around him spontaneously joined. Nazareth is highly recommendable. There is a nice market as well, some churches, nice squares …

From Nazareth I hitched to Jerusalem, a city that needs no introduction. Although the distance between both cities was much larger It only took me 3 cars as well: 1) Police car (so hitching is allowed, as is phoning (hands-on) while driving) 2) A tour guide whom I ‘spoke’ German with. 3) An electrician with his two children. The road I took went from the Palestinian territory to the Israeli part so I crossed one military post but we were not even stopped. I also saw some humvee’s and soldiers, but it did not at all make me feel in a former warzone, or an area where there were problems before.

Jerusalem is a huge city, a lot of people, Arabs and Jews living next to each other. I made my way to the old center, which I found out is a huge (the biggest ever seen) market area. In the labyrinth I tried to find a youth hostel and with a lot of luck I managed to get a dorm room.  I usually do not book ahead because it limits my freedom, but for Jerusalem it is recommendable.

The evening was relaxed, talking to some travelers and having an early sleep!

posted on: 21/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 9: 07/07 - Göreme

The bus arrived in Göreme early in the morning. I had not booked a place to stay yet because I have the impression that it is still low season in Turkey. I was right and found a cheap hostel. After dropping my bag I decided to explore the city. Görome is a very touristic place, probably the most touristic place I have been, except for Istanbul of course. The city center is very touristic, there isn’t even a bakery(!), but the surroundings are very beautiful. At 10.00 I decided to sleep what I had not slept on the bus. Unfortunately there are no sleeper busses in Turkey, only night busses, so it is difficult to have a decent sleep.

At 14.00 I started my day (again). The hostel has a swimming pool so I did not need to take a shower. After freshen up I did what most travelers do in Göreme, exploring the valleys. I walked 5 hours and saw very nice landscapes. It is almost surrealistic and the scenery could well be used for movies as the Lord of the rings. I was very lucky not to meet people in the valley. The only noise I heard was that of animals. These valleys are for sure one of the highlights of Turkey. Now it was hot, but I also saw on pictures that it is very nice during the wintertime.

Back at the youth hostel I took another shower (swim) and then went with Hayden and Simon (New Zealand) for a hamburger and saw the second half finale of the world cup. For this Göreme is a very good place, because there were people from all over the world watching the game which was a nice experience. I think the Turks were supporting Germany (because one of the players has Turkish roots) and the tourists were supporting Spain, the atmosphere was very nice. 

posted on: 08/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 8: 06/07 - Antalya to Göreme

I got up early in the morning, had breakfast in the youth hostel, exchanged the Middle East lonely planet and some movies from David (USA), explored the city even more, had some lunch and then decided that I had seen enough of the city. Bodrum, Fithiye and Antalya they look the same to me and so it was unfortunately for me that there was only one bus to Cappadocia a day, at 21.30.

At 18.00 I really felt like leaving and so I decided to walk to the bus station some 8 km away from the old city center. This walk was the best time I spend in Antalya. No more: ‘hello my friend… How are you… you want to see my shop…’, but people that were happy to see foreigners and were friendly without you buying anything from them.

I had to walk on the highway to get to the bus station, nothing special, because everybody was doing the same thing. This time I was not on a fancy shuttle bus, running between the city center and the bus station, but I was the one watching them pass by. Sometimes I really wonder how good tourism is for a country.

I made it to the bus station around 20.00 and decided to get some food. Behind the bus station I noticed a group of apartment buildings. They were grouped together, probably build less than 10 years ago and housed a lot of people, all living in a similar way. Probably this is the way young middle class families live in Antalya nowadays. Nothing wrong with this way of living, they had everything they needed actually. There were playgrounds and the water used was heated by sun.

I found a little restaurant owned by two guys that spoke as much English as I speak Russian. Yes! The local life! They had a look at my lonely planet and facing the map of the world one of them thought that Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China and India was Turkey. This proves that not everyone in Turkey had a decent education. Anyway they were very friendly, helpful and willing to practice their English. Beautiful!

posted on: 08/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 7: 05/07: Fethiye to Antalya

After a good sleep I had the sultan’s breakfast and it was indeed worth its name. After breakfast I followed the coastline and found a little shipyard. Industry had not found its way this far on the island and the repairing was still done by hand.  The atmosphere is very laidback and so I wandered around.

After lunch I decided to do the touristic activities. There isn’t that much to see, just enough to fill the two hours left before going to Antalya. I visited the old theatre, much smaller than the ones I had seen before, but still impressive. The last attractions in town are two cave temples. To get there I hiked through the mountains. The view was magnificent once again.

The cave temples were a bit disappointing, from the street it looked very impressive, but an entrance fee needed to be paid. Everything there was to see could be seen from the street so I decided not to spend the money and return to the youth hostel and pick up my bag. When I arrived in the otogar I had to wait one minute to catch the bus to Antalya. It must be said that the bus system in Turkey is very well organized. 

Three hours later I arrived in Antalya, a touristic city and not that much to see. It reminded me about Bodrum: Fancy places and a lot of tourism. I made a short walk in town and then spend the evening in the youth hostel talking with people.

posted on: 08/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 6: 04/07 - Brussels to Fethiye

From Brussels I flew to Dalaman, 200 km to the east of Bodrum and on the way to Cairo. From the new Dalaman airport I could take a shuttle bus to Fethiye, a town similar to Bodrum. In the evening I met two British people during dinner. They were having holidays in Turkey for one week and had done a lot of nice things like paragliding. As usual it was nice to talk to other travelers but at midnight I decided to go the city center and see if I could find a dorm bed.

The walk to the city center took me through the port. A lot of tourists come to Fethiye for the 12 island cruise. And it must be said, the pictures looked very promising. I found myself a dorm bed, and it reminded me about traveling in Asia. Everything was very dirty but a very friendly staff was on post. In Belgium I had bought a thin sleeping bag that cools the body. Since there was no air-conditioning in the room and the sheets were not the cleanest ever seen I decided to use it. I had a very good sleep. I do not understand how it works, but it does!

posted on: 05/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 5: 29/06 - Bodrum to Ostend

Today I flew back to Belgium. From Bodrum I would fly to Ostend, with a stopover in Liege. Both are smaller airports and I was very happy that I would land there for the first time in my life. Especially because I had studied in Ostend for 4 years and I had been on the airport a lot of times.

Without delay I arrived in my home country. It felt strange to be home again. On the 4th of July I would fly back to Turkey to continue the trip.

posted on: 05/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 4: 28/06 - Selçuk to Bodrum

I would take the bus to Bodrum later that same day, so there was plenty of time to explore Selçuk and Efes. The city of Selçuk is not that interesting, but the way from Selçuk to Efes was very nice. I had found an interesting walk there on the internet.  Via small paths I visited the 7 sleepers, which was not so interesting as well. The real excitement I would find in Efes. Efes is known for its well preserved roman cite. It houses a library and amphitheater where more than 25000 people could be seated. I had heard of a sneak path to get in and so I was trying to find this free entrance. I had to get under a fence and didn’t really feel happy with the idea that I was breaking in. So halfway down, I decided that I would go back. On my way back up a police car revealed itself and I had to run to find my way out again. Unfortunately I did not find the place where I had entered and had to crawl under the fence, through a little hole I had found by accident. After I had found my way out of the fenced area I ran into the forest and watched a move (I had my notebook), just to be sure that I would not run into some policemen on my way down to the main road. I went back to Selçuk, ate the lonely planet recommended spinach-cheese pancake, and then took the bus to Bodrum.

On the bus I met Alberto, an Italian guy who had done his Erasmus in Istanbul. I was seated next to a very nice Turkish girl who was about to do her Erasmus in Portugal, and once again I realized how small the world is, and that young people from all over want the same things.

In Bodrum Alberto met two of his roommates, two Italian girls, and we decided to go to the same ‘pension’. In the evening the four of us discovered Bodrum. We had dinner together and did was tourists do in Bodrum: we drunk cocktails and looked for the fanciest dance club in Bodrum.

posted on: 05/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 3: 27/06 - Bergama to Selçuk

Hans had given me a little map of the city, but I preferred getting lost and discovering the city in such a way. There are some nice things to see here, but the most amazing is the Acropolis (Greek word, upper town). By just wandering around in the little streets in the upper town I found a way into the fenced domain, which saved some money! 

What is left of the Acropolis is really amazing. The amphitheater amazed me the most. 10000 people could be seated! The view was brilliant as well. I felt like choosing a random point on the next mountain and to walk there, but I had decided to visit another little town on my way to Bodrum.  Therefore I took the bus to Selçuk, a city close to Efes (yes, that’s the name of the beer).

In Selçuk I watched the football, England vs Germany. In Belgium we drink beer while watching the game. In Turkey they drink tea or ajran, but even with tea it was a nice game to watch. During the brake I further explored the city.

After that I had dinner and ended up in a talk with two Americans and two Canadians. We had an interesting discussion about foreigners and native speakers speaking English.

posted on: 05/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 2: 26/06 - Istanbul to Bergama

The landscape between Istanbul and Bergama is filled with new buildings and apartment blocks being build.

A 10 hours lasting bus ride took me from Istanbul to Bergama. In the suburbs of Istanbul construction and thus expansion is still going on. The city with more inhabitants than the Belgian population has not found its limits. The closer we got to Bergama the more beautiful the surroundings got. Bergama is located south of Istanbul and we had to take a ferry once. People generally do not speak English, even youngsters, and German is then the language to survive. A lot of Turkish people have worked in Germany and when retired, they returned back to Turkey. I suppose that young Turkish men will do the same.

The ride ended on the middle of the highway:  “Now minibus”. As a surprise a taxi driver told me there were no minibuses to the center and I had to take a taxi. Luckily they made me a good price so I decided to take the non existing minibus to the city center anyway. It’s a pity they think in such a way. I do not mind to pay a correct price but I don’t like being fooled. I just suppose that there are a lot of stupid tourists that believe everything that is said and take the 5 times too expensive taxi.

A found a nice place to stay. I renovated old Greek house. There I met Hans from Germany. We had dinner in a typical little restaurant, exactly what the Turkish people would eat. An evening walk completed my day. The next day I would explore the city by day.

posted on: 05/07/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 1: 25/06 - Istanbul

The last two days I spend saying goodbye to my friends. Time passed by to fast but I managed to see everyone I wanted to see. My days in Thessaloniki are counted and a lot of my friends have already left.

I’m now saying goodbye but at the same time a new adventure starts. There isn’t a city in Europe I like better than Istanbul, the first stop on my trip through the Middle East towards Cairo, Egypt.

The night bus took me from Thessaloniki to Istanbul. Approaching the city from a distance once more pointed out how huge this city is.

The bus dropped me on the exact same place as it had done the last time so I knew where to go in this big city. Travelling takes you too many places where you usually stay for only a few days, but Istanbul I know quite well and I know my way around. It thus made me feel like coming home a little bit. Seeing the blue mosque and the Hagias Sophia again still amazed me.

This time I stayed in the Sultan hostel, a good and cheap place to stay in Sultanahmet.  Travelling alone has the advantage that you meet people more easily. I met a woman of Norway who was in love with Greece; this of course was a nice topic to talk about. The travels she had made in Greece and was going to make reminded me about my own time in Greece, a good time.

Later on faith brought me together with 3 Flemish guys and a traveler from the states. I improved my Flemish and we went to have lunch together.

After dinner I went to see the cisterns, the last touristic thing I had not visited in Istanbul (Sultanahmet) so I suppose. It was a good thing to see. Dating from the 6th century it shows that we already had very clever ancestors. They had already thought about intrusion of contaminated water and how to transport the water from far away Istanbul. There I was supposed to meet Peggy (Greece) and Marta (Italy) but they got lost in Istanbul so I did not see them after all.

Back in the hostel everybody was watching the world cup. It is something I am looking forward too, to see the world cup while travelling the Middle East and see how it lives in other counties.

One of my favorite things to do is to have a fish sandwich next to the Galatay bridge. The Belgians and the American joined and after that we went to see the game Spain against Chile. We started talking to two Spanish girls who were very pleased to see their team beat Chili.

The day ended at midnight since I had to take the bus to Bergama the next morning. Egypt here I come! 

posted on: 26/06/2010 by | No comments yet

My parents in Thessaloniki

My parents visited me for one week; it was nice to see them again. My mother I had seen in November but my father I had not seen since the end of August. The first days they spend in Thessaloniki, mostly on their own since I still had to take one exam. They saw most of the city and enjoyed their time away from Belgium with reading and tasting the Greek cuisine. Both my parents had been in Greece before and so they already knew a lot.

After my last exam we made a trip in Greece. Our first destination was Volos, known for ouzo and its fish. Volos is for most people the last stop before exploring the Pelion peninsula. We did exactly the same and were surprised of its beauty. There weren’t a lot of tourists at all and we ate in little taverns and slept in small places, the good Greek way of life.

The peninsula is mountainous and it was nice to drive a car in the mountains for the first time. My father enjoyed the fact that he did not have to drive and could direct all his attention to the landscape.
After the Pelion peninsula we drove back to Meteora, known for its fairytale like mountains with monasteries on top of mountain. I had been her before and my parents were amazed by the beauty of the environment and the monasteries.

The last stop on the trip was mount Olympus. Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, so my mother found out. Being afraid of heights she did not really like the ride there. When we went all the way up in the mountains only to find a military base and no hotel only me father and I were having a good time.

We safely went down again and found a little hotel with excellent food and very friendly people. When we arrived we joined the local people their table and started to talk, only in Greek of course, because in remote areas like that people do not speak English or German. 

The next day we had to go back to Thessaloniki and I had to prepare a presentation for my thesis. On Monday I did the presentation and afterwards my parents left back to Belgium. I realized that in a couple of days also I would leave Greece!

posted on: 26/06/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 21 - Helsinki

Today we got up quite early. Erkka took me to a second hand market. He wanted to buy a tabla and I decided to join him. Couchsurfing takes you to places you normaly would not go yourself, and this was one of those.

Most things are expencive in Helsinki, so students often go to places like this. They had almost everything, except the table we were looking for.

Around noon I said goodbye to Erkka and took the bus to the airport. It was now the 21Th day away from home. I had started in Thessaloniki and together with my girlfriend we had gone all the way up to Riga. From there I made my own way to Helsinki and now I would fly back to Athens. I was very happy about the trip I had made, but also happy to go back "home".

posted on: 04/04/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 20 - Helsinki

Today would lead me to Helsinki, the last city on this trip. Together with the Americans I had met the days before we took the ferry to Helsinki. It took us less than 3 hours to go to Helsinki. In Helsinki we all went our own way. I had found a couchsurfer, but before meeting him I was going to explore the city myself and go to one of the islands very close to Helsinki.

It was very cold and I walked a lot to keep my body temperature high. It is a nice city to walk and there are some nice things to see. I think most of it you can see in one day and that was exactly the time I would spend in Helsinki.

In the afternoon I took the ferry to one of the nearby islands and there I met one Jessy again, one of the Americans I had met before. Together we discovered the island. We knew there were some tunnels and we tried to find them. The landscape was covered with snow and we had a great time finding the tunnels. By accident we also found a tunnel entrance that was totally covered with snow. Some hot air coming through the snow revealed its existence and we dug our way in. It was completely dark and we used the flash of our camera to find our way. When we reached the end of the tunnel network both our batteries had died and we had to find our way back with the light of our cellphone.

In the evening I met my Couchsurfer, Erkka. I was amazed by his hospitality and his way of looking towards life. He had cooked some spaghetti and after we went for a bar with some good beers. We played a very interesting game "Quoridor", a game I had never played before and that can change by every move you make. Very interesting.

The day ended, mostly while travelling, late in the night and with a very happy feeling to see my bed.

posted on: 04/04/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 19 - Tallinn

Together with two Americans I went for an other pancake in Kompressor. There we found out that we all wanted to go to Helsinki the next day. Together we went and booked the ferry tickets. Early the next day I would reach my last destination before going back home.

After booking the three of us played tourist and discovered lovely Tallinn. The old town is not so big but very beautiful. Being covered with snow it gave a very relaxing feeling.

In the evening I made a walk around the city walls. What a nice trip it had been so far!

posted on: 04/04/2010 by | No comments yet

Kastoria (1-2 April)

Thursday and Friday Mari and I went to Kastoria. An other nice city in Northern Greece. We hitch-hiked to get there. Kastoria is not that far away from the Albanian border and we were surprised to get there in less than three hours from Thessaloniki. For future trips we now know that it is possible to hitch-hike to Albania.

Our Greek had improved and we were well able to have little conversations in Greek. Without restrictions we could actually talk about everything. But of course we are far from fluent!

Kastiora is a nice city. It has a peninsula with mountain, and that was our point of interest. On top op the mountain a little church looks down on the city. The church was a little bit disappointing, and closed, but the view was amazing. Greece really has very beautiful nature and together with  our companion for the weekend, Mr. Nice Weather we explored the peninsula. In the evening we found a little monastery were we put our tent. Because of Easter monks were singing songs and a lot of people came to pay there respect. The singing continued until late in the evening. A good bedtime song it was!

The next day we hitch-hiked home in more than 6 hours and 6 different cars, that is: 1) old professor, who had a Danish wife and was criticizing the Pope , 2) Old couple with very dominant old lady only talking to Mari and with ouzo in the back of there car, 3) Man who had done a MBA in the US, 4) twin brothers with whom we almost had a car accident, 5) Couple who was doing road registration, while being on there way to buy wine, the lady had lived in Brussels for 4 years, 6) Albanian man who only let us in the car after knowing where we were from. A very interesting mix of people, exactly why I like hitch-hiking so much!

In the evening we joined some Greek friend to see how Greeks spend there Good Friday.

posted on: 03/04/2010 by | No comments yet

28/01 Thessaloniki

I'm still ok! No news is good news :) I have been in Thessaloniki now for some time without travelling. Probably there will be no travelling in the near future because of the thesis I have to write.

I'm feeling good here in Greece, life is easy and what is not for today is for an other day. What I used to find a bit frustrating in the beginning of my Erasmus is now my way of living as well. Well... still with a Belgian touch I suppose:)

There are not a lot of special things happening, so nothing really to report, but the people and Thessaloniki are very nice, so I have a really fine time!

posted on: 28/01/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 18: Tallinn

At noon I was on my first WIFI equiped bus ever. In two and a half hours it took me from Tartu to Tallinn. I walked my to the Tallinn Backpackers hostel in the old town of Tallinn. Because I was really tired I only did wrote some Couchsurf request for Helsinki, answered my email and went for a pancake in the famous KOMPRESSOR place. A place my flatmate Mari, and Denniss, who we had met during our Balkan travels, had advised me to go to. I must disappoint you, I had no problem finishing the pancake. I must say, it indeed was very huge! Money well spend they say:)

Back in the hostel a movie was projected and there ended my day.  

posted on: 07/01/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 17: To Tartu

Early day again. When I got out of bed my host had made me some scrambled eggs already. I felt spoiled but they tasted good.

I found the way to train station myself and at 8.22 I was on my way to Valga, a border town in Estonia. Valga has not much to offer, in fact there is no ATM machine in near the train station. Because of that I did not have any Estonian money and I could not buy a ticket for the bus to Tartu. Luckily there was a friendly Estonian girl who helped me out. After some Estonian babbling I was able to pay in Euro.

I arrived in Tartu, bought myself a bus ticket to Tallinn for the next day and looked for the Terviseks (Cheers in Estonian) hostel. Other travellers had advised me to look for it. They had also warned me it is well hid, so after 15 minutes in the same street I found a very small sign 'Terviskes'. It is as if you are in somebodies studentsflat. A very nice atmosphere and a perfect place to stay.

In the evening a met Gerda, an Estonian friend of Mari, my Estonian flatmate in Thessaloniki and she showed me the city, we had a great dinner and afterwards went to very nice bars! A late evening with a lot of special Estonian drinks. 

posted on: 07/01/2010 by | No comments yet

Pictures online

You can find some pictures online now:

http://iloapp.koenwildemeersch.be/gallery/foto?Album&album=18

posted on: 06/01/2010 by | No comments yet

Day 16: Saying goodbye

Today was our last day of travelling together. As always when travelling the time went to fast. But especially now it was very unpleasant it had to end because we will not see each other for the next, at least, 5 months. We had a very nice time travelling and being together for the last two weeks, but today Leen had to fly back home and Koen would continue to Helsinki.

So I was on my own again, sad that I had to say goodbye to my girlfriend. Before going to Estonia, the second last country before flying back home to Athens, I wanted to go to a little town called Cesis. There was not really something I wanted to see there, but I wanted to make a walk in the forest. Travelling to big cities is nice because they have a lot to offer, but I also enjoy it to be in a small town once in a while, going into the forest and have a nice walk.

In Cesis I met Hasinta, she would host (couchsurfing) me this evening and show me around. She was really great. She showed me around her beautiful town. There was a nice castle, nice parks, nice market squares and I was lucky to see all this together with somebody from the town. She knew exactly where to remove the snow so I could see some hidden statue, nice anecdotes...

Before going for an evening walk in the forest we had tea and she cooked dinner. We took hot red wine to the forest and had a nice walk in the forest. There we saw nobody except for some cars passing by and some unexplainable green and blue light...

After having a beer and some tea at home we called it a day and fell asleep very easily because of the walk we had made!   

posted on: 04/01/2010 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 15: Freezing Riga

Today it was minus 12 degrees Celsius outside. The owner of the youth hostel thought we were crazy but we explored Riga. It was really cold and staying outside for more than one hour was not something we were up to. We had a lot of stops, but in the end we saw a lot of the town. As most capitals it has a nice old town, there were especially some nice parks which were nicely decorated with Christmas lights.

posted on: 03/01/2010 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 14: Panevezys and Riga

Because there were not a lot of busses to Riga from Vilnius we decided to go to Panevezys first, which is closer to the Latvian border. We had heard there were frequent busses from there to Riga, but when we arrived there we found out that we could only take the same busses that depart in Riga and make a stop in Panevezys. So in the end our chose was even more limited. There was not really much to do in this city so we had lunch and pasted some hours before taking the bus to Riga.

In Riga we were very happy that our hostel was only 5 minutes away from the bus station. It was freezing below 10 degrees Celsius and it was dark already. We entered our disco hostel and got the ‘London’-room. Every room has its own style and ours had a typical red telephone box. We decided to stay inside and watch a movie.

posted on: 02/01/2010 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 13: Happy New Year!!!

Like all the other travellers, we enjoyed our sleep very much and made ourselves a nice brunch. We decided to have a relaxing day and started walking around the city, drank a coffee, climb a hill to enjoy an amazing view and made a good dinner. In the evening we went out with some German guys, to a brewery bar. There were all kinds of beer cocktails, such as: with Irish whiskey, with coconut, with strawberry, with pink grapefruit... and with a pink straw! Off course we had to try some out and they weren’t bad at all.

posted on: 01/01/2010 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 12: New Years Eve

After an awful bus drive, we arrived in Vilnius at 7 in the morning. During the night we had four drunken Polish guys next to use who managed to make noise for the whole bus, the whole time... The midnight change of busses wasn’t that pleasant either. So when we arrived in our hostel we went to bed immediately and tried to get some hours of sleep. In the afternoon we walked around a bit and went to a big supermarket where we got all our ingredients to make a wonderful New Years Eve dinner. There were several people who were cooking in the hostel and the atmosphere was quite nice. Together with an American, Spanish and Portuguese guy, we went to the Cathedral square to see if there was something going on to celebrate the new year. It was amazing, tons of people on the square who where shooting off their own fireworks. We were surrounded by fireworks and it lasted for a long time. The playing of the bells of the bell tower made it complete. Everybody wished each other a happy new year, even people we have never seen before. Not much later to crowd was going apart, all going in different directions, to different parties. We followed the biggest group and ended up in a disco till the early morning...

posted on: 31/12/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 11: Krakow to Vilnius

Today we made the longest trip of our journey: all the way from Krakow to Vilnius (Lithuania). The best way to Vilnius we had found was first by train to Warschau and than by bus to Vilnius. It was not a perfect way of getting there but the only reasonable way we found.

Yesterday we had heard about a free tour of Krakow and we took this tour today. The tour guide was a young student who told us a lot about the history, places to go ... It was a nice experience, but unfortunately the tour was too long for us to complete it because we had to take a train at 3 PM.

We had to hurry but made it in time on the train. Halfway Krakow and Warschau the train engine decided to stop working and we got delayed. People told us stories of delays up to four hours, so we were scared to lose our connection with the bus to Vilnius.

Luckily the delay was only 40 minutes and we had time enough to make it to the bus.  

posted on: 30/12/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 11: Krakow for free (OLD)

Yesterday we had heard about a free tour of Krakow and we took this tour today. The tour guide was a young student who told us a lot about the history, places to go ... It was a nice experience, but unfortunately the tour was too long for us to complete it because we had to take a train at 15h. Here some facts about Krakow...

- North gate: remained because of moral reasons: wind blowing and lifting female skirts
- Legend of trumped playing in tower on biggest old square of Europe: guided made it up in 1930 for American tourist and the published it and it because a legend
- Schindler list: recorded in Jewish quarter

At 15h we started our longest trip of our journey: all the way from Krakow to Vilnius (Lithuania). The best way to Vilnius we had found was first by train to Warsaw and than by bus to Vilnius. It was not a perfect way of getting there but the only reasonable way we found.

We had to hurry but made it in time on the train. Halfway Krakow and Warsaw the train engine decided to stop working and we got delayed. People told us stories of delays up to four hours, so we were scared to lose our connection with the bus to Vilnius.

Luckily the delay was only 40 minutes and we had time enough to make it to the bus.  

posted on: 30/12/2009 by Leen Vandenbussche | No comments yet

Day 10: Auschwitz death camps

Today was once again an early day. We had to wake up early because we wanted to go to the Auschwitz death camps. People had warned us that it is very complicated to go there and we would better take an organised trip. We were sure that we would be able to do it for half the price of the organised tour, but we wanted to go early to be sure of public transport. A local bus took us there for almost no money, and we just paid to get a guide there. A lot cheaper and probably more relaxed as well.

In the guesthouse we had a breakfast buffet, and after the buffet we started our quest to find transport to Vilnius. It was not easy at all, and it took us more than one hour to get the tickets. The best we found was an overnight bus to Vilnius. Probably not the most comfortable way of travelling...

We visited the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau (the ‘arbeit macht frei’ had already returned) and saw how life had been in those days. We saw the gas chambers, execution wall, starvation and suffocation rooms, the sleeping barracks, the sanitary blocks, the train rails going into the death camp of Birkenau, ... And a lot of pictures. It gave a good image about life there, a horrible place to live.

When we had returned to Krakow we went to pick up our bags in the guest house (we had to change because they had no room available any more), got another free dinner (this time Polish style) and met some Canadian guys, as well as a Dutch guy, and together we went to a Jazz bar.   

posted on: 29/12/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 9: Lviv to Krakow

Today was the day of crossing the border to Poland and travelling to Krakow, the most touristic city in Poland. We didn’t choose the easy route (expensive train) but we decided to go like the local people. During the night it snowed a lot and walking without slipping wasn’t that easy. We also noticed that many people were selling Christmas trees. You would think that they are too late, but that’s not the case if you know that they celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January (Orthodox...).

To get to Krakow we had to transfer many times... First we headed to the bus station where we took an overcrowded bus in the direction of the boarder. Then we had to change into a minibus who took us in a 15 minute drive to the boarder where we could cross it by foot. Our passports were carefully checked and stamped and we entered Poland without any problems. Then we took a much better and heated bus to the next city where we could take the train to Krakow. So we started at 8 in the morning and we arrived at 15h in Krakow to travel 430 km. Everything went very smooth because during the whole way we could follow an Ukrainian couple that spoke English! Once we arrived in Krakow, we started to look for a hostel and we ended up at ‘Greg’s and Tom’s guest house hostel’. They offered us a good price, free breakfast and dinners and a very nice room. We couldn't refuse that and it was the best hostel where we stayed so far. After a free dinner we made a evening walk in the city and had a calm evening in the modern apartment.

posted on: 28/12/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 8: Getting your hair cut!

We had to change room because the one we were having was promised to someone else. After that we took off to the cemetery. Walking there we saw a hairdresser and Koen got his hair cut. It had to be shortened to half of the original length but more went ‘lost’. The cemetery was, to our noble opinion, not really worth the visit, unless you are totally into the history of graveyards that is.

Before exploring Lvov’s nature park we enjoyed some tea and local beer. When our body had reached normal temperature again we walked in the park and went up to the highest point in Lvov. There we had a clear view over the city of Lvov. We made our way down to the old town again and had dinner in the same restaurant as we had had the day before. This time we were able to finish our plates: ravioli and steak with mushroom sauce. We went to bed early because the next day was going to be an early one.

posted on: 27/12/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 7: Carmen in Lviv

After a reasonable night of sleep in the train we arrived in Lviv. Our first thoughts were: Cyrillic alphabet, communism, pharmacy on every corner, dark clothes, many old buses and trams, snow and... we have to find a hostel to stay!

We walked to the centre of the town and easily found a cheap hostel where there was still a private room available. We checked in and headed to the tourist information to gather some info about Lviv and a possible way to go to Poland. The woman was extremely helpful and thus it didn’t take long or we started exploring the city. We walked along some markets, visited a photographic Black and White exposition in a cafe (quite disappointing because there were only 10 pictures), learned about medicines in the pharmacy museum and bought tickets to an opera show (only for 3,5 euro!).

Before going to the opera we ate at a restaurant that some local students advised us. We liked the atmosphere a lot and the food was very good. Lviv is know to be a artistic city and you could clearly see that in the bars... At 18h the opera 'Carmen' started but we didn't understand what they where saying nor the subtitles in Ukraine. After half an hour we found out they were singing in French, shame on us.. Or them... But the opera was very nice anyway!

posted on: 26/12/2009 by Leen Vandenbussche | No comments yet

Day 6: Russian Train to Lviv (Ukraine)

In de morning we bought a train ticket to Lviv (Ukraine). That was easier said than done because we couldn’t figure how their system worked. We asked the price for the same travel at different people and every time we got a different answer! Eventually we gave up and we still don’t know why they have to use their calculators so much in order to figure out the price of one train ticket... When we got our ticket out of Budapest we made a nice walk around town. Time flew by and at the end we were in a hurry to catch our train. Once we were on the train we were amazed. The train went all the way to Moscow and it was very luxury, in seventies style. We had a room for ourselves and even a private sink with running water. Everything was very nice and in no time we felt at home. During the night we woke up several times because of the passport control, but that didn’t bother us that much. We loved the train ride!

posted on: 25/12/2009 by Leen Vandenbussche | No comments yet

Day 6: Lviv - Ukraine (OLD)

First of all... Yes you are right.. I (we) should post more often! We do have good intentions and we keep some kind of a diary.. but putting it online sometimes takes a while!

For know our travel plans changed.. The original plan was to go into Slovakia, but we decided to go to Ukraine instead... Traveling is all about changing your travel plans isn't it:). To be more precise we are in Lviv. A romantic city in West Ukraine. Yesterday we took the overnight train from Budapest to Lviv (Lvov). The train reminded us about a typical 'grandmother' place. Everything was there: The typical smell, the curtains, the cosiness, and the good feeling it brings along. The train went all the way to Moscow (sweet memories :)), so there also was a restaurant and an officer at every door of the train... the way it should be :)

We had a three bed 'room' and were lucky to be the only ones in it! It was extremely hot so we slept with the door open. We had a 'passport control' twice, Russian style...

In Lviv, we found a youth hostel very fast. We found our own 5 beds- room for 15 euros, so it is true: Ukraine is cheap(er). We explored the city, had a lovely dinner and ended our day by going to the opera. 'Carmen' was the well know play (at least we had heard of it). After half an hour we found out they were singing in French, shame on us.. Or them... But the opera was very nice anyway!

posted on: 25/12/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 5: Budapest

We decided to visit a small village near to Budapest: Szentendre. After a 45 minute train ride we arrived and noticed that there most of the shops, cafés and restaurants were closed because of Christmas Eve. It took us a while to find an open café were we could drink something hot and use their toilet services. Travelling in the winter is very nice, but once in a while you need to warm up and drink something warm.

After our drink we explored the village and went inside the few souvenir shops that were open. Because we were missing the lively spirit in the village it wasn’t that appealing to stay the whole day and thus we returned to Budapest in the early afternoon.

As everybody knows the best way to explore a city is to walk around, so we walked around again. For Christmas dinner we didn’t made plans so we decided to have a nice dinner in a restaurant. The only problem we had was to find a restaurant that was open. Our Romanian (a no racist man that can’t stand any Jews or Gypsies) receptionist told us that there might be a pizza place or Chinese restaurant that’s open... It didn’t look that promising and after 30 minutes walking around and still haven’t seen a single place that was open we tried something different. We spotted a group of fancy dressed students and we asked them if they knew something... and yes they did! We found a restaurant with disco music. We had a wonderful Hungarian meal and enjoyed a relaxing Christmas evening with the two of us!

posted on: 24/12/2009 by Leen Vandenbussche | No comments yet

Day 4: Budapest

Today we started our day with shopping for shoes and gloves for Koen. We found some shops on the internet and started our quest. The first shop was a big one, but we got no explanation and so we bought only warm socks. The second shop we entered was a small one, but with a very nice owner and good explanations. He had a lot of travel experience so we found exactly what we were looking for, and even got a discount.

We continued our day exploring the city, which is very big and there is a lot to see. The big bombastic buildings surprised us very much, as did the fine architecture.

Before going to the geothermic baths we went for free Chocolate milk, one of the other things we could do for free, thanks to the coupons we had received.

After the chocolate we went to the second largest geothermic baths in Europe: Széchenyi Spa Baths. The water in this baths is heated geothermic. To get to this hot water they had to drill one km into the earth. The water still had its sulphur smell, the same as it had had in Iceland and Greece. Sweet memories...

The bathing complex was indeed very big; there were 3 outside swimming pools, too many saunas to try in one day, and a lot of inside baths as well. We enjoyed it a lot, and went home in a totally purified and relaxed way!

As it was dark when we got out of the baths, we walked home and had some Spanish Tortillas.   

posted on: 23/12/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 3: Budapest

Our day started off very good. A Romanian couple gave us their Budapest card and thus we could enjoy all kinds of discounts and free things.

In the morning we walked around to get a glips of the city and ended up in a new university building were we ate our pick nick. While we continued our walk, we noticed the daily market with all kinds of fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products. On the second floor you could find all kinds of handicrafts and restaurants with local foods.

After walking a bit more, we were at the beginning of the “Hop on, hop off bus”. With our coupons we could take a ride for free and so we did. We toured around all the most touristic buildings and got Dutch comments about them trough our headphones. We couldn't’t finish the tour because we wanted to take the free boot trip at 17h. So we stopped at the hilltop of Citadel and walked/slided the 260 meters down in the snow.

The hour long boot trip on the Danue was a bit disappointing because we couldn't’t see that well through the windows. Off course we had the option of going outside, but the inside heat and the gluchwine was more appealing. After the boot trip we wanted to go back to the hostel, but we ended up at a Christmas market and tried out our first Hungarian meals; fried potato in a shape of a pancake and toasted bread with bacon, sour cream and cheese. The first day was a success.

posted on: 22/12/2009 by Leen Vandenbussche | No comments yet

Day 1: Belgrade

Belgrade, a city that had surprised me in the past, during my Balkan travel. I was happy to be here again! Belgrade looked very different than last time, because now the landscape was covered by 30 cm of snow! It was beautiful, but also very cold. Unfortunately I was not prepared for such a cold weather (I had the plan to buy appropriate clothes in Budapest). So I had a lot of café/bar visits to warm up again!

I visited the castle I visited again. The first time I had visited it, I was so surprised by it that I wanted to see it again. And now it was covered with snow!

I had a local beer in 'Biblioteka', a nice place to eat or drink something and studied some Greek. Before taking the train to Budapest I had a hamburger and some pizza to get my daily portion of vitamins. The train ride I shared with a Serbian couple, who were on there way to St Moritz (Switzerland) to find a new job.  

posted on: 20/12/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Day 0: Thessaloniki to Belgrade

Today I finally started my travel into Eastern Europe. I say my trip, but that is not correct. The first part to Budapest I will have to do on my own. In Budapest I will meet with Leen, my girlfriend who will fly in from Spain. Together we will travel to Riga (Latvia) and from there I will be on my own again until Helsinki. From Helsinki I will fly to Athens. The entire trip will take three weeks.

Before taking the train, I went to Carrefour and bought enough food to survive the train ride. It was going to be the third time that I would take the train to Belgrade. This time I was going to take a sleeping compartment, so I would fully enjoy the next day!

When I arrived the train was delayed, one hour. I was happy because this meant I did not have to get up as early, as without a delay. On the train I met a very nice lady and we spoke some Greek. Enough to realise I still need to study (start studying again) a lot.

I had the entire sleeping compartment for myself, and yes.. I did some Greek! When we had crossed the border with Macedonia (FYROM),  I saw snow! And not a little bit! All looked very nice, and even the next day in Serbia there was snow! Because of the snow the train could not go until its full speed so we arrived at 10 in Belgrade. What I nice and long sleep, much better that 5.45 :)

posted on: 19/12/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Athens (16/17 Nov)

Many years ago I read ‘Paniek op de Akropolis (Panic on the Acropolis)’, a comic book from the Jommeke-series, drawn by Jef Neys.  I found it to be a very special place, and I never forgot about it anymore. Now I was going to see the real one,  a special moment for me!

I had heard a lot of bad things about Athens: to busy, a lot of crime, not beautiful at all,.. But I found Athens a very nice place to be. The city has 5 million people (half of the Greek population!), and a lot more than Thessaloniki has to offer. Moritz and Anna showed us around. We saw a lot of beautiful places and of course what everybody wants to see in Athens: the Acropolis. The Acropolis is on top of a mountain and is made of marble. They were (are, and will be doing) restoration works, but even so the Acropolis is a special place to go. It has a long history, got transformed to Mosque as well, got destroyed by the Persians, ... It was great to be there. The company I was with made it even better.

In the evening we went to one of the highest point of Athens, from there we could see the entire city. 360 ° panoramic view! Amazing! We saw the sunset and had a beer! Perfect!

That evening we cooked our self, had some drinks and fell asleep. The next day was going to be the National Archaeological Museum.

The Acropolis museum was a very beautiful one. The building is very modern and lot of exposed concrete is used. They had built it in such a way that it was in perfect harmony with what they were showing. I was really amazed by the job of the architect/engineer. Inside the building there was a lot to see about the acropolis, all very interesting.

In the afternoon we had to take the train back to Thessaloniki. This time we didn't say goodbye for a long time, because Moritz and Anna will come to Thessaloniki in the beginning of December. It was a perfect stay in Athens... And of course to short again!

Thanks Moritz and Anna!   

posted on: 19/11/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Syros (14/15 Nov)

The train took us from Thessaloniki to Athens in less than 6 hours, Mari (Estonia) and I arrived around 7 in the evening. In Athens the first people we saw were Moritz (Germany) and Anna (Finland)! Moritz was my roommate on Mytilini. It had been really hard for me to say goodbye to him on Mytilini, so now I was very happy to see him again. We were going to stay with them for the next 5 days (2 of those we were going to spend on Syros).

Moritz his apartment is modern and big. We had some drinks at his house and than decided to go and try the Greek kitchen. The dinner and the company was just great and we also bought a donkey toy. This donkey was able to dance in a very funny way so we thought it would make a perfect gift for Josjes (The Netherlands) birthday the next day on Syros.

The next we woke up early in the morning, dragged ourselves to the metro and took the ferry to Syros. On the ferry we met Jacob (Sweden), who had also taken the language course on Mytilini and was going to the birthday party of Josje. We all tried to sleep some hours. In 4 hours we were on Syros. A beautiful small island, maybe not the best place to do your Erasmus, with beautiful buildings, nice streets, ... And half of the Erasmus people from Mytilini! It was very nice to see them all again! During the day we explored the city, in the evening we watched a movie made by some of the Mytilini people about our erasmus stay there. This movie was very nice to see, and it brought back a lot of beautiful memories! After the movie we celebrated Josjes birthday and ended the day with a two parties, the first at Josjes place and than with local Greek people!

The next half day we explored the city some more, and than had to say goodbye again to go back to Athens. Once again we slept on the ferry, and got early in bed that evening. Once again a nice weekend, that was too short!

posted on: 19/11/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Macedonia - Day 3: Sailing to Thessaloniki

I got up to late; slept badly; it was raining... so I decided to make a walk in the city centre of Skopje! I explored the city somewhat, and had lunch in a simple bakery. The old city of Skopje is nice to see, but more than half a day would be too much for me.  The most interesting thing happened when I saw there was a big umbrella meeting next to the castle. People where gathering so I was curious to find out what was going on. There were two buses and a lot of religious men. All of them where Muslim and they were carrying big bags; so I found out that probably some of them where going to make a travel. I tried to ask the people but they did not speak any of the languages I spoke. The only thing I understood was Medina. So my guess was that some of the religious men were going to go to Medina. It was the first time I saw something like that in my life and it gave me a special feeling.

Unfortunately I had to travel as well, back to Thessaloniki. The train from Skopje to Thessaloniki was delayed, so I arrived after midnight in Thessaloniki. On the train I met a captain from Stockholm. We had a nice talk about life, travelling and, even do he had the age of my father, women.

My bed felt so good when I finally got home! I could start dreaming about the trip to Athens and Syros in the end of the week!

posted on: 08/11/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Macedonia - Day 2: Hiking in Ohrid

Woke up at 8 had the rest of my 2 euro’s diner of last night as breakfast and made myself some coffee.

Today I saw the rest of the city, this time by daylight. The castle was not worth entering, and definitely not worth paying for.  The Sofia church has icons that are perfectly preserved through the ages. I think it was my first time that I saw icons in such a good state, as if they were brand new. I decided not to climb the oldest tree in Ohrid and started walking in the direction of what I really wanted to climb, the surrounding mountains of Ohrid.

It had started raining but I was decided to hike anyway. The landscape was just too beautiful to sit in the apartment. I started walking, lost track of civilisation and the small roads going into the mountains. The views I had over the lake, the city of Ohrid and the nature were amazing, the autumn colours made the decor even more beautiful. I felt so free and happy up there, a pity I did not have my tent because it would have been perfect to camp as well. While trying to get back to Ohrid I saw I ‘house’ as I thought they had only existed in the middle ages. The same with the garbage around it... The old lady walking in the house completed the picture and I decided not to have tea with her. A shepherd and some cows later I found myself in Ohrid again.

The next stop I was going to make was Skopje, were I was going to CouchSurf. There were 6 couchsurfers in total, so it was a nice experience for me. To nice because that evening I went to bed to late... 

posted on: 07/11/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Macedonia - Day 1: Sleepy and beautiful Ohrid

The train was on time again, no delays when I take the train I suppose. This time I made the trip by day, the way to Macedonia was really beautiful. I wanted to get out on a lot of places, just to start hiking. Hiking was the purpose of this trip! And this trip I was going to make on my own. Travelling alone is always something I do with double feelings. In one way it allows you to do whatever you want, whenever you want to, and you are more open to meet new people, but on the other hand you are just alone.

Once in a while a saw a little house or church in the landscape, it was such a relaxing and peaceful sight, to bad I forgot my camera otherwise there would be pictures to proof it. For the first time since I took the language course I learned some Greek words again, something I should do more often.

Before taking the bus to Ohrid I had myself a hamburger with something that could pass for Belgian fries in Skopje (Capital of Macedonia). The bus ride took me from the nice open sky to very threatening clouds. The closer the bus got to Ohrid the cloudier it got, in the end I could not see anything else than the white fog outside. Luckily the clouds disappeared when we got even higher and a beautiful mountain-scape got revealed.

In Ohrid two ladies approached me to get me into one of their apartments, to rent it of course. The price was 5 euro’s a night and the location was very good as well. The lady practiced her French with me so both of us were happy for our own reason.

For the first time in my live I had to register with the police, something I had never done before. Luckily it was not so difficult and I managed to get registered.

I saw the Ohrid for the first time by night and was happy with what I saw: cobble stoned streets, a lot of churches, typical houses, no tourists, the lake...

To end my day I wanted to have a local beer, but I had to find out that supermarkets could not sell beer after seven... They had had a big problem with teenagers drinking themselves into the hospital so the government decided to make a drastic change.

posted on: 06/11/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 11: It´s the end of our trip as we know it

The alarm started shouting at 7 and before 8 we were already asking about the prices and timetables to Thessaloniki from the numerous travel agencies in Korca. We didn´t really want to believe that the price was 20 euro’s but when we saw Albanian people buy the ticket we were reassured and did the same.

We spent an hour before the bus wandering around the nearby market. It had everything you could ask for and even more (an old Nintendo console anyone? What about some screws or a pair of second-hand boots?). Not to mention we found the same delicious cookies a drunk woman had given us in Tirana. It´s obvious that we had to buy them and since we had ran out of local money and they were not so fond of euro’s we changed 2.50 euro’s to leke and bought 7 packages of Biskrem cookies!

The bus left and soon spent an hour at the border (this time we had a motorised vehicle!) because a ridiculous baggage control. But at four in the evening it was all over. We were back in Thessaloniki. The photos and our memories are to prove that we really did the journey across the Balkans in 11 days.

posted on: 02/11/2009 by Mari Muldmaa | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 10: We saw everything there was to see, and much more!

Once again we got up early in the morning. We walked the same way as we had done yesterday, took the same bus to the exact same bus stop we had been the last day. Today we were luckier and found us a bus to Berate without problems.  Berate promised to be a very nice city but we had to leave after less than half an hour if we wanted to go to Korca that same day. Both of us were a bit disappointed about this, but there was no other way if we wanted it to make to Thessaloniki before Monday evening.

That day we spend 9 hours on the bus, but we were lucky because we passed by Lake Ohrid, our third most wanted place to go in Albania. It was not our best day, and people are right when day say you have to have time to travel into Albania, because public transport is not as we know it back at home. There are no bus schedules, and busses leave when they have enough people.

We arrived in Korca, the temperature was 3°, and once again we did not have a place to go. You can guess it as well; people on the street did not speak English so we had to go to a three star hotel… to ask where there was a cheap place to stay for one night. We found a place for 10 euro’s a night, for the both of us, and had the typical Albanian food as dinner: Pizza. The next day we would take the bus to Thessaloniki… The end of our trip :(

posted on: 01/11/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 9: Hiking Albania

Tirana is not exactly a beautiful city but it sure is an interesting one (eg, the houses are painted in all sorts of jolly colours, the so called river flows quietly between the multiple layers of garbage; the place is filled with private universities). We made a tour in the city, ate bread and jam from Dubrovnik and then, by the guidance of a couch surfer we had met the day before, went hiking with some international people. The track was quite difficult and we were in a hurry but it was a nice bonus to our visit to Tirana.

We arrived to the hostel about three and were waiting for the minibus to go to Berate in the right place around four. We were glad to have found the place (with the help of extremely friendly locals) because the minibuses have a life of their own and they don´t show it on-line or anywhere else. But after an hour waiting the cold truth hit us. No fourgon anymore! As soon as the sun sets, nothing seemed to work there anymore.

Fortunately there were still free beds in Tirana Backpacker...

posted on: 31/10/2009 by Mari Muldmaa | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 8: Into Albania

Today was the last day in Kotor and Montenegro. Albania was the next stop and we wanted to go all the way to Tirana, the capital.

We had woken up a few times that night because of an extreme loudly snoring Holland man, but the last time we woke up that day we decided to make a little walk in the city again and by some postcards and stamps. After this we (Mari, Deniss and Koen) took the bus to Ulcinj, from there we were going to take a bus to Skodra, the first city across the border. But when we arrived in Ulcinjthere were no busses going to Skodra. The only thing there was an army of taxi drivers, asking too much money to get you there. After the usual game of bargaining and bluffing, this time in Russian, we got ourselves a ride to Skodra for 25 EUR. In Skodra we found a fourgon (minibus) all the way to Tirana, we were going to make it to Tirana in the end!!

Once in Tirana we went to the youth hostel witch, for once, was booked ahead.  When we arrived there was no light burning, nor was there somebody there. We had to wait for somebody to come and turn on the lights and electricity. We were the only three once in the spooky house so we decided not to stay there. This time in German we told we did not like it and took off to another youth hostel (http://www.tiranahostel.com). This youth hostel was packed with travelers; we were offered food, wine and cheese, wow cheese!

In the evening we had a little couchsurfing meeting, we gathered with 8 people and managed to get split up in three groups :), to funny to be true. When we reunited again we went to a Jazz bar and had live music and German (???) beer.  A nice evening!

posted on: 30/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 7: Wine on the castle's roof

The day started with a dilemma whether to live for Albania right away or not. According to what we had heard from fellow travellers and read from the internet it wasn´t going to be all laughter and fun to go there. So we packed our stuff and decided to leave the same day. But we quickly changed our minds and paid for another night there.

We climbed all the 1350 steps up the hill and once there shared the bottle of wine we had gotten from Sarajevo wine festival with Deniss and a Dutch backpacker. The view was superb so we probably made all the other people up there quite jealous with our little picnic.

We headed back to the hostel for a small brake but ended up spending the entire evening drinking beer and talking to other travellers. And of course we prepared a good meal for us with sausages, Belgian potatoes and Estonian salad. Thanks to Koen Deniss now masters the tricky technique of sausage frying!

posted on: 29/10/2009 by Mari Muldmaa | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 6: Meeting Deniss

Today we got up early in the morning; we warmed the rest of the macaroni of yesterday and ate the bread we had been carrying from Sarajevo. A perfect breakfast!

Dubrovnik’s city wall was ours today. We bought a ticket and saw the city from another angle. The city is really beautiful, as are the surroundings. The walk on the walls was for sure one of the highlights of our stay in Dubrovnik.

Adventurous as we are we decided to hitchhike to Montenegro as well. We took the bus out of Dubrovnik and started hitchhiking. Once more people were really avoiding the borders so it took us a long time getting to Herzog Novi, the first town in Montenegro. This time people from Israel, a local man and a truck driver took us all the way to the border. We walked across the border again, got our stamp in the passport, did not pay for the car and found ourselves a hitchhike to Herzog Novi. It sounds very easy while writing it, but hitchhiking in that area of the world is really not that easy.

Visiting Herzog Novi after Dubrovnik was not really interesting so we decided to go to Kotor that same day. And yes, this time we just took the bus! We saw the beautiful landscape by night and were happy to arrive in Kotor.

In the youth hostel the impossible happened! We met another Estonian Deniss! This time it was a male example. Mari was very happy to meet another Estonian, Koen was very happy that Mari was happy, and the Estonian young man was happy to meet an Estonian girl. So everybody was happy and we went for a drink! Filled with joy we had a very nice sleep that night.

posted on: 28/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | 1 comment

Balkans - Day 5: Fairytale-like Dubrovnik

After our fabulous night on the road we finally made it to Dubrovnik. First, a Bosnian policeman stopped for us and took us from Croatia to Bosnia Herzegovina again (look at the map for explanation). We didn´t have to wait long until a Croatian plastic-WC businessman gave us a ride straight to Dubrovnik, a place that is certainly worth a visit. Once there, we were immediately attacked by an eager landlady who guided us to her old town flat and since we were very tired we stayed (with 15 euro’s per night it was the most expensive place we slept during our trip).

Dubrovnik is especially beautiful when it´s dark and it certainly is a very fairytale-like place.

We cooked a nice dinner (fish sticks, macaroni and pineapple..) and after a short walk called it a day.

posted on: 27/10/2009 by Mari Muldmaa | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 4: Walk your self to the border

Our last day in Mostar we spend souvenir-hunting.  We walked around in the old town again bought some souvenirs and then went looking for a bus to go to Dubrovnik (Croatia). After that we went to the biggest building in Mostar, totally destroyed by the war. The building was still there, almost untouched. As we entered the building we saw a lot books, papers, maps, al there as they had been more than 10 years ago. Together with the bullet holes, the emptiness and the quietness it we saw the image of what had happened during the war. It was hard to imagine that this used to be a bank office. It felt very close and it was quite shocking to see. Everywhere around in Mostar you see houses with bullet holes. Resorted and untouched buildings all placed in the same area, next to each other.

We decided to have our lunch in the park next to the destroyed bank. We bought ourselves a huge pizza and Mari illustrated the Estonian way of eating pizza: one peace for yourself and another peace for the pants.  Anyway…  We had to find out about the busses to Dubrovnik. The bus turned out to be too expensive for us so we decided to hitchhike. We started at 4 and by 4 hours later we had not moved for more than 2 km, walking that is. It had turned dark already and we were looking for a place to sleep in the open air. Not finding a suitable place we just decided to start walking to the border. We had a very nice and strange time walking in the dark. The spirit was there and we were sure to make it to the border! But around 10 o’ clock we finally were lucky! One truck stopped for us! The Bosnian offered us cigarettes but we only wanted to reach the border! So around midnight we arrived at the border, got out and crossed the border on foot. There we had a very nice little conversation: ‘Where is your car?’, ‘We don’t have a car’, ‘Why don’t you have a car’, ‘:)’

A young guy took us a little bit further to the first city and after that we had another ride to Opousen.  We had the honor to ride with a religious man who gave us a little pin of the virgin Maria.

Our day ended when we found a very nice bus stop. Everything was there: flat screen television, central heating, nice beds, so we decided to sleep on the floor on some carton boxes we had found. The day ended at two a clock to start the next day at 6, before people would start using the bus.

posted on: 26/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 3: Mari's rose

There was a change in time between Saturday and Sunday so when we woke up we discovered we had gained an hour. That´s not bad at all because there were still places to visit in Sarajevo.

Our host had talked with a lot of emotion about a peculiar bar with even more peculiar restroom so we had to pay a visit there. Thus our day started in a bar. That was a lovely place indeed! The walls were covered with posters, pictures and all sorts of old things, the tables had coins from all over the world clued to them and the toilet, oh the toilet, made you feel that you had accidentally stepped in to someone´s bathroom with a TV just above the toilet paper so you´d always be up to date. And as we slowly sipped our coffee we read a funny porn/humor magazine from the 70s that we found under the table.

Another highlight of the day was our strange encounter with a local man whom we had met the other day. It turned out that he lived next to the old ruins up the hill so he invited us to his home. We had to drink a lot of tea and coffee and ate too many mandarins and cookies. To even more prove his hospitality he gave us a collection of cannon balls (which didn´t make Koen´s back bag any lighter) and picked a rose for Mari from his garden.

And in the same evening we were already in Mostar. We found a place to stay with the help of a local archaeology student (who Koen found from the train). He was the best possible guide for a quick evening tour in the city and explained us the special situation of the town (due to the war in the 1990s it has a Muslim part and a Croatian part that still makes a lot of difference to locals). Not to mention that he took us to some nice bars.

posted on: 25/10/2009 by Mari Muldmaa | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 2: Sarajevo with a glass of wine

At 5:30 we arrived in Sarajevo. Today no delays… and there we were in a freezing and unknown city. People didn’t speak English and we had no idea where we were. We didn’t want to take a taxi so we started walking in the direction of the city center. After five minutes we found a trolleybus station and we managed to get on the trolleybus to the place where our couchsurfing host lived, using only Russian and German language.

At 7 we arrived at the apartment of our couchsurfing host, we had to wake her up to get in (she had told us it wasn’t a problem, al do it did not feel nice to wake her up). So at 7:30 we found ourselves a sleeping place for that night... euhm day. We woke up that same day around 12:30 to find our host still sleeping. She is from Argentina, so that explained a lot :)

That day we explored the old town. It is an amazing place with a Turkish, Jewish and catholic quarter. Everything is easily done on foot. We explored this nice old town to find a Church in the end of the evening.  We wanted to go to the mass but had to wait for half an hour, so there was nothing else to do that visit to breweries put where we had one of the locally produced beers. The mass idea changed in to second beer and we would stay unblessed for a few days longer.

We really enjoyed our life that day and had dinner in one of lonely planet’s recommended restaurants. Chicken Curry and salad went in very easily.

When we decided to go home we passed by a wine-festival! Off course we wanted to get in… The entrance ticket was a bit to expensive for poor travelers like us so we started talking to some of the people outside. Soon we got ourselves two wineglasses and as many entrance tickets, for free of course :) We had not entered the building for 5 minutes or a man wanted to give us something. He turned out to be one of the stand owners and he gave us a free bottle of wine!! It turned out to be our lucky day. Dressed up in our travel clothes we found our way through the mass of costumes, ties and nice shoes. We tasted a lot of wines and in the end had just a perfect time.

In the end of the evening our couchsurfing host had also found here way to the wine festival. Unfortunately the festival was over so we helped cleaning up the place (= collecting bottles of wine) and placed them in the garbage bin outside (= drunk the wine and then put them in the garbage bin)...

To and a perfect day we went to a local bar called the underground, where we had live music and beer for a change…

posted on: 24/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 1: Belgrades Castle

It was a foggy and chilly morning in Belgrade when we arrived. We had more or less 15 hours to get to know that city so we headed straight to the main attraction – the Kalemegdan fortress and park. It´s more impressive than Europe´s biggest orthodox cathedral which they have been building for 30 years now in the other side of the city.

Autumn suits Belgrade giving it a certain sad and worn out look. That said, we heard that the city´s known for its great night life (something that we didn´t fitness, a life during the night in a bus is not exactly very active) so it has it´s happier side as well .

After a slight hesitation whether having a Belgian beer (Koen found a Leffe from a local shop) in Serbia is the right thing to do or not (we thought it was, as long as we drink a Serbian beer later) there was one more urgent problem to solve. We had to check the mighty internet to know if someone had answered our couch surf request in our next destination in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Luckily there was an empty Apple shop on the way with a bored-looking young guy behind the counter. He was happy to speak with people and kind enough to let us use the computer and find out that we had a couch. Good news made the time fly and before we knew it was dark already.

Sarajevo was just 7 hours away.

posted on: 23/10/2009 by Mari Muldmaa | No comments yet

Balkans - Day 0: Train to Belgrade

Today was the first day of our 11 day taking trip in the Southern Balkan.  Mari and I took the night train from Thessaloniki to Belgrade in Serbia. People had told us before that the train never left on time so we decided to go close to the departure time of the train. When we arrived in the railway station the train seemed to be on time for once! We had to hurry and just made it to the train with only a few minutes...

The train left in Greece, went into Macedonia and ended in Belgrade Serbia. Every border cross we had to show our passport, so our sleep never lasted long.

On the train we met a lot of travelers, most of them going to Belgrade as well. Among them were some American girls who we had I nice conversation with. After that we went to ‘sleep’ to wake up in Belgrade the next day...

posted on: 22/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

First Message

A message from the university! Today was a special day because I met the last of my professors. It took a while, not only because I was lazy, but because some professors are hardly ever at the university. And if the are, than it's most of the time unexpected.

So I met the last of my 5 professors today, without exception they are all very friendly and they understand my situation. Greek people are generally very friendly, but this professor however did not speak English. With the help of a Greek student we were able to discuss the language problem.

For all the courses I do not have to attend the classes. Instead I will have to learn by myself and do projects. For me this is perfect because it gives me the possibility to arrange my time as I want it!

Hopefully I will be able to travel to the Balkan countries next week, but whatever will happen this will be my soundboard to the people at home

posted on: 19/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Παρτι στο πανεπιστ&#

One thing, for sure, is really different from Belgium. Students own the university. During the weekend they just throw parties in the university buildings. As it is suposed to be, the faculty of (civil) engineering is the best place to throw them.

Parties like those are for free, you can by yourself a beer for € 1, and there is music all night long. Police is not allowed to say anything.. (some rights they got a few years ago during a long strike)

For me it is a strange thing, because parties in your faculty building would never be possible.

Once again I am really thankful to be in Thessaloniki right now. People are really friendly and I feel welcome everywhere. It is also really nice to speak some greek, aldo it stays to little sentences..

posted on: 18/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

γιατί!

This last two day I wasn't very lucky. I had to go to the hospital because I hurt my right knee. It was my first time that I had to go to the hospital in an other country. And it wasn't a good experience. The doctor did not speak English, which is quite strange because most young people here in Greece speak ok English.
The doctor only touched my knee and gave me a subscription for a painkiller. Of Course I was not interested in the painkiller, I just wanted to know what I had.. Even now I still don't know what I have, but my knee is better. I will just not sport for the next weeks.

And as Murphy would predict it, something had to happen with my other knee as well. My left knee and the ground met each other in a non pleasant way, and of course in a stupid way. This time I did not go to the doctor because Mari, it is always good to have a flatmate who studies medicine, told me to wait. The injury reminds me of the time I had to get operated, so I hope it is not that bad.

So this weekend was not that nice, but this afternoon I will host my first Couchsurfer here in Thessaloniki! This can save my weekend..

posted on: 11/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Thessaloniki - First week

Today is the day that I took time to program my blog. I could not do much else, because my knee hurts really bad. I suppose I overdid myself..

Tomorrow will be the 7Th day in Thessaloniki after the language course on Lesvos island. A lot has happened already, and of course I will share it to those who are willing to know.

The last week I have been trying to arrange some things for my university. I found out that my host professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki has retired. Even his office was still in the university, only the professor was missing. It means that I have to start looking again for my thesis. But by now I think I found a good professor (at least the Greek students think he is one of the best).. More news on that soon...

Thessaloniki is really relaxed. It will take me 10 days to get an email adres, half a marathon to get all my papers done, ... it feels like being in Russia, where you have to have a paper just to be able to ask for a paper. I don't really mind, it means I can have my holiday mood for a longer time.

Yesterday there was a big erasmus meeting. I heard that there are 500 erasmus students in Thessaloniki! I don't know if it is true, but at least yesterday there were about 200 erasmussers at the gathering.

Also.. As it should be, there is always something going on. Tonight there is a birthday party in our flat, I think the neighbours will not like it.. Again..

posted on: 08/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

At last: Thessaloniki

This morning we left Mytilini and made the trip to Thessaloniki. The trip takes 14 hours by ferry and it reminded me to the trains we used in China. The trip was long and we were very happy to see the skyline of Thessaloniki.

On the ferry we met Adam (Israel) and he offered me to stay in his place in Jerusalem. Adam had been travelling for two month and had a couch surfing profile as well, I think he is a guy I would like to spend time with, so when I go to Israel I will definitely contact him!

In Thessaloniki, Mari and I already had a place to stay, so the only thing for us to do was to go there. We told the landlady we would arrive that evening and she had told us she would be there to open the door. The landlady is old and also a bit crazy so I was afraid that she would not be there. Luckily she was there, as well as two other flat mates (more news on that later).

Communication with the lady was very hard because she speaks no English and thinks the can speak French, but she cannot.  After a while we found out that she spoke Russian, and Mari does as well, so now Mari is our translator.

posted on: 02/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Saying goodbye is never easy

Today was the day that almost everybody left Mytilini to go to their new Erasmus-place (Athens, Rhodos, Crete ...). Mari and I were the unlucky ones because we will leave tomorrow, it means we have to say goodbye a lot of times instead of just once. 

I always find it amazing to see how fast you get attached to people. Even after one month you really get to know people. The Erasmus Intensive Language Course is not only intensive but also intense. I think I will really miss some of the people. So today was not the best one of our stay on Mytilini. 

But over the ages and by travelling I learned to place this feelings and I understand that the harder the goodbye part is the better the time together must have been. For me it is more ‘see you the next time’ rather than ‘goodbye’.

To clear our minds we made a walk through Mytilini and visited two churches, one of the many things we had been postponing for the last month, and had to do on our last day…

In the evening we stayed with the people who will do there Erasmus on Mytilini. There was a birthday party but most of us were very tired from the long and difficult day we had had (and the party the evening before…), so we went to bed early, knowing we had to get up early in the morning the next day…

posted on: 01/10/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | No comments yet

Doubting to go to Izmir…

This weekend university had nothing planed for us so we could do whatever we wanted to do. From Mytilini we can see Turkey and we thought it might be a nice trip to make. I was not totally convinced because this weekend was the end of Ramadan and most things were likely to be closed. On top of that university had not yet begun in Turkey, I had already been in Turkey and I thought that 2 days including 6 hours of ferry wasn’t really a perfect trip. But in the end almost everybody decided to go... And… well... Being alone on an island while other people are having fun… So I decided to go as well.

We set sail at 8 o’ clock in the morning to arrive in Turkey (Yvalik) three hours later. Yvalik is a nice little city, worth visiting, but only for half a day. Morzitz (Germany), Monique (The Netherlands), Josje (The Netherlands), Mari (Estonia) and I (Little little Brussels.. Euh Belgium) wandered around, had kebab and explored the city. Around 3 a clock we took the bus to Izmir, one of the largest cities of Turkey.

In Izmir we were going to couch surf with Tolga, one of the very friendly and polite Turkish men we were going to meet that weekend. It was my first time to couch surf with 4 people but it was a really nice experience.

We met Tolga in the evening (EXACTLY at 8 o’ clock) and he showed us around with his car. Izmir is enormous so it was nice to explore it by car. We went to a nice bar, drunk an efes tower, went for dinner with live Turkish performance, and went to a Turkish rock bar… And ended in Tolga’s very nice apartment where the five of us had a nice and short sleep!

The next day Tolga brought us to a typical Turkish place where we had a breakfast of sweets and saw more of Izmir. I think Izmir is definitely worth going to, especially with a fantastic guide as Tolga.

posted on: 20/09/2009 by Koen Wildemeersch | 1 comment

Day 20 - Helsinki

Today would lead me to Helsinki, the last city on this trip. Together with the Americans I had met the days before we took the ferry to Helsinki. It took us less than 3 hours to go to Helsinki. In Helsinki we all went our own way. I had found a couchsurfer, but before meeting him I was going to explore the city myself and go to one of the islands very close to Helsinki. It was very cold and I walked a lot to keep my body temperature high. It is a nice city to walk and there are some nice things to see. I think most of it you can see in one day and that was exactly the time I would spend in Helsinki. In the afternoon I took the ferry to one of the nearby islands and there I met one Jessy again, one of the Americans I had met before. Together we discovered the island. We knew there were some tunnels and we tried to find them. The landscape was covered with snow and we had a great time finding the tunnels. By accident we also found a tunnel entrance that was totally covered with snow. Some hot air coming through the snow revealed its existence and we dug our way in. It was completely dark and we used the flash of our camera to find our way. When we reached the end of the tunnel network both our batteries had died and we had to find our way back with the light of our cellphone. In the evening I met my Couchsurfer, Erkka. I was amazed by his hospitality and his way of looking towards life. He had cooked some spaghetti and after we went for a bar with some good beers. We played a very interesting game 'Quoridor', a game I had never played before and that can change by every move you make. Very interesting. The day ended, mostly while travelling, late in the night and with a very happy feeling to see my bed.

posted on: 01/01/1970 by | No comments yet

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