zondag 19 juni 2016

The most and the least...

Whenever you are abroad, you may notice a special common character trait that a lot of people in a certain country seem to have. Today, I will share some of the observations about the countries I have visited. Some of them may be a bit of a stereotype, but some stereotypes are really true.

Here's the list:
Most beer-drinking people: Czech Republic
Most digital: Sweden
Most well-organized: Japan (even beats the Netherlands)
Most beautiful women: Ukraine
Most over-the-top country: United Arab Emirates
Most burocratic: Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan
Most friendly: Tanzania (on the countryside)
Least friendly: Bolivia
Most patriottic people: France
Least patriottic people: Lithuania
Best national cuisine: Greece and Peru
Worst national cuisine: Kazakhstan
Most quiet: Oman
Most noisy people: Spain
Most surprising region: Transsylvania, Romania
Most annoying salesmen: Morocco
Most talkative people: Italy
Only country where I ever paid a bribe: Bulgaria
Most surprisingly delicious drink: Inca Kola in Peru
Most large country (in almost every possible aspect): USA
Most beautiful country: impossible to say; every country has its own charms

zondag 12 juni 2016

The most impressive places I have seen so far

Last month I visited my 50th and 51st country, which has been my goal for a long time. Regular visitors of my blog will know by now that I love to make lists, so of course I also have a list of all the countries I visited. You can find it here:


Now it’s time to look back on all those trips and share the highlights with you. In this blog post, I will share the top 5 of the most impressive places I have been to. I will present them to you in reverse order, to build up some excitement. :)

5. Old town, Chefchaouen, Morocco
I suppose that most of you have never heard about Chefchaouen. In fact, I had never heard of it too before I started planning a trip to Morocco. Chefchaouen is a small town in Northearstern Morocco where all the houses in the old town are painted blue. I arrived in Chefchaouen at around 6pm in winter time. I will never forget the combination of twilight, empty narrow streets without traffic and blue houses everywhere that was my first impression of this town. I fell in love with this place instantly and even bought a blue painting from a local artist that is currently still displayed in my home to remind me of this lovely place. If you decide to go here someday, do watch out for touts who will try to sell you drugs. And just so you know – my enthousiasm about Chefchaouen was not influenced by any drugs. ;)



4. Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia
It’s not as unique in this world as I initially thought, but Salar de Uyuni is certainly the biggest and most impressive salt plains in the world. At many places there is salt as far as the eye can see, which gives you the feeling as if you are on another planet. On some days the weather conditions are in such a way that the salt is actually reflecting the sky above it, which should be even more impressive. This wasn’t the case when I was there, but it was a very impressive place nonetheless.



3. Registan Square, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
For years I had been looking forward to visit Uzbekistan and in 2015 I finally did it. The main reason why I wanted to visit Uzbekistan was because I had seen images of a magical place called “Registan square” in Samarkand. When I was there, there were some people on the square, but it was still not too crowded, like most of the big tourist attractions in Europe. And the next morning from the bus I got a view of an empty square, which was absolutely astonishing. Even though I was unable to make a picture from the bus, this view justified a third place in my top 5 of today.


2. Grand Canyon, USA
No need to provide an explanation about this place. My parents took me to the eastern part of the USA when I was 16 (?) and I am very grateful that they did. It was my first time outside of Europe and we saw so many beautiful places during our roadtrip from Los Angeles via Las Vegas and San Francisco back to Los Angeles. The Grand Canyon was certainly a highlight in that trip. Although it did ruin every other canyon I visited afterwards. Nothing is as impressive as the Grand one.


1. Petra, Jordan
Without a doubt I consider the “Treasury” of Petra the most impressive place I have ever seen. The way there adds a lot to the experience: first you walk 2 km through a path between two large rocks (called the Siq). This path gets more and more narrow until at some point out of nowhere you reach this amazing place. Unfortunately this moment was ruined for me a bit because I was distracted by a small girl who wanted to sell me something, but the moment when I first saw this place in all its glory was still a very memorable moment. A big piece of advice: go to Petra in low-season and on your own (I can tell you how to get there), then you will have the place all to yourself like I did and you will be able to take pictures like this:



Quite interesting that I realized only after I finished the list that all places in my top 5 are outside of Europe. I guess you always consider the things that are close to you more “normal” and less impressive.

In the coming weeks I will write more posts related to this theme. I will try to post something every Sunday. So see you next Sunday!