Hello everybody!

Some days ago we found out everything about the delicious olives here in Greece, but Olivier already told you all about this. And not only the olives are delicious, also everything else we already tasted here! There are a lot of small restaurants who have fish meals as their specialty, so especially the fish dishes are unbelievably good!. This is off course not abnormal for a country where a huge percentage of the economy is depended on fishing.

Today in Crete, an island of Greece, we attended a local fisher on his ship to see how the fishing in Greece works. This local fisher told us everything about fishing, but also about some of the huge problems that they face every day. The main problem is that there aren’t a lot of fish anymore in the sea, so the catches are a lot smaller. This is due to overfishing, a problem lots of countries face.

The second problem is something we never heard about, named ‘fishing with dynamite’. We were so surprised and interested that it seemed like we were really enthusiastic about it, but of course we weren’t! The fisherman was a little confused by our reactions, because this kind of fishing is really cruel and totally illegal! He thought that we were also ‘dynamite fishers’, although he already knew that we were just tourists. After explaining him that we were just tourists and never heard about this practice, he explained us everything. Dynamite fishing or blast fishing is the practice of using dynamites to kill a school of fishes. It’s really dangerous and forbidden by the law of ‘omerta’(= silence) here in Crete! Dynamite fishing is mostly practiced by poor fishermen who don’t have enough financial sources to buy a boat, but also people who like adventure try this out.

After an interesting and relaxing boat trip, the fisherman brought us back to Crete where we’d met him earlier today.

Αργότερα (See you ;)!)

Source: http://www.explorecrete.com/travel/crete-fishing.html

17-03-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Jolien Janssens  

Hello everyone and welcome again on our blog. 

This week we have travelled from Turkey to Greece where we wanted to learn more about the harvesting, production and the export of olives. 

When we travelled true Greece we have visited a local olive mill where the olives are washed to remove the leaves, and are crushed to produce the liquid, which is extracted from the olives.

The farmer told us that there were two methods for the extraction of the olives.  The first method is a traditional where the pits are very important. In this method the pits are helping to channel the oil when the paste is pressed. This process has duration for about half an hour. After the pressing the paste is spread evenly over woven mats and go under a second press, who separates the paste from the oil. There are just a few more farmers here, who use this traditional method. This is because mainly there are higher costs involved.

The second and the most used method is the extraction based on a centrifuge. Here are the olives crushed by several crushers who separate the flesh and oil. 

Each year Greece produces between the 300-and 400 thousand tonnes of oil and 75% of the production is done by the second method.

They are transporting their oil all over the world, but most particular to Italy who buys three quarters of the total amount of the Greek olive oil transport.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog, and you have learned more about the Greek oil industry. I am looking forward to post new updates of my trip, and give you interesting facts.

Source:

http://www.anagnosis.gr/index.php?pageID=179&la=enghttp://www.anagnosis.gr/index.php?pageID=179&la=eng

14-03-2011 om 19:29 geschreven door Olivier De Smet  

Greece ( Athens)

Hi again everybody!

I left Istanbul a few days ago, and now I am in Athens, the capital of Greece . Currently the weather here is very bad, it has been raining all day long. I was forced to stay inside so I thought it was a good idea to keep you all posted.

Greece is like Istanbul, a city which is known for its cultural and historical background. But especially, we know Greece because of the Greek Mythology. Everybody knows about the stories of Achilles, Hercules, Aphrodite etc.

Besides all this beauty, Greece also has a dark side. Today Greece has a lot of debts it cannot pay off. The cause of the debt crisis are the so called hedge funds and other "speculators" because the institutions bailed out with public funds. Because of the crisis, the Greek government requested on April 13^th 2010 to the EU and IMF for bail-out money. The estimated amount of money needed to bail-out was €50 billion. But the problem now is that the government isn’t able to pay the interest that comes with the loan.

I think the biggest problem now is that Greece is a member state of the EU. So if other countries or investors lose their confidence in the Greek economy, the Greek economy will affect the value of the Euro and will on its turn affect  the economy of Europe. That would be catastrophic for all the EU member states!

We can determine that Greece is in a lot of trouble today. Since the crisis started already many Greeks got unemployed because a lot of companies went bankrupt or closed their department. We need to solve this problem together with Greece!

Hear y’all again when I’m in Jamaica J

Bye! ( Arne Looffen)
Source: http://www.visitgreece.gr/portal/site/eot/

10-03-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Arne Looffen  

Turkey ( Istanbul)

Hello bloggers!

I’m in Turkey now, more specific in the city that once was the capital city of the Ottomanian empire, namely Istanbul. Turkey and especially Istanbul is known for its historical background. Ancient buildings are still standing on the land of the Marmaran-region.

Enough said about the beauty of Istanbul. Now, I’m going to tell you something about the economy of the city. Istanbul has been the center of  the country’s economic life. The reason for that is because the city is surrounded by water, so a lot of international sea trade routes  pass the city. In other meanings, the city lives from the export and import. It has been estimated that the import and export of Istanbul are respectively 56%  and 60.5% of Turkey’s total import and export.
The main products that are exported are raw materials and energy resources.

But it hasn’t always been that great for Turkey. In the late nineties the Asian financial crisis affected the economy of Istanbul. The crisis caused that the export dropped tremendously, knowing that export is very important for Istanbul you can believe it was a real setback.
Then Istanbul also had to deal with a major earthquake. This triggered one of the largest economic shocks in history for the city. Due to the earthquake the GDP ( Gross Domestic Product ) dropped two percent. Despite all these setbacks Istanbul is now again a city with a healthy economy.

We can conclude that Istanbul has known a lot of setbacks during the nineties , but luckily the economy of the city has been able to recover itself. Istanbul now has become a very known place around the world. The city became very modern, young people now also book trips to Istanbul to enjoy its night life. It is considered to be outstanding. So I’m very lucky to be here now, I sure will put it to the test . I hope I’ll  be able to make you all jealous!

Before I forget! If there are people that already have been to Greece, could they please send me a personal message telling me the sites I really need to visit in Athens because I have never been there before and I really want to see all the beauty of the city!

Hope you enjoyed my blogpost! I’ll speak to you all again when I’m in Athens!

Arne Looffen
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Istanbul

10-03-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Arne Looffen  

Hello everybody!

The trip from Iran to Turkey didn’t go as planned. In the airport of Budapest, we had to wait for 5 hours, because they forgot my luggage. I must confess that I was really afraid that I wouldn’t see my luggage ever again, but luckily my luggage was brought in with the next plain from Iran. We forgot this small problem immediately when we relaxed a day at the beautiful beach of Turkey!

Olivier already told you about our visit to the beautiful capital of Turkey, Istanbul. Everything he told you all is totally true! This city is really amazing, no wonder that there were so many tourists.

But the presence of so many tourists isn’t only due to the beautiful old buildings and the nice weather, it’s also because of the great marketing Turkey uses to promote its country. Every year Turkey makes a new movie about the best things in their country and broadcasts this in different countries. I am sure everybody of you already saw one?

Some local habitants told us that since they started to promote Turkey with promotional videos there are a lot more visitors in the old cities of Turkey. A lot of people didn’t know before that Turkey also has a lot of beautiful old buildings. The main idea everybody had of Turkey is that there were just all-inclusive hotels with nice swimming pools everywhere.

In our hotel we watched such a promotional video again, because some of us didn’t see one yet. The atmosphere that they create in the videos is just the same as the atmosphere you feel when you are walking around in the touristic areas of Turkey.

I think it’s really amazing that Turkey broadcasts these promotion videos all over the world. A lot of people live from the tourism, so without that they don’t have revenue and it wouldn’t be possible for them to buy food and clothes. It’s also true what they show in those movies. Turkey is so beautiful, so it’s really worth a visit.

I’m glad we stopped in Turkey, so that we could see all the amazing buildings in Istanbul. In a couple days it’s time to move on and travel further to Greece.

I hope you enjoyed our blog until now! I’ll be back next week!

Kadar sonra (See you ;)!)

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2rHjepdDBs&feature=related

08-03-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Jolien Janssens  

Welcome on our second blog.

I’m pleased to see that there is a lot of interaction on our blog and that every one is interested in the developments of our journey. Today you will find an update of our trip from Iran to Mexico.

The second country we have visited was Turkey, an amazing country with a bright scale of historic influences. The capital of Turkey “Istanbul” has recently won a price, and they can call themselves “the European capital of culture”. So we wanted to find out ourselves, if it’s true that Istanbul is so beautiful as they describe.

Istanbul is one of the places you definitely have to visit. Istanbul is famous for its sprawling palaces and bazaars, and its spectacular location overlooking the waters of the Golden Horn. Another point is that the tourists are very welcome. So you have all the ingredients for an unforgettable vacation.

This city has been the capital of two great empires, first as Constantinople and later as the current Istanbul. This Islamic world has been the gateway between the western and the eastern culture. Now some of the typical Islamic mosques are transformed to a museum and the tourists are able to visit them.

I think that Istanbul is the most beautiful city of Turkey because of its culture. When you want to visit Istanbul you know you will see the authentic buildings of the Islamic culture. But that is not the only thing that makes Istanbul famous. We also have the western influences, and it is the combination of those two things that makes Istanbul the European capital of culture.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog, and still want to follow us on trip to Mexico. You will be hearing from us soon, with a new adventure in the next visited country.

Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/festivalsandevents/6946035/Istanbul-European-Capital-of-Culture-2010-city-highlights.html

07-03-2011 om 12:48 geschreven door Olivier De Smet  

We’re arrived at our next destination during our trip from Iran to Mexico. Our next stop is the beautiful country Turkey! I really wanted to visit this country, because of the beautiful culture and all their facilities.
I was also very curious about the economic situation. Is Turkey really such a bad member for the EU? And is the EU right to not accept Turkeys ask for membership? What will happen with Turkey if they become a member of the EU?
I really wanted to find out. That’s why I’ve searched for an article about this subject.

The negotiations between Turkey and the European Union already began in 2005. Today there is still no agreement about the entry of Turkey, mostly because of the opposition and controversy from other members of the EU. Nevertheless Turkey has all the necessary political and economic reforms to be a member of the EU. The fact that Turkey isn’t accepted as a member of the EU, would be due to his Muslim factor, geographical position, population size, violation of human rights, …

There also would be a huge advantage for all the members of the EU, the market would grow by 72 million customers with an average purchasing power. Next to that Turkey is situated in the Middle East, and is respected as a fair facilitator of conflict resolution by both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict. A membership for Turkey would encourage this role. This would also be good for our relationships with the central Asia region.
Another advantage for the EU, is that Turkey since 1995 participates in the EU internal market for goods. Turkey has also a great potential in labour force, which will continue to grow, particularly after a possible EU membership. We don’t see this in eastern and central countries of the EU, there the labour force growth seems to be shrinking, which is very positive for Turkey. When we accept Turkey as a member, our labour force will also get a boost. On the other hand, the agricultural sector is inefficient. Similar to the eastern and central countries of the EU, Turkey uses one third of its labour force for agriculture.

Another problem is, that the Turkish society still practises things that undermine female dignity, arranged marriages, crimes of honour,…  But there has been some progress the last years, although there are still human rights violations.
In the article they conclude that the destabilisation of the credibility of the EU at home and abroad is a possible failure for the Turkish negotiations.

I find it very difficult to say whether Turkey would be a good addition to the members of the EU or not. There a lot of advantages, but Turkey also has a lot of problems which we can’t ignore.
I think the biggest advantage is that Turkey has relations with us, Europe, and with Asia. I think it’s very important to have a good relation with those countries in the future. Turkey would be a perfect help with this.

One of the biggest disadvantages is that Turkey doesn’t seem to follow the human rights. I guess Turkey must realize that this is a very important point. Before they keep that in mind, they will never become a member of the EU.

But the situation seems to be very good in the big cities in Turkey. I didn’t mention anything of violations against human rights. It’s more a problem of little cities and villages I think.

That was everything for this week! I hope you enjoyed my blog and I’m looking forward to the next destination!

Source: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7825790/turkeys_bid_to_become_an_eu_member.html?cat=62

06-03-2011 om 13:19 geschreven door Sieglinde Debeer  

Hello everybody!

We are still in Iran and we’re having the time of our life. We just discovered today that there are a lot of subway lines under Tehran. So who thought that Iran is just a poor country where you had to do everything on foot is totally wrong! Well, I have to admit at the start of this adventure we probably all had that thought…

Today we were looking for a way to go to another place in Tehran. They told us it was ‘only’ a 2 hour walk. That’s a little bit too far, so we needed to find another way to get there. What we didn’t know, is that there is a very modern metro line in this city. There are 7 different lines, so you can get practically everywhere in the city. First we were a little bit afraid that it wouldn’t be nice to travel with, but it is just amazing! It’s so clean in there! Sometimes we even thought it was nicer to travel with the metro here than in Belgium.

You don’t believe us right? We thought about that and took a picture for you!

And that’s not even all of the public transport; Iran has also his own plain company, Iran Air and railways to other big cities.

Sadly enough, these subways are only in the big cities, so it’s just the same as in Belgium. I think it would be more fun if there were subways everywhere, so that people can leave their car home more often.

Travelling with the subway also helps you to get to know a lot of people. We’ve met Afsoon, a girl who lives in Tehran, in the subway. The moment she saw we were tourists, she guided us through the city. We saw a lot of places we wouldn’t normally see if she hadn’t brought us there.

I’ll send a message again next week to tell you about our further adventures! See you!

Source: http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/tehranmetro/

Bijlagen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehran_Metro   

Hello everyone

First of all I would like to welcome you on my blog. In the next six week I will be traveling from Iran to Mexico. I will make several stops in different countries, and this great and exciting adventure I would like to share with you. Every time when I move on to another country, I will give you a short review of my stay in the visited country.

The first country I have visited is Iran.
During my stay in Iran I have met someone who told me a lot about the Iran's energy industry. And I would like to share this information with you.

The engineer told me what the outlook for Iran’s energy industry is very dark. The National Oil Company’s employees had a pay cut and lost 30% of their income. Many of the oil company's employees are members of the paramilitary Bassij, so they don’t protest about their new wages and when some others protest, it isn’t useful because the paramilitary forces are defending Bassij.

They are thinking that it would be ripe for a start of larger strikes, and with this strikes they cripple the Iranian regime.

I think that the employees are to loyal to their bosses and organizations. They don’t have an union who stands in for the employees and negotiate with the organizations. When everyone would stretch together the employees wouldn’t have got a pay cut, and the companies would stand under pressure.

This was my first blog report from Iran. Thank you for reading and following my blog, now I will be traveling to the next country on my way to Mexico.

Source: http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21477:locals-in-oil-rich-city-contemplate-irans-economic-future-&catid=30:life-in-iran&Itemid=43

28-02-2011 om 11:08 geschreven door Olivier De Smet  

Hello everyone
I’m at the beginning of probably the biggest adventure in my whole life. I’ll make a trip from Iran to Mexico with several stops between those two countries.

That’s why I decided to make a blog. I’ll keep you up-to-date by posting a new part of my adventure every week. This week I’m staying in a cute youth hostel in the capital of Iran, Teheran.

Before I travelled to Iran, I wanted some information about the country. I wanted to know some of its identity and its habits. So I started to look for some information, when I found an article about an interesting subject. The article goes about the game market in Iran. It’s a subject that I didn’t expect from that country. When I think of Iran, I think more of war, problems, …  So I was very surprised to get to know Iran in a different  way.

For the first time in history, Iran was present at gamescom in Cologne. Iran was there to showcase the latest games developed in Iran, establish contacts, and to see if Western retailers would stock their games.
Mr Tarbyatjoui says that this event was only to promote what is happening in the Iranian games industry. He believes Iran has more potential and they want to promote that. This is due to the fact that Iran has its own unique mythology that has rarely been used in video games.
The group said that the event in Cologne had been a success and they would be back next year, that will be at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. They will be at E3 next year, but there will not be a dedicated Iran stand such as you see in Cologne.

I was very surprised by finding an article from Iran about this subject. But I think it’s a good way to promote Iran again, and make the country more popular again. These days, people don’t like Iran anymore. They are even afraid of travelling to it, because it’s very dangerous there. And since gaming is very popular today, it’s a very good way to promote the country in a good way.
I also think they should be there next year. Everybody knows Iran and the USA don’t have a good relationship. It would be a perfect opportunity to get to know each other in another way.  

So this will be all for this week. Next week, I'll be reporting from another country, which I'll keep as a surprise till then.

I hope you found it interesting, and I'll hear you all next week !  

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8213272.stm

27-02-2011 om 17:53 geschreven door Sieglinde Debeer  

Iran Teheran

Dear bloggers

My name is Arne Looffen and this is my story:

I always wanted to go on a big journey to see the beauty of the world. That’s the reason why I planned the following journey from Iran to Mexico, making stops in different countries and villages along my trip ( IranèTurkeyèGreeceèJamaicaèCubaèMexico). By using this blog I want you all to be part of my incredible journey. I’ll keep you all posted with pictures and lots of information from each country I’ll be visiting.

This is my first day  at the capital city of Iran,  Teheran.  Already I’m able to tell you guys something about this city. Today I red a newspaper article saying  “ Teheran is the smokiest of all capitals”. Apparently Teheran is a very polluting city. The power stations, cement factories  and thousands of over-polluting cars made sure Teheran won the “world record in air pollution”.  In the past the Alborz massif winds kept the city providing healthier air with more oxygen in it. But since Teheran is air still, a large thick brown haze has covered the sprawling city ( see picture). Because of  the smog, already 3,600 people died in the past months. Especially old people and asthmatics suffered a lot.

Teheran needs to change its environmental policy ! The air pollution there is like 5 times bigger than in our cities. First of all, the government of Iran could lay restrictions on the emission of power stations or petrol stations that are settled in Teheran and the surrounding cities and villages. Closing these companies will mean a lot of unemployment, so that isn’t an option for a nearly third world country like Iran. On the other hand they also need to lay restrictions on the emission of the cars that are driving there. Cars driving there, pollute 3 times more than cars driving in our countries. This restriction isn’t that important as the others but everything will help Teheran to be a “cleaner city”.

We, Western countries can also help Iran (Teheran). We can sent engineers to these polluting factories so they can help them to be more ecological. This can be supported with money we get from certain foundations.

This was my  blog post from Iran ( Teheran ) within a few days I’ll take the plane to Istanbul, Turkey.
Speak to you later!

Arne Looffen

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/17804554

27-02-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Arne Looffen  

Coming soon

27-02-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Arne Looffen  

Hello,

This is my first blog of our journey throughout the world. Our trip starts in Iran and ends in Mexico. This first blog will be about the culture in Iran, to be more precise, about the Iranian marriage ceremony.

The marriage ceremony is one of the oldest traditions in Iran and has been influenced by a lot of different factors. There are many local variations of the ceremony and the Islam traditions have also changed the marriage ceremony in a big way. The marriage of the couple itself is actually only a small part of the big picture, and the two lucky people themselves have very little to say in the preparation. The family will take care of everything, from sometimes even choosing the right partner for their son or daughter, to organizing the entire party.

 

The government wants to be involved in the ceremony and has spend more than one billion dollar to help young couples arrange their marriage. They will provide them with cheap loans and this is necessary because some marriages can cost over  a hundred thousand dollar.

I am a big fan of the marriage ceremony, but I like to keep things small. And because I’m not a religious person, I wouldn’t want any interference of any religion. Marriage should just be two people who love each other and who want to show that to their friends and family with a small ceremony.

I would hate it if I would have to get married in Iran. Other people who organize the whole thing, without having the chance to change it into something you want. And, in my opinion, it would be horrible to have to marry someone you’ve never met before in your entire life. I can’t believe that those fixed marriages can have a happy ending. Maybe some couples have all the luck of the world on their side and get matched up to the right person, but that’s probably something very rare.



I’m not quite sure want to think about the government giving away all that money to support marriage. In a way it’s good that young couples get some help to follow their dream and have a perfect marriage. But when I think of Iran, I always think about government involvement in almost everything that their citizens do. And I think that this is also a way for the Iranian government to have a little more grip on the people of Iran. But maybe I’m a little bit pessimistic and Iran is doing this just because they want the best for all the people of Iran.

So, this was my first blog of our trip from Iran to Mexico. I hope you enjoyed it, and next week we’ll be in another country and I’ll be writing my second blog.

Source: http://www.cultureofiran.com/iranian_marriage_ceremony.html

25-02-2011 om 00:00 geschreven door Jacob Mareen  

18-02-2011 om 14:26 geschreven door Olivier De Smet