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