The 10th
week, we arrived in The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its the second
biggest country of the African continent, and its right in the middle of the
continent. Its the most populous officialy Francophone country, and people
speak French because of Congo was the Belgian colony from 1908 until 1960.
Before that, it was a free state. Colonists brutalized the local population to
produce rubber, used for making rubber tires in a growing international market.
The sale of rubber made a fortune to our king Leopold, who built several buildings in Brussels and
Ostend to honor himself and his country. During this period, which was around
1900, millions of Congolese died as a consequence of exploitation. Its the
reason why we didnt say a lot we where Belgian people. Some people there know
their history, and theyre not grateful to what our ancestors did with them. The last day we were in the country, we saw
in an old museum an old banknote of Zaire.
Mobutu renamed the country the Republic of Zaire, which was Congos 4th
name change in 11 years. We also visited
Kinshasa, which is the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its also the biggest city, and its located
on the Congo River. Kinshasa had the
earliest documented HIV-1 infection, which dates from 1959. In 2004, Kinshasa was rated as one of
Africas most dangerous cities in terms of crime. We knew this before we
arrived, so we hired two people who were always around. They protected us, if
necessary, and they told us what areas we better didnt enter. All of us didnt like this city very much,
because we didnt feel very safe. Luckily, we didnt stay in Kinshasa for the
whole week, so we still had time to enjoy the rest of the Congo without the
bodyguards. After seven days, we packed
our bags once again, and went on to the next country.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:Week 10: Democratic Republic of the Congo
06-05-2012
This
country is the last country weve visited. The last, but not the least.
Yesterday, Ive read an article on the website of The New York Times (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/madagascar/index.html) about Madagascar. It says
Madagascar is one of the richest countries concerning nature. Research has made clear that 80% of the
animals and plants on Madagascar, exist on Madagascar only. So nowhere else on the world.
This gives
a big hint about how interesting it is for all people around the world to visit
this Island, which is the fourth biggest one on the planet. It also means were
not the only tourists here. Lots of Americans and Asian people, taking pictures
everywhere they can. You would think its life depending for them. Its very
irritating, in my opinion. But at least lots of tourism is good for the economy
of Madagascar. It provides the people with the money they need to keep them
alive, and to protect their heritage. Because lots of companies are making
abuse of lots of the precious materials that are available on this fabulous
island. The second day we started
exploring this nature and his animals. The day after that, we saw the other
side of the Island. We went to a place where some international companies
started exploiting some of the fishes the see around Madagascar is producing.
There are two sides of this story. The positive side is that people can take
profit of it, because of the raise of industrial growth, which is only 5% in
Madagascar. The downside is that theres less and less fish, because these
companies kill far too much fishes. The fourth day, we went to a small city
called Toliara. Its one of the bigger cities on the island, with about 100 000
people living there. Its right next to a big national park, called Isalo, and its right next to the sea. Concerning
nature, its very beautiful here. It proves people can combine tourists (and
thus economy) and nature, without causing too much damage to the beautiful
nature of this island.
The second week of our trip we traveled to Poland. It is a big country with 38 million inhabitants. After a short flight of about 1 hour we arrived at one of the 11 airports of Poland. The temperature was about the same as in Belarus, namely minus 5 degrees. Due to the large amount of snow it was difficult to get from the airport to our hotel. We arrived very late and we were so happy that we could warm up by the fireplace in the hotel. After seeing the many types of vodka, we decided to try one ore more
The vodka with cherry is my absolutely favorite. But fortunately, polish people do not only drink vodka; we also drank coffee, soup and tea to warm us up. The next three days we decided to brave the cold temperature and went skiing in the mountains. We also went as a variety to skiing to Mazirië where an ice sailing competition took place. It is a sport by which different participants sail on the ice with special made vehicles. But we came not only to Poland to do sport. We visited with warm clothes on the historical center of Krakow and Auschwitz Bierkenau. The historic center of Krakow is situated on the Hill Wawel. On the hill stands a royal castle and cathedral with three towers. In one of the three towers hangs a large clock. That clock is even heavier and older than the Big Ben in London. In our hotel there also were regular activities such as the popular card game of Poland Bridge and folk dancing. We found the traditional meals of Poland rather unhealthy but tasty. The food consists of a lot of cheese, smoked meat and herring. Almost every meal consists of soup. For dessert, we could choose from a lot of sweets like cakes, tiramisu, pancakes, chocolate and fruit.
To finish this week we went back to the college town Krakow where we dove into the Polish nightlife. After a short night it was already time to travel to the next country.
After a few boring hours on the plane, we finally arrived at the International Airport Minsk. It is the major international airport of Belarus. It is really amazing! The Minsk airport is approximately 50 kilometers from the city Minsk itself. The airport was equipped with all modern conveniences such as restaurants, bars, a post office, a bank and exchange office, a nursery, a taxi service and much more. Seeing all those bars, made us very thirsty. So accordingly, we took a ten-minute break to drink a glass on our first trip around the world.
The capital Minsk is easy to reach, there a three options: take a bus (price: 1), take a taxi (price: 20) or rent a car. We choose the cheapest solution: the bus. Busses depart every hour from 7 am till 10.30 pm. After a 40 minutes drive on the bus, we arrived in Minsk, next to the Central Rail Terminal. We then unloaded our luggage and were ready for adventure: the search for our hotel. Our greatest problem was navigation! It was a hard nut to crack because the actual street names were in Cyrillic alphabet which we had to decipher.It caused excitement because we didn't know for sure where we went most of the time, let alone that I knew which way I was taking. We wandered about for a few hours till someone had the bright idea to ask someone the way. It wasn't that easy because tourism isn't a priority in Minsk, as a consequence, English is spoken rarely.
We finally arrived the hotel!
After unpacking, we went into the city for more exploration. Minsk is the capital of Belarus and one of the oldest cities in Europe. The city was almost destroyed during the Second World War, something I once learnt in secondary school. I really expected a desolate and dirtiness but nothing was further from the truth. Minsk was surprisingly clean and beautiful, with grand buildings, well manicured parks throughout the city and artistic statues along the main boulevards. Even the Soviet Era apartment blocks in the outer suburbs were freshly painted and well maintained.
What about the cuisine in Minsk?
The eating habits aren't that different from other Eastern European cultures. The modern Belarusian cuisine exists of a wide range of potatoes and red meat. Belarusians spend a lot of their free time in the woods searching for many kinds of mushrooms. The most beloved Belarusian dish is draniki or potato pancake. Dairy products such as sour cream, butter and milk are served with the pancakes. Draniki is also very popular in other countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Israel. A favorite drink is black tea and coffee in general.
Darkness then fell and we decided to explore the nightlife in Minsk. The city at night is really quiet and we felt us very safe. One of the main reasons of the dead silence at night in Minsk is that persons under 18 years are forbidden to be on the streets after 11 pm without being accompanied with an adult. The policies of their government are really strict. Firstly, it is forbidden to drink alcohol (included beer!) in public places such as the local streets, parks,... It is only possible in places such as restaurants, bars, pubs or of course at home. Secondly, smoking is forbidden in public spaces and in the centre of Minsk. Another rule is to protect the city against dust and dirt. Accordingly, Minsk is one of the most clean cities in the world.
