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Mada - West & East

WEST

The main reason to go west from Tana is to go to the Avenue of the Baobabs, near Morondava. This is quite a long journey from Tana (first bout 4 hours to Antsirabe and then another 11ish hours to Morondava), but it was so worth it! Reading up on it before, I tried to keep my expectations low – people write about how crowded it is, that the avenue is not very long, that there are not that many trees etc. So when I got there, I was actually positively surprised and it was much cooler than I thought! The trees look the most impressive at sunset and sunrise, so we actually went twice, and with the sunrise you have much less people. There will still be a fair share of loud Asian ladies, and I don’t want to know what this place looks like in high season… but it was definitely an unforgettable experience! You feel so small under the trees, and nature feels so impressive. Madagascar has opened my eyes to natural wonders I couldn’t have imagined before, it really is that special!

In Morondava, we had planned to stay at Le Trecignone, which seems to be the budget option. However we had miscalculated the days and so we ended up staying at Chez Maggie, which was expensive but had AC. Morondava was soooo hot, but then we also went in the middle of the summer. People in this part of the country also look more African, and the clothing for women is just a capulana (printed fabric) wrapped around their body.

When you drive to the baobabs, I would also recommend you to continue down that road, for two reasons: Firstly, this is the road that will take you to the Tsingy de Behemara. Unfortunately, as we went in the wet season, this road is impassable and there is no other way to get there. So if you go with a better timing than I did, please go to this place and send me a photo afterwards, because I’m really sad I couldn’t make it! This place will probably take a few days of your trip but my research suggests it would be one of the top things to do in the country.

The second reason to continue down this road is to get to the Kirindy forest reserve. It’s about an hour drive from the baobabs, so it’s ideal to watch the sunset there and then continue out there, as wildlife spotting is best in the early hours of the day. As we arrived, the guide could immediately point out a Fossa that was passing by the camp site! This is the only ‘large’ predator on the island, it looks a bit like a small Puma – like a mix of a dog and a cat, it’s usually described. So then we got our guide and went for a walk in the forest for 1-2 hours. The guide was great, he was so knowledgeable and answered a million questions from me about the forest an taught us a lot about the fauna, and we managed to see brown lemurs, white sifakas and a kind of sportive lemur – the ones active during the night, which hide in holes in the tree during the day. I just can’t get enough of these darlings…

On our way to and from Morondava, we spent a night in Antsirabe, at a nice colonial-style hotel called Le Trianon. The town is described as a chilled out place, but we didn’t really explore it as we arrived late and left early. However, we did have a nice breakfast at a little French bakery, which do pretty decent Croissants and pastry! What I was also told here is that the Malagasy coffee (this is for coffee nerds) is not 100% Arabica beans but a mix with a lot of Robusta, which gives it this very distinct, rough taste. However, I haven’t been able to verify this so if you know more, please enlighten me!

EAST

From Morondava we went back to Tana again (…) and then headed east, to a place called Andasibe. For a much appreciated change, this is only a 3-4 hour drive from Tana. This was a place I’d heard about from other travellers, a place with rainforest and lots of lemurs – especially the Indry, the largest type of lemur. The first day there, we headed out to a forest lodge called Vakona that has a little island with lots of semi-domesticated lemurs on it. It’s technically not a zoo, but the lemurs can’t leave the island on their own… But because they are fed, they are more than happy to jump on your shoulders and head to get a piece of banana! This was suuuuch a cool experience, you get to see and touch (and smell) the lemurs upfront and it was fantastic. There’s brown lemur, black and white lemurs and diademed sifakas. Fun fact; Sifakas are called dancing lemurs because they can’t walk like the other ones, so they jump sideways when they are on the ground! And in general it’s just amazing to see their ability to jump and move around in the trees, with the babies hanging on their belly or back.

Picture by Ernânio.

Also included in the entry fee to the lemur island is an entry to a crocodile farm. I was actually quite uncomfortable with this place – a lot of crocodiles are brought here and kept in an enclosure that is much smaller than their natural habitat and much more densely populated. So of course it is fascinating to see these very impressive, dinosaur-like creatures so close up, but it doesn’t feel like a decent living for them. Also they have a fossa in a small cage, that is ‘used’ for conservation and breeding, but it was quite heartbreaking to me. I think it is wrong to keep animals in a way so that they cannot practice their natural behaviour – like roaming around in a forest. Although, it definitely has its benefits for the species that they can breed them like this… And they also have snakes and chameleons in enclosures. All in all it left me quite uncomfortable.

We spent the night at the hotel Feon’ny Ala, and were awakened in the dark by the very loud howl of the Indry. I’d gotten used to the sound of the brown lemurs, which is like a little piglet, but this is something completely different! Wow. So in the morning the next day, we headed out for a 3-4 hour walk in the park (with a guide), to see the Indry and other animals. The guide was very nice and really informative, so you get to learn a lot about the Indry and the other things you see. We found several Indry families, as well as more brown lemurs and diademed sifakas. On top of that, we also found a boa constrictor which was digesting a little rodent that it had eaten the day before, leaving it too lazy to move and allowing me to touch it! We were also lucky to find a giraffe weevil, something I was really hoping for after having seen them in a documentary with David Attenborough. And lots of pretty butterflies! And since I’m now living in a large-ish city, I cherish the time I get to spend in such a lush environment as these forests so much, the freshness of the air and the beautiful views.

Ernânio again, thanks!

Sooooo coool.

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How to transport geese, turkeys and chicken in Madagascar... (10 hr trips!)

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Mada - Antananarivo and South

Antananarivo a.k.a. Tana

The capital of Madagascar was the first place I arrived to and it’s difficult to use only one word to describe it. Houses packed up on hills, next to rice fields as soon as you get down to anything flat, narrow, winding streets, random foods and markets. This is the first idea one gets of the country, and it tells a tale of colonialism, multi-ethnicity an immigration, and poverty. In Tana, people look remotely Indonesian to my untrained eye, and the city in general feels very far from Africa. Actually, it felt more like a fusion of South America and South East Asia. Honestly though, there’s not that much to do here. Wander around and take in the atmosphere, go to the market, but it’s not that exciting after a day or so. But do not miss out on the amazing food!

My top picks for restaurants were Sakamanga (where we had dinner on NYE, chocolate mousse is fab!), and a place which on google maps is referred to as le carrefour de voyageur (Rue des 77 parlementaires Français Antsahavola), also known as Le Carre. Just superb! I should have spent way more money on food in Tana… But check out Tripadvisor to find more!

Where to stay:

There are couchsurfers in the bigger cities in Madagascar, but I still opted to stay in a hostel in Tana – Madagascar Underground. This place has a really nice vibe, a really nice bar and the most amazing staff! There is karaoke every night and Mushu will sing for you :) It’s simple and a bit chaotic but a great place to meet people, and they can help you with contacts for the rest of your trip. As I passed through Tana many times (the road network makes that pretty much inevitable), I also stayed in Sakamanga, (it’s both a hotel and a restaurant and spa and…) which is luxurious but cheap with European standards and probably one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed in (because I always prioritise budget…).  

South

I decided to first head south, because I desperately wanted to go hiking and had my mind set on Andringitra. This is a mountain range with the highest climbable peak in Mada, pic Boby/pic Imarivolanitra, 2658 masl. It’s a beautiful three-day adventure, the hike is not too difficult so if you are normally fit you will have no problem. And this is totally worth the effort! This park is one of the least visited in the country, and I saw only three other tourists during our days there. The nature is absolutely breath-taking, the peace of the place stunning. And we had fantastic guides and porters that cooked, carried our tents and provided excellent entertainment in terms of music and dance by the campfire every night! We got the phone number of the guide, Mario, at Madagascar Underground.

Where is this wonderland? From Tana, take a taxi-brousse that leaves at 7am (supposedly) to Fianarantsoa (Fianar for short), and there continue to Ambalavao. This should cost around 25000 Ar. We got to Fianar very late, so we ended up having to take a taxi to Ambalavao to get there the same night, which was quite expensive, over 100 000 Ar. However if you have to stay in Fianar, the hotel Raza-otel is a little bit tricky to find (a side road down from a square, that turns into a dirt road) but it’s cheap and cosy!

In Ambalavao, we stayed in a hotel called La residence du Betsileo, and they offer delicious fried cheese for dinner – the owner is French and speaks very little English… Mario met us at the hotel and picked us up from there the morning after, we spent two nights in the Andringitra park and were dropped off at the same place. The whole tour was 320 000 Ar per person, and it was well spent money as it was literally all included, even the local rum!

From Ambalavao, we continued further south to the well-known park Isalo. This is one of the oldest and therefore most well-visited parks in the country. The landscape is so varied on this island, and this our guide presented to us as the Colorado of Madagascar – desert, rock formations and canyons. And yes it is gorgeous, we walked for two days and spent one night at a campsite there, where we were hanging out with lemurs! Both brown lemurs, which is the most common type, and ring-tailed lemurs which are the most well-known ones. Suuuch a nice experience to lie on the ground and look up at 10 of those beautiful creatures, playing and chilling right above you. This campsite apparently gets packed in high season and can have 50 people staying there, but as we were in low season and chose to spend the 25th of December there, it was only my two companions and I!

To get to Isalo, take the Taxi-Brousse that goes from Fianarantsoa to Tuleár (Toliara on Google Maps) – if you are in Ambalavao you need to call and make a reservation so they pick you up, something that Mario (our guide from Andringitra) helped us with. You get off in the city Ranohira, which has the park office to Isalo. This is a fairly pricey park to visit, because there are established guide fees, the park entrance is pretty high etc. In the end we payed something like 240 000 Ar, because we wanted vegetarian food and decided to walk to and from the park instead of taking a car (you really don’t need a car). We went with a young guy, Julio, the first day and with Dady the day after. They were both great guides, explaining a lot about the local cultures, the plants and the geological formations. Recommended! In Ranohira, we stayed in a place called Chez Alice, which has bungalows just on the outskirt of the little community and it’s really peaceful. The receptionist is a nice an funny guy, and the rood in the restaurant is very good! We had dinner here on the 24th and the 26th and there was quite a party going on the last night!

What I didn’t do on my trip, which most others seem to do, was to continue south, to Tuleár. I don’t know how interesting the city itself is, but there’s a little beach town just south of it called Anakao that I would have liked to visit. There is also another place near Ambalavao called Anja (I think?) where you can see hundreds of ringtailed lemurs tanning in the sun, which I didn’t know about when I was in the area but in hindsight wished I could have gone to. However, there was just not enough time…

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Magical Madagascar

Sorry for the delay and the poor quality of my pictures :/ this just took some time to compile...

Madagascar, where I spent Christmas and NYE, was truly a wonderland for a nature-lover like me :) but be prepared, Madagascar is probably the least touristy country I’ve visited so far and it’s not for the conveniently oriented. It’s not comfortable and the distances between places of interest are looong. But oh, so worth it!

Before you go

Flying to Madagascar is a bit tricky. As I was coming from Mozambique, I found that the most affordable way was from Johannesburg via Nairobi to Antananarivo (Tana), paying about 560 €, and there’s no ferry or direct flight. I met a girl who’d been able to get tickets for 800 € return from Paris, which might be the best way from Europe. Otherwise there are flights from the Seychelles and Mauritius, if you want to combine those places.

VISA – as a Swedish citizen (and it was the same for my Mozambican friend), you get the visa upon arrival. It costs 80.000 AR, or about 30 USD. Make sure you have the sum either in euro or USD with you!! NO card payment! For less than a month it was no issue, if you want to spend more time it is probably more expensive. Google is your friend.

Timing of your trip – I went in December/January, which is not the best time to visit Madagascar because it’s the beginning of the rain season. Fortunately I didn’t experience that much rain, but there were several parks that I wanted to go to that were inaccessible. The upside was of course that everything was less crowded, so it’s a balance. I think peak season is September/October, so best time to visit is probably November. But again, that depends on what you want to see. It is well worth researching and planning your trip before to get the most out of it!

Getting around

Another reason to plan ahead is that things are far apart and travelling takes a long time, so you want to be sure to not back-track more than necessary and be smart about your time. The biggest decision on this regard is to choose between using public transport, Taxi-Brousse, or renting a car (with a driver). I did taxi-brousse for the first week, and then when my friend arrived we rented a car. I can’t say that one is better than the other, because travelling like a local has a lot of cool perks (just spending time in the bus station and watching them load baskets of chicken onto the roof of the mini buses is an experience, as is stopping at the dirt-cheap roadside restaurants) and is obviously much cheaper. You do get your own seat, but then, you never really know when the bus leaves or arrives, if it will break down (happened to us), how hot it will be or what music they will blast. Because they will blast it. Bring earplugs or very good headphones. You do however get your own seat (unlike my Moz experience)…

Renting a car was stupid expensive, but oh so comfortable, and it was great to have a local driver to help us out with stuff. But we paid 1550 € for eleven days, car+driver+fuel. Ugh, that hurt my wallet! Also, I feel like it kinda isolates you, you have much less interaction with the country. But yes, especially if you know that you want to cover long distances fast, this might be worth it because it saves you so much energy. Another alternative is domestic flights, but they are suuuuper expensive (like, 600 USD return to go to Tana-Diego) and unreliable, can be delayed or cancelled on short/no notice.

Another thing, there is malaria in parts of Madagascar. I didn’t take any medication, but I have a very strong repellent and that’s actually more effective. But hey, that’s your choice. Also, hospitals are appalling. My friend did an internship at the hospital in Mahajanga at the time (a fairly big city), and said that they don’t even have soap in the hospital. Moreover, there’s an open pit toilet – inside the hospital. So if you want to get infected with something, that seems like the place to go…

Also to keep in mind – there are 17 tribes on Madagascar, that all coexist relatively peacefully nowadays. But that means, literally every time you turn a corner, there’s a new culture to explore! I always asked people what was the name of the tribe they belonged to, and what were the Fady in the area. Fady means taboo and this is a big thing in Madagascar, and very local. Generally, you are not to point at things, especially tombs, with your index finger extended. Either you bend your finger, or point with your elbow. A local fady in the Andringitra park is that you are not allowed to eat pork, nor set nature of fire – needless to say, I approved of both. Also, exhumation (re-burial of bones) is traditional practice for all tribes except one. Our guide in Isalo explained that one to us, also super interesting! So, be humble and ask questions, there are so many stories to be told and in my opinion, your curiosity is a way of honouring the place you visit. 

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My office

I get a lot of questions about my work, so now I’ll tell you what I’m actually doing during the days.

At 8 (…or 8:15) in the morning, I arrive at my office. People in this organisation are actually pretty much on time, working from 8-17. This is apparently not the case everywhere, but here I’d say they operate much like my experience of European offices. There’s a one hour lunch break, people go for coffee in between. Most of them also have breakfast here during the morning, bread and badijas (deep fried bean flour lumps) that our maid prepares. It’s very normal to have an office maid here, and there are three other guys whose tasks I’m not quite sure of, but it seems to include driving the office car and general janitor work – such as opening the front gate to me as I don’t have a key.

Then I go sit at my desk. Actually, I’m not at my desk because it’s tiny and facing a wall, so while my colleague is gone I’m borrowing her desk that is facing the window, so I can look out on a massive mango tree. We are 5 people in this room, although it’s pretty much never full as people are always on fieldwork. Our office is basically a big apartment on the second floor of a residential house, so we are occupying the living room. Behind me, there’s a little hallway and then three more rooms, two smaller offices and one for the big boss (a lady, fyi). You enter through the kitchen, and there’s also a separate office for the office administrator there. 

I’m actually unsure how many people work here, but it’s approximately 10 plus the maid and the other guys. The office setup is… well, there’s very often people talking (or shouting) at each other, and there are lots of dogs in the neighbourhood so sometimes you have 5 dogs barking in a choir. I’m rather noise sensitive, so I work with my headphones most of the time, which makes me look really antisocial. Also very strange to sit with my back to the room, so everything is literally going on behind my back, and I think that makes it a bit harder for me to integrate. It’s not like it comes natural to say hi, as I don’t see when anyone walks by. It’s also very uncommon for them to ask me to join for coffee or breakfast or whatever. Sometimes I try to join, but it’s hard to enter in the middle of a conversation with people who have known each other for ages and are talking about things I have no clue about in a language I’m far from fluent in.

So at 13, I go home for lunch. Some people stay, but a lot go away for lunch (I guess they go home?). I live just 10 minutes away, and it’s really refreshing to get out of here, walk a bit, and sometimes talk to or eat with my housemates instead. Perhaps I’d be better integrated if I stayed for that hour, but I really don’t feel like it. Maybe that’s something I should try to do more though, at least a few times a week to see if it helps. Because the way it is now, I still don’t really know what people are doing, and I don’t know very much about them or their personal lives either. It’s hard to get to know people who make almost zero effort in getting to know me, it’s hard to know where to start. This bothered me a lot in the beginning, but at this point I don’t really care anymore. They are all super-stressed because they have so much work towards the end of the year, so I try not to bother them. I’ve tried to tell them that I want to know what they are working on, but that apparently came across as aggressive, so now I try to stay to myself and just be friendly when I see a moment.

In a way that’s really sad, because these are really amazing people. They are true fighters, who work to defend the people without a voice when they are mistreated by companies or the government. They have big hearts and they really, genuinely care about each other, and laugh a lot together in the office. Unfortunately I’m not a part of that. I don’t know how to make myself fit in. But sometimes that’s just life, I guess.

In terms of what I actually do here… well, as they are so busy, they don’t have time to include me in their work. So I’ve been preparing one fact sheet on the effects of coal mining, and now I’m starting to read an EIA for a gas exploration that we are working on (i.e. scrutinising) in the northern part of the country. I’ve also been to a few meetings and conferences on environmental topics. In between, I’ve been reading a lot of news, looked for jobs (this internship will come to an end…) and been planning my trip for the holidays at the end of the year. Also, I’ve been staying in touch with a lot of people at home, which has kept me going when things have felt overwhelming or confusing or just meaningless. Thank you, guys <3

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Hash - on on!

I’ve started doing hash.

Now before you get all upset, let me explain. “The Hash House Harriers […] is an international group of non-competitive running social clubs. An event organized by a club is known as a hash or hash run, with participants calling themselves hashers…” (Wikipedia - actually an interesting read!) 

I usually refer to the Hash as my running group, but they like to point out that they are not a running group with a drinking problem, they’re a drinking group with a running problem. In Maputo, we are usually 30-40 people who meet on Saturday afternoon to go for a run together. However, many people are in it more for the social part and there is therefore also a large group that walk.

In the morning, some people (hares) set a trail – they go to a different place every time, and leave a trail of flour. Then we run in a group, and try to follow the trail. Sometimes you have to search for it, sometimes there are false trails and you have to backtrack, which means that the slower ones will never fall behind and the faster ones get to run more! This has taken me to areas in and around Maputo that I never ever would have visited on my own, and I’m so happy for that, for having seen the other side of this place. The walking group start and finish at the same place but do a shorter route (walk normally ~5k, run 8-10k), and then there’s a beer award to everyone in the end.

Because beer is important!

“The objectives of the Hash House Harriers as recorded on the club registration card dated 1950:

To promote physical fitness among our members

To get rid of weekend hangovers

To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer

To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel” (wiki)

Apart from the beer, the run is very fun! I’ve found great people that are very knowledgeable about running, people who have run many marathons and ultra-marathons, who challenge and encourage me. Then there are also a lot of people to have a good laugh with, to drink with, and who have dinner together after the run as well as on other days. So the social side is massive, and it includes both Mozambicans and foreigners. I’m among the younger ones, but age really doesn’t matter in the Hash (see objective), and you meet such interesting people! I’ve felt so cared for by these people, in a way that is really important when in a new place and surrounded by strangers. Their “how are you doing?”, invitations to dinners and excursions, and genuine warmth has meant more than they know to me - but I think the Hash does that to them too...

In the end, after the run, there’s a circle. It’s a ritual that should be experienced and not explained, but it’s not for the shy or faint-hearted. There’s a lot of beer, a lot of rituals and traditions (and hierarchy!), drinking punishments, a lot of drinking songs and a bit of foul language. There’s also a tradition of giving hash names to the members, which may be... naughty. The name is usually earned when one has done something memorable, or chosen based on a personality trait (fyi, I am too new to have a name yet and I do dread the day I earn one). But it’s all done in a very light-hearted manner and it’s an easy way to feel included immediately, breaking the ice and not letting people take themselves too seriously. 

There are also events organised. The Maputo version is sometimes an arranged weekend trip, you sign up and go away together and run and drink and eat and laugh and maybe do other things too. I just came back from my first weekend and I’ll tell you about it in another post.

Photo credit to Nuno :) (forgot your hash name!)

The Hash is very international – it apparently exists in almost 2000 places, including Antarctica. So I encourage everyone who likes running to check it out, you’re likely to have one in your vicinity. I was also told that there is a good Hash in Madagascar, so I’ll try to check that out when I go there. Sometimes we have visitors from other places too, commonly South Africa but on the away weekend we were joined by a German family that has been hashing in Finland and Romania before! I found my hash via Facebook, so that or a simple google search should point you in the right direction.

ON ON!

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See, do, hear, breathe Brussels

Again, I owe part of the content to Bastien, and all the photos to Emma. Thank you guys!! <3

Needless to say, the Grand Place/Grote Markt/Main square is pretty. See that. There’s also Les Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, a fancy shopping galleria that has very nice architecture. And chocolate. 

The Manneken Pis (fountain of the peeing boy) is really not impressive. It’s kinda like the little mermaid in Copenhagen – he’s just very small. But, if you are up for a treasure hunt, I challenge you to also find the Jeanneke Pis (the peeing girl) and Het Zinneke (peeing dog)! 

Belgium does attract good musicians and artists, so keep an eye open for concerts! AB (Ancienne Belgique) is worth keeping an eye on, as is Botanique. Also,in Spring/Summer time, many festivals are organised in Brussels. Hard to pin one down, so check for yourself the following: Brussels Jazz Marathon, Couleur Café, les Nuits Botanique.

There is also a busy associative life. See what Recyclart organises and don’t miss on events such as the Nuit Blanche in October (performances in the European quarter) or the Museum Night Fever in March. Finally, follow closely the programme of the multidisciplinary arts centre Bozar, arguably the number one cultural hotspot of the city. To a lesser extent, the Flagey arts centre can be an alternative, if you are fond of classical music and arthouse cinema.

On that note, I’ll give you a song from my favourite Belgian artist, Stromae (mae- Stro, get it?) who is a genius both in terms of music and videos.  

Bastien adds that Selah Sue is also a Belgian treat to your ears!

If you’re up for something more chill, or just want to hide from the rain for a while, I recommend the Magritte museum – you know the surrealist painter, apples and bowler hats? This is all about him, and it’s a nice collection. 

The Museum of the Music Instruments (MIM) is just next-door to Magritte and also worth going. The building is very pretty and if you go inside, do not forget to enjoy the panorama of Brussels from their terrace.

Belgium is also notorious for their comics – counting Tintin, the Smurfs, Asterix and Obelix… There is a museum dedicated to this as well, called the Belgian Comic Strip Center, but I haven’t been there yet. If you keep a look out for it, you can also find a lot of mural paintings on this topic throughout the city. If you are up for a stroll, there’s even a walking route for you to see them all.

To get down to local business, the whole area around the “Jeu de Balle” square, with its many antiques and busy restaurants on sunny days is the most picturesque area of Brussels, where you could still hear a few people speaking the local “Brusseleir”. No wonder why the National day is celebrating right there. Grab a sandwich at “La Sardine” and walk around casually around the city’s largest second-hand market.

A place to go if you want to buy postcards though (and as you know I’m very into postcards) is the Avec Plaizier (near Grand Place and same street as café Aksum), they have a great collection of postcards and notebooks. For funny ones, very versed into Belgian humour, Heyday is a very short walk from the Jeu de Balle. Also a very random recommendation that I want to throw in is that there is a very nice soap shop, Savonnerie De Provence, on the other side of Grand Place (Rue du Marché aux Herbes). If you want to get someone you like (maybe me) a small and useful present, go there!

See, Brussels is NOT dull. Go explore!

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Eat and drink in Bxl

This post has received some significant input from my friend, personal guide and bxl-expert Bastien. Merci! Also, the photos were taken by my lovely friend Emma who honoured me with a visit.

The Belgian diet is a heart attack. The famous Belgian fries that are fried twice (temperature and timing are more important than having a government to these people), and bought from street stands. It’s famous for being fried in beef fat, although it is less and less the case for economic reasons. Fries is a meal. With sauce. Most famous is the stand at Place Jourdan and Flagey. Then there are the waffles. Oh the waffles. You can get them pretty much anywhere, just make sure they’re freshly made. And then there’s chocolate. You see how dangerous this is?

That’s even before you get to the beer. Belgian beer is simply amazing, but it’s so strong that you have to eat very greasy food not to get super drunk. My top 3 recommendations are Tripel Karmeliet, Grimbergen and Chimay. Can’t go wrong with these. Also, look out for the “Brussels Beer Project” label. It’s most often a sign that a bar has quality beers. There’s also fruit beer, Kriek, but I’m not really a fan of that. Go ahead and explore, and ask the barmen for tips!

Cafés

Bar Les Gens Que J’Aime – My cosiest café tip, because I really like the indoor balcony so that you can sit up and look down. There are other places like this too in Bxl but this is my favourite.

Café Aksum – arguably the best coffee in town and a tiny place with few seats, so can be hard to find space (Fun fact – the picture of me on the right was taken there!

Moka – Cosy place in the center (Rue des Riches Claires 5)

My little cup – a place near Madou with good coffee that I have funny memories from…

Bar du Matin – A bit at the edge of the city (south, St Gilles/Forest), but you’ll adore the terrace under the sun. Plus, any road from there goes downwards.

Via Via – The Sainte-Catherine area, the only authentic Flemish quarter, is also worth going for its restaurants (seafood), brunches (Les Filles, John and Rose) and its cafés. Via-Via has two large terraces outside and the inside feels homey, with board games to play. At night this place also qualifies as a more than decent bar.

Pêle-mêle – the second-hand bookshop a bit outside of the city center (at Chaussée de Waterloo 566), is one corner of paradise. You can get lost for hours, but easily find your way to their cosy café downstairs. There is also one shop in the center at Boulevard Maurice Lemonnier 55, but as far as I know there’s no café there. Still good if you want 2nd hand books!

Bars

Goupil le fol – This is my favourite place to go with people I already know. You are unlikely to interact with others, because it’s basically a lot of rooms with couches on semi-floors, but they play nice French music. Take your date here!

Bonnefooi – another bar in the centre with an upper balcony! Nice music, but also loud and crowded.

Delirium – I don’t particularly like this place, but it’s THE beer place in bxl, with over 2000 beers.

L’Atelier/Le Tavernier - If you want yourself in the student area, near Cimetière d’Ixelles, have a go at these two places, buzzing with locals – whom you hardly find towards the centre.

Belga –  If you fancy some jazz, don’t miss on Thursday nights at this (otherwise overcrowded) bar on place Flagey. 

Bravo Bar –  is also a good spot for music sessions, in their basement.

Then there are a few ‘areas’ to go out, with a lot of bars where you just barhop until you found the one your friends are in. Place Jourdan is one of them, Sainte-Catherine mentioned above is another (apart from Via Via, Monk is a good bar there), Halles de Saint-Géry is where I used to go because it’s close to where I lived, and Flagey is where I almost never went because it just too far (but Le Pantin is a good one there).

On Thursdays, ‘everyone’, meaning people (in suit) from the commission, lobby organisations etc, who want to network go to Place Lux, i.e. Place Luxembourg in front of the Parliament. It’s quite a thing to experience if you happen to be there on a Thursday!

Regarding food, I honestly can’t think of very interesting places to eat, because I mostly cooked at home when I lived there. So I guess this one is up to you to figure out on your own…

Therefore, Bastien adds: For Belgian recipes : « Le Fin de Siècle » and « 9 et voisins », facing each other near Saint Géry, but also loads of European cuisines and international ones (e.g. two Ethiopians!).

For a good night out, start with an aperitif Rue du Bailli (Supra bailly is famous there), have dinner on Rue Lesbroussart (Les Super Filles du Tram?) and go mingle at Belgians ”L’amère à boire”/Le murmure or the Irish “De Valera” on Flagey. That’s all in one consecutive street! You’ll find yourself at 4am walking around the lakes of Ixelles, there are worst places to be.

…Except for this: On Sunday morning, if you happen to want breakfast/brunch before noon and do not suffer from agoraphobia, go to the market at Gare du Midi. It is where you do your weekly food and vegetable shopping, and have Moroccan pancakes with olives, cheese and honey! You can combine yourself, but I recommend you go all in, plus the supersweet tea :)

[travellingwithalex-blog]

Brussels... try to understand

This really is a city that people either hate or love. It’s so peculiar, as the population is international to an extent I’ve yet to encounter elsewhere. In Vienna, you know you’re in Austria. In Berlin, you’re still (arguably) in Germany. Brussels is different for two main reasons – the insane amount of foreigners working in international (EU) institutions, and the Belgian divide between Flanders and Wallonia. This is like the 3rd culture kid with a permanent identity crisis.

I was in Bxl (Bruxelles) for five months as an intern in the European Commission. The EC itself has 33 000 employees, and around 700 interns twice a year. Then you have the Parliament and the Council, the embassies, the permanent representations, the lobby organisations… You see what I’m getting at? It’s a huge melting pot and it’s supercool to be part of! For me, five months was definitely enough, while others get hooked. I just found that Bxl is so massively career focused and that quality of life is really poor, outside of work, and a lot of people aren’t happy there either (one person actually committed suicide by jumping out of a window in the Commission while I worked there, apparently because he didn’t get the promotion he expected/deserved). But, this means that you have a chance to meet absolutely brilliant people, all the time, and this of course is very stimulating.

The other reason, the Flanders/Wallonia divide, is affecting another group of people more than the international professionals. Bxl is in between the two regions of Belgium, both politically and culturally. You will hear more French spoken in Bxl than Flemish, but there are also events organised specifically in Flemish. The divide is more complicated than I’m willing to go into, but I want to point out the consequence that this have for another type of immigrants. There are a lot of African immigrants in Bxl, which has to do with language and the colonial past, and maybe other reasons too. So there are a lot of young people who were born in Bxl by immigrant parents, who struggle to find an identity in Bxl. It has been argued that because there isn’t really a national spirit that this group can relate to and identify themselves with, they kind of fall between the cracks in assuming an identity – because what does it mean to be Bruxellois? Some believe that this identity crisis is what has led to the radicalisation of young Muslims in Bxl, like the men involved in the Paris attacks one year ago and in Bxl this year.

So I think Bxl is a place where you have to find your own story. It is politically and bureaucratically very complicated (you might recall that they went 589 days without a government in 2010-11), the police have a bad reputation (and let’s not even get into the church…), but there is always a Belgian solution! (Seriously, klick the link, you won’t regret it!)

Not every solution is the answer to a problem

Moreover, something has to be said about the climate in Bxl. The first time I was there in 2013 I hit a few nice days of summer weather. October through February though – not so much. It’s just constantly raining or very humid, to the point where you think you might begin to grow mould. It’s not as cold as Scandinavia though, so for a girl like me from the rainiest part of Sweden, it’s manageable. What I really did miss is nature – Bxl is very much paved, uneven cobblestones and very few green areas. The fact that the most centrally located park is called ‘Parc’ kinda speaks for itself. In terms of city planning, Bxl is a complete disaster, but in terms of architecture and buildings it has some hidden gems. The area around st Katherine is quite nice, and of course the Grand Place (main square) is elaborately decorated. Another appealing feature is that the city is doable by foot – I sometimes walked 45 min to an hour to get to places, but then you really can’t go much further. Also the metro system is decent. They do have a city bike system, but I never used it because the cobble stones get slippery, there are a lot of one way streets and people drive like crazy here. Stopping for red lights is not always the case, and for pedestrians more of a gentle recommendation than a rule (haha Vienna!). Plus, I worked on top of a hill and I like wearing skirts to work…

Use-it map

So when you find yourself in Brussels (because I’m sure you’ll have to go for some reason sooner or later) – focus on the social aspect! Enjoy the bars, the gluttonic lifestyle and do the main sights in 1-2 days.

[travellingwithalex-blog]

Mozambique commentary

There is a social scientist, Joseph Hanlon (senior lecturer at the Open University) who sends out a weekly newsletter with primarily political updates and commentaries from Mozambique. The following text he wrote this week, and I would like to re-post it because in my impression, it’s the most accurate and understandable summary that could give those who read this blog an idea about the current situation in this country. So without further ado:

The house of cards has collapsed Last week saw the final collapse of a house of cards built from greed and hubris. Mozambique admitted it cannot pay its debts; last week it was announced poverty and inequality increased; and it was accepted that inflation will hit 30% and devaluation will exceed 100%. The United States announced that LAM has accepted bribes from Brazil. And then the mediators went home in frustration as an unwinnable war continues, with Renamo [opposition party] demanding the impossible and Frelimo [ruling party] refusing to make essential concessions.

The results of the poverty survey announced last week showed that while in 2003, 55% of the rural population was below the poverty line, it had only been reduced to 50% last year. Two decades of lack of development mean that half the rural population is still below the poverty line. And President Nyusi, speaking in Mopeia, admitted that "very little" had been done to support agriculture - confirming what Joao Mosca and others have been saying for more than a decade. Few people come out of this looking good. Over the past five years, how could so many people inside and outside of government turn a blind eye to corrupt, excessive, prestige projects? Why did it take the United States to announce last week that LAM has accepted bribes? How could the IMF not notice the exorbitant debt? Or was there too much joint interest in encouraging foreign companies to gain a share of the gas money? Inside Frelimo, was the money spread around so widely that no one objected? With brave journalists and campaigners being threatened and attacked, were people too afraid to speak out? Frelimo has blown an incredible $3 billion. Not just the $2.2 bn in secret debt, but extra money for the Katembe bridge, Nacala airport, the Bank of Mozambique building, and the presidential palace, as well as large state company debts. And last week the cost became clearer with the admission that Maputo will not now have an essential bus rapid transit system because it cannot guarantee the loan. This is being repeated across the economy. Last week, the house of cards collapsed. This week many people will be trying to explain why they did not see that it was a house of cards and will be trying to defend their positions - in some cases to prevent themselves being dismissed, jailed, or losing contracts, money, or the confidence of their superiors. And the future is not promising. The economic crisis will bite hard. Ongoing war and inflation and the taint of greed and corruption mean Frelimo could lose the next elections - but to whom, when the opposition has few alternative policies. Low gas prices and high debt hand huge power to international gas companies. Donors and lenders have to face the collapse of what they had billed as a success story. And infighting and recriminations within Frelimo and within the international community will slow the resolutions of the myriad problems. Last week’s events mean no one can deny the magnitude of the crisis. An IMF report in January warmed that "high levels of inequality hamper government policies to reduce poverty" and "make it difficult to sustain growth". And it warned that the rising inequality "can lead to political instability." Threats of a demonstration on 29 April were met with new armoured cars on the streets of Maputo. A demonstration scheduled for 21 May was banned and an organiser of the march was beaten during an attempted kidnap. Maputo has been quiet since then, despite an escalating cost of living. But how long will ordinary people tolerate rising prices and a bankrupt and ineffective government?  

                   Joseph Hanlon 

  Ref: Mozambique News Reports & Clippings, number 344", 31.10.2016, bit.ly/mozamb To subscribe: tinyurl.com/sub-moz 

[travellingwithalex-blog]

Maputo and what adds bliss to life

My Portuguese teacher asked me last week what I think of Maputo, so far. And I told him what I like about it, and also pointed out that it is less different from Europe than I expected it to be. Maybe because in the preparation courses, we grouped Mozambique with other African countries like Zimbabwe and Uganda. Compared to what I have heard about them, and also to Malawi, I feel like Moz is more open, and not at all as conservative. Some things are very obvious – for example, it is legal to be homosexual here. There’s still a social stigma, but it is not like Uganda. The dress code is also more liberal than I expected, both in the streets and in the office. Perhaps my impression is biased, but the people that I have gotten to know here are not all that different in terms of values and attitudes than what I have experienced in European countries.

Safety and personal freedom to move around and to be myself was my biggest concern before coming, and I’m slowly both adjusting to the limitations but also realising what I really have no reason to be worried about. I have started to walk alone after dark, just not very long distances and not too late at night. The risk is robbery, but to lose a small amount of money and worst case my (not new) smartphone is a risk I’m willing to take to not have to feel all that restricted. Moreover, my sense of security is constantly reassured by the complete lack of people harassing or showing aggressiveness in the streets. This is a calm city. Catcalling is limited to ‘Hello… Hello’ and the occasional ‘hermosa’, which compared to Colombia and other Latin American countries really is nothing.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying that Maputo is beautiful, but it has pretty things that I like. Especially the trees – there are wonderful big trees (often mango trees) on the sidewalks, and palm trees are found both throughout the city and on the promenade along the coastline. There are people selling fruit from carts on every other street corner, and the fruit is simply amazing. Papaya, pineapple, bananas. And avocados. And beautiful people in colourful clothing, especially the capulana fabrics most commonly used as skirts, wrapped around the lower part of the body.

One of my favourite streets

What really has me hooked are the people, and the rhythm of life. There is no stress. From my position, where I don’t have to deal with bureaucracy or stuff like that, the laid-back attitude is really a benefit. I prefer waiting an hour for my friend when we agreed to meet for coffee, to always feeling like I’m in a rush. Friends here, both Mozambican and foreigners, have much more problems with this than I do and I know I’m sheltered from the downsides since I don’t really work here. But to slow down is really good for me, and I’m enjoying it. The slow process of learning not to walk so fast, not to always look at the watch. Not to feel like I should be doing something more.

And then the music. The way people move. That really adds to my quality of life here. Last night I went to Núcleo again, the art gallery/bar venue that has live music on Sundays, and it was pure bliss. It made me happy to the bones, to get fully absorbed by the music and to get to dance in such a joyful and unpretentious way with friends and strangers. Moments like that is what gives life.

Núcleo, music and bliss

I also know that my impression of Maputo is very biased, seen from my white privileged angle. The city center has fancy restaurants where I can afford to eat (and get better service than locals…) and the buildings here are decent. The poverty is not ‘in my face’, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There is so. much. poverty. People living on the city dumpster, collecting trash, helping you to find a parking spot. People that live (and die) of nothing. So far I’ve been relatively shielded from this, and we’ll see how that proceeds. I will keep you posted.

[travellingwithalex-blog]

Moz - how’s it going?

The most common question I get is ‘how’s your internship going?’ so to get that over with – it’s not really going at the moment. I’m still waiting for my supervisor to come back to the office (I haven’t met him yet), he has apparently been away campaigning against oil extraction in Ecuador. I was told he would be back yesterday, but still no sight of him. He was originally supposed to be back on the 14th, but I guess his plans changed. Who knows. So they’ve given me a bunch of old reports to read, but everyone is too busy or too uninterested to talk to me and try to integrate me in the actual work. I have obviously tried to ask for more tasks, but fruitless, and it also feels a bit rude as they specifically told me to wait for my supervisor. And no, I cannot take any initiatives on my own because I have no clue what that would be, because I don’t know what they are working on and – everyone is too busy or too uninterested to talk to me and try to integrate me in the actual work.

In Mozambique, I have gotten the impression that when people feel that you question or ‘threaten’ them in any way, they go to counter attack. So I’m glad that I haven’t fully been my normal, frank self here, because just ‘appearing dissatisfied’ (I really have not complained, so this must be based primarily on my lack of enthusiasm) made the people here tell me off in what to me came across as quite a harsh way. Basically they told me that they had wanted me to come at a later point because everyone is so busy now and they don’t have time for me (it’s a little hard not to interpret that as ‘we don’t want you to be here’…). And we’ve had similar issues with our landlady, and I’ve gotten that feeling in other situations too.

(This whole situation is related to the change of internship that I had to do, read about that HERE)

It’s somehow similar to Colombia, where I once made some joke about Colombian men, which they found really offensive. Lesson definitely learned! It is just very different in Europe, and I’m sure that has to do with privilege again. We can joke about ourselves and each other because we’re already ‘up there’. In a country where you know that the rest of the world perceive your national identity primarily as negative, it’s just not the same. I had a teacher in high school who was adopted from Colombia. When he told me that, my first reaction was ‘coffee!’ to which he said something like ‘oh, interesting that you would say that…’ Looking back on my young, ignorant self, it’s of course apparent that coffee is not the most common association, but by far more positive than guerrilla and cocaine.

Being Swedish, one cannot imagine what that’s like. (Almost) Wherever I go, people are extremely positive about my country of origin, sometimes to a point that make me uncomfortable because of the inherent privilege in carrying a Swedish nationality that I did nothing to deserve and that people both admire and envy. The perfect country. We know it’s not perfect, but of course it’s an unimaginable luck to be born there and get to ripe the benefits of the social welfare system, the vast nature, the general wealth and health, the peace and freedom. I wish I could share it with everyone, I really do, and it’s hard not to feel guilty about it. So I try instead to do my best to contribute to something positive in the world, to use this gift to do things that go beyond myself. I try to spread love and the values I believe in, anti-racism and anti-sexism, equality and human rights. I chose to study environmental science for the same reason, because I feel that it is my duty to use my privilege for something I believe in; change and development beyond money, material things and my personal gain. I’m far from perfect, but I do my best.

UPDATE - I’m not alone in the strive for purpose, it’s apparently ‘a thing’ in my generation. Here’s an article about this that I found very good in describing the millennials work ethic.

For that reason, it feels very frustrating to have been here for a month (today) without having done anything at my internship. I cherish the other experiences I’ve had in Maputo and around, but the main reason I’m here is the main thing I’m dissatisfied with. I’m working on my patience, for sure. But I really hope this changes soon.

[travellingwithalex-blog]

The white man’s burden and philanthropic racism

Take up the White Man's burden, Send forth the best ye breed   Go bind your sons to exile, to serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild—   Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child.

I’m physically sickened by these words, and the impact that they have had in justifying imperialism and colonialism is terrifying. Moreover, we are have not overcome this yet.

This poem was written by Rudyard Kipling in 1899 and given to the then governor of New York state, Theodore Roosevelt, to help him push for the American annexation of the Philippines. The argument was (and is) that white people have a moral obligation to civilise the rest of the world, by ruling over other peoples and ‘caring for them’, because white people know (read: are) better. It is sometimes referred to as well-intentioned western colonialism or Eurocentrism; seeing imperialism as a ‘noble enterprise of civilisation’.

(For anyone who doesn’t think this sounds all that bad – it was used by Benjamin Tillman. He was like Trump in the 1890s but with less obstacles in his way. That should be bad enough for everyone to scrap everything he touched or used for his benefit.)

So can we all just agree that this is wrong? That imposing your own norms and ideas in a completely different context, especially on this scale, is very likely to fail? That if you want to genuinely help someone, you have to start by asking them if and how they want to be helped? Offer, not impose.

Ok, that was step one. What else? Well, stop seeing ‘the other’, the one you so dearly want to help, as ‘fluttered folk and wild, sullen peoples, half-devil and half-child’. Sadly, there are still people who are so comfortable up on their high white horse handing out bread to the poor that they don’t even notice how they are looking down upon others.

This poem might be outdated, but the underlying argument is not extinguished. What is going on now in terms of developmental aid or ‘helping’ is well-intended (largely, but not always); Volunteering, humanitarian aid, the list is long. What is fundamental in the debate and to ultimately change the discourse is – It’s not about you. It’s not about your burden to help. It’s about what the person or people receiving support want or need, and that has to be the starting point. You are not a saviour. And this is difficult, because we all do what we think is best, based on what we’ve learned. But we learn from our own experiences, our own world view. Our own media, our own education system. Often, there is a lack of dialogue when we try to support development, or ‘help’.

I am of the impression that when we talk about ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries in a traditional manner, we automatically assume that development is linear. That those poor countries will be better off once ‘they’ can ‘become like us’, both in a cultural and economical way. And when we preach this, it ultimately widens the gap between rich and poor in these countries, because those who can take advantage of it do and the largest share of people are left behind. To give an example: Yesterday I talked to my colleague about infrastructure and traffic here. And he said, ‘you know, infrastructure is seen as a measure of development. But for whom? Essentially it is for the companies that exploit and export our natural resources. The local communities don’t need these roads, it often divides them’. It does so by preventing access to water, and creating access to areas that cause logging and poaching, altering the landscape in a way that communities suffer from. Development should not be all about economic growth, because we still have not found a way to successfully distribute wealth, so money keeps accumulating in the same old pockets. This pattern seems to be way beyond the exception.

We Effect (the organisation that sent me here) is doing the best they can to provide meaningful aid, by supporting already existing local organisations. So far, I believe in the concept but also see that it definitely has flaws. For example, they require that their partners have a strategic plan. Sounds like a good idea! At the same time, I read the plan for my organisation before I came and so far, I can just note how few of their plans they are actively working on. But that doesn’t mean that they are not doing an excellent work, rather, they respond more immediately to the communities they work with. So the plan doesn’t match the reality; it’s not bad work, it’s just a bad plan. Planning seems to be THE critical issue that creates so much frustration in everyday work between donors and local receivers here, on every level. It’s fascinating that after decades of attempts from western organisations to support development, there’s still no one who has a constructive answer to this. We just attribute it to ‘cultural differences’ and clench our fists in our pockets, telling ourselves to be humble. Which essentially means – I still think I’m better than you are. The white man’s burden, a chapter we have yet to close.

That was my bitchy serious rant. Other people approach this with irony! So have a look at Barbie Savior and particularly their instagram – explaining ignorant behaviour, and Humanitarians of Tinder a collection of Tinder profiles where people show off their samaritanism in photos that display how they save/help (and objectify, pity and exotify) other peoples.

[travellingwithalex-blog]

Are you ready to date a [Georgian]?

Recently, one of my friends who has also been to Georgia sent me a link to a blog post called Should you date a Georgian? and asked my opinion about it. Particularly if I shared the impression of the female author, as my travelling friend is male but curious as how it would be for women to travel there and how the interactions with local men can be.

First of all, just starting with the title, the post is extremely generalising – a clear warning sign! The author does put in a disclaimer in the beginning saying that she doesn’t think all men are like this, but then goes on in such a brutal way to call out all Georgian men as disrespectful beasts. In my experience, this is a clear indicator of cultural insensitivity and that a person holds a strong belief that their own culture is so much superior that they are not willing to learn from, much less to adapt to, the culture they are visiting.

To summarise, the author who is a clearly foreign-looking woman is living in Georgia and find that men immediately wants to have sex with her. She goes on to elaborate:

“One of the most annoying traits here in Georgia, and something, especially newbie tourists coming need to be aware of, is that you can be “owned” by a guy here. Yeah, probably sounds completely ludicrous, but its really not. I bought you a drink, now you have sex with me. Ummm…that’s not how this works. I have given you a free car ride, I am going to grab your leg and have sex with you. Umm…that’s not how this works. We had sex once, now you are mine. Ummm..that’s not how this works. You are sitting on a park bench, it means I can come sit next to you and touch you. Umm…that’s not how this works.”

See this is where things get complicated. “That’s not how this works” is a very culture-specific expression, and it is naïve (and as you will see in her post even dangerous) to think that your world view is applicable everywhere. Believe me, I’m a pretty hard core feminist, but a lot of these examples are situations where a fundamental part of the problem is the author being insensitive to the culture she is living in. To know which of these situations one should avoid, especially as a woman, is fundamental to safe and pleasant travelling.

She describes situations where she has been dating (and sleeping with) Georgian men, and the friends of her ‘boyfriends’ have made very pushy attempts to get intimate with her. As horrible as those experiences are, I’m left wondering a) what type of men she dates and how they can have such fundamentally different understandings of the nature and boundaries of their relationship, as well as – why do you put yourself in this situation?

The author is firm in her belief that Georgian men are disrespectful to women, and has failed to find any explanation to the behaviour she cannot understand. She has asked Georgian men, and got the answer… ‘“Oh you wouldn’t understand, you’re not a Georgian woman”. Hmmm. Trying not to punch these people in the head. “What do you mean, I’m not a Georgian woman?” “Georgian girls aren’t easy. They are good girls”’

This is where one could go – aha, I’m behaving in a way that does not adhere to their culture. What could that be? I’m not saying that this is at all easy, but understanding new cultures is not always easy. That is however not an excuse to just assume that the other is ‘wrong’, or worse than your own culture. Fact is, a community is built on this cultural norm, so it somehow works. It might not be perfect, but I still haven’t encountered a culture where a norm just surged out of nowhere that made life worse for all its members. It has however happened to me many times that I have been very frustrated for a long time until I found the explanation for it. And once you find the explanation and fully understand why things are the way they are, only then can we figure out how (and even if) these norms can develop into something more harmonious and beneficial for those affected by it. Dating culture may be one ‘lightweight’ example in a world with genital mutilation, child marriage and other cultural norms and behaviours that in so many ways harm (primarily) women and children.

(The author’s response was “WTF do you mean. I am still a woman. I’m still a human being. Would you treat your mother, your sister? Your daughter with such disrespect?” – to which one might think ‘no, because they do not display the same behaviour as you which is apparently condemned as inappropriate here’)

Fortunately for the discussion of this specific case, this blog post has over 200 comments, and some of these provide a fairly reasonable answer:

“I will try to explain this very very simple: It’s not accepted here to have sex till marriage (because of retarded orthodoxy), so young men have sex only with hookers till they marry to someone, even couples don’t have sex till marriage. (sex with hookers is encouraged and totally accepted in Georgia). this leads to the man, which has absolutely no clue about woman and woman becomes only object…”

“The main reason is that, there is a serious lack of sex and sex ed in Georgia. Our women are very careful in terms of sex if they don’t want to be labeled as whores. Than men go crazy about more loose foreign girls. It’s a problem of the whole society that we are dealing with. And its more of a chain of problems, not a men’s or women’s seperately.”

If a woman clearly behaves in a way that in the other culture is associated with prostitution (sleeping with men before marriage), it is not so surprising that she is seen as a whore. I obviously don’t think this ‘fine’, however – by ignoring the social norms and holding on to the behaviour acquired in another culture, one is very prone to creating conflict, putting oneself at risk and in no way does one contribute to improving the situation. I believe that in order to create mutual understanding, we have to be very humble and first learn how to see the issue from the other side. Then, and only then, can we attempt a more constructive dialogue, which is a long and difficult process.

The author concludes that ‘you shouldn’t date a Georgian’, and I completely agree – if you are so culturally insensitive as to put yourself in dangerous situations because you don’t understand your partner and how they see you, you are not fit to date them.

[travellingwithalex-blog]

Change and Venn diagrams

Mozambique is so nice to me.

I think the main reason I like to be a foreigner is that it keeps me alert. In Sweden I’m basically on autopilot, because I know the place so well that I don’t reflect upon it anymore. When being abroad, however, I pay more attention both to my surroundings and to myself, and especially the interaction in between. Today I found myself thinking; wow, in six months I’m going to be such a different person. Now this can (and most likely will) of course happen anywhere, but I’m so grateful for the chance to get to grow and learn in this particular environment. My brain is working full speed all the time to process what’s going on, and as tiresome as it is, I find it incredibly stimulating to constantly process new ideas (the expat discussion is only one of many topics that’s been spinning in my head...).

Perhaps even more important are the gradual changes of personality and life perspective, which during these 6 months will grow on me. I said before coming that I wanted to learn patience, which for those of you who know me definitely is not one of my virtues. And the fact that I don’t even know what other things will change is thrilling in itself, as I really like surprises. To realise how little I know is the discovery of another road to explore. Sure, it is of course coupled with feeling incredibly stupid and ignorant at times, when your blind spots are made visible. But the willingness to explore them has to be more important. Also, it helps to remind myself that I’m not an idiot, I’m just new to this specific thing and I do possess a lot of valuable and useful knowledge and experience, it’s just that it’s currently resting in a box in a storage room for other times.

This is somehow all coming through in my language learning. As a Spanish speaker, Portuguese is familiar, and sometimes frustratingly so as there still are differences that impede perfect understanding. I feel very awkward when I speak as I am painfully aware of how wrong it sounds, but also that pushing myself to overcome it is the only way. I feel like a little child that has to learn very basic things (my colleague was teaching me the names of the weekdays this morning), and I can in no way express my full personality. At the same time, I feel really close when I understand so much in certain context that overlap with my pre-existing knowledge, as well as really far off when there are words and expressions that are out of my range.

In a way, I feel like a living Venn diagram in terms of both culture and language, me (my knowledge and comfort zone) being one of the circles and Mozambique, or Portuguese, being the other.

The tricky thing is that I have no idea what the boundaries of the red (overlapping) area is, but am constantly exploring it. Also, the white area of the other circle is unknown territory and that space is probably infinite. But carefully, I’m getting to know, and thus expanding the red area, taking more into my own bubble. With the (much needed and appreciated) assistance of people around me! Yesterday I had my first Portuguese class with a very gentle teacher, who encouraged me to speak and then went over and adjusted where I was too much in my own white field, thus expanding the red field. Culturally this happens with people all the time, who sometimes show and sometimes tell me that I’m off key. I owe everything to them. And this is also the reason why I treasure the dialogue with people more than most things in life, because it can take me so much further than I could ever go on my own.

[travellingwithalex-blog]

Vienna tip brainstorm

Practical – getting around

Public transport is actually pretty awesome in Vienna. HERE is the webpage where you can plan your trip.

But as the bike lover I am, I prefer to use the city bike! It’s worth signing up, it’s only 1€ and using the bikes is free for 30 min, which takes you pretty much anywhere. The network of bike lines is not like Copenhagen, but it’s ranked 14th in the world and is definitely manageable. You can register online on their webpage or directly in the machine.

Art!

One of the undebatable pro’s of Vienna is that they have world class art museums. My favourite ones are the Leopold Museum (inside Museumsquartier) because they have some Klimt (there’s more of him in Belvedere but I didn’t manage to go there yet) and a lot of Egon Schiele, one of my all-time favourite painters. I love how he draws the body and makes something so soft look so hard, aggressive and challenging to look out. By doing so, he makes me question the way we see the body, by just putting it bluntly in front of our eyes and let us deal with our own emotions.

They also have temporary exhibitions that can be worth checking out (they had Giacometti a while back). It’s 13€ full price, 8€ for students. If you look young, always say you are a student at museums – they don’t always check.

Another nice one is Albertina because they generally put up great exhibitions by the most recognised artists. I went there in January 2016 to see Munch, and it was outstanding. Right now they’re apparently showing van Gogh. It’s 8.50€ for students, 12.90€ for adults.

Yes, it’s expensive, but if you happen to be there in the beginning of October, it’s the long night of the museums and then you get pretty much all museums in Vienna for 11€!

On that note, the 26th of October is Austria’s national day and then you can pay a visit to the parliament :)

Small excursions

If you’re in Vienna in summer and wanna do what the locals do, go to the Donauinsel! This (artificial) island in the Danube river is reachable with metro or bike, and this is where you go to tan, swim, bike, longboard, have ice cream or drink beer – either you bring your own or you wait for one of the guys who come by on a bike and sell you a cold one. Take U1 to Donauinsel is my best tip, others prefer to take U& to Neue Donau and walk to Romaplatz (always people playing volleyball if you’re into that). And no cars!

If you want to enjoy the view of Vienna and see some vineyards, I suggest you go to Kahlenberg. It’s easily reachable with public transport (see link above), and then you can walk down the hill if you feel like stretching your legs. There are also some of the typical ‘Heuriger’ here where people go to drink the local wine. It’s pretty scandalous that I’ve never been to one, so don’t miss it! Wikipedia explains: Heuriger is the abbreviation of "heuriger Wein" (this year's wine) in Austrian and Bavarian German. Originally, it was a simple open-air tavern on the premises of winemakers, where people would bring along food and drink the new wine. …although they should provide food nowadays.

Speaking of stretching your legs – Vienna is surrounded by forest, the beautiful Wienerwald. And the city of Vienna provides hiking paths, which is an easily available option to see a bit of nature without having to travel far. You find them all on their webpage.

If you want to do some real hiking, Schneeberg is pretty much the only one that is doable as a one-day trip from Vienna.

And if you want to stretch your legs very fast, i.e. running, there are two easy places to go to - either the Donaukanal (I go to Augartenbrucke and run north from there, after 5 km you have the last bridge if you want to cross and run back on the other side, or you can continue up along the Danube), or you go to the big park Prater and run along the Prater Hauptallee. 

Staying long term?

Then it might be good to know about the food markets Brunnenmarkt (running parallel to the U6 around Thaliastrasse/Josefstädterstrasse) and the smaller but nicer Kutschkermarkt (closest metro is U& Währingerstrasse/Volksoper) where there also are some food stands.

If you want to learn German, I really recommend the courses offered by Volkshochschule (VHS) - they have several locations in Vienna and run courses both in the mornings and evenings. And it’s really cheap! Ironically, their webpage is only in German...

At last, I’ll leave you with some contemporary Austrian music:

[travellingwithalex-blog]

Why I will not use the term ‘expat’

So, here comes my rant about expatriates/expats, fuelled also by a long phone call I had yesterday (that I’ll get to at the end of this). I realise that I’m taking on an established term that many people don’t think about, but that makes it perhaps even more relevant, and as I’ll elaborate, you’ll see I’m not alone in this quest.

I first read about the questionability of this term in an article from the Wall Street Journal by Christopher Dewolf. In this article, he describes the specific case of Hong Kong. You can now unfortunately only access with a subscription, but here are some excerpts:

“Some arrivals are described as expats; others as immigrants; and some, simply migrants. It depends on social class, country of origin and economic status. But in most cases, the nomenclature is outdated, rooted in a time when voyages involved a one-way ticket on a steamship.”

And more specifically:

“Anyone with roots in a Western country is considered an expat […] Filipino domestic helpers are just guests, even if they’ve been here for decades.”

“A more current interpretation of the term “expat” has more to do with privilege […] Expats are free to roam between countries and cultures, privileges not afforded to those considered immigrants or migrant workers.”

Personally, I don’t want to call myself an expat because I feel that it would indicate that I see my country of origin as better than the country that I’m currently in, and that I couldn’t consider this new country my home. Anyone who knows me are aware of how much I struggle with the concept of home and that I don’t really know how to relate to Sweden in that regards. By calling myself an expat, I feel like I would emphasise my relation to Sweden rather than my relation to the country I’m currently in. Therefore I prefer to call myself a foreigner, as it is the most neutral term that accurately describes my emotional (and legal) status here.

This is an excellent piece by Lorenz Khazaleh that brings up a lot of the problematics, with more links for further reading. It talks about the way expats distance themselves from the native population and does not try (enough) to integrate, and touches upon the hypocrisy of blaming Somalis/Iraqi etc. for not trying (enough) to integrate in Norway, the UK, etc. It also, like Dewolf, points out how it classifies foreigners based on their origin – I’m ‘entitled’ to be called expat, no one would call me a guest worker or migrant/immigrant.

On the topic of effort and trying/not trying to integrate, in this blog post Faine Greenwood describes (in length) the expat community in Phnom Penh which indeed seems much worse than my experience here and in Latin America in terms of how much people try to integrate. The author also touches upon the point of language, which of course makes it easier in Spanish, French or Portuguese speaking countries as those languages are commonly taught AND easy to learn. Many of the foreigners here speak Portuguese (and I’m starting my classes tomorrow), and here are also a lot of Portuguese people working here. After all, Portuguese is the 6th largest language in the world. (Here we could go on a long tangent about post-colonialism, but let’s leave that for another time)

This article by Ashleigh Bugg also discuss the power imbalance in both terminology and ‘reality’, where the author discuss the privileges Americans have in terms of how easy it is to go and have fun times abroad, while Central Americans have to make heart-breaking sacrifices to get to the US. This puts into perspective the ‘struggle’ that Greenwood describes about trying to integrate in Phnom Penh, and my own ‘struggle’ for that matter. Because my adventure is a pure luxury and I am in no way entitled to complain about ANYTHING because I CHOOSE to be here. This summer I studied German with a man from Afghanistan, a gentle, humble and pleasant person. He told us (in German, mind you) about how he went from Iran to Turkey by car, horse and by foot. How he then tried to cross the Mediterranean 4 times, and the last time the Greek coast guards took away their ores and left five people in a little plastic boat in the middle of the sea. After 20 hours of drifting in high waves, they were rescued by Turkish fishermen. On the fifth time he managed to get across, and then worked illegally for 6 years in Greece, making 10 € per day, until the borders opened last year and he could move on to Austria. This strong, beautiful person who is now making hard efforts to catch up with education (he’s doing 3rd grade math at the moment, but has learned multiple languages on the way) is frowned upon, and I’m praised for my adventurous spirit. Fucking hypocrisy.

Another really close friend, that was my phone call yesterday, is on the seemingly impossible quest of trying to find a job in Europe without being a refugee or asylum seeker, but merely an ‘economic migrant’. When people in Europe complain about how hard they have to work, his reply is ‘do you know how hard I have to work for the RIGHT to work?!’ – and for reasons that are too lengthy for me to explain here, he grew up in the US but never gained permanent residency, so ‘going back’ is not even possible as he would only (maybe) be given a tourist visa. The only country where he would have full rights to live and work is a place where he hasn’t lived since the age of 12 and that his parents sacrificed a lot to be able to leave from.

So if you made it this far, I hope you understand my reasons for not wanting to use the expat label, and hopefully you are either with me in the re-labelling process or willing to provide some counterarguments.

 Even further reading:

Are you a Greek or Barbarian? By Brendan Rigby

In China, who is an expat and who is an immigrant? By Johan Nylander 

Expat, migrant, refugee: How do we talk about people who leave their home country? OxfordWord Blog 

Mind your language Expat Brits by Peter Matanle