Tequila Tequila Tequila...

Hello everybody,

We did have indeed a wonderful first day in Sofia. When we arrived in our hostel, we immediately checked the Internet to find some places to go out. It’s Friday so it’s time to celebrate! After some searching, we found the club Tequila. We first got our diner in the hostel and afterwards, we’ve changed our clothes. You can say we’re definitely ready to party. Eventually, at 11 o’clock we entered the club. We’re lucky because tonight there are 2 DJ’s playing in the club, DJ Doncho and DJ Bobcat. After having some drinks, we met a few locals. We can conclude that the Bulgarians people are extremely friendly and that’s why everybody was in a happy mood. At 5 a.m. we decided to go back to our hotel. But first, we need to put our sunglasses on because the morning sun is very heavy.

We booked 2 rooms in the hostel that’s called the Sofia Peace Hostel. It’s modern and has some bright colors as you can see on the picture. It’s located in the center, which was perfect after our night out. But now it’s time to go to sleep, because we have to get up early tomorrow.

I’ll hope you guys keep continuing reading our blog and how we all survive our adventures.

Greetings!

Stefanie Vanhoele 2MA05

Sources: https://www.facebook.com/www.tequilaclub.bg?rf=151465784958875

http://www.booking.com/hotel/bg/d-dd-dd-ddd-dy-dd-dc-dd.en.html

"Discover the sleeping beauty of the Balkans."

Today was our first day in Bulgaria. This time I’m leaving all the boring information about the travelling out of my post because the day itself was too interesting! We only had to cross one country to arrive at Bulgaria, so we had still the whole day to do something fun. We decided to do some adventurous activities.

In the forenoon we made a trip by motors. In Sofia, we had the opportunity to rent 4 motorcycles for 40€ per day, so we took the chance immediately! There were several routes, but we chose the route named “Discover the sleeping beauty of the Balkans”. This spectacular panoramic trip is really a life-altering experience! We could enjoy the scenic splendors of Bulgaria, called “the sleeping beauty of the Balkans”. All the routes of this trip were thoroughly selected to give us the best panoramic view from the Bulgarian nature like waterfalls, hidden old villages, green meadows and so on.

Around noon, we went to the centre of Sofia and there we found a small, but nice restaurant to have a quick meal. While we were eating, we didn’t want to search another activity for the afternoon. We decided to do another trip because we’ve rented the motorcycles for the whole day.

In the afternoon, we wanted to explore the city of Sofia by following the self-guided tours. These guides are especially designed for people who like to travel on their own, like we do! The routes and the instructions were very clear to us and we’ve seen a great part of Sofia which was really phenomenal! In the guide, there were also some tips for hotel arrangements, so when we had to bring back our motorcycles, we picked one of the cheap hotels from the guide.

Today it was the first time that we’ve rented a motor to get to know the country. It was an easy, but a very exciting way of travelling in and out the city. We all loved this day because we’ve seen a lot of nature and culture in only a few hours. It’s clear that girls don’t want to go shopping every day, because Stefanie and I had also an unforgettable day!

Are you still in the mood to hear our further exciting activities and experiences? Don’t hesitate to keep on following us, because we’re already half-way our trip!

xoxo

Taika De Volder

Sources:http://www.motoroads.com/
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/bulgaria/activities



Next destination ? Balaton lake !

Hello everybody and welcome back !

After an amazing few days in Budapest it was time to leave the city , get moving and explore some more of the things Hungary has to offer . We decided to head to the Balaton lake area for 2 days before continuing our trip and setting of towards Bulgaria .

So we packed our bags this morning , jumped on the train and prepared ourselves for 2 days of outdoor action . We will arive at our destination , the zamardi adventure park in around an hour . This park offers all kinds of outdoor activities ranging from rope courses to sliding slopes and obstacle courses . Let's hope the weather stays as good as it is now and the rain stays away , wouldn't be fun getting soaked. I really hope the girls will like this activity to and won't be to scared so high up in the trees! Maybe i should buy myself some earplugs ?

Afterwards we're heading to the Balaton Tourist Camping . A spacy and calm camping just next to the lake . There we're going to set up our tents and recover from the exhausting day at the adventure park with a relaxed campfire and some beers .

The following day we're just going to relax a little bit more :  we can go for a swim in the Balaton lake ,  enjoy the Hungarian sun while leaning back in a chair , have ourselves a nice barbecue , .. Just a nice calm day at the lake without thinking about anything .We're all getting a bit exhausted from always walking around and visiting so many different places . This will definitely do us all - and our feet - some good .

Thanks for reading and stay tuned !

Megváltás !

Wouter De Weerdt

The Grand City Tour!

Hello followers,

Here, everything is still going fine. We really have a great vacation with a lot of beautiful places. Today, we have done a Grand City Tour, so we almost have seen all the great things of this big city: Budapest. It was a tour of four hours. During the tour, we have visited the Castle District, the Matthias Church, the Fisherman’s Bastion, the citadel Gellert Hill, the Central Market Hall, the City Park, the Budapest Zoo, the Amusement Park, the Opera House, the St Stephen’s Basilica and the last thing we visited was the neo-gothic House of Parliament. The Tour finally ended in the city-center.
It was a great tour and it is obvious, Budapest is a beautiful city and the sights of the city are very attractive.
After this tour, we thought it would be nice to have some dinner for ending this beautiful day. So we visited a restaurant and have eaten some Hungarian food. It has a different character than our food because the food is rich with sour cream, onions, eggs, butter, fresh produce and wine. I didn’t found it as good as our food, but I think this is because we are not used to this food.
To end the day, we have gone to a pub and had some beers.
It was an interesting but a tiring day.

Greetings from Budapest!
Lanneer Wout, 2MA05

Source: http://www.budapest.com/

 

 

Rollercoastertime!

Hello everyone!

Like Taike already said, we have a busy but pleasant afternoon. We decided that it was time for some action and pleasure. Where else can you find this together than in an amusement park. It’s called the Vidám Park and it has approximately 34 attractions. So you can conclude it’s worth visiting! It has 3 rollercoasters, but the Hullámvasút  is the attraction of the park. So we’ve chosen to do this one as a first. The other ones are the spinning coaster and a coaster for children. It seems obvious that we don’t do the last one. After the Hullámvasút, we were slightly nauseous. To come to rest and feel a little better, we went into a Ferris wheel. It was awesome because here we admired the beautiful view.  

 Later on, we went into an haunted mansion, on a whitewater course, a free fall, and so on. Many attractions later, we’ve had enough of the park and we went back to our hotel by taking a cab. Although it was very cold, we definitely had some amusement in the park, because it was the first one we did on our trip around the world. The park was even better than the ones you always see in the movies!

It was 7 p.m. when we entered the restaurant. After having a delicious meal, we stayed in the hotel to have a cosy evening. It was necessary after our evening with the boys. By the way, there’s nothing better than have a drink with your mates and tell the best stories. Everyone needed a peaceful evening to be fitted for tomorrow. It’s the start of a wonderful new day in Hungary, already our fourth country of our trip. Time goes fast but everyone is enjoying extremely.

We still have some other countries we’re going through so if you want to know our stories,  you should definitely follow us!

See you next time followers!

Stefanie Vanhoele, 2MA05

Source: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vid%C3%A1mpark

McDonalds, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Pizzahut!

Hello everybody!

Last night, Stefanie and I had to make a lot of efforts to bring the guys back to our hostel because they were having a great time with some of the local women. When we finally got back in our hostel, we had to pack our luggage immediately because we needed to go to the airport for our night flight.

During the flight, we all caught up some sleep. After a few hours of sleep, we arrived at our next destination, Hungary. In the airport of Budapest, we instantly booked a cheap hotel for a week.

Because we aren’t familiar with the city, we decided to call a taxi to bring us to our hotel. When we received our keys, we left our bags in the hotel and we started sightseeing the city. First of all, we needed to change our Euros to Hungarian forints. We found out that the Hungarian banking system is up to Western standards because there were a lot of Hungarian and international banks.

As we walked through the streets, we saw a lot of screaming, young people. They were the students of one of the ten universities of Budapest. We heard a hundred of languages, so we concluded that these universities teach a great deal of the students from abroad.

When we continued our walk, we decided to buy some chips and hamburgers in the McDonalds, because of our low budget. Nevertheless, it tasted delicious!

Now, we still have a busy program for the afternoon, so if you’re curious and interested to know our next experiences, keep following us on this page!

Greetings, Taika De Volder.

Sources:http://www.budapest.com/
http://www.google.be/imgres?q=hungarian+forints&um=1&hl=nl&sa=N&tbm=isch&tbnid=2uVNHhnQ3ARTLM:&imgrefurl=http://www.seeuinhungary.com/currency.htm&docid=wGkHyQFEkIxXaM&imgurl=http://www.seeuinhungary.com/images/huf.jpg&w=400&h=400&ei=BuJEUf6EAcXT0QXPgYHQCg&zoom=1&ved=0CE8QrQMwAA&iact=hc&vpx=2&vpy=94&dur=844&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=101&ty=154&page=1&tbnh=140&tbnw=140&start=0&ndsp=18&biw=1249&bih=537

A great day at the National Park High Tatras!

Hello followers

Yesterday we agreed with the ladies to go shopping in the Eurovea Gallery. It was a day where we had to carry a lot of shopping bags for the girls. So Wouter and I decided that today was our day, so that we did what we wanted to do.
We went to the National Park High Tatras. This is situated in the north of Slowakia and these are the smallest alps of the world but nevertheless they are beautiful.  What we have seen there is almost impossible to believe. There are peaks touching to the sky, some beautiful mountain lakes, unique plants, waterfalls and rare animals. It was really great to see this. When you’re there, you can’t believe that there are so many cruel and ugly places in the world. So we took some pictures and we will never forget this place. I also decided that one day, I will come back to this place. Also I give you the advice to visit this certainly when you have the chance.
It was such a nice day!
The crew thought it would be nice to end this day with visiting a restaurant and ending in the pubs. There we could not believe our eyes: the pubs of Bratislava are full of pretty women.
After we had some drinks and some conversations with these women, we decided to go to the hotel because tomorrow is another day.

 

Greetings and stay tuned!

Lanneer Wout

Shopping day!

Hellow folks,

As Taike already said, we went to Club 39 last night. Although we were exhausted because we got up so early, the night was a success! We bought a bottle of Slivovica in the club. Maybe the name doesn’t sound familiar, but you can compare it with a Vodka Red Bull. With a little bit of a hangover, we stood up and went to the breakfast table.

After having an enjoyable meal, we’re ready to see some culture and we decided to go to the Slavin. It’s a cemetery of soldiers of the Soviet Army who were killed during the Second World War. On the picture you can see the view from the Slavin Memorial. You can’t deny it has an amazing view!

Later that day, we determined our mind to go shopping in the most modern shopping center Eurovea Gallery. It’s very handy because they’re open till 21:00! In total there are 150 shops, which means you have a wide range of shops. And because two of the group members are girls, the thing we prefer the most is, yes you have it right, shopping! We’ve had the possibility to buy some jewelleries, electronics, footwear, food and so on. We’re lucky that the prices are low and so for us very attractive. A few hours and shopping bags later, we went back to our hotel because we were tired after our overwhelming night. A good night sleep would do us all good. In the hotel, we review our day and we conclude it was an extremely amusing day.

We hope you enjoy our adventures as much as we do, because we’re having the time of our lives!

See you next time!

Stefanie Vanhoele 2MA05
Sources: http://www.bratislavaguide.com/club-39 
http://www.eurovea.com/sk/

Arriving in Bratislava.

Good morning readers!

This morning, we woke up at 6 am. We took a taxi to the airport of Warsaw and 2 hours later, we took a plane to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. As we arrived in Bratislava, the customs checked our passports and they asked if we were carrying forbidden objects.

We decided to leave our bags and cases in a secured room in the airport because we wanted to explore the capital immediately. In the airport, we saw that we could take a bus to the centre of Bratislava. We had to sit on the bus for 20 minutes because the centre was only 9 kilometres further.

Bratislava is the country’s largest city, so we realized that we couldn’t explore the city in only one day. Today we only searched for some nice things to do, some restaurants and, of course, a place to stay.  

As we walked through the streets, we could see that the city can offer us numerous restaurants with international cuisine. We picked out a nice restaurant, specialised in local receipts. While we were eating, we were talking about the accommodation facilities. We decided to keep it simple. When we left the restaurant, we started looking for a youth hostel in the centre of Bratislava. We found a cheap hostel with clean and simple, but very cosy rooms. Here you can see a picture of our room.

We took the bus to the airport again to get our bags and then we took a taxi back to our hostel because we didn’t want to drag our cases on the bus. When we were in the hostel, we decided to go out. We wanted to meet the nightlife of Bratislava, so we agreed to have a drink in ‘Club 39’.

Good night everybody! 
Greetings, Taika De Volder.

Sources :http://visit.bratislava.sk/en/index.asp
http://visit.bratislava.sk/en/vismo/o_utvar.asp?id_org=700014&id_u=1877&p1=4006

Our last day in Poland!

Hello dear followers,


Today,  we have a very busy schedule! We wake up at 8 am and get some breakfast in our hotel. It needs to be a good one, because we could use it. After the delicious breakfast, we start our last day. First of all, we’re going to visit Barbacane and later on the day the Planty park. Why Planty park? Well, it’s near the bastion and it's easy for us to find our way. . 
I’ve put a picture on the blog to show you guys the bastion of Barbacane. It’s easier to imagine how beautiful Poland is. The bastion is an historical monument, because it is dated from 1350. Nowadays you can visit it because it is an historical museum. We enjoyed the visitation, but we’re looking forward to the Planty park. It’s a very pretty park and also one of the largest city parks in Poland. After a long but pleasant walk, we decided to go to a restaurant and enjoy our last meal in Poland. 2 hours and a delicious meal later, we went back to the hotel. We went to bed very early, because we need to be rested for our next stop, Slowakia. We enjoyed Poland a lot, but it’s time for us to move on. We’re looking forward to see Slowakia. 

I hope you guys all enjoy reading our blog and keep on following us!

Stefanie Vanhoele 2MA05
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planty_Park

Poland: Another country? Another business?

Hello everybody!

To find the difference between our first country, we have also learned something more about the history, the business, the money, …  Here in Poland first of all they have the PLN. 1 euro is 4,19 PLN.
We informed ourselves about their economy. In the beginning, Poland had a centrally planned economy. But since 1989, with the fall of the communist government, Poland has been liberalising its economy and has completed the transition from a centrally planned economy to a capitalistic market economy.
In 2004, Poland became a member of the European Union. After this, Poland's economy grew fast, very fast, faster than its European neighbours.

Today, Poland is Europe's sixth-biggest economy and is considered to have one of the fastest growing economies in Central Europe. Poland has a hierarchical business culture and the managers are authoritative.
In Poland, there are three different types of business structures.
The ex-state monopoly enterprises, I don't think you need more information about these.
The second type of business structures are the foreign capital subsidiaries. These are international companies who have settled down some offices in Poland.
And the last type of business structures are the local start-up companies, these are new companies.
In Poland, the most people are working in the service sector, after that, the industry sector and the last one is the agriculture sector.

Now, Poland is also undergoing economic development, but the country still has several challenges ahead. The most important challenge is the preparation of their economy to meet the economic criteria for entry into the Eurozone.

Greetings from Poland!

Lanneer Wout.

The new part of Warsaw.

Dear followers,

Today we decided to discover the new part of Warsaw and to surrender to its unique atmosphere. We took the subway to go to the several places we had to see.

Most of the houses and buildings in the New Town are reconstructed because all of them were completely destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising. Today, the charming, beautiful, little streets are overloaded with restaurants, cafes, pubs and bars.

We have visited three reconstructured churches, namely the Church of the Holy Spirit, the Church of St. Casimir and the Church of the Visitation of Virgin Mary. Then, we all wanted something to eat, so we started looking for a nice restaurant. The restaurant we picked, was a typical Polish restaurant. We all picked a different menu. I have choosen for Rósol, a clear chicken soup, and Żeberka wędzone, some grilled ribs. When we were satisfied, we went on with our trip.

When we left the restaurant, we stood in the middle of the New Town Market Square. It is the main square of the Warsaw New Town. The square was establised before 1408 and it was orginally designed according to a medieval urban layout. As we were walking, we discovered that we weren’t the only tourists here! Everybody was taken pictures of the square and so did we!

Stefanie and I wanted to go shopping in the afternoon and the guys agreed, so we had to take advantage of that! While we were looking for some clothes and accessories, the guys were searching some souvenirs for their girlfriends in Belgium. The Polish clothing brands are well up to international levels, thanks to the help of young and creative Polish designers. We’ve had a pleasant afternoon but we became a little poorer… .

See you tomorrow!
Taika De Volder

Source :https://warsawtour.pl/en

Off to Warsaw !

Hello everybody !

Whow ,that first week in Belarus was amazing ! What a way to start our trip.I didn’t expect that the country would be so beautiful.
More than satisfied we can continue this trip and set sail to the second destination. But not before taking on a 4 hour drive towards  the second country on our route , Poland.  We decided to make our first stop in the Polish capital , Warsaw .

We booked beds for 2 nights in a old motel right in the center of the cities oldest district , the Warsaw old town . This area really is a lovely place to stay . The houses here are old but yet so colourful and charming .
The whole area has been built somewhere in the 13th century around the castle of the Dukes of Mazovia that later became the Royal castle . The former Polish president and his chancellery even decided to make it their residence in the early 20th century.

The motel we’re heading to is named the Kanonia hostel and it’s only 20 meters away from the old town market place. That market place has earned a spot on the UNESCO World Heritage list for the way is has been reconstructed  after the second World war.
During this process the original bricks and decorative pieces were re-used. This is going to be really nice to see ! I'll make sure to upload a few pictures tomorrow .

We're getting a guided tour around the square this evening and tomorrow we’re going to take the metro into the newer part of Warsaw to enjoy some more of the lovely things this city has to offer.

Greetings from the whole team and stay tuned  !