On St. Patrick's day, drink Poitín, the world’s strongest alcohol

(image : ©Kollage Kid/flickr)

You’ll often find it in a clear, unmarked glass bottle, innocently snuggled at the back of a neighbour’s fridge, but the real Poteen (pronounced ‘putch-een’) isn’t sold in any shop in Dublin. St. Patrick apparently brewed it, and few people in Ireland haven’t tasted this ultra-alcoholic brew, but the lethal concoction has been illegal here since 1661 Read article

by Tim Mac an Airchinnigh @ - Dublin - 2 commentaires

Gallery | Photos Germany

Image : Images on eastern Germany: football, borders and memories (12 photos)

Images on eastern Germany: football, borders and memories (12 photos)

focus From Bergamo to Laos: parkour with Gato, Italian traceur

From Bergamo to Laos: parkour with Gato, Italian traceur

Federico, or 'Gato' ('Cat') as he likes to be known, is an Italian biologist. But his real passion is for parkour - or rather the art of moving, a discipline which allows man to discover his own body and its limits

by Miriam Franchina @ - Turin - 2 votes

review Getting to grips with djembe, tro-tro and obronis in Ghana

Getting to grips with djembe, tro-tro and obronis in Ghana

I was told before I arrived in Ghana that everyone wants to speak to the foreigner or the obroni (‘white person’) as they say in Twi, one of the main dialects of the forty spoken in Ghana. I had several on the spot marriage proposals; but that’s Ghana and its people for you

by Sofia Verzbolovskis @ - Paris - 3 Comment - 3 votes

interview Europarl TV: 'technology is more fast-paced than the institutions'

Europarl TV: 'technology is more fast-paced than the institutions'

In September 2008, the TV channel started streaming parliamentary sessions and news features on MEPs and their speeches on the European parliament’s webpage. The challenge is to give the institutions a human face - press service chief Jean-Yves Loog tells us how

by Jane Mery @ - Paris - 3 Comment - 2 votes

testimony UK to Poland via France: hitch-hiking Europe

UK to Poland via France: hitch-hiking Europe

You could stay in a hotel in Egypt for a week. Or you can spread the same amount of money over a month and a half for a trip of an alternative kind: hitchhiking Europe. Here’s one way to do it, which included 30 drivers, volunteer work and new friends

by Sara Szeremeta @ - London - 2 Comment - 7 votes

Committed female: end of a contradiction?

Committed female: end of a contradiction?

100 years ago, international woman's day was marked in Denmark. 8 March 2010 won’t iron out the incoherence of the general European feminine condition. Here, like elsewhere, women live out their freedoms on a daily basis, be it via the media in Cologne or their unique political engagement in Poland or France. Even the subtleties of a simple language honorific teach us to change our ideas on who we most jadedly slam as the ‘weaker sex’

portrait Krystof Hadek: 'foreign characters played by English-speaking actors? Disappointing'

Krystof Hadek: 'foreign characters played by English-speaking actors? Disappointing'

In the last month the 27-year-old Czech actor has picked up accolades at the Berlin film festival (one of the ten 'shooting stars' in Europe) and a Czech Lion for 'best actor'. We talk fame, acting genes and language in European cinema

by Sergio Marx @ - Paris - 2 votes

overview The Europeans nominated for the more 'random' Oscars 2010

The Europeans nominated for the more 'random' Oscars 2010

There's a tendency to focus on which Europeans snag the best film or best actress prizes - but here's a trailer run down of the less famed contenders vying for other Oscars from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which takes place at the Kodak Theatre on 7 March

by cafebabel.com - Paris - 4 Comment - 4 votes

Crisis: no Brussels burn

Crisis: no Brussels burn

The Belgian capital wriggles and writhes out of an era of financial crisis - Brussels is versatile and can adapt itself. You can spot this when you go second hand shopping or over to the aid of the homeless in the ´Les Petits Riens´ boutique, despite the obligatory belt tightening here and there. Where the economic dilemma doesn´t appear to have embroiled a younger, cosmopolitan elite, non-EU immigrants haven´t escaped as luckily. Special edition from five cafebabel reporters who travelled to Brussels for the 'EU crisis on the ground' editorial mission

Brunch with…

(Image: ©Renata Burns)

Agop J. Hacikyan: 'I don’t feel I am translating my culture into English'

The playful Armenian-Canadian author talks his latest novel - hailed as a 'love letter to Istanbul' - straddling continents and his opinions on Turkey in the EU 

by renata burns

culture event guide

(Image: ©Ecufilmfestival on Flickr)

European indie film: 'Sundance' in Paris

It's all eyes on the French capital's Latin quarter between 12 and 14 March 2010; the fifth edition of 'ECU', run by an Australian and supported by G-Technology by Hitachi, showcases 72 works from 28 countries across various categories. Here's our top five trailers

by cafebabel.com

Tower of babel

Illustration: ©Henning Studte/ http://www.studte-cartoon.de/

Mrs, miss or ms?

In the run-up to international women's day on 8 March, one of the debates rolling around the cafebabel circles cropped up - when on earth do English-speakers address a woman by Ms?

by Tim Mac an Airchinnigh @

EU week

On 5 March, sixty people watched Wilders' 2008 internet movie 'Fitna' in London's House of Lords; 200 protested (Image: ©jacco de boer/ Flickr)

Fathoming the power of right-wing populist Geert Wilders in Europe

If the freedom party leader is successful in the June parliamentary elections, Dutch politics will be destabilised and Europe will be forced to deal seriously with the man once nicknamed 'Mozart', write the Dutch, Swiss, Spanish and Slovakian press

by eurotopics @

Yum Niam

(image : ©Kollage Kid/flickr)

On St. Patrick's day, drink Poitín, the world’s strongest alcohol

You’ll often find it in a clear, unmarked glass bottle, innocently snuggled at the back of a neighbour’s fridge, but the real Poteen (pronounced 'putch-een') isn’t sold in any shop in Dublin. St. Patrick apparently brewed it, and few people in Ireland haven’t tasted this ultra-alcoholic brew, but the lethal concoction has been illegal here since 1661

by Tim Mac an Airchinnigh @

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best of cafebabel

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The countdown is on: Apple is soon to unveil its newest beast, a multimedia tablet somewhere between the iphone and the mac which will encourage our technology addictions. How much time do you honestly spend scotched to your computer screens?