cafebabel.com

Euro 2012 Warsaw stadium: once a bazaar hosting pop star popes

('Catrin',) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:58:42 -0000

With its roof looking like a waving Polish flag, the national stadium became the newest addition to the Polish capital's fantastic skyline on 29 January. It opened seven months later than planned on the historic banks of the Vistula river but still in time for the 2012 European football championships this summer

Documentary Italy: love it or leave it in a Fiat 500

('Eva Vanhee',) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:00:00 -0000

When the lease on their flat in Rome was up, film critic Luca Ragazzi convinced television journalist Gustav Hofer to spend a last six months touring their country and understand why they were moving abroad. Little did they know that those were the six months that changed Italy

cafebabel.com boys speak: what makes Europe’s twentysomething men happy

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 16:00:00 -0000

We girls probably think that macho attitudes, making money and succeeding are what make boys happy. After all, why is it so hard to get them to share on ‘happiness’? Apparently not. Winning a game, doing nothing, a tipple, the latest gadget, friends, girls - a pan-European select number of lads share what makes them smile – and why we girls are different. Vox-pop

How an Italian boy became a ‘happiness coach’

('amare.ca',) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:16:45 -0000

Born in the land of ‘la dolce vita’, Bergamo-born Frank Ra, 32, travelled Europe before publishing a book on happiness. He offers his thoughts on spiritual scepticism, being a former erasmus student or ex-pat and how ‘no place is perfect unless we accept it with all its features’

Spain: leaving crisis behind to find 'happiness' in and of Latin America

('Buzz',) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:22:21 -0000

Valencian-born Ainara Aparici, who has lived in Italy and the US, has been travelling Latin America since March 2010 and has directed a documentary. She says the continent has much to teach us about things that we often overlook and forget about

I like Mostar: are there really no tourists who want to go to Bosnia?

('Monica Mircescu',) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:37:19 -0000

Mostar and I go back a long way. Ours is the story of a missed encounter – in 1998. Fast forward to September 2011: cafebabel.com organises the annual network meeting in Dubrovnik. On learning that the city is only 150 kilometres away from Mostar, I decide to revisit the city I never reached

Odessa to Vilkova: Ukraine's Venice

('Annie Rutherford',) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:41:24 -0000

Inspired by British website 'Nerdy Day Trips', we should say that cafebabel.com isn’t just about metropolises and life in the big city, but also Europe’s far-flung corners. A German correspondent discovers pelicans, tortoises and old believers in a sleepy fishing village in Ukraine

Travel: five things not to do in Iceland

('Kris Anderson',) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:21:44 -0000

Iceland is a tourist’s Eden: pounding waterfalls, snow-capped mountains, white sand beaches, milky-blue hot-springs, glaciers, volcanoes, and wildlife galore. But its tourist infrastructure needs some spit-and-polish. Here are a few tips to get by

Enrico Brizzi on the sense in walking in the 21st century

('Charlie Tango',) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 11:45:00 -0000

There are 1, 600 kilometres and 33 towns between Canterbury and Rome. The 72-day walk follows in the footsteps of Sigerico, the archbishop of Canterbury who was the first to set out the ancient pilgrim's path in 990 A.D. The extraordinary feat is related in the 'Via Francigena diaries' by Enrico Brizzi, who co-authored the book with Marcello Fini

Can contemporary art change 'new capitalist' Tirana?

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:00:00 -0000

Far from having a ‘pan-Balkan’ culture and being under the influence of a consumerist society, the Albanian capital is exploring new ways of expressing itself. Whilst politicians are tripping on the urns and ignoring blank canvases (literally), local artists are boosting a non-existent contemporary scene

Five gay friendly neighbourhoods in Europe

('Dimi David Opsimoulis Fernandez',) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 18:00:31 -0000

As the spectacular gay prides flourish across Europe, cafebabel.com local teams from Paris, Ljubljana, Berlin, Budapest and Athens blog about the scenes across Europe

Berliners: foreigners, stop boozing on the cheap in our city!

('hkeet',) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:17:31 -0000

In the Berlin borough of Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain people are celebrating for all it's worth. More and more tourists are cavorting in the cheap cocktail bars, the parks and in the streets. The locals are fed up and are stirring up opinion. Stag dos, pub crawls, behaving obnoxiously: is Berlin the new Mallorca?

Seven (wonder) tips to visit post-revolution Egypt

('Daiva Repe\xc4\x8dkait\xc4\x97',) — Sat, 07 May 2011 16:22:45 -0000

A halt in tourism, which constitutes 11% of the country's GDP and allows over a half of Egypt's employed population to have service sector jobs, badly harmed the quality of life for many ordinary Egyptians. Scared of the turmoil following the 18-day revolution in late January, the usual number of 14 million tourists avoided Egypt for weeks - but that should change

Europe to Dakar: a Lithuanian's journey

('Martynas',) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:26:56 -0000

A student at an English university takes a ten-day research trip to Senegal, playing with the question of openness and difference encountered through travelling. From the old continent, destination western Africa from an anthropological perspective. Travel diary

Guide to Seville: a British love letter

('Laura Simpson',) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:05:23 -0000

Overlooked by many tourists - the numbers of visitors to the city do not by any means reflect its incredible charm, beauty and liveliness - Seville is writhing, pulsating 'authentic Spain' at its most vivacious

Ireland’s expat-emigrants: silver spoon diaspora

('Tim Mac an Airchinnigh',) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 17:27:15 -0000

Thousands left Ireland when it was rollicking at the dizzy heights of an economic boom, and when ‘diaspora’ sounded like a chapter heading from Angela’s Ashes. Now that the country has all but gone bust, those who left in the good times have been transformed from ‘expat’ to ‘immigrant’ overnight. In 2010 they were joined by 65, 000 others fleeing the Republic’s economic collapse

Gay culture in Istanbul: ‘We have the balls to say it out loud’

('Katharina Kloss',) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:37:51 -0000

Together with his partner, Sakir Yilmaz claims to be the owner of the first ‘openly’ gay bar-restaurant, Frappe Istanbul, in the famous party neighborhood of Beyoğlu. Interview

Most annoying questions put to expats

('Daiva Repe\xc4\x8dkait\xc4\x97',) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:02:02 -0000

Stereotypes, judgements, accidental offence or ignorance? After living between Japan, Hungary, Sweden and Israel of late, our resident Lithuanian blogger attempts to officially go where not many want to go, but do everyday... Extract from wonderland.cafebabel.com

5 bikes, 40 countries, 3 years: touring the world on two wheels

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:00:00 -0000

On 29 August, a group of Frenchmen in their mid-twenties kicked off a 50, 000 kilometre trip from Montpellier, and are somewhere on the Moroccan coast. Why would anyone do that...

Expats dating abroad? That's Brussels for you

('Claire Davenport',) — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:06:48 -0000

Why in Brussels do my friends of every nationality land themselves in the most bizarrely complicated relationships? Do all men here just want sex? One woman on why fellow expats can't do steady relationships

Staycation: welcoming 'typical tourist' guiris in Mediterranean Spain

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:59:43 -0000

A calm, peaceful town is suddenly heaving with people. The streets are full of walking parasols, hammocks and beach mats, the tourists are practically naked, there are cars everywhere and the summer hit (Shakira, anyone?) sounds day and night. Summer's here - so are the foreigners

Thick as thieves in Europe

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:15:00 -0000

It's better to proverbially be 'like ass and shirt' ('comme cul et chemise') in France than to be 'getting on like a house on fire', like they say in England and Germany - surely? Touring Europe's round of expressions to denote the most inseparable of friends

Vienna, Berlin, Budapest and Paris: blogging city rivers

('cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 10:35:39 -0000

Europe's city rivers are both the place to be in terms of a good old rave - take the A38 ship on the Danube to Bar 25 on the Spree - and also for a spot of nudity or artificial beach time in the summer. Blog snippets from four cafebabel.com local team bloggers, who pay tribute to their watery city icons

Not going on holiday? You're on 'staycation'

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:00:00 -0000

It seems an eternity, but the financial crisis is only just celebrating its second birthday. The US has spawned a side effect phenomenon, a neat little neologism called the 'staycation'. The term contradicts the notion of going away on 'vacation'. People can't afford holidays and are 'staying' home. Is it clear enough?

Venice, the Moses project and fake funerals

('Sarah Truesdale',) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:00:00 -0000

It is slowly sinking, its residents are leaving. The world's media are claiming that Venice’s end is nigh. American environmental information website Mother Nature Network even includes Venice on its '10 places to visit before they vanish' list. But the reality is more complicated

Arno Jullien: 'erasmus should be obligatory to compare simple things in life'

('Nicola Potter',) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:00:00 -0000

He collaborated with Yann-Arthus Bertrand on '6 Billion Others', and he's back with Europalive. The 52-minute film from his travels in 24 EU countries over two months gives 'Europe a human face'. With no financial support, the 32-year-old from Cannes filmed the homeless to company execs to immerse himself in their perceptions, loves and hates

EU expats: foreign fashion of cross-border mobile phone calls

('Nabeelah Shabbir',) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:00:00 -0000

Pinch, punch, first of the month - though you'll now be feeling the pinch less. From 1 July, Europeans across the old continent will be saving four cents when they make or receive calls in the 27 member states. Travellers and businessmen aside, we expats have long since shunned using our mobiles

'Glamping' with Europe's happy campers

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:59:11 -0000

The Spanish wake up with tent poles, the French use sardines to hold their tents up, the Italians camp 'abusively' and the English invented caravans and coined 'glamorous camping' - aka glamping. What does it come to? Expressions of the week

Diary: Vilnius and I, reluctant bedfellows

('Daiva Repe\xc4\x8dkait\xc4\x97',) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:24:52 -0000

The passion evaporated years ago, after the capital became expensive and inconvenient to live in, or maybe since I stopped being a student. However, jobs for a social science graduate with a Lithuanian passport are here. Anecdote from cafebabel.com expat blogger 'Wonderland

Popping into Chinatown in Manchester

('Ana D',) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:13:09 -0000

Known as a Chinese village of north England, the neighbourhood is one of the most peculiar in Manchester, being the second largest tourist spot of England after London. One of the odd distinguishing factors of multiculturalism is the local community enclosed in its borders

Diary: a Lithuanian checks in at Tel Aviv airport

('Daiva Repe\xc4\x8dkait\xc4\x97',) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:03:50 -0000

Many people have complained it took lots of time for them to leave Israel. I was a rather unclear case, and being a woman from eastern Europe often spells trouble. Anecdote from cafebabel.com blog 'Wonderland'

Cheese People: 'European' face of Russian music

('Natasha Doff',) — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:12:33 -0000

From the banks of the River Volga just west of the Urals mountains, which mark the geographical border between Europe and Asia, a funky new band is making a big impact on the Russian music scene: an unsigned, energetic female-fronted quartet with a disco-punk sound. We meet backstage in Moscow

(Non-)smoker's summer guide to Europe's bans

('Emilie Prattico',) — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:29:37 -0000

While you’re carefully planning your summer holidays, it might be worth considering what destinations will best suit your needs - be thee a lover of those tobacco-filled thin paper cylinders or not

Gogo Paris, go go digital? Ditching European travel guidebooks

('Tim Mac an Airchinnigh',) — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:02:44 -0000

In Europe, we don’t go on city breaks any more. We ‘pop over’ to foreign capitals like we pop downstairs to get a pint of milk. So where does that leave the traditional travel guide? One Paris-based webzine is pioneering a new species of travel guide with Europe’s new jet-setting, PDF-ing urbanites in mind

Volcano: travelling Vilnius to Paris by train

('English language version of cafebabel.com',) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 09:19:15 -0000

Once upon a time, in the space of six days, airline companies lost 1.7 millions euros - and they weren't alone. I don't know exactly how many million euros Iceland 'owes' to the world aviation sector. With little sleep and lots of beer, it certainly owes me two days of my life by train across 2, 000 km of Europe

Hitchhiking Gathering 2010: the lowdown

('lbricks',) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:23:01 -0000

The third celebration of the Hitchhiking Gathering takes place in August, first in Barcelona and next in Lisbon, with hundreds of hitchhikers from the whole continent expected to attend

Grzegorz Szczygieł, Panjabi MC and an Opel Kadett

('Paulina Dominik',) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:15:00 -0000

The director garnered acclaim from a travel festival in Wroclaw in 2008 for a documentary which took him from being a Polish businessman in Wroclaw to a traveller in Pakistan and Iran, parts of which he covered with the famed postwar car

Mediterannean road trip becomes Italian comic

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:45:00 -0000

Italian illustrator and writer team Giuliano Cangiano and Gianluca Ferro decided to spend a different kind of summer in a van driving along the western coasts of the Mediterranean. The pictures from 'Europe 2009 A.D' address stereotypes, the Basque omertà and the flames of Marseille

Anything but lethargic: multi-faceted life of a German in Lisbon

('Annie Rutherford',) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:00:00 -0000

EU press criticise air travel regulations as ash cloud lingers

('euro topics',) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:57:30 -0000

Since 15 April, Europe's airports have been forced to stay closed after a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland has obscured EU airspace. The flight ban that many of us are experiencing shows just how dependent the economy is on air traffic - but Europe can co-operate much better too. The Italian, Swedish, Dutch and Austrian press react

Zaher Rezai: dead after eight kilometres of illegal immigration

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:48:04 -0000

In December 2008, the 13-year-old died under the wheels of a lorry after trying to evade Italian immigration officials. A year on, artist Gianluca Constantini's cartoon strip tells the story

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

('Elaine Jordan',) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:45:00 -0000

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

UK to Poland via France: hitch-hiking Europe

('Sara Szeremeta',) — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:21:01 -0000

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

Visit Marrakech

('theroxbox',) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:00:00 -0000

One of the most cosmopolitan cities in North Africa has almost a million inhabitants, large numbers of whom are condemned to poverty, but the former imperial city is a convincing modern city at the foot of the Atlas mountains

Dismantled: five myths about Kosovo

('Martin W\xc3\xa4hlisch',) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:46:31 -0000

On 17 February, Europe’s youngest country celebrates its second anniversary. Presumably, most still wouldn't find Kosovo on a map. We regularly read about its soldiers, organised crime and demand for visas. Two roommates in Prishtina – a Kosovar and a German – share their most striking and basic common observations

Wanna go out in Athens? Try the Gazi neighbourhood

('Aatish Pattni',) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 12:00:00 -0000

You could almost call it a phenomenon that has worked its charm on the Athenians over the years. Some of the prostitutes in the area even parade around in the latest fashions, like it’s some kind of catwalk

Meet the Erasmus elite: bright stars in a global recession?

('Tim Mac an Airchinnigh',) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:16:02 -0000

What do a loud-mouthed English ladette, a svelte Ukrainian vamp, a dashing Polish casanova and a bagpipe-playing Frenchman all have in common? Bar-stool jokes aside, they're all members of YRN - the association of European regions' youth network. About 150 people meet annually to discuss how to use Europe to hoist them out of the economic doldrums. cafebabel.com caught up with them in Paris this December

Rock climbing Europe: discovering El Chorro in Spain

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:00:00 -0000

Every winter, rock climbers from across northern Europe arrange to meet in southern Spain to tackle one of this season’s biggest challenges. El Chorro is a limestone gorge hippy haven and small island of green in the Andalusian desert

Prostitutes and tourists: exploring the doorways of Jozsefvaros, Budapest

('Alex Jackson',) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:50:49 -0000

As massive redevelopment rumbles on through the recession, it’s smaller-scale initiatives that are really preserving the integrity of Budapest’s infamous district

Party burnout in Paris, so go to Berlin

('Ellie Banks',) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:30:16 -0000

'Sssssh, go in quickly,' whispers the bouncer of the electro bar 4Elements on the Place de la Republique. The lights are out in the flat above. It is 11pm, a Saturday evening in Paris. The one-time nightlife mecca of Europe is turning into a sleepy little town, a trend that threatens to continue