Kategorie: Country

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LAOS: Toilet Streetart and Loo Graffiti – 4000 Islands

Actually I wanted to call it crapper-graffitis, the word is a bit too vulgar for the headline, but I just can´t get it out of my head and during the whole journey we really called this awesome artwork crapper graffitis all the time. In fact it was graffiti on crappers. Toilet graffiti sounded too western and too functioning, it were more some lavatory rooms far away from modern society on some islands without streets and with farmers, who rent some rooms to travelers and backpackers. Two-holer, outhouse or privy isn´t the right word as well, neither shithouse, because they all have some flush and lavation system. So let it be crapper. But in the end it isn´t important what you do at these places, much more what you can see on the outside walls…

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ALBANIA: Berat – Skotis Hostel

Do you need some nice advice for a short trip or long term holiday destination? We already wrote something about a roadtrip through Albania and presented you the country as a new secret hint (Let´s go to Albania). The New York Times voted the country in the newcomer list of soonly be in demand places of interest. Our trip was definitly classic, we learned a lot, had fun and it was (still) quite cheap. The whole country is paved with UNESCO heritages, one of the most impressive cities is certainly Berat. We stood there for a few days in Skotis Backpacker Hostel. The born Scot is an enthusiastic person, excited about travelling and get to know other countries and cultures. Here in Berat in Albania her realized his long wished dream about opening a hostel. When he came to Albania in 2008 there existed just one hostel in the capital Tirana. (We wrote as well something about that place with interviews with the owners). The city Berat is just a historical and as well an architectonical sight, where you should spend some days. The river Osum divides the city in a valley, the houses are built in hills and into the mountain. All the buildings are constructed and presented mostly in the same style and clustered into the hills and valley walls. But actually you don´t see a lot of any walls. There are just window. A lot of windows. That´s why Berat is called as well the „City of the thousand windows“.

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THAILAND: Phangan Rainbow Bungalows – Ko Pha Ngan

The times when we just did beach holidays in summer and skiing trips in winter are over since a long time. Meanwhile you can go very easily and cheap as well to a warm sunny beach on the one side of the planet, while it is freezing in your country, or you can travel during the totally hot mid-summer of your country to a snowy resort somewhere else on a summit in country where there is winter at that moment. We went to Thailand before Christmas, traveled around, had a good time on the sea and collected a lot of nice video and picture material. Our Thailand-Expert Praxinho V., who lived nearly half of his live in Southeast-Asia and who knows all around the islands by experience on exploring by scooter, on elephants, by foot or just crawling – that guy brought us to one of his “Special-secret-super-nice-places”. A lodge where he always goes, and where we all stood for some days and which we definitely can recommend: The Koh Phangan Rainbow Bungalows of Martin Hine and Noy Prante Limkul ….

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GHANA: Lekma Hospital

The Lekma Hospital is a governmental health facility built by the Chinese Government in 2010 as a friendship hospital between these two countries. The remarkable financial support from the Government of the People’s Republic of China was about 7.280.00 US Dollar. Within 16 month the construction was completed and the hospital was inaugurated by the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana H.E John Dramani Mahama on the 21st of December 2010.

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JAPAN: Streetart Osaka – 落書き Graffiti Nippon

We started the new year in Osaka, Japan. Konnichiwa! The celebration was great, the food and the sake fantastic, but the Japanese are not very familiar with streetart and graffiti. It is very regularized, officialized, well-signposted, marked and labeled. Streetpaintings which are out of the prevailing rules and raster, get cleaned away fast or cubically painted over. Which is kind of another invitation for some more already framed wish-wash or spray can art….

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BULGARIA: Sofia Graffiti Tour – Niki Borisov – Background knowledge to local Urban Art

We had already an article about streetart and the city tours in Sofia. In the following story we want to tell you a bit more especially about the Sofia Graffiti Tour and some little streetart gimmicks, we found during our expedition through Bulgaria´s capital. The Graffiti Tour starts on the four days between Friday and Monday always at 3 pm at the corner of „Todor Alexandrov“ and „Bratya Miladinovi“ in front of the Statue of Sofia close to the metro station Serdika and is definitly recommendable. We were very lucky that day, no one else was taking part at the tour, so we had our tour guide Niki Borisov just for ourselves and could even ask and discus more.

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BULGARIA: Sofia City and Sight Seeing Tours – Also Urban Art included

On our last trip we went to the Balkan for some days, more precisely to Bulgaria and it´s beautiful capital Sofia. The weather was kind of unfavorable, from rain to little snow storms, but still we could explore this interesting city extensively and brought you a lot of marvelous streetart fotos and graffiti material. The country and the city looks back over 6000 years of history shaped by a lot of different cultures during the centuries. Everywhere you can find protected monuments and archaeological excavation originated from the Roman Empire, which were found during road work or tunnel bores. The medieval Bulgaria is everywhere integrated in newer buildings, you can see architecture from the Ottoman occupation and everywhere in between there is the distinctive Eastern Bloc design of the communism. All of this commingles in different ways with the modern Bulgaria. Very cool!

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LAOS: LaLaLand Bar & Tours

While we passed the beautiful village Vang Vieng during our Laos trip we visited the Karst Mountains, heaps of nice lagoons and caves and took as well part at the tubing of course. But the real good offers and choices we unfortunately found only in the end of our stay. Like always, you get to the best things just in the end. We didn´t experience the tours ourselves, but still we brought you a lot of amazing photographs and interesting interviews. Just in case if you should be around there one day. An insider tip: Lala and his tours!

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CHILE: Streetart La Serena

Another very cool surfers spot in Chile is the second biggest city in the country: La Serena. Here the Elqui-Valley is just around the corner, it´s one of the main producing areas for the Chilenian national drink Pisco. It´s a very nice drink, you can get in Germany as well, but for sure not comparable to the one you can get there at the vineyards. The city is really nice, with the historic center built in the colonial style and if you arrive from the north it is quite pleasant to arrive at this alive and green place after a lot of ghosttowns in the Atacama desert, who remind on the salpeter mining period.

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CHILE: Valparaíso – Hostal Voyage

During our journey in Chile we made a stop in Valparaiso and could stay in the most interessting Hostel of the city: Hostel Voyage. It´s much nicer to stay at a friends´ place than in a hotel room. A lot of people prefer therefore couchsurfing, it´s a cheaper and as well much more personal way to travel. And at the doors of Hostel Voyage we were welcomed exactly that way. After riding the whole night in a horrible bus through half of the country and searching for over two hours for a place to stay – out of 20 hostels really nobody opened – we finally have been greeted at this nice lodge.

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