Portuguese customs: I’m not talking about the cakes they bake at Christmas or the songs they sing – nothing so interesting! No, I’m talking about trying to get a package from back home through customs when you are traveling internationally. Travel Tip #1: Don’t bother having anyone send you anything.... read more
After the trials and tribulations of Angola, we flew to Lisbon where we parted company, Phillip to go on to Madrid, me to stay in Lisbon for … well, was it for a visit? That’s for the next blog. But since I had to be there anyway, I did go... read more
It all started with Ten Famous Serbs, when out of the blue I asked our guide for his top ten. Now wherever I go I ask a local for his or her top ten. In Luanda Carla helped me with Ten Famous Angolans. In Lisbon I had fun with the... read more
The question can now be asked: What the heck were we doing in Angola? And why was our next stop Portugal? The answer is: a curiosity to experience a part of Lusophonia, namely Lusophone (= Portuguese-speaking) Africa. The title image map tells the story. How did we come up with... read more
Because our arrival in Luanda with the confiscation of our passports and the disappearance of our luggage was so front-and-center in our visit to Angola, my Top Ten Famous Angolans List is a post-script to the country rather than a preview. Famous Angolans in Politics Queen Nzinga Bandi Ngola Mbandi... read more
The title image is a blue tile depiction of the coastline of Angola with a Portuguese ship approaching. The legend says: Ethyopia Occidental. This was our travel through-line (so we have now told ourselves). We went from Ethiopia Oriental in East Africa to what was called Ethiopia Occidental in West... read more
“This is Angola.” We heard this phrase a lot after we took a direct flight from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to arrive in Luanda, Angola. The phrase was uttered at the moments when the situation facing us was completely inexplicable. By the way, in title image Seja Bem-Vindo in Luanda means:... read more
Title image: Sunset over Lalibela and a beautiful Ethiopian culture. Our visit to Ethiopia was wonderful from all points of view: well organized by our excellent guide, Elias Alemayehu, visually stunning and vastly informative. Three aspects of Ethiopian culture are striking: Ethiopian Culture: The Food I like Ethiopian food because... read more
Ge’ez is the Ethiopian script in use all around the country. Ethiopia is the only sub-Saharan country to have its own script and it is hundreds of years old. You might be tempted to call it an alphabet, but it is really a syllabary, where each symbol represents the combination... read more
According to Elias Alemayehu, our guide in Ethiopia, 95% of tourists come to the country in order to visit Lalibela. The reason is suggested by the title image – namely the remarkable churches carved out of rock in one piece. The work was done between the 7th and 13th centuries.... read more