Welcome to my blog.

If you need information about your next destination you can find it right here. By clicking on a country on the right menu you can find information of the cities I have visited. I am doing my best to keep these posts as informative as possible. A travel guide book is handy but you can plan your vacations without. You can find some interesting information here and a list of interesting spots in cities.

This blog has a category called “All other stuff”. This category is made to put all the random stuff I’ve written about. This may be about money making and marketing to tips and tricks to book a cheap flight.

I’ve recently got a new passion: Photography. From now on I am only posting good quality pictures of the interesting places in a city instead of those crappy compact camera shots. I might also add some photography information in the ‘All Other Stuff’ category soon. I have more pictures on my Facebook page Jorgo Fotografie.

If you have any feedback or questions, do not hesitate to post a comment!

There are a plenty of diseases occuring in this continent that do not exist or do not occur often in North-America or Europe so visitors have to take precautions and protect themselves against these diseases. Luckily, most diseases can be prevented with vaccinations, pills or just common sense.

Malaria

This disease is probably the most known African disease. However, there are also risks in some parts of Latin-America and Asia. It’s a parasitic disease caused by Plasmodium Falciparum or Plasmodium Vivax. It’s preventable by protecting yourself against mosquitoes with a repellent  The most effective repellent contains DEET with 50% or more. The best option is to use 100%. If you use DEET watch out for your clothes as they may lose colour or your plastic material, like cameras. A mosquito net is neccesary to protect you at night as DEET will not protect you anymore after a few hours.

Before you enter a malaria-endemic zone you should visit a doctor that can prescribe you malaria prevention drugs. These drugs are anti-parasitic and may protect you from infection. There is still up to 20% chance to get infected! Depending on your personal choice, you can choose which medicine you prefer to take. I’ve listed the options below with the possible side effects.

 Comments

• Atovaquon is a good option for malaria prevention because it has less side effects and you only need to take it 7 days after leaving the endemic zone. The only disadvantage here is the price. Atovaquon medicine is the most expensive option.
• Melfloquine is not a good option. Some endemic areas in Asia and Latin America have reported resistance against this drug. On top of that the medicine is expensive and some people get serious neurological side effects from it.
• Doxycycline is another good option because of the less side effects and the good effectiveness. It is also an extremely cheap option. You just have to take 4 weeks doxycycline every day after leaving the area.

Malaria is rare in North and South African countries.

Yellow Fever

This serious disease is caused by a virus and transmitted by mosquitoes so the same prevention as Malaria applies here.

Unlike Malaria there is a vaccination for this virus. You need to get this vaccination in a listed hospital so you can receive a certification. The Yellow Fever Certificate is obligated in some countries, especially if you come from an endemic zone. The prevention is important as the mortality rate is 20% for the people who have serious symptoms (fever, jaundice caused by liver damage, eye -, mouth - or intestinal bleedings). If you’d like to know if a country obligates the certificate, check the the list of countries by World Health Organisation (WHO) that require Yellow Fever Certificate.

Hepatitis A and B

HAV and HBV cause the disease. These are liver inflammatory diseases and can cause liver cirrhosis. In some cases, it is fatal so prevention is important. There are for both viruses a vaccination that can protect you for over 20 years. HBV vaccination is only one injection. The HAV vaccination boost has to be given six to twelve months after the first injection.

Hepatitis A can be transmitted by fecal-oral route. This means that the disease occurs at overcrowded places and locations with poor sanitation. The virus is resistant against temperatures, acidic en organic liquids so outbreaks in restaurants may occur. It can survive for months in water (even salt water) so vaccination is important when visiting African countries!

Hep. B is transmitted more by blood-containing fluids. So blood-blood contact, re-used needles and semen may cause infection. This means that infection may be prevented if you take extra cautions. Most Europeans are already vaccinated as a child for Hepatitis B.

Dengue Fever

Like Malaria, it is transmitted by a mosquito. Mosquito protection is very important to prevent you against numerous diseases especially for Dengue, because there is no other prevention and Malaria drugs are not waterproof. The main symptoms include fever, muscle and joint pains, a skin rash, … . The mortality is 1% even after treatments. Dengue does not only occur in African countries, but also in South-American and Asian countries.

Dengue is rare in North and South African countries.

AIDS

 AIDS is still a big problem in Africa. It can be transmitted by blood contact or sexual contact and is caused by HIV. The best way to protect yourself against the virus is by using a condom. The disease is very serious so prevention is important. The disease can cause tumours in several organs and makes you more vulnerable to other diseases. So far there is no vaccination. Patients need to take antiviral drugs their whole life to slow down the progression of the disease.

Sleeping Sickness

Sleeping Sickness, also called African Trypanosomiasis is a disease caused by a parasite. The Tsetse fly is responsible for the transmission to humans but it can be transmitted by blood transfusion and sexual contact too. The disease is endemic in whole Africa except North-Africa. As soon as the parasite passes the blood-brain barrier it will cause neurological symptoms like wakefulness at night and sleepiness at daytime. Other symptoms include tremor, confusion, muscle weakness, Parkinson-like movements, and so on… If left untreated it may cause coma or death. Neurological damage is irreversible.

The only way to protect yourself against this disease is by preventing to get bitten by the fly. You can wear something with long sleeves and avoid bare skin.

Cholera

This bacterial infection causes diarrhoea and vomiting. The transmission happens through contaminated food or water (fecal-oral route). The symptoms can quickly cause dehydration and electrolyte imbalance which can lead to death. There is treatment with rehydration therapy and antibiotics. However, it is better to prevent yourself; there are vaccinations available. If you did not get vaccinated you can still reduce the risks by treating your drinking water (boiling, chlorination, …).

Schistosomiasis

This serious parasitic disease, better known as Snail Fever occurs in places with poor sanitation. Infection happens through contaminated water by larvae that penetrates the human skin. The mortality rate is low but it’s a chronic disease that may lead to some serious symptoms: enlargement of liver and spleen, bloody diarrhoea, hypertension, increased risk for bladder cancer, … . There’s treatment but prevention is more important of course, however you cannot really prevent yourself – the only option is to not swim in lakes or rivers. Swimming pools treated with chlorine or salty water is safe. Popular endemic waters in Africa are Lake Victoria, Nile River, Omo River, Zambezi River, Lake Malawi. The disease also occurs in Asia and South-America.

Tuberculosis

TB is in many cases a lethal infectious disease caused by mycobacteria. The disease attacks the lungs which causes sneezing and coughing (blood). The transmission of the bacteria is by air from infected persons. There is no real prevention, except by avoiding to come close to sick people. Treatment is difficult and requires dosing multiple antibiotics for a long period (over 6 months).

Conclusion

Most tropical diseases cause a fever. If you have a fever on vacation or after returning from a tropical country you should always suspect a tropical disease and go to the hospital.

After you check-in your luggage at the airport, it makes a lot of traffic before it arrives inside the airplane and at the destination it’ll take another long route before it gets back in your hands. A lot can happen during this route. I work in the weekends as a student at the airport so I know what can happen and what the main causes are.

It is impossible for the airport workers to take much care for your luggage. There is a lot of work and throwing is a part of it to make it go faster so it’s important that your travel bag is strong enough.

• Backpacks
  The main problem of backpacks are caused by straps. The straps can cause in the worst situation a sorter crash. This is caused by a strap that blocks the conveyor and sometimes it can ruin your backpack. The straps are also used by the bagage sorters to pull the backpack and throw it on the conveyor.
  Solution: Make sure there are no loose straps just bind them together or put the backpack in a plastic bag.

• 
  Luggage straps
  They may seem great but if you use any, make sure you can hold your luggage by holding just the strap. The airport workers use it like the backpack straps to pull your luggage and throw it on the conveyor. If it’s not strong enough it can fall harder on the ground or it can injure a worker.
  The most popular straps are made of a plastic click-system. Those do not hold your luggage for sure. A better option is to take one with a combination lock, so they do not click open if it holds a lot of weight.

• Luggage handle
  If you have a heavy luggage, make sure your luggage handle can even hold that weight. It often happens that a luggage handle breaks of just by pulling it from the carriage at the airport. If this happens, the chance that you have to deal with lost luggage at a transfer destination is much bigger in this case, because the destination ticket is mostly attached on the handle.

• Broken wheels This happens extremely much at the airport. Most times it’s because of the bad quality of a luggage. It can happen if the bag is thrown on the conveyor and hits a metal part of it. It may look weird, but the airport workers use the wheels too to pull the luggage from the carriage and then throw it on the conveyor.

• Prevent lost luggage
  The best way to prevent this is to make sure your luggage is strong enough to handle the throwing at the airport. If you want to make sure your bag returns to you if it gets lost you should use a name tag. Make sure your name tag is covered because it has already happened in the past that criminals go to airports and check out families that go on vacation. They write down the addresses they see on name tags and break into their houses.
  Lost luggage happens more with transfer baggage. If you make one or more transfers between airports, it can happen that your luggage arrives too late to your next flight or that your destination tag gets lost.

• Baby buggies
  If you travel with one, you will probably need to wait longer for it because it is seen as “oversized baggage”. This is checked and scanned on another conveyor after all the baggage from a certain flight has been thrown on the main conveyor. For some reason, a lot of people put baby toys in their baby buggies and I guarantee you, they’ll get lost. Oversized baggage, like the baby buggies are thrown even harder than the normal luggage so remove all the loose parts from the buggy before you check it in!

• Luggage wraps
  This can be done in almost any airport but it’s the worst thing for baggage handlers. First of all, two wrapped luggage on each other are really hard to pull from the carriages and is even worse if they’re heavy. This will result to put more force on the luggage by the handler which can cause breaking straps, handles, … and they are thrown even harder on the conveyor which can cause the breaking of a wheel. Only if you travel with a backpack this might be a good solution to hold the loose straps.

• So… What is the best luggage?
  Backpacks: Only if the straps are fastened or if backpack is in a plastic bag
  Best luggage material: plastic

A few luggage types that I recommend…

• Animals
  Please, if you don’t go for a long time on vacation or you’re not moving somewhere else, please leave your animals at home. The animals really suffer during the transportation. The handlers do their best to take care of the animals, but still, they have a lot they’re going through. You are putting your animal’s life at risk. The cold cargo space in the airplane is not the only risk, an animal can get a heart attack because of the extremely loud noises at the airport. The worst thing I’ve seen at the airport was a kennel with wheels! The animals are brought somewhere else in a carriage and what happened, in the turn, the kennel rolled from the carriage and broke open. The dog ran away on the tarmac between all the airplanes and ran even to the runway! Luckily, the dog was catched and was brought back to the owners.

I think everyone knows this historical place where cruel things happened. It’s a network of concentration and extermination camps located in Poland and close to Kraków City. They were built and operated by Nazi Germans during World War II. The camp has 2 parts and is therefore called Auschwitz-Birkenau. From 1942 until 1944 transport trains delivered Jews to the camp’s gas chambers. The ones that didn’t die from gas chambers died from starvation, forced labou   r, disease or medical experiments. Ninety percent of the killed and captured persons were Jews. The rest were Jehovah Witnesses, Soviets, Roma, Sinti and Polish prisoners.

The camps are nowadays museums and open for visitors, all year long, seven days a week except Easter Sunday, New Year and Christmas. It opens at 8 in the morning and it is advised to go that early. The best way to reach the museum is by minibus departing from Krakow Glowny (Bus and train station). The entrance is completely free and I went to the camps for free, but many advice a guide. It is up to you whether you’d like a guide or not. A four hour long guided tour in English costs 40 PLN, +- 10 euro.

On the picture below you can see that the camps have information boards if you visit with a guide. Keep in mind that entrance to Auschwitz II, Birkenau are free without guide. So is the bus that drives between the two camps. Some go by foot but that’s also up to you.

As soon as you’ve seen the movie and the barracks in Auschwitz I you can proceed to the camp Auschwitz II-Birkenau and personally, I was completely shocked. The second camp is an open field that is incredibly big. You still see the chimneys of the barracks that are gone so you can see how much there were. The barracks with the beds were made to hold up to 700 prisoners but in practice they hold up to 1200…

If you end up at the back of the camp you’ll come across a big memorial. This memorial was built by the Soviet after they took over the camp and tried to rescue all the prisoners. From the gas chambers is not much left as the SS blew up most of it to hide the evidence what really happened in the camp…

I think Auschwitz is a must to visit. Not only is it something traumatic and historical to visit but it may change you. While walking around you start to think about life… So far, every Israeli Soldier must visit the place, but I think everyone should.

In September I purchased a ticket for the bus from Wroclaw to Krakow. This bus ride was operated by Link-Bus (Official website here). The ticket price was around 8 euro (35 zl) one-way. This was the cheapest option so I chose this one.

To be honest, if I knew this,

I would’ve paid more just to get a little comfort. The people who had reserved a ticket in advance were able to sit, but a lot of people tried to take the bus by paying by cash, but those were obligated to stand up the whole bus ride. I remind you that the distance between Krakow and Wroclaw is around 250 kilometres! The bus was full, the seats were extremely small. It was a little cold outside (around 12°C) but all windows were closed… I became sick because I had no air so I went to the driver and asked when he stops for a toilet visit (like most buses do for long distances). He didn’t speak English but luckily a woman nearby translated and turns out he wouldn’t stop so I told him I don’t feel well. He stopped after five minutes and just the breath of fresh air was enough to feel better again. When I went back on the bus someone took my seat so I was trying to explain that I had paid in advance for a seat but he was doing like he didn’t understand me… He knew I sat there before… but finally I got my seat back.

Anyway, never again. I prefer at least a little comfort. Next time I will take EuroLines bus or the so called Polski Bus .

Zakopane is a town close to the Tatra Mountains in Poland. These mountains are partly in Poland but most of it lays in Slovakia. The mountains are a wonderful place for hiking. You can choose to stay several days but one day trip is possible too. The best way to go to this town is by bus from Kraków. The bus is cheap and stops next to the train station. It is not expensive, you can get a bus ticket for around 20 PLN (+- 5 euro).

From Zakopane you’re still too far from the mountains. Minivans are waiting at the station to bring tourists up to the mountains. Most tourists are from Poland and the drivers do not know English.

Activities are seasonal. In the summer many go for rafting, hiking, cycling, horse riding, ATV driving, and more. In the winter most people go to Zakopane for snowmobile, sleigh rides, husky rides, ice rinks, skiing, and so on.

I’ve been in September to Zakopane, a great month to go for hiking. There are so many routes to follow but for a one-day trip I recommend to take a minivan to the parking close to Morskie Oko and follow the route up to the lake. If you still have time you can walk around the lake and continue to the so-called Czarny Staw lake.

However, there are many routes available for hiking in Zakopane. Click here for a hiking trail map. If you want to search for other hiking trails, check out the website DiscoverZakopane.

The hike to Morskie Oko and Czarny Staw is breathtaking. I’ve added a few of my pictures below.

Morskie Oko – Tatras Poland

Waterfall Morskie Oko – Tatras Poland

Czarny Staw – Tatras Poland

View of Morskie Oko Lake from Czarny Staw – Tatras Poland

Krakow Valley is a recreation park close to Krakow and Katowice. It only a few kilometres from the town Krzeszowice. The park is reachable by train or by car.

By train

You can take the train to the town Krzeszowice. The train takes around 30 to 60 minutes. The place is quiet and there’s nobody; if there is someone, ask him the direction to the town. If not, follow your instinct and you may end up in town. If you see someone, ask for the centre. At the small centre you can find taxi’s. Take one that can bring you to the Valley. This must not cost more than 35 PLN (+- 8,5 euro).

What to do

There are many things to do in the summer in Krakow Valley.

• Golf
• Horse Riding
• Hot Air Balloon
• Shooting Range for a reasonable price

One of the most touristy cities of Poland is probably this one because of the wonderful historical buildings, the churches, the great restaurants and the clubbing. The city is often compared with Wroclaw and many are asking help around the Internet whether they should go to Kraków or Wroclaw and most of them decide to go to Kraków. If you ask my opinion I’d choose Wroclaw because it’s a student city, smaller and less touristic. In Kraków you can see the square and a few churches but apart from that you need to travel far to see interesting spots. More below at the paragraph ‘Day trips‘.

Getting around

Like every city in Poland (except Warsaw) you will have a hard time to understand the public transport. There are buses and trams around the city centre but it’s confusing to find where to get off so we did it all by feet. The same happens with the central station, Kraków Glowny. When I wanted to buy some train tickets she didn’t understand English and even when I tried to say it in Polish she didn’t understand the destination, because it was hard to speak. Luckily she understood when I wrote it down, however it was completely written wrong. If you want to know what I wanted to do in Krzeszowice, look below at the paragraph ‘Day trips‘. Apart from the ticketing problems you still get to the right place by train or bus and Kraków Glowny is filled with shops if you’re bored .

Click here for a Krakow travel guide book

Accommodation

The city is full of hostels. Be sure to book one with a high rating. I ended up in some weird hostel as the only guest. The receptionists didn’t talk a lot and it was somewhat shady. Many rooms were empty but they put me with some guy that was living there for months in the hostel. He left Krakow to find work in Warsaw, stole my Tek-Towel and left around twenty bottles of water in the room… lol. So look at the hostels with 90% rating or more on Hostelworld.

Click here to find hotels / hostels in Kraków

Things to do

 Main Square of Kraków

This enormous square, in Polish known as Rynek Glowny is the number one thing you should see in this city. In the summer it’s a great place to drink a nice beer outside. In the winter you can do the same inside. The centre of the square is dominated by the Cloth Hall. This historical building, dated from the Renaissance was used to sell leather, wax, spices, silk and much more. In Polish they call it the Sukiennice. Nowadays you can buy souvenirs, crafts, pottery, jewellery in the hall. It is better to buy a souvenir from smaller shops a few streets away from the square.

The St. Mary Church is another big view on the market square. The church is Gothic and dates from the fourteenth century.

There are also a few statues, the town hall tower and a small church on the square. Don’t forget to go to the square at night as it is completely different.

Wawel Royal Castle

The Gothic Castle lays next to the Vistula River and dates from the fourteenth century.  There are walking paths around the hill to have a peaceful walk. Many couples hang around there. While walking, you may come across the Wawel Dragon. It’s a metal statue that breathes fire every few minutes, day and night. I happened to walk around at night and was scared to death with the loud noise and the light I suddenly saw! I managed to capture a really bad picture.

Plan a Day trip

I found Kraków a city with less things to see. The best places are outside Kraków, so planning more than one day trip while you’re in Kraków is something you really should do. There are more things to do in the centre that I haven’t listed, such as Kazimiers, the Jewish district; the old University; … .

• Visit Auschwitz (Oswiecim) Museum – the Nazi concentration and extermination camp during World War II
• Visit the Tatras Mountains – Zakopane
• Go to Kraków Valley in Krzeszowice
• Visit Katowice City (coming soon hopefully)
• Visit Wieliczka Salt Mine (coming soon hopefully too…)

Hello everyone. After a lot of thinking I decided to book a ticket to Kenya. My flight will bring me the third of February to Nairobi. This will be probably one of my biggest and most fascinating vacation trip ever because I’ll have to deal with some new stuff:

• My first trip to Africa

I’ve never been to Africa before so I think this is going to be so fascinating. Not only will I see the beauty of Africa, I will have mixed feelings because I will also see the poverty of the continent.

• My first Couchsurfing experience

Couchsurfing is a popular network that allows you to meet people around the world. It is mostly used to search a place to sleep for free at a host. The network has different opinions. Some enjoy the network, others think these networks shouldn’t exist due to safety. I searched a place to stay in Kenya and found a very kind person that wants me to help to find a good and reasonable safari trip and I can stay at his home. In return I will bring him some great Belgian beers, but still, I’m a little nervous too!

• My first trip with my professional SLR camera
  

As I’m going on safari’s in Kenya, I really want to have some beautiful pictures of animals. This will be hard because I only own the zoom lens 18-200mm which is way too less to make animal close-ups. Luckily I have bought a few memory cards and extra batteries so I can use my camera all day long.

Wroclaw, the largest city in Western Poland is a wonderful student city. The city lays close to the borders of the Czech Republic and Germany. It’s a great destination for staying one to three days. There are a few interesting places but it’s possible to rush and see the important sights of the city in one day. I’ve stayed two days.

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Kutna Hora is a small city in the middle of Czech Republic.  The city was important in the twelfth century as German miners began to mine for silver in the mountain. The Germans called the city Kuttenberg. The city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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