travel
Euro 2012 Warsaw stadium: once a bazaar hosting pop star popes
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
travel, football, best of cafebabel.com, solidarnosc, poland, society, city planning
Documentary Italy: love it or leave it in a Fiat 500
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
travel, italy, cinema, germany, documentary, best of cafebabel.com, berlin
cafebabel.com boys speak: what makes Europe’s twentysomething men happy
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
travel, health, alcohol, vox-pop, friendship, society, men and women
How an Italian boy became a ‘happiness coach’
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’
travel, italy, depression, psychology, malta, health, expatriates
Spain: leaving crisis behind to find 'happiness' in and of Latin America
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
travel, cinema, documentary, society, latin america, happiness
I like Mostar: are there really no tourists who want to go to Bosnia?
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
travel, identity, lifestyle, balkans, tourism, bosnia and herzegovina, mostar
Odessa to Vilkova: Ukraine's Venice
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, ukraine, nature, travel writing, post-soviet states, lifestyle, history
Travel: five things not to do in Iceland
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
travel, money, nature, photography, reykjavík, best of cafebabel.com, copenhagen
Enrico Brizzi on the sense in walking in the 21st century
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?
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
travel, cinema, tirana, corruption, balkans, best of cafebabel.com, cities
Five gay friendly neighbourhoods in Europe
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
travel, germany, paris, greece, berlin, homosexuality, culture
Berliners: foreigners, stop boozing on the cheap in our city!
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?
travel, berlin-kreuzberg, alcohol, tourism, berlin, gentrification , lifestyle
Seven (wonder) tips to visit post-revolution Egypt
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
travel, money, world affairs, practical information, tourism, economy, shopping
Europe to Dakar: a Lithuanian's journey
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
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
travel, expatriates, cities, society, lifestyle, guide, seville
Ireland’s expat-emigrants: silver spoon diaspora
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
travel, expatriates, society, economy, youth, students, ireland
Catch Istanbul if you can
We're not even sure what Europeans think and know about Istanbul. It seems like it should be capital of Turkey, but it hasn't been since 1923. Its rich past reveals how it was a kind of European Union even before this one - where formal membership negotiations began five years ago in October - even existed. From religious clothing to boom-box playing imams via politically-affiliated university food, a first time glance at a metropolis from two districts which seem to bleed European references. Istanbul for beginners
- Read the special edition Catch Istanbul if you can
- Getting to grips with Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul and Europe
- Modern myths: politically divided university canteens in Istanbul
- Sorry, we’re women: inside Istanbul’s modern-traditional Blue Mosque
- Gay culture in Istanbul: ‘We have the balls to say it out loud’
- Islam for beginners: first stop Istanbul
Most annoying questions put to expats
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
travel, lifestyle, expatriation, expatriates, society, relationships, people
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