Nosy Be, Madagascar

And now I will tell you about the most important part of our trip, the 2 weeks mom and I spent in Nosy Be. Since we have did a lot of things, I will only talk about the highlights, otherwise I'd still be writing next month!

Nosy Be's most important Holy tree

As I said in my previous post, Nosy Be is an island to the North of Madagascar's mainland. I've been told it is quite a rich island compared to the mainland. Before the French colonial period, Nosy Be was independent. Then, trouble happened and the queen of the Sakalava tribe asked the French for help. Nosy Be only joined Madagascar when the French colonial period ended.

The first thing the queen of the Sakalava did to assert her power was to plant a tree. The tree grew so big you can actually walk around in it. It even has several trunks; the lianas grow down to the ground and with time also become roots. As it is a holy tree, there are some strict rules everyone must follow. For example, one must enter the tree with their right foot and be barefoot at all times! The tree is a place of prayer, so at the original trunk, you can see what people have sacrificed (mostly rum or money, sometimes also animals) in order to get something. You can also see that people have put up red or white tissues to honour the kings/queens of Nosy Be's most powerful tribes.

Hellville, capital of Nosy Be

Yes, the capital of Nosy Be is called Hellville, you didn't read it wrong. Hellville is quite a busy city, there are lots of cars, and tuktuks, and of course...people. Surprisingly, among all this traffic, there are also chicken running around randomly. Hellville is a city which mostly focuses on commerce. There is a big covered market, where you can find lots of traditional products, such as spices but most importantly cocoa beans and vanilla. (Sidenote: mom, when will you make rice pudding now that we have the best vanilla in the world?) Even though, the market is quite hot and filled with so many different smells that make me dizzy, I did enjoy watching how the salespeople do their work. For example, it was nice to see that they make their own packaging. The ends of the plastic packages are melted with a candle so they are completely closed off. Of course there are also some smaller shops where you can find typical artefacts, such as cutlery or jewellery made out of horns of zebus (the malagasy type of cow). 

Nosy Tanikely and Nosy Komba 

The first boat trip we went on was to Nosy Tanikely and Nosy Komba. We were accompanied by the Manta Diving Club, they provide little day trips for people who want to discover Nosy Be and other islands, by land or by sea. We spent the morning in Nosy Tanikely, an island popular for snorkelling. You can see a lot of corals and many different fish (I met Dory's family #FindingDory). After lunch, we took the boat again and drove to Nosy Komba where we had lunch and went for a walk in the jungle. We encountered quite a few animals, turtles (big and small), snakes and, the most fun of all, lemurs (like the monkeys in the Madagascar movies)! The animals were sort of domesticated so we were allowed to touch them and pick them up. The lemurs even came to hang out on our shoulders (this might have been because we had brought bananas)! 

Nosy Sakatia 

Halfway our stay in Nosy Be, we took a little trip by boat to Nosy Sakatia (Love of cats island). The island is highly appreciated by tourists because there are a lot of sea turtles there. You can just see them swimming around freely while snorkelling. I saw four turtles, 3 males and 1 female! I was so impressed by their size and by how peaceful the turtles are, that my first instinct was to follow the first turtle I saw. One of our guides had to come get me though because I was drifting off too far from the boat. I felt so excited because I could literally swim just above the sea turtles! I wanted to do a happy dance but I was told before to keep calm in order not to scare the animals. In the afternoon, we walked around on the island itself so we could appreciate the beautiful plants, trees and the good smell of Ylang-Ylang (one of the ingredients of the famous perfume Chanel n°5) 

Mont Passot

During our trip, we visited Mont Passot twice, once during the afternoon and once in the evening to watch the sunset. The french colonialists discovered the spot, it appeared to be the best place to observe the whole island of Nosy Be, as it is the highest point. It is a great place to admire how majestic and elegant nature can be, and of course to take lots and lots of pictures! 

Marodoka

One afternoon, mom and I decided to visit the village of Marodoka. It is a village for people whose family doesn't originally come from Madagascar. Most inhabitants have their roots on Africa's mainland, some also have indian heritage. As usual we had a guide, who met us at the 'maison des fantômes', a house which is literally only held together by one huge tree. It is said the house was haunted at some point. The ghosts were supposed to guard the house after the owner died without any heirs. We also saw the mosques in the village, one is for arabs, the other for Africans. Apparently sharing a mosque is impossible (insert sarcastic facial expression here). The visit of Marodoka ended at the indian graveyard, where it became clear that some people do not care that everyone is equal before death. You could see at the amount of decorations a grave had how rich a person was. 

Lokobe National Park 

One of our last little trips was to Lokobe National Park. The excursion started in Ambatozavavy, a little village in the South of Nosy Be, where we took a pirogue (tiny boat mostly used by local fishermen) and rowed to Lokobe. Upon arrival, mom and I had to change in order to cover ourselves up and be protected of nasty mosquitoes. Once we were covered up, we headed to the forest. Many animals live in Lokobe, for example we saw a few chameleons, snakes and lemurs! It was a bit difficult to see some of the animals though. After the walk in the forest, we had lunch in the village next to the National Park and then digested on the beach. Life was pretty good that day. 

It took me 10 minutes to find the chameleon.

Can you do better?

Nosy Iranja
Our last boattrip was to Nosy Iranja, about an hour and a half from Nosy Be. Nosy Iranja is separated into two little islands. The parts are linked to each other by a small beach. When the water is low, you can walk from one part to the other and admire how the waves come from both sides and then crash into each other. Don't attempt to cross the beach while the water is rising, your eyes will make you regret it. Trust me, I speak from experience! After lunch, we walked up towards the lighttower so we could admire the pretty beach from up high. Ladies and gentlemen, Nosy Iranja fits the textbook definition of a paradise island!

Stopover in Milan

Hello everyone!

It has now been almost two weeks since my mother and I have returned from Madagascar yet this is the first moment I am calm enough to write about it. Getting to Madagascar was quite a long trip since it took us about 28hours. On the way there, we flew from Brussels to Frankfurt, then to Milan and then finally we arrived in Nosy Be (an island to the North of Madagascar's mainland).

In Milan, we had about a whole afternoon before we had to catch our next plane so mom and I decided to visit the city, as we had go via the centre anyway to change airports. This was my first time in Milan so I was quite giddy as you can imagine.

Upon arriving at Milan's Central Station, I was, once again, shown that Italy is just on another level compared to the rest of the world when it comes to architecture and doves - who could teach a thing or two about elegance to Belgian doves. My mom had already been to Milan before which was a big advantage because she knew how we could get to the places we wanted to see without wasting our precious short time.

Our ultimate goal was to see the famous Duomo (cathedral). Mom figured walking would be the best way to get there. This turned out to be quite a good idea! On our way, we passed the Scala (opera) of Milan. I took a selfie with Leonardo (Da Vinci, who else did you think I was talking about?) on the Scala's square.

Afterwards, we proceeded towards the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele, one of the most impressive pieces of architecture in the world. I also found it interesting to observe the people walking around there. The place gathered tourists from all over the world, obviously, but also native Italians from different backgrounds. It's also a great place for photographers to amuse themselves.

And finally, we made it, to the cherry on top of the cake, the Duomo. And oh my, it was magnificent! Such elegance! Such beauty! Such prestige! My jaw dropped to the floor! It was definitely worth carrying around my heavy backpack for 45 minutes in the Italian heat!

After all this walking, mom and I, naturally, felt hungry so we went to eat a salad in a lovely little restaurant on the Via Dante (surprisingly, I remember the name of the street but not the name of the establishment. Whoops!). To make our tiny city trip to Milan complete, we also ate a gelato (aka ice cream) and had a delicious cappuccino at Bianco Latte (this time I remembered the right detail :p ).

I would like to end this post by giving you one tip. Do not under any circumstance walk around in Milan wearing yoga pants! You will seriously feel out of place! Trust me, I speak from experience!

Annual expansion of my comfort zone

Hi everyone! 

I have come back from a wonderful trip to Sweden and Norway. I travelled all on my own, which I hadn't done before, although I have to admit my Swedish friend Vincent helped me to find train/bus tickets between Sweden and Norway. 

I flew to Stockholm, and spent my first night there. The next morning I took the train to Oslo, where I had never been before. In Oslo, I had about an hour and a half to charge my phone and get some food before I had to take the train to Bø (about 2 hours by train South of Oslo). Vincent had recommended a small Pakistani restaurant; this brought me to a side of Oslo not many tourists visit. I ended up in a very international neighbourhood which didn't look very modern and not at all Scandinavian. I was quite surprised! To be honest, I expected Oslo to resemble Stockholm. I was wrong, but this proved that traveling is useful! I thought Norway would be very modern, clean and fancy. Turns out, I had to reset my expectations. I found out that Norwegian roads aren't in great shape, I also noticed that buildings are often just partly refurnished instead of thoroughly renovated. I have the impression that Norway has a lot of money (everything is about three times more expensive than in Belgium!), an interesting culture and beautiful nature but that they don't reach their full potential, as I have also heard that their healthcare and education system could also be better. 

Anyway, after my little outing in Oslo, I took the train to Bø where I met my friends Vincent and Micaela. I stayed with them for 3 days. The first day, I went to visit my lovely hosts at their work, Bø Sommarland which is a water amusement park. I spent a few hours there observing people and resting on the grass. On my way back, I explored the area a bit, climbed a rock just because I could and walked by the river. 

In the late afternoon/beginning of the evening, I went to pick up Jaakko, Micaela and Vincent's friend from the train station. Jaakko knows Vincent via a whatsapp group and was in the same school as Micaela (#smallworld). When Micaela and Vincent came back from work, we went to the "city" center (Bø has only 6,000 inhabitants even though it's pretty active) to have dinner. There was a little market of international food stands, but we decided to go to an Italian restaurant because it was the cheapest. 

Micaela and Vincent

Jaakko and me

The next day, the four of us traveled to Skien to visit Henrik Ibsen's childhood home. It was very interesting to learn about his sources of inspiration and how his family history influenced his work and lifestyle (#literaturestudentalert). When we came back, Jaakko took the train back to Oslo, and Micaela, Vincent and I took a nap. After our nap, we had a really spicy but delicious dinner! The dinner was simple but it felt fancy as it felt unusual to have an Indian dinner in Norway.

Jaakko 

Unicorn Vincent

I spent my last day in Norway traveling by train and visiting Oslo a bit more. This time I went to see the Royal Palace and the fortress. I saw the nicer side of Oslo but I remain more impressed by Stockholm. 

I then stayed two whole days in Stockholm before traveling back to Belgium. The first morning, I walked around in Gamla Stan to visit the shops where mom and I usually go to keep up traditions and I went to the change of guards at the Parliament, it was only my third time seeing it... In the afternoon, I walked towards the Royal Library. This wasn't as easy as I thought. I first walked too far and ended up at the other side of the city when it started raining and I had to hide in a sports bar. When I finally made it to the library, I was impressed by its size and how majestic it looked! I went inside and had a little look at the books they had. I was nicely surprised by the number of foreign books they had! I saw lots of French books, and some in Finnish, Russian and German. After my tour of the library, I explored the neighbourhood behind the park of the library. At the end of one street, I found a little cosy square where as it turns out the famous author August Strindberg lived! 

I spent my last day in Stockholm exploring areas where I had never been to. I walked to the Southern island of the city, crossed it, had lunch in a little Italian restaurant (fun fact: the owner of the restaurant thought I was a native Swede and said I spoke very good Swedish), and walked around some more. When I was about to cross the bridge to go back to the main island of Stockholm, I noticed a little spot where it seemed to be very quiet. I sat down there and admired the view. I could see almost the whole city of Stockholm! It was so beautiful! I took out my book ("Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe) and read until the rain drops brought me back to reality. I then proceeded to cross the bridge and discover the less touristy side of the main island. In short, my feet were happy to come back to the hotel! 

In conclusion, I went to Sweden and Norway to discover new places and learn about my favourite part of Europe! Stay tuned to read about my upcoming trip to Madagascar! 

AFS End of stay-camp 2016

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since I last posted something here. I apologise! I have been quite busy though. I (finally) finished my first year at university! I started a new writing project, and I went to the AFS End of stay-camp for foreign exchange students!

I was the only volunteer from my chapter to be there so I felt a huge responsibility for our students but, not surprisingly, they are very nice, smart, responsible, and independent so I didn't have anything to worry about! I was very pleased to notice they know how to deal with difficult situations, they have grown into lovely adults during this year. The BHV students have also managed to stay very humble, for example because they have learnt Dutch better than they give themselves credit for!


During the camp, I was charmed to see how much the exchange students truly love Belgium. It reminded me of my own patriotism. Camille (de Keyser, also an AFS volunteer) was right, it is rare to see so many Belgian flags together in one room! It was also cool to see that they've become such a tight and friendly group!















The camp was a lot of fun, but there were also some serious moments. One of the most interesting workshops, according to me, was "Take it or leave it". The students had to write down three memories: one they wanted to forget, one heartwarming, and one that taught them something valuable. The memory they wanted to forget was thrown into a trashbag - I was pleased to hear though that the students still considered that bad memory as a lesson for the future -, the two others were placed in a "treasure box". The heartwarming memories mostly revolved having a birthday or celebrating Christmas with the host family. This workshop was nice for me in some way, because through the memories of "my" students, I could relive my own exchange year. It's funny how exchange students often experience similar things even though they aren't necessarily in the same country.

The Pyramid workshop 

AFS BHV and NOL chapters reconstructing Da Vinci's Last Supper

The AFS airlines was also a fun workshop. Everybody participated in this one! The point is to show the students what will (likely) happen the day they go back to their home country. The students enter a "plane" with their chapter, but leave with their compatriots. In the middle, a poem by Andrew Hunt was read and volunteers gave a little speech thanking their respective chapters for the good times.

In short, thank you everyone for this lovely camp! I would especially like to thank Charlotte Baudot and Toon Van Miert for organising everything!