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Exciting travel stories from around the world – Africa, Europa, Asia, The Americas, Australia and Antarctica.

Travel stories. Travel Blog.

VOODOO AND GOLD IN WEST AFRICA

Just like the three musketeers and D’Artagnan with their motto “One for all and all for one” there are four of us in West Africa: our driver, common sense and pathfinder Justice, Oskars who oftentimes gets called millionaire by the Latvian mass media as if that was a profession or craftsmanship, the math teacher Jeff who saved me from an attack of wild dogs last year in Cape Coast, and I. We make up a very balanced team, not unified by a noble cause or other nonsense so popular in literature. We have joined forces for one purpose only - to drive around Ghana and explore lesser known regions near the country’s border with Burkinafaso, Ivory Coast and Togo Izlasi 24 min.

BECOMING AN ETHIOPIAN

I come to Ethiopia on a regular basis since 2008. Not that I am completely obsessed with this country, I have been elsewhere too - in other African countries, India and such. But there is something that draws me specifically to Ethiopia. Which is why I keep exploring all and any opportunity to go there at least once a year and at least for a month, preferably for three or more, if I get lucky. In my travels I have criss-crossed this country all over, I have worked here, I have lazed around - just living among the people. Alone. At the beginning - with no language skills at all. Ok, so I did know a bit of English and a few words in the Amharic language. But it is not language that matters. It is the interaction that has to be learnt. Izlasi 25 min.

NICE-MONACO: A NIGHT WALK

It was a tender April 20s night, not unlike one of those I imagine Francis Scott Fitzgerald wrote about: a gentle wind blew from the sea, a full moon shone above Nice, the bustling of restaurant visitors on Place Garibaldi got quieter already after 11pm. It was an off-season Wednesday, after all. It was around this time that I decided to take a walk from Nice to Monaco. Well, I had no choice. I had forgotten my card and phone charger in my friend's car, and she had left for Monaco much earlier. I had spent more than an hour waiting for the night bus and in vain. As I discovered with help of a passer-by, there was no night bus from the Nice airport to Monaco on Wednesday nights. Meanwhile, I had missed the last train leaving around 11pm. Izlasi 7 min.

JAZZ AND POLITICS IN BURKINA FASO

My only questionable character trait is that I cannot help but tell everyone about Africa. Without being asked, for no reason at all. They talk to me, say, about love, but I barge in with my “But once in Burkina Faso…” I do understand that it is stupid, but I just seem unable to help it. This adventure stands out way too brightly in my drab life. I cannot refrain from sharing it. It is about time therefore that I legitimise it and write it down on these pages. Izlasi 30 min.