Virtual post card: Monaco

Dearest pigeon friends,

Today we have located in the small country of Monaco located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. As one of the most wealthy countries in the world, Monaco boasts many casinos for gambling and poker. Monte Carlo Casino is one of the most well known casinos in Monaco. Located at Monte Carlo, this casino has had a colourful history. First opened in 1863, the casino was the proposed idea of the ruling family, due to their financial problems. Although the casino started making a profit in 1859, it was not formally opened until François Blanc took over in 1863. This point of interest piqued our interest, however, since we are not of age, we were not allowed into the casino.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Carlo_Casino#/media/File:Le_casino_de_Monte-Carlo.JPG

-H.D :D

Journal entry: Belgium

Upon arrival at Zaventem Airport in Belgium, we were both fascinated by what we were greeted with an overwhelming amount of things: the many cultures, the people, the architecture, the language. Sadly, we have only just enough time to explore a small part -- the government, the holidays, and the food-- of this diverse country. First off, we started by visiting the Belgian Federal Government. Belgium is a Federal Parliamentary Democracy under a Constitutional Monarchy. The Federal Government of Belgium, led by the Prime Minister of Belgium consists of ministers appointed by the king and secretaries of state.

As the clock struck twelve, ADs stomach grumbled as we realised that it was time for lunch. Strolling around the city, we were introduced to Belgian cuisine. It slightly reflected the cuisine of France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Worldwide, Belgium is best known for its beer and its chocolate. However, Belgium offers a variety of food, including mussels, stew, waffles, and fries. Mussels, or Moules-frites, are mussels cooked with celery and onions and served with fries. These can often cost around 24 to 25 euros. Waterzooi is a stew originating from Flanders with soup based on egg yolk and cream with vegetables such as carrots, onions, leeks and potatoes inside. However, the most well well known of Belgian cuisine is chocolate. Godiva, Neuhaus, Guylian...you name it, these are all well known Belgian chocolate brands. From pralines to chocolate bars , these brands guarantee you the taste of Belgium

July 21 is the national holiday celebrated annually. Independence Day celebrates the separation of Belgium from the Netherlands in 1831, and the establishment of the Kingdom of Belgium. Belgium has been part of the Netherlands since 1815, but since most of the population were Roman Catholic, while the Dutch were protestants, the ruling king would favour the northern protestants. Riots in 1830 led to the beginning of Belgiums independence. Leopold I of Saxe-Coburg swore allegiance to the constitution on July 21, which then became the national holiday

-H.D

Iceland News :)

Iceland introduces world first bill to mandate equal pay for women 
On April 4, Tuesday, Iceland decided to present a bill that requires companies that have more than 25 employees to pay all their workers the same, women or men. "The bill entails that companies and institutions of a certain size, 25 or more employees, undertake a certification of their equal-pay programmes," said Thorsteinn Viglundsson, Minister of Social Affairs and Equality. They want to close the seven percent pay gap between the genders.


Buses Collide in Northeast Iceland
In Northeast Iceland, two buses crashed into each other while a third fell off the streets. No casualties were found. Due to poor weather conditions, with a storm passing and the winds about 28m/s, it was bound to happen. Snow and strong wind caused poor visibility and the drivers to crash because they weren't able to see the road.

A man stabbed in a fast food restaurant in Kópavogur, Iceland
Metro, a fast food restaurant, has some drama coming its way. On April 3rd, a man was stabbed in the stomach by an identified criminal. He was sent immediately to the hospital and is now currently in care. The attacker seemed not to have any connection to the victim.

Journal Entry 4: Monaco

We’ve learned so much about Monaco visiting its schools. Apparently state education is completely free here. Our tour guide told us that there are six state run primary schools. Because this place is known for tourists, H.D and I were pushed around so much that we decided to back out. We returned to our hotel room and being the lame people we are, we did some research on Monaco and its economics. I found that income taxes don’t exist here, which was a plus if I ever want to consider moving here. The GDP here was about $6.036 billion.

Walking around Monaco gave me a sense of outdatedness. I felt as though my Ironman hoodie was extremely paling in comparison to what the people on the streets were wearing. Many were walking around with intricate black or white lace dresses or suits you would find in a dancing performance. It made me wonder if it was their all day attire or just something else. Monaco is an interesting country, I’ll give you that.

-A.D :)

Virtual Postcard 3: Belgium :)

Dearest pigeon friends,

It has been quite some time since I’ve written and I am more than glad to have come back. Today we have arrived in Brussels, where we will be visiting one of the most famous sculptures in Belgium-if not the most-Manneken Pis. Although this is A.D.’s first time seeing this sculpture, I have faint memories of visiting Manneken Pis from when I was younger. Located near Brussels Town Hall, the small bronze statue depicts a naked little boy urinating into a pool of water. The statue was a unique and refreshing attraction to see after visiting so many other monuments. It is dressed up in various costumes a few times a week, with designs varying from the mayor of Brussels to a judo wrestler. The locals told us that on occasions, the statue is hooked up to a keg of beer, and cups of beer were filled and available for those passing by!

I told A.D. one of the many legends of this statue: In around the 14th century, Brussels was under the power of a foreign power attackers conceived of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A young boy named Julianske happened to be spying on them as they were preparing the explosives. In order to save the city, he urinated on the burning fuse. A.D.’s jaw dropped at the story, I guess she didn’t really expect such a simple statue to have such a heroic backstory. Overall, we both found this experience very different and fresh, and we wish to see more attractions similar to this one.

 -H.D the rusty writer :P

Photo Credits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manneken_Pis#/media/File:Bruxelles_Manneken_Pis.jpg

Virtual Postcard 2: Macedonia

Dearest pigeon amigos,

I'm currently waiting for H.D to come back from the bathroom. Apparently because she drank too much water, she had to go. Pivnica An is probably the coziest restaurant I've ever seen. The people here are really nice too. 

The driver of our taxi to our hotel recommended this to us. H.D was asking about where we could find good food here in Macedonia when we landed in Skopje yesterday(She's all about food, you should know by now). He gave us the address of the restaurant and we came here, with me wondering what Macedonian food it would offer. I ordered a Turli Tava thinking that it would be barbecue meat and Muckalica thinking that it would be a type of soup. Well, dang, I thought wrong. Actually, the Turli Tava was the soup and the Muckalica was the meat. At first H.D was like, 'What in the world is that Tarlo Tavi thingy?', then she watched me suspiciously as I ate to see if I would choke to death. When I told her that it was delicious, she decided to try it. The Muckalica was delicious too. H.D ordered Pljeskavica, a Serbian hamburger. The restaurant served all kinds of food like vegetarian meals, grills, fish, roast meat, salad, etc. H.D wanted to try out Sarma, which seemed to me was stuffed grapevine leaves, but I doubted that she would've finished it if I let her order it.

The restaurant is located in Skopje's Čaršija, where dozens of other kebab restaurants were located too. Me and H.D walked around for more than twenty minutes trying to find this place. It's really hidden, but I'm glad that we didn't give up on trying to find it. I overheard a tourist guide explaining that Pivnica meant beer hall. For your information, the restaurant also sells beer! My stomach is really full now, and H.D has been staring at me for more than five minutes now. Adiós, amigos!

https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g295110-d1105064-i65878465-Pivnica_An-Skopje_Skopje_Region.html

-Vive simple, rie mucho

Live simple, laugh a lot

A.D

Journal Entry 1: Iceland :)

First thing we did in the morning? We visited the famous Iceland turf houses(yes it's boring I know). They are literal "grass houses", I'm telling you. Houses covered in grass. The grass grows on the rooftop, beside the houses, and basically anywhere but the entrance. According to the tour guide there, since Iceland has a very cold climate, these turf houses are specifically constructed to insulate the cold. They're built with flat stones and birch or oak wood that prevents the turf houses from caving in. It's pretty obvious that they were super duper well constructed, otherwise they probably wouldn't exist right now. We also visited the Hallgrimskirkja(I have no idea how to pronounce that, I think its something like Hal-grimms-kir-ja) church in Reykjavik(Ray-kya-vic, "vic" as in the "vic" in victory). The church tower is about 73 meters high. It's a multipurposed, beautiful building, in my opinion(I don't know about H.D. It kind of seemed like she was thinking about food the whole time). It also serves as a national sanctuary. The building was first constructed in 1945 and was finished in 1986. It was built by a man named Guðjón Samuel. In front of the church was an intricate statue of
Leifur Eiriksson, the first European to discover America before Christopher Columbus. 

When we were getting lunch from a random restaurant(that served shark meat, sick), we saw that the TV was playing a sports channel. The contestants were riding Icelandic horses that I mistook for ponies. Who could blame me, they're tiny(no offense, Icelandic horses). H.D had a good laugh at me since I asked her if the "ponies" were trained. I just glared at her while everyone else in the restaurant looked at her like she just sprouted another head. The waiter overheard our conversation and came over to join us. He told us quite a lot of information. Apparently horse riding isn't even a main sport that Icelanders participate in. Handball was considered the national sport. The Iceland team received a silver medal in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. To this information, I smiled awkwardly and congratulated the team for I had no recollection of this. Icelanders were good at chess too. I remembered that the Iceland football team qualified for the UEFA Euro 2016 and asked the waiter about it. H.D was a great fan of football. She always talked about it. He told me that Iceland was the smallest nation to qualify for the major tournaments. Other sports that were popular were golf, basketball, tennis, volleyball, and swimming. 

As a bonus, the waiter also taught us some Icelandic and history to it. Icelandic is a little similar to Norwegian and is a Indo-European language. It's an insular language, meaning that it hasn't been influenced by other languages too much. In fact, Icelandic hasn't changed much since the 12th century and the children could still understand the texts from that time! Fun, right? (No, it's not, A.D. It's not. We all know you're a fact sponge.) The waiter taught us some words like hello and thank you in Icelandic. Hello was "Góðan daginn", which, I'm describing it as accurately as I could, was pronounced something like "Go-than Die-yinn." Again, I'm trying my best. Thank you was "Takk fyrir", and it was pronounced something like "Taak Fee-rear." I had a lot of trouble pronouncing the former. H.D didn't bother to try because she knew she was going to get it wrong. When we left the restaurant, I told the waiter "Takk fyrir", but it came out wrong and became "tack fire" and we all laughed it off. He then told me that it was alright and he's seen worse.

24/2/17

A.D&H.D

 Adventures in Iceland

Virtual Post Card No.1: Iceland

Dearest pigeon friends,

Today H.D and I arrived at the famous Gullfoss waterfall in Iceland. To get to the top, we had to climb The iconic waterfall is one of the most well known places of interest located in the Hvita river. It falls into a 32 meter drop down a canyon about 70 meters high. It was absolutely gorgeous to look at. According to the information and explanation(that I only half listen to) that the tour guide provided, the waterfall is split into two drops, one about 11 meters and the other about 21 meters long. It's also called the "Golden Falls" because when the sun shines on the waterfall, it's legitimately golden.

The tourist guide also talked about how some power companies wanted to use the waterfall as an electricity source, but a local woman that lived near the waterfall named Sigridur Tomasdottir protested(so intensely that I would assume the government and the companies succumbed to her protests:P) and prevented the government in agreeing to do so(you go, girl!). I suppose that we should all thank her for this. The Gullfoss waterfall would probably be another spectacular waterfall that hasn't been used as an electricity provider. Thank you, Ms. Tomasdottir.

The beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful waterfall.

-Because I don't know where else to put it,

 A.D.

Photo Credits To: http://iceland.for91days.com/the-mighty-waterfall-of-gullfoss/

About Us :)

Hey guys, A.D speaking here. Roger that? Waiting for my friend H.D to come. I wonder where she is. 

5 minutes later

Seems like she won't be able to join us then. I'll just give you a brief summary of, well, us. I'm A.D, and my friend is called H.D, and we're A.D.H.D! (Don't laugh please)

We've chosen(jk we closed our eyes and randomly picked it :P) the lonely, lonely, island Iceland, the landlocked Macedonia, the chocolate country Belgium, and the tiny but independent Monaco. We'll be touring it in that order.

We aim to gain cultural knowledge by visiting these countries. We think that by visiting these countries we can learn more about Europe's culture and history. (We're totally not just going there for the food, I mean, who would do that? Ha...ha...)


 It's going to be fun, right? We also wanted to share our experience with everyone who will be reading this. This is basically what we will use to bombard you with information and our experiences. So,

 FLY LIKE A DOVE!!!!!!!