Travelogue…… with Bob Nicolaides.

Two issues of Travelogue ago we ran an item concerning Louis Cruises ships which have sailed the oceans of the world and pioneered innovative itineraries for over 20 years, but we also mentioned a few items which we regret as they were totally erroneous, thereby making it necessary to correct such statements. To begin with, after communicating with Louis Cruises’ spokesperson Michalis Maratheftis, “the MV Orient Queen has now been renamed Louis Aura. Named after the Titan Goddess of cool and fresh air, (Gr. Avra) her name now reflects their new Hellenic identity and product.”

Louis Aura

Furthermore, we must clarify that Salamis Cruises of Cyprus is not an affiliate of Louis Cruises, but just another Cruise line based in Cyprus. So are the statements about Salamis’  October itineraries mentioned in the text. The reason is that Cyprus has the highest percentage in Europe for ‘repeaters’ therefore they strive to offer different and highly appealing itineraries every year as cruising is widely embraced as a form of holidaying by Cypriots. Also, not factual is that the sailings to the itineraries mentioned are on Salamis' Filoxenia which has been decommissioned. There will be more news on Louis Cruises itineraries and schedules as we receive news from the company which is “the foremost ambassador of Hellenic Cruising that delights in their warm-hearted hospitality and their ‘Kalimera’ experience which offers passengers a genuine introduction to Greek culture, history, cuisine and way of life while sailing to unique destinations.”

Visiting an Old Tobacco port and the lakes of Prespes National Park

The charm of Kavala, Greece, lies in its castle-topped old city, which is built on a promontory jutting out into the Aegean Sea. Northern Greece is the perfect place for lounging on the sun-soaked beaches of the Aegean by day and shivering in the rain-soaked mountains of the Balkans by night. Kavala’s main charm lies in its castle-topped, aqueduct-fed old city, which is built on a promontory jutting out into the Aegean. Art-deco tobacco warehouses provide a backdrop to graceful monuments commissioned by Kavala native Muhammad Ali, the man who founded Egypt’s ruling Dynasty up to King Farouk. He was the Albanian from Greece who fought for the Turks against Greece and then invaded Turkey. You can visit the accompanying museum in Ali’s former home at the top of the hill. It was a building so tastefully restored as to be completely empty, with ethereal Sufi music filling the rooms in place of furniture.

Stretching out along the waterfront beyond the walls of the old city, 19th-century brick warehouses stand alongside larger concrete ones from the ’30s and a host of modern buildings. Past the naval museum, is the tobacco museum, a museum of things: machines for sifting tobacco, presses for baling it and hand carts for moving it. And for moving it without hand carts, a “human saddle,” designed to hold the load on a porter’s back. Leftover space is filled with plastic-wrapped packages of pressed tobacco leaves tied with ribbon — sample wares prepared for a 1980s fair. And maps showing happy peasants planting tobacco, showing routes for shipping tobacco of tobacco varieties and finally an ordinary map of the region, made from tobacco leaves.

After Kavala, you must visit Prespes National Park, two stunning mountain lakes straddling Greece’s northern frontier, complete with pelicans, water buffalo and island churches. More important, Prespes is also one of Europe’s flagship trans-boundary parks, making it ideal not just for park enthusiasts but also for those divided on the merits of hiking with nature-lovers in Greece, Albania or Fyrom.

The route to the Prespa Lakes follows the path of the Roman Egnatia Way west along a new, Egnatia Motorway. Turning off to the north — because it’s Greece, the exit sign says “Exodos” The Prespa Lakes themselves are probably the most beautiful we’ve ever seen.

At the bottom of a steep trail down to the lakeshore, narrow Byzantine bricks nestled into the protruding cliff face formed a small chapel for a 13th-century hermit. On another shore of the lake, the once grand basilica built by the medieval Bulgar Tsar Samuil is now two walls and a series of arches framing the mountains behind it. The fields surrounding the lakes were filled with reed tripods, woven together as frames for growing the region’s famous flat beans. (Reeds from the lake itself, we learned, are too brittle, so farmers import sturdier reeds from lakes farther south.) The beans sold at roadside stands by the bag or served in every local restaurant with an excess of tomato sauce and olive oil, are delicious.

 

The World’s Smallest hotel is in Copenhagen

Now you can offer a selected client a key note or a VIP guest an authentic Copenhagen experience in the world’s smallest café, Central Hotel & Café. Central Hotel and Café is the smallest hotel in the world. The 12m2 small apartment gives an authentic feel of Denmark during the 1940’s, with a great location in the middle of modern society in one of the most cozy residential areas in the heart of Copenhagen.

The idea behind Central Hotel & Café is that when entering the little apartment it should give a sense of going back in time. The story of the small apartment goes back to 1905, where it served as a shoe repairer shop. This was its function till the beginning of world war II. Living at Central Hotel will therefore give one an opportunity to experience a small amount of Danish history and the local community, while being situated within walking distance of Copenhagen Central Station. When arriving at the hotel fresh flowers, fruit and wine will be included in the rate. Breakfast is served between 07.00 – 12.00 at the Granola Café, situated beneath the hotel. While enjoying your breakfast at Café Granola, you will get to experience fashionable Vesterbro.

Vesterbro, the area around Central Hotel & Café, offers a great variety of restaurants and venues such as Copenhagen Conference at DGI-byen that offers 14 modern meeting rooms, a rooftop terrace and a restaurant, and Forum a venue for larger events and exhibitions. Not far from the Central Hotel and Café is the trendy Meatpacking district known for its several art galleries and broad range of luxurious restaurants.

The surroundings of Central Hotel and Café has a lot to offer, but you will not have to go far to get a good breakfast or meal. The Granola Café which is a part of the hotel serves an extensive breakfast menu as well as lunch, desert, milkshakes, fresh juices and smoothies. It is also one of the only places in Copenhagen you can be served the famous Danish dish Rødgrød, which is stewed fruit with thickening. Soon the Granola Café will also be serving in the evenings, where one will be able enjoy a lovely dinner and a drink.

A Night of Fashion Jewelry at St. George Lycabettus



Fashion & Gastronomy for Charity

Not only was it a whole Night of fashion, but the menu offered at this event was itself one of fashion. It happened at St. George’s Lycabettus boutique Hotel on Thursday, September 26, and at La Suite Lounge on the hotel’s 6^th floor. Guests were greeted with a Cointreau Fizz fashion cocktail while they watched the priceless collection of jewels by Pericles Kondylatos. They were also acquainted with the www.Shopquen.gr personal shopping and fashion services, with runway fashion projections. A fashion food fare followed with the delicious creations of executive chef Vassili Milios. It was all a benefit evening, part of the campaign Fashion Targets Breast Cancer with a share of the receipts going to the Research for the conquering of Breast Cancer.

 

Luxury River Cruise Opens up Mysteries of Myanmar

 

Mandalay: After closing its doors to the West for half a century, Myanmar has reopened, inviting all to come and discover its treasures, ancient palaces of kings long gone, legends and mysteries told in stone. And the world is expected to come. These are the early days, perhaps the best, and with ill-equipped roads and railways, there is no better way to explore than by river. Public ferries crisscross through glistening green paddies” old teak fishing boats can be rented by the day. And now, there is the luxury riverboat cruise. In late July, the Orcaella made its maiden voyage on a 1,600-kilometer journey deep into Myanmar’s interior, almost to the border of India. It is operated by the Orient Express, the group that runs luxury hotels, trains and boats globally.

Myanmar's many pagodas

It’s not a handsome ship from the outside. As the cruise’s first 30 travelers board in Mandalay, it seems squat and square and a bit worn out. But once you step over the gangplank and enter the roomy lounge, your impression changes completely. Totally remodeled from the hull up and gracefully furnished, it is a space where one immediately feels relaxed. Over the next 12 days you will tour sights rarely seen by foreign tourists: villages left back in time, gilded pagodas filled with Buddhist statues, thousands of them long neglected.

The cabins are spacious, with hardwood floors, fresh flowers and a walk-in closet. Best of all are the glass sliding doors facing the wide river, where one can lie in bed and watch the world glide by. You travel first for six hours along the mighty Irrawaddy River, more than 400 meters wide. The shores are almost level with the land, the brush low with a few large trees. Every hut or fishing boat you pass generates loud greetings. Groups of children wave and call. Water taxis carry passengers from one riverside village to the next, and huge, heavy boats laden with teak head downstream.



When you reach the confluence with the Chindwin River, you meet the first obstacle. The captain slows our 25-cabin ship to a near-standstill and struggles to navigate around a small whirlpool. The shifting sandbanks make it difficult to read the riverbed. Eventually you pass, continuing north on the Chindwin along the melted waters of the Himalayas. You slice through sandstone cliffs and patches of forest, but this is rare. For long stretches, sometimes days at a time, the view is more monotonous than one would have imagined.

The first village of a decent size you come across is Monywa, where the people fascinated to see visitors. And as you walk down their dusty roads, visitors must look like clumsy giants. Their own bodies look so delicate, women walking gracefully even when carrying baskets of bricks on their heads.

Every day, you can stop to visit one or more of the many pagodas, old and new. You can see golden Buddhas towering over everyone, and a traditional ceremony for young, freshly shaven monks. After a few days, we reach Sittaung, a few kilometers from the Indian border. It has 35 very solid, large teak houses, all without doors and elevated on stilts. Green rice paddies are on either side. The river is only a few meters away and floods a frequent occurrence.



Here you turn around. It took eight days to get here, but the return trip is less than half the time, heading with the current towards the home harbor and the temples of Bagan, the first kingdom of Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Strangest Visa application questions

 

Global Visas.com has put together a top ten list of random questions asked by people looking to get a visa for 12 months and you will not believe some of the things they were asked!

I've heard that cocaine is legal in Columbia; is this true?' - an inquiry from a visa applicant looking to move there from France.

'Do you know if it's easier to find a wife in England? I'm struggling here.' - said a Peruvian applicant for a UK visa.

'Is everybody friends with the Queen?' - asked a Japanese applicant looking to move to England.

The Strangest reasons for a Visa

'If I live in America, will I be a movie star?' - asked a Filipino applicant

‘I want to be closer to Elton John. He doesn’t come to Togo. Do you see him much in Britain?’ - a man from Togo professing to be Elton John's biggest fan and looking to move to the UK to be closer to his hero.

'Is it legal to marry your car?' - a question posed by a man from the United States looking to move to Guatemala.

'I've committed a serious crime, but I haven't been caught or convicted. Will I be immune once I move?' asked an alarmingly honest individual from Italy.

'Is it illegal if I don't speak Dutch?' asked one applicant from the Middle East who was looking to secure a Shengen visa for the Netherlands.

'Somebody told me that Australia was founded by criminals. Do I have to have a criminal record to move there?' a Malaysian based inquiry for an Australian visa.

'I don't have a passport. If I sail to Portugal but don't fly will they let me live there?' - asked a UK resident looking to move there.

Liam Parry, of GlobalVisas.com had the following comment to make:

"We see all sorts of unusual things during the visa application process but, generally speaking, that goes with the territory. When somebody is moving from one culture to live in another there's bound to be an element of misunderstanding about laws and customs."

He continued:

"Our experts aim to assist as much as they can, and can be relied upon to answer the vast majority of visa related queries. With some of the above though, there's often a period of silence before they can formulate a suitable response!"(www.femalefirst.co.uk)