Here you will find destination guides. Each post has information on getting around, sightseeing and some surprises
Togo
Tiny Togo, a thin sliver of land wedged between Ghana, Burkina Faso and Benin, is blessed with deserted beaches, a fascinating culture and friendly people. Upcountry are beautiful hills and plateaus, while the region around Kpalime, near the Ghanaian border in the southwest, is particularly scenic and is known for its butterflies. The famous fortress-like mud-brick houses of the Tamberma people can be seen in the Kabye, a place that has withstood the onslaught of modernization.
Mid-July to mid-September
Hiking the beautiful hill country surrounding Kpalime, well known for its butterflies Gazing at the extraordinary tata compounds, built without tools, in the Tamberma Valley Browsing through the bewildering collection of traditional medicines and fetishes on offer at the Marche des Fetihes in Lome Discovering the crumbling colonial charm of Aneho, the former capital, set on a picturesque lagoon Enjoying Lake Togo’s water sports, including windsurfing and water-skiing Having fun bargaining with Mama Benz, the smart wealthy women traders of Lome’s Grand Marche
Read the auto biography An African Greenland by Tete-Michel Kpomassie, who was rised in a traditional Togolese family
Listen to Bella Bellow for a musical hybrid of traditional music fused with the contemporary sounds of West Africa, the Caribbean and South America
Watch Togolese director Anne-Laure Folly’s Femmes aux yeau ouverts (Women with Open Eyes), which explores the problems facing women in West Africa
Eat koklo meme (grille chicken with chilli sauce) or abobo (snails cooked like a brochette)
Drink tchakpallo (femented millet with a frothy head) or palm wine
Un-lah-wah-lay (‘good morning’ in Kadye, one of the major indigenous languages)
Beaches; fetishes; clay houses of the Tamberma; voodoo; great food
The Ewe consider the birth of twins a great blessing, but the Bassari consider it a grave misfortune; of the Togolese population, 59% are animists
Many of the Ewe’s funeral rites and conceptions of afterlife and death have a strong animist element. According to the Ewe. Once a person dies their djoto (reincarnated soul) will come back in the next child born into the same lineage, while their luvo (death soul) may linger with those still living, seeking attention and otherwise creating havoc. Funerals are one of the most important events in Ewe society and involve several nights of drumming and dancing, followed by a series of rituals to help free the soul of the deceased and influence its reincarnation.
Latvia
Latvia may be sandwiched between Estonia and Lithuania, but its capital, Riga, is the biggest and most vibrant city in the Baltics. Great day-trip destinations surrounding Riga include the coastal resort Jurmala, the Sigulda castles overlooking the scenic Gauja River Valley, and the Rastrelli Palace at Rundale. Latvia’s less-travelled roads are equally rewarding, form the dune-lined coast and historic towns of the Kurzeme region in the west of the country to the remote uplands of the east.
April to September (spring to summer)
Visiting Rastrelli’s lavishly Baroque Rundale Palace outside Riga Swinging across the Gauja river Valley in a cable car Strolling in the land of the Livonian people at Cape Kolka Beachcombing for washed-up amber along Latvia’s Baltic coast Burrowing in the Riezupe sand caves near Kuldiga Wandering through Riga’s massive Market
Read Latvia’s national epic, Lacplesis (The Bear Slayer), written by Andrejs Pumpurs in the mid-19 th century and based on traditional Latvian folk stories
Listen to AutoBuss Debesis, art rock with a Latvian twist
Watch Homeland, a documentary by Podnieks that captures the tumultuous events of the early 1990s
Eat piragi, meat pasties baked in the oven-Latvia’s answer to fast food
Drink the infamous Balzams, a thick, jet-black, 45% proof concoction-it’s best served with coffee or mixed with equal parts vodka
Sveiks (Hi, or even Goodbye)
Vibrant Riga; drinking sessions; scientists; sports-loving people; singing and dancing troupes
Pig’s snout is a traditional Christmas dish; Riga is over 800 years old; Latvia is a remnant of the Holy Roman Empire; Latvia became a member of the European Union in May 2004
Cobbled streets, chocolate-box collections of brightly painted houses and a trio of medieval Old Towns sufficiently historic to be included in Unesco’s World Heritage list are among the huge trove of treasures…Whole sweeps of history and a myriad of legends and myths little known outside the immediate region hide behind each castle, folk costume, forest and lake.
Slovakia
Slovakia, the Czech Republic’s less glamorous partner, emerged dishevelled and sleepy after the ‘Velvet Revolution’ of 1989. Although it’s now holding its own in a rebuilding Eastern bloc, there’s a refreshing absence of Prague-style glitz glamour. lt is a land of real spirit, where folk traditions have survived the domination of foreign rulers and where a plethora of castles and chateaux pay testament to untold wars and civil conflicts. Strike up a conversation at a bar and you’ll find an intelligent, engaging and friendly person at the other end.
May to June (for sunny weather)-or before Bratislava becomes sold as ‘the new Prague’
Roaming the crumbling ruins of Spis, Slovakia’s largest castle Discovering Levoca, a medieval walled town and a treasure-chest renaissance architecture Wandering, wining
and dining in the bustling, renovated old town of Bratislava Luxuriating in the spa at Bardejovske Kupele after exploring the skansen (open-air museum) in the spa’s foothills Exploring the caves of Slovak Karst Following the crowd to Bojnice, the most visited chateau in Slovakia
Read the brilliant village tales of Bozena Slancikova and the poetry of lvan krasko
Listen to Dezider Kardos’s second symphony, Hero’s Ballad, and Jana Kirschner
Watch seminal vampire chiller Nosferatu, set in spooky Orava Castle
Eat brynzove halusky (small potato dumplings, similar to ltalian gnocchi, topped with sheep’s cheese and a sprinkling of fried bacon bits) and cakes that would be three times the price in a Viennese cake shop
Drink homemade slivovice (plum brandy) and Zlaty Ba ant (Golden Pheasant beer) made in Hurbanovo
Ahoj (hello)
The poor sister of the Czech republic; Stalinist architecture; high-rise apartment blocks; farmers; villages; mountains
The largest meteor ever to hit Europe landed near the East Slovakian town of Zboj in 1866, its flight was visible from the High Tatras, over 200k away
For the majority of foreign tourists, the High Tatra mountains are Slovakia’s biggest attraction-and with a splendidly jagged and snow-patched central massif rising abruptly out of a green plain, it’s easy to see why. lt’s also Slovakia most diverse wildlife area-home to brown bears, wolves, lynxes and other wild cats, marmots, otters, golden eagles and mink. One animal protected even outside national parks is the chamois, a mountain antelope, which was for a time near extinction but is now making a comeback.
