Biliki Travel

Museumsuferfest 2010, Frankfurt

2010-09-20T11:00:00.000+02:00

Frankfurt am Main waved a farewell to the summer of 2010, by organizing another grand event - Museumsuferfest.
Celebrations continued for three days, from Friday to Sunday. Planned without a minute’s pause, the program was enough to fill all fifty-two pages of the brochure.
Frankfurt celebrations always successfully engage and satisfy all their visitors. The Museumsuferfest 2010 was not an exception. People of any ages and lifestyles could find something interesting to enjoy themselves with. There were city’s numerous museums welcoming visitors of their exhibitions until late night; There were concerts held at both banks of the river Main where the audience could also join in to dance; Stalls all the around the place offered food and drinks as well as souvenirs from around the world. And despite the cold rainy weather, the streets were full of people.
After the Parade of Cultures, the Museumsuferfest was one more opportunity for the international residents of the city to swirl and rejoice in the diversity of their cultures.
During the festival Frankfurt hosted the annual book exhibition with Argentina as a focus country. Moreover, the land associated with football, tango and Gauchos served as the leitmotif for the whole Museumsuferfest this year. Argentinean tango show, followed by the fireworks, was the concluding performance of the celebration.

Heidelberg Triathlon, 2010

2010-08-09T11:00:00.000+02:00

On the 1st of August about 500 sportsmen and women took part in the 18th annual sport competition Heidelberg Man. Participants ran 10 km and took 32 km-long bicycle ride to show Heidelberg their physical strength and prove themselves to be ‘iron’ men.
Due to the weather conditions, this year’s event did not include swimming, which normally is the part of the competition triathlon, making it more a biathlon than anything. Still pretty tough.
At the end of the tense hours of non-stop competitive movement, the sportsmen happily gave themselves into the hands of masseurs.

Days of Africa, Heidelberg

2010-07-19T11:00:00.000+02:00

Afrikatage - days of Africa, launched on June 11th in Heidelberg and Mannheim, focused our attention on African cultures and problems. Against this year’s WM in South African Republic, the time is perfect to let the people know once more what Africa is in all the diversity of the continent.
At the festival one can taste African food; choose the most desirable from the ocean of colourful hand-made jewellery and interior decorations, each of them different from the other, carrying a special meaning; dance under the rhythms of African drums and enjoy the show of Egyptian belly-dance.

Parade der Kulturen 2010, Frankfurt – Part 2

2010-07-12T11:00:00.002+02:00

One of the climaxes of the parade was the large Bolivian dance group. As they entered the ......... square jumping under the beats of the tribal drums, the audience was hypnotized by their energy and colours! Bolivia presented the ancient folk dance - Tobas.
The people of Toba used to perform it on religious parties dressed in wilderness costumes. Nowadays it is danced at different times and in very long streets.

But who hasn’t at least once felt the accelerated heart beat hearing the rhythms of the drums? Who hasn’t at least once felt the energy transfer from a dancer in a one-metre-high jump? These we all like and a lot, but it is still not enough to make us really ‘wow‘. On the other hand, absolutely outstanding were the costumes of Bolivians worn for the Tobas. This is definitely a ‘jewel’ of the whole culture in its metaphorical and also literary sense.

To make once such a dance costume costs quite a lot of money. This is due to the feather of Parihuanas (‘water bird’) used as the main element of the costume. Moreover, Tobas as a dance is not that easy to perform. It is danced on the foot toes and almost on the knees which produces cramps to the dancer.
But both costume expenses and dancer suffering are well rewarded by the feedback of the charmed public.

So we are simply convinced, wherever Bolivians perform the Tobas, it is going to be a triumph.

Parade der Kulturen 2010, Frankfurt – Part 1

2010-07-05T11:00:00.002+02:00

Representatives of one-hundred-and-seven different nations living in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, cheered through the streets of the city on June 26th to express their cultural identity and offer a magnificent show of colours, costumes, music, dance. The capital of Hessen hosted its seventh annual Parade of Cultures.

The event was managed by Frankfurt youth organizations, clubs and foreigners offices and was the demonstration of intercultural friendliness and respect between the foreign residents of Frankfurt.
‘Due to its co-existing worldwide openness and tolerance, Frankfurt has a name of an international city. This makes the place more pleasurable for its residents, interesting for visitors and attractive for businesses', says one of patronesses of the day, Prof. Dr. Daniela Birkenfeld.
The parade marched through the central streets of the city and ended in the main square (name of the square). There in front of the jury, dozens of photographers and hundreds of onlookers participants of the parade performed the core of their folk culture.
At the end of the parade, everyone was invited to taste various cuisines and until late night enjoy the concerts of different musical and dance bands.
The guests of the event also had a chance to take their first master class of tango and salsa.
If you are in Berlin during the month of May, you can attend the similar event known as the Carnival of Cultures.

To be continued…

Munich, the Toy Town

2010-06-28T11:00:00.024+02:00

Munich, ‘…or should I say Muenchen’, is one of the obvious reasons of The Bavarian Pride. In fact, there are three locations in Bavaria known as ‘Munich’. But we are now focusing on the capital of Bavaria.
Survey conducted by the Society’s Centre for Sustainable Destinations for a National Geographic Traveller chose over one-hundred historical places all over the world. In this list Munich was ranked as the thirtieth.
The third largest city of Germany owes its name to the Monks living here in the 12th century. The monk depicted on the city’s coat of arms, therefore, carries the memory of the first inhabitants of the place.

Munich has always been very active in its religious, political and artistic life. It was the centre of many important heroic and tragic historical events. It was here, that students of University of Munich and their professors of philosophy dared to found a resistance group in Nazi Germany of 1942. It was here, that Israeli Athletes were assassinated in the summer Olympics of 1972.

One feels the significance of the city through its rich and diverse architecture too, starting from the town hall and Frauenkirche finishing with Olympiapark and BMW headquarters.
The city was heavily damaged during the bombings of the World War II, but no effort and money was spared to revive Munich, glorious as it was before the war.

Nowadays, it is considered to be the least criminal among other large cities of Germany and has even earned nicknames. Due to its safety and high quality of life, the English-speaking population of Munich has named it a ’Toytown’. Germans themselves call it ’Millionendorf’ - ’a village of millionaires’ as this is one of the richest and most expensive places of the country.

Munich is an excellent destination for any tourist. It is full of life and yet not tiring. The centre is not big, but it is packed with grand historical buildings, interesting shopping opportunities and numerous café-restaurants generously offering Bavarian atmosphere and freshly brewed bear! However, this atmosphere can be felt already in the street through local people with some of them wearing traditional Bavarian costumes in everyday life.
For those who would like to add even more diversity to their trip, could join locals playing street chess. The games are held in the parks and are very popular among the elderly generation of the city.
Still among all attractions of the place a visit to a German restaurant with shared tables and busily rushing waitresses is a must.

If you are a vigorous beer drinker a recommendation would be to visit Munich in the weeks of ‘Octoberfest’ - there beer is drank wildly and non-stop for many days. There among the cheering pints and colourful trachts one will need no words to perceive what it’s like when ‘Munich loves you’.

Neuschwanstein, Bavaria, Germany

2010-06-21T11:00:00.010+02:00

Neuschwanstein castle is a sort of a hallmark of Germany. When one is looking at the tour guide brochures, the castle stands as the most popular celebrity on every cover. Besides, I think every girl has it already well packed in their sub-consciousness through the Walt Disney’s ’Sleeping Beauty’, where Neuschwanstein inspired the creators of the cartoon.

So you can imagine how glorious this place must be!

That’s why we were very surprised when told by a friend of ours that castle is a bluff, not really a castle and not even worth visiting.

We still decided to go as we knew that at least the view of the Alps would not disappoint us and our cameras.
Having reached the village named Hohenschwangau, we spent the most part of the day admiring the magnificent view from the bottom of the hill and cheering from happiness of being in that place.

What about the castle? It was there - probably in the most beautiful place in the whole country. But was it real? Oh well…here it is and decide for yourself: Neuschwanstein castle was built by Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, in 1886 as his refuge from the political complications of those days and materialisation of his personal fairy-tale. The castle was built around the thematic of a swan expressed through numerous sculptures and pictures in its interior.

The reason lies in the childhood of Ludwig II spent in the Hohenschwangau castle, built by his father Maximilian II of Bavaria. This castle now neighbours Neuschwanstein adding to the beauty of the scenery. Hohenschwangau was decorated with scenes from medieval legends and poetry. There still as a child the king identified himself with Lohengrin from the legend of the Swan Night which obviously took deep roots in his spirit and fantasy and finally realizes itself through the castle.

To this very legend of the Swan Night Richard Wagner once dedicated a romantic opera. In his turn, Ludwig II, Wagner’s great admirer, dedicated the composer the whole Neuschwanstein castle installing a stage ready for opera performances of the renowned musician.

The construction of the castle lasted for about two decades. The photos of this process can be seen on old photos exhibited at the exit. It is the most unfortunate that ’the Swan King’ spent only 170 days in his newly built and yet unfinished ‘fantasy world‘ so long waited for. But in several weeks after the king‘s death, the castle was already opened for tourists. Nowadays, about six thousand tourists visit it every day in summer.

There is no other way to enter the castle rather than joining a tour: as the day passes along with final calls of the visitors bus, tourist start to disappear. By the sunset, one stays up there almost alone. Almost cause there are always a couple of landscape photographers passionately clicking with their cameras to capture the glory of the hills embraced with last beams of a sleepy sun.

There is a road that leads back to the village through the woods surrounding the castle. So we recommend to walk down there and be alert. No-no, no-one will rob you. But… engaged by the thoughts about the fairy-tale castle, when evening’s darkness prevails the setting sun, in the stillness of the nature you can hear the voice of the Swan King calling out from the trees: ’Cu-Cu…Cu-Cu...’.

Gullfoss, the golden waterfall of Iceland

2010-06-16T11:00:00.005+02:00

One of the climaxes of our trip to Iceland was visiting the famous Gullfoss waterfall attracting landscape and travel photographers from all over the world every year. It happened so that we were extremely lucky and had much fun capturing the superstar destination.

This is how it all happened:
On one sunny Icelandic morning we drove to the west from Reykjavik. Due to the inexperienced navigator, or the happy chance of her inexperience, the chosen route was not a touristic one, as it later appeared. It lead us through the golden, green, red fields of total desertion our eyes had never seen before and glorious snowy mountains that never left our view! The deeper we went into the island, the more we felt the freezing wind. It was +2 degrees, but the wind made it feel like -10.
Between the golden and red fields we came across a power plant on sulphur springs, a remote farm with friendly furry horses and a lake. Majestic half frozen, but yet alive lake, with the pebble shore and the voice from the past, from ancestors who enjoyed its views and bore its freeze.
The voice from the past was heard many times again, but especially when passing between red and green fields. There we came across a small cave which at the beginning of 20th century hosted a Norwegian couple who brought to life three children and
all in that cave with no other man within 50 km radius!
Having turned back from the cave to our car, in that complete remoteness we saw 2 white geese happily walking around the green field. How the two comrades appeared, which winds brought them there and what for remains a mystery.

At the moment when we almost lost the hope of moving into the right direction and the first signs of the panic started to shape out in our brains, we saw the Geysers and people waiting for their outbursts. That meant Gullfoss must have been near.
And after about half an hour of driving again in a complete desertion all of a sudden with the bus packed with Chinese and French tourists there it was, the renowned waterfall, all on our palm.
Our first attempt to capture it with out cameras was pretty nasty. We got all twenty fingers along with our noses frozen off by the wind. Besides, we were wet from the waterfall which made the task even more difficult. And the light was neither our side giving a dim shadowed light one could not use even for amateur photos.
So we just enjoyed the view as much as we could. Tried to catch the mentioned voice of the past and went to have some soup in the only café-shop nearby.
The soup was delicious and warm!!
And overall it was a good decision to stop and give it a time.

We had almost finished having our lunch when we noticed the strays of sun lighting up the Gullfoss.
There were no more words needed. We immediately equipped ourselves once more, put scarves tightly around our faces against the strong wind and wet drops and went down again to challenged the waterfall once more. This time we went much further. Crossed the chain denoting the unsafe territory and went right onto the chest of Gulfoss to take its full beauty.

And we did it! We did it!!
It is amazing why people having put themselves into a highly uncomfortable dangerous situation feel satisfaction. But this happened to us too. The extreme caused by the freeze, wind, wetness, risk and the experience of it all brought us immense happiness. Surely not only the process, but the result matters too. We had seen and captured the beauty of the waterfall, a half frozen Gullfoss and done it when she was so unwilling to be captured!

Reykjavik, Iceland

2010-06-14T11:00:00.005+02:00

In the Atlantic Ocean between Norway and Greenland, touching the Arctic Circle with its northern edge, there lies a land that cherishes the memories of the Viking Age, where our journey in Travel Photography has taken us for the first time. The land of Volcanoes and Geysers and yet the land of ice.

The ‘far far away’ Iceland, with its population of only over 300,000 people, earned the status of the most developed country of the world and the fourth most productive per capita by the United Nations’ Human Development Index in 2008.
Situated to the southwest of the island, the highly modernized capital Reykjavik is home for 60% of the total population of the country. Here is one of the warmest places of Iceland not only because of its numerous spa centres and night life, but also due to the warm waters of the Gulf stream that moderate the climate. The temperature in winter hardly ever drops below -10 degrees. In summer, however, it rarely goes above +15 degrees.

The visitors of the city will enjoy an amazing scenery of snowy mountain ranges merging with the Ocean. Most of the buildings in Reykjavik are not high, so mountains can be seen from almost everywhere. But one can get the fullest view of the natural beauties of the place from Perlan. Once serving as Reykjavik’s water reservoir, Perlan is now ‘the city’s most striking building by day and it’s finest restaurant by night’.
The city centre is quite small and easily conquerable on foot, but if you plan to go to the suburbs, you can either take a bus or a taxi, which are the only means of public transportation. If you have much free time and decide to have a walk, let your feet have a good rest before you go. On your way you might see a lot of remote areas, large fields to cross and very few pedestrians. But if you suddenly got lost and saw someone passing by, don‘t be shy to ask for help. Extremely friendly Icelanders are always glad to assist confused foreigners with directions. They will kindly take time to explain the way in full details and perfect English.
Along with Perlan and magnificent scenery, food is another attraction of the capital. There one finds some of the most pleasant restaurants with incredibly delicious menu. They are especially recommended for fish lovers. After the restaurants, happy tourists can join the local crowds enjoying themselves at night clubs.

The crown of the place, as we already mentioned above, are the spas. It should be noted here, that the Vikings, who settled on the island more than 1100 years ago, paid greater attention to cleanness of their bodies than their southern neighbours at those times. They also combed their hair much more often that it is generally assumed. The Vikings fully utilized the hot sulphur waters coming from the earth of the land and were known for their custom of bathing every Saturday. From this tradition comes the name of the respective weekday - Laugardagur meaning ‘washing day’.

Spas in Reykjavik nowadays are not only the pleasant luxury, but also a necessary element of the weekly life. Especially if you happen to visit Iceland in winter or early spring as in our case.
So if you decide to visit Reykjavik, don’t forget to take a swimsuit with you.

Fasching Carnival in Frankfurt am Main - February, 2010

2010-06-09T11:00:00.001+02:00

If you are an elegant respectful gentleman who happened to be on a business trip in Germany at the end of January until the mid-February, do not be surprised if on one ice-cold snowy Thursday a strangely dressed woman of a ‘Balzac Age’ runs up at you screaming. Beware! Even though you might manage to read out a jolly smile through her heavily smeared make-up, check if she is holding a pair of sharp scissors in her hand. And if she is… run!

‘Die Wieberfastnacht’ or the ‘Women’s Carnival Day’ is a Thursday a week before the long Christian Lent. On this day ladies become untamed and demonstrate the disobedience by cutting off neckties from men (tie is then a symbol) and giving kisses to the scared male.
The Women’s Carnival Day marks the beginning of the 6-day climax period of the ‘Karneval’ season which starts on 11th November at 11.11 a.m. every year.

Nowadays the event is related to the Roman Catholic church and the Lent before the Easter. Accordingly the dates of the Carnival are calculated looking into the religious calendar. The word ‘Carnival’ in itself already proves this connection: derived from Latin ’carne vale’ it means ’farewell to meat’ (one of the strictest condition of the Lent is not to eat any meat). ’Meat’ here can also be interpreted as ’flesh’, thus pointing to the another restriction - reserving from sex or any acts of seducing the human ’flesh’.

However, the origins of this ’Good-bye party’ for earthly pleasures are still disputable and are said to have deeper roots in the pagan times. According to this point of view, our early ancestors, tired of cold and dark times during the year, dressed themselves up in funny clothes and put on ugly masks to scare the demons who were then believed to be controlling the seasons.
In one way or another the whole thing has become very significant in the life of the Catholic world and especially in Germany. This importance is evident by the scale of preparation German cities and organizations undertake for this event. Members of different clubs and associations dress up in creative, humorous costumes of unimaginable beauty to marsh out into the streets all together and greet people with a warm ’Helau!’ and a bunch of candies at the weekend after the ’Women’s Carnival Day’. But it does not end with the weekend. The hottest day of the celebration is the ‘Rose-Monday’ which then pours into the finishing stage of the 6-day partying on ‘Fasching-Tuesday’. By the next day, the whole Carnival season started on 11th November is over and the ‘Ash-Wednesday‘ opens the Lent. Germany is then back to order again.

For those who would like to calculate the most cheerful week of the Carnival season for the next year, please, remember that the ‘Ash-Wednesday’ is always the 40th day before Easter, not including the Sundays. Or in other words, 46th calendar day. Correspondingly, you risk to have your tie cut of on the Thursday before.

Our small team visited the city of Frankfurt am Main on one of the Carnival days and is pleased to offer our readers the photo-results of the day in the gallery.

International Pillow Fight Day, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2010-06-07T20:00:00.009+02:00

April 17, 2010. The following took place between 4 pm and 5 pm. A crowd of young German and international citizens silently gather in Hauptwache square in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Among the calmly here and there wandering youth, one notices a certain degree of similarity: the same weapon, of different dimensions, colours and level of hardness. But it is one and the same with each and every of them. The smiles and looks they throw each other and the passers by without uttering a single word should not be underestimated.

The time soon reveals the secret of the gathering.
With the toll of the church clock the flash mob breaks into a fight that will never be forgotten in the history of the city - a tough, shocking, bloody, life and death street pillow fight.
Producing the horror of screams and beats, fierce horde raises tons of feathers into the sky. Youngsters with red cheeks keep running out and into the dusty feathery mass.
There is a photo reporter with Sony A900 digital camera to be seen cutting the crowd. Daring initiative. Will he survive the battle, to pass the world the true story of the bloody day?

Yes, he will. An hour later, he will come back, all white with horror and feathers but still alive to tell us with his photos how it was to be in the middle of the international pillow fight.