Het Sloveense Portoroz staat niet bekend om zijn schoonheid, wel om zijn twintig casino’s die de Italiaanse en Oostenrijkse gokkers moeten aantrekken. Monsterlijk grote hotels herbergen naast spelers vooral gammele gasten die de helende bronwateren komen opzoeken. ER zouden volgens de gidsen prachtige stranden liggen, maar we vinden slechts betonnen boulevards met trappetjes naar het water waar je op kiezelstenen trapt. Het past helemaal bij de grote illusie die hier wordt verkocht van een grandeur die niet eens vervlogen is, maar nooit bestaan heeft. Drie kilometer verderop is...

Montenegro, what’s in a name? Steep mountains, not so hospitable villages, deep gorges, black knights, spooky ruins, dark history. The former royal family of Petrovic (last king was Nicolas), has been living in Paris, banned from home. It has taken possession of one of its palaces recently, but the Montenegrins don’t want their king back, while orderly democracy doesn’t seem to be an option either. On the contrary, it is lack of transparency that brings the lazy Montenegrins at least a little prosperity, thanks to the Serbian investors...

When I tell Greeks that I am travelling to Albania, they smile warily. This attitude doesn’t turn out to meet with reality. Not only is the Albanian Riviera very much worth a visit, with its idyllic and unspoiled bays a paradise for sailors, but the little money the Greek are earning they owe to their Northern neighbours. Banks, Construction and Insurance companies and car dealers do lots of business with the three million plus inhabitants who are still trying to get over decades of communist dictatorship. Many Albanians...

In Greece the road signs to Istanbul are still mentioning Constantinople. This is part of a systematic teasing program, meant to irritate the Turkish neighbors and that has been going on since 1923, when the Turkish leader Ataturk decided to confiscate a considerable amount of Greek territory. Driving to the Greek-Turkish border one sees more of this irritation: 70.000 Greek soldiers are protecting the country against a Turkish 'invasion', an operation that is costing this bankrupt nation more than a bilion Euro a year. The whole border crossing...

Travelling through Greece these days helps you to differentiate between the news in the media and the reality lived by the Greek people themselves. Except for the big cities, Athens and Thessaloniki (where half of the whole population of only 11 million live), the crisis is not considered a reason for panick. Nor is the economical disaster a reason to start moving. 'Greece has seen centuries of wars, its fields are drenched in blood, whole regions burned, and it has survived it all' , says Apostolos Kosmopoulos (real...

You may think you know Spain because you have been there on holidays or have tried to learn Spanish in Barcelona or just because you like Real Madrid. Spain, a warm kingdom, member of the European Union, modern and open. But you will be surprised what you find out when you really get involved with this country. I am not talking about the economical crisis (plummeting house prices, bankruptcy all over in property land, huge lack of jobs for the young), but about the lack of democratic...

Travelling through Tunisia one is tempted to be optimistic: agressive media, lively talkshows on radio and TV, wild scenario's discussed in the many coffee houses and even women are talking politics. Fresh air all over the place, after the heavy years under president Ben Ali. But as in most revolutions, the real work still has to be done. While the heroes are either dead or resting, licking their wounds, the people seem to thgink that paradise will come overnight. Demands after demands are piling the shelves of the...

Great news: Time Magazine has chosen the man/woman of the year. Guess what: it's not Obama and it's not Bono or Soros. It's the protester. As in freedom, occupyer, revolution, courage, spring, never give up and belief. The PROTESTER deserves it. He and she are still on the squares of Moscow to Cairo. He and she are still camping for freedom and attracting the attention of the global-social media....

The Turkish army has -by mistake-  killed almost 40 Kurdish villagers in the South of the country instaed of members of the forbidden PKK. It comes as no surprise that the Kurds in Turkey are planning violent responses. They see the mistake as a provocation and take the opportunity to tell the world how badly they are being treated by the authorities in Ankara. Turkey is quickly irritated as soon as others criticize the way it handles its history: don't talk about the Kurdish question or, even worse, the Armenian...

Christopher Hitchens was my hero. He died of cancer, aged 62, after a life of smoking, drinking, partying but above all writing and thinking. He was the kind of anarchist you could not fail to love: left in the morning, conservative at night. Protest marches and champagne; trotskyite and saloon socialist, travelling all over the world and especially to dictatorships. Christopher hated authorities of all kind, but sadistic rulers were his favourites. He also disliked hypocrisy, in politics as well as in religion. How his writings killed Henry Kissinger...