What do you think of when you hear Kazakhstan? OK, let's get it over with: Borat. If nothing else, Sacha Baron Cohen did place Kazakhstan on the map. Enormous flat steppes, once the secret home of Soviet gulags and a nuclear weapons testing zone. Also, [...]
My initial impression of the Azerbaijani capital is that of a giant modernisation project, one where the old and the hyper contemporary vie for attention. The city actually feels a bit... undecided. Baku is a crossroads in every sense: between Europe and Asia, between conventional [...]
In Augsburg’s old town, Grandhotel Cosmopolis is perhaps the most curious hotel in all of Germany; certainly the most unusual I have seen. This particular Grand hotel, you see, functions not only as a hotel, but also as home for asylum seekers, as artists’ studios, [...]
Once there was a country called Yugoslavia. It was a federation of six republics that existed through most of the 20th century. For much of that time, it was essentially held together by one man, Josip Broz Tito. Marshall Tito died in 1980. Soon after, [...]
As you may recall, we really like Antwerp here at Sophie’s World. So we just had to return! Earlier, we’ve talked about the city’s three World Heritage sites (three!). This time, I'll tell you about an unusual Antwerp brewery. Sounds, well, not that exciting? That’s [...]
So... imagine you are in Manchester. With a girlfriend - or boyfriend - who's here for one thing and one thing only: footie! You, on the other hand, couldn't care less for the Beautiful Game. You can't even remember what the corner kick rule means, [...]
"Wir sind das Volk!" That was the Leipzig war cry during those world changing weeks in the autumn of 1989: "We are the people!" On 9 October 1989, 70 000 people gathered in Leipzig. This is where it all began, the Peaceful Revolution that ended one month [...]
