Seeing is believing. Unbelievable "botel"!

Dakujem! This is Ken.
It means "Thank you" in Slovak.


The 29th country of round-the-world journey is Slovakia, which is a landlocked country bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland  to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south.


We have another 3 countries to go as 32 countries are in the World Cup.
This means we have completed 90 percent of them!!


The three are Slovenia, Serbia, and Algeria.

View Larger Map

We tried to find a flight bound for Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, from Athene, but we couldn't get it. So, we flew to the neighboring country Austria and took a bus there.

It took one hour to get Bratislava by bus from Vienna.

Anyway, are you familiar with Slovakia?
Most of you might get confused about the difference between "Czechoslovakia" and Slovakia.


Actually, Slovakia and Czech Republic used to be one country known as Czechoslovakia until 1993, when the present-day Slovakia became an independent state.


They even played in the World Cup for the first time as a independent country.
The information above was given by one of my friends on Twitter.


Anyway, we've booked our accommodation on Expedia, which is a cheap hotel, flight reservation website. 


Normally, a backpacker tends to find his accommodation on the spot. But we Libero search good-conditioned hotels on the internet in advance rather than strolling around to find them as backpackers usually do. This is Libero style!!


Then we've decided to stay at the following hotel!

Look at the name of hotel carefully! 
It's "Botel Marina".


It's supposed to be "Hotel", isn't it?
I thought this is a typo or something like that and ignored it at that time.


On arriving at the Bratislava airport, we caught a taxi to go to the "botel."


The driver dropped us in the middle of nowhere after only 5 min driving, saying "Here we are."


I was like "Where the hell are we ?"


I couldn't see any building around there except the Danube.


Then I realized that something's wrong with the name of the accommodation we're to stay, which was "Botel Marina", despite there is no sea as here is a landlocked country.


Putting aside "botel", what does "Marina" mean with no ocean around there?


The answer to the question is here.

The "Botel Marina" is on the Danube.

Why is the hotel named "Botel Marina", even though the Danube is not sea but a river.

The botel cost one person 50 EURO per night and the room was as small as a steerage. 

As for "Botel", it rings the bell afterward.


Botel is the word of "boat" and "hotel".
I confirmed it here.


That "motel" is the word of "motor" and "hotel" is accepted but I've never heard of "botel". How about in other countries?


Anyway, the Danube was so beautiful.

A strong wind shakes the botel.

You can see Bratislava castle inside your room. It's romantic!

But Atsushi and I were sleeping on the same twin.

Oh, my god.

On the second floor of the botel, there were many Indian restaurants.

That seems to be the reason why lots of Indian were there.

A lot of surprises happened to us on the first day of our visiting Slovakia.

But they made me in favor of this country!

Follow us on Twitter!! 
http://twitter.com/2010Libero 


We appreciate if you would publicize our blog and Twitter within your circle of your soccer friends or acquaintances.

Going Athens Sightseeing tour with "Akihabara-geek” Greek

This is Ken.
It means “Thank you” in Greek.

My Greek friend Thassos, who loves Japan and Akihabara, appeared on Greece arrival report

He invited me to his place this time.

Thassos owns a real estate business, and his apartment is located in one of the exclusive suburbs in Athens which is about 20 minutes drive from the city center, overlooking the Athens Olympic Stadium from the balcony.

And as I entered his room, I encountered tons of geek goods such as collection of character figures, as well as collections of Manga and animation cartoon DVDs, filling up the every inch of the shelves.

Even there is a station sign toy that written "Akihabara"

Then he made me watch “Our maid in a maid cafe Live DVD” and asked what I thought…!

I confessed to him that “I have lived in Akihabara once", he looked up to me with full of respect.
He also showed me his treasures he obtained from when he visited to Japan a few years ago.

The photos were taken at movie village in Kyoto.

The photo was taken at an Akihabara maid café, of course!

He is an Akihabara geek or whatever he is, it still makes me happy to see people are interested in Japan and Japanese culture. 

He was introduced to me by my friend, and since he likes Japan, I was with him almost everyday and he took me many different places during my stay here in Greece.

Now it’s lunch time.
This could be a food report which we haven’t done for long time.

Incidentally, in Greece, cheap bistro style, like so called greasy spoons are more popular than restaurants.

A bistro after a bistro on the street. It will be packed in dinner time.

In Greek, this bistro is called"Taverna (taveruna)” which means “don’t eat” in Japanese.
Oh, please don't say that.

A famous Greek food "souvlaki"

This is a pork skewer. Delicious with lots of spices. 

After the meal, it’s coffee time.
At the foot of the Acropolis, which is famous for the Parthenon, there are many cafes along the street. It’s the best spot having a cup of coffee while looking at ruins of worship. 

Always packed when sun is out.

By the way, the Greeks love coffee, and they never stop chatting over the coffee.

This is their culture. I wonder if the development of Greek philosophy was born from such a small talk.

And moreover, the Greeks love this iced coffee.

The iced coffee is called "Frappe". It’s kind too sweet.

After finishing our lunch, we hopped on a sightseeing bus to go around the city of Athens.

These buses can be seen in cities around the world. You can buy tickets and hop on and off anywhere in one day. It comes with audio guides (available in Japanese as well here in Athens). I don’t recall something like this in Japan.

We visited the Parthenon, which I just mentioned above.
Up the hill by bus, Yey! Easee, peesee, Japanesee!

It was just under the construction. 

I wish I could have taken a decent picture as I see it in a photo book.

I learned the history of the Parthenon in the museum nearby. The Parthenon in this beautiful white building was used to be decorated with colorful pallet. It's quite surprising to learn.

More than half of which had been broken was caused by bombing attack, when other Europeans invaded Greece long time ago, not from natural weathering.

Much debris from the site was taken back to the Britain, and are still kept in the British Museum. ]


Apparently the Museum of Athens keeps only copy of original, not real ones.

The panoramic city view from the hill, where the Parthenon is located.

We waved goodbye to the ruin of Acropolis and headed to "Panathenaic Stadium”.

Here, the stadium hosted the first modern Olympic games.

Not in 2004 Olympics, but back in 1896. It is more than 100 years ago.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to enter spectator sites where seats were made of marbles or a track with shape of a horseshoe. All we could do was taking photos from outside.

Now, for all the football fans, does "Panathenaic" ring a bell?

Yes, the Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos is an Athens-based team.

In fact, for the past 12 out of 13 years, their rival "Olympiakos" has won the tournaments, but in this year, Panathinaikos is going powerful and 5 points ahead of second place, leaving four more segments to go.

Known as the Greek version of "Classico”, the two teams will play heads to heads in the Olympic Stadium in Athens (the new one) on this weekend.

Apparently this is the one, and not only inside the Stadium but the whole Athens going wild and excited…

I wish I could somehow get tickets, but my beloved Greek partner Thassos is “Akihabara geek” … OMG

We’ll see…

In this round-the-world trip, our experiences usually end up with Japanese conversation with Japanese people and our opinions are often from Japanese point of views, because Atsushi (who is my travel partner and also Japanese), and I are normally travelling together, and we have more occasions meeting up with Japanese people who are waiting for us wherever we go.

However, this time is different. The experiences I had over the past few days were fresh for me. 

I had to speak English with Thassos whose mindset is completely different to Japanese one.

I reckon it was good because not all about sightseeing, but rather enjoyed having chats with Thasos over the coffee as the locals do.

Speaking of Thassos, my beloved Greek friend, is planning to visit Tokyo after the World Cup.

I suspect his 10-days visit will be consumed mostly in Akihabara.
Of course, we promised to meet up again.







Follow us on Twitter!!
http://twitter.com/2010Libero 


 We appreciate if you would publicize our blog and Twitter within your circle of your soccer friends or acquaintances.

Madeira Island

Hola! This is Ashishi.


We've landed in Madira island which is an outermost region of the European Union.


When I was a college student, I was really into a simulation video game called "Age of Geographical Discovery"and Madeira
island was one of the important stronghold in the game.


You know what? The island is the hometown for Christiano Ronaldo !

We used TAP airline. It cost 140（EURO) for a round trip.

There are 250,000 people in this island (10,000,000 people in Portugal). I have seen many tourists from all over the Europe.
It seems to be a resort spot like Ibis island.




This is the runway of Madeira Airport. Look like the Parthenon in Greece.

The runway is located on top of the columns

I've never seen this weird runway.




I am staying at Funchal in the city. In Funchal, there was a big flooding a month ago and 50 people were dead.

The road was smashed completely. I guess it was made by the flood.

A month has passed sine the disaster. I couldn't see any chaos in the city anymore.

The cityscape is definitely European style.

This is a cathedral in centro. I am staying behind this building.

The housetop was really cool !

Night scene of Funchal from the roof.

I wanted to be with a beautiful woman ! Hahaha.


The guy Yomoken's wilting me...


I wish I could be accompanied by a beauty in the next journey !!

We came to the ground zero.

Good morning. I'm Ken.


We came to the US, which is our 26th stop on our round-the-world journey!
It's been a while since the last time I visited an English spoken country. 


By the way, "the United States of America" is normally described as "アメリカ合衆国" in Japanese. 
The character "衆" means "public". But the character "州", which indicates "state", might be more suitable and should be used as in "アメリカ合州国" instead of "アメリカ合衆国".


 I think they better change it.

We purchased a Round-the-World ticket at Oneworld.

We arrived in Miami. It took 3 hours from Honduras.

Miami is a southern part of city in the US.

It is also known for a training camp for MLB teams.

I feel very comfortable with staying here because it's really warm!

I'm intolerance to cold. So I was hiding in the Southern hemisphere while the Northern hemisphere's in winter, including Japan.

This is Miami Beach. 

Honesty, it is much more beautiful than that of Rio de Janeiro.

Staying in Miami for 2 days, we came to frigid New York.

Though it's a very cold land, the temperature has risen extremely since a few days before we got here. So lucky!

The snow still pilled up on the ground. But it's normally warm.

I guess it's colder in Japan.

By the way, a Japanese book company "地球の歩き方" sent us a guide book for New York. Thank you very much.

Just one city takes up this thick!

Honduras does only a few pages..

Anyway, I can't find any peculiarity in this country as I did in North Korea, Cote d'lvoire, Honduras or other unexperienced countries.

I feel nothing even if I see the brilliant cluster of high-rise buildings of Manhattan.


How am I so apathetic?
I got paralyzed?


What if I go on a honeymoon? 


Ｉt seems that the fact that Japan is a U.S. ally and has been under the influence of U.S. culture brings no fresh taste.


Decades ago, when it comes to traveling abroad, the U.S. would come into our minds.
But nowadays it changed.


Then, I bought a jacket on impulse, though I don't like America that much.

Cost US＄12！Cheap!

The statue of Liberty and Atushi.

Anyway, speaking of New York, it may remind you of September 11, 2001.


We went to the World Trade Center site also known as ground zero.


About 8 and a half year has passed since the incident. 
A new building is being constructed on the site.

The construction is scheduled to complete in 2012.

 Looks still far to go.

This is a picture from the photo book I bought here.

The black building in the center is the counterpart you see 

in the middle-right position in the previous picture.

I can imagine how tall the WTC was, comparing to this picture.


Speaking of the incident, it is taken for granted that the U.S. of justice was attacked by the axis of evil.


But we should not jump at the conclusion.


Let me ask you, "Why was the country of justice attacked by the evil?"


In order to answer this question, we need to think from multiple angles.
This suggestion is originated in our trip to North Korea.


First of all, I'm always wondering what "justice" and "evil" are.


Not to mention, killing innocent people must not be authorized in any situation.


But, on the other hand, it is also true that western people have few chance to 
consider the present state of the world.


Some people believe in September 11 conspiracy theory.


I'm not sure it's true or not, but I would suggest you to take a look at the following story in terms of multiple angles.


【September 11 conspiracy theory】

Oh, today I'm being so serious..




Follow us on Twitter!! 
http://twitter.com/2010Libero 


 We appreciate if you would publicize our blog and Twitter within your circle of your soccer friends or acquaintances.

We came to Honduras.

Buenos! This is Atushi.

In Latin America, "Buenos dias" or "Buenos tardes" are the common way of saying "Hello". But here in Honduras, just "Buenos" is normal. I haven't heard it i other parts of Latin America. Is this a dialect?

Anyway, I delivered a soccer ball to Hondurans children as a part of our "Round-the-World  Journey" charity project.

Firstly, let me explain about this charity project.

Since the end of this July, we have sold "Round-the-World Journey" T shirts via internet and accumulated 500 yen out of one sale for charity funds. 

We've spent this on purchasing soccer balls and delivered them to the local deprived children.

Anyway, the capital city of Honduras Tegucigalpa is unexpectedly a big city.

Although they don't have many skyscrapers, there are large shopping malls with renowned brand such as ZARA.


But Honduras is the third poorest country following Haiti and Nicaragua.


Then, accompanied by my friend Maiko, who is a member of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, we went to a local elementary school, which is located one hour away from Tagucigalpa by bus.

So dilapidated bus!

At morning assembly. Everyone is in a line.

Leaning against the wall, they were waiting for the class begins.

When I aimed the camera, they became shy.

They allowed us to join the arithmetic class.

They were taught numerical; "Uno (1), Dois (2), Tres (3)."

I wish I could have been here before I had arrived in Latin America this January.

By the way, there are no lights on the ceiling.

What they do is just letting in light!

Shooting an earnest look at the teacher.

After the first period, I asked the teacher to bring together children to the playground.

It is an original soccer field!

Then we gave a brand new soccer ball to the teacher.

The teacher holds the ball not to make the kids fight over it.

We are with senior children.

Surprisingly, the playground is a grazing land!

Besides horses, a little girl was passing through the field, delivering firewood to her house.

Lovely Honduras soccer team jersey. 

Then, they starts kicking around with the new ball!!

Ken's excited after scoring a goal! 

Can they reach him?

Who is the most childish? Haha.

What an impregnable marking!

Finally, our charity even ended successfully.

So far, 58 our original T shirts has been sold out and earned 30,000 yen.

By spending them, we've bought 3 balls costing 5,900 yen.

If you want to see the kids smiling, check this out!

As you can see in the movie, the children can eat and drink during the class.
Moreover, strangers like us are permitted to join the class without any appointment.


This is unbelievable! Where is the regulation like we do have in our country Japan?


This is absolutely Latin style, isn't it?


The creativity that Latin soccer players has in common might be cultivated and nurtured in this natural and unconstrained atmosphere.


My impression to the children in Honduras is that they are not so desperate as the children of Paraguay were. They're all naked foot.


All of the kids in this school wear proper clothes and have writing sets.


But the soccer ball they had was so crumbed up that they looked happy with the new ball we gave.


I hope somebody among them makes it to the Honduras national squad someday!


We are planning to deliver soccer balls to the kids in Africa.


If you would like to cooperate with us, please visit the following.

http://www.libero2010.net/store

If you are inconvenient with Japanese, please e-mail us.