Greece is not hugely popular at the moment thanks to its severe money problems. It’s a shame, considering the rich history and culture of this Mediterranean country, being the Western birthplace of many arts, sciences, ideas and traditions, including the Olympic games. Apparently the Greek healthcare system remains one of the best in the world [...]

Moldova is a small country in Eastern Europe, a former Soviet state. It is located near the Black Sea, but landlocked. Most of the people are of Moldovan ethnicity, Orthodox and speak Moldovan, though there is dispute whether they are a separate group from Romanians or not. Moldova is not known for much, except for [...]

First I have to mention that I recently got Bryanna Clark Grogan’s World Vegan Feast. What a lovely cookbook! I’ll probably use it to make something for Vegventures. I still don’t understand why she put yeast in a “Finnish” pancake as no Finn ever does that, but I’ll forgive her. She’s a great cookbook author [...]

Romania is a large country bordering (somewhat) the Black Sea. The name comes from a Latin word meaning “the citizen of Rome”. Not surprisingly, the Romanian language is also a Romance language, linguistically quite close to French and Italian. Romania has one of the largest areas of undisturbed forests in Europe with about half of [...]

Albania is a country located in the Balkan region of Southern Europe. It has gone many different types of reigns since gaining independence in 1912, being occupied by both Germany and Italy in the second World War. After almost 50 years of communism it has been a republic (a parliamentary democracy) since 1992. Albania has [...]

Luxembourg is a member of the Benelux countries along with the Belgium and the Netherlands. It is among the smallest countries in the world (definitely among those that are real countries – as in not Vatican and such – and are not island nations). It’s also the world’s only remaining sovereign grand duchy, which means [...]

Bulgaria is located in Southeast Europe, by the Black Sea, neighbouring Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey. It has over 500 rivers, the most famous being Danube. Both the climate and the terrain vary a lot through the country, from plains to mountainous areas. Over 1/3 of the country consists of forests. Not surprisingly Bulgaria [...]

Wales is a country that belongs to the United Kingdom, on the west coast of Great Britain. It is a mountainous area and one of the wettest countries in Europe. About 20% of its three million inhabitants speak Welsh – which is also spoken in a small part of Argentina, thanks to Welsh settlers. The [...]

Belarus is a landlocked former Soviet state in Eastern Europe. The name of the country (also in several other countries) means “White Russia”, though its origins are not completely clear. They have had the same president Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, as he has won the latest four elections. He is often referred to in the [...]

Ireland is one of the largest islands in the world. The northern tip of it belongs to the United Kingdom while the rest forms the Republic of Ireland. Besides English many Irish people also speak Irish, but it is no longer the main language. Ireland has a distinctive culture (much more than just beer, leprechauns [...]