South Africa is a large country in Southern Africa (well, duh), unfortunately perhaps best known for its apartheid policy. About 80% of the people are of black origin, showing that yes, you can discriminate against the majority. It is also infamous for some other things, like the mind-blowingly high number of rapes and the horribly [...]

Curaçao is an island country in the Caribbean. It was a part of the Netherlands Antilles until October 2010, when they were dissolved. However, it remains a constituent country of the Netherlands. Originally inhabited by Arawak Indians, the culture of the country has been influenced by both Dutch and Spanish ones. There is also a [...]

Spain is the second largest country in Europe, located in the Southwest, by the Mediterranean. It also includes the Balearic islands, the Canary islands and three exclave states out of the country: the cities of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco and Llívia in France (how come we were never told about these in school?). Some [...]

Yes, today’s recipe is vegan “pork” skin filled with “pork”. More about that below. Colombia is a large country in the northwestern South America. Considering that it houses almost 50 million inhabitants I’d say it is very poorly known here in Europe, compared to other Latin American countries. Ethnically it is very diverse and ecologically [...]

Senegal is a country in the very west of Africa, which completely surrounds the tiny Gambia, save for its tiny coastline. Sometimes the countries are called “Senegambia”. Owing to its colonial past most of the people speak French (besides African languages), but almost all are Muslims. In the west Senegal is probably best known for [...]

Hong Kong is a “special administrative region” of China, together with Macau. This tiny state boasts seven million people, so it’s not surprising it is known for its skyscrapers. Because of the dense population more than 90 % of people travel by public transport, more than in anywhere else in the world. The name Hong [...]

Tanzania is a fairly large country in East Africa, which is thought to be the earliest areas inhabited by humans and prehuman hominids, as far as two million years ago. Like many African countries, it gained independence (from the UK) in the early 1960s, as two separate countries, Zanzibar and Tanganyika, which merged soon afterwards, [...]

Venezuela is located in the north of South America. It was the first permanent settlement of the Spanish in South America, but gained its independence as early as 1821 thanks to the revolutionary Simón Bolïvar. He lended his name to Bolivia, but also remains in the official name of Venezuela, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, [...]

Zambia is a fairly large landlocked country in Southern central Africa. Besides 12 million people it hosts some stunning landscapes, particularly the Victoria falls (named by David Livingstone), often counted in the “seven natural wonders of the world”. Zambia used to be a part of United Kingdom until it gained independence in 1964. While English [...]

Benin is a fairly small country in West Africa, neighboured by Nigeria, Niger, Togo and Burkina Faso, with only little coastline. Owing to its colonial history it is mainly a French, Roman Catholic country, but significant language and religious minorities also exist, including Vodun. Considering how poor it is, Benin is in a fairly good [...]