I know I've already shared quite a bit about the Netherlands, but I couldn't resist to only write about my hometown; IJmuiden.Right now we drive to the Eastern part of the Netherlands, Overijssel.Overijssel is one of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. This province covers 3.421 km² of the country with nearly 1.2 million residents and is located on the German border.In this article, I will shine a spotlight on the places: Twekkelo, Hengelo, and Enschede, in the oh-so-rainy Netherlands.Beside this, I have a guest in this article; Rihab Debbabi.She approached me with the request to write about the saltworks in Twekkelo, compared to those in Tunisia (Monastir).

Shall we dive straight into the topic of this story: the Salt Works of Twekkelo?During my visit to the small town of Twekkelo (located in the Netherlands), I learned a lot about the differences between the salt production in Tunisia and the Netherlands.Something what I noticed was... wait a minute! I noticed that I haven't even introduced myself.I'm so excited about this topic that I completely forgot to introduce myself.My name is Rihab Debbabi and I'm from Monastir, Tunisia.I visited Twekkelo on October 11, 2024, to gather more information for this subject.I'm writing this article on behalf of the "Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Kairouan" to draw more attention to the salt works in Monastir. I'm particularly interested in two questions:- What will Tunisia do when the salt water runs out?- Can we apply the current technology from the Netherlands into the Tunisian industry?The answers of these two questions you can find it at the bottom of the page, but first, I'd like to tell you something about the history.Shall we continue in the next paragraph where we left off?As I just mentioned, during my visit to the salt works in Twekkelo, I noticed that they use a completely different method than in Tunisia.In Tunisia, they mainly extract salt from the Sebkha, and in the Netherlands, they extract salt from as deep as 500 meters underground.Before we dig into the explanation of how the Dutch salt works operate, I want to tell you a little bit more about the history to understand where the high concentration of salt in the Dutch soil is coming from:"The massive amount of rock salt in the Netherlands is a result of geological processes from hundreds of millions of years ago.In the geological era of the Paleozoic* (Greek for old life), Western Europe was covered by an inland sea.Eventually, the sea evaporated, and the salt was gradually buried under the soil over all those years."*The Paleozoic is an era in the geological timescale that defines the period of Earth's history between 541 and 251.902 million years ago*

Bien, plongeons-nous directement dans le sujet de cette histoire: les Salines de Twekkelo.Lors de ma visite de la petite ville de Twekkelo (située aux Pays-Bas), j'ai beaucoup appris sur les différences entre la production de sel en Tunisie et aux Pays-Bas.Quelque chose que j'ai remarqué était... Attendez une minute! Je viens de réaliser que je ne me suis même pas présentée.Je suis tellement enthousiaste à l'idée d'en parler que j'ai complètement oublié de me présenter.Je m'appelle Rihab Debbabi et je viens de Monastir, en Tunisie.J'ai visité Twekkelo le 11 octobre 2024 pour recueillir plus d'informations sur ce sujet.J'écris cet article au nom de la "Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Kairouan" pour attirer davantage l'attention sur les salines de Monastir.Je suis particulièrement intéressée par deux questions:- Que fera la Tunisie lorsque l'eau salée sera épuisée?- Pouvons-nous appliquer la technologie actuelle des Pays-Bas à l'industrie tunisienne?Les réponses à ces deux questions se trouvent en bas de la page, mais d'abord, j'aimerais vous parler un peu de l'histoire.Pouvons-nous continuer dans le paragraphe suivant là où nous nous sommes arrêtés?Comme je viens de le mentionner, lors de ma visite des salines de Twekkelo, j'ai remarqué qu'ils utilisent une méthode complètement différente de celle utilisée en Tunisie.En Tunisie, ils extraient principalement le sel de la Sebkha, et aux Pays-Bas, ils extraient le sel jusqu'à 500 mètres sous terre.Avant d'entrer dans l'explication du fonctionnement des salines néerlandaises, je veux vous en dire un peu plus sur l'histoire pour comprendre d'où vient la forte concentration de sel dans le sol Néerlandais:"La quantité massive de sel gemme aux Pays-Bas est le résultat de processus géologiques remontant à des centaines de millions d'années.À l'ère géologique du Paléozoïque* (du grec signifiant vie ancienne), l'Europe occidentale était recouverte par une mer intérieure.Finalement, la mer s'est évaporée et le sel a été progressivement enfoui sous le sol pendant toutes ces années."*Le Paléozoïque est une ère de l'échelle des temps géologiques qui définit la période de l'histoire de la Terre entre 541 et 251.902 millions d'années*

Thessaloniki ... Greece's second largest city that is still relatively unknown to some travelers.Most of the travelers shuffle directly to the capital; Athens.I cannot say much about the city of Athens because I've not been there yet.However, I do hear mixed stories about the capital.This has been one of the reasons for me not going over there.But, we're not talking about the capital, we talk about the student city; Thessaloniki.On this page you will not find anything about the nature of Greece, for this I will make part 2 later.During my stay I had mostly behaved like a student, so I will mainly write about this.

As you may have read on the "The Trip" page, I caught a plane May 12 to surprise my mother at her birthday party on May 13.I stayed in the Netherlands for 1 week and during this time I took the opportunity to take some photos and videos of IJmuiden.For those who may not have known, IJmuiden is my home port.The place where I have lived for 27 years and also the place I left March 13 to embark on a new adventure.An adventure of which I do not know how it will turn out, nor do I know how it will end.My fingers itch like crazy because I am writing about this with full passion!On this page I try to show you why I am so excited about IJmuiden.Do you want the fresh fish that is received at the quay, the beautiful dunes and the beach where many people will spend their time in summer?Then just come by once and you will know, why you will never forget IJmuiden....

In Tirana itself, there is not much to do with Nature.For the nature part I went outside Tirana.At the end of the page I will tell you a little bit about the history and culture of Albania.

Montenegro, the land of mountains and free open nature.A country often forgotten, but very popular with travelers.If you have the opportunity to go to Montenegro, you should definitely do it!This country has many hidden places that you can visit by bus.But if you can go by car, you can enjoy the nature just a bit more extensively, like I did.Hopefully, my pictures will inspire you to visit Montenegro. Not only the nature, but also the people have an open culture.In any case, it is a place that you will never forget.

I had such a great experience in this city! Because of this I had too little time to work on my blog!From the first moment I was not so charmed by Bratislava, but once you are a few steps in the center you start to feel it.The stiffness, openness and friendliness of the people are so different from what I'm used to had in the Netherlands.Over here it's quite normal that you are at the bar and that strange people just ask you to spend the rest of the night with them.Because of this I have met and got to know many different nationalities.To my regret it was unfortunately not possible to stay a few more days.Beside that, on the last day I did my best to take a few nice pictures of the architecture and nature in Slovakia.

Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3, Picture 4, Picture 5, Picture 6, Picture...There are so many pictures I want to show you about my stay in Zakopane!Still, I try to limit my enthusiasm a bit and I will only upload the pictures of the Tatra Mountains, which I admired on my way to the lake Morskie Oko.After 3:30hr. and walking 17.8km in just my t-shirt, sweatpants and shoes, with a temperature of 6 degrees, I was lucky enough to get these pictures.Photo 1: Via the bus to the mountains