Standing defiantly on a small hill is the Holy Spirit Cathedral, one of the most instantly recognisable landmarks of Minsk. This two-towered Orthodox cathedral is situated in the Upper Town. It was once part of a Polish Bernadine convent. The monastery buildings nearby are now a music academy.

Arranmore is the biggest inhabited island in County Donegal. A Gaeltacht region, many mainlanders cherish memories of visiting this island to participate in Irish-language summer schools as teenagers. Outdoor and aquatic activities are popular here, such as birdwatching, rock climbing, diving, sailing, kayaking, but most of all angling, as the sea and freshwater lakes here are rich in fish. This is the perfect place to get acquainted with the Islander spirit.

You would almost miss them. Almost. Because as soon as you pass the entryway to the St. Servaas Basilica, you’ll figure out that it’s worth walking on. You’ll see for yourself that Maastricht doesn’t end at the Vrijthof. Sometimes you just have to take those few extra steps. That’s when Maastricht will surprise you with just how surprising the city centre really is. The Vrijthof has a number of little streets leading into it from all directions. They include Brusselsestraat, Grote Gracht, and De Kommel. Unlike the more idyllic boulevards in most of the rest of the city, these streets evoke a feeling of the urban, the artistic, the unknown. Here, students and locals come and go: artists, designers, professionals. It’s an area that’s moving fast: new shops, start-ups, young businesses, surprising concepts. Yet at the same time, it’s bursting with historic buildings, and is still very much a place where locals want to live. In truth, you can’t really describe the streets around the Vrijthof in a few words. It’s where local, university, business, authentic, forward-looking, and surprising Maastricht all come together.