Travel Tips

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temple mount western wall

Visit Jerusalem

I'm a Catholic and they say every catholic should at least once in their lifetime visit Jerusalem the same way that every Muslim should visit the Mecca. My friend who's been to Jerusalem says the experience will leave you with goosebumps and feeling overwhelmed.

As a holy city for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Jerusalem has always been of great symbolic importance. Among its 220 historic monuments, the Dome of the Rock stands out: built in the 7th century, it is decorated with beautiful geometric and floral motifs. It is recognized by all three religions as the site of Abraham's sacrifice. The Wailing Wall delimits the quarters of the different religious communities, while the Resurrection rotunda in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre houses Christ's tomb.

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carnival

Take part in the Rio Carnival

I can just imagine the exhiliration one must surely feel taking part in this world famous carnival.

Although Carnival is celebrated in towns and villages throughout Brazil and other Catholic countries, Rio de Janeiro has long been regarded as the Carnival Capital of the World. The Rio Carnaval is not only the biggest Carnival, benchmark against which every other carnival is compared but also one of the most interesting artistic events on the Globe. Pretty much everyone has heard of the Rio Carnaval. Foreign visitors to it alone number around 500,000 every year.

Rio Carnival is a wild 4 day celebration, 40 days before Easter. It officially starts on Saturday and finishes on Fat Tuesday with the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday after which one is supposed to abstain from all bodily pleasures. Carnival with all its excesses, celebrated as a profane event, can thus be considered an act of farewell to the pleasures of the flesh. It usually happens in February, the hottest month in the Southern Hemisphere, when the Rio summer is at its peak.

It is a euphoric event where people dance, sing, party and have tons of fun. There are many parties that take place before, during and after Carnival all night and all day. It allows someone's true heart to come out and have as much fun as possible.

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san fermin festival

San Fermin Festival (Running with the bulls)

I've seen this many times featured on t.v. and it must be wildly exciting to participate in this event. Of course I'd probably the first to duck and cover once I see a bull charging! Hahahaha!

Held in Pamplona, the 'encierro' or The Running Of The Bulls is the single most characteristic event of the Fiesta of San Fermin. It is the event which has given the Fiesta world-wide fame and which is broadcast around the world during the fiesta in July. It is held at eight o'clock each morning from the 7th to the 14th of July inclusive. It consists largely of young men (although women may also run) who run in front of the bulls to lead them from their pen up and into the bull-ring. It usually lasts from two to three minutes - although if there are complications due to loose bulls it can last much longer.

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petra

Explore Petra, Jordan

I remember this site well having seen it in the Indiana Jones movie and thought it never existed and was only borne out of the director's imagination. And then I found out it was real, that there was actually such a place!...wow!

Petra is an archaeological site in southwestern Jordan, lying on the slope of Mount Hor in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of Arabah (Wadi Araba), the large valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture.

The site remained unknown to the Western world until 1812, when it was discovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. It was famously described as "a rose-red city half as old as time" in a Newdigate prize-winning sonnet by John William Burgon. UNESCO has described it as "one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage."In 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site. It is one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World" as determined by the New Open World Corporation (not affiliated with UNESCO).

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hot springs of pamukkale

Take a dip at Pamukkale

Pamukkale is one of the most extraordinary natural wonders in Turkey. The big attraction is a vast white cliff side with scallop-shaped basins of water and frozen waterfalls. It looks as if it's made out of snow or cloud or balls of cotton. The scientific explanation is that hot thermal springs pouring down the hillside deposit calcium carbonate, which solidifies as travertine. If you take off your shoes, you can gingerly roam the terraces or paddle in the pools. The Turks have dubbed this geological fairyland Pamukkale, or "cotton castle".

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sphinx and giza

Explore the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx

The Giza Pyramids were built as tombs for the fourth dynasty kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure who ruled Egypt through 2589-2504 BCE. The largest is the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the first and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. But the ancient Egyptians did not think of the pyramids just as resting places for the dead. They believed their rulers were divine god-kings who would ascend from the pyramid to take their place among the gods in the afterlife.

In a depression to the south of Khafre's pyramid at Giza near Cairo sits a huge creature with the head of a human and a lion's body. This monumental statue, the first truly colossal royal sculpture in Egypt, known as the Great Sphinx, is a national symbol of Egypt, both ancient and modern. It has stirred the imagination of poets, scholars, adventurers and tourists for centuries and has also inspired a wealth of speculation about its age, its meaning, and the secrets that it might hold.

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Saint Basil's Cathedral

Visit the Red Square, Moscow

What I actually want to see is St. Basil's Cathedral with its colorful spires and domes and take a picture. Until now I think it's one of the prettiest things I've ever seen in the whole wide world.

St. Basil's Cathedral At the Southern end of Red Square, just outside the Kremlin, sits the cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed. Perhaps on the most familiar and glorious sites associated with Moscow and the Kremlin. In 1552, Czar Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Terrible, commissioned two Russian architects to build a magnificent cathedral in celebration of the Russian victory over the Tartars. The architects clustered together eight individual churches. Each with its own cupola or dome, around one central belfry to create this cathedral. Each church was dedicated to the saint on whose feast day, the eight major victories over the Tartars were won. Today, St. Basil's is part of the State Historical Museum.