Posts filed under 'Travel'
The first thing travelers and festival lovers should know is that the fun-filled Russian Winter Festival does not take place in The Russian Federation — as a matter of fact, the festivities happen on Trafalgar Square in jolly old London. Londoners and folks from around the world have grown to love the tradition of gathering together to appreciate and experience Russian culture, including food, music, dance, street theatre, military marching bands, and more. Of course, many talented artists from the Russian Federation perform in the festival, bringing east and west, and young and old together in a moving and thoroughly entertaining celebration of culture.
Kicking off it’s 4th year, the Russian Winter Festival takes place on 13, January 2008 (near Russia’s Old New Year’s Day) on the cobblestone streets of Trafalgar Square. What may festival-goers expect to experience at the one-of-a-kind event this year? Here are some highlights:
Food is a major highlight of the festival, as Trafalgar Square becomes warm and fragrant with traditional Russian dishes. Some tasty and savory treats will be pirozhkis, shashlik, borsch, and Russian pancakes, all wafting steam into the winter air of London.
Family Fun The Russian Winter Festival is by no means just for adults. Kids will be smiling from ear to ear in the children’s area made especially for them. Children will be entertained by fun Russian street games, puppet theatre, street musicians and performers, and plenty more.
Shopping and Entertainment
Travelers have the opportunity to bring a bit of Russia home with them, as the festival is packed with wonderful trinkets and souvenirs. As the sun begins to set, Russian beer starts to flow, filling the streets with joviality and high spirits. More entertainment kicks off with excellent live music performances, trapeze dances, laser shows, and military dance performances. Festival-goers will have a blast ringing in the New Year in the spirit of Russian culture as the New Year bells ring into the night.
Russian Winter Festival in London
by: Corry Seibert
May 11th, 2008
Easter is a very important celebration both in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, called Velikonoce - from Veliké noci or Great Nights. Although the religious connotations of Easter were suppressed under the communist regime, nowadays Czechs and Slovaks are again aware of the strong Christian background of Easter, although they regard it as mostly fun times. Many traditions are still observed, especially in villages. Several bloggers have been describing some of them.
Green Thursday
The Thursday before Easter is the day of the last supper, when Jesus Christ feasted with the apostles on lamb with bread and wine. Because of that, it is usual to bake lamb for Easter, but now real lamb often gets replaced with gingerbread lamb replica. The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks explains that Green Thursday is so called “because of the long green robes worn in church and the spinach and cabbage traditionally eaten on the day.” He also describes the customs of the day:
… customs include the boys’ game Chasing Judas, and the baking of twisted spiral buns representing serpents, the symbols of betrayal. In some villages there are processions led by a captive Judas in a straw suit which is ceremonially burnt at the end of the day. When sprinkled into a clean jug of water, the ashes of Judas were believed to have special powers including the abilities to guard against fire and protect the health of livestock for the coming year.
Easter Sunday
The Journeys of Captain Oddsocks describes Easter Sunday as “the big day”:
The day that Christ rose from the grave, the day of new life cleansed of suffering and victorious over death. The morning is for attending church services, (the bells having returned from Rome) and the early afternoon is set aside for a great feast. After the meal it’s time to visit relatives, and in some places to ride in a horseback procession through the countryside with blessed twigs to ensure fertile fields for the year ahead. While the men and boys are out gallivanting around on horses, girls are at home decorating eggs in preparation for the following day.
Easter eggs are called kraslice, from the old Czech word krásný, meaning red, which was the most common colour used for dying. The designs are usually very intricate and, as The Foreigner’s Guide to Living in Slovakia points out, “some eggs are even decorated by using a drill and hollowing out portions of the shell”. In fact, the techniques used to hand-paint and decorate them are truly an art form, and there are even competitions for the best kraslice and a museum dedicated to the craft.
During the weeks preceding Easter, Czech and Slovak cities have street markets selling kraslice, gingerbread lambs and other Easter items, such as the one in Prague’s Old Town Square, photographed by My Czech Republic Blog.
Red Monday
Easter Monday practices, involving boys pouring water over girls and lightly whipping them with braided branches, are the most controversial of Easter traditions. As The Foreigner’s Guide to Living in Slovakia explains, “if you are not Slovak and didn’t grow up around these traditions, you might find them at best—odd, at worst—barbaric.”
Read More Czech Republic, Slovakia: Whipping Girls and Other Easter Traditions
by Elia Varela Serra
May 11th, 2008
When you’re shoveling snow off your car this winter, or standing in a busy check-out line doing holiday shopping, or just in the middle of a typical hectic work week, do you ever just long to get away from it all? For many of us, soft sand beaches, warm sun on our shoulders, and tropical breezes are the perfect salve to alleviate our stress. Hawaii is the quintessential winter escape — perfect weather, breathtaking scenery, plentiful attractions, and world-class hotels. Hawaii is also just a hop, skip, and a jump from the continental United States, making it easily accessible to all kinds of travelers. Today we offer you some ideas to plan your next trip. Get ready to catch some rays! Your welcome lei is waiting.
Honolulu
Hawaii’s capital city Honolulu has immense popularity, and all for good reason: its hotels are some of the nicest in the world, and award-winning restaurants combine innovative menus with a dining experience that takes advantage of the balmy Hawaiian climate with plenty of patio seating. Top that with superb nightlife, great shopping, and gorgeous beaches, and you’ll never even have to leave the city! If you do want to experience all the natural wonders of the island, a short drive will get you to volcanoes, waterfalls, mountains, and more.
Check out our Honolulu Hotels page to see the variety of accommodation options available. Looking for another city in Hawaii? Here is a handy hotel guide, listed by city: Hawaii Hotels.
Attractions
Looking for more ideas besides Honolulu? How about swimming, scuba diving, sailing, dancing, or visiting cultural sites and museums? If you’re a surfer, winter boasts the biggest waves. There are no shortage of things to do in Hawaii. While on her vacation to Oahu this past September, Realtraveler Brisbird experienced scenic drives, visited a macademia nut farm, toured a pineapple plant, and saw many sites including the Halona Blow Hole and the Japanese Byodoin temple. In the evening, she saw a great show:
“The Magic of Polynesian Show was a visual spectacular of polynesian dance and illusion show. It had all the regular tricks - disappearing assistant, cut-off head, escape artist, appearing helicopters from nowhere, disappearing magician appearing in the middle of the audience - lots of dancers and a flame twirler. Joe and I both agreed it was a great show. After this we wondered back via the International Market, window shopping and buying souveniers.” (more…)
Spas
Some of the best spas in the world are found on the Hawaii archipelago, especially on the Big Island and Maui. It’s easy to find a package deal that includes accommodations, lavish breakfasts, and soothing spa treatments like massages, facials, and more. Pamper yourself while you’re on vacation!
For Golfers
Many Hawaii hotels have their own golf courses or are in close proximity to one. Hawaii is famous for its spectacular golf, with the rolling greens backdropped by some of the world’s most stunning scenery. Jonathan (of the duo Siobhan & Jonathan) thoroughly enjoyed his time on the Hawaii golf scene:
“The golf course was awesome, perched up on the the hill over-looking the islands of Molokini and Molokai and sometimes we just had to just stop and soak up the view. I had bought these really cool salmon coloured balls, 9 of them, figuring that they would be really hard to lose. I started in on the balls that the guy in the golf shop gave me by the end of the 3rd hold. Oops. Didn’t matter though, we had a blast…difficult to describe the course with words and can’t show you pictures because we forgot the camera but take my word for it, it was gorgeous.”
These globetrotters also experienced another Hawaii vacation must-do: snorkeling! Check out this excerpt from their blog:
“Everyone was meeting down on the beach in Wailea just to relax, swim & snorkel. So, we drove down taking an accidental detour that ended up in a stunning drive along the coast of Maui. The sights were absolutely breathtaking! When we finally met up with everyone else, Mike suggested that we take our snorkeling gear and go explore a little point about a half mile down the beach. Other people had told us the coral was a bit pretty, but we never expected what we actually found! We were lucky enough to come across a group of green sea turtles gnoshing on the kelp that was floating around. I even took a bit of kelp in my hand and had one of the smaller turtles take a nip from it! There had to be at least 15 turtles; they were everywhere you turned! It was truly a ‘Finding Nemo’ moment!” (more…)
This only scratches the surface of the things to do in Hawaii and the gorgeous hotels to be found there, so plan your winter getaway today!
Hawaii Hotels and Vacation Ideas
by: Carrie Katz
May 11th, 2008
Along with soaking up rays, swimming in warm surf, hanging ten on the crest of a wave, playing beach volleyball, diving and snorkeling amidst tropical fish, whale watching, or the multitude of other fantastic activities beaches offer travelers, helping the environment and making sure it stays beautiful for the next generation of travelers is a great way to spend the day at the beach. Beach cleanup is becoming a small, but extremely important, part of the beach lover’s travel itinerary. Programs dedicated to sustainable tourism are helping travelers become volunteers, by organizing beach cleanup groups. These groups are a fun way to meet other travelers, and to give something back to the gorgeous environments that make traveling so extraordinary.
RealTraveler ISingInTheRain spent a semester studying in Hawaii. Along with trips to beautiful Volcano Park, hikes through Waipio Valley, and plenty of days relaxing and playing on Hawaii’s awe-inspiring beaches, this traveler also dedicated some time to helping clean up trash along the sands of South Point Beach in Hali. She describes the experience as both fun and fulfilling in her journal, Beach Clean Up, Whale Watch and Makalawena!:
“On Saturday, my friends and I went to South Point to participate in a clean up of the shoreline. Hawaii gets trash from Asia and the western US so there was litter covering the coast- much of it was plastic. It was disheartening in a way, because we all knew that within a span of time, the sea would carry more trash to the beach and cover it again. But it was still nice to clear out some spots, to meet new friends, and it also was a very educational day. You can learn a lot about pollution and recycling but when you see the effects with your own eyes, the lessons sink in on a deeper level.
I think it was important that we went out and did the clean up because only weeks before, our school went out to Green Sands which is a beach around that area. The entire zone is Hawaiian homelands, so it’s with great respect that we should use the property. It seemed fitting to return the amazing beach experience with a few hours of picking up trash.”
Volunteer Travel: Beach Cleanup
by: Corry Seibert
May 11th, 2008
People scream, yell and cheer as they see it pass: in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, the newest celebrity is the Metro transportation system. The city is buzzing at the new metro system which starting last Saturday began operating tentatively for testing to bring visitors to and from the Santo Domingo Book Fair [es]. Excited Dominicans have been recording the metro passing by their houses on the different test runs and uploaded videos of themselves walking into the completed metro stations and travelling in train carriages which are so new they still have bubble-wrap on the seats.
Dominican Republic test drives new metro system in Santo Domingo
by Juliana Rincón Parra
May 11th, 2008
On April 22, Vladimir Lenin would have turned 138 - and quite a few Russophone bloggers still remember the date.
Oleg Panfilov - LJ user oleg_panfilov, director of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations - chose to write (RUS) about his native city - Khujand, Tajikistan - which was known as Leninabad from 1939 till 1992:
You know, [Soviet/Russian scholar Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachev] once supported the idea - put forward by myself and my colleagues - to return the ancient name to my native city. And it successfully made it back into history as Khujand, not as Leninabad, which it had been for over 50 years, even though Comrade Lenin had never visited it.
To me, April 22 is now the day when I can smile sarcastically - perhaps he lived and used to be alive [allusion to these lines by poet Vladimir Mayakovsky], but he’ll no longer be in my city. Thank God!
Mark Grigorian - LJ user markgrigorian, a London-based Armenian journalist and political analyst - posted his reflections (RUS) on Lenin and his legacy from Shymkent, Kazakhstan:
For some reason, I continue to notice his statues, busts, portraits.
That typical pointed goatee, a huge bold spot, “an eagle’s look” - or, depending on the customer’s demand, the “kind eyes” - which painters and sculptors from different countries tend to portray in their own ways.
Or, to be more precise, used to portray. But in such quantities that even now, nearly a whole generation since the Soviet Union disappeared from the map, you can run into him anywhere. Or, nearly everywhere.
And here, in southern Kazakhstan, not far from the city of Shymkent, formerly known as Chimkent, there is a monument to the former leader, with one leg and one arm missing, at the warehouse behind the Mankent boarding house. […]
This monument used to stand [in front of] the boarding house. But times have changed, and it has been replaced with a stylized yurt that holds three busts of the leaders of three Kazakh […] tribes, who are looking at a stone cradle with this inscription in blue on it (translation may be imprecise): “If you want to be the nation, start from the cradle.”
Many people here speak of Lenin and his monument with affection.
“My son is a third-year student now,” a warehouse worker told me. - “When he was in the second grade, I placed him onto Lenin’s lap and took a picture of him. Now this photo is in my album at home. Could I have known that this monument would ever be spoiled like this? What had he done to them? Could be left standing…”
Of course, this was a cult similar to religious worship. Many people have noted this: among the elements of worship were the holy trinity [Lenin, Marx, Engels], and devoted disciples who were spreading “the light of the true teaching,” and holy books, and cult-like celebrations… And, of course, what I see now are the remains of the cult.
Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan: Lenin’s Birthday
Posted by Veronica Khokhlova
May 11th, 2008
In my opinion, absolutely nothing on this planet more fully embodies hassle-free travel than a nice long stay in one of the world’s many resort towns. The popularity of these all-inclusive resorts is definitely on the rise, as many find themselves wanting that spectacular beach getaway, without all the trouble of booking accommodations, researching destinations and planning itineraries, and instead just want a great, relaxing vacation without feeling like they have to put in the work equivalent to a second job to plan it.
One of the most popular places for travelers from the U.S. to visit when they get the itch for all-inclusive, no-stress travel is the Mexican Riviera. With such great (not to mention famous) destinations as Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta, this locale offers an abundance of simple options for some of the most easygoing travel you’ll ever experience. Plus, if a little more activity is what you’re looking for, you still have to look no further, as a huge variety of daily excursions and adventures are easily planned with the help of resort staff.
RealTravelers FreqTravelers recently visited Cabo San Lucas as quickly fell in love with their hotel during their stay:
“We arrived at the hotel and immediately was greeted by the bell men and was given a complementary margarita (which wasn’t very good). We knew we may be early to check in, but decided to try. They said our room wasn’t ready, so we went to have lunch at the Sunset Pool Bar. The food was pretty good.
May 11th, 2008