The Mediterranean Cruise

Two weeks, four South European countries. 2700 nautical miles astern. Clang of gulls, roaring anchor chains, broiling sun as if in summer, noice of the water cut by the liner bow, strong wind blowing you off the deck, Greek, Italian, Turkish cuisines... Paradise? 

The ocean liner voyage is a very dynamic way of travelling. Each new day - a new city. New emotions and impressions. New traditions and cultures. New sights. New mood.

Fresh sea wind quickly drives out and freshens your memory. The best you can do, restrain from the internet, telephone connections, try to keep the brightest moments in your head.

Nowhere without Venice

A bit of Croatia

Athens

Gorgeous Istanbul

Two stylish Greek islands so beloved by tourists. Mikonos

And Santorini

Museum of locomotives in Turkey.

Water taxi along the Venetian islands - Murano and Burano 

Brave enough to penetrate into the holy of the holies of the ocean liner - the captain's bridge.

More details in the following posts... Stay tuned!

Tibet: Homeland of Everest

If you happen to be in Tibet for the first time, you won't probably manage to escape so-called mountain disease. Any pills and natural adaptogens (weather it's ginger, garlic, bat wings and toad livers) won't surpass the chief doctor called time. Your mortal body itself must adapt to high altitude. 

During the first 7-10 days you'll have to live with terrible headache 24 hours a day trying to appease it with various vitamins. Sometimes it'll seem that you're like in jelly. Your mood will change at the speed of sound varying from pig squeals of delight caused by nonsense to old man's grumbling and a desire to tell each and all to go to hell.

But then it all will be OVER and you'll feel the pure pleasure of being in such a marvelous place.

Each of us has his own reasons for going to Tibet - someone looks for the wisdom and knowledge of local monks, while others dream of climbing the highest mountain in the world. Pictured: goats against a background of Mount Everest.

The road to Everest.

To reach its top (8.848 m) one must possess a considerable amount of money and health. An average person usually climbs a little higher than the base camp (it's about 5.200 m) and then knocks it off as the head is spinning wildly and the body is really exhausted.

This is a real MOUNTAIN, huge and impressive! Yaks, dark birds, wild mountain sheep (which are not that easy to frighten, by the way), biting wind, ice water and ancient Rombuk Monastery add even more charm to the place.

Darchen village is the place from which the kora around Kailash begins. It's a very interesting rite which consists in taking a circuit around sacred places, buildings or natural formations in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction.

The kora around Kailash improves karma, straightens chakra, heals hair loss and other diseases. There are two kinds of kora: external (the easier one) and inner (for the very tough pilgrims who has already made 12 external koras).

The view of the starting point from the plateau of sky burial, a grim but fascinating place we have already spoken about in one of the previous posts.

The kora is performed on foot or by the means of "spreads", i.e. a pilgrim measures the distance with his body spread out on the ground. It looks like this: he folds his hands, reads the mantra, flops down and stretches out, then gets up and repeats all this until he covers a 53 km route around the mountain.

The bright strip you can see in the picture is a so-called red corridor to Shambhala. It's kind of a shelf in the body of the mountain, serving as a place for worships. Here people pray for the health of the loved ones, success in business and everyday affairs, get rid of negativity, make wishes and wait for revelations. 

Tibetan Wild West pleases with its splendid cave cities and sandy temples. Most of them were created long before the Buddhist era. Even if you consider yourself a person who is difficult to surprise, you'll be probably shocked. This is just another planet! Absolutely fantastic landscapes and legends of kingdoms sometime flourishing here.

Despite all the magnificence of these places, people left them. The climate changed and the once blooming valleys turned into a grim mixture of deserts and mountains decorated with caves that are now visited only by rare pilgrims.

One Journey To Greenwich

Greenwich is a borough of South East of London. It gave its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. The establishments on the right bank of the Thames include Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich Observatory and Queen's House. From the hill where the observatory is located one can enjoy the lovely view of Canary Warf and the whole Greenwich park itself.

Royal Naval Hospital was founded in 1694 by Queen Mary II for injured sailors. It was based on the model of Les Invalides and the Chelsea Hospital. The hospital had existed till 1869. Following the year of 1873 it was turned into the Naval College. In 1998 the College ceased to exist as well and nowadays the establishment is owned by the Greenwich University and is used as a Museum.

Queen's House in the center is a two-storey mansion built in the beginning of the 17th century.

While constructing the Royal Hospital the palace occupied the most central position. This will be  the VIP center during the 2012 Olympic Games.

It is not allowed to take pictures inside the building and a huge number of custodians preserve peace and order here. In spite of the fact we managed to get a picture of an elegant and airy Tulip Staircase.

The view of the O2 Arena, one of the best entertainment complexes in the world. It will host the Olympic artistic gymnastics, trampoline gymnastics and the basketball final.

The Painted Hall and the Chapel are the two rooms available for visitors. The Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul was completed in 1751.

A disastrous fire that occurred in 1779 armed the internal part of the building and that's why there arose a need in construction works. The era of English Baroque was replaced by Classical Greek Renaissance.

The picture painted by Sir Benjamin West depicts St. Paul's shipwreck on Malta.

The organ was made in 1789 and is used for playing by an organist from the Trinity College of Music till now.

To reach the Painted Hall one needs to climb the stairs which gives a better view of the fresco on the ceiling.

This banquet hall was the most famous one in Europe. The body of Admiral Lord Nelson was brought here to lie and was buried in St. Paul's Chapel 3 days later.

Let's investigate some parts of the huge Naval Museum.

Britannia III is a boat that could develop the speed of 100 miles per hour.

The sea king is telling kids his fairy-tales.

The glass painting was made especially for the Baltic Exchange.

The rear part of the ship named Implacable which was known as Duguay-Trouin ship and was captured by the British after the battle of Trafalgar.

Why Italy Is Awesome?

Why Italy is awesome? Maybe because each new turn on your way gives such views?

These ones were shot in Toskana, near Montalcino town. It's absolutely wow to travel there, but the sky is almost never clear...

Bagno Vignoni settlement is cosily placed on a huge hill from where stunning views open to your eyes.

At the entry to the town there is such a cute cafe.

The city is distinguished by its thermal spring (terme - as Italians call it) that is known from the times of Ancient Rome. It springs from the depth of more than 1000 km right into the pool built instead of the central square and along the stone flume it is coming down from the mountain.

Besides, it s a perfect place for shooting a film and some directors have done it.

That very pool, the circles on the water - that very spring.

In Nirvana With Buddha

The biggest statue of great Buddha in Vietnam shows him in nirvana. The monument length is 49 metres as a symbol of 49 stages on the way to self-knowledge, its height of 11 metres symbolizes 11 buddhism levels. This statue was being constructed from 1962 till 1965 with belivers' help, on their means. On the way to Buddha travellers can visit a temple, monks' dwellings, several other statues and sacred graves of great Buddhists.

However it is not the end of our way to Buddha. Before reaching him you will go by several stairs, temples, graves and chewing and playing cards with Vietnameses.

10 Most Scary and Weird Tourist Attractions in the World

Halloween is over, but the wicked places in our world didn’t disappear together with it. They are thrilling the lovers of adrenalin and scary stories, who are willing to see something, from which normal tourists hastily run away.

So here I have compiled a list of some of the weirdest and scary tourist attraction in the world, one is scarier than another.

Mutter Museum of Medical History, Philadelphia

Mutter Museum of Medical History in Philadelphia is the museum of pathologies, old medical equipment and biological exhibit items. The museum is most famous for its giant collection of skulls.

Truk Lagoon, Micronesia

Much of Japanese Navy forces are now lying at the bottom of shallow Truk Lagoon in Micronesia, southwest of Hawaii. These Blue depths are full with wrecks of battleships and aircraft carriers, sunk in the year 1944 and is now open for divers.

Sonora Witchcraft Market in Mexico City, Mexico

Sonora market is opened everyday to pilgrims from Mexico City and tourists from far beyond who come here for fortune predictions and promises of better life. This is the place where the local population buys “supernatural” stuff like some blood of rattlesnake or dried hummingbirds for taming the luck.

Easter Island, Chile

One of the most mysterious places on earth is Easter Island, with huge, cut out stone figures of giants, ingrown in the soil under the weight of millenniums. Statues are staring in the skies, as if they were guilty of some mystical crimes.

Manchac Swamps, Louisiana

Boats with tourists, floating through the swamps in the torchlight are surrounded by old cypresses and long threads of moss hanging down from the branches of cypresses. Manchac Swaps are also called “ghost swaps”.

Paris Catacombs, France

Bones and skulls are packed on both sides of the corridor like goods in the warehouse. The air here is dry and bears only a slight hint of decomposition. Here are also some letterings, in general dating from the French Revolution, which are flagging king and noblemen. They stretch for about 187 kilometers under the whole city and only insignificant part of them is opened to public.

Winchester House, San Jose, California

It is said that ghosts of madness for a girl name Sarah live in 160 rooms of the house. Since the house was opened to public, there are ceaseless complaints about weird happenings. Even if tourists do not believe in ghosts, the place shocks by its immensity.

Mary King’s dead-end, Edinburgh

Several streets with dark past hidden under the medieval Old Town in Edinburgh. The place, where in the XVII-th century the plague victims were closed up and left to die, is famous for its poltergeists. Recently it was opened for tourists, who were attracted by the stories about its supernatural spirits.

Occult Abbey of Thelema, Sicily

Aleister Crowley – is perhaps one of most odious occultists in the world, and this stone farm house filled with dark pagan wall-paintings, once was the cosmopolis of satanic orgies. At least, it was considered to be such in 1920-s. Crowley is known because of his fans, such as Marilyn Manson. Tourists, apt to esotericism can wander there and thrill themselves.

Chernobyl, Ukraine

Tourists, coming to Ukraine, in the abandoned city of Pripyat, find themselves in the exclusion zone. Here, all the stuff is left in hurry in that horrible 1986, when Chernobyl NPP accident made thousands of people leave their homes forever.

10 Best Tourist Attractions in Europe

From the rolling greens of Scotland to the beautiful ancient ruins of Greece, there are a variety of interesting places to visit in Europe. Take a trip to Europe and your most difficult decision is going to be which places to visit during your vacation. Some of the major cities on this diverse continent include London, Paris, Venice, Rome, Madrid, and Frankfurt.

Since there are so many interesting places to visit in Europe, you may need a bit of help deciding where to go. The following are 10 of the best places to visit for a great time.

Eiffel Tower

It’s known as one of the most famous landmarks in the world, there is no structure that has ever been built like the Eiffel Tower. The tower is 984 feet high and one of the tallest buildings in the world. The view of Paris from the tower is a definitely must see if you are in Europe.

Acropolis

If you are interested in history, one historical site in Europe that you won’t want to miss is the Acropolis. Located in Athens, you’ll see sites such as the Parthenon, sites built as far back as the 5th Century BC. Not only will you get to have a close up look at all these ancient buildings and ruins, but you’ll also get a great view of the city of Athens from here as well.

The Roman Coliseum

Another of the many interesting places to visit in Europe is the Roman Coliseum. This grand site was originally a huge amphitheater that could seat more than 50,000 people. With amazing ancient architecture, even in disrepair, this is a magnificent site that you definitely have to see.

Tower Bridge

Since 1894, this beautifully designed bridge has been standing over the River Thames in the city of London. From the bridge’s beautiful walkways you can see some breathtaking views of London. You can also visit the engine rooms containing the steam engines that power the bridge. Whether you go in the day or at night, this is a breathtaking must-see.

Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle is another of the most interesting places to visit in Europe. It is over 1,000 years old and once you see this magnificent castle you’ll soon understand why more than a million people visit it each year. You can tour the castle, enjoy the views and visit the surrounding gardens as well.

Buckingham Palace

Since 1837 Buckingham Palace has been the residence of British royalty, and what would a trip to Europe be without taking the time to see the home of the Queen of England. If you visit during August or September you’ll even be able to see inside the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace.

Big Ben

The world’s largest turret clock tower, Big Ben is one of the best known landmarks in London and definitely one of the most interesting places to visit in Europe. Although it is not open for public tours, it looks spectacular, especially at night when it is all lit up.

La Sagrada Familia

While in Europe, another must see is the unfinished church La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, designed and worked on by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi. Unfortunately, he died before the structure was completed. With amazingly designed towers and innovative architecture, however, this is an excellent place to visit while in Europe.

Cathedral Notre-Dame

No visit to France is complete without stopping by the Cathedral Notre-Dame. History buffs will enjoy the rich history of this attraction while art lovers will enjoy the beautiful statues, columns and windows.