There are hardly many travelers who would go somewhere further than city centre where their hotel is situated when on a short-term journey. And if location is a metropolis on top of everything else, such “outside” trips are sure to be put on hold till better occasions.
And vainly so because it is in residential districts where one can have a look at a foreign country with the eyes of its citizens which is far more educative than hurry-scurry tours around castles and squares.
Vesturbær, Reykjavík
Local citizens say that in their city everyone knows each other therefore if the capital is one huge village than its residential district Vesturbær is almost a commune where all dwellers are nearly cater-cousins. The district is distinctive for its open pool with thermal waters that operates year around. In evenings there is “full house” by its nosing because, while back-stroke swimming, not only one can see most beautiful starry sky but polar lights as well. Not far from there ocean swashes calmingly by comfortable beaches and a couple of cafés which serve great ice yoghurt. Several significant buildings at once are situated in the heart of the district: Landakotskirkja Catholic Church, designed by famous architect Guðjón Samúelsson, and campus of University of Iceland. Alongside religious people and students, cats caught fancy for this part of Vesturbær – there are thousands of them and nearly all of them with name-tagged collars. On notice boards most popular notices are on disappearance of this or that pet. “Aborigines” say that for many of them whole life passes in one district – there is everything one needs for comfortable existence so why go anywhere?Photo thebrokebackpacker.com
Staten Island, New York
If there is only New York in your trip to the United States with all its lights, skyscrapers and movie-like life but you very much feel like seeing classic “one-storey America” – Staten Island district is the best suitable place for it. Upper crusters from Manhattan, working men from Brooklin and dealers from Bronx often tease Staten Island inhabitants calling them as nearly as hayseeds. The thing is that this part of the city with its small houses, quiet life and oceans of vegetation doesn’t look like your ordinary metropolis. Many people there are actually engaged in farming within the limits of the Big Apple. Low population density together with natural conditions encourages that: the Island is perfectly washed with Hudson River. Local dwellers feel comfortable because their life is deliberate, there are no traffic jams and all blessings of civilization are just past the legendary Verrazano Bridge. The Ferry is believed to be the main landmark of the district; it connects Staten Island to Manhattan – the trip lasts for about half an hour and provides for a chance to enjoy wonderful views including those of the Statue of Liberty and the zoo that was opened as far back as in 1963.Photo kenlicata.net
Buenos Aires, Argentina
After a look around city centre we suggest all the tourists move to the south-east suburb of the city where Barracas, former working district, is situated. It got its name due to numerous barracks in which eager beavers lived when their main occupation was slaughterhouse. Later nearly entire factory production of the city moved there thus turning 19th century Barracas into industrial heart of Argentine capital. However when in late next century industrial productions wound down or were transferred from Buenos Aires at all, huge warehouse facilities didn’t remain empty for long – poor artists and students began moving to the neighborhood. They were followed by other citizens attracted by cheap accommodation and abundance of artists painting everything and anything. Thus galleries and art-spaces emerged instead of slaughterhouses and factories. Nowadays Barracas is a decent and safe residential district famous for football player Di Stefano being born there, Church of Santa Felicitas and neighborhoods that became sets for numerous movies including famous film South by Fernando Solanas.Photo fodors.com
Tokyo, Japan
The Greater Tokyo consists of huge number of district cities and suburbs – it isn’t just a metropolis, it is a separate country. Sometimes its citizens themselves cannot tell a district from a suburb – so urbanized it all got. In 20-minutes ride on commuter rail from the centre green Mitaka is located – perfect spot for picnics, walks with children and simply having a beer in one of numerous parks (“Kampai” exclamations can be heard every other second even on working days). This place can be briefly characterized with three words: sakura, pond, Miyazaki-land. Nature there is truly impressive – while boating and enjoying beauty and silence it is hard to believe that it is a capital with twenty millions of population. As to the great animator, as far back as in 2001 he created Studio Ghibli Museum that is much more often called Totoro Museum (it was the name of his animation film’s character) in the territory of district. Alongside a chance to see with your own eyes how the masterpieces were created, every willing person can attend the master’s study and have an eyeful of his pictures and sketches. Mitaka is both children’s and adults’ favorite spot and there is no better place in entire Tokyo for a romantic walk.Photo champ-magazine.com
Helsinki, Finland
Right past the bridge with jaw-breaking (for foreigners) name Pitkäsilta, Kallio, real working district proudly spreads out. As late as in 1970s it was notorious for they preferred tight-lipped yet specific people there and treated “aliens” from city centre suspiciously. But the latter ones kept coming anyway because in weather-beaten beerhouses alcohol cost peanuts in comparison to fine bars in Helsinki. Local public baths that occupied entire streets, attracted citizens from all over the city, too. There were so many of them in Kallio because nearly all of local housing built a century ago were condominiums so there were hardly many people who could boast of an apartment larger than 20 square meters and there simply were no baths or showers. All in all, some 15-20 years ago the only things they were doing in the district were working like dogs on factories, drinking beer and washing in baths. Everything changed when the Finns increased their living standards so much that there was no more need in domestic industry on such scale and workers began retraining for clerks and enterprises themselves shut down. First signals, that not only Kallio is becoming a different place but even a hipster one, were opening of a second hand shop and of a vegetarian café there. To the credit of locals, they realized that times changed and didn’t look at people who earn living with their heads rather than hands with jaundiced eye. And as time went on things got really mixed: former plant workers enjoy coffee in brand new establishments and new-coming intellectuals curiously master abandoned objects to turn them into clusters and cinemas. More to that, the district became so unanimous that the main holiday there is Korttelikeittiö, the day when locals gather in the street to cook food and treat each other – some kind of local festival. Second most popular event is litter pick. However, although they may gradually forget former atmosphere of Kallio, the place still preserves its spirit of liberty and over there no one is surprised if beer is ordered at 8 a.m. And cheap baths still operate.Photo instaphenomenons.me
Experience has proven that ethnic enclaves by and large are autonomous and closed-loop systems because living there one can stay non-assimilated and non-integrated into another culture at all. But that cannot be said about Ukrainian Village – Ukrainian district of Chicago, already famous around entire United States.
Perhaps, there is no such a person on the planet who did not hear about the unique Italian city on the water. During several centuries Venice with its amazing architecture, fantastic landscape and own atmosphere has been attracting people from all the corners of the world. So as to feel it and see under unexpected corner, one should swim on the legendary gondolas.
People on holiday can be divided into two types: “tender creatures” and “adrenaline addicts”. Former ones will trade passive sunbathing and comfortable hotels for nothing. The letter ones prefer even cabins to annoying all inclusive and suites. “Cabins” are the conditions Guinea Bissau provides you with.
Today our story is about one of the most amazing combinations one can imagine, that is Italians and Englishmen, so we expand number of our articles dedicated to the ethnic ghettos of the world. Get ready to follow us to the cold and rainy Bedford, where we will plunge into the warm Mediterranean atmosphere.
Experienced travelers tell that one could watch the ruins of ancient settlements in the Andes during several months, moving from one region to another. Particularly, the richest one in archaeological complexes of is the western coast of the Southern continent. A long time ago, some of them, such as Machu Picchu, have become popular with tourists, others are just beginning to open their doors to curious people.
First thing that comes to mind on hearing a phrase ‘Chocolate Hills’ are cacao bean plantations, candy villages or some kind of sweets festival. However, we’ll have to disappoint sweet teeth and make happy those who appreciate unusual views – chocolate is nowhere near here, instead there’s a unique work of nature.
Despite ongoing development of air transport, many people across the Earth still love to travel by train for various reasons. Though the majority of passengers associate trains with a rather slow way to travel compared with airplanes, and are concerned with low comfort which can be still at the level of last century, reading through our selection below...
Today, going on with series of articles dedicated to national enclaves living outside their homelands, we would like to tell about one of the most vibrant and tasteful neighbourhoods of New York City, culturally rich and diverse Astoria, usually nicknamed as the Little Greece.
Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius!, Nietzsche exclaimed in a prophetic ecstasy. Gloomy pathos of the philosopher could be hardly understood by the residents of the Japanese city of Kagoshima, located at the bottom of the caldera Aira resulting from the explosion about 22 thousand years ago. Farmers were hoeing edges of the hollow from the Bronze Age, as usual fending off the ashes scattered in the air.
Today OUTLOOK travels along the cities and countries that are considered as the most interesting from the point of view of geography and administrative management. Moreover, they are enclaves as they are located within the territories of other states.
Among tourists, especially those from Europe, it is difficult to find people who have not enjoyed vacation in sunny and hospitable Turkey at least once, so the prices at holiday destinations are more or less known. However, what awaits those who opted for "another Turkey" and went to see the magnificent Istanbul, we would like toexplainwith the example of 10 dollars.
Residents of Queenstown, like all New Zealanders, are among the first on the planet to meet the dawn. There are no children's homes, homeless animals. People are resistant to cold, so much so that at zero degrees go in T-shirts. Each of them has an average of nine sheep, and in nature there are practically no such dangers as mosquitoes and snakes.
In Japan there is a city with the citizens who trust each other. It seems that they drink water from one source that flows along their houses. As well, they wash hands after the meals in the same places. Satoyama in translation means an ideal place for life in harmony with the nature. It is situated in Northern prefecture Gifu that is isolated from the rest of the world with the mountain tops and rice fields.
Only an abandoned artificial archipelago with traces of extinct civilizations can better than a deserted island! Cadent splash of oars that plows blue dreams of the Pacific Ocean quells drumroll of ecstasy in your temples while preparing will and mind to the meeting with the greatest mystery of Micronesia. Nan Madol lies empty for more than one hundred years...
Its sounds penetrate the heart, stop the flow of thoughts and cause the blood to move in some kind of magical rhythm. It's a roll of thunder. It gives the shivers. It's a secret. Japanese drums in their homeland are elevated to the rank of cult. Without them, not a single official event is possible, their melodies delight the hearing during joy and help to experience sadness.
New York is rightfully considered one of the most interesting cities in the world. The reasons for this are many, including its unique ethnic composition of more than twenty large communities. New Yorkers joke that they do not need to travel, as it is just enough to take a ride through national enclaves and learn new cultures.
Today in our review dedicated to the most interesting streets of the planet we are going to talk about Brivibas. The old city of Riga is truly magnificent and finely preserved part of Latvian capital. Verily here there are more tourists and less local citizens, however, 350-400 years ago around it there was nothing and city resembled inaccessible medieval fortress in semi-Scandinavian and semi-European style. All of its population could place here…
Six million years ago, in faraway Mongolia a deep crater of an extinct volcano was gradually filled to the brims with water, turning into a wonderful lake. Water ran high with gusts of wind, and sparkled in the sun like precious jewel, so no wonder that along with the official name of Hövsgöl Lake, this nature wonder has a more poetic name of the Dark Blue Pearl.
The Senegalese capital of Dakar is not only the most important city of West Africa, but also a city of extremes, a fascinating introduction if purpose of the trip is to "get acquainted with the Black Continent, but gently and smoothly". In addition to many civilizational and habitual to modern people attributes of life, every moment you feel spirit of Africa, at once both intimidating, romantic, off-beat and deeply alluring.
Baltic States are a good destination for inexpensive tourism in Europe, they are well known for various attractions and changeable weather. Local waters and winds come up with unexpected rainfalls, but that is not a reason to hide in the hotel since there are many amazing museums around, and it is not much of a problem to visit all three countries within just a few days.
Photo thebrokebackpacker.com
Photo kenlicata.net
Photo fodors.com
Photo champ-magazine.com
Photo instaphenomenons.me
