Author: Danilo G.

Camp Bonifas: the world’s most dangerous golf course that can literally kill you

Danilo G.

Playing golf in South Korea can prove to be very dangerous. But what’s the worst thing that can happen? Well, you could get blown up to smithereens, for one. The “deadly golf course” is pretty small at 192 yards, and it is flanked by military style bunkers on the right, while, on the left side, separated by an 5,5-meters high security fence topped by concertina wire, lie buried countless unexploded mines. And even a small mistake could cause a huge, fatal explosion. A nearby sign warns players with a hardly…

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Wildschönauer Krautinger: Austria’s Turnip Schnapps

Danilo G.

The union of Alpbach and the Wildschönau, an Austrian community in the Kufstein district of Tyrol, has created one of Austria’s prettiest and friendliest ski areas. Relatively low-cost, Ski Juwel is a place to target if you don’t like touristic places of the big-name resorts. But this isn’t the only feature of the area. In Wildschönau Valley locals have been distilling a strong turnip liquor called Wildschönauer Krautinger as far back as the 1700s, when Habsburg empress Maria Theresa granted 51 area farmers the exclusive distillery rights. And about 15/16…

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Here is Brazil’s Unique “Coca Cola Lake”!

Danilo G.

Have you ever dreamed of swimming in a lake of Coca Cola? Well, in Brazil you can actually do! The Mata Estrela, a great Atlantic rainforest reserve located in Formosa Bay in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, nestles an interesting Lake. Its name is Araraquara, but soon it started being called “Coca-Cola” due to the colour of the water that is similar to the popular soft drink. The water has the same dark hue, but very different ingredients and no carbonation. Instead of caramel, the water of this…

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Sivas and the mysterious grave in the road

Danilo G.

One of the last thing you expect to see in the middle of a regular urban paved street is a grave complete with a large tombstone. But that’s exactly what you’ll see when driving through Sivas, in central Turkey. Yeni Mahalle Hamzaoğlu is one of the several streets that traverse the relatively new Şarkışla district but, at one point, motorists need to make sure that they don’t drive straight into a grave located right in the road. It’s been there for several years now, but only recently gained national attention,…

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Poggiodomo: the hamlet in Italy where COVID never arrived

Danilo G.

In Italy there is a village that has never known COVID. It is Poggiodomo, located in the heart of Umbria, in central Italy. This small hamlet is living in its own world, and its ancient little houses and wild nature have kept Covid away, which, according to the local mayor, locals have only seen on TV. This village is now one of the few places in the world that has not known this virus, but how is it possible? The hamlet has just 96 inhabitants and this can certainly be…

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Malaga’s English Cemetery and its last guardian

Danilo G.

The English Cemetery (also know as the St. George’s Cemetery) is the oldest Protestant cemetery in Spain. It was established 1831 for the British merchants who lived in the city of Málaga and, before that, they were buried on the sea shore at night, since they were mainly Protestants and could not be buried in the Catholic consecrated ground.The reason?In 1787, King Carlos III created a statute that forbade the interment of any non-Roman Catholic during daylight hours and in any of the existing cemeteries in Spain. During those years,…

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The dark story of the Little Mermaid you wouldn’t imagine

Danilo G.

“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.” 🧜‍♀️ The tale of The Little Mermaid is one of the favourite for many people worldwide, but well do you know the original story and its darker ending? ‘The Little Mermaid’ was originally published on this day, April 7 1837, in Hans Christian Andersen’s first collection of “Fairy Tales Told for Children”. Andersen was a Danish author, born in Odense, on the 2nd of April 1805. He had a difficult start in life, being born to poor…

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Jacu Bird Coffee: from bird poop to a one of the world’s rarest and most expensive coffee varieties

Danilo G.

Jacu Bird Coffee is one of the world’s rarest (and most expensive) coffee varieties. It is made from coffee cherries ingested, digested and excreted by Jacu birds. At around 50 hectares, the Camocim Estate is one of the smallest coffee plantations in Brazil, but it still manages to rake it quite a nice profit thanks to a very unique type of coffee. It all started in the early 2000s, when Henrique Sloper de Araújo found that his precious plantations had been overrun by Jacu birds, an endangered, pheasant-like bird species,…

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Voergaard Castle: a Danish castle supposedly haunted by a woman too independent to not be a witch….

Danilo G.

In short, it is said that the lady of this Renaissance castle had the architect thrown into the moat and left to drown, so that he could never build another one like it… Voergaard Castle, locally know as Voergaard Slot, is popular both for its art collection and for its ghost stories, and it is located in Drottninglund, in northeastern Denmark. It houses works by artista like Goya, Rubens, and Raphael, as well as furniture belongining to both Louis XIV and Louis XVI and, with its oldest part dating back…

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4th January: Fufluns Festival

Danilo G.

Fufluns (or Puphluns) was the Etruscan was a god of plant life, grape harvest, happiness, wine, health, and growth in all things, equivalent to the Greek Dionysus and the Roman Bacchus. He was worshipped at Populonia, in Tuscany region, central Italy (Etruscan Fufluna or Pupluna) and apparently he is the namesake of that town. He was the son of the thunder god Tinia and the earth goddess Semia. Taurine sacrifices were performed in his honor, as the bull was the animal consecrated to him. Fufluns is usually depicted as a…

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Reasons why you should visit the Camposanto of Pisa

Danilo G.

Despite the Camposanto, a monumental cemetery, is just right next to one of the most recognized buildings in the world, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy, it does not see nearly as many visitors. “Campo Santo” can be literally translated as “holy field”, because it is said to have been built around a shipload of sacred soil from Golgotha, brought back to Pisa from the Third Crusade by Ubaldo Lanfranchi, archbishop of Pisa in the 12th century. According to a popular belief, the bodies buried in that ground will rot…

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Why do Japanese slurp Toshikoshi Soba 年越し蕎麦 on New Year’s Eve 大晦日?

Danilo G.

Toshikoshi soba (年越し蕎麦), delicious buckwheat noodles, is one of Japan’s unique New Year’s customs. The history of this curious tradition dates back around 800 years, to the Kamakura period, and it is said that it all started at one Buddhist temple that gave soba to poor people on New Year’s. In the Edo period, when the common class developed customary religious and superstitious rituals, these New Year’s noodles turned into a fixed custom done by people all over Japan, still today. But why do people eat soba on New Year’s…

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Twelve Grapes: a New Year’s Eve tradition of scarfing down 12 grapes for good luck

Danilo G.

When clocks strike midnight on New Year’s Eve many revelers are engaged to pop champagne, set off fireworks, or kiss their partner. Others, instead, in Spain and parts of Latin America, as midnight nears on Nochevieja, or “old night,” the last day of the year, are stuffing 12 green grapes in their mouths, as an unusual attempt to ward off bad luck in the new year. Traditionally, the camera of the main national TV channel focuses on the clock tower of the 18th-century Real Casa de Correos in Madrid’s Puerta…

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21# Caganer: the best Christmas souvenir from Spain

Danilo G.

The so-called Caganer is a figurine depicted in the act of defecation appearing in nativity scenes in Catalonia and neighbouring areas with Catalan culture such as Andorra, Valencia, despite you can also found it in other areas of Spain (where they are called cagones), Portugal (cagões), some areas of Southern France (Père la Colique), and southern Italy, especially in Naples (cagone or pastore che caga) where nativity culture is a must. The name “El Caganer” means, not by chance, “the pooper”. Traditionally, the figurine is depicted as a Catalan peasant…

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Viareggio: a statue for Ettore, the cat friend of fishermen

Danilo G.

Ettore was abandoned in a cardboard box along the pier in Viareggio, Italy. It was 1997, and from that moment on this special cat has no longer had a home or a human owner, but countless different homes and friends. Especially the local fishermen, who went back and forth every day along the pier, becoming his family. The leftovers of the fish constituted the dinner of little Ettore, who patiently awaited his daily ration every day. It was a cat that entered the hearts not only of fishermen, who saw…

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7# The long and curious tale of Poinsettia

Danilo G.

Poinsettia plants are native to Central America, especially an area of southern Mexico known as Taxco del Alarcon where they flower during the winter. The ancient Aztecs called them “cuetlaxochitl”, and they had many uses for them, including using the flowers (actually special types of leaves known as bracts rather than being flowers) to make a purple dye for clothes and cosmetics, and the milky white sap was made into a medicine to treat fevers. It is said that Montezuma, the last of the Aztec emperors, was so captivated by…

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Tarpeian Rock: in the early Roman empire, people deemed traditors and criminals were tossed to their deaths from this rock

Danilo G.

Tarpeian Rock, or locally Rupe Tarpea, is a steep cliff located on the southern side of the Capitoline Hill, just above the Roman Forum and, for centuries, the location was used an an execution sites. People who had been convicted of crimes were thrown from the 25-meter cliff ledge down to the Forum below. This method of execution carried a stigma of shame and was considered a fate worse than death. It was reserved as punishment for crimes that were considered especially heinous like treason, murder, and perjury. Also larcenous…

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La Patasola: the vengeful protector of the Andes

Danilo G.

Colombia is full of magic and mystery and there is a single village in the country that does not boast its own spirit or superstition, often passed from generation to generation. Some ghost stories have become so entrenched in the national psyche they are known countrywide, by scaring children and keeping errant spouses in their place. Imagine you are alone, deep in country’s central Andean region. Maybe you are cutting down lumber in the lush forests, or prospecting for some minerals, gold, for istance, in one of valley creeks. All…

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Would you like to buy a living, breathing wish-granting cat for $127,000?

Danilo G.

Forget genies in a bottle, if you can own your very own magical cat and have all your wishes fulfilled for the modest price of 10 million rubles ($127,000)! A Novosibirsk woman recently posted a bizarre ad on Russian classified ad platform “Avito”, asking people to pay a small fortune for her pet cat, a Scottish Fold named Vincent I, or Vinsik, for friends. The woman, known only as Elena, told Russian journalists that she discovered her cat’s wish-granting powers by accident, and has since tested its effectiveness three times,…

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Adze: an insectoid source of misfortune in West Africa

Danilo G.

As night settles in Africa, across Togo and Ghana, where the Ewe people lives, the Adze, it is said, slips through keyholes, under windows and around doors, flying to the bodies of the sleeping, appearing as mosquitos, beetles, fireflies, or simply balls of light. They prey on men and women, but especially enjoy the blood of children. For centuries, the Ewe people of West Africa have lived in fear of these creatures. According to the legend, there’s no potion, spell, or weapon that can ward one off, and no cure…

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Some creepy real events that actually happened on Halloween

Danilo G.

For some of us, October 31st is the most fun day of the year. And, for others, it’s the spookiest. Bad things always happen on Halloween, in a variety of horror movies, but that’s just movie magic, you think, because Halloween is actually just like any other day. And, most of the time, that’s true, but not in these cases. Famed magician Harry Houdini claimed he could take a blow to the abdomen without being taken down. It was October 22, 1926, when a student at McGill University asked if…

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