Galley Head Lighthouse | Ireland
Galley Head Lighthouse rises an imposing 53m above the roaring Atlantic ocean outside of Rosscarbery, County Cork, on the south coast of Ireland. It is a charming white lighthouse that […]
Hillandale Bridge: the abandoned bridge to nowhere that stands secluded in the woods of a Cleveland suburb
Many people have had conversations about the “abandoned Hillandale bridge to nowhere” and some even have reach it, either with or without spray paint in hand. This 1920s construction that […]
Larnach Castle: a haunted castle high on a hill
Larnach Castle, one of only two castles in all of New Zealand, has a rich history, spotted with family drama, death, and a variety of ghost stories and, given the […]
Rakfisk: Norway’s notorious fermented trout is a tangy Christmas tradition.
The Rakfisk dates back to the ancient Scandinavian culturem when peoples needed to store food over a considerable period of time. The first record of rakfisk probably dates back to […]
The Lord of Misrule
In some areas of England, during the late medieval and early Tudor periods, especially through the reign of King Edward VI, a custom emerged in which the lord of a […]
19# Why we leave oranges in Christmas stockings?
A modern child would probably be disappointed by the goodies found in the Christmas stockings of the past. In the past, stocking stuffers were more like candies, nuts, and fresh […]
14# Iceland’s Yule Lads: like 13 small amazing Santas
If you arent’t lucky enough to have been born in Iceland, or not have visited the island through a Christmas season, you probably won’t have never heard of the Yule […]
Abandoned Bunkers of Salpalinja, Finland
In the early 1940s, tensions were high in Finland, as locals suspected that the Soviet Union, not satisfied with the territorial gains they had made during the Winter War (1939–1940), […]
The Hardy Tree: the churchyard ash tree surrounded by hundreds of gravestones placed there by author Thomas Hardy
Inside an ancient churchyard in London an ash tree is encircled with hundreds of overlapping gravestones, placed there by classic novelist Thomas Hardy. The cemetery, alongside London’s St. Pancras Old […]
Why one Australian Island celebrates thanksgiving
Norfolk Island is tiny, both in size and population. It is an Australian territory hundreds of miles from the mainland, that hosts fewer than 2,000 inhabitants. It has nice blue […]
Marlborough pie: a luxurious 19th-Century Thanksgiving Pie
Apparently, four kinds of pie were traditional for Thanksgiving: mince, cranberry, pumpkin, and a kind called Marlborough, a glorification of everyday apple, is said. The single-crust pie of stewed apples […]
Russian Napoleon Cake, the traditional dessert that commemorates the country’s sweet taste of victory over the French emperor in 1812.
In Russia, where Christmas was banned in 1928 during Bolshevik rule and not reinstated until 1991, New Year’s Eve has long been the biggest celebration of the year, with decorative […]
Saginaw River Lighthouse
Saginaw Bay lies between Michigan’s thumb and the rest of the state’s Lower Peninsula. As Michigan was preparing to become a state, it adopted a constitution in 1835 that encouraged […]
Ken’s roasted sweet potato stand in Sapporo, Japan
In warm weather, the beautiful rolling hills of Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido burst with flowers while, in cold weather, they literally glisten with snow. In any case, a loyal […]
Nine Ladies stone circle and their King Stone
This bronze age stone circle is situated in a woodland clearing high on Stanton Moor, Derbyshire England. The curious arrangement consists of nine upright stones purposefully set in an about […]
Hanoi’s Train Street: twice a day a speeding train passes only inches from the homes of this residential neighborhood.
Between Le Duan and Kham Tien street in Hanoi’s Old Quarter, Vietnam, arounds 3 p.m. and 7 p.m every day, a train hurtles through a series of narrow streets in […]
Drangurinn Rock and the Elves in South-Iceland Folklore
Drangurinn rock is a mysterious giant tuff rock formation that sits below the Eyjafjöll Mountains in the south of Iceland. However, according to Icelandic folklore, it did not get there […]
Ballycotton Lighthouse, one of only two black lighthouses in Ireland
Built in the late 1840s, Ballycotton Lighthouse sits atop the unspoilt eponymous Island, in Ireland. On January 16, 1847 the paddle steamship Sirius, the first vessel to cross the Atlantic […]
Obake Kaidan: a flight of this “ghost staircase” has 40 steps on the way up, but only 39 steps on the way down….
In the Nezu district of Tokyo there is a stone staircase know for a really strange feature. Known as Obake Kaidan, literally “Ghost Stairs”, it has 40 steps on your […]
Bolo Lêvedo: Portugal’s volcanic archipelago is home to addictively sweet and chewy muffins…
The beautiful island group of the Azores are one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal. Composed of nine very isolated volcanic islands, are situated in the North Atlantic Ocean […]
New Jersey Devil’s Tree: an allegedly cursed tree that represents a town’s reckoning with a racist past.
Drivers near the corner of Mountain Road and Emerald Valley Lane in Bernards Township, New Jersey, come upon a tree that rises from the brush that, at sunset, becomes a […]
Møsbrømlefse: the sweet, cheese-filled Norwegian flatbread that keeps Nordlanders nourished during the cold winter
Once a month, in a 130-year-old building in Oslo, Northern Norwegians congregate. Despite the structure itself used to be a health resort, the community isn’t here for steam baths, but […]
Brunost: the norwegians “brown cheese” that tastes like caramel.
Norway’s national diet harks back to its days as a poor country, expecially with preserving fish and meats in salt, lots of potatoes and simple sauces, in a heritage still […]
Kiipsaare Lighthouse | Saaremaa | Estonia
The slender lighthouse (Kiipsaare Tuletorn in Estonian) off the coast of the Estonian island of Saaremaa, on the Harilaid peninsula, casually leans to one side, continually beaten by the tireless […]
The Stromatolites of Hamelin Pool – Australia
Located within a sheltered bay on the coast of Western Australia, theb Hamelin Pool Marine Nature Reserve appears at first glance to be a regular rock-strewn beach, though the rocks […]
Point Reyes Lighthouse | Inverness | California
The Point Reyes Lighthouse was built in 1870 due the extremely high winds and dense fog that descend from the Gulf of Farallones onto Point Reyes, 31 km from the […]
What was the first country to grant women the vote?
Saudi Arabia, in 2011, became the most recent country in 21st century to grant women’s suffrage (and also lifted the ban on women’s driving in June 2018…). But which country […]
Salmon ATM – frozen in Norway, vended in Singapore!
Recently, in January 2019, a new ATM was unveiled in Singapore’s Wisteria shopping mall. Nothing strange, apparently. However, instead of cash, this machine dispenses 200-gram fillets of frozen salmon from […]
The frozen lighthouse of Cleveland, Ohio
In Cleveland, Ohio, there is a lighhouse that is placed so close to Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes of the Midwest, that a wonderful weather phenomenon takes place. […]
Doodle Soup: a Bradford, Tennessee, favorite for decades~
Try to imagine a truck rolls through Bradford, Tennessee, pulling a sign declaring “God, Family, Doodle Soup.” Well. Probably you never heard of doodle soup. And the reason is simple: […]