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Where to travel in August

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s almost time to plan your end-of-summer trip. Yes, we’re well aware that summer technically hasn’t even started yet, but since it’s also the world’s peak travel season, things book up fast. Which means it’s never too early to start thinking about August.

The good news is, it’s hard to go wrong during summer’s final full month, when the weather is fantastic pretty much everywhere that isn’t under a perpetual hurricane warning. Sure, you’re probably going to run into a few more people than you will during other months, but that just means more friends you can make, and better stories you’ll have. Hopefully. Whether you’re looking to cross the pond or just find a cool spot a few hours from home, here are our picks for the 12 best places to travel this August.

1. Monterey, California

Photo: topseller/Shutterstock

Yes, there will be tons of Big Little Lies fans flocking to Monterey all summer in the wake of the second season premiere, but the hype should calm down a bit by August. Late summer is also when the cool breezes off the Pacific Ocean break through the heat, and you can enjoy sunsets over the sea with a light jacket and a glass of wine. The Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays will be flowing on August 10 at the Salinas Valley Food and Wine Festival, where you’ll get all sorts of local foods made from farm fresh stuff in the “Salad Bowl of the World.” If you’re more of a car person than a foodie, come for Monterey Car Week from the 9-18. The highlight is the annual Concours d’Elegance at Pebble Beach, where you can gawk at 200 of the best collectors’ cars in the world. Then, take your own car over the iconic Bixby Creek Bridge, which reopened this year after a long period of restoration.

2. Budapest, Hungary

Photo: Noppasin Wongchum/Shutterstock

There is quite simply no better month to visit Budapest than August, where you’ll find more going on than any time of the year. It’s the height of Summer Festival, when Margaret Island overflows with concerts, art installations, and unusual food stalls. August 20 is St. Stephen’s Day, when Hungary celebrates its statehood much like we celebrate the Fourth of July. The Formula 1 Hungary Grand Prix runs from August 2-4, and the weeklong Sziget Festival brings nonstop parties to the beach from August 7-13. After a long day of eating, once the sun starts to set, unwind with a soak in one of Budapest’s many thermal spas.

If you’d like to feel a little fitter before indulging in all Budapest offers, take one of the best cycling tours of the summer with Intrepid Travel’s Cycle the Danube. The eight-day trip will have you pedaling along the historic Danube River, beginning in Vienna and traveling through Bratislava, Komárom, and Esztergom, before arriving in Budapest for Summer Festival.

3. Barbados

Photo: zstock/Shutterstock

August is Carnival season in Barbados, where the end of sugar season is marked with the annual Crop Over festival. Second maybe to Trinidad in terms of size and intensity, this harvest festival carnival is full of outlandish costumes, epic parades, and nonstop parties. Though Crop Over actually runs all summer, it peaks from August 1-6. The main event is the Grand Kadooment on August 5, when a massive parade runs from the National Stadium to Spring Garden, with locals competing to see who can put together the best “band.” Which is basically a big, roving party float full of scantily-clad revelers.

4. Seattle, Washington

Photo: Edmund Lowe Photography/Shutterstock

Any time someone raves about how much they LOVE Seattle, rambling on about how it’s the most beautiful place on the planet, they almost no doubt went in August. While the city sits in gloom most of the year, this month it shines with clear blue skies and bright green trees. August kicks off with Seafair from the 2-4, a weekend-long festival highlighted by a torchlight parade and hydroplane races along Lake Washington. The perfect weather continues through the annual Bumbershoot festival at the end of the month, a local arts gathering that’s morphed into the city’s most popular mainstream music festival. This year’s headliners include Tyler, The Creator and The Lumineers. If you want to stay walking distance to both — and right near glorious Puget Sound — the Kimpton Alexis hotel just did a massive redesign where each room is bathed in the glorious Pacific Northwest sunshine.

5. Berlin, Germany

Photo: canadastock/Shutterstock

It’s been 30 years since the Berlin Wall fell, which will make anyone who knows all the words to “Right Here, Right Now,” feel incredibly old. But it also makes this a summer of great celebration in Berlin. Sure, there’s the traditional International Beer Festival that runs from August 2-4 with some of the best beers in the world. But this year also brings the 100 Miles Berlin Run, where runners will go along the Berlin Wall Trail, which commemorates all the people who died or were imprisoned trying to run to freedom. After soaking in the culture of the city, you can escape to the Bavarian Alps and Schloss Elmau, who on August 17 offers its Promenade Concert where you’ll spend a day hiking and biking the alpine lakes before enjoying live singing with a brass band.

6. Edinburgh, Scotland

Photo: f11photo/Shutterstock

Ignore for a moment that most of the year in Edinburgh weather alternates between “terrible” and “not as bad as it was yesterday.” In August you’ll usually find good stretches of sunlight, where the red bricks of the city strike a bright contrast to the pale blue sky. It’s the ideal backdrop for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest of its kind in Europe and second only in size to New York’s. Here you’ll find nightly performances by theatre troupes from all over the world, in venues ranging from libraries to event spaces to local neighborhood pubs. Bigger acts fill historic venues like the Central Mosque and Dovecot Studios Ladies Baths, and nearly every corner of the city is alive with the energy of the performers.

7. St. Lucia

Photo: James R Schultz/Shutterstock

In high season, St. Lucia can be a prohibitively expensive place to visit with rates in some of the nicer hotels topping $450 a night. But this summer, over 20 hotels island-wide have rates up to 60 percent off, making August the best lodging value in the hemisphere. Cheap hotels aside, August also brings the annual Roots & Soul festival on August 23-25. This three-day event features free concerts, master classes, and general networking between reggae, hip-hop, and R&B artists. And is a great way to maximize the value of your already-discounted Caribbean vacation. Just make sure you get that travel insurance, in case of a hurricane.

8. Cusco, Peru

Photo: Dennis Albert Richardson/Shutterstock

Pachamanca is a style of equatorial cooking, where food is buried in a hole in the ground with hot rocks and cooked while wrapped in banana leaves, and on August 1, Cusco has an entire holiday dedicated to the subterranean delicacy. Head about half an hour out of Cusco into the Sacred Valley and you’ll be greeted by Inca bands and hundreds of people dining outside. Your dinner of meat, veggies, and potatoes will be wrapped in banana leaves and buried, while locals sing, dance, and play drums to accompany the cooking. If you’d like someone else to take care of the logistics of your journey, the JW Marriott El Convento Cusco will transport you out to the Sacred Valley, and introduce you to a local priest who’ll lead you in a ceremony that gives thanks to Mother Earth before your meal.

9. Buffalo, New York

Photo: Felix Lipov/Shutterstock

One of America’s most underrated cities to spend the weekend reaches its peak in August, where sometimes-snowbound Buffalo becomes a borderline beach town on the shores of Lake Erie. You can take a kayak through the towering abandoned grain silos in Silo City, or zip line between them as you enjoy craft beer at RiverWorks. Silo City will also be hosting a food-themed theatrical production called Feast, from August 9-18, where James Beard-nominated chefs redefine dinner theatre. This summer, the long-awaited completion of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House finally opens to the public, as does another Wright project at GrayCliff. It’s also just a short hop up the road to Niagara Falls, which, while likely still packed with tourists, won’t be cold at least.

10. The Gold Coast, Australia

Photo: zstock/Shutterstock

The alleged “winter” along Australia’s Gold Coast is a little like Florida’s, in that it makes the temperatures far more tolerable and minimizes the chance of rain. That makes August the best time to check out the beaches and stupendous surfing in Byron Bay, when the hordes of European summer backpackers have subsided and the town regains its funky vibe. Or head to the hillside village of Newrybar and try kangaroo al fresco at the field-to-table Harvest. For a bigger, busier experience, make tracks to North Burleigh Beach where the Burleigh BBQ Championship goes down from August 3-4. Fifty teams from all over Australia compete to see who throws meat on the barbie best, while you stuff your face and listen to over 20 musical performances.

11. The Canadian Rockies

Photo: JeniFoto/Shutterstock

Hitting the snow-capped mountains of Alberta is great in the winter too, but to appreciate them at their best, August is the month to go. The shining waters of Lake Louise reflect a perfect image of the jagged white caps behind it, and the bars and restaurants in Banff are loud and lively. A ride of the Icefields Parkway yields some of the most gorgeous scenery in the world, but so do hikes, horseback rides, and bike treks. If this sounds cool but you don’t want to deal with booking all your hotels, meals, and outdoor gear, hit up Thomson Family Adventures. This outfitter offers a seven-day, multi-sport trip that includes all the aforementioned activities plus spelunking and more, during August 18-24.

12. Uttarakhand, India

Photo: yakthai/Shutterstock

Traveling in Asia during the summer months can be an incredibly hot, humid, and rainy affair, but India being as massive as it is, the climates vary immensely from region to region, many offering respite from unpleasant weather. While much of the country deals with monsoon season, Uttarakhand up north puts on a colorful show for hikers in the mountains. The Valley of Flowers, a UNESCO World Heritage site, comes into bloom during summer, covering the gorge over the Pushpawati River with beautiful pink alpine flowers. You’ll have to hike 11 miles from town to see them, but the trek will be well worth it. The flowers peak in mid-August, though, so don’t leave this trip for Labor Day weekend. Beyond the blooms, you’ll also be able to enjoy peaceful villages with cozy homestays, and crisp, cool air coming off the snow-capped mountains.


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The post The best places to travel this August appeared first on Matador Network.

What to do in Natchez

“Cop says we have to stop shooting over the river,” Jim Bob said glumly as he headed back over the Levee. The 12-year-old girl put her shotgun down and made a face like you’d told her she couldn’t have pizza for breakfast.

“Why not?” she pouted, opening the shotgun and taking out shells like a pro.

“Water’s too high,’” Jim Bob responded, pronouncing the last two words like it was some sort of made up excuse. “Sorry y’all we gotta pack up. Grab yer beers.”

The little girl wasn’t drinking, just so we’re clear. But the rest of us seemed to have no problems mixing cold beers and firearms. Nor did the state trooper who’d told us to stop. He was just concerned the river was moving too fast, and people could come up on us while we were shooting.

If this seems completely normal to you, then a trip to Natchez, Mississippi is nothing new. If, like many people, this whole scene seems completely foreign, then a trip to the deepest part of the Deep South will be a better cultural education than spending a week in Europe. Go ahead, scoff. But if it’s history, new experiences, and I-wouldn’t-do-this-at-home fun you’re looking for, you’ll find it atop the bluffs along the Mississippi River.

Photo: Redneck Adventures/Facebook

Drive-through bars and redneck adventures

“This is how we do out in Natchez, Mississippi,” Jim Bob Allgood told me gleefully as we ordered Daiquiris in a line of cars at McDonough’s Package Store, across the river in Vidalia, Louisiana. He looks a little like Guy Fieri and Larry the Cable Guy had a love child and raised him in the swamps of Mississippi. A quick-witted character who keeps you laughing for hours. “Technically, it’s not an open container until you puncture that hole in the lid. Rednecks, we’re smarter than you think.”

His adventure tours are one of the biggest attractions in Natchez, a chance not only to shoot clay pigeons out over a moss-covered river but also do stuff like night fishing, catfishing (called “noodling” elsewhere), frog gigging, turkey hunting, and other stuff you’ve probably never tried before.

We spent the afternoon busting clays and downing beers, with the help of a couple of girls from the local soccer team he coaches and their parents. We finished the night at one of the families’ lakeside lodges singing songs by a fire and watching fish jump up out of the swelling lake. It’s the idyllic antithesis to city life, and in that moment, it seemed completely perfect.

There is something liberating about the redneck lifestyle Jim Bob sells. It sheds off all the rules and regulations we have to tiptoe around in big cities, allowing for some good, old-fashioned, borderline irresponsible, fun. It also helps you understand a little why in the Deep South, they don’t like other states telling them how to live. And if they want to drink and drive and fish and shoot, people in California and New York shouldn’t be the ones telling them not to.

That’s not to say you have to agree or disagree with anything that happens in Mississippi. But for non-Southerners, a trip here, to paraphrase Chris Rock, helps you understand.

Photo: Visit Natchez

Natchez’s history is both beautiful and horrifically ugly. And it’s all out there on display

“You see we’re driving down Franklin Street,” Darrell White, the city’s director of cultural tourism, told me as we drove the city’s main drag out of downtown. “In most cities, you’d assume this was named after Benjamin Franklin, right? Not in Natchez.”

We pull up to a small park across from an auto body shop at the intersection of a few roads leading in different directions.

“This street’s named after Isaac Franklin,” he said as we got out of the car and walked up to some plaques denoting the Forks in the historic site. “Go ahead and read about him.”

The plaque that was in front of me told the story of Mr. Franklin, one of the most prolific domestic slave traders of the 1800s. He brought slaves overland — often by foot — from Virginia and the Carolinas and sold them at a market that once stood on this site, mercilessly separating families and profiting off human trafficking.

“This road here?” he asked with that Southern rhetorical tone, while pointing to a street leading diagonally from the park. “That leads out to the Natchez Trace, that’s how they brought most of the enslaved people in. Ironically, it’s called Liberty Road.”

Diplomatically, he refrained from commenting on why the city’s main street was still named after a human trafficker.

The history of Natchez isn’t glorious, but by visiting you will learn about huge parts of American history that are glossed over in high school history classes.

In school, we learn about the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but the brutal and dehumanizing domestic trade, brought about when trans-Atlantic trade was outlawed and America shifted its agricultural focus from tobacco to cotton, was just as evil. And, more alarmingly, was perpetrated by Americans. Natchez doesn’t hide from it, evidenced by the fact that one of its worst perpetrators still has a street named after him.

Another thing people don’t know is that Natchez was a city of Union sympathizers. Not that the good people of Natchez had a moral opposition to slavery, mind you. But it was full of northern “entrepreneurs” who came to Mississippi to make money off cotton. And they knew war with the North would be bad for business.

Photo: Visit Natchez

So when the Union came through town, instead of torching the plantation owners’ city mansions like they did in the rest of the South, the grand homes in Natchez were left standing. The historic result is homes like Linden, a bed and breakfast a little off downtown, built in 1790 and the inspiration for Tara in Gone with the Wind.

You’ll also find Rosalie, a white-columned masterpiece right on the Mississippi River, which once served as home to the Union Army. There’s also Stanton Hall, which could stand in for the White House in a pinch, and was a barracks for Union soldiers after the Irish-American owner died.

Natchez has the largest concentration of these mansions in America, and during the annual pilgrimage seasons, even the ones that are still private residences open to the public — though you can visit many all year.

Photo: Fat Mama’s Tamales “Knock You Naked” Margaritas/Facebook

Bars that don’t close and food that don’t care

“Imagine sitting on this commode, doing your business, and all of a sudden — WHOOSH — the bar in front of ya’s gone. That’s what happened during the mudslide!”

Andre Farish was excited to tell me the history of the mudslide of 1980, when his Under-the-Hill Saloon, set down the bluffs from the rest of Natchez in the historic neighborhood of the same name, was half destroyed. Apparently, some poor soul was caught “doing his business” when the walls finally gave way.

Under-the-Hill was the city’s main port for decades, home to saloons, gambling houses, brothels, and other businesses big with transient merchants. It’s now home to Farish’s historic bar, as well as a collection of new Southern restaurants like The Camp and Magnolia Grill, where you’ll find food as good as you would down the river in New Orleans.

“What time do the bars here close?” I asked him.

“Whenever we want!” he said with a smile. “Tonight, that’ll be pretty late.”

Knowing I had some time, I made for the top of the bluffs and past the sprawling park overlooking the Mississippi, and got lunch at Fat Mama’s Tamales — home of the Knock You Naked Margarita — and also home to heaping plates of Frito pie. The word “vegan” does not appear once on the menu, and ordering anything other than a Marg to wash down your tamales will get you a funny look from the cashier.

Again, it felt a little liberating to see a restaurant full of people ordering whatever they want with no regard for calories or the origin of their food. It’s not that people there don’t know, they just don’t care, and that was refreshing. I ordered two beef tamales and a Knock You Naked, though thankfully I kept my clothes on.

That afternoon I watched people suck down crawfish by the pound at the Bishop Gunn Crawfish Boil. To those not familiar with the band this might sound like a Catholic church fundraiser, but it is, in fact, a Southern rock festival headlined by the band Bishop Gunn, native to Natchez. Despite the pouring rain, the whole city stuck it out in a glorious kind of redneck Woodstock.

The crowd was surprisingly diverse, with a better mix of white, black, Asian, and Hispanic attendees than I’m used to seeing at big, expensive festivals like Coachella. No one seemed excluded, everyone seemed happy, and, for one rainy afternoon at least, it seemed that Natchez’s difficult history was put aside in the name of having a good time — which seems to be its main priority now.

Photo: Visit Natchez

After the Crawfish Boil, I wandered into the Corner Bar, whose doors are the swinging, Old West type. Inside, the cloud of smoke is almost as thick as the Mississippi accents (yes, smoking is still allowed inside here), and locals noticed me almost as soon as I walked in.

“Where you here from?” asked a lady with stringy silver hair who looked like she’d been in this bar since about 1978. I told her I was from Miami.

“Mi-AMI???” she asked. “Well, I sure hope you can find some fun here in Natchez, Mississippi. We ain’t Mi-ami. But we know how to have a good time.”

It was past 3:00 AM, and the crowd here looked like it had no intention of wrapping things up anytime soon. In a city where having a Knock You Naked Margarita with lunch was commonplace, Miami was starting to seem a little reserved.

“You definitely do,” I told her. “I can get this drink to go, right?”


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The post Bars that don’t close and a Deep South cultural education in Natchez, Mississippi appeared first on Matador Network.

How to get your dog on Netflix

The relationship between humans and dogs is a deep one. It’s often mutually dependent, frequently impacts the human’s social life, and sometimes makes buying a new vacuum an annual occurrence. No matter how each individual relationship pans out, one constant is always present when an owner and a dog have that unbreakable bond — each is firmly convinced that the other is the most amazing, perfect, cute, funny, and downright incredible being that ever lived.

Netflix wants you to know that your dog is, in fact, incredible. So much so that it’s offering the opportunity to turn your best friend into a television phenomenon on the forthcoming season of its show Dogs. “We are so excited that our pack is back for Season 2 of Dogs,” executive producers Glen Zipper and Amy Berg said in a joint statement quoted by CNN. “From the beginning we have said that the joy shown in Dogs helps bring people together and that same feeling will translate more than ever in season 2. Dogs offers us the ability to explore some of the most important human stories through relationships with our best friends and it’s been amazing to see how much these episodes have touched audiences and critics across the globe. Most importantly, our fans have become part of our extended family and we are honored to bring them a fresh set of stories that will allow us to connect with them yet again.”

The air date for season two has yet to be announced, but casting is underway as of right now. If your dog is as well-behaved as they are good looking, hop onto social media and start tagging @NetflixDogs on Instagram and Twitter ASAP, before somebody else beats you to the bone. If you’re unfamiliar with the show, watch the trailer for Dogs below.

H/T: CNN

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The post Netflix is having an open casting call for Season 2 of its hit show ‘Dogs’ appeared first on Matador Network.

The best, beautiful towns in Finland

Most visitors to Finland either head to Helsinki, its pleasant capital located on the Baltic Sea, or, in winter, to Rovaniemi to see Santa Claus and the northern lights. While the rest of Finland is not as well-known, it has plenty to offer. From charming coastal towns in the south to the scenic wilderness of Finnish Lapland in the north, here are five of the most lovely towns definitely worth visiting in Finland.

1. Porvoo — One of the oldest towns in Finland

Photo: Estea/Shutterstock

Porvoo is one of the oldest towns in Finland, founded nearly 700 years ago. It’s located just over 30 miles from Helsinki, and in the summer you can travel to Porvoo by steamboat from the capital. Even though it’s not a coastal town, Porvoo is connected to the Gulf of Finland via the Porvoo River, which flows through the city. Porvoo has historically been an important center for trade and its shore houses were used to store exotic goods from foreign lands.

Photo: Zabotnova Inna/Shutterstock

With its colorful wooden houses and cobbled streets, Porvoo is also one of the most photographed cities in the country. The streets of Old Porvoo are lined with little shops, cafes, galleries, and museums. You can visit the Porvoo Doll and Toy Museum and reminisce about your childhood or learn how a wealthy merchant family lived at the end of the 18th century at the Porvoo Museum. When it comes to shopping, Porvoo’s design shops, with styles ranging from antique to modern, are famous throughout Finland.

People have traveled from Helsinki to Porvoo since the 19th century to visit its cafes and restaurants. Everything in Porvoo has a long history and so does restaurant SicaPelle, which is located in the home of artist and sculptor Ville Vallgren and has been voted the best restaurant in Porvoo. If you are looking for something a little sweeter, Brunberg’s Chocolate Factory is known by all Finnish children and its home is in Porvoo, where it also has a shop.

2. Utsjoki — Land of nightless nights

Photo: wjarek/Shutterstock

Utsjoki is the northernmost and smallest municipality in Finland, comprising of a handful of small Sámi, as the indigenous Lapp people are called in Finnish, villages in the middle of the Nordic wilderness. Despite a population density of around one person per 1.5 square miles, there’s still plenty to do in both summer and winter.

Much of the Utsjoki area consists of protected nature reserves. In summer spend your yötön yö — which translates to “nightless night” in reference to the midnight sun — hiking or biking through the beautiful trails stretching hundreds of kilometers. Many of those trails start from the village of Utsjoki. In winter, you can grab your skis or snowshoes, or rent a snowmobile, and glide through the glittering landscape in the endless night of kaamos, or the “polar night” that lasts all day.

Photo: Nuorgam Holiday Village Nuorgamin Lomakeskus/Facebook

If you want to travel as far north as is possible in Finnish Lapland, then Nuorgam is your destination. Situated on the Norwegian border, Nuorgam is only a few hours away from the Arctic Ocean. Here you can visit Suvanto Summer Café, the northernmost cafe in the European Union. The northern border is the Tenojoki River, where humans have fished since the Stone Age. Along with Sámi, Finnish, and Norwegian fishermen, you can fish either under the midnight sun or the northern lights.

The easiest way to reach Utsjoki is from Ivalo Airport, which is only a two-hour drive away with daily flights from Helsinki. Alternatively, fly to Kirkenes Airport just across the Norwegian border and make the 2.5-hour drive that takes you along the coast of the Arctic Ocean.

3. Savonlinna — A city built on islands

Photo: Vitaly Titov/Shutterstock

The area of Savonlinna is one of the best places to experience the peace and gracefulness of Finland’s Lakeland. Savonlinna is a city built on islands, and Lake Saimaa is always close by. Lake Saimaa is the largest lake in Finland and home to the Saimaa ringed seal, an extremely endangered species only found here.

The area of Savonlinna is a paradise for anyone who enjoys nature. At Linnansaari National Park you can find some of the best lakeland scenery in Finland and it’s also where you can try to spot the Saimaa ringed seal. The best way to explore the area is by canoe or boat in summer. In winter, tour skating — which is meant to cover longer distances and is different from regular ice skating — is the best way across the frozen lake.

Photo: Hivaka/Shutterstock

Savonlinna itself is most famous for the Savonlinna Opera Festival, which is a cultural event known across the world. It is hosted annually in the medieval Olavinlinna Castle. In addition to the festival, Savonlinna hosts a number of other forms of live music, art, and theater. Savonlinna is surrounded by small counties and villages, all offering their own attractions and events. The town of Kerimäki is home to the world’s largest wooden church.

Savonlinna is located in eastern Finland, not too far from the Russian border. It’s easy to reach it by train, plane, car, or bus. The drive from Helsinki is around four hours, and Savonlinna also has a small airport that offers domestic flights to and from Helsinki.

4. Naantali — A spa town and home to Moominworld

Photo: Jarmo Piironen/Shutterstock

Naantali, a spa town, is known for its happy and sunny atmosphere. Every Finn knows Naantali from the phrase hymyilee kuin Naantalin aurinko, which means “smiles like the sun in Naantali” and refers to someone who looks extremely happy.

This smiling town is home to the Moomins, the cartoon characters known by every Finnish child. Moominworld, with its blue tower house, is located on an island right off the coast and is easily reached by car, bus, or boat. Naantali also hosts Kultaranta, the summer residence of Finland’s president. It was originally the summer villa of the merchant Alfred Kordelin and has housed the Finnish president during the summer since 1922.

Photo: Jarmo Piironen/Shutterstock

At the beginning of the 18th century, whispers began that water from the Viluluoto Spring helps relieve symptoms of many diseases. This is said to be the foundation for Naantali’s spa activities, which started officially at the beginning of the 1800s. The current spa pools and treatments in Naantali are run by the Naantali Spa Hotel.

Naantali is located very close to Turku, the oldest and second largest city in Finland. Trains from Helsinki to Turku run hourly and the ride takes two hours. From there, you can easily reach Naantali by bus. As Naantali is a coastal town, you can also reach the town by boat and explore the archipelago surrounding it.

5. Mariehamn — The capital of Swedish Finland

Photo: Igor Grochev/Shutterstock

Mariehamn is the capital of Finland’s Swedish-speaking autonomous territory, Åland. It is an archipelago that consists of 6,700 islands located in the Baltic Sea. The people of Mariehamn, and Åland in general, lead a laid-back islander lifestyle and are very welcoming. Mariehamn, like many of the coastal towns in Finland, comes to life in the summer. It’s easy to get around on foot or by bike, as Mariehamn is situated on a peninsula with harbors on either side. It’s also only a 10-minute walk from the West Harbour to the East Harbour.

Everything in Mariehamn contributes to the maritime atmosphere, and the best way to discover the heritage of Åland is to visit the Åland Maritime Museum. If you’re in the mood for shopping, Sjökvarteret (Maritime Quarter) is the place to find local crafts, silversmiths workshops, and a marina for traditional wooden ships and boats. For cafes and restaurants head to Torggatan street, where you can taste the local cuisine.

Photo: Kinkku/Shutterstock

In addition to seeing Mariehamn, you can rent a bike or boat and explore the rest of the Åland archipelago. If you’re a golfer, Ålands Golfklubb is one of the prettiest golf clubs in Finland. The restaurant Smakbyn is located near the club and is probably the most well-known restaurant in Åland.

Mariehamn is easy enough to reach as ferries and boats from Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallinn, Turku, and Naantali run several times a day. You can fly to Mariehamn from Helsinki, Turku, or Stockholm — but we recommend you take a ferry or boat. The scenery in the archipelago between Finland and Sweden is beautiful.


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Long exposure LED climbing shots

Las Vegas-based photographer and rock climber Luke Rasmussen is on a mission to prove that long-exposure photography can be one of the most unique ways to capture nature. Rasmussen has visited several popular climbing spots around the United States and captured his climb through extreme long-exposure shots, tracing his climbing route with vibrant colors. Rasmussen shoots with a 42-megapixel Sony a7R II. View more of Rasmussen’s work at Motion Illuminated, where prints of these images are also available.

Photo: Luke Rasmussen

This shot shows Rasmussen’s line up Looking Glass Rock near Moab, Utah, and is titled “Through the Looking Glass.” The line was a 300-foot climb with a 120-foot rappel.

Photo: Luke Rasmussen

“Road to Pahrump” is a shot of Rasmussen’s ascent of the M16 route near Blue Diamond Cave, outside of Las Vegas.

Photo: Luke Rasmussen

“Chop ‘n’ Trees,” as this one is titled, is from a route known as Pork Chop near Boulder, Colorado.

Photo: Luke Rasmussen

“City of Lights” contrasts Rasmussen’s long-exposure shot with the lights of Las Vegas in the background.

Photo: Luke Rasmussen

Desert Towers, near Page, Arizona, is a popular route that Rasmussen visited underneath a wide-open sky. “I hope that I made some UFO believers out of the many tourists that drove past and were witness to a mysterious 11-minute light show in the sky,” he said in this photo’s caption on his website.

H/T: PetaPixel

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The post Photographer takes long-exposure climbing shots with neon colors and the result is mesmerizing appeared first on Matador Network.

Flight delayed after exit door open

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Manchester to Islamabad, Pakistan, was delayed for nearly eight hours when a passenger opened an emergency exit after mistaking it for a restroom. The flight, PK702, was originally scheduled for Friday evening but departed from the UK city at 5:00 AM on Saturday and arrived at its destination seven hours late, also delaying the departure of additional flights from Manchester Airport.

The delayed arrival was only the beginning of woes for the plane’s passengers, however. The confused passenger’s actions sparked a series of chaos. Because of the disarmed emergency exit, 38 of the almost 400 passengers on board were asked to disembark. Many reported that their baggage was left behind in Manchester. One of the passengers who deplaned tweeted to the airline after finally arriving in Islamabad on a different flight: “Pathetic service from pia. I am one of the 38 passengers who voluntarily offloaded from PK702 so it can fly to Islamabad only on the condition that all 38 of us will get our luggage…Then when we reached here today we were told half of our luggage is still at Manchester airport. We have suffered a lot.”

The airline apologized for the inconvenience. “All passengers were provided dinner. The offloaded passengers were provided with transportation and hotel accommodation and will be adjusted on the next available flight. PIA regrets the inconvenience caused to its passengers due to this incident,” according to a report by The Guardian.

H/T: The Guardian

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Boba tea balls found in stomach

It turns out those boba tea pearls don’t digest quite as easily as the bowl of pho they so often accompany. After a 14-year-old girl in China’s Zhejiang province complained to her parents of extreme stomach pain and an inability to eat, having been constipated for five days, her parents took her to a local hospital in hopes of learning the cause of her ailments. Initially, doctors were unable to determine why the teenager’s stomach was so upset, but a CT scan soon discovered more than 100 undigested tapioca pearls in both of her intestines along with her colon and stomach.

A typical boba tea features a small handful of tapioca pearls, and a doctor at the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital suggested the girl must have been rapidly consuming the beverage over the course of multiple days or weeks, overwhelming her digestive system. The teenager, however, claimed she had only had one boba tea drink five days before the incident. According to a report in Metro, a UK-based publication, the doctor suggested that the girl may have feared facing punishment if her parents knew the extent of her boba tea habit, prompting her to initiate a ruse.

Boba tea, also known as bubble tea, originally became popular in Taiwan in the 1980s. Made of milk or fruit, the signature ingredient in boba tea is a collection of small tapioca pearls filled with tea or fruit, which are ingested through a straw and are often not fully chewed. Because they are made of starch and often lined with preservatives, these balls can be tough for the stomach to digest — especially in such high quantities.

H/T: Metro

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Chernobyl Instagrammers disrespect

Among the first instincts when arriving at a well-known spot is to snap a photo. But in the Instagram age, going to a place specifically to snap a photo of yourself there is becoming a serious problem. Such is the case with Chernobyl in Ukraine, the site of one of the worst disasters of modern times that is, thanks to the HBO show about the explosion, seeing an influx of Instagrammers snapping selfies among the remains. In a viral tweet, user Bruno Zupan collected some recent snaps of Instagrammers’ visits to Chernobyl.

Meanwhile in Chernobyl: Instagram influencers flocking to the site of the disaster. pic.twitter.com/LnRukoLirQ

— Bruno Zupan (@komacore) June 9, 2019

Visiting Chernobyl on organized tours is actually becoming more common, as nature begins to fill in the ruins and destruction, creating a unique landscape that is beginning to resemble rebirth more than death. According to CNN, there has been a 35 percent increase in tour bookings since the show first aired in May of this year. The idea of visiting a traumatic site specifically for the sake of likes and follows is rubbing many the wrong way. Especially when the Instagrammer strips to their underwear in an attempt to turn all attention to themselves, instead of the site that devastated the lives of millions of innocent people.

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A post shared by @nz.nik on Jun 6, 2019 at 7:32am PDT

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A post shared by Luis El Crack (@luisitocomunica) on Jun 10, 2019 at 1:45pm PDT

“It’s wonderful that #ChernobylHBO has inspired a wave of tourism to the Zone of Exclusion,” Craig Mazin, the show’s creator, said in a tweet posted on Tuesday. “But yes, I’ve seen the photos going around. If you visit, please remember that a terrible tragedy occurred there. Comport yourselves with respect for all who suffered and sacrificed.”

Chernobyl isn’t the first spot to face HBO-induced over-tourism in recent years. The Dark Hedges from Game Of Thrones is in reality little more than a row of trees along a residential street in rural Northern Ireland, but now sees busloads of tourists stopping for photos on a daily basis.


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Woman finds crazy stuff in Airbnb

Ashley Fryer clearly hasn’t watched enough horror movies.

In direct defiance of every slasher flick survival rule ever, Fryer went into a strange house and opened a locked closet, and, well, pretty much got what she was asking for.

No, Michael Myers didn’t pop out, but it wasn’t too far off. When Fryer opened the closet at her European Airbnb on Tuesday afternoon, she found what can best be described as a Criminal Minds unsub starter kit. It included:

Two guns, which while not unusual in America, in Europe means you’re either planning a crime or a revolution
A highly erotic painting. Perhaps the owner was waiting for his contractor to finish the renovation on the Red Room. And…
A TYPEWRITER MADE OF HUMAN TEETH!!!!!

In case you missed that, that’s a TYPEWRITER MADE OF HUMAN TEETH.

Knowing only a complete psychopath still uses a typewriter, Fryer did what any rational human being does and called the police. And by “called the police,” we mean “went on Twitter and showed the whole world she’d probably rented an Airbnb from a serial killer.”

Ever the polite guest, Fryer said she felt “a bit mean posting a photo of someone else’s place,” clearly less of a sociopath than whoever made that typewriter. She also rhetorically asked, “We’re going to die in here, aren’t we?” Which is funny, since she’s still alive at the time of publication. Her Twitter, however, is now private.

The Twitterverse responded as you’d think, advising her to shoot the typewriter with the guns, bite the guns with the typewriter, and do pretty much everything short of torching the whole place and sending it back to the hell it crawled out of. Author Judy Picoult even offered to write a novel based on the tweet, though licensing terms have yet to be negotiated.

The lesson here folks is, once again, NEVER open a locked closet in a strange house, even if it does belong to a Superhost. If you do open the closet and find what a realtor might call a Junior Portal to Hell, absolutely take it to social media before doing anything else. The police might not save you, but your Twitter followers will very much appreciate it.


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Hagrid ride opening review

The infamous motorcycle and sidecar from the Harry Potter series, used by Hagrid and Harry when escaping death eaters during the Battle of the Seven Potters, makes its return this week, albeit in a slightly less chaotic way. The new Hagrid-themed ride at Universal Studios’ Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida, had its soft opening yesterday, and opens to the general public tomorrow.

Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure replaces the Dragon Challenge roller coasters (itself a reworking of the old, non-Potter Dueling Dragons coasters), and will take riders out of Hogwarts and through the Forbidden Forest. The ride is voiced by Robbie Coltrane, who portrayed Hagrid in the film series, and unlike many other rides in the park, it does not feature any CGI or videos, and instead relies on old-school, albeit hyper-realistic, animatronics for both Hagrid and the creatures.

As multiple Twitter users pointed out, going on the ride at night will give it a more authentic and immersive feel, as the pitch-black sky and surroundings will make you feel like you’re truly soaring through the forest. Like the other rides at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the queue is also an experience in itself, one you can expect to experience for quite a long time before reaching the ride.

Extremely long, winding queue to get into the Hagrid’s Motorbike ride, but there’s *tons* to look at while you wait #WizardingWorldOrlando pic.twitter.com/QU77plcQWs

— Alex Zalben (@azalben) June 11, 2019

As a family friendly ride, there are no crazy drops or loops, but there are multiple launches and one elevator-style drop. The engineers got creative when designing the ride, with parts of the ride going vertical and backward as a real vehicle would. You can either put yourself in Hagrid’s shoes and sit on the motorcycle, or you can be The Boy Who Lived in the sidecar. Pretty much everyone is in agreement that the motorcycle seat offers a better experience.

After a second ride I have the following observations: the Motorbike side is better, a nighttime ride makes it a lot more thrilling, and I noticed there are some areas where just as you think it can’t go faster, it kicks into a higher gear. Really spectacular!

— Andrew Sims+ (@sims) June 12, 2019

In anticipation of the public opening, here’s what fans are saying.

Some are counting down the days until they can visit:

Literally counting down the minutes until we are on that plane heading to @UniversalORL in August to ride Hagrid's!!! IT LOOKS AMAZING!

— The Petras Family (@thepetrasfamily) June 12, 2019

I’m so excited I’m going to @UniversalORL for the next few day and I can’t wait to ride the new Hagrid ride!

— DJ (@DJC_2015) June 12, 2019

I’m so glad to hear that Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure is good. Can’t wait to ride it in September!

— Maxwell Haddad (@cinemaxwell) June 11, 2019

Others are holding off on learning more to experience the magic completely blind:

It’s going to take a lot of strength and self restraint but I’m not going to watch any POV videos of Hagrid’s until I get to ride it in October! Wish me luck