Matador Network's Blog, page 836

Rainbow crosswalks in Key West

Every June, colorful artwork and rainbow crosswalks have filled open spaces throughout Key West, FL. Due to ongoing construction, previous artwork has been a temporary feature, but this year Key West unveiled colorful crosswalks that will now have a permanent home.

New rainbow crosswalks made from preformed thermoplastic and enhanced with propane torches for durability are now gracing the intersection of Duval and Petronia, in the heart of the city’s entertainment district.

“The rainbow crosswalks mean that everybody is welcome, everybody is equal, everybody is recognized and that we do really abide by the ‘One Human Family’ spirit,” Mayor Teri Johnston told NBC.

Rainbow crosswalks first began appearing across the United States in support of Pride in 2012. The first one was painted in West Hollywood, CA, followed by similar art in Minneapolis, San Diego, St. Louis, and Atlanta.

More like thisLGBTQ Travel11 epic LGBTQ travel books to explore the world from home

The post Key West celebrates LGBTQ community with permanent rainbow crosswalks appeared first on Matador Network.

Taste the Nation food travel show

Food is never just sustenance. Food tethers us to our ancestors; it tracks political upheaval. It guides communities through mourning, sustains them during activism and resistance. Food is comfort, joy, family, and connection — put another way, food is life. That is the message at the core of Padma Lakshmi’s latest endeavor, Taste the Nation.

Lakshmi, famous for her longstanding run as host of Top Chef, travels the country looking for the dishes that make up the pieces of the whole we call American cuisine. Told through the eyes of chefs, activists, and educators like Gina Núñez-Mchiri, Michael Twitty, and Felicia Ruiz, each story centers a certain dish (a familiar conceit in the world of food television) — burritos, pad thai, dosa, and poke to name a few. And it turns out that almost every single one can be traced back to communities of color: Enslaved West Africans who endured unspeakable atrocities, Native Americans from whom our government stole land, Japanese families forced into internment camps during World War II, Chinese workers banned from settling in America for 61 years. The story of American food, like the story of the country itself, is one intertwined with discrimination and colonialism.

Only the episode exploring the history of the hot dog focuses on a white European, in this case German, culture. The rest give a platform to the Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous people who — it must be said loud and clear for the people in the back — literally invented what we know now as American cuisine. The revered whiteness of gourmet Westernized cuisine — which nets all the awards, garners all the spotlight, and inks more than its fair share of restaurant and book deals — is largely absent here.

There are shows that have tried to do this before — to focus not on the white chefs ordained with Michelin-stars but the diners, food carts, street vendors, foragers, fishermen, and home cooks who are at the heart of what the majority of Americans eat every day. Lakshmi makes the model work better than most simply because she avoids fetishizing and othering these people. Too often, the rarefied way gourmet chefs cook is treated like the norm or the ideal, while the way regular people eat — simple food that has been cooked the same way for hundreds of years — is framed as quaint or outdated.

Photo: Taste the Nation courtesy of Hulu

An older woman who has cooked at H&H Car Wash in El Paso is especially striking. She’s given just a few minutes on screen, treated without much fanfare or fawning, yet the camera’s reverence for her and the way she cooks is clear. For 36 years she’s been upholding the cuisine and cooking traditions of Mexico. There are people all over the country — we meet Apache seed carriers and Gullah Geechee fishermen — who have done something similar their entire lives without awards or recognition. And yet they continue on because this food is, most importantly, their livelihood, but also what binds them to their families and their homes. To give it up would be to watch their culture wash away with the tide of homogenization and assimilation, and therefore simply unthinkable, unacceptable. Isn’t that — shouldn’t that be — just as important as inventing a new way of serving aged Parmigiano-Reggiano?

What’s unsaid, but implied in that scene at H&H Car Wash, is why this Mexican woman will never be exalted in the way the towering white men of Europe are for their food. The answer is probably clear to most viewers — but it still feels urgent to keep repeating the question.

Taste the Nation acknowledges that there is no separating food from politics. Through interviews and mini history lessons, we learn fry bread and flour tortillas were invented only after colonists introduced their ingredients into North American foodways. The man who owns H&H Car Wash in El Paso, himself a descendant of Syrian immigrants who employs a staff of cooks who cross the border from Juarez every day, is a Trump supporter. This is part of what makes Taste Nation so emotionally charged, especially for a nation echoing with cries to keep politics out of not just food and travel but everything from comedy to punk rock music. Because it reminds us that there is no American food — there is no America, period — without the immigrants, enslaved people, and Indigenous tribes who built the economy and served as stewards of the land, protecting and cultivating it.

Photo: Taste the Nation courtesy of Hulu

Lakshmi eats a lot on Taste the Nation, and all the food looks like it tastes amazing. But the eating itself, the actual act of enjoying food, feels secondary to the show’s true thesis, which is to celebrate the past and ongoing contributions of immigrants and Indigenous people to American foodways. In centering this premise, Taste the Nation avoids a common trap most food shows these days fall into, which is to simply revel in good food while courting the celebrity of the host and his guests.

But food has context. People who make it. History that — if we want to be responsible, conscientious eaters and citizens of the world — we can no longer ignore. And if we are lucky, Taste the Nation will signal the beginning of a new food television landscape that values the people working every day to make sure the ingredients and traditions that made American cuisine what it is today continue to survive and thrive for generations to come.

More like thisTVWith ‘Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner,’ David Chang proves we don’t need a ‘new’ Anthony Bourdain

The post In ‘Taste the Nation,’ Padma Lakshmi lets Black and Brown people define American cuisine appeared first on Matador Network.

Double-decker plane seat design

Airplanes might soon get the British bus treatment. To increase comfort and social distance, an ingenious design called Zephyr Seat, featuring double-decker lie-flat seats, is being considered by major airlines.

The design, the brainchild of designer Jeffrey O’Neill of Zephyr Aerospace, would allow Economy Plus Class passengers to lie flat or sit upright with their legs fully extended in their own cocoon.

Photo: Zephyr Aerospace via Republic

In a conversation with CNN Travel, O’Neill explained, “We basically retrofitted a whole other seat on top of another. So it’s essentially two levels, it’s not as tall off the ground as people might imagine, it’s only four and a half feet off the ground from the entry point to the lower seat to the upper seat.”

The concept makes use of the space between a standard seat and an overhead bin, resulting in more passenger legroom and space between passengers. The design promises no loss of seating density for airlines but a lot more room and privacy for Economy Plus passengers.

Photo: Zephyr Aerospace via Republic

Photo: Zephyr Aerospace via Republic

The Zephyr Seat would permit Economy Plus passengers to social distance more easily as each seat is a private individual cabin, and it would provide 78 inches of flat lying space.

Photo: Zephyr Aerospace via Republic

Photo: Zephyr Aerospace via Republic

O’Neill has had conversations with four major airlines, including Delta, about his design, but none have committed to trialing it yet.

More like thisNewsInnovative new airplane seat designs will accommodate social distancing

The post This double-decker plane seat design could be the future of air travel appeared first on Matador Network.

Cambodia covid-19 tourist deposit

Many countries are doing whatever they can to encourage tourists to book a flight this summer. Cambodia, while not exactly discouraging tourism, is attaching a pretty hefty price tag to an already expensive vacation. The Cambodian government recently announced that incoming visitors will be charged a $3,000 coronavirus deposit, as well as proof of health insurance valued at a minimum of $50,000. These measures are to prevent the country from footing a medical bill should tourists become infected with the coronavirus during their visit.

The $3,000 deposit can be paid by cash or credit card and is required upon arrival at all Cambodian airports. The possible costs associated with the virus in Cambodia are many. According to the Ministry of Health, the mandatory COVID-19 tests costs around $165, which includes the test itself, travel to the testing center, an overnight hotel stay while you await your results, and three meals. If you test negative, this is all you’ll have to pay, and the remainder of your deposit will be refunded to you.

If someone on your plane tests positive, however, you can expect to have $1,281 deducted from your deposit to cover your two-week quarantine and $330 per day deducted should you test positive yourself to cover hospital bills.

Even though the cost will be minimal if you text negative, since you never know the health status of others on your flights, it’s a good idea to be financially prepared for all scenarios.

More like thisArt + Architecture9 stunning temples you need to see near Siem Reap, besides Angkor Wat

The post Cambodia is asking tourists for a $3,000 coronavirus deposit upon arrival appeared first on Matador Network.

Why Juneteenth 2020 matters

On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger stepped onto the balcony of the Ashton Villa in Galveston, Texas, and read aloud from General Order No. 3: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” This declaration, as the tale goes, forever ended slavery in the United States more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Texans began celebrating June 19 as a holiday as soon as the following year calling it Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, or the simple portmanteau of the date that most people still use today: Juneteenth.

Though it’s been popular to celebrate in Texas since its inception, the last few years have seen the holiday’s popularity rapidly increasing nationwide. Fueled by the Black Lives Matter movement, social media, and even television — most notably by Donald Glover’s Atlanta and Kenya Barris’ Blackish each dedicating an episode to it — Juneteenth is now so widely recognized that it seems poised to take on a new role within the American zeitgeist, one in which we see fit to celebrate the end of slavery together as a nation.

Said actor, model, and activist Indya Moore, “This is an important day and an essential celebration,” continuing, “Juneteenth should have been a national holiday.”

2020 seems a singularly auspicious year for Juneteenth. For a nation still gripped by the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, a holiday representing Black freedom seems particularly enticing. And despite all of the still unmet demands — like the arrest of Breonna Taylors’ murderers — we do have two major changes to federal policy that, on the surface, seem so worthy of celebration: the landmark supreme court decision that protects LGBTQIA+ citizens from discrimination and President Trump’s executive order covering police reform.

Though Juneteenth could offer all of us a respite from this taxing revolution, it also serves as a reminder of how changes in American federal policy don’t always translate into tangible changes in our communities that we so desperately need. Just as Juneteenth has a much more sinister history than many know, federal policy frequently does far less for the American people than we would hope.

General Order No. 3 was not even required to make slavery illegal in the state of Texas. By the time General Granger rode into Galveston with 2,000 federal troops, slavery had already been illegal there for nearly two and a half years. This was due to the January 1863 enaction of what is commonly called the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order of the Lincoln administration that abolished slavery in confederate states.

This means that the only reason that General Order No. 3 was even necessary is that white slaveholders simply chose to ignore federal law rather than release the 250,000 people bound by chattel slavery in the state of Texas.

In addition, there were several Union-controlled slave states like Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Missouri that went completely unaffected by emancipation up until the 13th amendment was ratified. That means that slavery was still perfectly legal in territory clearly governed by the United States until December 1865.

Last Tuesday, President Trump signed an executive order enacting limited reform to policing in the States. But under similar scrutiny as we might dissect the history of the abolition of slavery, this order begins to feel purposefully lacking. Rather than require literally anything to change that would apply to police nationwide, it merely incentivizes individual police forces to make policy changes at their will. Even the proposed national registry to track police misconduct proposed within the order comes with no penalty for non-compliance. This means that, much like the slave owners in Texas who simply chose to ignore the Emancipation Proclamation, police departments can simply not report any behavior they so chose with impunity.

While the move towards police reform does show a welcome awareness on the part of the federal government, this order leaves little doubt that the American people will see little tangible change until the current systems of policing are dismantled and replaced with new measures to ensure public safety. Policing as we know it today was created to ensure that Black Americans would continue to be controlled despite the end of slavery, and this system that is racist by design cannot be reformed by simply asking them to behave appropriately. If that was possible, we wouldn’t still be demanding change.

And while this supreme court decision will certainly offer some legal protections to LGBTQIA+ Americans, its reach only eclipses the workplace and even excludes companies with fewer than 15 employees. Though we can count it as an incredible victory, there remain huge gaps in basic civil rights protections. We can see this particularly surrounding issues of discrimination within housing and healthcare where LGBTQIA+ Americans are still not guaranteed the same protections as other citizens.

As much as Juneteenth can remain a celebration of Black freedom, maybe 2020 is the year that it also becomes a reminder of how vigilant we must remain in order to seize that to which we are entitled. Neither of these two brand new pieces of American federal policy offers sweeping protections to the communities they are intended to placate, and if we take another look at them through the same lens with which we can analyze the history of Juneteenth, we can see how much we still have to change. But thankfully we are also given the opportunity to see the direction we must go from here come into a much sharper focus.

More like thisNews#WhatMatters2020: supporting Black Lives Matter beyond right now

The post Juneteenth proves that reform is always slow and often complicated appeared first on Matador Network.

Beijing coronavirus outbreak in June

A recent outbreak of the coronavirus in Beijing, China, shows just how quickly a resurgence can happen, and how swiftly measures must be put into place to contain it.

After 57 days without a locally transmitted case in the Chinese capital, a new spike in cases was recorded with a total of 158 infections reported since June 11, explained Reuters.

The origin of the spike has been linked to the Xinfadi food center that is said to supply 80 percent of Beijing’s meat and vegetables. In the wake of the outbreak, the food center has been shut down, at least 100 people are in quarantine, and the city has returned to a level-two alert.

According to Reuters, “Residents of 32 neighborhoods designated medium-risk and one area deemed high-risk have been barred from leaving the city, while residents of low-risk areas must show proof of negative disease tests in order to leave the city.” Hundreds of thousands of Beijing residents have been tested in the past few days.

Over 1,200 flights to and from Beijing’s two airports were canceled on Wednesday, and railway services have been suspended until July 9.

People attempting to enter Beijing must be tested and isolated in quarantine facilities. Similarly, some provinces and cities are quarantining travelers from Beijing upon arrival.

In light of the quick containment measures, Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, believes the outbreak has been quelled. He told Reuters, “The epidemic in Beijing has been brought under control. When I say that it’s under control, that doesn’t mean the number of cases will turn zero tomorrow or the day after. The trend will persist for a period of time, but the number of cases will decrease, just like the trend that we saw (in Beijing) in January and February.”

More like thisCultureI took a virtual tour of Wuhan, and it showed a side of the city the news misses

The post A new coronavirus spike in Beijing caused the cancellation of over 1,200 flights appeared first on Matador Network.

US Senate passes GAOA

The United States’ open spaces scored a massive political win on Wednesday. A bipartisan conservation bill drafted by Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado was approved by the US Senate, with 73 votes in favor and only 25 against. If the bill becomes law, it will provide $900 million annually to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and a total of $9.5 billion to address maintenance backlogs on the country’s public lands. Conservation groups in the American West had been pushing for such a measure for years.

The bill has been dubbed the Great American Outdoors Act. Here’s how it breaks down.

First and foremost, it will provide annual funding totaling $900 million to the LWCF, which has only received its full $900 million stipend twice since 1964. The funding, slated to come from royalties on oil and gas profits, will now be fully granted on a permanent basis.

The $9.5 billion for public lands will be divided over five years, at $1.9 billion per year. Seventy percent of that revenue will be dedicated to improving infrastructure and addressing delayed maintenance issues at national parks. Gardner expects the measure to create up to 100,000 jobs, largely in areas deriving much of their income from outdoor tourism that has been significantly reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic.

President Trump has indicated he will sign the bill into law if it passes in the Democratic-led House of Representatives. According to Politico, the bill appears to have strong backing in the House, though the date of a forthcoming vote is not yet known.

“I hope, following our action, that the House will take it up and pass it quickly. The president has already said he is eager to sign it. We should not let this historic opportunity pass us by,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to the floor ahead of the vote.

More like thisParks + WildernessThe Bureau of Land Management is moving to Colorado, and it could spell trouble for public lands

The post US Senate passes biggest conservation bill in decades appeared first on Matador Network.

Pella in the US' Little Netherlands

Many of us dream of traveling to Europe for weeks on end to admire the historical beauty and the cultural diversity present on the Old Continent. But of course, not everyone is lucky enough to make that dream come true. Whether it’s a busy schedule, lack of finances, or overwhelming responsibilities, traveling can be out of reach. Luckily, the United States, the land of immigrants, is diverse enough to provide worthy domestic alternatives. One of them is a small town in Iowa where you can get a hearty dose of Dutch culture. Pella, under an hour away from Des Moines, is the American Heartland version of Amsterdam, with Dutch-inspired architecture, cuisine, windmills, and gardens. If you’re looking for a Euro-fix, look no further than Pella — just don’t expect to find a red-light district.

Pella’s Dutch beginnings

The town of Pella didn’t simply adopt a Dutch aesthetic to stand out. It’s the result of early Dutch settlement, and a concerted effort by the descendants of those settlers to preserve their cultural heritage.

In 1847, immigrants from the Netherlands arrived in Marion County, IA, after fleeing religious persecution. They established a new home between the Des Moines and Skunk rivers called Pella — the name inspired by the biblical city of refuge.

The immigrants crossed the Atlantic in four ships, made their way to the Midwest by horses, wagons, and steamboat, and established Pella in the style of their homeland. Many descendants of the original settlers still reside in Pella, and proudly preserve its history through its Historical Village, shops, architecture, and annual festivals. They even speak their own dialect called Pella Dutch, which is based on South Guelderish.

Dutch Culture

Everyone knows about the Pennsylvania Dutch, but in the Midwest it’s all about the Iowa Dutch. Dutch culture courses through this city’s veins like canal water under a bridge, touching every aspect of life from food to shopping and even gardening.

Photo: yosmoes815/Shutterstock

The town’s most recognizable landmark is the Vermeer Windmill, which is the tallest working grain windmill in the US. Designed in Hoogmade, Netherlands, the mill was shipped to Iowa in 2002, and you can take a guided tour of the mill and learn what makes windmills so integral to life in the Netherlands. The best view of the town is from the windmill’s observation deck, where you can look down on the rest of the Historical Village.

In addition to the windmill, the Historical Village is composed of 21 buildings, including a blacksmith, clog cobbler shop, puppet theater, church, bakery, and the childhood home of Wyatt Earp. The village gives visitors a window into Pella’s history since the 1840s, offering a unique perspective on life in a Dutch immigrant town in the Midwest.

Photo: yosmoes815/Shutterstock

Crossing into modern-day Pella, you’ll still find yourself immersed in the Dutch aesthetic. Many storefronts, businesses, and facade decorations are inspired by Dutch design, and statues portray important pieces of the town’s history. At the center of it all is Molengracht Plaza, a replica of an authentic Dutch square, complete with a canal and an Amsterdam-like promenade.

Photo: Jaarsma Bakery/Facebook

Pella doesn’t just look Dutch, it also tastes Dutch. Jaarsma Bakery and Vander Ploeg Bakery are the town’s two signature Dutch pastry shops, carrying traditional Dutch letters (a puff pastry filled with almond paste, dusted with sugar, and shaped like an “S”) and poffertjes (tiny pancakes). There’s also a diner called Dutch Fix that carries Dutch street food like frites (fries with a special sauce) and oliebollen (cinnamon raisin dumplings). For a heartier meal, check out In’t Veld’s Meat Market and Ulrich’s Meat Market for Pella bologna, gouda cheese, and other traditional Dutch deli items.

Tulip Time

Photo: Visit Pella, Iowa/Facebook

Pella’s signature event is the annual Tulip Time festival. Taking place every year at the beginning of May, the festival features parades, food, traditional Dutch outfits, and concerts. During this week of Dutch pride, the town hosts tours of the Historical Village and the various museums, offers Dutch musical performances at the local theater, sets up stands with authentic Dutch food, and even hosts a 5K run.

Perhaps most highly anticipated is the Volks Parade, featuring Dutch-inspired floats, costumed marchers, bands, and other attractions. There’s a parade in the early afternoon and a second one at night, with illuminated floats and followed by fireworks. The parades are accompanied by Dutch dancing and singing performances, a costume show, cheese market demonstration, and, of course, the crowning of the Tulip Queen and her court.

Photo: Visit Pella, Iowa/Facebook

The weeklong festivities wrap up with a Sunday morning Thanksgiving and Praise Service at the Vermeer Global Pavilion.

Tulip gardens and beyond

It wouldn’t really be a Dutch town without a disproportionate number of tulips. Between Central Park and Sunken Gardens, the city plants hundreds of thousands of tulips each year to celebrate its Dutch heritage. Particularly striking is Tulip Avenue in Central Park, running from the northern fountain to the center of the park with a variety of colorful tulips lining the sidewalk.

Photo: Bella Bender/Shutterstock

Fair Haven Memorial Garden is also home to thousands of tulips. This garden was originally planted in 1947 after the Netherlands donated bulbs to the town as a gesture of gratitude for aid in World War II. These 17 flower beds, located just a few blocks from downtown, currently feature around 13,000 tulips.

Just because you’re visiting Pella doesn’t mean you have to sign a social contract promising to only partake in Dutch activities. When locals want to enjoy the outdoors, they don’t roll around in the Sunken Gardens’ tulip beds — they go to Lake Red Rock. Iowa’s largest lake, Lake Red Rock is just 10 minutes from Pella, and has an abundance of outdoor adventure on its 35,000 acres of land. In addition to several campsites, the lake also has a 13-mile hiking and biking trail, picnic areas, and shoreline fishing. In the spring and fall you can spot white pelicans migrating through the area, and in the winter you might be treated to a bald eagle sighting.

More like thisCultureWhy Grinnell, Iowa, is the most badass town in the Midwest

The post Pella, IA, is a little slice of the Netherlands right here in the US appeared first on Matador Network.

‘Drive N Drag’ summer tour

Starting on July 17, RuPaul’s Drag Race queens are hitting the road on a summer tour called Drive ‘N Drag. The outdoor event will feature performances by 12 of the show’s alums, namely Aquaria, Asia O’Hara, Acid Betty, Gigi Goode, Monét X Change, Kameron Michaels, Kim Chi, Naomi Smalls, Plastique Tiara, Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, Violet Chachki, and Yvie Oddly.

In typical Drag Race fashion, the show will include dazzling lights and extravagant attire. The performers will take the stage in front of the attendees’ cars and be broadcasted on massive screens and a sound system to enhance the experience.

“Our Werq the World tour typically plays inside large theaters and arenas, but we’ve moved the show outside to continue providing much-needed entertainment during these crazy times,” producer Brandon Voss said in a statement. “A pandemic won’t keep our queens from ruling the stage. The drag show must go on!”

The dates announced so far include July 17-19 at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey; July 24-26 at an undisclosed location in Los Angeles, California; and July 31-August 2 at the Old Orchard Mall in Chicago, Illinois. More dates are expected to be added in the coming weeks.

Tickets are on sale now on the Voss Events website.

More like thisNewsNYC Pride will host a virtual rally to protest police brutality and discrimination

The post ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ queens to host a drive-in summer tour appeared first on Matador Network.

Sweden’s Båstnäs Car Cemetery

If you made a list of your top 50 excursions for your next trip to Sweden, a visit to a junkyard probably wouldn’t be on it. Unless you’re a car enthusiast who can spend hours happily peering under the hoods of various rusty, out-of-use cars, the prospect of dedicating a day to visiting an old auto-parts shop isn’t very appealing. Unless, of course, that abandoned junkyard is the Båstnäs Car Cemetery. Located deep in the forest of Värmland, on the Swedish border with Norway, the Båstnäs Car Cemetery looks like an old horror film set the production crew forgot to disassemble.

Photo: JakubD/Shutterstock

The junkyard was initially started by two reclusive brothers in the 1950s, who collected old, abandoned cars. They ran the business from a house built in a field, in the middle of the forest. The broken automobiles sat in the field in front of the house — a front lawn looking like the manifestation of Stephen King’s imagination.

The brothers kept on collecting Saabs, Volvos, Fords, Sunbeams, Buicks, Volkswagens, Opels, Fiats, and cars of various other makes from the ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s for decades.

Photo: Tomas Lollike/Shutterstock

Unfortunately, the dense forest proved difficult to tame. The trees and foliage slowly overtook the cars, and after 40 years the brothers were forced to accept the junkyard’s inevitable fate. One brother left the area in the early ‘90s, while the other remained, trying to sell cars either for parts or for their vintage value.

Visiting the cemetery now is like stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia, but instead of a friendly fawn, you’ll find a scrap yard filled with hundreds of abandoned vintage cars. There’s moss growing on the hoods and tree branches reaching through the windows. Rather than encroaching on nature, the cars look like they’re slowly becoming one with the green forest. It might not fit your expectation of the Swedish countryside — with cottages sitting on tranquil lakes — but it’s certainly one of the country’s most unique attractions, and one worth taking a day to visit.

Photo: JakubD/Shutterstock

One of the brothers reportedly still lives on the property but doesn’t mind visitors coming to take pictures. He kindly asks, though, that you refrain from stealing car parts or damaging any of the vehicles. According to Atlas Obscura, a handwritten note nailed to one of the buildings reads:

“This car cemetery is private property. You may still look, take pictures but DO NOT take away parts. Do not destroy or in any other way disrupt this place. If you open a car door, please shut it again so the next visitor can get the same experience as you did!! For info: after about 30 burglaries this year I’m fed up with it! I’ve made traps in the buildings so if you get hurt or die, I DON’T CARE! Remember in this place no one can hear you scream…”

The Båstnäs Car Cemetery is located about 12 miles south of the town of Töcksfors. No public transportation runs from Töcksfors to the cemetery, so you’ll have to drive, bike, or hike. Oddly enough, despite its remote location and the reclusive nature of its owners, you can find the place easily just by entering Båstnäs Car Cemetery into Google Maps.

More like thisCultureThe 8 coolest places in Sweden worth visiting outside of Stockholm

The post Sweden’s car cemetery is the most beautiful junkyard you’ve ever seen appeared first on Matador Network.