Would you travel to discover places hunted by historical tragedies, massacres, evil and death? That doesn't sound like a good idea I know, when you are supposed to relax and have fun from your daily routine, which in itself is scary enough! But you probably did already, you just decided to overlook that evil side of the trip. Dark tourism is a relatively new term in the tourism industry. And it's not much about the place, but more about the reasons why people visit them. Those tourists who find pleasure in digging deeper and deeper into the dark side of any city they visit. To discover what lies beneath those flashy happy touristic campaigns and advertisements. Yup, those people exist believe me and they are on the rise.
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When I started my travel blog Finding Purple, almost a year ago, I picked the name simply because it is my favorite color. Nothing more. Does your favorite color affect the choice of your travel destinations? Or do you even travel to find your own color? Well, not scientifically proven, but from my own experience I can confirm: Yes, and strongly! I recently came across a very interesting article on 14 amazing places to visit in Lebanon that aren't Beirut, Baalbek or Byblos by Jason Lemon, where he encourages tourists visiting Lebanon not to get stuck with the most common touristic Lebanese cities, and discover more interesting places this incredible country has to offer. While Jason's list includes some fascinating places not to be missed, and having myself spent one year studying in this country that I consider my second home, I was inspired to complete the list with even more amazing places. What is incredible about Lebanon is its small size that allows you to go from North to South in like 3 hours, sine the Lebanese coast is only 200km. But also, Lebanon is incredibly diverse in terms of landscape and community. That even during early Spring, you can go skiing up in the mountains in the morning, then one hour later you can go down to the coast enjoying a relaxing afternoon on the beach. So beside Jason's 14 places which I will not repeat, here are 12 additional places to visit in Lebanon that aren't Beirut, Baalbeck or Byblos. Nor Tripoli, Tyre or Tannourine. I've been travelling constantly for more than 10 years. Visiting at least 3 new countries each year. From airport to airport, airlines to airlines, I can't recall how many times I took a plane in my life, maybe over hundreds of times. Then came a day when I realized that despite all these endless hours spent in the air, I even don't know what flying looks like. Something I do all time, hence never really felt it. Decision taken, I have to dive in the sky. After intensive research on the best location to do it, Dubai won. Not only because it's in the region why I originally come from, the Arab world, but it has the best weather conditions, sunny all year round, and the view over the Dubai Palm is breathtaking. I will not explain how terrific this experience was, but for me and more importantly skydiving was not just a merely adventure very few would dare to do, it had a long lasting effect on me, on my perspective, on the way I view the world in general. Here are 7 life lessons skydiving taught me. When I first visited Barcelona, the first to Spain as well, my mind was swinging between Picasso's master pieces, the sunny beaches of the Mediterranean and flamenco music and dances. Forget about these, because you will be caught by one thing when visiting the Capital of Catalonia: Gaudi. Even if you don't know who is Gaudi (like I didn't before visiting Barcelona), or even if you have no interest whatsoever in architecture, that won't last for long. Gaudi's imprints are all over the city and it's completely different from any architectural style you have ever came cross during your travels. Modern, shocking, unconventional and mesmerizing, this is what Gaudi all about. An unusual sense of creativity that will continue to amaze you that you will not stop chasing Gaudi all over Barcelona. To save your time, here's a list of where to find him master pieces, most of them feature on the UNESCO World Heritage List. After 30 days of deprivation of my morning coffee during the month of Ramadan, no wonder the first thing I thought to write about is this mystical drink: Coffee. Despite being a coffee addict, one of the most astonishing fact I came across while writing this article is that coffee drinking did not originate in Italy or Brazil as many would think, including me. To my surprise, coffee drinking was first discovered in the Arab world, more specifically in Sufi monasteries in Yemen in the 15th century. Then it reached Mecca, Cairo, Istanbul and later on to Italy and the rest of Europe. No wonder the majority of the coffee production in the world is made of coffee beans called 'Arabica', and the word coffee is derived from its Arabic name 'Qahwa'. Although the bean itself has its origins in Ethiopia, the first written record of coffee made using roasted coffee beans comes from Arab scholars. In this article I will not focus on HOW people from different cultures drink coffee differently, but more WHY they drink it differently. From Egypt to Turkey and from Sweden to Italy, here are some interesting coffee rituals I discovered during my travels.
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Hi, I'm IngyI am a part time traveler from Egypt, and I travel mainly to collect Hats :) I have visited more than 30 countries and around 50 different cities. I am sharing interesting cultural stories, photos, travel tips and itineraries of places I visited that could help you plan your next trip.
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