After a nice 4 months in south-east Asia where I had the chance to visit four countries while settling in their capitals to get some work done, it was time to hit the road again and like almost every year, I am back to Europe on time for Spring and the Summer Holiday! I’m pretty excited about many pans I have for the next months and since it’s still a little cold on the continent, I am starting my adventures in the Canary Islands off the coast of western Africa, more specifically on two of them: Tenerife and La Palma. I’ve visited many islands through my travels, actually I visited all of the islands countries of the world. Among them, many of the most popular islands still “under control” by European nations. I must say that contrary to what many people think, staying on an island is not always “paradise”. They look great on pictures, the palm trees, the golden beaches and the blue waters are […]
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My Russia Top 5 Lists Best Cities, best Nature, Best food, Best festivals
As usual with my country review series, I present my top 5 of different aspects of Russia. Its a great way to start planning your itinerary by seeing the highlights of my trips. Top 5 Favorite Cities 1. Novosibirsk 2. Krasnoyarsk 3. Sochi 4. Vladivostok 5. Moscow Top 5 Most Beautiful Cities 1. St-Petersburg 2. Vladivostok 3. Sochi 4. Moscow 5. Samara Top 5 Best Nature 1. Siberian Forest 2. Black Sea Coast from Krasnodar to Sochi 3. Baikal Lake and Baikal Natural Reserve 4. Altai Mountains 5. The Far East around Vladivostok Top 5 Food & Drinks 1. Borsch 2. Shashlik 3. Russian Dumplings 4. Russian Pancakes 5. Russian Salad Top 5 St-Petersburg Attractions 1. Hermitage Museum 2. Peterhof Palace 3. White Palace 4. Canals 5. Chuch of the Saviour Top 5 Moscow Attractions 1. Red Square 2. St-Basil Cathedral 3. Moscow Metro 4. Kremlin 5. Bolshoi Theatre Pin to Pinterest Enjoyed this guide? Help others find it too! Share the following Pinterest pin […]
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The Trans-Siberian Train: The Ultimate Russian Challenge
My most recent interest since 2013 has been to dig into the cultures of the ex Soviet Union when I moved to Moldova and Ukraine for the summer 2013. Having more than 144 million native speakers, and the seventh most spoken language worldwide and especially in the 18 ex-soviet nations, I knew it would be a very useful tool for my adventures. It was especially interesting to me since I wanted to travel through the 5 Central Asian “Stan” countries, as well as in the Caucasus. So I went ahead and started learning Russian grammar and practiced through my travels and finally made it with at fluent conversational level in Russian by now. I have been back living in Ukraine for several months during the war of 2014 and after the war, back in 2016. My goal in learning the language was primarily to help communicate with locals to make my travels more interesting, as it is the intermediary languages in all 18th ex-soviet countries […]
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World Map of The Most Historically Rich Destinations, Through The Eyes of a Man Who Visited Them All
This is part of my series about maps of the world where I compare each country I have visited in different categories. The point of this analysis is that after having visited almost all the countries (173/196) I believe I have finally acquired the experience and the credibility to be able to put them side by side and give an honest comparison. Of course, many of them are personal views following my personal tastes and is only a generalization. But since I get so many questions all the time about “what are my favorite country, for this, for that, for everything… “ I decided to represent my results graphically for people to get a better understanding of my opinion. When I was told at age 13 years/old that I had to do something in life that I truly loved, the subject that most resonated in my mind was “History”. That was my real passion! But I couldn’t imagine myself being a simple history teacher in […]
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Quebec City, One of the Most Photogenic City in North America
Many will say I might be biased to make this statement as I was born in Quebec City, and it does sound like a justified comment. But anyone who has visited the beautiful old town of Quebec City will testify of the beauty of its “New France” architecture and the European feel that its Fortified walls and narrow streets give. It has been 3 years that I haven’t been to my home Country while circling the worlds most beautiful cities, and every time I come back to Quebec I am always blown away by its beauty. Even though I have studied for years in the Old Quebec at high school at the Petit Seminaire de Quebec, the oldest French speaking seminary in the Americas, whenever I am back in the city, I try to put myself in the skin of a tourist and visit some corners of my beloved city as if I was a First comer or a tourist. This year, as it is the 150th […]
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Blablacar, a new useful cheap travel service in my toolbox
I was recently traveling from Budapest to Vienna and since I had heard about how blablacar was getting popular in Spain, I installed it and decided to give it a try. It seems to be an interesting solution, being basically the Airbnb or Uber of share riding and can ultimately drive the cost of my travels even lower. Trains in Eastern are cheap and many times there is only one option available between two cities. But back in Western Europe if you don’t shop around you can easily pay 3 to 4 times the price by traveling by train. The Budapest to Vienna train was about 35 euros and the Bus a little less, about 20. After checking with blablacar, there were about 5 drivers making the trip, for an average 15 euros. That’s very good savings while traveling on a budget. Back in the days when I was just a student and traveling ultra budget that would have cut down costs and definitely helped […]
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Berlin: eclectic, underground, crazy…
You might have heard by now about Berlin’s reputation being a crazy city. I’ve been here a couple times, but this stay I made the effort to live it in the essence of what it stands for. I was here for the affiliate marketing conference AWE and out of my week here, I pretty much tried one or two different bar or club every night. The variety is impressive, for every taste, between rooftop bars to crazy eclectic small bars that have hidden underground sections only accessible from a small hole in a book shelve! The winner of all craziness venue was a place called Kater, a nightclub where the mixture of people and the way they dress makes you question what year it is today if we’re back in the 50s or warped through the 2100s. Overall we agreed with a friend of mine, Berlin is not by any means a beautiful city, it is plain, gray, lacking historical old quarters that are […]
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Prague: as Grandiose as Paris or Rome
I just finished a really nice 2 weeks in the Czech Republic. Seems like Prague has been forgotten for too long on the list of the most beautiful cities in the world where cities like Paris, London, Rome or New York take most of the attention. I think Prague is pretty much heel to heel with Paris in terms of being a Grandiose Capital! Gone are those years where Prague was just a gray communist city, it now proudly stands as what I believe one of the most impressive old towns in Europe! Tourism has also picked up quite a bit since last time I was here in 2006 with a couple friends. Its just as packed as Paris with tons of tourist buses and guided groups of 50 walking all over the place, making it hard to navigate normally in the streets. One recommendation I would suggest doing is to visit the city by night. On the first day of my week in the […]
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A Night at the Vienna National Opera
Interesting experience to see a Ballet, I’ve seen a couple operas around the world, in Riga, and in Bucharest, but a Ballet in this amazing and historical building makes it even more interesting. Coming to the Opera in Vienna is a must, even for those not interesting in seeing the performance, as this Chinese guy next to me left after just 5 minutes into the show… The hallways and courtrooms are breathtaking! I’ll be adding some pictures in emporiostudio.com very soon. For those interested in assisting to the show but don’t want to have to pay for a 60 euros ticket, there is a special standing ticket available for 3 euros, which is definitely worth it. You just need to line up about 10 minutes prior the show at a special back door in the Opera. At that price, you can’t beat it!
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Timisoara, Romainia. The most liveable city in Romainia
So I spent a month around most of the biggest cities in Romania, 2 weeks in Bucharest, couple days around the Saxon triangle of Transilvania and 1 week in both Cluj Napoca and Timisoara. Definitely, this charming city also called the little Vienna deserves its title! Very nice old town, nice cafes, active Erasmus city, big modern shopping malls. Really felt comfortable in this city and if I had to choose a city to live in Romania, in would be here. It’s on my list of “must come back” cities.
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