One of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean, Cyprus is a rich tapestry of ancient art and natural beauty. You can explore Roman tombs and Byzantine art, take a traditional Turkish bath, or visit the largest Ostrich Park in Europe, depending on what mood seizes you. There’s a gothic castle on a hill and a speckling of monasteries, all of which make admirable daytime adventures. But as the sun sinks below the horizon, Cyprus crackles into an indomitable neon light-storm of thumping beats. Here’s an overview of the best places to be and things to do on Cyprus, whether the sun is coming up or sinking down…
Ayia Napa
Ayia Napa is one of the world’s liveliest clubbing destinations, and a popular choice among the 18 – 30 crowd. Clubs like Black N’White, Castle Club and Starsky’s bring the noise for dancing queens, and opportunities to spot reality stars and footballers abound. Organised bar crawls and fantasy boat parties – though not for the faint-hearted – are the order of the day, and when the hangover kicks in, there’s always the massive Waterworld Waterpark to get you rehydrated. If clubbing isn’t your scene, activities range from the enlightening to the bizarre. Explore Ayia Napa’s sea caves on a boat tour, head to the abandoned ghost town of Famagusta, or laze away in the Marrakech Spa accompanied by Moroccan tea and pastry.
Paphos
It’s the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, and there’s plenty to love in the pretty coastal city of Paphos. Historians will cherish the opportunity to explore Kato Paphos Archeological Park, an ancient ruin which includes Roman villas with original mosaic floors and an ancient Odeon carved from limestone blocks, while adventurers can learn to scuba at the Dive Point Diving Centre. Once you’ve worked up a healthy appetite, visit one of the many tavernas in Paphos to sample some freshly prepared Greek cuisine, then relax with a cocktail in Notos Café Bar, and look out over the Harbour as the clubs begin to throb.
Limassol
Cyprus’s second-largest city mixes beach life, activities and a fairly sophisticated night scene. With everything from paintball and off-road driving to archery and go-karting, start with Sayious Adventure Park for an action-packed day out. Animal lovers should visit the donkey sanctuary, where you can help care for the animals, or the Limassol Zoo, where you can see baboons, wallabies and lemurs. As night falls, whether your taste is in trance, rock or jazz, there will be a club to accommodate, or if you’re looking for something a little more mellow, check out Retro, a club for the over 30s, playing the hits of yesteryear.
Of course, outside the main hubs, there are plenty of picturesque spots you can include in your holiday itinerary, from hiking the remote Karpas peninsula to enjoying traditional Cypriot tavernas in villages like Tochni and Kalavasos. Whether you’re more active in the day or at night on holiday, you’ll find something to absorb, entertain and astonish in Cyprus.
Images by lix – and David Evers used under Creative Commons
Every August Edinburgh comes ablaze with its yearly festival of the arts. Though the main component of the festival is a fringe theater event there is much more than that going on in the city. In a shout out to the arts, the fringe is accompanied by a comedy festival, a literary festival, a film festival all at the same time. Despite the perpetual gloomy skies of the Scottish capital, Edinburgh becomes a vibrant place for this month. Here are a few reasons you should go to the Edinburgh festival at least once.
There is a festival for all types of art
Whatever the art form that you love there will be plenty of opportunity to explore it. The festival also is the ideal locale in which to explore different art types that you previously haven’t been strongly acquainted with. Now is the chance to see Irving Welsh give a book reading, or watch famous actors and directors discuss their newest films. Art in all of its pedigrees is here and it on you to explore it as thoroughly as you can.
The Nightlife Extends
During the festival Edinburgh extends it already thriving night life by 2 hours. This means pubs that would ordinarily stop at 11 pm are now open till 1 am and bars and night clubs go longer also. The result is that you have a whole slew of culture lovers getting drunker for longer together. Many people rave about the full bars during the Festival. The extended bar times and the mayhem that ensues because of this is yet another solid reason to be at the Edinburgh festival come August… even if art is only sort of your thing.
The city expands with art lovers
The diversity of different arts represented brings a wonderfully eclectic mixture of art lovers into the city which provides a great chance to meet some really interesting artistic people. As comic con in San Diego brings slews of comic and pop culture lovers to San Diego the Edinburgh festival brings many an art lover to Edinburgh. The increased crowds bring a dynamic quality to the streets that can be easily seen on a walk up Edinburgh’s famed Royal Mile, on Princess Street, or while wandering through the meadows. Be sure to say hi to the person in the pub chair next to you and meet an interesting person.
Rome is one of the world’s most fantastic cities for art, culture, history and cuisine, but it seems like Milan gets all the fashion attention in Italy. Well, if you find yourself in Rome, rest assured that there is plenty of outstanding shopping for the fashion-forward traveller. Follow this guide for the best of high fashion in Rome.
The Spanish Steps: In Rome, much of the luxury designer shopping is arranged in a three pronged formation called the Trident (made up of the streets Via del Corso, Via del Babuino and Via Ripetta – all of which lead to the Piazza del Popolo.) For the high-fashion-minded shopper, it’s straight to Via del Babuina where you will find the flagship stores of many of the world’s top brands. Check out the little connecting side streets to peruse independent shops that carry high quality merchandise and are famous for their window displays. You may be dodging tourists, but this part of town is definitely ground zero for the world’s finest fashion.
Piazza Navona and the Pantheon: This part of town is familiar to tourists because the streets are lined with towering monuments of the ancient world and Renaissance churches, but between these cultural tourist magnets the intrepid shopper can find unique small boutique shops that carry an eclectic array of fashions and accessories next to vintage shops, antiques stores and book sellers. Don’t miss SBU, Rome’s hippest jeans shop on Via di San Pantaleo.
Campo de’ Fiori: This bustling square hosts a fresh produce market every morning and in the evenings the nightlife is hopping. For shoppers this district offers small craft shops tucked into narrow Medieval streets – browse the furniture designers, antique shops, ceramics stores, and quirky housewares. You will also find hidden gems like Borini, a women’s shoe store that offers a huge range of high quality leather shoes for unthinkable discounts (just don’t be put off by its unassuming appearance).
Fashion Week: Even though it’s not as fashion-famous as Milan, Rome still has a pretty influential bi-annual fashion week called Alta Moda Alta Roma. The old and well-established (and some new) fashion houses of Italy take this as an opportunity to connect with international talent and opportunities while buyers, celebrities, journalists and socialites look on for the next season’s trends. Even if you can’t get a seat by the runway for a designer show, the city will be alive with fashion, designers and taste-makers, so go style hunting around the city and see which style icons and avant garde fashions you can find.
Calling all daredevils: are you looking for a truly death-defying winter challenge? Have you been thirsting for a slope that offers a real challenge, potential for dismemberment and bragging rights to match? Well this list is for you – the top four most daring ski resorts. This is no snow bunny glade; these are triple black diamond, expert-only, world famous slopes that offer the adrenalin-rush of near-death and the comfort of a nearby chalet.
• Aspen Snowmass Ski Resort, CO: Aspen is world-renowned for its glamorous chalets and celebrity sightings, but Snowmass is strictly snow-business. Thirty-two percent of the ninety-one runs at this location are classified as expert. Over half of all the slopes at this resort at difficult or most difficult. And if you are looking for flips and jumps, Snowmass just added a twenty-two foot superpipe to its roster of hair-raising attractions.
• Brackenridge Ski Resort, CO: Also in the Colorado Rockies, Breckenridge is one of America’s most popular ski resorts, possibly for the frequent celebrity sightings – over 1.6 million skiers during the 2010-2011 season! This resort is also popular with expert skiers because over half of its runs are classified as expert. There are plenty of double black diamond glades, bowls and backcountry slopes and a terrain park designed for extreme ski and snowboarding. Breck is also home to the highest charlift in North America.
• Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, WY: This resort is renowned for its accessibility (it has its own airport) and the full access it offers to visitors – Jackson Hole prides itself on being “100% open”, the whole mountain. Which means true, diehard, daredevil skiers can, with the permission of Jackson Hole snow patrol, ride one or both of the mountain’s extreme couloirs: S & S Couloir and Corbet’s Couloir. Corbet’s starts out as a twenty foot drop off a cliff face. Work those edges and try to hang on. Surviving the opening pitch is the worst of it, however, and afterwards you can ride the forty degree slope with greater ease. S & S is not so easily tamed. This baby opens with a thirty foot drop into a rocky chasm and is rarely open due to unsafe conditions. If you manage to get your shot, be sure you’ve made friends with the ski patrollers who might be sledding you down to safety, should this insane couloir take you down.
• Harikiri, Mayrhofen, Austria: This list has been a little US-heavy, but only because many of Europe’s most terrifying ski hills are not attached to resorts, and thus could not be included. However, Harikiri (named for the Japanese suicide ritual) is the steepest groomed slope in the world – snow machines are suspended on cables that keep them on the thirty-eight degree slope. Grab the gondola at the Sport Hotel Strass and get ready for the ride of your life.
Toronto is a big and bold city and because of that there are plenty of ways to annoy its citizens. Generally a Torontonian just wants to live their life, have their friends, and feel pride in their city… if you step forward to impede these meager wants you will annoy them. Ways to annoy a Torontonians include.
Walking Slowly
There’s a time and a place to take your time on the sidewalk of the city and it isn’t before 9 AM anywhere near the financial district. Generally people in Toronto are bustling along at pace and the sidewalks are packed. A person walking slowly puts the entire fragile social world of the sidewalk in chaos slowing it to a stand still. Next people will start trying to pass the said person and annoying the people walking the other direction. We are not talking about Olympic speed walking here just keep pace to the person in front of you and don’t stop unannounced to look at things in shop windows in the middle of the sidewalk.
Claiming the city when you’re not from Toronto
Well the truth of the matter is that half the people in Toronto are from other places. With that said, when you meet someone in the city you wouldn’t say you’re from Toronto, rather you would say where you are from originally. Downtown Torontoite’s get annoyed when people from the fringes of the GTA (the greater Toronto area) claim they are from Toronto – which generally means living in the downtown core. Why you might ask would this annoy people? People from the suburbs – Brampton, Pickering and Mississauga – are often poorly behaved downtown in the entertainment district and the locals don’t want to be associated with that behavior.
Hating on the City, just cause…
All the Toronto locals have heard the New York comparison and how Toronto really is no NYC. Well duh…, but at the same time it’s kind of sweet it even got into a sentence of comparison with that city. People, especially around Canada, are often trying to knock Toronto down saying it really isn’t that great. Saying this to locals, who overwhelmingly feel positive about the place, will not like it. Sure, there are things that aren’t perfect – public transport could be better, rent is high, and Toronto sports teams are in a seemingly permanent funk – but there is plenty right here too and that is what locals like to hear.