Friday, March 31, 2017

Six Sights for Saturday: Istanbul

Six Sight Saturday: Istanbul

Istanbul is the most highly populated city in Turkey and has the interesting quirk of being located in both Europe and Asia.  It is situated on the Bosphorus River, which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. Around 64% of the population lives in Europe (the Thracian side) and the remainder in Asia (on the Anatolian side). 

If you have a day or two to spend here, these are my must-see sights:

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

The Travel Bug's 3 Fascinating Facts about Riga

The Travel Bug has dusted off his walking boots, bought himself a new winter coat, and embarked on his first adventure of 2017 to the beautiful Latvian capital city of Riga. He read all his guide books carefully; used lots on online bug chat forums, and these are the fascinating facts he uncovered:

TTB Riga Latvia
Me outside the House of the Blackheads in the Old Town
Jeans:
Born in Riga as Jakobs Jufess, and later known as Jacob W Davis, this tailor was asked by a customer to design strong trousers for her husband, who worked as a woodcutter.  Jacob's answer was to come up with the basic formula for jeans.  He later teamed up with Levi Strauss to patent the product and the rest is history.  

Riga Balzams:
The city is home to a rather powerful blackcurrant liqueur called Black Balzams. It's made from a combination of 24 different herbs, as well as some extremely strong pure alcohol vodka.  According to stories, Catherine the Great once visited from Russia while full of cold and was cured after a shot of Balzams.  TTB's humans tried it and can confirm that it does, indeed, kill off any bad bacteria in your body.

Markets:
Riga is home to the largest market in Europe, which is located in Old Town and is housed over five massive zeppelin hangars by the side of the Daugava River. Each hangar is dedicated to a different product; such as meats, fish, cheeses, spices and fruit and veg, and it has plenty of fresh carne for hungry little bugs.... 

Do you have any other fascinating facts about Riga to sure with The Travel Bug?


TTB xx


Sunday, March 05, 2017

Top 5 Sights In Palma

I'm the first to admit that Spanish Islands never feature in my list of travel targets as I tend to,  rightly or wrongly,  associate them with drunk British tourists and family holidays.  I know this means I'm missing out on all the history and culture that lies beneath the surface,  so I thought I'd check out to historic city of Palma in Mallorca and see what sights it had to offer. 

la sue cathedral, palma mallorca majorca
the magnificent Palma Cathedral
La Seu Cathedral:
This Gothic Roman Catholic gem sits in the centre of Palma's historic old town and has taken pride of place since the early 1600s, looking out over the Mediterranean sea and the popular Parque de la Mar. 

Gaudi was famously asked to assist with restoration project but resigned his position after a fall out with in 1914, before many of his ideas were put into place. One of the only changes made was the addition of a large canopy, which remains in place today.