Creativity takes courage, that's for certain. It's one thing if you send your masterpiece to your friends and family, but it's another thing entirely if you bare yourself to the world. That being said, some of the best artists were laughed at in their early days, and now we spend millions to buy them and…
Unusual
If you think you know Africa, think again. The country - and its entrepreneurs are not getting left behind. Brains and guts exist in every country, and Africa on that list.
The Real Wakanda is where oil magnates, textile queenpins, and construction autocrats come home to gargantuan mansions.
Africa is home to 1.2 billion inhabitants, and has…
Well, here's a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma: Point Roberts, US of A. Dangling off the end of British Columbia, Canada sits Point Roberts, a part of the USA. Isolated from the rest of the US, it truly is a place of wonder and bemusement. Lovely beaches and forests, relaxing paths on…
Los Angeles is often painted as being a vain and vapid place. All looks and no substance. Bring your alibis. (We rather like the place.) But, to be honest, some of LA is, indeed hollow and in some places, shallow. Some of its buildings, in fact. And they hide an interesting and still relevant and…
Once a German city before World War Two and physically unrelated from the remainder of Russia, Kaliningrad is still an enigma to many mainland Russians and their European next-door neighbours. Still, how does a 50-year-old unfinished building inform the complicated history of the Kaliningrad and inspire the restoration of other nearby dilapidated crumbling buildings? Watch the video…
In case you've not yet been (and you should!) Sintra is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. Known for its spectacularly coloured buildings, it also has a long history with the legendary Knights Templar.
One of the most fascinating features of Sintra is it's so-called Inverted…
Oiran (花魁) is a word used to refer to the high-class prostitutes that worked in the Yoshiwara red-light district (Yoshiwara-Yukaku) during the Edo period. The Ichiyo Sakura Matsuri started in 2003 to preserve this piece of Edo history.
It takes place along a 500m or so stretch of road with members in full Edo period dress…
As the world gets bigger, yet smaller, we all have an opportunity to grow, learn, experience and fall in love with places new. At Matouring, we promote this ethos and hope that you do, too. It can sometimes take you by surprise, or, simply surprise you. But, with eyes wide open, behind the veil, a…
History (and fun) can be found anywhere. Sometimes you need to look, other times it lands in your lap when you least expect it.
Here is an example of the latter. On a relatively normal stretch of everyday road in Gueux, France, you will find yourself ready to rev your engines and don your helmet. You're…
There are few things more intoxicating than being able to stay in a luxurious, lauded and visually stunning hotel. Europe is full of them.
But there is one hotel that is a hotel, but actually it's not a hotel. Luckily, you can explore it anyway. We're talking about the Hotel Solvay in Belgium.
Listed as a UNESCO…
There are so many swanky restaurants and cafes around the world, serving such things as sea foam and Peruvian gravel. We are very fortunate to have such choices.
But, sometimes, we want something simple, something free (so to speak.) No frills, just honest food. And what can be simpler than McDonalds. With over 36,000 locations, you're…
As so often we see in the news, large expanses of our globe are under stress right now, and we need to do our part to shift the balance.
One area that - being mostly water - that you might not imagine would be on the danger list is Florida's everglades. But, alas, like so many…
As if Amsterdam isn't wild enough as it is, here's a new adventure for you that you probably never imagined even existed - The Upside Down.
Enjoy the ultimate Instagram experience with 25 rooms and numerous interactive features, just minutes from the centre of Amsterdam.
Crazy, upside down, topsy turvy fun.
Tiqets have the tickets for you. …
Even better than the real thing.
The annual festival of Els Enfarinats (Valencian pronunciation: [elz amfaɾiˈnats]) takes place in the town of Ibi in Alicante, Spain on December 28,[1] as part of celebrations related to the Day of the Innocents. Els enfarinats comes from the Valencian word for "breading", and roughly translate to "the breaded ones" or "the floured ones". In the day-long festival, participants known…
Shakespeare could have a field-day with this.
This abandoned house looms a salt marsh, its pale pink paint looking like a mirror of the colorful sunsets that so often streak the sky.
It’s a celebrated local landmark, one with a definite air of mystery and romance.
But the picturesque house’s story is not at all romantic. A local…
Despite covid and all of the fistfights we hear about nowadays, air travel is still a marvelous thing. Spectacular locations matched to state-of--the art-aircraft are still the thing of dreams.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could go forward and and backward at the same time?
If you're one of those romantic types, read on here... courtesy…
As the old phrase goes, "there's no getting around getting around." We've all got to do it. Sometimes it's a pain, other times it's a pleasure. Sometimes you have no choice.
Getting around has been a real challenge during these times of the Covid-19 pandemic. So much so, that many of us have simply opted not…
лед лед Ana. (ice ice Ana.)
In 1993 the 2,500-year-old mummified remains of a woman were discovered in the frozen Ukok Plateau in Siberia. Known as the 'Ukok Princess' or the 'Ice Maiden' in the media, she is thought to be one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th Century.
Watch the video, below, courtesy…
As the famous circus magnate, P. T. Barnum used to say, there's a sucker born every minute. Ain't that the truth? Just scroll through social media if you want proof.
Here's a story that will surely make you scratch your head, laughing all the while. Was this an accident? Purposefully enacted? Vengeance? As Tom Scott explains,…
We won't blather on about the necessity (or not) of humans eating animals in this enlightened day and age, but let us have a moment of silence especially for the poor chickens of the world.
Not only are they food, they have also had a somewhat unenviable role to play in aviation. Bird strikes of jet…