5 summer destinations! Part 5

Amsterdam

Dam Square
If you're looking for a good time in Amsterdam outside of the Coffee Shops and the infamous red light district, you need look no further than Dam Square. Named for the dam built at the Amstel river in the 13th century, Dam Square is just five minutes from Centraal Station just a short walk down the Damrak.

Dam Square has a long history as a place to hang out, and the area was heavily populated by hippies and "free spirits" in the 1960s. And it's never lost its free spirited feeling. At Dam Square, you can find stalls for food, great restaurants, and plenty of both quirky and posh shops, such as the Amsterdam Diamond Centre. Spring, summer, winter, whatever, there is always something happening in Dam Square. If you visit in springtime, you may even get a chance to visit the carnival there. Just keep in mind that Dam Square tends to fill up quickly around lunch and dinner time. You may not get a table in one of the many cafes on the square unless you get there a bit early.

But Dam Square is a very lively place, so if you can't get a table there will be plenty of things to do while you wait. In the summer there are musicians and street performers. And all year long, you can take a gander at the Royal Palace, which is so beautiful you'll love looking at it while waiting for a table. Built in the 17th century, the Royal Palace used to house the Dutch Royal Family, and still hosts official receptions today. Next to the Royal Palace, you find the Nieuwe Kerk (New Chuch in Dutch), a beautiful old church built in 1408. Madame Tussauds of Amsterdam is also there, and can be a really fun way to pass an afternoon.
Source:Travel Guide

5 summer destinations! Part 4

Prague

Now in its 17th iteration, the Czech Dance Platform, running April 7 to 11, showcases the best in dance from the Czech companies that have made a mark over the last year. Fourteen shows — selected from a pool of 40 submitted pieces — were chosen by a panel of Czech dance and theater experts.

“The authors have the opportunity to take part in a festival that hosts numerous foreign guests and leading personalities of the cultural scene,” said Michaela Kernova, a spokesman for Czech Dance Platform. “At the same time the festival is a unique opportunity for all spectators to see in a short period of time the best Czech dance pieces created during the last year.”

Ms. Kernova says the pieces this year are mainly from well-established groups who have achieved recognition both at home and abroad. A few highlights she mentioned include a “Perfect Day or Mr Gluteus Maximus,” an easygoing piece set in a spa with a bit of black humor by the DOT504 Dance Company; and “Excursion with Helga,” a piece created by Marta Trpisovska and Jana Latalova, which looks at themes of beauty and pleasure.

Another piece being shown is “Transforma,” by the Israeli choreographer Maya Lipsker. It was designed for VerTeDance, a company of two women, which expanded a bit for this performance.

“It was our idea to work with five women, and Maya thought of the subject, theme,” said Tereza Ondrova, one of VerTeDance’s two members. “This is a special piece, mainly because of the other dancers. We are all women, but we all have different types of movement and the piece is very colorful in its movement.”

Czech Dance Platform will also feature a workshop on light design, and, on April 11, after the “Transforma” performance, will screen a documentary, “Touches of Dance,” about the emergence of two Czech dance companies, VerTeDance and NANOHACH.

The festival comes at a time when the contemporary dance scene is struggling in Prague. Lenka Bartunkova, another “Transforma” dancer, said she appreciates the exposure dance festivals like this can bring, but Ms. Kernova said they struggled to find available money, citing lower government grants and difficulty in finding corporate partners.

“Our wish is also to lure new people to theaters and show them that contemporary dance is a beautiful way to perceive the reality around us,” Ms. Kernova said. “Dance can enrich our everyday life experience of the world.”

Czech Dance Platform is held at three venues: Ponec Theater, Teatro NoD and Studio Alt@rt. Tickets can be purchased at the Ponec Theater box office.


Source: NYtimes

5 summer destinations! Part 3

Paris


WELL before midsummer, the sun sets late over Paris. Even at 9 p.m., you can sit on the banks of the Canal St.-Martin in the 10th Arrondissement, and see in the still water the reflection of the sky, a blue mottled with thin clouds, and the low pale buildings with their amber lights just turned on, and the ruffled, fractal edge of the trees in full green bloom. Night seems as if it will never come.

Paris Travel Guide
Where to Stay
Where to Eat
What to Do
Go to the Paris Travel Guide »
Multimedia

Slide Show
Affordable Paris

Map
Paris
Readers’ Opinions
Post a comment on the Frugal Traveler blog.
By the water, there is a small pink dot of a helium balloon, bobbing in the intermittent breeze. The balloon is key. It was given to you by Pink Flamingo, a pizza parlor down the nearby Rue Bichat, whose bicycle deliveryman will use it as a beacon to locate you and present the five pies you’ve ordered (10.50 to 16 euros each). They’re not all for you, of course — you’ve got friends to help eat the pizza and drink the four bottles of red wine (40 euros) you picked up from Le Verre Volé, a wine bar across the canal.

You’ll love the pizza’s quirky toppings — the Poulidor’s goat cheese and sliced duck breast, the bacon-and-pineapple Obama — and the earthy pinot noir. But finally it will be dark and you’ll be more than tipsy and your friends will be heading home by Métro, by Vespa and by Vélib’, the city’s rental bicycle system.

And you, you’ll take off on foot, up along the canal toward Belleville, where Asian, Arab and African immigrants live alongside artists and yuppies and bobos. And you’ll climb the stairs at the Hipotel Paris Belleville and collapse into the single bed of your spartan room, not caring that the toilet is in a smelly closet down the hall, because the sheets are clean, the rate is dirt cheap and you’ve just experienced the most wonderful, traditional and frugal activity in the City of Light — the picnic.

The picnic is the great democratizing institution of summer, when Parisians spill onto riverbanks and bridges and into parks and gardens, chasing away the memories of winter and rain with baguettes and bottles, sandals and sundresses. For the wealthy, picnics are a lark, for the less wealthy an escape, and for this Frugal Traveler, who spent nine days in Paris at the end of May and early June, proof that classic Parisian indulgence doesn’t have to cost a fortune.

In fact, this idea that Paris is expensive has always struck me as odd. Of course, it can be, if your conception of Paris is built on haute couture and Michelin stars. But Paris — the physical as well as the cultural — is the creation less of the moneyed nobility than of the strivers, schemers, hustlers, freeloaders and starving artists who roam its streets, sing chansons on its subways and make tiny cups of coffee last hours at zinc counters. When I imagine Paris, I think of Émile Zola, the 19th-century novelist whose based-in-reality characters — from ambitious laundresses to real-estate speculators — are, in their own way, just as responsible as Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann for transforming it into the grand, boulevarded city we know today.

I also think of Ernest Hemingway, whose “A Moveable Feast”— a “restored” version is being published this summer by Scribner — is the ur-text of rose-tinted Parisian poverty, a collage of scenes in which the young novelist starves for his art in a cold-water apartment, yet somehow manages to enjoy ski trips to Austria, bottles of good white Mâcon and platters of oysters.

Of course, Hemingway didn’t spend the rest of his life in a dingy garret (hello, Key West!), and neither would I. In the spirit of Parisian strivers past and present, my plan was to switch hotels every few days, starting with cheapest but (I hoped) still recommendable bed I could find, and moving my way up to grander and fancier digs — while, of course, staying well under 100 euros a night. In a twisted kind of way, I wanted to develop a bit of Baudelairean “nostalgie de la boue,” or nostalgia for the gutter — a romantic vision of poverty that can only really be embraced after climbing out of privation.

My descent into Paris’s lower rungs began at the allegedly two-star Hipotel, which I found through my trusty European hotel guide, EuroCheapo.com. The photos were sharp, the location decent and the price (32 euros a night, or about $44 at $1.41 to the euro) terrific, and the poor reviews on TripAdvisor only fed my dream of finding the ideal, undiscovered hovel. Dream on. When I arrived around 11 a.m., there was no one at the front desk and the hallways were just clean enough to dissuade complaint. After lugging my suitcase up a flight of stairs (what, did I expect an elevator?), I found the corridor dark, the light switches dangling on exposed wires.

The room was, in the French description, a “simple.” I had a desk, a bed, a sink, mismatched hangers and a single window that let in some welcome daylight. The only towels were hand towels, and the shower was down the hall, in a locked, windowless closet whose key I had to request at the front desk. It was bad, but neither hilariously bad nor charmingly bad. At least I was well situated, around the corner from the Colonel Fabien Métro stop and walking distance from other neighborhoods.

Because of this, I spent little time in Belleville. Instead, as always seems to happen, I wound up wandering the Marais, the former Jewish quarter that straddles the Third and Fourth Arrondissements and has, in the past 15 years, become home to innumerable galleries and fashionable boutiques. It’s also one of the few neighborhoods relatively untouched by Haussmannian urban planning. The streets remain narrow and chaotic, and feel more so because of the masses of tourists bumbling about.

Source: NYtimes

5 summer destinations! Part 2

Germany

Statistics suggest German tourists will travel more and will also spend more this year. The number of bookings of more expensive trips has increased while the average time spent on holiday stays the same.

According to the research by GfK Retail and Technology based on the number of trips booked in Germany, upcoming tourism season is very promising. The sales in January increased by 18 per cent in year to year comparison and the trend is likely to continue. The number of bookings of more expensive trips is rising, whereas the demand for trips which cost less than 1000 euro is dropping. The expenses allocated for traveling have increased and especially individual travelers or couples are expected to spend more on traveling this summer.
As Foodservice.cz reports the average time spent of holidays remains more or less the same, around 11 nights, but the expenses have increased by 6.7 per cent. An average German spends 954 euro per person. Families also spend more but only by 2.6 per cent. Spanish coast has so far attracted more Germans this year then in 2010. The sales of holidays to Spain have grown by 22.6 per cent which is a higher growth than the year before. Turkey has also recorded a similar growth in bookings. The double digit growth was also recorded by Italy, Croatia and Bulgaria.
Such development is also influenced by the unrest in northern Africa. Despite the facts, the number of bookings to Egypt has started to increase again. Major signals of recovery were already recorded at the end of February. The growth is more significant in online bookings. Germans prefer to book their trips in major travel agencies, especially if they want to go on an expensive vacation or if they need assistance and advice. The sales of trips have reached over 1000 Euros and consist of 53 per cent share in travel agencies and 30 per cent share in online sales.
Compared to less expensive trips, the trend is contrary. If the expenses do no exceed 750 euro, 47 per cent of customers book their trips online while only 26 per cent goes to a travel agency in person. It is similar with hotel bookings. One in five Germans books three star hotel online but only one in ten does the booking in person in a travel agency.

Source:TR

5 summer destinations! Part 1

Budapest Hungary



Budapest is the capital city of Hungary and a beautiful place that is visited by thousands of tourist every year. It is a worth visiting place as it has the history and beautiful modern and historical buildings and places that people especially visit to view and have an experience to know about the ancient places. When you plan for a holiday the first thing is to decide where will you be going this holiday and what measures you will take in order to avoid any kind of problems in your trip. Once you have decided that you are going to have a memorable trip to Budapest then you start looking for the Budapest accommodation and Budapest resorts where you can spend a family holiday and enjoy at its peak. Mostly people look for cheap accommodation Budapest.
Technology has made life easier you can easily search for the desired things online; you need to check the Budapest tourism online or Budapest hotel reviews in order to decide the best place for you to spend your holidays. In a city like Budapest you have a lot of options regarding planning your stay. You can look for Budapest apartments, Budapest resorts, Budapest guest house, etc. Now you can easily go for online reservation Budapest and can look for different packages provided by different hotels and resorts. The best way to select the best place is to read about the reviews by the people about different hotels in the city and Budapest hotel ratings can easily help you in knowing about the best place. It’s an understood thing that you want to have safe and relaxing holiday without any hurdles or issues that you never wish to pay for something that can help you only on the first day of your trip and the rest of days you keep on suffering with different problems.
It mostly happens that when people go on a holiday without investigating about the different things like hotels, conveyance, services and the most important thing that people at times go on a holiday without reservations in advance and once they reach their destination then they start this process of reservation and it mostly happens that they do not get place in hotels or apartments because that are already booked by others.
Planning a holiday is not an easy task you have to keep in mind different things. Check online for different holiday packages to Budapest and choose that best goes with your and your family’s requirements. Prefer advance booking so that you spend the whole holiday in a joyful mood without any tensions and enjoy the best services by the option you have selected. Different blogs can be a good place to know about the views of the people about different services that they have used their selves and there is no risk of any kind of false information because mostly people share their experiences and are not promoting any one service. Therefore search for Budapest accommodation and then Budapest reservation and get all the information required by you.
Once you have decided that you are going to have a memorable trip to Budapest then you start looking for the Budapest accommodation and Budapest resorts where you can spend a family holiday and enjoy at its peak. Mostly people look for cheap accommodation Budapest .

Source: Article Directory

11 Awesome Things Kate Middleton Gets When She's a Princess Read more: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b238369_11_awesome_things_kate_middleton_gets.html#ixzz1KjAMB8VD

After seven years of dating—and waiting, if her nickname in Britain is any indication—Kate Middleton has finally landed her prince. But the perks of being a princess don't end with royal man-candy.

No, we're talking your own personal secretary, your own wardrobe—and the personal shoppers and designers that go with that, all the way down to your shoes. And vacation estates, not houses. And—yes, really—a whole group of ladies in waiting.

What does that even mean? And are your own lady helpers the best perk of being a princess? Check out our brand new gallery to find out!

1. Royal Thugs
Just like William's mother, Diana, Kate is expected to have a full complement of security goons with her at all times, but especially when she's on the road.

2.A Sweet City Pad
It is expected that Kate will get a very nice set of apartments at St. James Palace, for her use whenever she and her princely husband are in London.

3. A Shield with an Acorn on It
That's what this might look like to an ugly American, anyway. But to a Briton, this is a symbol of powerful new connections. It's heraldry, a family symbol granted to the Middletons by the Queen ahead of the wedding of the century. Per the palace, the purpose was "to provide a traditional heraldic indentity for Catherine, as she marries into the Royal Family."

4.Really Nice Jewelry
Think your Mom's heirloom string of pearls are nice? Think again. One very cool perk of being a princess: Access to the queen's Jewels—all $39 million worth. Kate won't own the baubles, of course, but borrowing is the next best thing.

5.Best. Stationery. Ever.
Whenever Kate feels like writing a personal note—as Diana often did, classy lady like she was—she can do so on the official stationery of whatever, you know, palace she happens to be in at the moment. Kensington. Balmoral. Wherever.

6. A Private Secretary Who Probably Will Not Look Like This
Every princess is expected to maintain a grueling schedule of personal appearances and trips, both official and semi-official. That would be a logistical nightmare—if not for the personal secretary, the head of a whole staff of organizers Kate is expected to get once she assumers her duties as a princess.

7. Designer Cobblers
No trips to Payless for Kate! British princesses are known for choosing top shoe designers as their personal heelers. (In Diana's case, the man was, oh, just a guy named Jimmy Choo.) Who might Kate choose? Likely, it's all up to her.

8.A Lovely Second Home, er, Estate
What to get the son who has everything? Rumor has it that Prince Charles will gift his groom of a son with one of his estates, particularly Highgrove, in Gloucestershire. Charles describes this particular estate as his "family home" or "Duchy Home Farm." (Really.) And that would mean that Kate gets to hang out there whenever she feels like a pastoral escape.

9.Ladies in Waiting
What the heck are those? Well, every British princess and queen has had them. They fall under the category of female personal assistant, and they're usually hand-picked by either the princess herself, her husband's new family, or both. In Kate's case, don't be surprised if the head lady turns out to be Pippa, Kate's beloved sister.

10. A Personal Chef
And not just any personal chef. Darren McGrady, who once cooked for William's mother, Diana, is already having a hand in feeding the royal couple; the chocolate biscuit groom's cake, to be served on the big day, is said to be a McGrady creation. After the wedding, Middleton's household will likely get its own dedicated chef.

11.Hats No One Else Gets
And skirts. And shirts. And everything in between. Not only will Kate get her own wardrobe stylist (she already consults with a personal shopper who charges hundreds of dollars a day) but she'll get new clothes for every major occasion, such as official tour of a foreign country.

Source: Eonline!

Airplanes (B.O.B ft. Hayley Williams

A really nice rap-song has been one of my fave's!


Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now
Wish right now, wish right now

Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now
Wish right now, wish right now

Yeah, I could use a dream or a genie or a wish
To go back to a place much simpler than this
'Cause after all the partyin' and cashin' and crashin'
And all the glitz and the glam and the fashion

And all the pandemonium and all the madness
There comes a time where you fade to the blackness
And when you starin' at that phone in your lap
And you hopin' but them people never call you back

But that's just how the story unfolds
You get another hand soon after you fold
And when your plans unravel in the sand
What would you wish for if you had one chance?

So airplane, airplane, sorry I'm late
I'm on my way so don't close that gate
If I don't make that then I'll switch my flight
And I'll be right back at it by the end of the night

Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now
Wish right now, wish right now

Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now
Wish right now, wish right now

Yeah, somebody take me back to the days
Before this was a job, before I got paid
Before it ever mattered what I had in my bank
Yeah, back when I was tryin' to get a tip at subway

And back when I was rappin' for the thrill of it
But nowadays we rappin' to stay relevant
I'm guessin' that if we can make some wishes out of airplanes
Then maybe, oh, maybe I'll go back to the days

Before the politics that we call the rap game
And back when ain't nobody listened to my mix tape
And back before I tried to cover up my slang
But this is for the hater, what's up, [Incomprehensible]

So can I get a wish to end the politics?
And get back to the music that started this hit
So here I stand, and then again I say
I'm hopin' we can make some wishes out of airplanes

Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now
Wish right now, wish right now

Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky are like shooting stars?
I could really use a wish right now
Wish right now, wish right now

I could really use a wish right now
I, I, I could really use a wish right now
A wish, a wish right now


Source: Metro