03
Jan
Most visitors to Ireland either bring their own car by ferry from Britain, or they fly and hire a car.
If you are hiring a car, you need to know that an automatic will cost half as much again as the identical manual gear box model.
Petrol is currently about 1.20 euro a litre, that’s about 80 pence sterling and about $1.50 a litre in USD. That’s about $6 a US gallon. Diesel is a small bit cheaper. Most hire cars will give you 40 miles to the gallon or more.
Visitors are often surprised by how big Ireland is. It will take you seven hours to drive from one end to the other. The Island of Ireland is actually two countries, Ireland and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of Britain. From Dublin to Belfast will take you a good two hours motorway driving. Dublin to Cork will take you between four and six hours depending on the time of day.
The only motorways in Ireland are around Dublin. The motorway speed limit is 120 Km/Hr (75mph) The speed limit on National roads, N7, N8, N25, etc is 100Km/Hr (62mph). On Local roads the limit is 80 Km/Hr (50mph). National roads go through all sorts of towns and villages where you will find shoppers double parked, so your average speed off the motorways is 40mph over any distance at all.
Speed limits are enforced by the Gardai (pronounced gardEE). The Guards do not stand silhouetted against the skyline wearing bright orange jackets, as they do in Britain. In Ireland they hide behind lamp posts, crouch behind walls and hide in the bushes. You will not see them before they catch you on camera. Believe me – I drive 30,000 miles a year in Ireland, I know.
If you are driving a UK registered car, including Northern Ireland, the Guards will not usually stop you. If you have hired a car in Ireland they will stop you, but will probably let you go once they see you are a visitor, driving on a US or UK licence. At the moment only Irish drivers can be given penalty points, though other nationalities can be fined.
Driving in Ireland is extremely hazardous, especially between 11pm and 6am. Drink driving is common, seat belts are rarely worn and drivers are aggressive and totally discourteous. Never expect another driver to give wayif he has the right of way. Drive defensively. Expect the absolutely ridiculous to happen.
02
Jan
Cross the street and everything changes. Buenos Aires, more than most cities of a comparable size, gives you the feeling of a patchwork quilt city – a city which is defined by its neighborhoods (barrios).
If you ask a porteño, one of Buenos Aires residents, where he’s from, he won’t say Buenos Aires – he’ll give you his neighborhood’s name. And if you ask him which barrio is the best, any self-respecting porteño will tell you that his barrio is.
It’s best to take this advice lightly and sample a handful.
The barrios commonly visited by tourists and travelers include, in descending order of popularity:
1) Recoleta. Buenos Aires’ equivalent of New York’s Upper East Side or London’s Knightsbridge. Fancy, ornate and posh. A quick list of things to see and do include the cemetery, the lobbies of the five star hotels (of which the Alvear is the most ostentatious), and Avenida Santa Fe’s shopping.
2) Palermo. Known for its parks as well as its restaurants, bars and colorful little shops. When Palermo is mentioned as the best place in Buenos Aires to go out, it’s probably Palermo Viejo and Palermo Hollywood (two micro-barrios) that are being referred to. They’re BA’s hippest places to be seen at the moment, where you can take part in the city’s crazy nightlife that doesn’t even begin to slow down until the sun’s already risen. (A proper Buenos Aires night out should finish with breakfast.)
3) Downtown (Microcentro). This is where Buenos Aires’ suits go on a business day. It’s the center of the nation’s economy, a place of high rise office buildings, narrow crowded streets, and exhaust fumes. For the tourist without business concerns, it’s almost entirely devoid of interest (though you wouldn’t know it from the large numbers who flock there). Towards San Telmo, in the older part of the downtown area, there are sites to be seen, however: the Plaza de Mayo, the Casada Rosada (the “Pink House”, Buenos Aires’ equivalent to the White House) and the Manzana de las Luces are all worth a visit.
4) San Telmo. A barrio of cobblestone streets, antique stores, and colonial area mansions. In the early days of Buenos Aires, the Spanish and upper-crust criollos established themselves in this area and built grandiose buildings with interior patios. When those moneyed citizens fled San Telmo and took off for Recoleta to escape cholera epidemics in the late 19th century, the mansions were abandoned to squatters and San Telmo was transformed into the center of Buenos Aires bohemia. Recently, interest from visitors, foreign and Argentine alike, has brought gentrification to the barrio. This means security, once a sore spot, has improved, but prices have shot up as well.
5) One place where it is still best to watch your wallet though is La Boca. As a matter of fact, it’s really only recommendable to visit the tourist area of El Caminito where the Argentine Federal Police have been stationed to watch your back. This little street, with its bright colored houses, has very nearly been touristed to death. Still, no visit to Buenos Aires is complete without a visit to the fabled street of garish colors. On game days, the soccer stadium in La Boca is another major reason to visit the barrio.
When you come to Buenos Aires, though, do yourself a favor and try to break out of the established tourist routines, if only for a little while. Just a few recommendations of the lesser visited barrios, where your fellow-citizens and fellow travelers are less likely to be tagging along with you, include:
Las Cañitas in Belgrano. Restaurants, restaurants, restaurants galore (plus, it’s a stone throw from Palermo).
Almagro. What Sant Telmo used to be, Almagro still is: Bohemian. Check newspaper listings for tango concerts, independent theatre and other events in the area. Meanwhile, the cafe Las Violetas, on the corner of Rivadavia Avenue and Medrano street, is amongst the most beautifully restored historic cafes in the city.
Mataderos, an outlying barrio where the city’s butchers still ply their trade, is also a find, not so much for the barrio itself but for the Sunday afternoon markets which take place in the barrio’s main square. This market is not to be confused with the markets in San Telmo or Recoleta. It’s bigger, better, with a greater variety of authentic hand-craft goods – leather and silver amongst others. In the spring and summer months, gauchos from the nearby countryside perform rodeo displays at the market as well.
02
Jan
Today’s Orlando conjures images of fabled societies and a well known 2-dimensional mouse; however, the low-lying city near Florida’s Atlantic Coast has done much more to diversify its image since its backwater orange growing days. ‘Worlds’ and ‘Lands’ of the extreme and ultimate fictional reality are interlaced with Florida’s booming tech-science industry and a handful of significant cultural points of interest. Most attractions are not located in Orlando’s central metropolitan area and it is therefore advisable and in most cases necessary to rent a car during your stay.
Orlando has humble beginnings as an American military base staking out the Floridian peninsula against Native Americans. The Seminole Indians fought in 3 wars against the settling United States Government until they were effectively defeated in the 1850s. Orlando’s military significance stretches into modern day with its proximity to both Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the Kennedy Space Center.
With Just One Thought…
Walt Disney completed Walt Disney World in 1971, ushering in a new era that would make Orlando the 4th most popular destination for foreign travelers to the United States and earn Orlando the ranking as the city with the second highest number of hotel rooms in the country! Walt Disney World is complete with four theme parks, two water parks, eight golf courses, hotels, shops and restaurants, making it the largest privately owned tourist destination in the world. After 1971, a multitude of other and, some say, better theme parks sprouted in Orlando. SeaWorld and Gatorland are popular hotspots, as well as the not-so-typical World of Orchids, where thousands of the blooming beauties are enclosed inside an enchanting tropical rainforest. Discovery Cove is a more hands-on approach to SeaWorld, where visitors can snorkel among typical reef creatures including stingrays and dolphins or hang with the exotic birds in the aviary.
On your journey back from Fantasy Land to reality, be sure to check out the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in adjacent Daytona. Tour the launch areas, view the impressive observatory and witness real space flight simulators. Wekiwa Springs State Park offers a refreshing break from the constant sensory overload. Take an afternoon to rent a canoe or go for a revitalizing swim. Additionally, Orlando has the second highest number of lakes for a metropolitan region in the U.S., making it extremely easy to get a breath of fresh air or to enjoy a more serene and tangible substitute for water parks. For a little dining and nightlife, enjoy the buzz of Church Street Station. Lastly, earn your final dose of non-fiction at the Orlando Science Center before plunging back into fanciful frolicking. The Center is a spectacularly innovative audiovisual extravaganza focused on current and historic scientific milestones and is far more relevant and interesting than the EPCOT Center.
An Escape to Yourself
Orlando is the place to leave your worries and cares at the door. Visit this magical wonderland of creativity while enjoying your family, your children, your parents or simply the person who wants to be awakened inside yourself. Travel to Orlando and experience all it has to offer.
01
Jan
Australia, (The Commonwealth of Australia), is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the world’s smallest continent and a number of islands in the Southern, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Australia is a federation of six states (New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia) and two territories (the Northern Territory and the Capital Territory, where Canberra is located). Australia has been inhabited for more than 42,000 years by Indigenous Australians.
The eastern half of the continent was claimed by the British in 1770 when James Cook, an English explorer, landed on the world’s smallest continent and claimed it for Britain. In 1788, 11 ships, with more than 700 British convicts, sailed into present-day Sydney and established a settlement in New South Wales. Five further self-governing colonies were set up: Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia over the next century. On 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed. Canberra is the capital city of Ausralia.
The current national population is around 20.5 million which is concentrated mainly in the large coastal cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. Most of them descended from nineteenth- and twentieth-century immigrants, the majority from Great Britain and Ireland. Mainland Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders — the indigenous population was 410,003 (2.2% of the total population) in 2001. English is the official language and spoken in the home by around 80% of the population. The next most common languages spoken at home are Chinese (2.1%), Italian (1.9%) and Greek (1.4%).
The 2001 census identified that 68% of Australians call themselves Christian: 27% identifying themselves as Roman Catholic and 21% as Anglican. Australians that identify themselves as followers of non-Christian religions number 5%. A total of 16% were categorised as having “No Religion”, like the country which itself doesnot have any state religion.
The countries around Australia include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the French dependency of New Caledonia to the northeast, and New Zealand to the southeast.
Australia covers a diverse range of habitats, although most of the land is semi-arid or desert. Australia’s biota is unique and diverse as its extremely variable weather and geography are. In Australia about 85% of flowering plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds, and 89% of in-shore, temperate-zone fish are endemic. To protect and preserve Australia’s unique ecosystems numerous protected areas have been created.16 World Heritage Sites have been established throughout the continent.
Most Australian woody plant species are evergreen and many are adapted to fire and drought, like acasias and eucalyptus. Well-known Australian fauna include the platypus and echidna, the kangaroo, koala, wombat; and birds such as the emu, and kookaburra.
The landscape varies from endless sunbaked horizons to dense tropical rainforest to chilly southern beaches. The Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast and extends for over 2,000 kilometres (1,250 mi). The world’s largest monolith, Mount Augustus, is located in Western Australia. Mount Kosciuszko(2,228 metres (7,310 ft)) on the Great Dividing Range is the highest mountain on the Australian mainland, although Mawson Peak on the remote Australian territory of Heard Island is taller at 2,745 metres (9,006 ft). This unique geography and the biodiversity are the best attraction of Australia.
If you plan a Vacation to Australia, Several prepaid calling card and phone card companies are available to call both to and from Australia.
