Aliens may have been rating our planet as a travel destination all along! This set of reviews is from Matthieu Barrère’s webcomic Awful Drawings. Link -Thanks, Kim!

Wish there were words to describe how you feel while you travel the globe? The Lonely Planet blog coined some brand new travel-related words that may come in handy in your next journey:

automobilogic n.
The state of mind unique to road trips that convinces travelers that gummi bears and fried onion rings count as a daily serving of fruits and vegetables. Studies indicate that this may lead to automobesity.

bratpacker n.
Someone who believes they have a revolutionary system for packing luggage and insists on explaining it to anyone who will listen.

comeuppants n.
When an obnoxious person loses their luggage and has no change of clothes.

crankophone n.
Someone who tries to make themselves understood in a foreign country simply by speaking louder in their own tongue.

filibluster v.
To cause pointless delay by creating a scene in the airport security line to prove some point about personal privacy rights that no one behind you cares about.

Come to think of it, I know a few crankophones! Read more at the Lonely Planet Blog: Link

“We need your help, oh great citizens of the Internet! I’m writing a book with former Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump, and we’re looking for some old photos for it that you may have in your collection. We’re looking for stuff from his time at Disney (such as Adventureland Bazaar in 1963, Tower of Four Winds, The Enchanted Tiki Room in the 60s, It’s A Small World at World’s Fair, The Land in 1980s) and his outside work (like Bear-y Tales at Knott’s Berry Farm, Circus World, and Busch Gardens). Anything that Rolly has brought to life, we’d love to see your photos of it. We will gladly give you credit AND a signed copy of the book if we use your images!”

I know some of you Neatorama readers have been visiting the park for decades, so here’s a good opportunity to take advantage of those old family vacation photos.

Link Via BoingBoing

Burger King

In Canada, poutine, fries covered in cheese curds and gravy, is offered at almost every fast food restaurant, but BK offers their own varieties that fit in with the rest of their food –most notably, the Angry Poutine with fried onions and peppers on top.

In Puerto Rico, mallorcas, sweet pastry buns, are a popular breakfast treat and Burger King takes full advantage of the popularity of these buns by offering the King Mallorca, filled with ham, eggs and three different cheeses. If you want something even more filling, you might want to try their Enormous Omelet, which isn’t an omelet at all, but actually one of the restaurant’s long hamburger buns filled with a hamburger patty, two eggs, bacon and cheese. Later in the day, you can always snack on some King Wings, which are buffalo wings marinated in honey –why aren’t these sold in America yet?

In many countries, including the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico, you can enjoy the deliciously fatty Cheesy Whopper, which features a deep fried disc of cheese on top of a standard Whopper.

Personally, I want to try the Hawaiian BK Chicken available in New Zealand, which is like all the other chicken sandwiches Burger King sells, only it features bacon and pineapple. Sign me up!

KFC

The variety of KFC’s international menus is simply astounding, as the American version exclusively limits itself to fried chicken and a few sides, while the international franchises seem to have no limits on what they serve. On the more standard side, there is the Fillet Tower Burger, which is available throughout Europe and other locations, which is essentially just a chicken sandwich topped with a hashbrown. On the other end of the spectrum is the menu from Thailand, which features stir fries, a tuna and corn salad, fish fingers (like chicken fingers, but fish) and a donut filled with shrimp meat. China offers a similarly strange menu compared to the standard KFC fare, as it includes corn salad, beef wraps, red bean porridge, shrimp burgers and an egg and vegetable soup.

Some of the desserts featured in other countries sound downright delicious, particularly those available in France. Some French KFC dessert selections include a banana and passion fruit tart, panna cotta with raspberry sauce and tiramisu.

As for unique dishes, the Cali Maki Twister, available in the Philippines sounds good but weird. It is a chicken wrap with mangos, cucumber and spicy mayo. Japan’s shrimp bisque pot pie also sounds pretty tasty, although the picture looks a little strange.

Pizza Hut

Naturally, Pizza Hut’s main offering around the globe remains pizza, but what does change is their topping selection. Depending on where you go, you can top your pizza with apricot sauce, asparagus, broccoli, calamari, capers, carbonara sauce, chicken fajita meat, chicken tikka, chorizo, clams, corn, crab, cranberry sauce, cream cheese, curry sauce, eggplant, goat cheese, hot dogs, kebab meat, mashed potatoes, mayonnaise, mint, mussels, potato chips, roast beef, salsa, satay sauce, seaweed, sour cream, shrimp, spicy Thai sauce, sweet corn, tandoori spices, teriyaki chicken, thousand island dressing, tuna or yogurt. And I bet some of you still think pineapple is a weird pizza topping.

As if that weren’t enough variations on your pizza, the restaurant also offers a variety of different stuffed crusts and cheesy bite fillings, including a stuffed crust with kebab meat inside and a cheesy bite crust with shrimp inside.

If you really want to see some different menu items at a Pizza Hut though, head to Hong Kong, where the menu reads more like a five-star restaurant than a crummy American pizza chain. A few highlights: escargot with mashed potatoes, lobster soup with puffed pastry, paella, squid in risotto with shrimp in a lobster sauce and crème brule. It would sound great if the sign on the restaurant didn’t still read “Pizza Hut.”

Image Via tangdersons [Flickr]

Taco Bell

Taco Bell’s international menus are perhaps the most similar to the American version, with a few exceptions. Most notably, in Spain you can order tater tot nachos with sour cream (yummy), and a Chocodilla, which is exactly what it sounds like –a chocolate quesadilla. Also, in India, many of the traditional Taco Bell items can be served with potato in place of meat.

McDonald’s

While McDonald’s is certainly the largest fast food restaurant in the world, I did neglect to include them in this list only because I already wrote about many of their international treats in this McFacts About McDonald’s article. Just in cast you’re feeling too lazy to click over though, here is a highlight:

Most Indian menus are largely different than those in America, as pig and cow products are not served outside of Southern India. The chicken and fish are also prepared in separate areas because or strict religious laws regarding the preparation of food for vegetarians. One of the area’s specialties is the Maharaja Mac, which was originally made with lamb meat but now is made with chicken. They also serve a dish called the McCurry pan, which consists of a bowl made from flakey dough filled with chicken in a tomato-curry sauce.

Naturally, there are plenty more international fast food menu options, but we’d be here for weeks if I actually described them all. If you do happen to live outside the U.S. and know of a local offering from a major chain restaurant, feel free to talk about them in the comments. Similarly, if you’ve tried any of the snacks included here, tell us what you thought about them.

Sources: BK.com, KFC.com, PizzaHut.com, Taco Bell Spain, Taco Bell India

Atlas Obscura took many readers on trips around the world without leaving their computers in 2011. They’ve compiled a list of their most popular places -to read about, if not to travel to- over the past year. Some you read about here; others may be new to you, but all are fascinating. Shown is Cactus Dome in the Marshall Islands, a concrete cover over a nuclear crater left after US weapons tests, just one of the ten places you can visit online. Link

Even if you don’t live in America, you’re probably familiar with our New Year’s Eve traditions, being as how they’re played on TV stations across the globe and portrayed in countless movies. That being said, there are tons more celebrations out there that don’t involve kissing at midnight, watching a ball drop and staring at fireworks in awe.  Here are a few New Year’s Eve traditions from around the world.

Image Via asterix611 [Flickr]

Bring Gifts to Neighbors

It’s always nice to get a gift from a neighbor, friend or family member, but in some countries, visitors bearing gifts are practically guaranteed on the first day of the year. The tradition is commonly known as First-Footing and while it’s practiced everywhere from Russia to Wales to parts of the U.S., it is most common in Scotland. While the gifts brought for the occasion are important as they represent the type of luck the recipient will receive, it is also important who brings the gift. Ideally, the first person to enter a home at this period will be a tall, dark man, as this will bring the most luck.

Swing a Fireball Above Your Head

Scotland’s New Year’s Eve celebrations are known as Hogmanay and the celebration is responsible for introducing the “Auld Lang Syne” song to the world. But the festivities vary from place to place and while some areas celebrate by singing and linking arms at the appropriate point in the song, other celebrations are much more dangerous.

In Stonehaven, locals make up balls of chicken wire filled with newspapers, sticks and rags that sometimes measure up to two feet wide. Each ball is attached to a chain or nonflammable rope about three feet long. At midnight, the balls are then set on fire and swung around the heads of their creators as other revelers watch the spectacle. Eventually, the fireballs are put out or thrown into the harbor. Despite the dangers, the event has drawn in many tourists and the small town now sees around 12,000 people standing in the city streets to watch the fire balls spin. If you want to see the action without risking life and limb, the celebration is now streamed on the internet.

Image Via MrPurple [Wikipedia]

Burn Effigies

If you just can’t get enough burning out of your New Year’s experience and you’ve already visited Stonehaven, then perhaps it’s time to purchase a ticket to Ecuador. That’s because on New Year’s Eve, locals line the streets with effigies of people who have made a negative impact on the last year, most commonly, unpopular politicians. Thousands of dummies are lit up at the stroke of midnight in an effort to prevent the negative events associate with those people from impacting the new year.

Image Via lowfill [Flickr]

Munch Some Grapes

In Mexico, Spain and a number of other Latin countries, it is popular tradition to make a wish and eat one grape for each bell that chimes the sound of midnight. That means you must be a really fast eater or you’re bound to be stuck with a dozen grapes in your mouth all at once. If you are able to swallow them all, then your dreams are said to come true.

This tradition is actually fairly new, starting in 1909 when grape growers in Alicante thought up the idea as a way to help get rid of some of their extensive grape surplus from the year’s harvest. It quickly took off though and now people across the globe think of grapes as a must have for New Year’s Eve. As quickly as the tradition swept through Latin cultures, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see Americans adopting the tradition in the future.

Wear Colored Panties

In many countries, including Spain, Italy, Bolivia, and a variety of other countries, it is also traditional to wear certain colors of underwear on New Year’s Eve in order to bring good luck in the next year. While red is the traditional color in Spain and Italy, colors vary from country to country. In Bolivia, red is for love and yellow is for money…presumably that means you’re in for both if you wear red and yellow polka dots.

Image Via PinkLens [Flickr]

Chase Away Devils

For many cultures, the New Year is a time to wash away the old year and prepare for good fortune in the upcoming year, but in Puerto Rico and the Philippines, it’s a time to chase away the demons that have been haunting you and your home.

Revelers honk car horns, blast boat whistles, bang drums and ring church bells all in an effort to chase away evil spirits and demons. In some areas of Puerto Rico, they also throw pails of water from the windows in order to chase away further evil.

In Puerto Rico, those that aren’t on land throwing water from their windows or making noise instead fall backwards into the ocean waves as the clock strikes midnight in an effort to bring in good luck for the upcoming year.

In the Philippines, it is tradition to wear clothes bearing circular patterns, as they should attract wealth, as will throwing coins in the air at midnight and serving circular fruits with dinner. Those who wish to be taller should jump as the clock turns to twelve.

Eat a Ton

While many cultures have a traditional feast on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, Estonians take it to a whole new level. It is considered good luck to eat seven, nine, even twelve times on New Year’s Eve and for each meal eaten, the diner is said to gain the strength of that many men in the following year. It’s not totally gluttonous though. The meals are never supposed to be finished entirely, as the leftovers are to be provided for the spirits who visit that night.

Image Via Raasiel [Flickr]

Predict the Future

Many people like to set goals for the upcoming year, but some people take it a step further and actually try to predict what the year will bring. In Germany, fortunes are sometimes told by dropping molten lead into water and then evaluating the shapes of the drops.

In Romania, fortune tellers take to peeling, salting and reading the skins of 12 onions. It is said that someone who is particularly good at this skill can evaluate the weather of the upcoming year.

Image Via OnTheBorderLand [Flickr]

Excessively Clean and Cook, Then Relax

In Japan, New Year’s Day is one of the biggest holidays of the year, so locals spend the majority of the day cleaning their home to prepare for the first day of the year. They then have the largest feast of the year, featuring noodles that represent the crossing over from one year to the next. Traditionally, New Year’s Eve would require extensive cooking, not only to prepare the meal for that night, but also three days worth of non-perishable dishes, as the local shops would be closed. But this tradition is less common now that refrigeration is widely available and more shops are open in the days following the holiday.

At midnight, many people visit a local Buddhist temple, where monks ring bells 108 times, representing the different defilements people have in their head. The ringing of the bells is meant as a means of repentance for these naughty thoughts.

Finally, on New Year’s Day, residents are expected to rest and no work is to be done that day. Children often receive small gifts of money in celebration and hard working adults get the day off from the office –it’s a win/win.

Copy Times Square

While most of China doesn’t celebrate New Year’s Eve because locals still base their holidays on the Lunar calendar, Hong Kong is a notable exception. What makes their celebration different from the rest of the world’s is their replica of the Time’s Square ball dropping ceremony in the Times Square shopping mall. While it might not be as big of a deal as the original event, it’s certain to have less crowds and will probably be at least a little warmer than the celebration in New York.

Image Via ellesil [Flickr]

Do any of you celebrate less common New Year’s Eve traditions? What was the strangest holiday tradition you ever witnessed? I want to start doing the grape thing myself, although it certainly sounds like a challenge –especially if I still want my New Year’s kiss and a sip of champagne when the clock finishes chiming.

Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, Mental Floss #1, #2, Infoplease

Of course you want to visit Pandora! We all do! But since it’s a fictional planet, maybe the next best thing would be to visit the location where Avatar was filmed. You can do that, because it was in the Keahua Arboretum in Hawaii. The arboretum is chock-full of lush and exotic plant life, just like Pandora -without the Na’vi or the man-eating monsters. Find out eleven more locations where your favorite sci-fi movies were shot at TravelSupermarket. Link -Thanks, Danny!

It seems like astronomers are finding more and more exoplanets every day -some which might possibly support life, although they are extremely far away. What if we could travel to those distant planets we know a little about? Vincent Vermeij (Chungkong) turned this idea into a series of travel posters, featuring some exoplanets that already have names. See the rest of the series at his site. Link

Our world is filled with extreme climates, peaks and more. If you’ve ever been interested in these record-breaking locations, then don’t miss these ten most extreme places on earth including the largest vertical drop as you can see above.

Link

I don’t know about you guys, but this bike path in Ireland does not look like a place I’d want to take a trek. Oddee has even more outrageous paths for your viewing enjoyment and fear-inducing travel inspiration.

Link

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m still uncertain about whether or not I would want my body to be buried or cremated after I die. That being said, I certainly would love to be a part of any of these unique and cool cemeteries located around the world.

Link

The inspiring Rollin’ With Zach is centered around Zach Anner, a 26-year-old who has cerebral palsy, feeding his self-proclaimed “obsession” with travel on the show. Anner, who uses a wheelchair, participates in activities like rock climbing and sailing on the show.

“You really just have to have a good attitude, challenge yourself, and you can accomplish great things,” he says.

The theme song for the show was written and produced by John Mayer. See the promo video at People. Link -via reddit

I don’t know about you guys, but this seems so darn realistic. It certainly applies to every time I’ve been stuck on a plane.

Link Via Laughing Squid

Lego Brick Luggage Tag – $4.95

Do you have holiday travel plans? Are you in need of some new luggage tags for your trip? Why settle for boring luggage tags when you can have a LEGO Brick Luggage Tag from the NeatoShop. This great luggage tag, shaped like a LEGO brick, comes in the following colors:

• Black
• Blue
• Pink
• Red
• And Yellow

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic LEGO items.

Link

Japan’s Suicide Forrest

At first glance, the Aokigahara Forest near Mount Fuji is an ideal nature destination, filled with stunning trees growing on hard volcanic rock, and icy, rocky caverns. But the forest has a much darker side, one that was popularized with the 1960 novel Nami no T?, where the main characters end up committing suicide in the area. While Aokigahara was always a destination for the forlorn to end their lives, Nami no T? made the idea much more popular and since the book was released, an average of 30 people kill themselves in the area every year, with a record-setting body count of 108 deaths in 2004.

The government has put out a number of signs in both Japanese and English urging people to reconsider their decision and seek psychiatric help. Once a year, a group of volunteers patrols the forest looking for bodies. These body hunters mark off the areas they are exploring with plastic tape that is never removed. Thus, even if you never see a dead body or ghost roaming the forest, you are still bound to see signs of the forest’s secrets wherever you happen to go.

Image Via Al Kaiser [Flickr]

Mexico’s Island of the Dolls

Unless you already have a doll phobia, the idea of an island filled with dolls doesn’t sound all that creepy at first. It’s once you learn that the dolls are mutilated and left hung in trees while they rot away, all in honor of a drowned little girl that you start to realize just how creepy this macabre tourist destination really is.

It all started over fifty years ago, when the island’s only resident, Don Julian Santana found the body of a dead little girl in the canal where the island sits. He was haunted by her memory and soon started hanging dolls in the trees to appease the girl’s spirits and to ward off evil spirits from entering the island. Doll heads, arms, legs, etc. are sprawled out across the island in a strange sacrifice to prevent further evil. Strangely though, in 2001, Don Julian suffered the same fate as the little girl, drowning in the canal beside his home. Some people believe this was the work of the dolls who have since become inhabited by evil spirits. These days, the dolls remain the sole occupants of one of Mexico’s darkest tourist attractions.

Image Via SkilliShots [Flickr]

Italy’s Catacomb of Mummies

The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo started when the local monastery outgrew its original cemetery, so the monks decided to mummify one of their recently deceased brothers before placing him in their newly opened catacombs. The process seemed to work well, so the monks began mummifying all of their fallen comrades and placing them in the catacombs. After a few centuries, word spread about the monk’s unique burial methods and it soon began to be a status symbol for rich people to be entombed in the catacombs buried in their finest clothing. Some people even left wills requesting that their clothing be changed by their family members at regular intervals.

The last friar was buried in the catacombs in 1871, but famous people from the area continued to be interred up until the 1920s. There are now about 8000 mummies lining the walls of the many hallways, which have been organized into categories: men, women, virgins, children, priests, monks and professionals. Some of the bodies are even set in poses, including the bodies of two children who sit together in a rocking chair.

Austria’s Skull Ossuary

Halstatt is one of the oldest cities in Europe, but it’s not the town’s long history span that brings most tourists to the area. Instead, it is the small town’s massive ossuary that is filled with the painted skulls of more than 650 deceased residents of the town. The ossuary was built back in the twelfth century when the town became so large that the cemetery could no longer provide a final resting place for the residents. As a solution, graves began being rented for a span of 10-15 years, at which time, the bodies would be removed, the bones bleached in the sun and then left to rest in the ossuary.

While there are plenty of ossuaries in Europe, it’s the fact that the skulls in Halstatt are painted that make this one so special. The practice began in 1790, when members of the deceaseds’ families began adorning skulls with paintings of flowers, their names and the victim’s date of birth and death. Since their family members weren’t going to have a tombstone, it was their way of marking the “grave” of their loved ones.

These days, Halstatt is small enough that residents are no longer removed from their graves, but most people prefer cremation anyway. Anyone who wishes to be interred into the ossuary just needs to make the request before they die. The most recent addition to the collection was in 1997. Nowadays, most visitors to the ossuary are morbid tourists, not residents paying respects to their ancestors.

Image Via ambivalence [Flickr]

Portugal’s Chapel of Bones

Most of us like to relish life and ignore death as much as possible, but for the devoutly religious, the greatest rewards often come long after life has passed. That’s precisely what led a 16^th century Franciscan monk to build the Capela dos Ossos (meaning “Chapel of Bones” in English) for his fellow monks. The concept that life is transitory was reflected both in the macabre décor and in the warning sign above the chapel’s entrance, which read, “We bones, lying here, for yours we wait.”

Of course, the ominous sign is still far less creepy than the interior, which is adorned with skeletal remains of around 5,000 monks held in place with cement. The bodies were removed from several dozen nearby cemeteries and, of course, the bodies of the monks who died while the chapel was being completed. As if the bone-covered walls weren’t enough, there are two bodies dangling from chains coming from the ceiling –one of which belonged to a young child. Near these bodies, along the ceiling, are written the words “Better is the day of death than the day of birth.”

Image Via Chrisiano Maia [Flickr]

Rome’s Bone-Riddled Chapels

Rome has a lot of tourist attractions, but located below the lesser-known church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini sits a tourist attraction that Frommer’s describes as “one of the most horrifying images in all of Christendom.” That’s because in the chapels below the church’s main floor, are the bones of more than 4,000 Capuchin friars. Like Capela dos Ossos, the intention here isn’t to be morbid, but to remind visitors of the swift passage of life.

Construction of the chapels began in 1631, when the monks brought 300 cartloads of deceased friars to be buried in the crypt, which contained soil imported directly from Jerusalem. As monks died while the crypt was open, the body that had been in the crypt the longest would then be exhumed and his bones would be used to adorn the chapels. There are six rooms in the underground area, including the main chapel, which does not hold any skeletal remains. Three of other rooms are decorated only by certain body parts, skulls, pelvises and torsos, and legs. The other two rooms are the most interesting.

The Crypt of the Resurrection features a large picture of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, framed by different skeleton parts. In the Crypt of the Three Skeletons, the center skeleton is enclosed in an oval to represent life coming to birth. This center skeleton also holds a scythe and scales symbolizing death and the judgment of the human soul. Beside this fixture sits a sign with translations into five languages that reads, “What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be.”

Image Via Thomas van Ardenne [Flickr]

The Czech Republic’s Chapel of Bones

While most of the places on this list are minor tourist attractions in their region, the Sedlec Ossuary is one of the most popular travel destinations in all of the Czech Republic, attracting over 200,000 annually. Of course, that wasn’t the intention of its creators and designers. Like many ossuaries, the building was created after the city’s cemetery became incredibly over crowded.  In the year 1400, the church was constructed in the center of the cemetery with a massive lower chapel designed to be used as an ossuary. It was soon filled to the brim with the bones of around 55,000 people.

In 1870, a local aristocratic family, the Schwarzenbergs, hired woodcarver Frantisek Rint to put the bone heaps in some kind of order. Rint went further than just sorting things out, he turned the bones into works of art. He built massive bell-shaped mounds in the corners of the chapel and an enormous chandelier featuring every bone in the body. Garlands of skulls drape the vault and even the artist’s signature and the Schwarzenberg family coat of arms are recreated in bones inside the chapel.

Image Via kostnice03 [Wikipedia]

Paris’ Catacombs

This is actually the only place on this list that I myself have visited and I must say, it was well worth the visit. The Catacombs of Paris were created after the city suffered from massive cemetery overcrowding for centuries. It was so bad that all but the rich were buried in mass grave sites. Unfortunately, because the city relied on well water, the rotting corpses started to contaminate the area’s drinking supply. Finally in the 18^th century, the city decided to close down all cemeteries within the city limits and to move the bodies from the existing graves into a new ossuary located in the city’s massive underground stone quarries that had long since been abandoned. The exhumations started in 1786 and the whole process took over two years to complete –it takes a long time to transfer 6 million skeletons. In 1810, the Inspector General of Quarries Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury oversaw the renovations in the ossuary that would transform the piles of bones into a true mausoleum. He was responsible for arranging the bones into their iconic patterns and incorporating the handful of scavenged tombstones he could find into the overall design.

The deep underground ossuary ended up attracting visitors by the early 18^th century and by 1867, the area was opened to the public for tours. It has remained a popular tourist attraction ever since.

Image Via Vlastula [Wikipedia]

Pennsylvania’s Constantly Burning Ghost Town

(Video Link)

If you’ve ever played Silent Hill, then you know just how terrifying Centralia, Pennsylvania can be. While it might not be filled with dead bodies or dolls like the other places on this list, the ghost town is creepy enough to have inspired the location for one of the most terrifying video games ever created. Up until 1962, the town was just like every other small American town. But when a fire broke out in the abandoned coal mine below the town, residents started suffering adverse health effects from the resulting carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions. Despite multiple attempts to put out the fire, it continued to burn. Experts now believe it may continue to burn for another 250 years. Things didn’t get really bad until the sinkholes started to burst open in the early eighties, revealing burning infernos below the surface.

In 1984, congress offered residents buyout offers to allow them to move to away from the dangerous towns, but many insisted on staying. In 1992, the state claimed eminent domain on the city and condemned all the buildings inside the area. Despite the city’s decrees, at least ten people continue to live in the five buildings left in the evacuation zone.

Unlike the town of Silent Hill, these days, practically all the buildings have collapsed and the city looks more like a field filled with too many paved streets. The four cemeteries in the town continue to be well maintained though, despite the fact that one of them continues to have smoke rising around it at all times.

Have any of you ever visited any of these places? Are they worth a visit? Also, do you have any other creepy destinations to add to the list?

Los Angeles is a gorgeous city filled with movie stars and sunny beaches, right? As it turns out, the city is also loaded with oil rigs. You’d never know it though because the city carefully and cleverly conceals the rigs so you’d never notice them unless you were specifically looking for them. For more cool secret operations that are hidden in plain sight, be sure to check out this cool Cracked article.

Link

Just try to navigate this massive stone forest in Madagascar.The Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park in Madagascar is home to a number of critically endangered lorises, which might actually be a good thing -who is going to brave traveling though this terrifying area just to poach a loris?

Now here’s a meadow I’d love to get a chance to visit. Where is this magical land of the AT-AT? I want to go there.

Link Via The Mary Sue

No, these aren’t scenes from Avatar’s Pandora, they are the China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, which may have been the inspiration for the film’s stunning location. The drastic pillars are a result of thousands of years of erosion thanks to expanding ice in the winter. For more info on the park and more stunning pictures, be sure to visit the link.

Link

If you’re looking to plan a creepy vacation for Halloween time, the BBC has you covered with this wonderful article documenting some of the scariest spots on earth. Pictured is the Island of the Dolls.

Lying off the canals of La Xochimilco, in Mexico, is a chinampa (floating garden) covered with the hundreds of dolls. Gathered by Don Julian Santana Barrera who scrounged rubbish piles, the dolls were hung from trees to keep away evil spirits and remember the drowning death of a young girl. According to Barrera, the dolls he planted and hung around the chinampa were still alive, but forgotten by their owners. While alive, Barrera would move the dolls around the island from different trees, creating a chilling sight. The chinampa is accessible by boat and the dolls are still around, despite Barrera’s death in 1992.

Personally, I’d love to visit any of these spots, but I’m a bit morbid.

Link Image Via SkilliShots [Flickr]

I don’t know about you guys, but just seeing this picture makes me want to visit Singapore’s Changi Airport where fliers can take the easy way to the bottom of the terminal with these delightful slides. If you’re a slide enthusiast or just curious what other weird places could install slides, don’t miss this great Oddee article.

Link

Japan is well-known for its fascination with pop culture icons, which is why it’s not too surprising that even their subway posters feature immediately recognizable characters including Jesus, Superman, Marilyn Monroe and more. The one above reminds commuters not to forget their umbrella. See more at Flavorwire.

Link

Ms Burke rang around but discovered all the local bed and breakfast places were full, so she offered them a room for the night in her house.

The couple, who were exploring New Zealand while visiting the country to watch South Africa play in the Rugby World Cup, had mistakenly booked into the hotel in Eastbourne, Sussex, on the internet.

“I booked into the right hotel, just in the wrong country,” Mr Adendorff told the Dominion Post newspaper.

Despite the good-natured ribbing they received, the couple said Eastbourne was very nice and the locals were friendly.

The Adendorffs were unable to get a refund on the hotel due to short notice. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: Wikipedia contributor NordNordWest)

Few institutions offer better evidence of Madrid’s insomnia than its perennially popular chocolaterías (also known as churrerías), typically abuzz with late-night revelers from 4 a.m. to breakfast time. Their trademark dish is the churro, a long waffle-like stick of savory fried dough, eaten dunked into very thick bittersweet hot chocolate. Stop in at the venerable Chocolatería San Ginés, an 1894 throwback. Expect entertainingly brusque service, bright lights, and a frenzied atmosphere.
Planning: Chocolatería San Ginés is downtown on Pasadizo San Ginés. It’s open all night.

And that’s just number eight on the list. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Miguel Pereira)

Rubicon is said to be developing the “entertainment aspects” of the park, and it appears that it will be partnering with Paramount Recreation and CBS Consumer Products — which owns Star Trek — for creative development on attractions such as a planned “space flight adventure,” which is promises to deliver “a variety of multi-sensory futuristic experiences … that takes real-time immersive entertainment experiences to bold new heights.” The park and resort will also include restaurants, hotels, theaters, and shops. However, the entire resort will not be 100% Star Trek-themed; in an effort to promote tourism to Jordan, there will also be informative elements about Jordan’s history.

Supposedly the park will be open in 2014. Would any of you take a trip to Jordan to see it?

Link

A new sushi restaurant in the Aichi Prefecture of Japan has taken to making some outrageously massive rolls and nigiri. They also serve up some absolutely tiny pieces with each order to absolutely mess with the minds of anyone enjoying their treats. In the picture above, regular sushi has been included to give perspective to the other trays. You can watch a video of it at the link, but be warned the dialogue is in Japanese.

Link Via InventorSpot

BuzzFeed has a great list of cool hotel rooms, and while most of them have stunning interiors, I have to say that this cow-shaped room is the one that really caught my attention. It’s apparently in Belgium, but I couldn’t find much else about it. Anyone care to fill me in?

Link

We’ve all heard of the kitty and puppy cafes sweeping through Japan, but for those of you who like more cold-blooded pets, there’s now a reptile cafe to satisfy the desires of those who live a petless lifestyle but still want periodic cuddling with their favorite critters.

Link

This video is named Move. It’s part of a trilogy of videos from director Rick Mereki, director/producer Tim White, and actor Andrew Lees. They traveled 38,000 miles to 11 countries in 44 days and produced three videos. The others in the trilogy are Eat and Learn. Click “more” to see them.

Eat

(vimeo link)

Learn

(vimeo link)

Music composed and performed by Kelsey James. -via The Daily What

National Geographic Traveler magazine has announced the winners of their 2011 photo contest! First place went to the photo shown here, taken by Ben Canales at Crater Lake National Park. Read the story behind the picture, and see ten other amazing winning photos at NatGeo (do not miss the Viewer’s Choice winner). Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Ben Canales)

I think the craziest road I ever drove on was the one lane, ocean-side freeway that hangs over California’s cliffs on the Coast Highway 101. While that got a little intense at parts, it was nothing compared to the terrifying roads seen in this Mental Floss article.

Link

Now here’s a place Homer Simpson could really worship, the Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew Temple in Thailand. It’s made from over 1.5 million green Heineken and brown Chang beer bottles.

Link

Valle de la Luna means Valley of the Moon, an area you’ll find near the village of Mallasa in Bolivia. The towering cliffs and the dark valleys in between them honestly resemble something you might find in a science fiction novel! Read about this unique valley, and see more pictures at For 91 Days. Link -Thanks, Juergen!

If you’re planning a trip based solely on geek culture soon, Oddee’s list of 10 geek bars and restaurants should be a great resource for dining and drinking options. My favorite is The Hajime Restaurant in Bangkok, where robots serve as waiters and entertainers.

Link

The trip takes almost seven hours, but it’s seven hours of the most beautiful landscapes imaginable, particularly if you’re able to snag the front seat next to the driver. Amazingly, this train isn’t a touristic draw. We were the only foreigners on board (and among a minority who wasn’t carrying a bag full of potatoes or chickens).

Tickets were about $3.50 apiece, already worth the price after the first 15 minutes. Vertigo-sufferers may want to take a pass on the trip… the train never feels especially steady, and I felt my stomach jump while looking down over some bridges. But if you’re a fan of mountain scenery, and not on a tight schedule, this trip is definitely something to consider. It’s also a slow, healthy way to ascend to Potosí’s 4000+ meter altitude.

See photographs and video of the trip at For 91 Days. Link -Thanks, Juergen!

Supposedly these vampire hunting kits were sold to travelers to protect them from our fanged, blood sucking friends. See the full gallery at the link.

 Travelers in the 19th century would purchase ‘vampire hunting kits’ in preparation for their travels to Eastern Europe. The kits would contain a wooden stake, Bible, crucifix, pistol with lead bullets, gunpowder, garlic and glass vials that held various concoctions to ward off vampires.

Link

Disney fans rejoice, it’s time for yet another set of Neatorama Facts featuring the Happiest Place on Earth. This time, we’re taking a detailed look at “the wildest ride in the wilderness,” Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Image via Mastery of Maps [Flickr]

Conceived and Created In Different Parks

Most of the definitive “Disney” rides seem to have been created specifically for Disneyland long before they were added to Disney World and the other parks, but Big Thunder Mountain started out in exactly the opposite way. This time, the ride was originally conceived as part of a new Magic Kingdom area called the Western River Expedition, a Western-themed area similar to Frontierland. The area would look like a big plateau and contain a number of rides, including a runaway mine train roller coaster. Unfortunately, because the park just opened Pirates of the Caribbean, the area was considered too expensive to install, so Imaginer Tony Baxter proposed building just the coaster as a separate attraction, which would instead be added to Disneyland park first. While that idea was approved, the project way put on hold so the team could focus on Space Mountain.

More Computers, More Problems

The delay in the project actually turned out to be a good thing though, as it meant the developers were allowed to use computers to design the coaster, allowing for a smoother ride than one designed by hand.  Big Thunder Mountain was actually the first ride to use a computer to design the track, but because it was a brand new technology, the creation process was actually anything but smooth.

While ride designers knew what would look good, the computer wanted the ride to be as simple and smooth as possible. So the imagineers had to submit nine different designs before the computer finally accepted one without automatically making changes that would make it less attractive.

Eventually the design was accepted upon by all parties and construction started. The ride opened first in Disneyland in 1979 and a larger version opened in the Magic Kingdom a year later.

Image via Sally Ann French [Flickr]

There Is Actually A Plot

While the railroad coaster may not seem to have as much of a storyline as some of the other rides, it actually have a pretty detailed story. Essentially, gold was discovered at Big Thunder Mountain and the nearby town quickly became a thriving mining town. Unfortunately, the miners who built the mine trains to transport the ore didn’t realize the mountain was sacred to the Native American tribe and that those who disturbed the mountain were cursed. The earthquake in the tunnels destroyed the mines and killed enough workers that the town was quickly abandoned.

I’ve been riding the mine carts for years and never once realized that there’s supposed to be a significance to the fact that there’s no engineer in the train. As it turns out, that was very intentional. The carts are supposedly running on their own because they are possessed.

Tourists are now asked to enjoy a trip through the haunted mines in the possessed trains. Scary, right?

Shoutouts to The Past

Before Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was built in Disneyland, there was already a somewhat similar (although significantly slower) train ride in that spot. The Mine Train attraction featured a small mining town, glowing pools of water and two waterfalls, named Big Thunder and Little Thunder.

After tearing the old attraction down, many of the features were kept around and incorporated to be part of the new ride. The ride itself is named after the large waterfall in the Mine Train ride and the town at the end of the ride was from the old ride, the rainbow caverns at the beginning of the ride, and most of the animatronics are all from the previous occupant of the space.

Image via kalavinka [Flickr]

Acquiring Other Design Details

The rock formations themselves are based on real landscapes found in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah (the landscape at the other parks is based on Arizona’s Monument Valley). As for all those fun decorating details like the ore-crusher and the hauling wagon that sit just out of reach of the tourists, those are real relics from the American Southwest that were purchased specifically for use on the ride.

Sound Familiar?

If you’ve kept up on all of these Neatorama Disneyland articles, you’ve probably noticed that Disney was big on using the same voice actors over and over. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is no exception to this rule. The narrator that warns you to keep your hands and arms inside the ride while you experience the “the wildest ride in the wilderness” is Dallas McKennon. If you think his voice sounds a little familiar, that’s probably because you’ve heard him talk in many other Disney roles, including the fox in Mary Poppins, the Owl in Sleeping Beauty and a number of supplemental characters in Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians. He also did the voice for Archie Andrews in the Archie cartoons of the 60’s.

Image via iheartlatkes [Flickr]

By The Numbers:

• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad can reach a top speed of 30 miles per hour, but usually travels around 24.
• The ride lasts an average of three minutes and fifteen seconds.
• There are six trains on the ride and they all have terrible puns in their names, all of which start with U.R., I.B. or I.M. The full list is: U.R. Courageous, I.M. Brave, I.M. Bold, U.R. Fearless, I.B. Hearty and U.R. Daring.

Do you guys like Thunder Mountain, or is it a little to fast for you? Also, how many of you actually knew the ride had a plot? Be honest.

Sources: Wikipedia, Mental Floss, All Ears

_____________________________

Disneyland fans! See more Neatorama Facts:

Neatorama Facts: Haunted Mansion

Neatorama Facts: Sleeping Beauty Castle

Neatorama Facts: Pirates of the Caribbean

Neatorama Facts: The Jungle Cruise

Neatorama Facts: Space Mountain

Neatorama Facts: The Enchanted Tiki Room

Neatorama Facts: Christmas at Disneyland

Neatorama Facts: It’s a Small World

If you’re looking for something to do on your next vacation that’s a little different than the usual sightseeing fare, National Geographic has 10 jaw-dropping suggestions that all take place underground. That’s part of the Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky in the picture above. Other suggestions include the Underground City of Montreal, the Cu Chi Tunnels of Vietnam and the Berlin Nuclear Bunker in Germany.

Link

The Surfing Trooper escaped the Empire to surf around the world. Last he was seen in the waves of Bali but what will be his next destinations? For sure he will post a lot of pictures from his journey on his blog. Have you seen him?

Link

Colin Greenhalgh adds monsters and somewhat-poetic captions to vintage postcards to make them much more interesting.

Meanwhile in Adventure Land, an imp lands a hand, scaring all the guests. Onlookers are captivated in fear, as he emerges from the murk, and lets lose a terrifying burp.

See a variety of such nonsense at his blog Monsters Abroad. Link -Thanks, Amy Dix!

Image via Thomas Hawk [Flickr]

A Last Minute Addition

One of Disney’s most iconic attractions actually started out as a last minute attraction to the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The team was already working on a number of exhibits for the fair, including the Magic Skyway, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and The Carousel of Progress, when the program manager for the fair reached out to Disney and asked him to creat a tribute to UNICEF.

Always up to a challenge, Disney agreed and asked Mary Blair, Marc Davis, Alice Davis and Gregory S. Marinello for help. Mary gave the ride its overall feel and whimsy and inspired the general character design. Marc designed the scenes and the specific characters, while his wife, Alice, designed the costumes. Gregory designed the clock face on the exterior. Walt oversaw the design of the doll’s faces, which were all made to be exactly the same in order to promote the concept that all around the world children are all the same deep down.

Image via Andy Castro [Flickr]

The original nickname of the ride was “the happiest cruise that ever sailed” and the ride was intended to showcase the national anthem for each country portrayed. Unfortunately, this ended up sounding like a terrible mess in practice, so he hired the Sherman Brothers, the same gents who wrote the theme song for the Tiki Room, to create a song that would unify the ride’s characters together. It was only after the boys came back with their masterpiece that the ride got its name.

To really bring a spirit of unity, children from all over the world were hired to sing the song for the official recording. A London church choir, a Roman school chorus and Mexican tv performers are some of the many voices heard on the soundtrack. In a striking gesture, Disney opted not to copyright the song at the urging of UNICEF and he declared that he gave it to the children of the world as a gift. It remains the only Disney creation to never be copyrighted.

A Smashing Success

At the fair, the ride was a huge hit and over 10 million ride tickets were sold in the two years the fair operated, resulting in a huge chunk of proceeds given to UNICEF. While the ride constantly had visitors, the mechanics of the boat ride allowed for lines to move quickly. The amazing capacity prompted the company to change their plans for the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean attraction from a walk-through exhibit to a boat ride.

As soon as the World’s Fair was over, the ride was installed in the Anaheim park, opening for the first time on May 28, 1966. The attraction was installed rather quickly since it mostly just had to be moved from the World’s Fair back to Disneyland and put back together (all the original pieces were used in the current version). Still, some additions were needed to ensure it could survive as a permanent ride instead of a quick touring ride.

To commemorate the ride’s official opening, Disney invited children from around the world to attend the grand opening. He asked each of them to bring a container of water from a lake, ocean or river in their native country. Before the ride opened, the containers were emptied into the water of the attraction.

Each cruise lasts about 15 minutes and features over 300 costumed dolls singing the official song. Because there are now five Disneyland parks, all of which play the song on a constant loop, the song is estimated to be the most performed musical composition in the world. It’s estimated that more than 256 million people have ridden the cruse, which means it might just hold the record for “song to get stuck in the most people’s heads.”

Changing A Classic

Image via Armadillo444 [Flickr]

As you may have noticed through the Neatorama Facts series about Disneyland, the park always goes through renovations and no matter how minor they are, fans always cry foul. It’s A Small World went through a very serious renovation in 2009 and the reviews seem to be divided. While some of the changes were minor, like the enhancements to the water jets that push the boats through the ride and the replacement of the old boats, the big difference was the addition of over 30 Disney characters into the classic attraction’s scenes. The renovation also included a new “America” area, where there used to be a South American rain forest scene.

Personally, I find the added Disney characters to be subtle and their inclusion creates a fun game for guests to find all of the new characters. Here’s a video of the change for comparison:

Holiday Inspirations

It’s A Small World joins the Haunted Mansion in being one of the only rides to change on the inside and outside during the Christmas season. During this time of year, the children sing classic holiday songs, which are seamlessly blended in with the Small World theme. Each region is also adorned with the area’s traditional holiday décor. On the outside, the façade is just as impressive, adorned with tons of glowing Christmas lights.

Image via Andy Castro [Flickr]

A Few More Fun Tidbits:

• The Sherman Brothers claim to have written the song in response to the fear caused by the Cuban Missile Crisis, hence some of the less cuddly lyrics like “it’s a world of laughter, a world of tears, its a world of hopes, its a world of fears.”
• In reference to the song’s lyrics, which say, “there is just one moon and one golden sun,” there is at least one sun and one moon in every room of the ride.
• The official name of the waterway you travel down is the “Seven Seas Canal.”
• The golden accents on the building are actually 24-karat gold.

Do you guys like It’s A Small World, or does the catchy song drive you bananas? For those of you who are fans, what do you think about the Disney character additions? Are they a fun little enhancement or a distraction?

Sources: Wikipedia, National Institute For Health, Mental Floss, Disneyland and Little-Known Facts About Well-Known Places

_____________________________

Disneyland fans! See more Neatorama Facts:

Neatorama Facts: Haunted Mansion

Neatorama Facts: Sleeping Beauty Castle

Neatorama Facts: Pirates of the Caribbean

Neatorama Facts: The Jungle Cruise

Neatorama Facts: Space Mountain

Neatorama Facts: The Enchanted Tiki Room

Neatorama Facts: Christmas at Disneyland

You can plan a vacation in Europe, or you can dream about one. Either way, you’ll enjoy reading about some lovely relaxing places to have a siesta in France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Pictured is the town of Manarola, Italy, “not recommended for those who tend to roll around a lot in their sleep”. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Paul Hogie/My Shot)

So what is so important about Pioneer Square and why should anyone outside of the city care? Read on, my friends, read on.

The First Settlements

In 1851, a troupe of pioneers known as the Denny Party established the first white settlement in the area at Alki Point. The group was led by Arthur A Denny, who soon realized that Alki Point wasn’t a good place for a settlement and then moved his party to a tide flat off of Elliot Bay, which they named Duwamps, after the local Native American tribe.

Within the first few years of settlement, another leader, Doctor David Swinson Maynard moved in from Cleveland. Whereas the members of the Denny Party were dedicated teetotalism Methodists, Doc Maynard was a heavy drinker who believed vice was one of the most effective industries in a frontier town.  Maynard convinced the other townspeople to rename the city Seattle after the Duwamps Chief Seattle, who was a friend of his. He did so not only to help honor his friend, but also because he knew Seattle would be a lot easier to promote to people back East than Duwamps, which sounded like a swamp.

In 1852, Maynard built his cabin, and contained a store inside of it, establishing the first shop in Seattle. He soon obtained the right to host a post office in his store, meaning everyone had to visit his store to get their mail. Throughout his life, Maynard helped build a number of important establishments in Seattle, building the first pharmacy, hotel, casino, saloon, brothel and hospital in the area.

When plots of land were officially established, Denny’s property stretched north of Pioneer Square, while Maynard’s extended to the south. Because each established their streets according to their piece of shoreline, the streets now have an awkward bend at what is now Yesler Way and that area of town is noticeably jumbled when it comes to driving.

Maynard helped jump start the city’s industry by offering his land at exceptionally cheap prices, provided the buyer started building a business on it immediately. He attracted critical business professionals such as blacksmiths into town, along with purveyors of vice, which helped attract more frontiersmen to the city. Early real estate records show that 90% of the city’s first businesses were built on Maynard’s land or immediately adjacent to his plot.

Left Out of The History Books

While Maynard obviously did a lot to help establish the town, he was left out of history books and almost completely forgotten about until Bill Speidel’s research helped bring his contributions to light. So why would such a key figure in the town’s founding be forgotten? Mostly because he was seen to be amoral.

When Maynard left Cleveland in 1850, he was married to a woman named Lydia. She eventually filed for divorce on grounds of desertion, but she never completed the divorce. Before arriving in Seattle, the good doctor circulated amongst several wagon trains, helping to fight cholera. While serving as the leader on a small wagon train that brought him to Puget Sound, he fell in love with a widow, Catherine Troutman Broshears. At first, her brother refused her permission to remarry, but after Maynard made a good deal of money in Seattle, he relented and the couple was married.

Years latter, Maynard’s first wife sold off her share of property and the man who purchased it then went after Maynard, claiming he was owed everything that was Lydia’s since the couple was never officially divorced. Lydia came to Seattle to help defend her husband and Catherine and the doctor became friends with her and let her live in their home. According to Speidel, Doc Maynard was the only resident that was commonly seen with one wife on each arm.

Aside from his adulteress nature, Maynard was also known to be a serious drunkard and prominently supportive of businesses dealing with vice, including saloons, casinos and brothels.

An Environmental Disaster

Seattle was established as a logging town. The area it was built on was covered with 1000-2000 year old trees that stood as high as 400 feet tall. Naturally for a logging industry with this much potential, a sawmill was necessary to process the wood, so when Henry Yesler moved from Ohio with a $30,000 loan to establish a sawmill, Maynard and Denny both donated land to him. The land was just west of Pioneer Square, in between the two properties and right on the waterway.

The mill was all set to make a fortune as Seattle was poised to be the main lumber supplier for San Francisco, which had a constant need for building supplies. Interestingly, Yesler made more money from real estate than he did from his mill and quickly became the city’s first millionaire.

The sawmill was at the bottom of the hill, so trees were harvested and then rolled down the street to the mill, which inspired the name “skid road.” When the area became dilapidated in the twentieth century, it led to the adaptation of the term “skid row” to describe a scummy part of town.

Yesler’s steam-powered saw mill had ample sawdust, which ended up coming in handy as the mud-ridden streets of the tide flats required something to help fill in the constant potholes. So, Yesler donated his mill’s waste to the streets. Of course, the rotting wood surrounded in mud wasn’t entirely effective and the early stories of San Francisco describe a number of horses and dogs sinking into the mud up to their necks and at least one person being killed in the mud, which sometimes sank like quicksand.

Aside from sawdust, Yesler also donated wood to help the city create its first sewage systems. Their first attempt consisted of a v-shaped trough above ground, which stank and leaked into the streets. This was soon replaced with an underground system that used hollowed-out logs. Unfortunately, because the pipes went directly into the sound, the high tide sent the sewage right back up, so everyone was advised to avoid flushing at high tide or risk a fountain shooting from their toilet.

The Trouble With A Lumber Town

Given how much timber was readily available in the area, it’s not entirely surprising that the majority of the city’s buildings were made from wood. Because the city was built on a tide flat, many of them were even built on wooden stilts. Add a ton of wooden buildings, wooden water pipes and sawdust shavings lining the streets, it’s easy to see how much of a fire trap the city was.

Unsurprisingly, when a cabinet maker accidentally started a glue fire in 1889, it spread quickly throughout the town. In the end, somewhere between 25 and 29 blocks were completely destroyed, including the city’s entire business district, four of the wharfs, and the city’s railroad terminals. Luckily, no one was killed in the massive blaze.

The Great Rebuilding

Bill Speidel often joked that the fire was known as the “Great Seattle fire” because it allowed the city to rebuild in a way that would get rid of all of their terrible problems. They could install real underground plumbing that wouldn’t shoot back in the pipes during high tide, they could regrade the streets so the high tide wouldn’t flood buildings and streets. To prevent future fire hazards, an ordinance required that all businesses downtown be made from brick and stone.

Unfortunately, the city renovation caused a conflict between the business owners, who wanted to reopen as soon as possible, and the city, who wanted to regrade the streets, which would take years. A compromise was soon reached, allowing the businesses to rebuild immediately on the tide flats as the city would regrade the streets. This meant the city would install massive retaining walls around the sidewalks and ladders could be used to climb from the elevated streets into the city’s underground sidewalks and into the store entrances.

Eventually, the sidewalks were built over the underground area, connecting the second or third stories of the buildings to the street-level. Interestingly, the fire also led to an economic boom, as construction workers rushed to the city to help rebuild businesses and streets alike.

By the time of Speidel’s Underground Tour, most people in the city thought the underground was just a rumor, but once the tour opened up, residents and visitors alike were amazed to discover the city’s fascinating buried history.

The story of Seattle’s founding isn’t just interesting for the tales of corruption and entrepreneurship, it also serves as a perfect example of how history can be reshaped as it is retold. Without Speidel’s research, Maynard and the city’s underground would likely still be lost to history. Who knows how many other cities have similar tales hiding just below the surface of the sparkly clean stories in history books?

Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, Seattle PI, History Link #1, #2, UWSP and Underground Tour

Slate is doing a series of travel posts with our friends Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras at Atlas Obscura. Part one of the hidden wonders of South America is about The World’s Most Beautiful River. This video is from part two, A Death-Defying Commute. A 60-year-old cable spans a 1,200-foot-deep ravine between two mountains near the village of Guayabetal, Colombia. Dylan took a chance on riding the zipline.

“Your rope appears to be a little frayed,” I pointed out, warily. But Mario, who has been going back and forth on the cable since he was 8 years old, said that he was so confident in his harness, he would happily take one of us across with him. I laughed at the idea. Dylan, in a momentary lapse of judgment, forgot that his fiancee and mother might someday read this and eagerly volunteered.

The couple of dozen cables used for traveling in the area were considered dangerous, but since the gorge is the border between two states, jurisdiction over the ziplines is complicated. Most of them were removed and only four cables remain. Read more about them at Slate. Link

Austria:

Austrian children still get to celebrate the arrival of Ol’ Saint Nick, but they also have to brace themselves for the arrival of his evil counterpart, Krampus. Where Saint Nicholas rewards good behavior with treats and toys on December 6, the demonic Krampus arrives on December 5, looking to punish all the bad children. His weapons of choice are birch switches to beat children with and burlap sacks to kidnap them and throw them into the river.

The worst part is that local men actually dress up like Krampus (just like many men dress up as Santa in America) and terrorize the streets. In some villages, kids are even made to run what is known as a Krampus-gauntlet, in an attempt to outrun the switches.

Czech Republic:

The Czech version of Saint Nick is known as Svaty Mikulas, who is said to climb down to Earth from the heavens using a golden rope. Mikulas is accompanied by an angel and a devil who help him decide which girls and boys deserve treats and toys, and which ones deserve a swatch.

There are a lot of fortune-telling traditions that are associated with Christmas as well. One involves a family member cutting a branch from a cherry tree and putting it inside in water. If it blooms in time for Christmas it is good luck. It also may represent that the winter will be short, or if a single woman picked the branch, it could mean she will get married in the next year.

On Christmas Eve, single woman also try to see if they will get married in the next year by standing outside with their back to their front door, removing one of their shoes and throwing it over their shoulder. If the shoe lands with the toe facing the door, then she will marry in the next year. If not, she will have to wait at least another 12 months.

Image via tomu [Flickr]

Finland:

Finnish people honor their departed loved ones on Christmas Eve by visiting the cemeteries and leaving candles on the graves of their family members. If they live too far away to visit their loved one’s graves, most graveyards have an area you can light a candle to remember those buried in other cemeteries. The soft snow and gentle glow of the candles make graveyards a very beautiful place to visit on Christmas Eve.

Image via Aki Hannien [Flickr]

France:

Children of East France have an evil visitor, similar to Krampus, to keep them behaving all year long. Le Pere Fouettard, which translates into “The Whipping Father,” accompanies Saint Nicolas in on December 6. While St. Nick gives good children presents, Le Pere Fouettard gives coal and whippings to the naughty children. One of the most popular origin stories of the character say that he was a greedy inn keeper who killed three rich boys on their way to boarding school. In many versions of the story, he even eats the children. Whether or not he cannibalizes the boys, the story ends when Saint Nick finds out and resurrects the children and forces Le Pere Fouettard to act as his servant throughout time.

Aside from The Whipping Father, another popular French tradition involves making a cake that looks like a traditional Yule log, known as buche de Noel. Christmas trees never really caught on in the country and while most people don’t have any use for an actual Yule log, the cake is a fun and festive substitute. Some of the buche de Nol can get fairly elaborate and even involve meringue mushrooms and edible flower decorations.

Image via andshewas [Flickr]

Germany:

Belsnickel is the German Santa’s dark enforcer, but he’s not nearly as evil as Krumpus or The Whipping Father. Instead he just wears fur from head to toe and gives good girls and boys candy and bad children coal and switches.

Many are decorated with a wreath known as an “Adventskranz.” These wreaths have four candles which serve as a sort of weekly advent calendar, as each Sunday marks the opportunity to light a new candle.

On December 21, St. Thomas Day is believed to be the shortest day of the year and anyone who arrives late to work is called a “Thomas Donkey.” They are also given a cardboard donkey and made fun of throughout the rest of the day.

Like many places in Europe, the Christmas tree is kept secret from the children until Christmas Eve. The parents bring the tree in, decorate it with candies, tinsel, lights and toys, put presents and plates of candy treats under the tree and then ring a bell signaling that the children can enter. The children then get to eat snacks and the whole family opens presents.

Greece:

Saint Nicholas is one of the most popular saints in Greece because he is the patron saint of sailors. For this reason, their Saint Nicholas is hardly the fur-wearing man celebrated by other cultures. Instead, he is depicted as being soaked with seawater and sweaty from working too hard to save ships.

Like France, Christmas trees never really caught on here. Instead, residents will fill a shallow bowl with water and then tie wire with a wooden cross and a sprig of basil over the bowl. Once a day the cross and basil are dipped into holy water, which is then sprinkled through the house. This ceremony is used to keep out goblins, known as  Killikantzaroi out of the house. These mischievous goblins that come from the center of the earth only appear during the twelve days of Christmas. While bratty, they’re not really evil and tend to do bratty things like souring milk and extinguishing fires. Because they are said to enter the house through the fireplace, fires are left burning all day and night during this time of year.

Image via Martin Beek [Flickr]

Iceland:

Icelandic children were once told to behave or they would be eaten by a pair of ogres that lived up in the hills. The characters were considered to be so terrifying that a public decree banned the use of these stories to scare children into behaving.  Instead of talking about the ogre couple, parents instead started telling stories of the ogre’s children, the Jolasveinar, who are bad, but not nearly as evil as their parents.

Jolasveinars were originally said to play tricks on people and steal food, but now they are responsible for giving gifts to children. Bad children don’t get presents though, they get potatoes or other items that remind them that they weren’t forgotten, but don’t deserve real presents.

Image via Gunna [Flickr]

Italy:

In Italy, there is no Santa, but instead there a woman called a Befana that performs the general duties of Saint Nick. The story is that the three wise men stopped during their travels and asked a woman for food and shelter. She said no, but later realized her mistake when it was too late. She now travels the earth looking for the baby Jesus and on Januaray 6^th, she leaves kids a sock filled with candy or a lump of coal.

Image via Wooliedales [Flickr]

Japan:

While most Japanese residents are not Christian, the majority of people still celebrate Christmas just for the fun of it. Unsurprisingly, the rituals are slightly different than those we are used to. Because KFC has marketed the idea that fried chicken is the traditional meal for the holidays, the restaurants are so busy on Christmas Day that reservations are required.

Most of the holiday celebrations revolve around romantic love more than family relationships and bakeries even sell cakes for sweethearts.

Children still have a Santa figure though, only in this case, he is a traditional Japanese god who is known for his generosity. Hoteiosho is a heavy-set Buddhist priest who carries a large sack of presents. Children know they have to be good because Hoteiosho has eyes in the back of his head.

Image via sleepytako [Flickr]

Netherlands:

The Netherland’s Christmas traditions are subject to a lot of controversy as their version of Santa, Sinterklaas, is accompanied by a one-time slave known as Black Peter. These days, the Dutch try to play down the racism of the matter by claiming that Black Peter’s cartoonish appearance is a result of his going down dirty chimneys all the time and he’s no longer referred to as a slave, but a “helper.”

The naughty man in blackface is a mischievous character who may kidnap naughty children and whisk them away to his home in Spain.

Image via Gerald Stolk onderweg naar kerst [Flickr]

Norway:

Norwegian folklore says that Christmas Eve is kind of like Halloween and brings about a number of evil spirits and witches. The brooms of the houses are hidden to keep them away from witches and men will often go outside and shoot their guns to ward off evil spirits.

Pagan winter celebrations used to revolve around Thor’s pet goat and a person would arrive at the parties wearing a goatskin and carrying a goat head. He would eventually fake his death and then return to life. As Christianity started to take over the area, the goat was recast as a form of the devil and he was eventually banned. Since then, the goat character was morphed into Julebukk, a “yule goat.” The new story of the goat involved him traveling from door to door where he would get gifts for keeping the evil spirits away. Nowadays, kids dress up and play the role of the Julebukk, where they get treats as they visit the houses.

Slavic Europe:

Most Slavic countries don’t rely on Saint Nick for presents, but instead count on Ded Moroz, which translates to “Grandfather Frost”. He’s a magical character who delivers presents on New Year’s Eve. He was banned at the start of the Communist Revolution, but because he wasn’t officially a Christmas character, Stalin allowed him to come back, only he was required to wear blue so he wouldn’t be confused with Santa Claus. In modern times, this ruling has been reversed and he can wear any color he wants.

Spain:

Spain’s celebrations vary greatly depending on the region. In the Basque regions, the Santa role is filled by Olentzero, a fat man in a beret who smokes a pipe. He used to be an enforcer against naughty children who was said to throw a sickle down the chimney to cut the throats of kids who didn’t sleep. Nowadays though, he is a positive character like Santa that only brings good presents.

In the Catalan region, families “feed” a little log called a “Caga tio” every night from the 8^th to the 23^rd. On Christmas Eve, the family hits the log with a stick to release sweet treats that have been hidden in his hollow center. If you hadn’t guessed yet, “Caga tio” translates to “pooping log.” The celebration ends when the log poops out something decidedly not sweet, usually a dried herring, an onion or a head of garlic.

Catalans must enjoy poop jokes because aside from their pooping log, they also celebrate with a “Caganer,” a nativity scene character that is seen to be pooping in the corner of the scene.

Image via Greg Gladner [Flickr]

Ukraine:

While the story about German families hiding a pickle ornament on their tree is false, Ukrainians actually do hide a spider web ornament on their tree and it is supposed to be good luck for the person who finds it. The story behind the tradition is that an old widow had no money to decorate her tree and went to bed upset that her children would have an undecorated tree the next day. While she was asleep, a spider decorated the tree with a beautiful web. When the first light of day hit the webs, they turned to silver and gold and the widow and her children never went longing again.

Image via boliyou [Flickr]

Venezuela:

Venezuelans celebrate Christmas similar to many other cultures, in that they generally go to mass early on Christmas Day. The difference is that Venezuelans go to church in roller skates. In the capital, Caracas, streets are even closed off to traffic in order to keep the skaters safe. On Christmas Eve, children tie strings to their toes and let them dangle into the street, where they are tugged on by skaters as they go by. It’s certainly a different way to wake up on Christmas morning.

Image via Cheesy42 [Flickr]

Remember that in all countries, celebrations and traditions can vary greatly by region, so if you have lived in any of these countries and not experienced a tradition named on this list, it may just be experienced elsewhere. Also, this list is nowhere near extensive, so if you celebrate differently (even if it’s just a strange tradition that only occurs in your family) share your experiences in the comments!

Sources: Mental Floss #1, #2, Etsy, Soon, The North Pole #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, My Little Norway, Wikipedia, MSN #1, #2, #3, MSI Chicago #1, #2, #3

Jen made little pizzas that resemble the flags of some of the countries she’s visited. Not only do they look like flags, they are topped with foods representative of that nation’s cuisine. She shows us how she created a few of them at Tiny Urban Kitchen. Link -via Everlasting Blort

Bringing much needed levity to the stressed out airplane passenger is this website, Fun with TSA. The website suggests a few things that you, the downtrodden traveler, can do to stick it to the man and have a bit of fun. For example:

Be the person on your flight to suddenly shout out “Marco!” during that last hour when others are looking for things to do. It might take a few tries, but eventually someone somewhere on the plane will respond with a “Polo!” if for no other reason than to shut you up. Entertainment achieved.

But if you get into trouble, we don’t know each other, mmmkay? Link

Space Adventures provides the opportunity for you to blast off in a Soyuz spacecraft for a circumlunar mission. During the seven-day space flight, which reaches top speeds of 17,000 mph, you’ll see stars, the illuminated far side of the moon, and the Earth from 250,000 miles away. Candidates must train for four months alongside Russian cosmonauts at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Two seats are available for $100 million each.

Now that’s a way to fund a space program! Link

A little more than 500 miles west of Ecuador lie the Galápagos Islands, a veritable treasure-trove of endemic wildlife. One of the islands’ most famous residents is the blue-footed booby, a seabird with distinctive turquoise-blue feet. While those colorful toes certainly catch the eyes of human fans, the birds are more concerned with impressing each other: Male blue-footed boobies show off their blue feet while “dancing” during courtship.

Link -Thanks, Jenny!

A Harlem postal employee and civic leader named Victor H. Green conceived the guide in response to one too many accounts of humiliation or violence where discrimination continued to hold strong. These were facts of life not only in the Jim Crow South, but in all parts of the country, where black travelers never knew where they would be welcome. Over time its full title — “The Negro Motorist Green Book: An International Travel Guide” — became abbreviated, simply, as the “Green Book.” Those who needed to know about it knew about it. To much of the rest of America it was invisible, and by 1964, when the last edition was published, it slipped through the cracks into history.

The Green Book has been revived in a way, as a new play and a children’s book about the travel guide and those who used it are set to debut. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Erik S. Lesser/The New York Times)