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Category / Don’t Be A Tourist

The Hippie Caves of Matala that housed Joni Mitchell

In a sleepy fishing village on the island of Crete, where Joni Mitchell had found herself a nomadic home inside manmade Neolithic caves carved into the sandstone cliff, she sang her folk songs, “under a starry dome…beneath the Matala Moon.” It was the 1960s and a community of backpacking hippies had settled in Matala, a remote corner of…

Hide Away at the Home of Picasso’s Favourite French Poet

With the first signs of an early Spring, perhaps you might find yourself looking towards summer already and thinking about how you’re going to spend it. With France as my oyster, I began my hunt for hideaways in the south when I stumbled upon a rare gem in the medieval village that has long been a…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DXXXI)

1. A “Wee House” that sits on Loch Shin in the Highlands Also known as Broons Hoose, as legend goes: it was built on Loch Shin near Lairg in 1824 by poacher Jock Broon who was gifted land by a local laird in return for being taught how to distil whisky. Broon is said to…

When Cats, Peaches, Lunch (and Letters) were Mailed Beneath the Streets of NYC

For over 50 years, a 27-mile network of pneumatic tubes provided upwards of a third of New York City’s mail. Nowadays, speed is the name of the game, whether its technology constantly increasing the speed of digital communication or Amazon delivering goods at record rates. But 100 years ago, pneumatic tubes, basically 19th-century physical internets,…

The Party Castle Forgotten in the Jungle for Half a Century

There are some places in the world that make you weak at the knees with nostalgia and Paronella Castle is one of them. It was the impossible dream of an ambitious Spanish immigrant who sailed to Australia in 1913 to make a life for himself and his fiancé waiting back home. José Paronella worked for…

But Have you Drank Wine from a Volcanic Vineyard?

I’ll see your Vintage Bordeaux and raise you a glass from a volcanic vineyard. If aliens are out there somewhere and they happen to enjoy the occasional bottle of wine, this could be what their vineyards would look like. But alas, this is just plain ol’ planet earth being totally and completely awesome again. We’re…

Here’s what it’s like to Spend the Night in Chernobyl

Look online and the Hotel Desyatka appears on booking sites like most other hotels. A quick Google search will tell you that it consists of, “Basic lodging on leafy grounds, offering a cozy restaurant/pub, plus free parking and breakfast.” There’s even a Trip Advisor entry complete with favourable customer reviews and its own website that…

Little Tuscany in the Heart of Paris

As if plucked from a 17th century Mediterranean estate waiting to transport Parisians to the hills of Florence; tucked away in a corner of Paris’ Luxembourg gardens is one of the city’s most underrated beauty spots. The Medici Fountain, crowned with an Italian grotto and flanked by ivy drapes, is an impossibly romantic place alluding…

Cape Town’s Vanishing Red Coke Dens

Given you’re a determined adventurer, should you find yourself in Cape Town, we figured you might be interested in stepping off the beaten track on a quest to find a slice of kitschy nostalgia. In one of the oldest suburbs of the city (and becoming the hippest), we’re looking for the illustrious red-and-white watering holes that…

The Place Where World War One Planes Still Fly

Wander through the quaint, old fashioned town of Rhinebeck in New York’s Hudson Valley, and you may feel as though you’ve stepped back to another era. Especially when you look up into the sky: for its quite common to see vintage airplanes circling high above all day long, the distinctive sound of old, single propeller…

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