This very civilized hotel cannot escape from the wild
island on which it stands.
The Fairmont Empress, a landmark hotel in Victoria
B.C., stands beside the city's inner harbor. It is a
restored turn-of-the century hotel, complete with rose
gardens and a special lobby where high tea is served
every afternoon.
Read the rest of: "Fairmont Empress, Victoria, B.C."» 
The Resurrection of Christ Orthodox cathedral in Korca wasn't consecrated until 2004, which just goes to show how slow the growth of organized religion in Albania has been since the 50-year dry of Communism-as-religion, when churches were converted to things like laundry facilities or simply destroyed.
Read the rest of: "Postcard from Korca"» 
If you are (like some of the contributors to this site) a
designer, a musician, a video artist or anybody else with
a penchant for using Apple computers, I have just
the right idea of your September vacation.
Open up your iCal and mark the dates in your favorite color:
from 12th to 16th of September you are going to be in Paris,
checking out new super-slim screens, extra-mighty mice
and nanoscale iPod's all while chatting with your European kin.
I am reminded that last year the event didn't feature any major
announcements from the company. There were no keynote speeches
either. But the year before, it did! So, your guess is as good
is mine on whether we'll see anything major announced in Paris
this year. I doubt it matters, though, because the event primarily
serves as a bonne excuse for going to France for "professional"
reasons. Perhaps, I don't need to tell you that it's tax deductible
and if worst comes to worst, you won't regret this trip as much
next April.
www.apple-expo.com
Before going to Entry Island, I thought that the
Magdelene Islands were remote. Entry Island is 20 9
miles off the coast of the Magdelene Islands, which
are in turn many miles away from Prince Edward Island and
Nova Scotia.
You
might be a little vague on Canadian geography (as am
I), so allow me to explain more clearly: this place is
really far away
from wherever you are. (unless, dear reader, you are an Islander yourself).
Read the rest of: "Entry Island, Quebec - further off the beaten track"» 
I was asked to write a short review summarizing my experience studying
Spanish at Instituto de Lengua Española Para Extranjeros (ILEE) in Buenos Aires and
that's exactly what I am doing in my first article for SiteBits.
Read the rest of: "Learning Spanish at ILEE-Buenos Aires"» 
Take a walk around Siena and you will be amazed at every grocery store's
insistence on displaying prosciutto (jambon), wheels of cheese, and many
other buon di dio (as the senese say), meaning "everything good there is".
Naturally, you'll get all euphoric and hungry.
The next logical stop for you will be a restaurant. Unless you're accompanied
by someone who knows the town a little, however, I'd be very careful about where to go.
Of course, since you're in Siena, surrounded by Medieval Tuscan ambiance, everything will
taste good, and nothing particularly bad will happen to you if you choose to eat
any-old-where, but wouldn't you rather avoid the possibility of ending up unsatisfied,
torpid, and irritated with a uselessly inflated check to boot? Wouldn't
you rather have a good experience, leaving the restaurant well-fed and
invigorated? (I hope this is a hypothetical question for you.)
Read the rest of: "Where Not To Eat In Siena"»  We Russians just don't know when to stop. Most people would
consider this mental peculiarity a drawback. We, on the other hand,
are proud of it (that's because we don't know when to stop being proud either).
This sweeping generalization applies equally to alcohol consumption and building
skyscrapers. For proof, one needs to look no further than the "Moscow City" project that has been under development for the past decade. Many an architectural rendering has been discarded during this timespan - only to be replaced by drawings of towers that are bigger, better, badder. And more "Moscow". (Like Moscow actually needs vertical growth).
Last year, SiteBits wrote about the "Federation Complex" - two towers of 340 and 240 meters respectively. This year, this already feels too short.
We need another tower and we're talking at least 600 meters...
Read the rest of: "Moscow in Foster Care"» 
This is the welcoming facade of the first all-palm airport I have ever seen. It is a private airport in Punta Cana, with many charter flights full of passengers arriving daily to stay at the many resorts in Punta Cana. With direct flights to many locations in North America as well as Europe it is certainly a busy place, especially on weekends!
Read the rest of: "Punta Cana Airport - Much Admiration and a Little Warning"» 
Don't get me wrong - I love Spanish food. I adore it.
I can't get enough of all that cocido, jamón serrano, chorizo and tortilla española, so whenever I am in Madrid I basically eat in advance. Madrid is a city where I can go to a sketchy diner, sit on a bar stool at the counter pretending to be a visiting American, take out a French novel from my pocket... and still get a hearty, delicious meal - for less than 10 euros!
But that doesn't help me solve the problem I encounter almost every morning.
I'll tell you what does. Read on...
Read the rest of: "VIPS: Breakfast in Madrid"» 
Did you know that every Friday night at the MOMA (New York, of course)
"Target" sponsors an event known as "Free Friday" from 4-8
p.m.? Yep, neither did I, when I showed up to explore the collection's new digs
in midtown Manhattan, and to visit my favorites in the painting/sculpture
galleries before heading out for a night on the town.
It seems as though le tout New York had the same idea, along with a few outsiders such as myself
(and several thousand other tourists). As it turned out, this became more of a social visit than
a serious conversation with the paintings, but it was an opportunity to see the new building in action -
not just housing art, but welcoming people (and as mentioned before, it was a LOT of people).
Read the rest of: "Free-for-all at the MoMA, New York"»
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