Found this cool timelapse video on Vimeo the other day. I had never heard of El Teide, but apparently its the tallest mountain in Spain, located on the largest of the Canary Islands, Tenerife. The video is mostly of the sky but also has some nature shots and is worth watching. This is not the Spain you're used to seeing.
I was recently contacted by George from PanoMagic.eu about a photo he took of the Devetaki Caves in Bulgaria. We got to talking, and I took a closer look at his 360° Panoramic Photos site. His style of photography is really unique, and his HDR 360° panoramic photos are amazing. If you browse through his photos it also serves as a great resource for Bulgaria travel, hes featured a lot of really cool looking places in and around Bulgaria. Below are a few of my favorites from his site, if you appreciate photography at all I highly recommend you check out it out.
It took me a second to figure out what was happening here, from the title I thought they were actually doing some kind of crazy underwater fishing. Instead this is just a really strange (in a good way) video of some Finnish guys horsing around in the frozen Lake Saarijärvi of Vaala, Finland. Regardless, it's really cool looking, and worth a view. Thanks to Janne the King of Finland for sending this over.
25 years ago, after the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, nobody would have predicted the zone of alienation would become a tourist attraction. Although it's no Eifel Tower, and never will be, today Chernobyl and the abandoned town of Pripyat are one of the most popular attractions for visitors to the Ukraine. Fast forward another 25 years, will Fukushima be the next post-nuclear disaster tourist destination?
A cool video of a guy base jumping in Norway. They have all sorts of cameras strapped to him and setup around the area of the jump, as well as microphones so you get the full experience. He's also wearing a squirrel suit which allows him to control how fast and where he goes. The video runs through the jump from planning to execution and review, very cool if you're into skydiving, base jumping, or extreme sports in general.
If you're looking for a good travel show, check out An Idiot Abroad. Now finished with it's second season, it's about an uncultured bald man from Manchester, England who is a friend of Ricky Gervais. Basically he loves England and hates everything else and they stitch him up by sending him around the world to places they know he'll be miserable. The first season is 8 episodes, to The New Seven Wonders of the World, with a recap episode of "the idiot", Karl Pilkington, discussing his journey's with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The second season is about "Bucket Lists" and is 8 episodes as well. The series is broadcast on Sky1 and Sky1 HD in the UK, and The Science Channel is the US. For other international listings check wikipedia.
In early 2010, I spent a lot of time travelling around Europe. Coming from the U.S., and having a lot of English friends made England the ideal hub. For those of you who don't already know, Europe is famous for their discounted airlines like RyanAir and Easyjet. You can sometimes get flights for mainly just the cost of the taxes, and England is one of the best hubs to get these specials from. This meant I was in and out of the country on a semi-regular basis over a 3-4 month period, but all completely legit, not breaking any posted rules or regulations.
Found this Iceland video of the Midnight Suns recently and thought it was really cool. It's a bunch of small time lapse shots around Iceland during the summer when the sun barely goes down at all. Iceland has some gorgeous scenery, and the video is really well done.
I hate travel days, packing up your bag, dealing with whatever means of transport is necessary to get to your next destination, and especially crossing borders. Borders are some of the most stressful places on earth, they're generally crowded, everybody is nervous, excited, tired, and just wants to get through and move on. It's not much better for the people working at them either, they have to deal with these people who are tired and stressed out, which in turn wears them down. Borders are also a place of great opportunity for locals; tourists are generally out of place, uncomfortable, unable to properly communicate, and easy to take advantage of. This translates to dollar signs for the clever, tricky, and/or dishonest locals looking to make a buck off the passing tourist, and even more stress and uncertainty for that tourist.
Running With the Bulls is fairly common among bucket lists, and it should be. It was one of the most exhilarating things I've ever done. It's not like sky diving or bungee jumping in that you're pretty much at the mercy of your equipment or instructor once you jump, you have to move yourself through a crowd packed shoulder to shoulder, all pumped full of adrenaline and running full speed as 12 1000+ pound bulls/steer come charging for you.
