Search This Blog

Greencaviar Travel

To take nothing but photographs, and leave nothing but footprints.

Greetings from Istanbul

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

The sound of peace

Location: Istanbul Istanbul

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

Comments

NEW POSTS

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Moon Over Rio

I heard so many warnings: “Be careful, there's so much crime in Rio de Janeiro. People get robbed in broad daylight”. Another passenger said, “My dad was an army guy, but he won’t ride the cable car to the top of the Sugarloaf Mountain. It does not look safe”. The warnings gave me some trepidation, but as someone obsessed with the beach and the sea, I was not going to deny myself of the experience. Ever since our family friend from Brazil, Daniel, introduced me to Brazilian music and brought pictures of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches to our Thanksgiving dinner many moons ago, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil has intrigued me and now I was about to experience it first-hand. It was early dawn when we arrived in Rio de Janeiro. Almost instantly, the startling beauty of the Rio de Janeiro skyline captivated me. The seascape induced a feeling of mystery, I could not help but wax poetic. MOON OVER RIO A light shines through the great seaport this early and this d...

Ireland's ABC "Another Bloody Castle"

Europe is the birthplace of the castle and the home of the vast majority of the castles in the world. Having traveled to Europe on various occasions, I thought I have seen enough castles. On a recent trip to Ireland, I took part in a tour to the outskirts of Dublin and towns famous for their castles like Kilkenny and Killarney. And many castle ruins came into view as we traveled to the countryside. So, it’s not uncommon to hear the phrase, “ABC - Another Bloody Castle” even from the tourism industry folks. I could not help but notice how the castles in Ireland differed from what I saw in Germany and France. The castles I saw in Ireland were more like castle ruins, damaged by war and had been restored for tourism. I don’t want to minimize the castles historical and cultural significance, but I look more into the aesthetic point of view, such as the architecture from the medieval, stone and elaborate designs like the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany that inspired Disneyland or the...

Ethiopia: Axum, the Cradle of Ancient Civilization

Chapter 6: Axum, Cradle of Ancient Civilization After days of winding mountain roads, rugged landscapes, and stone castles that felt pulled straight out of legend, we finally reached Axum. This wasn’t just another stop on our Ethiopian journey—it felt like stepping directly into the heartbeat of history. Ethiopia calls itself the Land of Origins, and in Axum, I understood why. With more than 2,500 years of history, Axum was once the capital of an empire that traded with Rome, India, and Arabia. Its name alone carries the weight of myth, faith, and mystery. Most famously, Axum is believed to guard one of the greatest treasures in religious history: the Ark of the Covenant. The Church of St. Mary of Zion The Stelae of Axum Our first stop was the Stelae Fields, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. These towering granite obelisks are unlike anything I’ve seen before. Some stretch nearly 20 meters high, carved from a single piece of stone, their faces etched with windows and doors as tho...

Powered by Blogger

Alice Odena

Visit profile

Greencaviar_travel

View this profile on Instagram

Alice O (@greencaviar_travel) • Instagram photos and videos

Translate

DESTINATION

Africa Alaska Angola Antartica Antigua Argentina Aruba Aurora Borealis Australia Austria

Bahamas Barbados Belize Bethlehem Bosnia-Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Burma Cabo Verde California Dreaming California Highway One California Roadtrip Cambodia Canada Cape Verde Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire Croatia Cuba World Heritage Site Czech Republic Denmark Dipsea Dominican Republic East Africa Ecuador Egypt England Estonia Fiji Finland France Gambia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Grand Cayman Grand Turk Greece Greenland Grenada Havana Hawaii Hiking Honduras Honolulu Hungary Iceland Idaho India Indonesia Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kenya Kotor Krakow Latvia Lithuania Luanda Madagascar Malaysia Maldives Male Malta Maryland Maui Mexico Monaco Montana Montenegro Montserrat Moorea Morocco Myanmar Mystery Island Namibia Nepal Nevada New Caledonia New York New Zealand Ngorongoro Crater Nile River North Cape Northern California Norway Oman Palestine Panama Canal Patagonia Peru Philippines Poetry Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia SINGAPORE SPAIN Scandinavia Scotland Sedona Senegal Serbia Seychelles Slovenia South Africa South African Safari South Korea Southern Patagonia Sri Lanka St Kitts & Nevis St Maarten St. Croix St. Kitts St. Lucia St. Maarten St. Martin St. Thomas St. Thomas USVI Sweden Switzerland Tahiti Tanzania Tasmania Thailand The Amazon River The Gambia The Great Barrier Reef The Great Ocean Road The Philippines The Way Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turk and Caicos Turkey UNESCO World Heritage Site UNESCO World Protected Site US Virgin Islands United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Vanuatu Vietnam Virginia West Africa Western Cape Wyoming Yellowstone National Park Yukon Territory Zermatt the Vatican

Show more Show less

The Banaue Rice Terraces: A Living Cultural Landscape

My interest in exploring the northern part of the Philippines started from looking at a piece of art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California. Among the display of ceramics and pottery engraved with gold and other decorative stuff, a wooden carving of a male figure squatting on a platform with the lower arms on top of each other, resting upon his knees, caught my eye. According to the docent, the wooden sculpture was called "Bului" which literally means "granary guardian" in the "Ifugao" tribe dialect. The carved wooden sculpture was set on a platform on top of another platform, a mortar. Our docent explained the significance of the wooden mortar (which was used with the pestle, to separate the husk from the rice, sort of rice mill) and linked the story to the Rice Terraces in the Cordillera Mountains of the Philippines built 2000 years ago by the “Ifugao” tribe. So two years and three hundred kilometers north of Manila later, we explo...

Transylvania, Romania: The Land of Dracula

When we hear the place Transylvania, we almost always think about Dracula, the bloody vampire, that always makes a good Halloween story. So, when I visited Transylvania early this year, it's hard not to associate the places, like the Bran Castle to the famous novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. It’s said that Bram Stoker’s inspiration for the Dracula was a historical character Vlad Tepes or Vlad III, the ruler of Wallachia in the 15th century. During Stoker’s research on the region of Transylvania, he came across the brutal accounts of the atrocities committed by Vlad III, also known as Vlad Dracul, aka Vlad the Impaler. He was known for committing brutal acts of war and was under constant threat of attack from the Ottoman and Hungarian forces. During his infamous retreat from the Ottoman forces, Vlad the Impaler had the bodies of his enemies and his people alike impaled on large spikes in the field surrounding his county. The inspiration for the made-up character ma...

Poland: The Wieliczka Salt Mine

One of the most spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Sites I visited this year was the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow, Poland. It was founded in the 13th century to mine the rich deposit of salt. Salt mining stopped in 1996 when the low price of salt on the world market made it too expensive to mine and the mine was slowly flooding. But miners did more than just extract salt. They left behind them a breathtaking record of their time underground in the shape of statues of mythical, historical and religious figures. Part of the salt mine became an art gallery, chapels, cathedral, and underground lakes. Today, Wieliczka Salt Mine is one of the most visited National Monuments in Poland. For safety reason, less than one percent of the mine is open to visitors, but even that is almost four kilometers in length. There are 20 chambers to visit and 800 steps to climb of which 350 at the beginning take you down into the mine. You can’t just visit and wander around on your own. All of t...

Ethiopia: Lake Tana & the Blue Nile

Chapter 2: Lake Tana and the Blue Nile - The Source of the Mighty River From Addis, we flew to Bahir Dar, a laid-back city on the shores of Lake Tana, Ethiopia’s largest lake and the source of the Blue Nile River. A boat ride took us across the water to visit Ura Kidane Mehret, a monastic church founded in the 14th century. From the port, our guide — the head of the monastery — led us on a short walk to the church complex. The path was lined with beautifully patterned stones, some newly laid, others carefully repaired. The gentle rustle of leaves, the distant calls of birds, and the soft lapping of the lake against the shore set a serene backdrop for our journey. As we walked, our guide shared stories of the monastery’s history and the lives of the monks who had lived here for generations. Soon, we arrived at the circular church, just as a ceremony for a fasting holiday was underway. I saw vibrant scenes of worship — the rhythmic beating of drums, the haunting melodi...

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK

Subscribe

Posts

Atom

Posts

Comments

Atom

Comments

Greetings from Istanbul

Comments

Post a Comment

NEW POSTS