in season
Sardines are baby pilchards - long, thin, silver, oil-rich fish. Sardines are a sustainable choice of fish, rich in omega-3 fatty acids.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
During high summer in St Petersburg the sun never fully sets. (Jonathan Smith/LPI)
During high summer in St Petersburg the sun never fully sets. (Jonathan Smith/LPI)
Belye nochi, the Russians call them – White Nights. These are the incredible, luminous northern midsummer eves when the high latitudes are bathed in a pearlescent all-night glow.
In Russia’s northern city of St Petersburg, the few brief weeks of White Nights and sun-filled summer days are an intoxicating time. By day, locals revel in the heat of the outdoors; by light-washed night, there are festivals, concerts and all-night parties. This is a time when St Petersburg is at its most lustrous, when zhizni radost – the peculiarly Russian brand of joie de vivre – is irresistible.
White Night revelling starts in May, when the city finally succumbs to spring and the parks are filled with flowering trees, but mid-June is peak time, when the sun slumps lazily towards the horizon but never fully sets. Here are some White Night – and summer day – experiences not to miss in St Petersburg:
Eat your fill of morozhenoe and arbus
Russians take their ice-cream making very seriously, and delicious, creamy Russian morozhenoe becomes ubiquitous in mid-summer. Buy some from an ice-cream cart and wander along one of the breezy riverside embankments for a real taste of summer, St Petersburg-style. During the few brief hot weeks, stalls selling arbus – giant, juicy watermelons – also sprout up all over the capital. Take one with you and head for a shady park.
Visit the Summer Gardens and sunbathe by the Neva
St Petersburg’s Letnii Sad (Summer Garden) is specifically designed for strolling during languid summer days. Walking along its shady avenues decorated with cool white marble statues and soothing fountains is a quintessential St Petersburg experience. Sunbathing by the Neva River is also typically “Piter” (as locals lovingly call the city). The riverside walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress are a favourite sun-lovers’ hangout.
Go swimming
Lake Ladoga – the source of the Neva – is a short train ride from the city, and its forested banks are a favourite Petersburger summer destination for picnics, canoe paddles and cooling swims. Komarova Beach on the Gulf of Finland is a fine place to visit mid-summer. It is not quite the Caribbean, but in less than an hour’s journey from the city, you can feel a million miles away. Take icy dips in the Baltic and breathe deep on the sea breeze.
Stay up all night
You have to do this at least once during the White Nights season. There is kind of euphoria to strolling at midnight under a still-light sky. Start the evening with a breezy outdoor dinner somewhere like Okean, set on a converted cruiser moored on the Neva, then go dancing at one of the understatedly cool nightclubs like Datscha on Dumskaya Ulitsa. As the sun rises – about 3 am – make your way to the glass-enclosed upper storey of Revolution for the best view of dawn over St Petersburg from any dance floor.
Watch the Neva bridges open
This is the signature tradition of the White Nights: watching the spectacle of the massive Neva River bridges heaving apart to let through boat traffic. Watch from the riverside embankments, or take to the water on a White Nights boat cruise and slip right through the heart of the midnight city. If you are on foot, make sure you are on the correct side of the river to get back to your accommodation: the metro stops at 12:30 am and with the bridges open until 5 am, there is no other way to cross the river.
See the stars of the White Nights
Midsummer was traditionally when Russian performing artists took holidays or went on tour, and St Petersburg’s stages were traditionally quiet during this season -- until 1993 when the Marinskii Theatre’s Valery Gergiev founded the spectacularly popular Stars of the White Nights Festival. Now, between the end of May and mid-July, there are almost daily operas, ballets and classical concerts at the Marinskii, featuring top-notch Russian and international stars.
Be part of Russia’s biggest celebration
This is it, the high point of all the White Nights revelry. The Scarlet Sails event (held on 18 June this year) is the biggest annual public gathering in Russia, with more than a million people attending each year. There is a mock pirate battle on the River Neva, followed by a firework extravaganza, culminating in the appearance of a tall ship with blood red sails. The imagery originates from a popular Russian children’s book, but the Scarlet Sails – Alye Parusa – have become the consummate symbol of White Nights revelry, and perhaps the most special moment of a St Petersburg summer.
The Ritual Suite at the Spa Montage in Los Angeles. (Montage Beverly Hills)
The Ritual Suite at the Spa Montage in Los Angeles. (Montage Beverly Hills)
Keeping up appearances is crucial for the Hollywood glitterati, so naturally Los Angeles has a variety of ways to help its famous residents stay fresh-looking and camera-ready. From a tailor-made facial for brightening post-party skin to a spa package that combats jet lag, here is a look at how Tinseltown beautifies itself.
Pressed Juicery’s Juice Cleanses
You are what you drink seems to be the philosophy behind Pressed Juicery, a delivery service that has locations in celeb-populated neighbourhoods like Malibu, Brentwood and West Hollywood. It serves a variety of raw, unpasteurized juices that purport to aid in detoxing one’s system. Order up a bottle of Detox 1, made up of lemon juice, cayenne pepper and filtered water, or commit to a cleanse package like Cleanse 3, which is described as being “for detox lovers” as it is heavily vegetable based and has the lowest sugar levels of the three cleanses. At $70 a day for a package of six juice bottles (you can opt for the three-day program or five-day), this health kick is not for the struggling actor. But it is extremely popular among stars like Jessica Alba, Nicole Richie and Elijah Wood.
Huntington Spa’s Flight Recovery
Since jet-setting around the world can wreak havoc on a starlet’s mental health, not to mention complexion, Pasadena’s Huntington Spa created a special package specifically to help relieve jet lag. The $290 two-hour treatment is comprised of an herbal salt scrub, a tension-relieving Chuan Harmony Massage (a full body oil massage using acupressure and relaxation massage techniques) and a foot massage.
Sonya Dakar’s Hangover Facial
After hitting the award party circuit, even the most gorgeous stars need help, and many, like Kirsten Dunst and Robert Downey Jr usually flock to Sonya Dakar’s skin clinic to find it. The $350 Hangover Facial, with its deep cleansing, detoxing and de-puffing treatment, aims to make one look well-rested, even after attending the after, after, after-soiree.
Spa Montage’s Red Carpet Ready services
For the awards season (until 31 March), this Beverly Hills spa located in the Montage Hotel offers a series of treatments to get its clients ready for the big show. TV actress Azita Ghanizada from Body of Proof recently splurged on the Lifetime Achievement Award treatment: an hour-long massage and facial, a mani/pedi, a blowdry and a style. Prices range from $185 to $375 depending on the treatment, and special event makeup application is also available for an additional $100.
Caroline Pardilla is the Los Angeles Localite for BBC Travel. She also writes Carolineoncrack.com.
Israel’s third city, Haifa, is a sun-splashed metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea. (Adina Tovy Amsel/LPI)
Israel’s third city, Haifa, is a sun-splashed metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea. (Adina Tovy Amsel/LPI)
Israel’s third city, Haifa, a sun-splashed metropolis on the Mediterranean Sea, is rarely thought of as a tourist destination. Until recently its best known landmark was the Dagon Grain Silo, while its rusting port was filled with smoky bars where salt-caked longshoremen would drink strong liquor before returning to the sea-bound frigates.
Fast forward to the present and Haifa is one of the most picturesque cities in the Middle East. Its downtown is a wholly different place, with chic Middle Eastern restaurants along Ben Gurion Avenue, freshly planted palm trees in Paris Square and throngs of tourists skipping off cruise ships in the renovated port. The longshoremen have been joined by groups of students and artists who stay in eco-friendly dormitories.
These changes are government initiatives, created to transform Haifa’s blue-collar, industrial image into something more hip and welcoming. But the real catalyst for change has been Haifa’s vibrant student population and its unique assembly of Arab and Jewish residents living in mixed neighbourhoods.
The full Haifa alternative experience starts with a subway ride from Paris Square to Masada Street, located halfway up Mount Carmel, upon which Haifa is built. Tucked into a narrow bend on this leafy road stands a half dozen miniature cafes where poets, activists and writers socialise over strong cups of Arabic coffee and bowlfuls of hummus. The best known is Café Masada (16 Masada Street; 052-657-3937), where the chatter is politically-charged, heated and philosophical. Left-wing points of view are typically the dominating theme in this liberal corner of the city.
The culture trail continues in nearby Wadi Nisnas, where narrow lanes are squeezed between sandstone buildings that date back more than a century. This is the old Arab quarter, and despite its ramshackle appearance (or perhaps because of it) Wadi Nisas has gained a popular following for anyone seeking a traditional Middle Eastern meal. After a falafel snack at 50-year-old eatery Felafel Hazkenim (Wadi Nisnas Road; 04-851-4959), wander the back alleys and discover a zany collection of colourful street art.
Further up the mountain looms Carmel Center, a leafy, well-to-do neighbourhood that is always a few degrees cooler than the port area below. Hipness in Carmel Center comes in the form of trendy coffee shops, including local favourites Greg Coffee and Mandarin, where students come to sip lattes and schmooze. The Carmel Centre is also home to the Cinematheque, a classy movie theatre that screens Israeli films and independent foreign flicks.
Brave creative types may prefer to meet up with local painter Shahar Sivan, an eccentric young artist who opens his studio every Monday at 8 pm (Nemala Studio, HaNamal 35; 052-567-0505) for an evening of drinks and nude portrait drawing. Shahar mixes cocktails, sets up easels and helps his students perfect the difficult art of drawing the exposed human form. It may sound a little off the wall, but Haifa likes to embrace its weird side.
The energetic vibe of the city is best felt on Tuesday nights in the port area, when popular restaurant Mayan Habira, meaning “Fountains of Beer” (4 Nathanson Street) hosts an weekly outrageous rhythm and blues revival that gets folks dancing on the tables. Rocking out to the blaring guitar riffs, wailing harmonica and gut-rattling drum rolls by house band Kostiza is a great way to kick off a night of bar hopping.
Other nearby watering holes include pocket-sized and mellow Jack and the Beanstalk (44 Jaffa Road; 04-853-5668), the larger and louder Barki (84 Hatzmaut Street; 054-425-8904), Eli’s Bar (35 Jaffa Road; 054-635-4696), which is good for live music and La Bira (21 HaNe’emanim Street), renowned for its house-brewed beer. For dancing, try nearby Syncopa (5 Khayat Street; 050-918-8899), which keeps the port rocking until the small hours.
Another strictly Haifa experience is spending a late night at Tichon in the Hadar neighbourhood. This hipster hangout hosts an eclectic mix of live music acts ranging from avant-garde to Arabic hip-hop and Hebrew folk ensembles. The owners, Suzan and Yoni, form a unique Arab-Jewish partnership, but the cross-cultural business arrangement does not seem out of place in Haifa, a mixed city where Arabs and Jews mingle freely, seemingly unaware of the ethnic tensions simmering in other parts of Israel and the Palestinian territories.
The Haifa tourist office has yet to adopt “Hip Haifa” as a slogan for the city, perhaps because the city’s funky side remains a largely underground phenomenon beyond the grasp of government officials. But most Haifans like it that way. It is a low-key place, far removed from uber-cool Tel Aviv and religious Jerusalem. Here locals are carving a unique niche as a place where young Jews and Arabs coexist and collaborate on their progressive ideas.
For visitors looking for something different, Haifa’s hip spots are experiential and unique on every visit – bring your sketchbook, open mind and blue-collar shirt, and get set for the unexpected.
Hong Kong Tourism Board
Hong Kong’s Cheung Chau Bun Festival culminates in a race where competitors shimmy to the top of three pyramids fashioned out of plastic buns. (Hong Kong Tourism Board)
There's no question that Hong Kong's traditional holiday celebrations are colourful, from the buckets of freshly-cut flowers exploding out of market stalls during Chinese Newtoday it is a destination for city folk looking for a laid-back day trip -- except during the bun festival, when huge crowds gather to witness the spect Year to the gentle glow of the elaborate lanterns that pay homage to the harvest moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival. But no ritual is as vibrant -- or as zany -- as the Cheung Chau Bun Festival, an annual springtime rite characterized by parades, performances -- and thousands of hunks of steamed dough.
A 40-minute ferry ride from downtown Hong Kong, the sleepy island of Cheung Chau is a fishing village with narrow lanes, seafood restaurants, beaches and water sports. Once known for being an outpost of piracy within the territory, today it is a destination for city folk looking for a laid-back day trip -- except during the bun festival, when huge crowds gather to witness the spectacle.
Held annually according to the lunar calendar (this year falling on 25 to 29 April), the bun festival's origins date back 100 years to when a plague struck competitors carry sacks to hold the buns, wear competitor numbers like runners and are strapped into harnesses as if they were climbing a rock wall the island, and in response villagers set up an altar to Pak Tai, a Taoist god. They sacrificed offerings to drive away the evil spirits causing the scourge -- and it worked. The bun festival is celebrated every year to thank the deities who saved the island.
Hong Kongers and tourists pack Cheung Chau for the four-day affair, which is chock-full of Cantonese opera shows, lion and unicorn dances and Chinese acrobatics. Bands play; drums beat; flags wave. In the parade that winds through the small island, five- and six-year old children are suspended above floats, dressed in bright silk outfits to resemble mythological figures.
It culminates in a midnight bun-scrambling competition, during which villagers shimmy to the top of three 14-metre-tall pyramids fashioned out of buns -- 9,000 of them, to be exact (and today made of plastic to avoid wasting food). In the past, villagers believed that whoever gathered the most buns would bring their family good health and fortune. These days, competitors carry sacks to hold the buns, wear competitor numbers like runners and are strapped into harnesses as if they were climbing a rock wall instead of scalin
You don’t just have fun with buns at the festival--you eat them. Giant bamboo steamer baskets full of buns are everywhere. They come in sesame, lotus or red bean paste varieties, all bearing a red stamp with the Chinese character for peace. At the conclusion of the celebrations, the auspicious buns are doled out to villagers and visitors. Because of the limited supply, there are often queues, so most festival-goers simply buy them throughout the festival -- and even throughout the year -- at many Cheung Chau food stalls.
g a tower of dough. They collect as many buns as they can in three minutes, and the winner is the contestant who racks up the most.
You don’t just have fun with buns at the festival--you eat them. Giant bamboo steamer baskets full of buns are everywhere. They come in sesame, lotus or red bean paste varieties, all bearing a red stamp with the Chinese character for peace. At the conclusion of the celebrations, the auspicious buns are doled out to villagers and visitors. Because of the limited supply, there are often queues, so most festival-goers simply buy them throughout the festival -- and even throughout the year -- at many Cheung Chau food stalls.
Hana R Alberts is the Hong Kong Localite for BBC Travel
Competitive spirits
Highland competitions include running, tug-of-war and throwing the hammer, and traditional attire is worn. Pictured here, a kilted man throws a pole at the Glennfinnan Games, usually held on the last Saturday in August. (Jim Richardson/National Geographic Stock
The Cairngorms are home to the United Kingdom’s only herd of reindeer. (David Tipling/LPI)
The Cairngorms are home to the United Kingdom’s only herd of reindeer. (David Tipling/LPI)
Imagine the comical mating ritual of the capercaillie bird, the flash of a red squirrel sprinting by and the grunt of a reindeer -- all set against the backdrop of an ancient Caledonian forest, remnants of a landscape that once covered the British Isles.
Cairngorms National Park is nearly 4,500 sqkm of mountain wilderness in northeastern Scotland and is the country’s largest protected area. The diversity of its fauna and flora is often overlooked due to its renowned status as Britain’s top ski destination. But its isolated location, far from any big cities, means that the Cairngorms are less visited than most other national parks in Britain. A mere 1.5 million visitors (as opposed to the Lake District’s 15.8 million) make the journey each year.
Arctic voyage
From the park’s main town, the ski centre of Aviemore, valleys of lofty pine trees and pristine lochs cut dramatically into corrie-riven mountains and the United Kingdom’s most extensive plateau. This granite massif retains the characteristics of an arctic-alpine tundra ecosystem, where high-altitude forest and wild, rocky plains combine with cold winds and low temperatures to provide a habitat found nowhere else in Britain. This remoteness has allowed rare animal, bird and plant species to thrive, and its mountains are among the world’s last sanctuaries for many Arctic birds and plants outside of the Arctic Circle.
Walk on the wild side
The Cairngorms is famed for two creatures: the osprey, which nests on a reserve after declining to near-extinction in Britain during the 20th Century, and the United Kingdom’s only herd of reindeer, which ranges free in the Reindeer Park above Aviemore. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds runs guided walks around the Loch Garten reserve north of Aviemore between April and August to see ospreys and other seasonal incumbents such as siskins, crossbills, sandpipers and otters. Ask at the Reindeer Park about joining the herder and leading your own reindeer on a half-day trek to their mountain enclosure (possible between June and August only).
The Rothiemurchus Estate, one and a half miles from Aviemore Railway Station, provides a host of family-friendly safaris themed around the distinctive, shaggy ginger Highland “coos” (cows), red squirrels and red deer. Meanwhile, nearby Atholl Estates whisks you off by Land Rover on safaris which take in various birds of prey, mountain hares and deer, in stunning forest and moorland terrain. If you are looking for more than just wildlife-watching, Alvie Estates offers a glimpse into life on the other side of the fence: human management of the land and its potential conflicts.
High-altitude wildlife
The hikers and climbers that make it to the most remote Cairngorm forest and plateau can expect to see even rarer species.
The Scottish crossbill, Britain’s only endemic bird, has the park’s pine trees as its sole stomping ground. The capercaillie, a large, colourful bird with one of the natural world’s most entertaining courtship displays, uses these forests as one of its last European breeding grounds. Wildcats and pine martens also roam. Higher up on the plateau, Arctic buntings, ptarmigan and golden eagles can be glimpsed, while the mountain scrub is adorned with rare plants such as globeflower and roseroot.
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