Mallorca’s most appealling beaches, part 1

Mallorca became one of Europe’s most popular summer destinations for a reason. There’s no denying the island boasts stunning beaches. Unless you have a boat, though, it’s impossible to escape the crowds; don’t believe anybody who tells you any different. Even beaches proclaimed by locals as Mallorca’s most off-the-beaten-track were crowded when we recently went to investigate. Don’t even think about Magaluf, Palma Nova or Cala Millor, these are the spots to lay your towel – or rent a sun-bed!

* ES TRENC – for many sun-worshippers, this is Mallorca’s most sublime stretch of sand. Popular with naturists, this long, skinny beach is certainly a beauty, with pristine, aquamarine water and snowy sand. Reached by dirt roads and tracks through small sand dunes, it may not be the easiest beach to get to, but it still gets crowded.

* TRAMUNTANA MOUNTAINS – while you’ll need a boat to get to the best swimming spots on the spectacular coast skirting the majestic Tramuntana mountain range, there are some alluring beaches that can be reached by skinny tortuous roads, including Cala de Sa Calobra and the slightly more accessible, Cala de Deià. While it's not an easy drive to reach them (especially Sa Calobra), and it’s mindboggling how buses get here, they get very busy and it’s a long hot walk from the car park in summer.

* PORTO COLOM – several tiny crescent-shaped sandy beaches on an attractive bay; they’re miniscule but picturesque, backed by pine trees, with casual beach cafés overlooking the water. A marina and fishing town with cute fishing sheds beneath colourful houses, and good restaurants and bars, Porto Colom is one of the most alluring and laidback of Mallorca’s holiday towns. It's incredibly popular with Germans and Scandinavians who rent houses or dock their yachts at the marina for a while; most signs and menus are in German.

See part 2 for more beaches... pictured? Let me know if you can guess. This one was hugely popular but difficult to locate, and it's in my least favorite part of Mallorca I have to say.

Cheerleader week

Today was my kids's last day of a one week cheerleader camp. Everyday had a theme like pajama day, wacky day, green/yellow day...etc. They really enjoyed it and had fun time.

This is wacky day, they picked out and paired the outfits by themself, even the ideas for their hair.

This is green/yellow day. The big girl's outfit was sewn by grandma.

The last day, they put on a little show for the parents to watch. All the kids are just so adorable.
After the show, the kids and me. My little one was whining!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend with friends and family!!!! Hugs....from Hanh ;-)

Great Experience At Sycamore Lodge RV Resort

Very interesting place to visit for everybody who loves to camp is rv park nc, Sycamore Lodge, a private RV campground. It owes it's name to sycamore trees planted near the campgrounds to shade them. And there is great variety of trees in the park populated with many birds. Among them the rare red-cockaded woodpecker. The campgrounds are big enough for big RV-s too. And you can enjoy this park even if you do not have a RV. There are eccelent accomodations for everybody here. You will find many beautiful features in the rooms and in the kitchen. All this and many other characteristics make so that Sycamora Lodge is one of the best luxury resorts in NC.

Sycamore Lodge is unique among the nc rv parks not only for the beauty of the place where it is situated. There is great number of amenities for everybody here. You will surely appreciate beautiful lake and beach, the possibilities to practice water sports, a swimming pool and jacuzzi complex and playgrounds for your children. Not the least in the modern society is the possibility to use wireless internet.

This rv park north Carolina is situated not far from the nation's legendary and historic golf communities. You need only some minutes to reach Pinehurst Golf Courses.Other interesting offer of this family are event weekends, about 40 all year round, when the visitors can celebrate different feasts in this unforgettable form.

Musings on Mallorca: part 3

Of course experiencing local culture is not high on every traveller's list of priorities - as we were often reminded in Mallorca. Some people simply want to lie in the sun and read a book, others just want to have fun with friends, and they don't care where they do it. But when I write, I write with a different audience in mind - one for whom experiencing local culture, language, history, art, and cuisine and so on are just as important than lying by a pool. Unfortunately, Mallorca has for too long focused its sights on promoting sun and sand - or bucket and spade - tourism. And through its efforts to make the holiday experience for sunworshippers cheap and easy, the island has lost much of its culture and destroyed some of its coastline in the process. I'm talking about the wall-to-wall high-rise hotels, the once-pretty coves now backed by ugly concrete apartment blocks, the menus in four languages and featuring beef stroganof and fish and chips, and an abundance of tacky souvenir shops, Irish bars, British pubs, betting shops, and lap-dancing clubs. This is what I don't like about Mallorca. Mass tourism in its ugliest form. And sadly, it can be a challenge to escape it. It's not a handful of towns that have given over to package tourists, as is the case in Cyprus, but a whole stretch of coastline west of Palma, another in the north, and dozens of other spots in the east and south. And don't think Mallorcans are happy about this. Most we met are not - especially the younger generation - but they seem powerless to do anything about it and admit they've lost control. Why? Because much of the development is foreign-owned. Mallorca makes a great case study for how not to develop tourism. But on a positive note, it's also a brilliant candidate for an experiment in sustainable tourism and how to turn a destination around.

Musings on Mallorca: part 2

So what did we not enjoy about Mallorca? Well, Mallorca is not for everyone. Sure, that could be said about a lot of places, but there are some destinations that few people dislike: Paris, Italy, Thailand for instance. And perhaps it's just that - despite the stunning landscapes, fascinating people, beautiful hotels and fabulous restaurants - Mallorca is not for me. Would I go there again? To work, absolutely. I'd happily go back and talk to the island's talented chefs or write about its burgeoning wine industry. Off-season though. Would I go there on holidays? No, most probably not. And for us, that's one of the criteria we use to judge a destination. If it's the kind of place where I think "I'd prefer to be lying on that beach than writing about it" or a place I make a mental note to return to one day, then I place it fairly high on my list of great destinations. But it's more complex than that. There are other things I disliked about Mallorca. Mainly, that Mallorca did not feel like Spain. Nor did it feel Catalan. Juxtaposed with Barcelona, where we spent five days after Mallorca, that was even more apparent. Barcelona is a cosmopolitan, multicultural city, immensely popular with tourists, with a reasonable-sized expat population - yet it's still retained its unique Catalan identity and essential Spanish-ness. Mallorca, sadly, has lost a lot of the characteristics that make it Mallorcan. They are still there, of course - the language, cuisine, arts and crafts, traditional customs, etc - they're just very hard to find. We located them of course - because that's what travel writers do - but I continually wondered how tourists there for a week fared. Mallorca is a place where you most definitely need to use a quality guidebook, follow some good local blogs, have a local guide, or quickly make local friends, if you want to experience the 'real' Mallorca - or as the Mallorquins like to say, 'the other Mallorca'. Unfortunately, for most tourists visiting the island, the closest they'll get to Mallorcan culture are artificial experiences (as fun as they can be) like La Granja, pictured.

Musings on Mallorca: part 1

We've finished our work on Mallorca - Terry shooting photos for three books, and me updating a travel guidebook. It was nearly seven weeks in total, and by the end of it Terry felt like a contestant on Survivor, desperate to get off the island. Did we not enjoy Mallorca? We did - absolutely - to a certain extent. We met some incredible people, both Mallorquins and expats, from chefs and sommeliers to hotel owners and bartenders. The people were definitely the highlight of our stay. We also checked in to some stunning hotels, ate some extraordinary food, and drank some superb Mallorcan wine. After that, it was the landscapes that took my breath away - the spectacular coastline with sheer craggy cliffs that dramatically drop down to the sea, crystal clear aquamarine water lapping white sand beaches, sailing boats bobbing in the sea off-shore, and the typically-Mediterranean scenery that I have always been besotted with: mountains thick with pine, cypress and cork-oak trees; terrace hillsides covered with vineyards, olive groves and citrus orchards; countryside fragrant with wild lavender, myrtle and thyme; and old villages that tumble down hillsides, dominated by monumental churches and charming cafe-filled squares, with cobblestone lanes lined with sandstone houses. And in Mallorca there was an added bonus - the ramshackle windmills scattered across the whole island. But...?

Pictured is Pollenca, one of my favorite Mallorcan towns in the north.

Life In The Paradise

Looking on this photo you probably think I'll tell you now many words in superlative about the beauty of these places? You are wrong. Contrary, I want to say: dear friends, can you imagne the terrible and solitary life that have the persons living in this paradise? Even with the modern vehicles is difficult to reach the next village -I don't say you about the next city. Seems, it is so near -if you are able to fly maybe. But if you have to use the very narrow one-car roads and these roads have nothing other as turns...



...you sit in your paradise looking on the other side of the valley one day...
you sit there second day, third day...
Than, in the evening, you turn on your TV and watch the LIFE somewhere there...



And now think a moment that you have to make all that road EVERY day -with rain or sun- to reach the next city (Salerno or Naples) where you found job...

What is the difference between the Paradise and the Hell?

Importance Of Heraldry

In some texts I read about Robert Guiscard, Norman conqueror of Italy, were mentioned his heraldric signs. So, was said, the lion was one of them.(Arms of Hautville family)

Than they told about the band used by the knights to put their swords on it. It was said, all the Normans have this band in their arms. All the Normans.

In Ravello I've seen arms with a lion and a band over him. I thought, it is of the family of Robert Guiscard. Asked the guides and they could not say anything about it. They said it's of Pope. But it's not true. I found a site with many arms of different Popes. All they have a mitre like this (Wikipedia):

The only sure Norman family I know lived in this zone, was the family of Princes of Salerno Sanseverino and here I found their arms in Wikipedia.
As you see, there is really a band on these arms. Nothing except it.

Where are other heraldryc signs? Like that lion of Robert Guiscard -I don't know.

Unfortunatelly I know nothing about this interesting science, Heraldry, but as it's possible to see, it is important to know it sometimes to understand ways of history.

Tell Intarsia About Arabs?

On these 2 photos you see the 2 sides of the portico of the cathedral of Salerno.

If you listen to a guide or to anybody who can tell you some words about this building you will surely hear this sentence that I copied from Wikipedia:
"The entrance has a portico with 28 antique columns whose pointed arches, with lava rock intarsia, show influence of Arab art,"





I was sure it's the truth and told it to the persons too. Till I visited Pompei a month ago. There I made this photo:



The cathedral of Salerno was built in about 1080-1084 by Norman conqueror of the town Robert Guiscard. Normans could be perfectly influenced by Arabs called Saracens in Italy because those had the use to plundert coasts of Italy at least from V-VI centuries.

The Romans could not avoid contacts with Arabs in all their history, it's clear. Even if the first documented contacts go back to the II-III centuries. Pompei was burried in 79, I century.

Now I think about it: could it be really Arabic influence?

Aztec Mexican Dance

The dancers with my two sweet girls.

Once I was in Cancun, Mexico and got a chance to see the Aztec fire dance. It is quite a dance, the mask, the costumes, the music are so native to Mexican culture. I really obsess with any native country costumes because of its character and cultural influence.

The Aztec Fire Dance is one of the most basic manifestations of the artistic and cultural spirit of the people of Mexico. It has been referred to as a form of prayer and a total way of life and communication.

The costumes are made of colorful embroidered cloth and animal skins often adorned with polished stones or mirrors and accessories made of shells or seed pods. Most impressive are the headdresses, made of feathers of pheasants, eagles or other birds.

The chants and movements are strung together with the sound of beating the drum made of wood and gourds tensed with animal skin, or the tongued hollow log drum, with its rich spirit touching vibrations. Blowing shells and playing along with reed and clay flutes, tambourines and rattles made of shells and seeds create a very unique native sound. Seed pods and metal bells are also worn around the ankles of the dancers and serve as instruments, sounding with every step of their dance .

Summer leather

Who would wear leather for summer? it's too hot. But when I saw this top sometime ago, I thought this one would be ok to wear it in summer ;-). It is sleeveless. In addition, the back of it is 100% stretch thin cotton, the front is cut-out, thin and extremely soft leather material. I love its texture, interesting, unique cut and it's kind of like a modern cave-man outfit. This outfit is perfect for a wild night date with my husband. And I'm definitely wearing this top throught fall/winter with grey turtle neck underneath. I wore it with Alexander McQueen legging, Balmain boots.

Tiger face vintage cuff.

The back of the top is 100% stretched thin cotton.

Close-up front. It's written on the top "Open your mind-Love Peace- Share Spirit". This top is made by Share Spirit. Do you see a skull above "Love Peace"?. The necklace is Mellisa Joy Manning.

Wish you all have a lovely and peaceful day!!! big hugs....Hanh ;-)

Ps: From the last posts, I had on Rouge Allure -Imagination pink lip stick Chanel and orange lip was a mix of Imagination pink lip stick underneath orange Heat Wave NARS. I also just bought leather strings to plan to make a necklace and I hope it'll come out good. So, I would share with you sometime soon.

Poland -- Austeria in Krakow

Austeria book store, Krakow. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

I was pleased to see a nice mention of Austeria publisher in Krakow, as part of a story in the Jerusalem Post about Jewish renewal in Krakow.

The new Polish-language book Dovev Siftei Yeshenim (The Utterings of the Lips of the Sleepers), written by Krakow's Rabbi Boaz Pash, is an effort to bring back to life the voices of the city's rabbinic tradition in the place where it all happened. The book is a collection of interpretations on the weekly Torah portion written by some of the greatest rabbis Krakow ever produced.

"Everyone has heard about the rabbis and sages of Krakow, but who can quote them?" asks Pash. "What member of the current generation that is living and growing up in Poland can open their books? This book and others of its kind represent an attempt to meet that need."

The book begins with 15th century scholar Rabbi Yom Tov Milhausen, and continues with such luminaries of the Jewish bookshelf as the 16th century giant Rabbi Moshe Isserles, better known as the Rama, and the 17th-century halachist Rabbi Yoel Sirkas, the Bach.

"Poland is experiencing a renewal of Jewish culture and a demand for more information about Judaism, both in the past and present," says Pash.

Indeed, the book's publisher, the local Jewish publishing house Austeria, is part of that revival, owned by a Krakow couple who run a Jewish-themed café, bookstore and hotel. At 30 zlotys (about NIS 40), it is priced for popular consumption.

Austeria is run by Wojtek and Malgosia Ornat, who also run the Klezmer Hois cafe/restaurant/hotel, a Jewish book store and a Jewish art gallery (in the High Synagogue).

Austeria published my book "Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere)" last year.

The finish line

Hi everyone,

Thank you very much everyone from the bottom of my heart for your kindness and support of my blog. I wish I have prizes for all of you but unfortunately I just have one Giving away Gift this time. I should have a Give away Gift every month because you all are such sweet supporters. And we had many many ties. Following the rules, we had a random pick for the winner. Now, allow me to announce the winner...Congratulations to Pret a`Porter P

Finally, I'd like to post my awards and tags that I've received from the past month from fabulous bloggers. Thank you to Fashion Titbits for giving me the Lovely blog Award, thank you The Left Look for Kreativ blogger Award, thank you Karolina for Gold Medal of the Best Blog and San Francisco Stylephile for the tag with 6 things that make me happy. Also, the Kreativ Award requires that I post 7 things that are true about me. It's so funny that I about to post this and I got message about giving me Award from Janetteria , thank you Janettaylor. It also requires to reveal 10 things about me. Here they are:

1. I'm happy when I see my husband and my kids laugh.
2. I'm happy when my big daughter tries to eat something new (she's picky-eater).
3. Can't wait for my parents come here to visit.
4. I suck at computer technique, but I learn fast.
5. I never go to nail salon, I'm happy to do it myself at home.
6. I'm not a good driver and very bad at direction.
7. I just remembered that my memory is not as great as it was before. I'm forgetting thing easily now, LOL.
8. I'm sensitive person but I try to conceal it. Yes, Janettaylor, I just like you on this one.
9. I can handle hot summer very well.
10. I sleep with my two girls on the weekend nights because I love to snuggle with them in the next mornings.

I wore sheer black 8 or 9 years old BCBG top, Emanuel Ungaro skirt, pony fur Givenchy shoes, Prada crocodile clutch.

I wish you all have a wonderful day!!!! hugs...Hanh ;-)

Cheap International Flights

Finally the period of the vacations began and many of us look for cheap international flights to visit all the points on the Earth that we dream all the year round. I have friends that think about the vacations from the moment they turn home. They are travel-fans. My husband begins to look for the ticket to visit his mother in Argentine about 8 months befor the date of vacation to find best offers. If you visit Travel.com.au, you can find not only "regular" one way and return offers, there are even "round the world" and "multistop" possibilities. Interesting, no?

Travel.com.au presents different destinations and airfares. One of them is qantas that is Australias largest airline and offers flights to any part of the world. And -imagine!- it's the second oldest in the world. I'm sure you did not know about it. This company offers so many and excellent services that it is one of the best in the world in this sense too. And if you are frequent flyer you can earn free flights or other benefits including deals with hotels and car hire.

An other reliable air service offers singapore airlines. Among other interesting proposals this company has two longest non-stop flights. All the classes of tickets are comfortable and the entertaining system during the flights includes more than 450 options. Your flight even if very long will never be boring. The company offers discounts for frequent flyers and special holiday packages for those who loves adventures.

Boking your flight with Travel.com.au as you see can help you to discover infinite possibilities to have a special vacation.

La Vie en Rose

Black is classic, elegant, modern, chic, tough, timeless, an all year round color. I love black! I have many favorite black outfits and sometimes wearing color is very refreshing from the black. I definitely take advantage of summer to wear my colorful outfits. Pink is my favorite color since I was little girl until now. Wearing pink reminds me of my Innocent, carefree childhood. Wearing pink reminds me of my very first dance with my husband when we were on dating and it also became the first dance for our wedding's day. " La vie en Rose".

I wore pink Lanvin dress, bought 2 years ago at Barney's on nice sale and Guiseppe for Balmain shoes, F21 jews.

Thank you very much to all my fellow readers for taking time to visit my blog, and a special thank you to all who leave comments on my comment page or through email. I truly appreciate it. When I read your compliments with the details about why you love to visit my blog, I've truly gotten emotional with your honest and kind words. It touches my heart.

Many of you inspire me for my sense of style, my travel, yummy food, also as a woman to remind the other woman can be who they want, no limitation in sight. Inspire me as a mom, a wife, a family lady. I'm honored with your wonderful, kind compliments. For young readers who may still be in high school or college, who have been sending me comments about how I remind them to focus for their school, I'm very happy to hear that. I want my kids to do the same thing, focus on studying while you could play with your fashion when you have extra time on your weekend, holidays, long summer break. To me, life's school is very important for us. It's a foundation of our life and we just have one life to build it with your best. It doesn't matter who you will be, what career you have: a doctor, engineer, a fashionista, or simply a mom; your foundation of knowledge is for you and your future's family. And thank you again to all my fabulous readers, wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead!!! love....Hanh ;-)

ps: thank you everyone for giving me the ways to check number of visitors of my blog. I'll check them out and let you know if I have any trouble ;-)

ps: the winner of Giving away Gift will be announced on the next post!

Plants Growing In The Crater Of Solfatara

Left the zone of hot air and soil (Healing Qualities Of Volcano Solfatara ) I crossed the cratere using special paths.

This area is similar to a botanic garden because there are inscriptions near every plant (wekll, not "every"...) and big tables with explanations here.

I just wrote about the trees growing in that zone of Solfatara in my post How Some Trees Can Grow. Those were eucalipts and here is Myrthus. It is not far from that place. The plants can grow really in any condition. Look here: this is not "normal" soil where you would plant something, true?

Some meters later -and we can see great explosion of life...

By the way, I don't know what are these "weeds".
Other 10-15 metrrs and you can see many campers and persons that live there.

Read more:
How Some Trees Can Grow
Two Volcanoes Of Campania/ Italy
Healing Qualities Of Volcano Solfatara
Therapeutic Mud And Steam In Solfatara

European Day of Jewish Culture Coming up -- Sept. 6

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the European Day of Jewish Culture, an event that takes place in nearly 30 countries and represents the biggest and most extensive Jewish culture festival in Europe. Begun as a local initiative in the Alsace region of France, Culture Day went international in 1999 and is one of the only such manifestations that has a cross-border character.

This year its theme is Jewish Festivals and Traditions. Its roster is likely to include as many as 800 separate, simultaneous events in 28 countries.

With so much going on at the same time in so many places, Culture Day is targeted more at local people than at tourists. It's aim is to enable the public at large to discover the cultural and historical heritage of Judaism and in doing so to combat anti-Jewish prejudice.

As I wrote last year in an article for Hadassah Magazine, Culture Day is loosely coordinated by the ECJC, B'nai B'rith Europe and the Red de Juderias, a Jewish tourism route linking 15 Spanish cities. On the ground, however, the operation is staffed by local volunteers in each participating country -- thousands of them, Jewish and non-Jewish alike. The level of participation in each country is determined by local interest, resources and capabilities: some countries have only a few token events.

The Italian participation has, from the beginning, been among the most enthusiastic, thanks to good organization, hundreds of volunteers, and important support from state, regional and local authorities. This year, there will be a record participation in Italy -- nearly 60 towns, cities and villages will be scheduling some sort of event.

Each year in Italy, one city is chosen as the flagship, where official kick-off ceremonies and major events are held.

This year the choice is unusual -- it's Trani, a seaport town in the deep south of Italy, in Puglia, on the heel of Italy's boot. Jews were expelled from here half a millennium ago; it's only in the past few years that local people have begun to recover Jewish history. A tiny Jewish community was reconstituted five years ago.

Events there will center around what is being called the first Festival of Jewish Culture ever to be held in Puglia. Called "Negba", it takes place Sept. 6-9. The program includes performances, concerts, lectures, discussions, exhibits.

Many events will be sited at Trani's Scolanova synagogue, which was used for a centuries as a church but has been the center of Jewish life in the town since 2005.

You can see the full Italian schedule by clicking HERE.

Therapeutic Mud And Steam In Solfatara

We continue our walk in the cratere of Solfatara, the sleeping volcano in Pozzuoli. Here are the previous posts about it:
How Some Trees Can Grow
Two Volcanoes Of Campania/ Italy
Healing Qualities Of Volcano Solfatara
Plants Growing In The Crater Of Solfatara

Now we will visit central part of cratere, the mud "pool" and the steam sauna.

As I said you before, there were much more places with mud and steam when I was here 13 years ago. And the soil was not so solid as today. Probably, the sysmic activity become not so dangerous. This place is made for pleasant walks today.

The central part is a not very big pool of boiling mud. There is the not very pleasant taste of sulphur in the mouth, the air is full of it. I began to have headaches.



After it you can go to the only place where the steam goes out today. It's temperature is very high, about 160°C. The place is situated near the bord of the crater. All the soil and air are too hot from here till the sauna. But you don't feel the taste of sulphur in the mouth more.







Sauna was built in the Roman times. They thought, these are the entrances in the Hell. But you have not to believe them. Those Romans had many entrances in the Hell in this zone. Virgilius wrote about the lake of Averna that is not too far from there. Do you believe that there are so many entrances in one hell? I think, it's not possible. The entrance has to be only one, I think.