Europe Euphoria

Last year’s baby contest winners-Irina and Andrei Kartuzov. Making a baby can get you a car. Yes, you’ve read it right! 12th of September can be lucky for some couples in Russia. Family Contact Day dubbed Conception Day is celebrated every year to boost the birthrate in an area where the population has been declining for more than a decade. Like most developed countries, Russia is facing a demographic crisis. The abortion rate in Russia has increased to great extent which is the main reason of flagging birth rate. The population is shrinking at an ever-increasing rate and is now falling by almost half a percent each year. Demographic experts expect the decline to accelerate, estimating that Russia’s population could fall below 100 million by 2050. Boosting the birthrate is the reason why Russia celebrates Conception Day. What is Conception Day? Conception day is a special day started by the governor of Ulyanovsk province, Sergei Morozov three years ago for encouraging procreation. 12th September is declared as a Day of Conception and is giving couples time off from work to procreate. Couples who give birth nine months later on Russia’s national day June 12 receive money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes. Everyone who has a baby in an Ulyanovsk hospital on Russia Day gets some kind of prize. But the grand prize winners are couples judged to be the fittest parents by a committee that deliberates for two weeks over the selection. Federal program is a broad effort to boost Russia’s birthrate. Under this program women who give birth to a second or subsequent child are to receive certificates worth $10,000, which can be used to pay for education or to improve the family’s living conditions.

If Venice could be known for its glamour, Milan should be known for its canals. Yes the canals that made it a popular portcity holds no attraction now. Alternatives modes of transport being available waterways are no more an attraction. Regional leaders see the great city could be made an industrial and financial hub if the canal networks are repaired to join the city with the surrounding countryside. Green is the catchword. Urban planners are breaking their heads over refurbishing its dwindling canal embankments to transform it into a tourist destination. But that would mean an investment of hundreds of millions of euros. The canals are falling apart, vegetation is sprouting from the concrete walls and if neglected further the city would become an open sewer. VIA: IHT

Planning the European vacation? Think again! Airfares might be getting affordable but if you get to destinations like Moscow, New York, Venice and London, there is a possibility that you might not get a room to stay. Yes, this is true! Internet booking site Hotels.com conducted a survey recently according to which these cities have the most expensive average hotel prices. The survey revealed that Moscow hotels are the most expensive worldwide. The daily cost of a room averages $475 here though the price is just $362 in New York. Average prices in Capetown are $112. Berlin was one of the cheapest cities in Europe with average prices of $138, the same as Beijing. Poland (102 euros), Germany and Hungary (both 105 euros) are the cheapest countries. Cape Town, Guangzhou, China and Orlando, Florida are among the most affordable places to stay. Cairo, Frankfurt, Budapest and Berlin are the places that have the best-priced four-star accommodations. So, if you have some money to burn and you want to take a dream vacation in Russian capital of Moscow, then go ahead but believe me, it’ll really drain your wallet. Image Credit Source: Stuff

When you think of cheese, do you visualize a stringy piece of mozzarella stretching from your lips to a freshly baked slice of pizza? Now imagine yourself rolling headlong down 300 yards in pursuit of a seven lb of cheese. If you find yourself falling into this category, I mean if you’re a cheese lover, read on. Each year, Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire hosts the festival of nutters throwing themselves down a stupidly steep hill in pursuit of a block of cheese! As bizarre as it may sound, a piece of cheese is hurled down a very steep hill by a master of ceremonies as thousands look on. And the prize for winning is you get to keep the cheese. I think most of you could make out as to which fest I’m talking about. It’s Cheese Rolling festival! There are four downhill races (one for ladies). As I already said winners get to take home the cheese, runners-up get cash prizes and uphill chases come with a first prize of a small cheese. Obviously injuries in running down a hill is not uncommon but fortunately most of them are minor. It is just a days’ event but a great fun. Even if you’re not competing in the race, you’re sure to enjoy viewing the cheese lovers run for cheese. Just check out the image gallery and a video to get the idea of what great fun the Cheese Rolling festival is!

Spain’s oldest and grandest art museum popularly known as Prado Museum is a place that offers a large and varied feast to art lovers. Good news is that it is undergoing extension giving a 21st century update to this 18th century museum. The 167,023-square-foot wing designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo is the latest in a series of modifications that began in the 1830s. The extension is definitely modern but it well harmonizes with the surrounding architecture of the Academia Espanola, the adjoining botanical gardens, the church of the Jeronimos and the original Neo-Classical museum designed by Juan de Villanueva. The new wing will give the museum much space to re-hang more of its vast collection that has been stored since long and has not been exposed to the art lovers visiting the museum. Only 2000 of the almost 9000 art works in the collection were previously on view and this extension will allow art lovers to witness the hidden gems i.e. the masterpieces by El Greco, Z�rbaran, Goya, Bosch, and Caravaggio. It’s a $211-million extension that will be inaugurated on Oct. 30. With the opening up of the newly expanded Prado, the institution will have doubled its exhibition space to a total of 16,000 square meters. To show off its modern space, the museum is opening a temporary exhibit in the new wing-The Rediscovery of a Collection: The 19th Century at the Prado that will feature art works from the day of inauguration up till April 24.

Swedish archaeologists have dug up a Viking treasure trove in a garden in the Baltic Island of Gotland. A gardener who was tending his vegetable patch stumbled upon the treasure trove containing silver coins from Europe, central Asia, and the Middle East. The Viking money totalled about 69 coins dating from late 900s and early 1000s. The find contains rare early Viking money and foreign currency from present-day England, Germany, Ireland, Iraq, and Uzbekistan. Vikings, also called Norsemen or Northmen, refers to a members of the Scandinavian seafaring traders, warriors and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 8th to the 11th century and reached east to Russia and Constantinople. The Anglo-saxon coins that were found in the Swedish garden are likely to be the plunder or protection money known as danegeld, which was paid by regional rulers to keep Vikings from attacking, according to the experts. A similar cache was found earlier in England. Gotland probably was a Viking trading center earlier and that’s the reason why the archaeologists have discovered about 700 to 800 silver hoards. Source

When faith can move mountains, can it not move the very source it originates from? Of course it can. A 750 year old church in eastern Germany is now being moved out of its town to make way for a coal pit. The 660-ton church will now travel on wheels and will safely be restored in Borna, a place 12 kilometers away from its origin. Heuersdorf, a village in eastern Germany is sitting on massive coal mine with an estimated 52 million tons of lignite, or brown coal. With economy gaining prominence over faith, the only option was to move the church safely out of the town and restore it. Of course, moving the church out will not be cheap, costing an estimated €3 million ($4.3 million). The church is wrapped in steel corsets with all cracks plugged, and with the help of hydraulic lifts, it will be transferred on to a multi-wheeled red transport bed. While sensors check the condition of the building as it moves, structural engineers will accompany the church through the holy journey to ensure that the building never tilts more than 2 degrees. The church is expected to make a grand re-opening Easter Monday 2008 once it is rebuilt. Perfect example of ‘Faith shaken and restored!’

Bafflement of the residents of Yorkshire has come to an end as the mystery of sculpted stone heads which were left outside their properties has been solved. CCTV footage in Braithwell helped police solve the riddle. They found the images of an unknown man dropping off the sculptures. The man was caught on CCTV when he was trying to drop three heads outside a village post office. CCTV shows man carrying suspicious object. This unknown man has left 13 carved stone heads at different locations in Yorkshire in the dead of night baffling the residents. All the sculptures are slightly different but have one thing in common. Each bears a carved symbol which appears to spell out the word paradox and comes with a note bearing the riddle: Twinkle twinkle like a star does love blaze less from afar?

The image you see above is the computer generated hand out image that shows a plan of a luxury island to be built in the Black Sea. Scheduled to be completed by 2014, it’s a 350 hectare artificial Russia-shaped island to be built at the Russian Resort city of Sochi near the XXII Olympic Winter Games venue. Erick van Egeraat (the Dutch architect) is the designer of this 6.2 billion dollars (4.4 billion euros) project that is due to start next year. According to the plans, the island will have two marinas, three religious centers, roads, parkland and artificial rivers (mimicking the major rivers of Russia). Also, billions of dollars will be spent to upgrade the ageing Soviet-era infrastructure of the region. Source: AFP

Some of the world’s ancient cities are nestled in the middle of amazing canyon lands. In the Spanish province of Malaga, the medieval city of Rhonda boastfully tells a tale of the old ages. The city of Rhonda is situated in a mountainous region which is 750m above the mean sea level. The rocky mesa provides Rhonda with automatic cover from the enemies. History tells us that it was held by the Celts, the Romans as well as the Moors. This was one of the last cities to fall before Granada. I am positive that most of us have heard about the fall of Granada. The cliffs around Rhonda drop down about 300 meters at their tallest. The story goes: the National fascists were thrown off them. Amazingly, the gorge below the city is basically a collage of buildings and infrastructures from different periods of history. They tell us a very interesting story about Rhonda. Plenty of caves and tunnels dominate the city of Rhonda. As a matter of fact all these natural features make Rhonda the most defensive and a very precarious city indeed. Traces of modern architecture pierce through the ancient remains of Rhonda. For example a modern dam makes it’s way into the rivers through the maze of caves and cliffs and what not. Whew! I am just dazed and amazed. I think Rhonda gives me good enough reason to get to Spain on my next vacation.