Tag: fun

A Labyrinthian Interest – Summer Journal Series Part 1

With the beginning of summer and a little more free time on my hands, I decided to attempt a sort of Summer Journal Series for my blog. (Incidentally, if you have any ideas for blog musings for the fall, please leave a comment! I am happily open to suggestions! :))

Anyway, many of my readers seemed to like the virtual travels I did last year, so I decided to kick the series off with virtually travelling to three extreme mazes around the world!

Labirinto della Masone

In the fascinating world of Labyrinths and mazes, the Labyrinth della Masone stands out as the world’s largest Labyrinth, and is made from bamboo! The website (https://www.labirintodifrancomariaricci.it/en/labirinto-masone/home-en/) includes history of the maze and its buildings as well as beautiful pictures of the buildings at the maze.

From an arial view, the maze looks like a giant star with a square shape imbedded in the centre. From a ground view, the pathways of the maze are lined with bamboo, leaning inwards in places as if to create a sort of archway. The effect of the bamboo closing in looks magical!

(Photos from: https://www.labirintodifrancomariaricci.it/en/labirinto-masone/labyrinth/#section4)

The Pineapple Garden Maze

Not only does one get to wander their way around inside a giant pineapple with this next maze, but there are also eight “secret stations” that lead visitors to the botanical garden at the centre of this maze! I absolutely love this maze, simply because, as the name implies, it is shaped like a Pineapple.

This maze is also the largest maze in the world! (Not to be confused with the largest labyrinth in the world – Labyrinth della Masone.) At this point, you may – as I was – be questioning what the different between a maze and a labyrinth is. I was surprised to discover that a labyrinth is simply a path that you follow. It can be windy, but does not leave the possibility open to becoming lost. Whereas while in a maze, one can find themselves lost in all the pathways and dead ends.

Detouring just a little sidestep, as I was researching what the difference is between a labyrinth and a maze, I came across some other interesting little facts about mazes and labyrinths. Below are a couple of fun maze definitions I came across!

“Bottleneck – A passage connecting one area of a maze to another, and that must be traversed in order to solve the maze. Every solution to the maze must go through the bottleneck.”

“Vortex – Three or more passageways that spiral into each other, to a central junction, where one must then choose a passageway leading back out. Vortices are disorienting because it is difficult to predict in what direction a passageway leading out will ultimately lead. Multiple vortices linked together can be particularly confusing to navigate.”

(Quotes from aMAZEing Art, http://amazeingart.com/maze-faqs/maze-terms.html)

Labyrinth of Villa Pisani

(Photo from https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/villa-pisani-labyrinth.html)

I then found myself exploring the Villa Pisani National Museum and its maze within its garden. The large garden includes part of Brenta river and is decorated with beautiful statues.

The labyrinth itself is formed from beautiful lush green hedges and looks as if it were straight out of a fairy tale. Its square shape is inhabited by a circular shape in the centre, in which lies a single tower structure at the heart of the maze, with a spiral staircase leading to the top of the tower.

Every maze and labyrinth has a fascinated story associated/behind it, but an interesting little legend about the Labyrinth of Villa Pisani is that supposedly Hitler and Mussolini would not even attempt to complete the difficult labyrinth; and Napoleon tried to finish it, but could not find his way through. (Information courtesy of https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/villa-pisani-labirinto)

I hope that someday we will all get to visit these fascinating mazes and labyrinths in person; but for the time being, it was a pleasure to share my virtual exploration of these amazing places with you.

Ready for more adventures!

Until next time! <3

PS Find the secret word hidden in this blog post! There will be a new word for each Summer Journal Series.

Hint: First letter. 1, 2, 5, 7, 12, 14

Comment if you figure out the word! 🙂

Taking Off – Rockets Past and Present

I recently downloaded a very fun app on my cell phone. This app (Next Spaceflight) is basically a launch schedule for rockets and spaceflights around the world. It will notify you when a rocket is launching, and will provide you with many interesting insights, such as information about the rockets launching, what rockets launched on the day years ago, and what rockets are scheduled to launch in the future.

Today, the Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat successfully launched from Site 1S, Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia at 7:26am EST. This rocket cost twenty-four million dollars, and stands at a height of forty-two meters. Its purpose is to join other satellites to become part of OneWeb’s high-speed internet constellation. OneWeb plans to have coverage for people around the world by 2022 or 2023.

Interestingly enough, there were two other launches originating in Russia that happened fifty years ago today! The cosmos 388 and 389 were launched from Site 133/3 and Site 41/1 in the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, respectively. The Cosmos 388 was launched in at 4:39am EST. It stood at a hight of 31 meters. The Cosmos 389 was launched at 11:15am EST.

This day – December 18th – has had many launches – at least twenty, in fact! Six of these launches were from Russia, five from the USA, four from France, three from Kazakhstan, and one from Japan. Only one of the twenty-one launches over the years failed – GPS-7. GPS-7 was launched from California in 1981 at 8:10pm EST.

This is honestly such a fun app for those who find rockets, spaceships, and the like interesting! I found the history of launches for December 18th quite interesting, and hope you did as well! Until next post! 🙂

Travelling Around the World – My Final Week

Week five is here! It has been five weeks of virtual travelling, and I have seen so many amazing new places! This week’s plan was as follows:

Week 5: “Travel” to Peru and Brazil 

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Choose what you think is the most beautiful spot in both Peru and Brazil. 

Now, to be perfectly honest, I never did very well with the “visit one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day”, much to my chagrin. However, like last week, I did virtually “visit” seven tourist spots, just not on different days of the week.

The first place I decided to “visit” was Machu Picchu in Peru. These gorgeous ruins make a breathtaking scene laying in the Andes Mountains three hundred meters above the Urubamba River. Something that I found was very interesting about Machu Picchu is that there is a secret temple nearby. This temple is called Temple of the Moon, and it was built on Huayna Picchu.

To get to this secret temple, one must traverse the ‘Stairs of death of Huayna Picchu’. There are 183 meters of these steep, cliff-side steps which one must use in order to reach the Temple of the Moon.

The next place I decided to visit was Ica and the Sand Dunes at Huacachina. Here, there is a beautiful resort built in an oasis surrounded by massive sand dunes. Visitors to this resort can enjoy sand boarding or riding in dune buggies in the giant sand dunes nearby.

The third place I decided to travel to was Barranco. This city drew my attention immediately, with its bright colours and beautiful foliage! It is a very artsy-looking city, complete with street art, coffee shops, and picturesque streets.

One of the most interesting places that I visited virtually was the Puente de Los Suspiros, or Bridge of Sighs. Here it is said that if one makes a wish and holds one’s breath the entire way across the bridge, that your wish will come true!

After Barranco, I headed over to another stunningly colourful city – Pelourinho in Brazil. This beautiful city is full of historical buildings, including some lovely churches and monasteries.

I also decided to visit the city of Ipanema on the “same day” since it looked so beautiful with its white beaches, as well as fascinating-looking rocky mountains in the background. The pictures of this beach are absolutely stunning, and were fun to peruse!

The next place I visited was Fernando de Noronha in Brazil. This beautiful archipelago is composed of twenty-one islands/islets, and is found 354 km off the Brazilian shore. I found the colour of the water particularly stunning. The bright blues of the ocean contrast very nicely with the dark, rocky islands that dot the Atlantic’s waters.

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park was next up on my virtual tour through Brazil. This spot is truly such an amazing-looking area. Its soft-looking white sands stretch far even as they surround azure pools of rain water.

My final final destination for this “trip” was Bonita, Brazil. Freshwater there has beautiful tropical fish, which greatly interested me, as I feel like it would be so interesting to get a close look at tropical fish! Also, I found a cave in Bonita, Gruta do Lago Azul, very fascinating, as it is more than two hundred feet deep, and looks amazing! A very interesting fact about this cave is that it has prehistoric fossils in it!

As for the second travel challenge, the most beautiful spot I found in Peru was Cordillera Blanca. This beautiful collection of mountains and valleys caught my attention immediately, and I quickly decided that this was the most beautiful spot that I had seen in Peru on my “travels”.

The most beautiful spot I found in Brazil was Iguaçu Falls. The breathtaking group of 247 waterfalls most definitely immediately qualified for the most beautiful spot that I saw in Brazil during my virtual travels!

I am so glad to have been able to travel the world virtually throughout these last five weeks! I sincerely hope you have had a wonderful time following (and hopefully travelling!) along with me over these last several weeks!

Week 4 – My Adventures in Ireland and Russia.

Week four has come and gone already! The round the world trip is nearly complete, but not without a few more adventures around the corner.

My itinerary for week four was:

Week 4: “Travel” to Ireland and Russia 

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Virtually find the perfect spot to have a picnic in Ireland!
  • Virtually find the most interesting-looking building in Russia! 

Unfortunately, the visiting one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day became more of a “visit seven tourist attraction in one day” sort of excursion. (Thankfully this is a virtual trip, otherwise I would be exhausted!)

The first place I decided to visit virtually was Russia. In fact, I “headed” straight to Moscow, where I “visited” the stunning Saint Basil’s Cathedral. This beautifully unique building was commissioned to be built by Ivan the Terrible in 1555 to 1561. The architecture of this building is quite interesting. There really are not any other buildings like this bonfire-shaped cathedral.

Next I “travelled” to Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. As soon as I found out that Hermitage Museum was in Saint Petersburg, I was so excited, because one of the composers (Igor Stravinsky) I had studied for my music class last year lived there for a time. I was really drawn to this museum because of the beautiful exterior of the building. It is so ornate, and the colour is so unique that I instantly wanted to know more about it! The Hermitage Museum actually has a website that offers virtual visits, which I thought was very useful considering that one cannot easily travel right now. (If you are interested in seeing more of the Hermitage Museum, use the link provided to take a virtual tour of the museum: https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/panorama/virtual_visit/panoramas-m-1/?lng=en)

The Valley of Geysers in Russia was next on the tour. This Russian natural wonder is the second largest geyser field in the world. The valley contains around ninety geysers and is about six kilometres in length. While “visiting”, I looked at many pictures of the valley, and enjoyed the amazing-looking geysers. The Valley of Geysers was definitely worth the “visit”!

Next, I visited The Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. These awe-inspiring cliffs are a popular tourist attraction, and some of these amazing rock formations rise 214 meters into the air! Again, similar to the Hermitage Museum, this tourist attraction has a virtual tour available on their website, which can be found by using the following link: https://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/google-360-inside-tour/.

From the Cliffs of Moher, I decided to explore some of the ruins of Ireland. I skimmed past several ruins, until I finally found some that caught my eye – the ruins in Skellig Michael, County Kerry. This stunning island has some fascinating ruins on it, which are definitely worth a visit! The vibrant green of the grass is a magnificently stark contrast to the rock of the island and the ruins that are built on the island. A fun fact about this island is that it is the very island that was used as a film site in Star Wars Episode VII “The Force Awakens”. In fact, as I was virtually exploring the island, I thought it looked very similar to the island depicted in the Star Wars movie, so I looked it up, and sure enough, it was the island!

As an adventurous and exploration-loving extrovert, this next location is right up my alley! Grafton Street, Dublin is a busy spot full of different shops and streets to explore. From watching street performances to shopping to simply grabbing a coffee, Grafton Street has no shortage of adventures to offer!

Of course, what would a trip to Ireland be without visiting a castle or two? I decided to “visit” Bunratty Castle. Bunratty Castle is a medieval castle which was built in the fifteenth century. This beautiful castle now hosts themed banquets, which sounds like so much fun, and a great way to bring history to life in a fun way!

As for the finding perfect picnic spot in Ireland for the “travel challenge”, I decided on Glendalough. Not only is this spot rich in history and beauty, but it is said to be a good picnic spot, having lots of lovely country/forest areas to enjoy. There are many fascinating spots to enjoy and explore in Glendalough.

For the most interesting-looking building in Russia, I was torn between the Hermitage Museum and Saint Basil’s Cathedral. I personally find the Hermitage Museum more stunning, but the architecture of Saint Basil’s Cathedral is so unique and incredible! In the end, I decided to choose Saint Basil’s Cathedral, but it is a hard choice!

I thoroughly enjoyed my “travels” this week! In fact, this was one of my favourite travelling weeks so far. I saw so many stunning sites as I virtually travelled through Russia and Ireland. I am so excited to see what surprises and adventures the fifth and final week of my world travels holds!

My Travels – Week 3

I will admit, one of the “travelling challenges” did not go so well this week. For week three the “travel” itinerary was as follows:

Week 3:  “Travel” to Egypt and Morocco 

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit a one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Pick out the top three most interesting things you saw on your “travels”.

I did pick out the top three most interesting things I saw while I virtually travelled in Egypt and Morocco, but I did not visit a tourist attraction/interesting spot each day. (My travelling was sporadic at best this week, unfortunately!)

I did enjoy the virtual travelling I did do, however. Both Egypt and Morocco were stunning places to “visit”. The top three most interesting things I saw were:

1) Oudaias Kasbah in Morocco

This neighbourhood is absolutely stunning, and I thoroughly enjoyed looked at the beautiful pictures of this place. My favourite parts of this area of Morocco are the vibrant, blue walls and unique-looking doors!

2) The White Desert in Egypt

This unique Egyptian desert amazed me. It is comprised of large, white chalk mountains that give the effect of winter snow! (I absolutely love the snow, so I loved this desert from the moment I saw it!)

3) Abydos Temple in Egypt

This temple is truly breathtaking, with its large pillars and fascinating hieroglyphics. This three-level temple is made from limestone, and was built for the Egyptian god, Osiris. The temple is also unique in that it contains at least seven sanctuaries built for Osiris, Isis, Horus, Ptah, Re-Harakhte, Amun, and Pharaoh Seti I.

Another place that I found particularly interesting while I was “travelling” was Fes el Bali. This city is definitely an interesting place to see, and the tanneries are especially unique locations to visit while there.

Yet another very interesting spot that I found in my “travels” was the Thistlegorm Dive Site in Egypt. Found in the Red Sea, this dive sight contains a shipwreck from World War II. The ship in question was an English ship called the Thistlegorm which sunk in 1941.

Of course, one’s visit to Egypt cannot be complete without a trip to the pyramids of Giza – one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This magnificent site does not disappoint. From the great Sphinx to the massive pyramids themselves, this historical site is well worth “visiting”!

As always, I loved the opportunity to virtually visit these spectacular places, and hope you had a wonderful time virtually travelling this week as well!

“Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aesop

Traveling the World (COVID Edition…)

If you are anything like me, you love a good adventure. Traveling is an adventure that I have dreamed about for a long time, but with all the “COVID craziness” going on, travel dreams have been put on hold… or have they???

I am about to embark on a journey around the world – virtually. It is my hope that this will be a fun time of learning and adventure for not only me, but also for you! That’s right – I want you to come with me!! I am laying out my virtual travel plan so that anyone who wants to can “travel along” and complete my “travel challenges” along with me.

Week 1: “Travel” to Paris, France and London, England.

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Virtually find the perfect coffee shop or cafe to hang out at! <3

Week 2: “Travel” to Petra, Jordan and the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Challenges:

  • Find out one really unique fact about Petra.
  • Pick out your favourite watery creature that you saw while “diving” at the Great Barrier Reef.

Week 3: “Travel” to Egypt and Morocco

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit a one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Pick out the top three most interesting things you saw on your “travels”.

Week 4: “Travel” to Ireland and Russia

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Virtually find the perfect spot to have a picnic in Ireland!
  • Virtually find the most interesting-looking building in Russia!

Week 5: “Travel” to Peru and Brazil

Challenges:

  • Virtually visit one tourist attraction/interesting spot each day!
  • Choose what you think is the most beautiful spot in both Peru and Brazil.

I am so very excited to begin my travels with you in the upcoming weeks! I will be writing a blog post at the end of each week, to share what I saw and how I completed the challenges I laid out above. I hope that you will join me on what should be a very interesting five-week adventure.

Look out for mid-week travel updates on my Instagram: em_music0

Share your adventures on instagram using the hashtag: #rovingaroundtheworld

Sinking in – My Adventure in a Fen.

When I agreed to go with my brother and cousin to explore a bog – more specifically a fen – a fen is a type of wetland, similar to a swamp or a bog – I did not fully comprehend the kind of adventure that I was about to embark on. After eating some Kraft Dinner for lunch, we loaded up our inflatable boats in my cousin’s car, and headed off to explore!

When we arrived, we had to walk down a short pathway, from which a lightly worn trail ran down a steep slope, and straight towards the fen. When we reached the bottom, there was a little opening from which we could launch our boats. We then pumped up our inflatable boats, and set out on our adventure.

Trouble hit immediately. I took a couple steps into the swampy water to launch my boat, but quickly sunk into the slimy filth halfway to my knee. Great – I thought – wet and muddy from the start. Thankfully, I got into my boat with relative ease, but unfortunately, that is when things got worse for me and my ill-fated boat. In the fen, there were many fallen sticks, branches, and trees. To navigate, I quickly found out that I had to precariously make my way over them while trying not to puncture my little boat. Sadly, this was easier said than done. When I had only gone several yards out, I heard a tearing sound as I was passing over one of the fallen branches, and felt the air quickly escape from the bottom of my boat! Thankfully, the boats we use have two sections of air. After a few moments, I determined that it was only the small bottom section of my boat that was punctured, so for now, I was still afloat.

We paddled on for a while, until we came near some land. I was excited to explore this section of land, as it was full of giant reeds, and all kinds of plants. When I came near enough, I climbed out of my boat onto a small tree stump. I looked around while I waited for the others to join me. There were many interesting things to see, my favourite of which was some bright green moss growing near the tree stump that I had climbed up on. When the others had climbed up onto the land, we left our boats to go explore the little area of land that we had found. We trekked through the swampy land, finding all sorts of amazing mosses, mushrooms, and bushes. We even found some edible leaves, called Labrador tea, which we tasted. The leaves were fuzzy and very strange looking – the top being green, and the bottom a whitish brown. While I enjoyed the adventure of trying the leaf, I did not like the taste – it was bitter, and the leaves were tough.

When we finally returned to our boats, we made our way towards a little dam past which was a larger body of water that we wanted to explore. Exploring this area brought more difficulties. At first, we tried to break apart the dam, as it was uninhabited and very small, but this proved ineffective, and we decided to portage across instead.

On the other side of the dam, there was so much to discover! We made our way through reeds and over logs, until we came to a narrow channel through which we paddled. When we reached the end of the channel, we found ourselves in a beautiful lake surrounded by trees. As we paddled towards the center of the lake, I happened to look back, and saw something hiding behind the reeds. Curious, I began to paddle towards it. It looked like a boat, but I did not think that it was likely that there would be an abandoned boat just sitting there. As I got closer, however, I realized that it was, in fact, a partially sunken boat. I was very excited, and called out my discovery to the others! I paddled closer to get a better look at it, but just as I was nearing the boat, I noticed a flash of bright colour to my left. I paddled towards the colour peeping up from a tuft of earth and grass in the water. To my amazement and excitement, I found myself looking down at some brightly coloured pitcher plants. (Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants that have a trap containing liquid to digest insects that get trapped in their “pitcher”.) Part of the fun of exploring fens, bogs, swamps, and the like are the amazing plants that can be found in them. I am often amazed at the types of plants that are indigenous to Canada. One can find carnivorous plants such as pitcher plants and sundew plants in Canada, as well as many other fascinating plants!

After we looked over those exciting finds, it was time to head home. We slowly made our way back towards the place where we had first launched our boats. By the time we had hiked up the steep slope on which we had first descended, we were very wet and dirty, but happy! We drove back home, discussing aspirations and plans for future adventuring.