My destinations

Nowy Swiat (New World in English) and Florianska in Cracow are the two most expensive shopping streets in Poland. Each square metre of shop space costs 960 USD a year there. But that’s nothing really, as Poland’s top shopping addressed are only ranked in 35th place on the list of most expensive shopping streets in the world compiled by Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker. A shop on Nowy Swiat is just a mite more expensive than in the best shopping centre in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates

There’s no longer a gigantic queue to the world’ most famous fast food restaurant. Neither do you have to wait so long to meet Lenin. Besides, the word is that he’s about to leave his mausoleum. The ‘Worker and Kolkhoz Member’, a 43m logo of Mosfilm (the USSR’s Hollywood), is also vacating its place at the Exhibition of the Achievements of the National Economy. Moscow has changed. There’s no longer the Ostankino Tower viewing platform, and there are no more tales of permits to take the lift up there, or of the coffee one could drink at the ‘Seventh Heaven’ restaurant 337m up only after ordering it beforehand down at ground level. Even the red walls of the Kremlin seem redder now. Between Red Square, Manezhnaya Square where a three-storey leisure and shopping center has grown beneath the ground, and the Moscow Hotel, is carnival land. A river of people flows among the buskers, street theatres, and openair galleries. And at night Moscow enjoys itself on Novy Arbat, dancing and playing roulette in its casinos. And as one would guess, bets are placed on black more often then red.

The chalk callers have had a big impact on the townscape of Chełm. To such an extant that over the last two centuries the town’s street have collapsed on several occasions, while the white bear in the town’s crest is actually brown, but covered in chalk.
Paris is famous for its Eiffel Tower, London for Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, Rome for its Catacombs, and Chełm is know for Europe’s only 40km maze of corridors, grottos, passages and subterranean cloisters hollowed out beneath the oldest part of the town in chalk from the upper Cretaceous. At certain points the excavations have formed as many as 6 levels. The deepest of them is 30m below the ground, the shallowest is barely 70cm below the street surface. The chaotic layout of the passage is the result of the ‘cottage mining’ of the merchants, who in the Middle Ages began digging out the chalk beneath their homes to sell (it was a building material, but was also used in polishing, smelting, and cosmetics). Chełm’s underground corridors have been classed as, a third-class cultural monument, and from one of 30 subterranean tour routes open in Poland. Every year Europe’s only open underground chalk mine has 15,000 visitors. As long as Bieluch, the legendary lord of the chalk excavations, doesn’t bar their way, visitors complete the route with their guide and lit torches in one hour. But as the spirit has been accustomed to walking the passages in the company of bards or poets, you should add another 30 minutes to this. And it’s worth doing, even if not for art with a capital A at a temperature of 9oC, then for the power of Bieluch. Legend has it that he once conquered Boruta, a noble devil from Łęczyca.

Patronage is treated like a citizen’s duty in Oslo, and supporting artists with money from the city coffers goes back a long way. In 1921 a contact was signed with Gustav Vigeland by which Oslo paid all of the artist’s bills, and maintained his studio on Nobelsgate 32, which after the sculptor’s death was transformed into his museum. In exchange Vigeland bequeathed all of his sculptures, models and drawing to the city. Today the Vigeland Park is Oslo’s most distinctive tourist attraction. 1921 was also the year when the Young Artist Society (UKS) was founded. This self-assistance organization founded by young painters helped its members for years in a variety of mundane needs, from dental operations to accommodation problems. Currently the Society provides grants for promising artists, organizes exhibitions, and maintains its own gallery. Edward Munch also took advantage of Oslo’s hospitality. The painter, in an impulse of gratitude, gave the city some 1200 paintings and 6000 drawings and prints. The collection is on display in the Munch Museum on Toyengaten 53

In the 19th century only two cities in Eastern Europe were larger then Vilnius: Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Today there are many more, but sociologists at Mercer Human Resource Consulting have shown Lithuania’s picturesquely situated capital to be one of the friendliest cities in the region, surpassed only by Prague and Budapest. Napoleon, who visited Vilnius on his march on Moscow, was less impressed. In fact, St Anne’s Church (Maironio was practically all that hi liked! He even wanted to transfer the building to Paris, and have it close to Notre Dame cathedral. This time his wish proved impossible to fulfill, so the masterpiece of Flemish-French Gothic continues to stand beautifully above the Vilnia with its façade of 33 types of brick. There are more such pearls in the city’s string of architectural gems: Stefan Batory University, the Baroque church of St Peter and Paul, and the Philharmonic from the turn of the 20th century. Most are situated between the Castle and the Gate of Dawn. If you’re going shopping, this in the only place to go; there’s no better place for a walk either

In my opinion the most interesting place, in the world is Burj Al Arab this is hotel in Dubai. What make him so unique? Answer is simple: everything. This building is one off highest hotel on the world (321m); whole construction was built on artificial island. Only 200m split him from beautiful sandy beach. This is the only hotel so luxury that marks him 7 stars. For our disposition are there 6 restaurant, bars, casino, nightclub, 3 pools, trade center, business center and even doctor. We may play here in golf, tennis, and squash. It’s wonderful place anyone should see it. I command this place for all.