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Kyoto is a city in Japan. Formerly the capital until the administrative powers was transferred to Tokyo (the capital of the East “) in the nineteenth century. The city retains many of the buildings built before the Second World War, as this was one of the few cities that hardly bombed during the war. Although this was one of the potential cities to receive the impact of the first atomic bombs, was saved and still preserves its ancient structures.

Many temples are imposed in this city. The former imperial palace, the Sento Imperial Palace, built in the early seventeenth century, was a former retreat for the emperors. The Palace itself was destroyed in a fire in 1854 and never rebuilt. However, today the country is one of the largest gardens in the country with a unique beauty. The gardens are located in the southern part of Kyoto Imperial Palace.

The city has more than 2,000 Buddhist temples and many Jinja. One of the most famous is the temple Otowa-San Kiyimizu-dera, built on a hill. The most peculiar is that this temple was built without a single nail. Within the area which houses the temple and other structures are several waterfalls, and is considered good luck collecting water from two of the three sources. Also include the temples of the Golden Pavilion and Silver Pavilion, two luxurious temples.

Near the city is Arashiyama, where he is a monkey park and a lake of stunning beauty. Visitors can climb the mountain and see the monkeys in their natural habitat, and even allowed them to eat.

The temples of Kamigamo and Shimogamo undoubtedly the most famous in the world, were built around the seventh and sixth centuries respectively. These temples are particularly important in May, when the processions traveling the distance between the two temples. These temples are two of the seventeen historic monuments of ancient Kyoto, declared a World Heritage Site in 1994.

Kyoto has many museums, most notably International Manga Museum and the Museum of World Peace. Kyoto’s cultural offerings is affected by their traditions, such as the Gion Matsuri festival or the Bon Festival. The most important festivals, such as the Gion Matsuri takes place in July, held for several days, and culminate in a big party and fireworks.

Delphi is an ancient Greek city, known for its archaeological sites and the important role played for centuries as the site of the Oracle of Delphi, a temple dedicated to the Greek god Apollo. Now Delphi has become a tourist city.

Delphi is a city full of history. The city is full of temples dedicated to Greek gods of classical times, with hundreds of archaeologists working on the foundations of the city thousands of years ago.

The city, now a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for their discovery and importance of the culture of ancient Greece, is one of the cities with the best views in the country, about 188 kilometers from Athens. The temple of Apollo is undoubtedly the most important temple both historically and culturally in the city. They say it was the same god Zeus decided to put the temple on the site. This temple was formerly the most important and certainly majestic temple of his time in the region, while chairing the view from his mountain. Here came the oracles and prophets to consult the priestess status issues.

Mount Parnassus, where now the temple of Apollo and the Oracle is full of tourists who want to discover the magic that is felt and lived here for hundreds of years. During that time, thousands of people came to this site for slaughtering animals and ask the elder questions varied, and many of the valuable gifts have been conserved until today.

In the territory of Mount Parnassus can still find the stadium where the Pythian Games were celebrated, some sports games are held every four years, and this stage is considered the best preserved of the entire country. Nearby is the ancient theater, where he represented the works of the time, and the Omphalos, a monument near the oracle that Zeus himself considered to be the center, the navel of the world.

At the foot of Mount Parnassus is the great Archaeological Museum of Delphi, a unique collection of objects recovered by archaeologists. The collection includes some of the stone tablets that were used to write requests to the Oracle, and thousands of jewelry and valuables that were donated to the temple for thousands of years.

In Cheung Chau, an island of Hong Kong, every year a festival is held very original: the Festival of the buns. Everything about the festival is part of its history: a dark age in which it was believed that the island was cursed. To cope with the curse, the inhabitants made several sacrifices and rituals and scaring the demons and ghosts.

In the memory of these rituals comes this event today has become one of the most important of all China. Discover an unusual event full of color and pastries.

In late May of each year, residents of Cheung Chau and many curious passengers in the streets of the city to enjoy this event so special.

The festival is held on the island of the same name, which historically was the hideout of dozens of pirates. The islanders, when asked, mentioning two origins for the festival: a report that is to placate the ghosts of the victims of pirates, while others say the festival commemorating the survival plague 200 years ago in the domains of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when Cheung Chau was devastated by a storm. This disaster was followed by a great plague that took the lives of many. Believing that the island was cursed, people began to practice ceremonies and sacrifices to appease the wrath of the gods. The festival is of extraordinary dimensions and coincides with the birthday of Buddha. For all this, it is a unique event of its kind and an ideal opportunity for travelers to discover the essence of Chinese traditions and beliefs more remote.

In celebration, which lasts seven days, you can see rituals, dances, taste traditional local dishes, listen to Chinese songs and have fun. At this time also loves to Pak Tai, the Taoist god of the Sea, with a ritual procession in a march to the music of gongs and drums, all accompanied by adults and children dressed in many colors.

During the first three days, the entire island becomes a vegetarian. Even fast-food outlets offer meat: the menu changes drastically for veggie burgers and even hot dogs vegetarians.

Cheung Chau is a community that depends almost entirely on the sea for their life, since fishing is the main activity. In addition, motorized boats are prohibited on the island. This means that the port is filled with small boats bobbing peacefully ancient oriental style … It is an ideal place to relax and also to celebrate.

The towers of buns
No doubt the main attraction of this festival is climbing so-called “towers of buns.” These are huge bamboo structures, filled with sweet pastries like fruit hanging from tall trees. The towers of buns are located in front of Pak Tai Temple, the god who is devoted to the festival, built in 1783.

There are several temples in Hong Kong that honor to this god, who according to legend, the prince of evil began to heaven. Of greater importance to the residents of Cheung Chau is however its role as an advocate before the pirates who had released a series of attacks against the island. According to the myths, the attacks ceased once the temple was built.

The towers are built with bamboo to a height of 18 meters and then are filled with sweet buns. Since all the buns are blessed, once people climbed the tower to get their buns, but in 1978 one of these towers collapsed causing hundreds of injuries, so that until recently was banned climbing. However from 2005 onwards were established some very strict rules and this activity was glad that both the people was restored.

Furthermore, if the festival has even more flavor, buns are distributed to those attending the festival for free after the closing ceremony. Of course you can also buy these cakes in local bakeries.

The climb to the towers of buns
It is a strange and fascinating tradition: the sound of the gong competition starts, where the twelve participating climbers must climb the tower of cakes and breads to collect as many as possible, the higher are the rolls are worth more points. Now: they have only three minutes to get there. For added security, now the tower is now metal and the contestants wear a harness.

Win the challenge the climber to collect more points. How do they do? Some say it is easier to collect as many buns as possible, while others prefer those that are higher than are those with the highest score … Competition is not just an amazing show to win the game is quite an honor. Tradition determines that the family belongs to which contestant will be very lucky during that year, as it will with the blessing of the god Pak Tai.

Other gods
The festival not only dedicated to Pak Tai. The second of the deities who participated in this event is the highly revered Goddess Hau, who is the protector of the seas, fishermen and their boats. This goddess is worshiped to provide warnings of impending storms and save the lives of fishermen, as many of the islanders live from fishing.

Two gods complete the heavenly altar involved in the great celebration: Kuan Yin, the goddess of mercy, and Hsing-the terrifying god of the south, who with his beard hideous face of horror to all his opponents.

You can see in different parts of the city temples and festivals dedicated to these gods, you can always enjoy free.

Aerial Dance
The week’s festivities culminate with spectacular processions in which smaller clothes and walk the streets dressed as mythological figures, held aloft by hidden bars that give the appearance of floating above the heads of the crowd.

This is how you will see a “flyover” of small figures dancing in the air. Parents consider it a great honor that their children are part of the parade, so usually the preparation of the costumes is time and dedication of each family.

A company of musicians accompanying the procession fascinating, beating gongs and drums to scare the ghosts of old pirates and their victims. The pilgrimage is led by a spectacular image of Pak Tai, who directs the imaginary battle against the spirits.

Turkey is one of those destinations that have been chosen for a short vacation, a destination is usually quite affordable at the same time unknown, and provides for much more than a short vacation.

We can find many ruins of ancient temples, castles and fortresses of ancient settlements and remains of the walls of such cities or amphitheaters in the west of Turkey. Those who like archeology found here with the story at his feet. The area is very hot and dry, but once, in time of the Greeks was ancient port, now all dry.

We can travel from city to city with buses arriving and finding a place to sleep is not complicated, so that we can go a little adventure and explore the region without ties or problems.

One of the places to visit is the site of ancient Troy, which is only part of the wall, and you need an expert to distinguish the different layers of debris.

The Acropolis and strength in Bergamo (Pergamon), pyrene, Didymea, Ephesus … the list of places to visit is extensive, many of them only a pile of rocks and difficult to distinguish from other archaeological sites have fared better and are preserved and restored, but it is not usual. What we find in this part of Turkey is a journey through Greek and Roman culture.

In some places the sensation is of having made a journey through time as you can be in the same theater that did the Romans or walk down the same roads on which they went.

Sometime during the trip, we had to take a bus to take us to some secluded place, only bad thing about transportation here is that maybe we left somewhere for an afternoon while visiting the ruins we only was an hour and a half as much, which we had to wait long until the next bus to pass. Sometimes when this happened close to where we could find a service area or a cafe where old men played cards and drank tea … an opportunity to observe the locals. It is also common to find in stores these sites handmade carpets, in which we can pass the time.

Many times during these visits, we have found to be the only tourists in the place, and go on a bus full of locals we stopped anywhere, but the landscapes were great and you could see things like that here, the farmers still on mules and horses to their workplace.

In recent years Turkey has been sold as a popular tourist site and exotic, it is … but its charm can be found in other less crowded places and we will remember forever. It is a good opportunity if you enjoy visiting historical sites, you just have to prepare a little trip to organize and know the places to go, and otherwise find accommodation here without prior reservation is not usually a problem.