Every artist was an amateur in the beginning. Paint your road by visiting Baikal Lake in Siberia, Kuranda Village in Australia and Lübeck, Germany.
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r> Baikal Lake, Siberia
"The Blue Eye of Siberia", "Russia's sea" and "Galapagos of Russia" are just some of the nicknames of Baikal Lake which is the deepest, the largest (5 times larger than the Great Lakes in North America), the coldest and the most crystal clear lake on Earth. Take a Trans-Siberia journey and stop in Irkutsk, one of the largest cities in Siberia which is hometown of even three Irkutians which were in space. Arrange a visit to Baikal Observatory and stay overnight.
Day 2. Visit remarkable Baikal Lake located in the south-eastern part of Siberia for which people for centuries believed it is holy. Some of the ritual buildings of the tribes are still standing there. Olkhon Island, Baikal's biggest and the most beautiful island on the western shore has its inhabitants and Khuzhir, the "capital". The island is a combination of a small desert, taiga and steppe. Choose activities you would like to do. Is it swimming? Arrange to visit Shara-Nury Lake for which people believe that its mud heals different illnesses. It's pleasantly warm in the summer. If you prefer hiking tour, the eastern side of the island is the place of your interest.
For seeing it all at once take a one day Jeep tour and enjoy in a wonderful view, listen legends about Ghengis-Khan, put your fingers in Baikal and note how cold it is in the middle of July. You will not stand its coolness more than two seconds. Back to Russia in winter. No chance? Watch Doctor Zhivago again. You will see the perfect winter.
Cairns, Australia
Now we are going to visit Crocodile Dundee country, Australia, the world smallest and the driest continent. We lead you to Far North Queensland to Cairns city. Cairns region and its city Cairns are the fourth most popular Australia destination. The city is small, picturesque, a provincial in fact, but it's perfectly located for numerous day trips and activities like white water rafting, playing golf, visiting Great Barrier Reef or Paronella Park, a tourist attraction located some 120km south of Cairns.
Just 25km northwest of Cairns lies Kuranda Village surrounded by World Heritage Rainforest. There you can visit Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, around twelve hundred species of flowering plants are there, eight hundred of which are rainforest trees. When you there you must not miss Australia's native animals and birds. One of attractions is Kuranda Koala Gardens where you can actually cuddle a koala. How sweet and nice! Chlamydia is the cause for even four common koala diseases. Wash your hands after the touchy moment or you will back home with an unwilling souvenir.
While you are there you can also see freshwater crocodiles. I think that we read somewhere that is allowed to cuddle them too. Just kidding. Visit Batreach, a rescue and rehabilitation centre for damaged and orphaned flying foxes and bats. We took a look on bats. They are very small, not too pretty and they looked sleepy to us.
Lübeck, Germany
Imagine pale yellow mass that smells deliciously, looks like plasticine and has rich almond taste. It's marzipan, a gourmet food of German aristocracy and kings. Marzipan came to Europe from Persia where it was made of edible oil, almonds and honey, and enriched with few drops of rose oil. Monks and elite part of the society celebrated it in monasteries as a work of God's hands, while German nobility went one step ahead and executed each and every peasant in whose house they found just a small piece of marzipan.
Those were dark times for a German peasants, but glorious for a small sweet. In 1806 in Lübeck, Germany, a marzipan factory exclusively for a royalty use was opened and the rest is history.
Lübeck, situated at the Trave River on the Baltic Sea, is still famous for its excellent marzipan industry. Its old town kept a medieval look with a unique brick-built style, picturesque passageways and Holsten Gate as its landmark, the late Brick Gothic city towered gate, and the only existing gate besides the Burgtor on the northern side of the town. For a bird's view to a town of million bricks find St. Peter's Church, drink cup of coffee in Huxstrasse and see what shop windows has to offer.
Visit Puppet Theatre Museum which preserves the world largest and fascinating collection of glove puppets and marionettes from the past three centuries. Don't leave Lübeck before you visit famous Cafe Niederegger, take a bite of marzipan and bunch of it to take it home. ■