QuickTrips: The Shallow Dive of Traveling

U.K

Attractions: I'm just going to point out, the UK has a wax museum filled with life-size celebrities including Benedict Cumberbatch. You're welcome. Okay so you've got your normal things like Stonehenge, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Roman Baths, but then you have the other things. Such as Eden Project which collects plants from around the world, LEGOLAND resort, and HMS Victory which is a ship armed to the teeth with 104 guns. Then you've got Loch Ness, which is the supposed home of the Loch Ness Monster, hence its name. You've also got Northern Ireland, who gives a crap, and Scotland. Scotland is... Awesome. It's home to Outlook Tower which is the trippiest building on Earth and Riverside museum which is exactly what you think it is. That's about it.

 

Cuisine: Ask me what I think of when I hear 'UK'. I think of thousands upon thousands of candies, sodas, and more that got banned from the USA because reasons. One of the most famous is Irn Bru which is supposed to be a really good soda that uses an orange food coloring which is banned in the US and Yorkie which got banned for... Obvious reasons.

There's also a bottomless barrel full of chocolates, candies, and sodas that I want but only the rest of the world has. Besides that, Brits mainly eat the same things as we do except, different. Like the fact that for some unexplained reason their fries are different from ours. Also just to show you how much British people think we're fat and rely on fast food, McDonalds UK decided to make a limited time offer called the American Menu where they serve everything we have at McDonalds except bigger which probably means somebody is doing something to our food that we're okay with.

 

Culture: You know that they speak English, Welsh is common in Wales for obvious reasons. That is it.

 

UK gets a...

 

81

 

:/ meh

Dog Thing - Probably A One-Off!

I like dogs and recently my friends have been asking me to make lists of dogs suitable for them and they tend to be typically four pages long. (Because a lot of suitable dogs) Usually this is immediately followed by them asking, "Mommy, can I get *Insert thing they can't afford*?" Which annoys me so much, but I like making those lists so I'll be doing this on my blog. Don't ask. Also this first post will kick off with a bang with the 4 rarest dogs of all time being analyzed to see if it's suitable for you. Let's go!

Norwegian Lundehund
Firstly is the adorable Lundehund (Loond Hoond) which was originally bred for hunting puffins and their eggs. But forget that time for everything else!
Country Of Origin: Norway (Duh)
Height: 12 - 16 in (30 - 40 cm)
Weight: 13 - 15 lb (6 - 7 kg)
Traits:
Okay, this is where it gets weird. So this dog unlike literally every other dog ever has 6 toes and can even have more or less toes than that. Also, its bones are like human bones which gives them incredible flexibility in their bones allowing them to bend their head all the way to their spine and their forelegs at a 90 degree angle. This was done intentionally by breeders because this dog was designed to climb narrow cliff paths where it would hunt puffins. It typically has a blonde and white or ginger and white coat with black freckles on it's tail. The Lundehund has also been described as, "A  small, rectangular Spitz-type dog" Don't ask me what that means. The breed is not hypoallergenic.
Near Extinction Scenario:
They almost went extinct after 1963 because of canine distemper; a disease with currently no known cure. Only SIX dogs survived... SIX!!! *ahem* But thankfully the population is growing steadily and with some careful breeding, the population is estimated to be become stable again.

Assuming you're like me, I'd give this dog a MAYBE. But you're your own person so you decide.

Neapolitan Mastiff
A dog with all the flabs that was popularized by the romans after the conquering of Greece, and they were used in battle!
Country of Origin: Italy
Height: 26 - 31 in (66 - 79 cm)
Weight: 130 - 155 lb (60 - 70 kg)
Traits:
Coat is typically black, blue, mahogany, or tawny. Very, very big. That is literally it.
Near Extinction Scenario:
The dog experienced a life time of popularity in Europe but almost became extinct after WW2, thankfully, a handful of Italian established breeding kennels throughout Italy which brought attention to the dog and pretty much the moment it joined the American Kennel Club, it was saved from extinction.

Assuming you're like me, I'd give this dog a NOPE. But you're your own person so you decide.

Pachon Navarro
An adorable freckled bloodhound-esc dog who was thought to have a superpower but turned out to be a cosmetic.
Country Of Origin: Spain
Height: 19 - 22 in (48 - 57 cm)
Weight: 60 - 73 lb (27 - 33 kg)
Traits:
It's coat tends to be brown and white or orange and white, it is shorthaired, not to forget its big old' floppy ears. It also has a very notable feature; a double nose. A double nosed dog is like a dog with two noses in one nose! :D It was once thought to have superior sensing abilities specifically because of it which made it popular for hunting, but it was soon revealed to be purely a cosmetic (Just for looks)
Near Extinction Scenario:
The height of their popularity was with Spanish nobility during the 18th and 19th century but nearly went extinct during the Spanish Civil War. Thankfully some dedicated dog lovers managed to bring the population to stable levels.

Assuming you're like me, I'd give this dog a YUP. But you're your own person so you decide.

Chinook
A rare sled dog bred during WW2 and is the official dog of New Hampshire.
Country of Origin: New Hampshire, USA
Height: 20.4 - 27.6 in (51.8 - 70.1 cm)
Weight: 55 - 90 lb (24.9 - 40.8 kg)
Traits:
It's coat is described by dogtime.com as ranging from light-honey to a reddish-gold. It's fur is both thick, soft, and rough-ish. That's it.
Near Extinction Scenario:
By 1981, only eleven breed able Chinooks were left but with the effort of breeders from New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, and California, they saved the dog from extinction. But only 100 Chinook pups are born annually and for scale, compare that to the fact that 1.2 million pups are born, EVERY DAY!!!

Assuming you're like me, I'd give this dog a MAYBE. But you're your own person so you decide.

QuickTrips: The Shallow Dive of Traveling

Welcome to QuickTrips where I take a country and unlike my other posts I review it just like the other posts except as fast as possible. Remember these are all shallow dives, but enough of that, let's go!

ICELAND
Attractions: Plenty of places to go in this country like the Blue Lagoon which is a geothermal spa or Hlíðarfjall (pronounce it how you think it's pronounced) which is a mountain you could go hiking or snowboarding. You could also go to the capital of Reykjavík if you're a city boy like me and do lot's of cool things like visit museums about history or whales, go on a tour on horses with Iceland Ponies which are some of the cutest things right below pandas and my dog, look at the Northern lights which happens like every two weeks or so, go to the Islenka Operan which is for the record not an opera house, or you could take a helicopter tour over the Volcano House, which is a volcano. Finally for this section Iceland Airlines offers free layover to Europe which means immediately after Iceland you could go to any EU country that has an airport! For more travel information, go to this website.
Also Iceland is exempted from certain laws in the EU about fishing so for information about fishing go to this website.

Cuisine: Boy let me tell you about Iceland, it literally revolves around fish! They eat shrimp, haddocks, plaice, halibut, and herrings all year long! THEY EVEN EAT SHARKS, A SPECIAL KIND OF SHARK ON TOP OF THAT!!! (Go to this website to learn about their shark) They also eat domesticated sheep and they drink their milk and Icelandic beef is a thing. They also eat... Puffins, and seals. Also not too hard to forget about is that they eat reindeer for some reason. Oh, and I forgot about WHALES. This may seem crazy but remember, Iceland was once full of only Vikings. That's pretty much it aside from beets, lettuce, and a whole lot of Danish pastries. For more detailed info in foods, go here.

Culture: THANK THE LORDS, this country speaks English. Yes, the majority of Icelanders speak English. That is it for Culture.

Iceland gets a...

97.5

SINT MAARTEN
Attractions: Let's go to Sint Maarten! No that is not a typo, that's Dutch for Saint Martin because this is a Dutch Colony. Firstly you could play a round of Tennis at the American Tennis Academy, then cool off in the ocean, (Click the word 'ocean for more attractions) then jet ski your way to the island of Prickly Pear; an untouched and beautiful nature reserve, and end the day off by going to the highly appreciated Sunset Bar and Grill which serves great food and is next to an airport so while you sit down you can watch the airplanes go right over your head. Sounds like a perfect day to me. Also remember that layover that the Icelandic Airlines were so happy to give you? Well although Sint Maarten is in the middle of the Caribbean's, it's a part of a figure known as the Dutch Kingdom which contains the Netherlands, Sint Maarten, and two other islands and the Dutch Kingdom is in the EU and  the EU has some weird border law, which means you can use that layover immediately after visiting Iceland to go to this beautiful Dutch Caribbean paradise without showing a European airport official your passport!
P.S. Sint Maarten is only the southern half of an island named Saint Martin and the northern half belongs to France which is also named Saint Martin.

Cuisine: French cuisine is very prevalent throughout the island, including the southern half that we're currently talking about. If there is something that is French, it's most likely here. But much like the US, there are lots of restaurants that aren't similar to the cuisine, for example a Thai restraint which is so far all I could find!

Culture: Oh yes! Another country that has an good amount of English speakers! Aside from that, I've got two other things for this section:

1. The nickname of the island is 'The Friendly Island'
2. Since neither side of the island is a part of the Schengen Area, (It's complicated) don't try and cross the border because border checks are almost never made on the Island's border and if you are lucky enough to get checked, they need a passport unlike the whole Iceland to here thing.

Sint Maarten gets a...

94.7

Mexico Part 1

Today I will be focusing purely on the provinces of Mexico, not Mexico as a whole, each individual province.

PROVINCE OF MEXICO
First up is the province of Mexico, which is in fact a province. It is home to the capital of Mexico, Mexico City! Now today's post will be very different from usual, with the fact that cuisine is already world known and cuisine in Mexico really doesn't vary from province to province, cuisine will be replaced by History and Animals, so let's go! P.S. The history part has nothing to do with the score, just a filler. ;)
HISTORY
So there are actually two Mexico Cities, the old one is what is now today known as Tenochtitlan which was founded by the Aztecs. It was on an island in the center of the inland lake system of Mexico Valley. It was claimed to be the perfect land by the Aztecs and was a beautiful place. They knew this where their home would be when they saw (Get this) a hawk standing on a cactus with a snake in it's mouth which just so happened to be the symbol of hope by the Aztec people. So they made the perfect capital for the most perfect country, AND THEN SPAIN CAME IN AND RUINED EVERYTHING. So Spain colonized Mexico and called it 'New Spain' and the Spaniards established a capital in the middle of this land only known as, YOU GUESSED IT, Mexico City. Then the independence came in and then that dictator came in and modernized the country but ruined everything then there was another dictator and then Mexico became what we today know as Mexico then there was the 34th president of Mexico who was in office for like 45 minutes. That's a true story, look at this, Pedro Lascurain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Lascur%C3%A1in
You thought I was lying, didn't you?

ANIMALS
Okay so I cannot talk about Mexico City WITHOUT talking about the most adorable thing that lives in fresh water aside from beavers, platypus, and bass. Am I the only one finds bass cute? They look like little Opera Singers when they swim near the surface and they want the food that we're carrying, ahem, sorry about that. The most adorable thing in fresh water is the Axolotl.





 

Isn't that just adorable?

 

These cute amphibious creatures live in only one place in the world and that's Mexico City. Sadly these poor guys are critically endangered and need help to sustain a big population. But enough sadness, let's talk about awesomeness. Did you know that the Axolotl is like the Wolverine? If a limb, say leg, were to be cut off the Axolotl, it would take just a couple of weeks to have a fully functional leg again. Best part, this can be done as many times as you like and it will never stop. This surprised scientists and the cell in it's body that allows it to do so. Okay, now try and guess another aquatic animal that lives in Mexico City. If you said any type of fish you are wrong, the answer I was looking for was the West Indian Manatee and just like the Axolotl, they are endangered.

 

ATTRACTIONS

So I'm going to make this one short. First of all is the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan which is a very nice place if you're interested in the Aztec past of Mexico, next is the Angel of Independence which is a statue made by Mexicans celebrating their fresh-out-the-oven independence, and finally for that one luchador in your life is the Arena Mexico!!! Which is a professional wrestling arena.

 

Mexico Province gets a...

98.2

 

 

Israel, South Africa, and Azerbaijan Part 2

Now before I begin this post, I just want to appreciate Azerbaijan. Thank you Azerbaijan for being the most developed Muslim community in the world, thank you for being the first country to make an off shore oil drill ever, thank you for building the city of Baku seriously thank you so much for Baku, thank you for being the home of the world's largest KFC in the world, thank you for being the first Muslim-majority democratic secular country ever and the first Muslim-majority to have theaters, operas, and modern day universities, thank you for building the flame towers, thank you for making flipping monuments dedicated to your love of tea, thank you for Gobustan; home of the most mud volcanoes in the world, thank you for being the first Muslim-nation to allow women to wear whatever they want, not forcing women to wear hijabs or burkas, and allow religious freedom, thank you for being the only Muslim that gets along with Israel, supports Israel, and accepted Jewish immigrants during the holocaust, and thank you for being the Canada of the middle east. As in you're friends with everybody. Okay on with the post!

AZEERBAIJAN

CUISINE
A nice Azerbaijani dish that is considered to be fancy is the Dushbara, which is  small dumplings stuffed with minced lamb and herbs and is also served in broth. A very interesting dish is a type of soup in Azerbaijani, the Dovga. Dovga is a yogurt based soup with sorrel, spinach, rice, dried peas, and small meatballs made from ground mutton; the temperature it is served in depends from season to season. To end cuisine, I'll end it with a beverage, tea. Black Tea is the most drunken thing in Azerbaijan and is also Azerbaijan's National Drink and as I mentioned before they built monuments throughout Azerbaijan in love of their tea which is adorable. My favorite thing is there are Ayran stands along roads which are stands where you can buy tea on the side of a road.

ATTRACTIONSLet's start off with Baku, Azerbaijan's capital. Baku is amazing, it's a shore side city and on the ocean you can see a huge and complex network of oil drills connected by wire bridges which is surprisingly cool to look at. Baku is also the home of the previously mentioned flame towers which were completed in 2011, they are tall buildings which put up an amazing light show at nightsthanks to illuminated windows and LEDs. There is also the previously mentioned world's largest KFC or Gobustan or the tea monuments. There's just too much to do in Azerbaijan, it's amazing!

CULTURE
The people of Azerbaijan speak Azerbaijani, that's it. No exceptions. Azerbaijan has an incredibly low crime rate too!

Azerbaijan gets a...
97.5

Israel, South Africa, and Azerbaijan Part 1

So I apologize for not being able to post much. The main reason is because school but since it's summer now, I've got all the time I need to make a lot of posts again! So I'm now going to focus on Africa, Middle East, and South East Asia for a while, no reason at all. Plus to make posts longer I'll do 3 countries a post and I promise to make 1 post once every 2 days. So let's go!

ISRAEL
Planning on going to Israel? That's ok, but if you are, might want to cross Libya and Saudi Arabia off that list as well. The reasoning is because if you have any Israeli stamps on your passport then you aren't restricted on rights, you aren't supervised, but they don't let you even go in there. So either go to those countries before Israel or just not go there at all. (PS The second option is a better choice because women don't get many rights in either country in the first place and if caught owning of drugs or questionable items is punishable by death.)

CUISINE
So Israel has a very unique cuisine in comparison of it's neighbors like Jordan mainly because almost every single person in Israel is Jewish. (duh) So Israeli cuisine is mainly kosher foods (foods that the Tanakh, which is the Jewish bible, allows a Jew to eat). Taking that in mind that means you may not consume pork or shellfish, also meat and dairy products may not be combined, meat must also be (hilariously) ritually slaughtered and salted to remove all traces of blood, finally some people may not eat any form of poultry or meat.

But enough about food restrictions, let's talk about what you CAN eat. One immediate example that comes to my mind is the ever so famous American-Israeli dish; Bagels and cream cheese with a side of lox. (cured salmon) Most Israelis say this is an Israeli dish with some American influence, specifically the bagel with cream cheese. The lox is a very famous kosher food in Israel, for some reason, and some Americans say that lox is "Like regular salmon, but more like bacon; nice and crispy and dry". A famous kosher snack is fig which is the most mentioned food in the Jewish bible. If you want to know what fig is like listen to this Wikipedia description:
They are lusciously sweet with a texture that combines the chewiness of their flesh, the smoothness of their skin, and the crunchiness of their seeds.
In my opinion, that sounds like a mix of strawberries, pomegranates, and apples. Oh my god I want a fig now. Okay so the next food for Israel is Yaprak, which is stuffed vine leaves. Also I just wanted to do this food because Yaprak is also a feminine Turkish name that means 'leaf'. So the last food is actually a list of the foods eaten on the holiday of Rosh Hashana, (Jewish New Year) and those foods are...

• Apples and Honey - To celebrate the soon to be 'sweet' year
• Pomegranates - For many blessings this year. (Each seed means another blessing)
• Fish Head - For a successful year in which we are the "head," not the "tail."
• Honey Cake
• Tzimmes (Hot Vegetable Cubes served alongside honey)
• Teiglach (Twisted Pastries boiled in a honeyed syrup)
• Challah (Special Braided Bread)

ATTRACTIONS
First of all is the adorable Mini Israel which is a park that contains hundreds of miniature replicas of buildings and landmarks in Israel. Also each figure is surprisingly realistic and accurate and photos of it look like regular cities in Israel until you see the photos of some 5'4" dude towering over a tall building. Secondly is the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art which is a very rare building mainly because of the fact that it is the only Japanese Art Museum in the entire Middle East. Finally is the number one most popular thing to do in Israel, see the old city of Jerusalem. One person says ,"The Old City is a melange of culture, religion, tradition. Expect to barter and do not walk away unless you get to at least half of the asking price!" Need I say more?

CULTURE
(People from now on is culture) The culture of Israel is predominately Jewish but culture is also largely influenced by the UK and the US. But Arabic culture still plays a tiny role in Israel: language. Israel's 3 official languages are currently English, Arabic, and Hebrew which is the Jewish language, also practically every Jewish citizen knows a bit of English. Crime is also not a problem at all so you don't have to worry about your phone being stolen or something like that.

Israel gets a...
90

SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa is interesting country mainly because it is the world hub of cultural diversity. (Aside from the DRC) Which means that cultural influence could be part Mexican, part Greek, heck even part Turkish! So yeah...

CUISINE
A popular drink amongst the citizens is Amasi, which is just sour milk. Okay, so Bunny Chow is also a popular food, it is curry stuffed into a hollowed out loaf of bread, yuck. Um okay how about Chakalaka? It is... Spicy Vegetable Relish. Um, Mafi? DANGIT!! Just more sour milk. How about, you know what forget it everything here is horrible. The only food here I'd eat is sausage. THAT'S IT!!! NOTHING HERE TASTES GOOD!!!!!

ATTRACTIONS
To start off is Gold Reef City, which is a big amusement park in Johannesburg, South Africa that was built on top of an old gold mine. The park is themed around the gold rush that occurred in 1887 in Witwatersrand, South Africa. Next is the Moses Mabhida Stadium which is a multi-use stadium in Durban, South Africa. It was a host stadium of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The stadium is named after Moses Mabhida who was a General Secretary of the South African Communist Party... Okay, then. Finally (And probably the best of all these) is the Highgate Ostrich Show Farm. Yes you read that correctly and no I did not misspell anything, it's exactly what it is; an ostrich farm. THEY EVEN ALLOW YOU TO RIDE THE OSTRICHES!!!

CULTURE
I'm going to sum up the culture of South Africa with a quote from their website:
"We have groups with different languages, religions, race, customs and traditions e.g. Zulu, Ndebele, Khoisan, Hindu, Muslim and Afrikaner people. All of these people are united by being South African and all of their ways of life form part of our country's identity and culture."
Also, the number of official languages there are is unreal, and they are:

• English
• Afrikaans
• Zulu
• Xhosa
• Southern Sotho
• Tswana
• Northern Sotho
• Tsonga
• Venda
• Swati
• Ndebele

South Africa gets a...
84.3


Azerbaijan is a county that not many people remember that it exists, but I cannot do it in this part so I'll see you soon!

Polynesia - The Biggest Post - Part 3

Back to Polynesia, we go!

NEW ZEALAND
CUISINE
So you know about New Zealand, right? Right. So the cuisine of New Zealand is obviously influenced by the Englishmen of Great Britain. So before I go in depth of the dishes, here's an explanation for why English settlers cried most manly tears of joy. You see, in Great Britain, meat was scarce and was eaten in small cuisine. But when explorers found these two islands, there was bountiful amounts of meat, often to the point where meat was served everyday. So Britain was so happy to see this. But they didn't have the ingredients to make their home favorites so they imported British dishes to New Zealand. That's why modern New Zealand cuisine is a mixture of old English stuff and Maori traditions. So here's a couple of dishes. There's a special dish that is considered distinctively modern Maori is the Maori boil up which is the boil up of pork, potatoes, Kumara, and dumplings which is mainly influenced by introduced and indigenous methods of cooking. Another distinctively modern Maori is Maori bread which is made of fermented potatoes, aka, the same stuff vodka is made of. Also fun fact about New Zealand restaurants is that in virtually every single restaurant, they serve kebabs, couscous, and sushi. In fact, Sushi is considered by many New Zealanders as an adopted dish and that sushi is now a staple dish of New Zealand.

ATTRACTIONS
Okay so I've actually been working on this for a while now so here we go!

·         Visit the incredible Waitomo Caves, a humungous cavern which most notably has walls that glow a bright baby blue. This is because those blue things are glow worms, and everyone knows that glow worms glow but it’s still amazing. If you look close enough though you’ll see glowing string, don’t touch it because that’s a part of the glow worms. This abundance of glow worms occurs because a lot of things glow worms can eat exist in these caves and glow worms need to eat as much as possible because when they become adults they don’t have mouths so they need to eat as much as possible in order to sustain their future selves. The things that they can eat are a number of things ranging from mosquitoes, flies, spiders twice their size, and even other glow worms. This string is there to catch the things they eat. All of this obesity and cannibalism is just to sustain the future generation of glow worms. It may be a horrible and dark thought to think about the glow worms but it sure isn’t horrifying to look at them, in fact it’s the complete opposite. 

 

·         Are you pure-blooded explorer? Are you fearless mountaineer? Or are you a person who just likes to climb stuff? Well then the Franz Josef Glacier is for you! The Franz Joseph Glacier is a 12 km long glacier where if you pay admission, you can explore a glacial attraction that’s rated 4.6 out of 5 with a guide! Seriously, I’m not one for hiking but these guys somehow make it look fun:

• So finally is the incredible natural occurrence that anyone can enjoy, it is... The Hot Water Beach. The hot water beach is a beach on the northern island of New Zealand where under the water is underwater hot springs which rises up to the surface and makes the ocean water surprisingly warm. Also, if you dig enough (you don't have to dig too deep) hot water from the springs rises creating a pool of very hot water.

PEOPLE
Thankfully, roughly 98% the people of New Zealand speak English. The crime rate is also very low. Now that those two are out of the way, I'll end this country with a cute fact. Although people from New Zealand are formally New Zealanders, society has come up with a cute and short name for these people: kiwi THAT IS JUST SO CUTE AND FUNNY AND MAKES ME WISH I WAS FROM NEW ZEALAND SO I CAN BE CALLED KIWI!!!

 

Final score of New Zealand is...

 

99.4%

 

Wallis and Futuna

EXPLANATION

Okay so this really isn't a country per se but it's a Collectivity, of France and there a bunch of islands on this collectivity and there's no real attractions so doing this would require me to do a post on France which I cannot do so here's a website that explains pretty much everything about Wallis and Futuna