It’s the weekend and time to dream about beautiful and exciting places. View Iceland as time flows (as do glaciers and lots of water). Take a look at a slide show of beautiful town squares from Peru to Prague. Practice speaking English in Ireland. (Don’t they already speak English there?)
The flow of time on Iceland
The creators of the above video traveled around Iceland for almost two weeks with cameras capturing stunning pictures of the dramatic Icelandic scenery. By mixing slow-motion and timelapse they show how ‘time’ plays a huge role in the way we perceive nature.
The backdrop of Iceland’s landscape and its timeless nature lend a surreal edge to captured reality. Click here to see it on their original site.
The most photo-worthy town squares in the world
Historically, town squares have been used as public meeting spaces for gatherings, sports, worship and executions. Although the uses for these public squares may have changed over the centuries, most cities embrace town squares and have turned them into major tourist destinations comprising outdoor marketplaces, musical acts or races. Although not all squares are as large as Beijing’s Tiananmen Square or as neon as Times Square in New York City, they all typically have intriguing stories about how they came to be. Interested in seeing some of the most photo-worthy town squares in the world?
This list includes: Piazza Navona, Rome; Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona; Copley Square, Boston; Parque Central, Antigua, Guatemala; Marienplatz, Munich; Plaza Mayor, Lima, Peru; Jamaa el Fna, Marrakesh, Morocco; Old Town Square, Prague; and Grand Place, Brussels. Check them out in this slide show.
Speaking English in Ireland
Some have said that the United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common a language. Ditto that for Ireland, where some old Gaelic words seem to be getting thrown into the mix. This post from TourIreland describes a short dictionary that provides translations for words that may have one meaning in the USA and a different meaning in Ireland.
In Ireland we have an unique way of speaking – between our diverse accents, the way we emphasize vowels in a different way to other English speaking countries, our everyday phrases and expressions and just by simply speaking English “our” way – unmistakably Irish, using turns of phrase which may sound strange or even grammatically incorrect (I’m after making a cup of tea!), though often this is the result of how we once spoke Irish – a different animal grammatically and linguistically to English.
And while the Irish welcome thousands of visitors each year to her shores — with even more Irish going abroad between vacations, gap years and just plain old emigration — our use of language largely remains unchanged – confusing our non-Irish friends which in turn baffles us as to why people just don’t understand us when we are making ourselves very clear! Ahem!
Working in an office with lots of nationalities, many of whom had thought that they were fluent in English until they actually got here, we came up with some of the words and phrases which when initially heard were met with confusion, diving for dictionaries and Google searches are — once understood — wholly absorbed and regularly used! Fair whack!
So in no particular order — here we go!
Here are some samples of words that mean one thing in America and another on the Emerald Isle.
– Boot
– Crisps
– Gas
– Are you OK?
Click here for the full article.
http://www.tourireland.com/blog/?article=105
After several decades working in a variety of jobs as a newspaper writer, event publicist, communications specialist, and marketing director, Karen Cummings is now “retired” and working on Travelers United’s social media and newsletters in addition to occasionally contributing a travel-related article to TU’s blog. She lives close to her family in Fryeburg, Maine, and travels as often as she can.
