All posts by Caroline Johnson

Caroline, loves all things digital, visual and travel based. Traveled just under half the world with plenty more to see! What's next on her travel map?
Europe, Infographic, Street Food Guide, Travel Tips

How to Say Avocado on Toast Around the World

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It’s safe to say the world has been struck by avocado fever. Over the past five years, there has been a 405% increase in the number of online searches for ‘avocado on toast’ around the world.

If you’re wondering how to order the nations favourite dish ‘Avocado on toast’ look no further, Canvas Holidays compiled the ultimate guide to ordering it in 27 different languages as well as 5 fictional dialects.

Dorthaki (Game of Thrones)  – “Fichat anna havon zhavvorsa sovi” 

Elvish – (Lord of the Rings) – “Amin irma avocado coimas“

If you’re heading to Portugal, simply ask for “Desejo uma torrada com abacate por favor” 

As well as these languages, we’ve compared prices around some of the major cities in Europe.

With many of us now getting ready to book our 2018 holidays, we thought it would be useful to show you how to order your beloved ‘Avocado on Toast’ in every language in the EU… and a few others like Dothraki and Klingon in case you plan on travelling farther afield…

Infographic provided by https://www.canvasholidays.co.uk/blog/2018/02/01/ordering-avocado-on-toast-around-europe

Travel Tips

Born to be Mild – Survey shows 20˚C’s is where Brits are at their happiness

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Born to be Mild – Survey shows 20˚C’s is where Brits are at their happiness

The Great British weather can often have us longing for a 30 ˚C beach holiday in the Caribbean. Surprisingly Thomas cook’s national survey looks like we are the average, play it cool Brits – because our comfort heat and the one we long for is actually 20˚C, and that’s just 1˚C off our average room temp.
So with that being the findings, I thought I’d lay out on the table a top pick of countries Brits can get their perfect heat.
January – Mexico, Los Angeles
During January, the weather is at its coolest but that doesn’t mean to start packing your sweaters just yet, the lowest temperature in January is 20 degrees. So keep that factor 25 packed.
February – Morocco, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria
The canneries is on my top list of destinations, Player Del Carmen in Lanzarote had some awesome hot spots. Scuba diving on the coast, in 20˚C, can still be a treat, but I would suggest packing a light sweater for your walk back. The canneries tend to have slightly higher winds which can make the sun look deceiving, although you may feel a little chilly, the sun is still beating down on your skin.
March – Tunisia, Ayia Napa
If you want to experience Ayia Napa away from the 18-30’s crowds that flock there in the summer months, then I’d highly recommend visiting this beautiful island during March.
Tunisia is a country I’m yet to explore although friends and family say it’s one of the most beautiful countries in the world, with the Grand Erg Oriental a must visit. For most, dune buggies and camels are a popular attraction but what’s better than sitting on a huge sand mountain watching the sunset.
From April to December, you can experience our nations best voted temperature of 20˚C’s in the below destinations.
April– Bodrum, Crete, Balearic Islands
May– Sunny Beach, Montreal, Paris
June– Amsterdam, Boston

July– Vancouver, Lapland, Dona Paula

August– Stockholm, Oregon

September– Croatia, Calgary

November– Texas, Algarve, Sicily, Ibiza

December– San Antonio, Cyprus, Egypt

Survey by Thomas Cook
Destinations, Europe

Born to be mild. Brits are happiest at a surprisingly average 20 degrees Celsius.

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Born to be mild. Brits are happiest at a surprisingly average 20 degrees Celsius.

Chilly winter weather can often have us day-dreaming about tropical heat but a new survey from Thomas Cook shows that we Brits actually feel happiest at a rather mild 20 degrees Celsius.

The survey simply asked, ‘at what temperature are you happiest?’ with a quarter of people opting for a fairly balmy 20 degrees mark. There were some other surprises in the results too. 7% of people are happiest at a sweat-inducing 35 degrees and 1% actually said they are happiest at a bracing 5 degrees – the average winter temperature according to Met Office data for 2016/17.

With a few months of winter weather still ahead of us in the UK, Thomas Cook has pulled together a handy list of destinations to help Brits plot out locations that mean they’re able to stay at their ‘happy heat’ all year round

  • January – Mexico, Los Angeles
  • February – Morocco, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria
  • March – Tunisia, Ayia Napa
  • April – Bodrum, Crete, Balearic Islands
  • May – Sunny Beach, Montreal, Paris
  • June – Amsterdam, Boston
  • July – Vancouver, Lapland, Dona Paula
  • August – Stockholm, Oregon
  • September – Croatia, Calgary
  • October – Cape Town, New York
  • November – Texas, Algarve, Sicily, Ibiza
  • December – San Antonio, Cyprus, Egypt

Where will you go to find your happiness heat? ☀

Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Cultural and Historical Heritage, Destinations, Entertainment, Europe, North America, South America

Halloween Around The World

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Halloween Around The World

Marriage proposals in Italy, baking bread in the shape of babies in Ecuador, and burning expensive possessions to appease the souls of the dead in China. Across the globe there some strange but wonderful ways locals celebrate their own versions of Halloween. Thomas Cook has collated 50 of the outlandish laws, traditions and locations to create a Halloween map of the world full of need to know trivia you never knew existed.

Here are a few highlights from around the globe:

Halloween Haters

  • In Dublin, Georgia, USA your face must be fully visible and recognisable by law on Halloween
  • Vendragues, France it is illegal to wear clown costumes or makeup on this event if you are more than 12 years old
  • The country of Jordan made Halloween in its entirety illegal in 2014

Most haunted destinations

  • Multiple UFO, ghosts, orbs sightings and the abduction and reappearance a decade later of a young girl at Barranco de Badajoz in Spain make this the place to visit for believers in life beyond earth.
  • Visit the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, to become one of many who have spotted a Pharaoh wearing his golden collar, headdress, and riding a fiery chariot with black phantom horse.

Ghostly Traditions

  • The Romanian ‘Feast of St. Andrew’ involves eating garlic the night before and placing it near doors, windows and chimneys to ward off evil spirits.
  • In Germany, locals look to protect the visiting spirits drawn out during ‘All Souls Week’, by hiding all their knives so they won’t be injured.
  • Hati locals celebrate ‘Fed Gede’ alongside the visiting spirits, eating, drinking, warming their bones by the fire and dancing with them.

halloween

You can Map out all the countries and their traditions here: https://www.thomascook.com/halloween-around-the-world 

Celebrity Vacations, Entertainment, Europe, Festivals, Infographic, Travel Tips

UK, US & European Instagram Festival Map

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Imagine yourself, right now, stood at a music festival of your choice, all of your pals around you, your favourite band playing your favourite song.

Imagined it? What are you likely to do to capture this moment? Of course, it’s going to be taking a photo and uploading it to Instagram, because that’s half the fun of spending a weekend in a field, right?

Accessorize have researched into the most Instagram worthy festivals in the UK, US and Europe and plotted them on a wanderlust-worthy interactive map.

From the wonderful land of the free (USA) to the UK across to Europe – there are some pretty cool festivals to be attending.

The top ten are as follows for the US:

instagram

Coachella, of course, could not be any less than number 1 – the biggest A-Lister festival set in in the Colorado dessert, California. Whether you’re looking to pile in with friends or lounge in the lap of luxury, Coachella has lodging options for every festival goer.

The festival offers more delicious food than you could eat in a weekend, with over 100 choices serving everything from wood-fired pizza and handcrafted burgers to authentic street food and fresh-from-the-wok noodles.

instagram

It was without doubt that Glastonbury gained the throne within the UK festivals, of course – set in Somerset on Worthy Farm in Pilton, Glastonbury has been going for 47 years and started out with a capacity of 1,500 which has increasingly grown to over 135,000.

With the Great British countryside at your feet, I’d recommend signing up for your tickets for 2018.

instagram

Ohh wonderful Europe, how many festivals there are!

Sziget, based in, Hungary takes the festival crown for Europe – with a capacity of over 496,000 that attended the 2016 24th edition of the festival.

Sziget takes place on a beautiful island on the Danube every August and brings together people from all over the world, as well as musical (mainly) and other acts and events. It’s a fantastic multicultural experience, and a lot of people take advantage of it every year.

Check out the interactive map courtesy of Accessorize, and explore the rest of the UK, US and European festivals.