Beirut Travel

In recent times my girlfriend and I had not been getting on. There was nothing that you could really put your finger on, things just didn’t seem to be going like they always had been. It was probably a work thing, because neither of us were enjoying our jobs very much and we were both probably bringing our problems from work home with us. Luckily summer was approaching and we both had a couple of weeks holiday to take. I knew that a bit of holiday time together would probably make things settle down, and I really wanted to try and make things work better.

I spoke to my girlfriend that night, and I told her that although we had not been getting on all that well, I really wanted to make things work, and I told her that I thought that we should get away from it all for a bit. Thankfully she agreed, and we both decided that a week or two in the sun would do us both the world of good.

I found some cheap flights to Croatia online, and we booked them up, knowing that at this time of year we had found ourselves a bargain!

Once we got on holiday, things seemed to start working again for us straight away. We had been to Croatia together before, and I knew a week in our favourite place would bring back the good memories we both shared. Within hours it was like the old times again, and I think we both realised what we had been missing. I’m glad to say that on our return, things remained great between the two of us, and I think we might make the trip to Croatia our annual pilgrimage!

Johannesburg is the richest city in South Africa and one of the richest in the African continent. The city is ranked amongst the finest cosmopolitan cities of the world due to its capability of growing into tourist’s favorite spots. Johannesburg has it has the all what it takes to keep international travelers happy and satisfied. The affluence of the city led it to housing world class hotels, exquisite shopping malls and avenues, developed infrastructure and a widely acclaimed international airport. Johannesburg’s business activity, grandeur, culture, events, nightlife and innumerable entertainment venues had already made its airport, the busiest in the African continent. FIFA World Cup 2010 in addition, has increased flights to Johannesburg like never before.

However, the world class cosmopolitan underwent a much needed face uplift to be fit for hosting the FIFA World Cup 2010 matches. A budget of around 1 billion Rand had been put aside to fund the developmental projects that the city has seen. The preparations for FIFA World Cup 2010 were made under the best possible management and planning in order to avoid any mishap during the matches. Hence the security of the city as well the tourists and attendees of the matches were the foremost important thing to be considered. Under this plan, Closed Circuit Television Camera Surveillance System has been installed throughout the city of Johannesburg. This was done in order to control the crime and handle crime scenes in a way, as efficiently as possible. Secondly, the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police will be working with South African Police service and the city’s safety plans have been reformed with South Africa’s National 2010 Security plans. Thanks to Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, the city now has over 4000 officers so as to handle the law enforcement agencies more efficiently. Safety measures have also been taken for tourists to visit the sights and sounds of Johannesburg and roam around with ease.

As for the matches, the two old stadiums of the city were completely demolished to allow for new ones to be formed. The oldest stadium of Johannesburg, Rand Stadium and another old stadium known as Orlando Stadium were the ones to be completely bulldozed. On the sites of these two stadiums, stand two world class stadiums that are all set to host the FIFA World Cup 2010 matches. These stadiums have been highly upgraded but their historic charm has been retained. The ever famous, Ellis Park Stadium has also been upgraded to house world class amenities, better stands, changing rooms with modern amenities and better audio/visual systems. Soccer City is the largest stadium in Africa and the pride of Johannesburg. It is indeed, one of the world’s most beautiful and luxurious stadiums. The stadium’s architecture has been inspired from the traditional African pot Calabash and looks extremely beautiful when lit up at night. There is also a chairlift that gives a round of the stadium. This stadium fully equipped with all modern facilities that could be demanded in the present times, hence it is a perfect venue to host the most epic of all FIFA matches, the final.

Hence the city is all set to host FIFA 2010, better than expected and Johannesburg flights have already started to service. This event is expected to generate huge revenues that will be utilized to enhance the less developed areas of the city later on. To make it easier for fans to reach out to the city, cheap flights to Johannesburg are offered by many airlines especially for FIFA 2010.

One of the most ancient holidays celebrated in the Middle Eastern regions is the Nauryz. This old tradition, which signals the start of the Iranian New Year, is celebrated all over various countries in Central Asia including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Iran, Azerbaijan as well as in several areas in southern Russia.

This non-religious folk celebration signifies the renewal of nature and is believed to originate from the ancient Mesopotamian civilization. The celebration, which can last for more than a week, is commemorated with several amusements, performances, and a handful of traditional rites.

The term Nauriz is derived from the Persian word “Nowruz” which literally translates to “New Day” or “New Light.” The Nauriz season has been celebrated by the Kazakhs since pre-Islamic times. When Kazakhstan was under Soviet rule, the celebration of the Nauriz season was stopped, having been deemed as ideologically inconsistent. The festivities came back after some time however, when the Nauriz holiday was formally reinstated by the Kazakhstan government in 1988, restoring the observance of all programs and traditional rites that comes with the spring equinox. Nowadays, the Kazakhs have grown to refer to this famous holiday as the “Ulystin uly kuni”, which translates to “the great day of the nation.”

The central theme of Nauriz is depicted in numerous verses written by several Kazakh intellectuals including Alihan Bukeihanov, Abai Kunanbaev, Mirzhakip Dulatov, and Ahmet Baitursinov.

For this year, the Kazakhs joined in with the rest of the Central Asian diplomatic missions to celebrate the Nauriz festival as a group. In order to foster inter-ethnic harmony among nations, the Embassy of Kazakhstan hosted a gathering at the Westend Greens farm in order to welcome the spring equinox.

A number of representatives from different countries—including a handful from the Central Asian and the European region as well as US—went to Kazakhstan OSCE and celebrated the start of the annual Nauriz season last March.

Sources:

http://www.kazakhcambridge.org.uk/?p=27

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/india-news/kazakh-embassy-celebrates-traditional-goodwill-festival-of-nauryz_100337357.html

http://www.inform.kz/eng/article/2249919

http://www.worldtravelguide.net/country/135/public_holidays/Central-Asia/Kazakhstan.html

http://www.kazakhembus.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=338&cntnt01returnid=72