Vallentuna, Sweden (CNN) — Drive north of the Swedish capital for about half an hour and you'll reach the lakeside district of Vallentuna, a pleasant community with cobblestone churches, picnic areas and playgrounds. It's also a journey deep into Sweden's ancient Viking past. Scattered among Vallentuna's greenery are dozens of mystical runestones that form the gateway …
Continue reading Swedish runestones open gateway to ancient Viking civilization (CNN Travel)
The late Basque and Armenian linguist Vahan Sargsyan complied a list of 600 shared words between the two languages in a 1998 publication conducted with experts from both languages. Unfortunately, Sargsyan passed away suddenly in 2011, leaving hundreds of more proposed shared words between Basque and Armenian unpublished. Below is the full list (in Armenian) …
Bayonne, France -- It didn’t take long after my arrival in Bayonne, France, to realise that this riverside town of meandering medieval alleyways flanked by narrow wooden-framed homes is a different kind of Basque Country. French Basque Country counts a population of just less than 300,000, compared to more than two million Spanish Basques, with …
Continue reading The French region with a new currency (BBC Travel)
Valletta, Malta -- There is a competitive nature that courses through Malta so raw and unbridled that it’s written into the skyline of its capital, Valletta, and permeates across all walks of life on the archipelago.
I’m talking about pika – a Maltese word that roughly means ‘a neighbourly rivalry’, but is one of those terms that feels like a fool’s errand when foreigners try to interpret it.
Justin Calderón 