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The entrance to the 41st Haifa International Film Festival glows under the Mediterranean night sky, banners and lights spilling across the plaza as though the whole city has dressed up for the occasion. The central mural—a woman with a vintage camera pressed to her eye—anchors the façade like an emblem of cinema’s enduring gaze, watching and remembering. This year’s dates, … [Read more...] about Haifa International Film Festival, 5–14 October 2025, Haifa

Standing in front of the glass counter, I felt a little like a child again—nose nearly pressed against the glass, eyes darting from one jewel-like dessert to another, trying to take them all in at once. These weren’t just sweets; they were tiny worlds captured in sugar and jelly. Each little dome seemed to hold its own secret. The Aka Tonbo, for instance, looked as though … [Read more...] about Dessert Time, Japan Style

In the photograph, the scene unfurls beneath a vast dome of stained glass that bathes the interior in a warm, golden light. The dome itself is a masterpiece of design—panels of glass in muted yellows and blues arranged like petals of a radiant flower, bordered by intricate ironwork that gleams with ornamental detail. Beneath it, tiers of balconies curve around the atrium, each … [Read more...] about A History of Shopping Spaces That Seduce

If you walk through Porto’s Avenida dos Aliados, your eyes will likely be drawn upward first—to the lavish façades, the proud towers, the intricate carvings of the grand buildings. But pause for a moment and let your gaze rest lower, and you’ll find a figure who almost seems lost in thought amidst all the architectural drama. The marble statue seated at the base of one of the … [Read more...] about The Silent Figure of Avenida dos Aliados, Porto

There’s something magnetic about this photo, the kind of captured instant that feels alive long after the shutter has clicked. At the very front, a young woman is bursting with laughter, her smile wide and unrestrained, her hand brushing her chin in a half-playful gesture as though she’s just heard something outrageous or remembered a private joke that only the street itself … [Read more...] about Porto Vibes

There’s a certain disappointment that comes with places that are marketed as “the Venice of X.” Aveiro, in Portugal, often wears that label like an uncomfortable borrowed costume, and it shows the moment you arrive. The small canals that thread through the city, lined with colorful but slightly kitschy moliceiro boats, feel less like a natural part of urban life and more like a … [Read more...] about Aveiro, a Fake Venice of Portugal

Sometimes the most unforgettable travel moments aren’t planned at all—they just happen when you wander a little further, past the well-marked sights, into the half-forgotten edges of a city. That’s how I found myself standing on a crumbling pier along the Tagus in Lisbon, where rust, graffiti, and broken concrete tell stories of an industrial past, and yet the place feels … [Read more...] about Lisbon, Between Water and Sky

The statue in Salamanca—depicting the signing of the Estatutos de Limpieza de Sangre—is not just bronze figures over a table, it’s a monument to one of the most consequential political documents of Spain’s early modern era. Those statutes, first drawn up in the mid-15th century, institutionalized the notion that lineage and ancestry determined one’s worth and eligibility. They … [Read more...] about The Weight of a Document, Salamanca’s Statue and Today’s Spain

The photo shows the intricately carved façade of the Convento de San Esteban in Salamanca, one of Spain’s most remarkable examples of Plateresque architecture. At first glance, it almost overwhelms the viewer with detail: a stone tapestry where saints, heraldic shields, biblical scenes, and geometric patterns all compete for your eye’s attention. The central arch, deep and … [Read more...] about Salamanca’s Façade of Stories