Being the victim of crime when you are in familiar surroundings is difficult enough. When you are abroad in a foreign country, it can be the factor that exacerbates an already very stressful and unpleasant situation. Tourists are an ideal target for thieves; 1 in 20 will be the victim of some sort of crime on holiday. The problem with tourists is that they are generally easy to spot, they usually carry large amounts of currency and they often wander off the beaten path, ignorant to the risks they are taking. As a tourist, it is difficult to be any ... read more

Italy possesses a rich culture. Art, music, food and architecture - the country features near the top spot worldwide for nearly all of these. It’s a pleasant coincidence, then, that these are high up in the list of things most wanted on a good holiday. However, Italy’s embarrassment of riches can also be its Achilles heel. Even scratching the surface of all that Italy has to offer would take more than a month, a luxury most of us cannot afford. So in a country so full of great places to visit, where do you start?... read more

To give you an idea of the scale of our sewer system in the UK, every day we flush nearly 11 million tons of raw sewage down our toilets. This is 77 million tons per week, or 4,004 million tons a year. That is just shy of half a billion tons of raw sewage, just in the UK, channelled through nearly 400,000km of sewer systems. We are clearly a dirty bunch, and it is not exactly something we can decide not to do. Unfortunately, despite having nigh on half a million kilometres of piping lying underground waiting for our outpour, it appears that is still not enough to protect our beaches. read more

During the recent catastrophic global economic collapse (you might have caught it on the news) Iceland almost went bankrupt. In January of this year, the government collapsed due to public dissent over the handling of the financial crisis. A new, left-wing government was formed shortly afterwards, the combined debt of the banks reaching six times that of the country’s gross domestic product, at that time around €14 billion. As of July this year, the interest rate stands at 12%, down from a record 18% at the end of last year. It's been a ... read more

“Yeah, but the book was better.” It’s almost like a mantra, a sort of badge of honour to tell your friends that sure, the movie was OK but you read the book first and the book just happened to be better. Conventional wisdom dictates that anything once removed from its source material is inevitably going to be worse. A photograph of the Mona Lisa is no Mona Lisa, after all. But there are times when the movie is better than the book. It’s rare, but it happens. This is a celebration of those instances when you can thumb your nose at ... read more

In 2010, the Football World Cup will be held in South Africa. Second only to the Olympics in terms of size and popularity, the World Cup is a time where friendly rivalries overlap with community, competitiveness and fun. For any nation hosting such an event, there is one overriding, primary concern: security. It's a lovely place though South Africa is the rape captial of the world. Robbery, armed assault, carjackings, muggings, thefts, pickpocketing, kidnapping and corruption are all common occurrences. By general consensus, South Africa is considered the most dangerous country in the world ... read more

Buying your very own island may seem like an impossible pipe dream but I have been led to believe that it is a similar process to buying a house. In other words it is a nightmare, filled with headaches and stress from start to finish! Anyway, if you actually did want to buy an island, how would you go about that exactly? I reckon this one is owned by the Disney Family First of all, money and budget is of the utmost consideration. As with buying a house, you check that you will be ... read more

Certain Spanish phrases have become so popular that most people throughout the world understand their meanings, even if they do not speak the language. Many things have caused these phrases to become popular over the years. Movies and advertising campaigns utilize certain phrases, while other Spanish phrases are known simply because they are used on a very regular basis. Spainish is the language of the world One of the most easily recognizable expressions in the Spanish language is “hola, como estas?” This phrases is translated as “Hello, how are you?” Most travellers visiting Spanish ... read more

Colonel Gaddafi. He’s up there with Mugabe and Pinochet in the annals of nasty blokes what did things wrong. He also happens to be in charge of Lybia, a country currently attempting an international political renaissance. Entertain for a moment this potted history. Does he look insane? No, don't answer that.... After the discovery of oil in the early 1970s, Lybia became a darling of international trade. Colonel Gaddafi, who had risen to power through a coup, suddenly had access to almost unlimited funds. What would any sane leader of a country do with ... read more

The Appalachian Mountains are a range of mountains found in eastern North America. The name Appalachian is derived from the Indian word Appalachee. The exact boundaries of the Appalachians vary depending on the source of information with some excluding the Adirondack Mountains. The Appalachian region is divided into a northern region and a southern region. The southern region includes eastern Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, south-eastern Ohio, Virginia and Mississippi. Mountains are nice to look at, fun to climb The Appalachians formed a natural barrier to the expansion westward ... read more