The Travellers

Belgium
Belgium has, without a doubt, the best beer in the world which may have been the reason Brussels was chosen as the location for the EU headquarters. Antwerp has its diamond brokers, Brugge its canals, Oostende a fine long beach and everywhere you travel in Belgium there are very friendly and laid back Belgians. more...
France
France has consistently ranked as the number one tourist destination in the world, ahead of Spain and the United States. Tourists flock to destinations like Paris, the sunny French Riviera, or to countryside locations with cathedrals, chateaus and battlefields with historic reminders of both world wars. more...
Italy
Italy is the fourth ranked tourism destination and the fifth most visited country in the world. Its reputation characterized its automobiles such as Ferarri, Maserati, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo. Or by its famous Italian fashion designers, beautiful women as well as the exquisite Italian cuisine. more...
Netherland
The Netherlands has a large number of tourists arriving every year to see everything from the canals and red-light district of Amsterdam to the southern parts of the country like Middelburg with its canals and outdoor cafes or Vlissingen with its seaside promenade with outdoor bars and cafes. more...
Portugal
Portugal is among the top 20 most visited countries in the world. The hot tourist spots in Portugal are Lisbon, the Algarve and Madeira. Other destinations such as the Douro Valley, the Island of Porto Santo, and Alentejo are attracting increasing numbers of tourists. Portugal has friendly people, beautiful sunny beaches, fado music and Port wine. more...
Slovakia
Slovakia unspoiled natural mountains with small villages, medieval castles, folk architecture as well as spas and ski resorts. The most attractive destinations are the capital of Bratislava and the High Tatras. Most visitors come from the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany as well as other European countries for the Bazant Pohoda Festival and skiing in Tatranska Lomnica. more...
Spain
Spain has grown to become the second largest tourism industry in the world. The climate of Spain, its historical and cultural monuments, its geographic position together with its tourist facilities make tourism one of Spain's main industries and a large source of stable employment. Known for fine beaches, good weather and events like the running of the Bulls in Pamplona. more...

Ever hear of the Kazantip Republic? Very few people know for sure what the Kazantip Republic is all about or where it is. The Kazantip Republic is a non-stop music party on a beach in the Ukraine each year. Somewhat similar to the Burning Man Festival except it is celebrated on a beach full of beautiful Russian and Ukrainian women. It is like a small new country somewhere that no one has ever heard of or knows of its location, people or government? If you have never heard of the Kazantip Republic it is time that you find out for yourself... see more

Contents

Travel Destinations

Sabatina James lived through an extremely painful and difficult ordeal in escaping becoming a victim of an honor killing by her own family when she refused to be forced into an arranged marraige. Now Sabatina is an author and the founder of an organization that assists other victims of forced marraige and its often accompanying family violence. read more

The Honour Based Violence Awareness Network is an international digital resource centre working to advance understanding and awareness of honour killings and honour-based violence through research, documentation and information for professionals; teachers, health workers, social services, police, politicians, and others who may encounter individuals at risk. HBVA builds and promotes a network of experts, activists, and NGOs from around the world, establishing international partnerships to facilitate greater collaboration and education. Norwegian artist and human rights activist Deeyah, a vocal and staunch campaigner against honour based violence, founded and conceived of HBVA in collaboration with Joanne Payton of Cardiff University.
As Deeyah has stated - "Centuries old cultures, customs, social structures and mentalities take time and consistent effort to change. However, where we can make a real and immediate impact particularly in Europe and in the US, where deaths can be prevented is by implementing adequate training, providing research and properly informing the people in a position to help individuals at risk of Honour Based Violence. There is no acceptable reason or excuse why young women within minority communities should continue dying due to lack of understanding and awareness about this very present phenomenon"
In development since 2010, HBVA was launched in February 2012 for public and professional use internationally. See more on their website at www.hbv-awareness.com

Liya Kebede founded the Liya Kebede Foundation to support community-based projects which improve knowledge and practices of maternal and child health in order to reduce illness and deaths. The aim of the Liya Kebede Foundation is to involve the public and advocate for policy makers and governments to invest in mothers' lives. Liya is inspired by the women she meets providing critical health care needs on the ground in the developing world. She meets countless women who work tirelessly, without basic supplies and in terribly difficult conditions... Read more

Cynthia Basinet recorded the song Santa Baby as a Christmas gift for Jack Nicholson and when it went viral on the internet everyone credited it to Marilyn Monroe. This Nobel Peace Prize nominated Jazz and Blues singer continues recording and acting while using her music to raise awareness for humanitarian projects. In May and June of 2001 during a trip to the refugee camps in the Western Sahara, the most memorable and defining moment for Cynthia was singing Someone To Watch Over Me in the Saharwian refugee camps... Read more

Tunisian blogger and activist Lina Ben Mhenni, born May 22, 1983, was nominated by the 2011 Nobel Prize committee for her sustained activism by showing scenes of repression and violence that took place between the former regime and protestors, particularly in Regueb and Sidi Bouzid. Her strong criticism of the social and political conditions in Tunisia and the posting of these scenes of oppression and violence on her blog in Arabic, French and English brought the truth of this violent regime to the attention of the world. ... Read more

Deeyah was born on August 7th 1977 in Oslo, Norway to Sunni Muslim parents of Pakistani and Afghani heritage. A Norwegian singer, music producer, composer, film maker and human rights activist, Deeyah is a woman and a Muslim which is not always an easy combination for someone with tremendous talent and looks that would easily bring her fame and fortune. But, fortune was not what came her way when she launched a musical career and began to get media attention. Instead she recieved death threats from Muslim fundamentalists... Read more

Panmela Castro was the recipient of the 2010 Vital Voices Global Leadership Award for Human Rights for her work as a graffiti artist who took her talent to the Rio de Janeiro slums and painted murals to educate women about new Brazilian laws protecting the rights of domestic violence victims. Panmela Castro is the founder and and art coordinator of Panmela Artefeito , an organization using social art projects as an instrument of cultural transformation and continues to to use graffiti for other womans rights projects... Read more

Nazanin Afshin-Jam is a Persian human rights activist, public speaker as well as President and Co-Founder of Stop Child Executions currently living in Canada. She is fluent in Persian, English and French and was voted one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World as well as one of the 100 most talented girls for 2010. Nazanin is also a talented singer, songwriter, model, actress, pilot, former Miss World Canada and Miss World 1st runner-up.... Read more

Tristane Banon is a French journalist and writer who earned a diploma from the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Paris and worked as a journalist, as an anchorwoman on a television show about new information and communication technologies and as a sports journalist. Everything changed when she came forward to accuse Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempted rape after the once French Socialist Party presidential candidate in waiting, was arrested and accused of the sexual assault and attempted rape of a New York hotel maid in May of 2011... Read more

Somaly Mam was born into a tribal minority family in the Mondulkiri Province of Cambodia around the same time the Khmer Rouge savagely took hold of the nation. Somaly was only 12 years old when a man posing as her grandfather sold her into sexual slavery forcing her to work in a brothel alongside other children. Somaly was brutally tortured and raped several times a day, week after week, month after month, for years. She was even forced to watch her best friend be viciously murdered.... Read more

Waris Dirie is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist that was born into a nomadic clan in Galkacyo, Somalia in 1965. Living in the Somali desert near the border with Ethiopia at the tender age of five, she was forced to undergo the inhumane procedure of female genital mutilation. After a highly successful modeling career she became the UN Ambassador for the Abolition of Female Genital Mutilation and authored her first book called Desert Flower, an autobiography that went on to become an international bestseller... Read more

Blanka Vlašić takes her sport very seriously - putting an incredible intensity into each jump as can be witnessed in photographs of her at competitions. This intensity has made her one of the top high jumpers in the history of the sport and a highly visible source of pride to all Croatians. According to Blanka you have to spice it up a little, so she does a different dance at every competition to send positive energy to the audience.... Read more

Often the modern day adventure traveller more than likely carries a pocket-sized digital camera, a credit card, cell phone and even a laptop computer. Travels on commercial airlines, on buses, by train or in a car. Sleeps in hotels, pensions or hostels occasionally if not camping out in a high-tech tent with a wind-proof stove, goose-down sleeping bag and Perrier water from a super-lightweight titanium flask. Gets up in the morning and puts on a pair of Adidas Cuzco hiking boots after pulling on an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt and slipping on a Helly Hansen Helly Tech waterproof, breathable textile jacket with several high-energy bars in the pockets. Most of the adventure has been in waiting for UPS to show up at the door with the latest must have travel gear, so when its time to travel, it is a wonder that this traveller has not run out of cash and been forced to just stay home by the telly and watch the Discovery Channel. But that is not to say that all modern day adventure travellers fit this description. Many take on tough challenges, although not as extreme as their counterparts near the turn of the century. Arnold Henry Savage Landor, Isabella Lucy Bird and Thomas Stevens were not modern day adventure travellers, but saw and recorded more people and their customs on more continents than most modern day travellers - and did the majority of their travels on steamships, horseback or on foot. Read their travel books that are free e-book downloads in a choice of formats at the bottom of each of their pages.