Author: Ms. R.

Per capita, the people of Portugal consume just about as many snails as the French. And Lisbon’s one-stop-shop for all its snail needs is Casa dos Caracóis, literally “House of Snails.”  The brand has 11 shops across Portugal, with seven in the greater Lisbon area alone. The capital’s Campolide branch is typical of the brand: spotless and brightly lit, decked out in stainless steel and snail paraphernalia, including prehistoric snail fossils. The shop stocks everything a Portuguese snail consumer……

Read More

From internal battles to foreign incursions, Scotland has seen its fair share of conflicts and disputes. It is perhaps their strained relationship with their neighbors to the south, the English, that has seen the most bloodshed. There is perhaps no better example to showcase man’s barbarity than a period known as the Killing Times. This was a religious war that lasted for roughly 10 years towards the end of the 17th century. An estimated 18,000 Scottish citizens lost their lives……

Read More

If you drive south of San Antonio, Texas on Applewhite Road, past the fire station and the Toyota plant, and pull over just shy of the Medina River, you can walk a few hundred feet through tranquil forest and patchy sunlight to where a small bridge crosses a burbling stream just out of sight of the highway. There, on certain evenings, when the last rays of light cut through deepening shadows, and the sound of the wind has faded……

Read More

In the mountains of Romania near its southern border with Serbia is the small spa town of Băile Herculane. Dating back over 2,000 years to the Roman times, Băile Herculane is one of the oldest spa towns in Europe. People have been visiting the area to experience the healing power of its thermal waters for centuries.  According to legend, the hero Hercules as well as members of the Roman aristocracy, bathed in the curing waters of the springs surrounding……

Read More

In September 1961, the Charlotte News ran a column by food editor Marie Adams about preparing dishes that looked “as appetizing as possible—without benefit of cooking or heating.” But Adams wasn’t writing for people on a camping trip or weathering a long power outage at home. These recipes were intended for the “fallout shelter housewife.” In her column, Adams provided a full heatless menu made with canned or jarred ingredients, like vichyssoise topped with dehydrated chives, and a spread……

Read More

German-Americans have a long-established presence in St. Louis, Missouri, so after the deaths of local newspaper industry heavyweights Dr. Emil Preetorius, Carl Schurz, and Carl Daenzer, the community sought a way to commemorate them. The Preetorious-Schurz-Daenzer Memorial Association was formed, and launched a design competition. Adolphus Busch, of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company, served as the honorary president as well as the main donor. Proposals rolled in, and a 26-member jury reviewed the submissions and selected a design proposed by……

Read More

As the birch and spruce forests of Newfoundland’s southern coast begin to speckle and sparkle with bright yellow, a familiar and frightening figure returns to the autumn woods of the Miawpukek First Nation community in Conne River. For those on a local walking trail, it emerges from the forest like a specter: a human-like figure who appears to be bound, their torso and limbs contorted into the trunk of a large birch tree—a variety that locals call “witch hazel.”……

Read More

In Lavapies, maybe the purest and typical Madrilenian-style neighborhood, there’s an inconspicuous 17th-century house built then on the outskirts of the city. The rooms are distributed around a traditional Castilian patio and the building is held up by wood beams. Currently, the space is used as a senior center, but under the courtyard, there is a cellar. Only a few people know how was the initial use of this basement. The initial purpose of this prison was to accommodate clergy……

Read More

Six years ago, when the moon blocked out the sun over a vast swath of the United States, Atlas Obscura had a slight case of Eclipse Madness. So we’re all set to help guide you through the annular eclipse, also known as a “Ring of Fire” eclipse, that will cut a swath across the Western United States and Central and South America, on October 14, 2023. How do animals react to an eclipse’s mysterious daytime darkness? Why does Uganda……

Read More

Sure, people say there are a thousand islands along the St. Lawrence Seaway, but is there any way to really be sure? Rising above the St. Lawrence River, this Hill Island, Ontario, observation tower has answered this question for many tourists to the Thousand Islands region of Canada for more than half a century. The completion of Seattle’s Space Needle for the 1962 World’s Fair led to a boom in observation tower construction across American and Canadian cities throughout……

Read More

“I am the best feng shui master in Taiwan,” Jiang Bole says while sitting in his office in Taipei. Flanked by two assistants, an entire room packed with deities decked out in gold and bronze flourishes, and a Taoist mantra playing in a loop in the background, he certainly looks the part. Jiang is a feng shui consultant for the rich and famous, and he’s well-aware of his high stature. “I am the most famous person in Taiwan who……

Read More