Greece and its islands are a paradise for tourists where culture, mythology, art, cuisine and incredible landscapes blend perfectly. But if people go to Santorini or Crete looking for a relaxing and peaceful holidays, they go to Mykonos in search of its leisure and its famous beach parties, like it happens for instance in Ibiza.

Mecca of gay tourism, people live without prejudice in Mykonos; it is a happy, carefree and cosmopolitan island as many people who visited Mykonos at the time as a tourist, and stayed falling in love of its style and life quality.

The facades of the houses in the tourist areas are painted twice a year of pure white and make a wonderful contrast to the blue, yellow or deep red of some domes or details in the houses, in a neat appearance.

During the day you can relax on the pristine beaches of Kalo Livadi, Agrari, Elia, Psarou, Paranga Gialos, Ornos or Kalafatis, and, when the night falls, enjoy their wide leisure offer.

Two of the most popular beaches are Paradise and Super Paradise, about 6 miles southwest of Chora; nice beaches with good infrastructures, particularly famous for its parties. When evening comes, the entire beach becomes a huge outdoor club where house music and lounge turn up the volume in different bars and people dance until dawn. Here is the Paradise Club, one of the most popular clubs on the island, especially for the younger public, with the best techno, pop rock and dance music.

Out of Paradise and Super Paradise, there is a great deal of small clubs or large macro-discos throughout the island:

Caprice Bar
caprice.gr

It has been in Alefkandra for years, one of the most beautiful areas of Mykonos, also known as Little Venice, with its low houses with porches that almost reach the water.

Cavo Paradiso
cavoparadiso.gr

With a privileged location on a cliff overlooking the sea, Cavo Paradise is the place for electronic music lovers. The best dj’s come around here during July and August!

Skandinavian
skandinavianbar.com

Located downtown and with two floors; the ground floor is occupied with bars with terraces and there is a dance floor upstairs where house and the most commercial hits sound.

Astra Bar
www.astra-mykonos.com

One of the classics of the Greek night. Its doors opened in 1987 and its decor is stunning. Since then, the Astra Bar is a place, not as big as the famous clubs of the island, but where you can find good music and an atmosphere away from the tourists. Sometimes they bring djs and boast their taste for good music.

Picture Little Venice by Zitumassin | Picture Mikonos by Sailko

Perfect plan to go with friends! Check our flights and sign up!

Ai Weiwei is a controversial figure wherever he goes. While his activist streak has earned him more than one headline in the media, particularly in connection with the problems he has with the regime in his native China, his artistic facet has also put him under the spotlight in all the exhibitions he unveils, given the political denunciation behind his work. Last year it was the Royal Academy of London that enshrined him as the great international artist he is. Now it is Vienna’s turn as it hosts an exhibition, running until 20 November, of his latest works. This is the largest display of Ai Weiwei’s work so far in Austria.

A Temple in the Museum

Under the title, Translocation – Transformation, referring to the metamorphosis which people and objects undergo after a deliberate relocation, migration or expulsion, the event features several installations by Ai Weiwei distributed over different spaces in the Belvedere Gardens. The main feature of the exhibition, curated by Alfred Weidinger, is located in the former Austrian pavilion for the 1958 World Expo, currently used as a platform for promoting contemporary art under the name 21er Haus. Displayed in the interior is the Wang Family Ancestral Hall, an installation which is unlikely to leave the viewer unmoved. This 14-metre-high exhibit made up of 1,300 separate pieces is an ancestral temple from the Ming Dynasty. The temple, which belonged to the Wang family, a clan of tea merchants who were expelled from China during the Cultural Revolution, was thus abandoned. Ai Weiwei acquired it from an investor some time ago and transformed it into what we see today, a decontextualised work which coexists and communicates with other architectural environments.

Another exhibition site, the Upper Belvedere pond, showcases the installation, F Lotus, where the artist elicits a reflection on subjects unfortunately in the limelight in recent years, notably the refugee crisis besetting Europe. The work comprises 1,005 discarded life vests picked up on the beaches of Lesbos after being used by Syrian refugees on their sea crossing to Europe. They are set in a total of 201 rings linked to resemble the lotus flower, the overall structure forming a hugefin the water.

Another work displayed in the Upper Belvedere pond is the Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, a veritable classic of Ai Weiwei’s oeuvre. Composed of twelve bronze heads standing for the signs of the zodiac in the Chinese horoscope, they are inspired by the fountain-clock at the summer palace of Yuanming Yuan which was ransacked by French and British troops during the Second Opium War in 1860. The treasures – including the heads – were looted and have never been returned since.

Eager to see the work of Ai Weiwei first-hand? Be sure to make a getaway to Vienna – book your Vueling here.

Text by Los Viajes de ISABELYLUIS

By Monia Savioli from ilTurista.info

Berlin: Young, lively, trendy but cheap, organized, linked to an important past which doesn’t forget and doesn’t want to. You can’t define the city of Berlin just listing a limited number of adjectives and characteristics. That would restrict its beauty and what the city can offer to people.

Vueling launched the route Florence-Berlin on March, the 22nd increasing its new offer from Florence with furthers routes to London Heathrow, Copenhagen and Hamburg providing 160.000 new seats in addition to the already available flights to Barcelona, Paris and Madrid. There is an efficient bus shuttle service that connects Florence train station to the airport. From the train station, you can reach the airport in 20 minutes and by an about 90 minutes flight you arrive at the Tegel International Airport of Berlin.

The only clashing point is that the German airport is not connected directly to the city by underground, although the net is constantly increasing. It’s possible to reach the nearest station by taking a bus from the airport. You can ask for more information about the bus within the airport, where people speak English if you don’t know German (bus and taxi drivers often speak only German). If you want, you can also take a taxi since rates are cheaper than the Italian’s ones. The bus that brings you to the city is the 128 and leads to the “Kurt-Shumacher-Platz” underground station and the course lasts about 15 minutes. Once arrived to the underground station, you can use the same ticket to reach Friedfrichstrasse, the core of Berlin and the shopping road par excellence. There, you can take a room at the Melia Hotel, just close to Spree river and to the Metropol Theatre. Friedrichstrasse is a strategic point to chance upon the famous “Unter den Linden” boulevard, going into the core of the city visiting the main Berlin places that you should see in a 2-days-trip.

If you prefer walking, you can also visit the city with your own feet or you just ride the several bikes for rent. There are also buses for scenic tour working up to 6 p.m. that let you get on and off to visit the main important places.

One of these places, is “Charlie”, at the Friedrichstrasse. It originally was a checkpoint between the Mitte and Kreuzber districts. Mitte belonged to the East Berlin, run by Soviets in the past and Kreuzber to the West side of Berlin, run by Americans. The name of the place, Charlie, is pronounced as the third letter of NATO phonetic alphabet after “Alfa” and “Bravo”. Nowadays Charlie checkpoint is a bar where you can taste delicious drinks or drinking beer sitting on beach chairs with you feet on the sand. The headquarter of the old Gestapo is on the Niederkirchnerstrasse where you can find few empty tiled buildings. It’s situated next to a portion of the Berlin’s wall that is ruined and constantly reduced because visitors often steal pieces of wall as souvenir. In that place now there is a permanent photography exhibition called“Topography of terror” about Nazism. So it’s evident how the old and the young Berlin are living together, to bearing in mind a past that no one can’t forget, fixing it through feelings felt due to the almost holy silence you can find in those places as a sign of respect.

These are the same feelings and sensations you can feel within the Holocaust Memoirs, in the Cora-Berliner Strasse, where there are 2.711 anonymous grey stones with an irregular shape that are arranged within a field characterized by several bumps that gives you the feeling of a dark choking and light-living feeling at the same time.

The East Side Gallery, an almost 2 kilometres of the Berlin’s Wall on the Mulenstrasse (ex East Berlin) is now the longest open-air art gallery in the world and show you several visions about the years of the split of Berlin. The murals realized by international artists offer alternative points of view by illustrating characters and symbolisms of that period as the Trabant, the famous old Berlin car, drawn as it would break down the wall.

For the aficionados, it’s also possible to rent a “Trabi” to drive around the city or take one of the odd vehicles situated along the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of a reunified Germany and the access gate to the Tiergarten. This is a former shooting ground of the royal palace where you can find the Victory Column and the famous zoo.

There are also several nice flea markets along the boulevards where you can buy an endless quantity of stuff during the weekend, from jewelleries to art masterpieces or, for instance, mother-of-pearl-made spoon for enjoy your caviar. Is not all. Berlin is also the city of museums: from the biggest Hebraic museum in the world to the Egyptian museum, the National Art Gallery and several other ones.

Berlin is also the city of the big palaces, churches’ ruins as the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche, whose ruins keep the recollection of the Second World War bombing alive. At least, but not the last, Berlin is the city of the shopping centre as the Come KaDeWe, “Kaufhaus des Westens”: the most famous shopping mall in Germany and the biggest one in Europe with 60,000 cubic meters that are branched in 7 sector floors for products except the last one where you can eat at the self service restaurant. Other way, downstairs you can eat in several buffets as the one managed by one of the most famous international chef, Paul Bocuse. There is also a Lafayette store section. But the real fun, actually, is getting lost among the little shops and the street markets. Berlin offers also a lot of night bars, international top level restaurants, pubs, night clubs and alternative locals assuring fun to every kind of target of people.

Thrill-seeking people can even try bungee jumping from the top of the Hotels in Alexander Platz. In order to finish your trip, you can have a long and relaxing boat ride across the Spree river from where having a wide vision of the German capital to realize that Berlin is not just a touristic destination but a real city with its beautiful places and also its difficult realities as homeless people sleeping in sleeping bags along the streets of this great but cold city.

Por Monia Savioli de ilTurista.info

Why not take a trip to Berlin? Have a look at our flights here!

In effect, Dublin is an integral part of U2’s makeup. Just a few months back they released Songs of Innocence, which Bono describes as the most personal album they have ever recorded. This, the thirteenth studio production of the Irish band, is a journey to their beginnings, to their infancy and youth. It is a period of dreams waiting to come true, with The Ramones or The Clash as the soundtrack, and Dublin as the eternal, vital backdrop. Now is undoubtedly the best time ever to visit the Irish capital – even more so if we are grooved by the beat of these innocent songs – and stroll along the streets that have witnessed the evolution of one of the foremost bands in the history of rock.

Mount Temple Comprehensive School
This was where it all started. Larry Mullen Jr. put up a sign on the school noticeboard looking for musicians to form a rock group. The call was heeded by Bono, The Edge and his brother, Dick Evans (who would be replaced soon after by Adam Clayton). Thus was Feedback born, later becoming The Hype and, finally, U2. Malahide Road.

Bonavox
Paul David Hewson did not become Bono until his childhood friend, Derek “Guggi” Rowan, happened to give him that nickname. It comes from Bonavox (or “good voice”), the name of a business dealing in… hearing aids! Whether you are music lovers or merely wish to check your aural capacity, the fact is the shop is still open at 9 North Earl Street.

The Projects Arts Centre
In their early years, U2 used to perform in one of the auditoriums here. And, it was at one of these concerts that they met Paul McGuinness, the group’s manager until 2013 and a crucial figure in the quartet’s career. The Project Arts Centre now operates as an art exhibition gallery, and also hosts some of the city’s major festivals, including the Dublin Writers’ Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and Dublin Dance Festival. 39 East Essex Street.

Windmill Lane Studios        
Understandably also known as the “U2 Studios”, as it was here they recorded their first EP,Three(1979) and the subsequent albums, Boy (1980), October (1981), War (1983), The Unforgettable Fire (1984) and The Joshua Tree (1987). The studios are located at 4 Windmill Lane, a street full of graffiti originally linked to the group; so much so that it is known as the U2 Graffiti Wall. It now features all kinds of street art. 4 Windmill Lane, Dublin 2.

Grand Canal Docks  
Dublin’s dockside is one of the city’s enclaves most closely related to U2 iconography. The setting, highly representative of the spirit of Dublin, has been used by the quartet throughout their career as a backdrop for their record covers (October), videos (Gloria) and photographic sessions (like one they had in 2000 with the Dutch photographer, Anton Corbijn. Hanover Quay.

The Clarence Hotel
In 1992, Bono and The Edge purchased The Clarence. Built in 1852, the originally 2-star hotel was revamped under their supervision, becoming one of the city’s most luxurious hotels. And, as the Irish singer asserts, “For The Edge to have somewhere to stay until later”, they turned the basement into The Kitchen, a disco which the leading lights of electronic music have made their port of call. 6-8 Wellington Quay.

Fitzwilliam Place
Bono once forgot Ali’s birthday. His wife was so upset she was on the verge of throwing him out. The singer made his apologies in the form of a song – The Sweetest Thing. Originally released as a B-side on the single, Where the Streets Have No Name, it later became the first single on the compilation album, The Best of 1980-1990. Recorded on 20 September 1998, the video moves along this central street of Dublin. The videos Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own and Pride (In the Name of Love) are also set in Dublin. Fitzwilliam Place.

Hanover Quay
After leaving Windmill Lane Studios, U2 set up their studios in Hanover Quay. Located in the harbour area, the complex comprises two buildings – one acts as a rehearsal space; the other, a recording studio and editing room. It was there that U2 developed their discs, Pop (1997), All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000), How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004) and No Line On The Horizon (2009). Interestingly enough, the Kilsaran Concrete cement factory located opposite the studios had a bench installed in their foyer for followers of the group to wait in comfort for their idols to appear. 18 Hanover Quay, Dublin 2.

Finnegan’s of Dalkey
Celebrated for its culinary offerings, Finnegan’s of Dalkey is Bono’s favourite pub. He is so fond of it that, whenever he gets a visit from a celebrity friend (Michelle Obama, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Salman Rushdie…), he takes them to this typical Irish pub for a pint of Guinness. It was opened by Dan Finnegan, one of whose seven sons, Peter Finnegan, emigrated to Valencia where, in the central Plaza de la Reina, he opened a twin Finnegan’s Of Dublin pub. 2 Sorrento Road.

St. Stephen’s Green
In 2000, Bono and The Edge were awarded the title, “Freeman of the City of Dublin”. Among the privileges that go with this honour, they were authorised to graze sheep on St. Stephen’s Green – no mean feat! The day after receiving the award, the singer and guitarist made an appearance in this popular park in the city centre flanked by two sheep, which they christened “My Little Lamb” and “Michael Jackson”. St. Stephen’s Green.

Wall Of Fame
The Wall Of Fame, a tribute to the leading names in Irish music, stands at 20 Temple Lane Street, one of the liveliest and most crowded streets in Dublin. The wall displays photos of Van Morrison, Sinéad O’Connor, Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher, The Undertones, Bob Geldof, Boyzone… However, one shot which stands out above all of them and effectively steals the limelight shows the very young U2 band members on the beach at Sandymount Strand, another of their favourite spots. And, while you’re there, make sure you drop in at the historic Temple Bar with their live music every night and some delicious oysters. 20 Temple Lane South.

The Little Museum Of Dublin
Opposite St. Stephen’s Green and hard by Grafton Street stands The Little Museum Of Dublin, an art gallery which showcases Dublin’s modern history. Prominent among their permanent exhibitions is “U2 Made In Dublin”. Ranging from original posters from their earliest concerts, to a Trabant from the Zoo TV Tour era, this is one of the largest and best collections of objects related to the band, all of them gifted by the quartet’s fans. 15 St Stephen’s Green.

The company, Dublin Differently, offers guided tours of the most celebrated settings in the city, retracing U2’s career, from their studios to The Clarence Hotel. So, make haste! Come and discover a bit more about one of the best rock bands of all time. Check out our flights to Dublin here.

Text by Oriol Rodríguez for ISABELYLUIS Comunicación

Images by Matt McGee, Phil Romans, William Murphy, dronepicr