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Dominican Republic's Walk in History

2007-02-03T22:47:54Z

Imagine, the oldest street in the New World. Imagine, walking the same cobblestone road as Christopher Colombus. Constructed over 500 years ago, Calle de las Damas, a half mile stretch of history in the Dominican Republic’s Colonial District in Santo Domingo, is indeed believed to be the oldest street in the hemisphere, Santo Domingo itself known as the oldest city of the New World.

Built in 1502, the street lives on as homage to Maria de Toledo, wife of Diego Columbus and niece of King Ferdinand, and the noble wives that accompanied her along that path to Mass. Diego Colombus, son of Christopher Colombus, was appointed Viceroy of the Indies in 1508, bringing with him his pious wife and their accompanying entourage. So impressed by the daily display of piety were the people of the Dominican Republic, they named the street in their honor, Calle de las Damas, Walk of the Ladies.

Today, strollers walking the historic street can explore the centuries old structures that were once home to figures important to the history of the Dominican Republic, and to the region. The Alcazar of Colombus, the 16th century castle built by Diego himself, houses a museum with period furniture and artwork. Casa de Bastidas, residence of Rodrigo de Bastidas, former governor of Santa Marta, Colombia and patriarch of the Bastida family (a family rival to that of Colombus in importance), now houses exhibitions, a library and school (where it once housed merchandise collected as tax). And for visitors wishing to do more than take a stroll through the Dominican Republic’s most historic district, the home of Santo Domingo’s founder Fray Nicolas de Ovando now stands as a small hotel noted for the only Gothic-Isabelline portal in the Americas, Hostal Nicolas de Ovando.

Book Plane Ticket Secrets

2007-02-03T22:47:34Z

Many airlines offer incentives to passengers who make their own bookings on the internet using the airlines website directly. Cheap international plane tickets are a huge commodity of those that frequently fly overseas for business or pleasure each year. Many airlines offer last minute airfare deals that can even be cheaper than student tickets; it is sometimes easier to contact the customer service line for these rates. The best selection of plane tickets will be found by doing a general search online; this will allow you to see all the multiple prices that are available.

A few years back, alot of people bought plane tickets through a travel agent or directly from the airline over the phone. Roundtrip airline tickets that involve flights at bad hours or on off days generally come at a cheaper price. Extremely cheap plane tickets will come in handy when you are purchasing flights for an entire family to go on a vacation. Airline companies are now in competition with the discount plane ticket services that have sprung about for the last ten to fifteen years. The cheapest quotes for plane tickets will occasionally vary from day to day; however, the closer you get to your flight the date the more prices can rise.

The concept of finding the cheapest plane ticket available is not always easy to do; simply because what is considered cheap depends on the spender. The best prices for tickets may be found over the internet; a person simply has to be able to commit sometime to looking for the best flight available. The best way to shop for a plane ticket is to; know your destination, look around for the best prices, and be willing to take some serious cost savings. The cheapest quotes available will occasionally stem from third party flight finders like; priceline or hotwire, they have tendency to find cheap plane tickets.

Compare prices of the different carriers and consider flying to smaller airports to save money on plane tickets as well. As a reward to your diligence in finding your plane tickets online, you can treat yourself to spending more at your destination if you like. Compare prices on at least three different plane ticket online sites before buying a ticket that may not be the best bargain for you. Discounted international flights are not normally available on the smaller discount plane ticket web sites due to their limited destinations available. A few years ago, many people were at the mercy of a travel agent when it came time to purchase a plane ticket or other travel issues. As a reward for your online shopping, it is typical to find plane tickets discounted to five or ten percent off of the regularly priced fares.

Museums in Dublin

2007-02-03T22:47:13Z

The site upon which the city of Dublin is located, has a history of settlement going back over 1,000 years when Vikings settled in the area. Today Dublin is a major cultural center, and it is only fitting that it is home to several top quality museums. No matter what your particular interest, Dublin more than likely has a museum that will cater to your interest. The museums can loosely be divided into three categories, art galleries, historic and libraries.

History Museums

The history of Dublin and Ireland is catered for in detail by the National Museum of Ireland and the National History Museum. The National History Museum deals with the natural history of Ireland. There are 10,000 animals on display in the Museum of Natural History from not just Ireland, but from all four corners of the globe. The National Museum of Ireland is situated in Collin's Barracks, and displays of decorative arts which date back to prehistoric times to more modern eras can be seen here. The museum is easily accessible by taking the Luas from Abbey Street.

Art Galleries

The National Gallery of Ireland houses the national collection of Irish and European Art which is owned by the Irish Government. The museum has an impressive display of paintings and sculptures from many of the world's most famous artists including Monet, Caravaggio and Van Gogh. The Gallery also has a recently built display wing which houses traveling exhibitions. Entrance to the museum is free of charge, and its central location means it is a must see.

Libraries

The two main libraries in Dublin are the National Library of Ireland and the Chester Beatty Library. The National Library houses the worlds largest collection of Irish documents, including books, manuscripts, periodicals, drawing, photographs, maps and newspapers. The National Gallery has no entrance fee, but a readers ticket is needed if you wish to read any of the materials. The Chester Beatty Library houses an excellent collection of Islamic, Chinese, Japanese and Indian manuscripts. The library was created by Chester Beatty who left the library to the Irish State upon his death.

Parking Rage

2007-02-03T22:46:46Z

We’ve all heard of road rage and many of us have experienced it at one point or another.

Now there’s parking rage, a lesser known but equally alarming phenomenon fuelled by the scarcity of parking in our streets.

Parking rage has a number of different guises. The next time you see a motorist hurling abuse at a ticket warden, bumping into the parked car in front or behind just to squeeze into a spot or deliberately defying parking regulations and parking illegally, you’ll know someone’s seeing red over parking.

Pay-and-display machines and parking meters are increasingly bearing the brunt of drivers’ parking rage. It’s hard to imagine that things have got this far but otherwise lawful residents throughout the country are venting their anger by blowing up parking ticket machines with industrial fireworks in the middle of the night and sabotaging parking meters by chopping off their heads. In some areas, beleaguered motorists have taken to jamming objects into the coin slots of meters and sticking in notes advising that the meters are now out of order. Elsewhere, commuters are blacking out meter windows with paint so that wardens can't see if the time has expired.

Another form of parking rage is that between drivers. Motorists are taking a no-holds-barred approach to each other when it comes to the pursuit of a spot. Courtesy and civilised behaviour go out the window as battles over parking lead to obscene verbal exchanges and vandalism. Such is the strength of feeling aroused by parking frustration that it’s not unheard of for an enraged driver to slash a fellow road-user’s tyres or even urinate on their vehicle.

When it comes to parking outside their own front door, drivers become very territorial, using traffic cones, rubbish bins and if necessary an assertive note plastered on the windscreen of other cars to reserve a space.

Worst of all, drivers are getting into punch-ups – sometimes fatal ones – and even pulling knives and guns on each other over parking. Hardly a week goes by when there isn’t a report in the news about someone in the United States being killed following a parking feud, and similar stories are cropping up around Britain.

It’s not difficult to understand why parking rage comes about or to imagine the heated circumstances which get tempers flaring.

At the end of a journey when you’re running late and your patience is wearing thin because you’ve inched along at a snail’s pace and stopped at every traffic light, parking is the last straw. Having circled round, eyes peeled, you find a spot – only to have it taken from under your nose by another driver who is that much closer to it. Grrr.

The solution to parking rage? One way round it is for drivers to plan ahead and leave plenty of time for finding a spot when they reach their destination. By factoring difficult parking into a journey length, drivers reduce their own stress levels and are less likely to get frustrated by fellow parkers.

A better solution still is for drivers to rent and reserve a parking space in someone else’s driveway or garage through ParkatmyHouse.com. Having a pre-booked, penalty-free parking space close to your destination and waiting for you at the end of your journey brings peace of mind and saves all the stress that comes with looking for parking. No one can lay claim to or compete for a spot that has your name on it. And you aren’t going to cause another driver’s blood to boil by parking there.

By utilising existing space to provide additional parking for drivers, ParkatmyHouse.com helps solve the root cause of parking rage; a disparity between the number of drivers needing a space and the number of parking spaces actually available.

Without a solution like ParkatmyHouse.com, the parking problem will worsen and incidents of parking rage will increase. Whether we continue to drive traditional cars as we know them today or use some sort of solar-powered, pollution-free golf buggies, the unrivalled flexibility and safety of cars means that for the foreseeable future they are here to stay. And by extension, parking space will always be in high demand. As it is, the Department of Transport predicts that car ownership will soar by forty five per cent in the UK in the next twenty five years, squeezing pressure on finite and already limited space and fuelling disputes between drivers.