View of Vilnius - Vilinus, Lithuania

Cold beet soup - cold soup based on boiled beetroot mixed with sour milk or sour cream (nowadays often replaced by kefir, yogurt, or buttermilk) with additives such as raw cucumber, dill, hard-boiled egg, and in the classic version - crayfish necks. A dish of Polish and Lithuanian cuisine.

Modern recipes do not add meat, meat, or fish to Lithuanian cold soup, but add radishes or chives as an addition.

 

Saga International Balloon Fiesta - Saga, Japan

The fiesta is held just outside Saga City, along the Kase River. It has grown from a gathering of 5 hot air balloons to a competition where over 3500 people volunteer and has gained a reputation as one of the top ballooning competitions in the world. 

It is also a popular time for tourists as the Karatsu Kunchi Festival is held at the same time in Karatsu City. Since 1980 the launch site has been visited by over 10 million spectators.

 

Lakes in the Italian Alps - Varese, Italy

Lago Maggiore - a glacial lake, there are a number of islands on the lake, the most famous of which are the Borromean Islands.

Lago di Lugano - located in the Lugano Alps, it connects the lakes of Maggiore and Como. 

Lago di Como - it is the deepest lake in the Alps and one of the deepest in Europe; creates crypto depression. The shape of the lake on the map resembles an inverted letter Y. On the western shore of Como is Sacro Monte di Ossuccio, one of the nine sacred mountains in northern Italy.

 

#44 GF - Budva, Montenegro

Legend has it that Budva was founded by Cadmus, a Phoenician hero expelled from Thebes, who found refuge here for himself and his wife Harmonia. According to the findings of archaeologists, first (from the 4th century BCE) there was an Illyrian settlement here, then only the Greek colony of Buthoe.

 

Svetloye Ozero - Friazino, Russia

Russian Swan Lake (also known as "Svetloe Lake"), a lake in the Altai Krai region, best known as winter non-frozen lake with Whooper swan presence.

 

#45 FOTW - Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

The national flag of the Dominican Republic - the blue on the flag stands for liberty, the white for salvation, and the red for the blood of heroes. The civil flag follows the same design but without the charge in the centre. The flag was designed by Juan Pablo Duarte.

As described by Article 21 of the Dominican Constitution, the flag features a centred white Saint George's cross that extends to the edges and divides the flag into four rectangles. The national coat of arms, featuring a shield with the flag, designed and supported by a bay laurel branch (left) and a palm frond (right), is at the centre of the cross. Above the shield, a blue ribbon displays the national motto Dios, Patria, Libertad (God, Homeland, Liberty). Below the shield, the words República Dominicana appear on a red ribbon. In the centre of the shield, flanked by three spears (two of them holding Dominican banners) on each side, is a Bible with a small Latin cross above it and said to be opened to the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 32, which reads Y la verdad os hará libres (And the truth shall make you free). 

It is one of 28 national flags to contain overtly Christian symbols. (https://www.brandingthenations.com/blog/flagsforgodssake) 

 

The Kenilworth Hotel - Miami Beach, Florida

A vintage postcard showing The Kenilworth Hotel.

 

Large Letter Reprint - Rhame, North Dakota

Nicknames: Peace Garden State, Roughrider State, Flickertail State, Heaven on Earth

Mottos: Liberty and Union, Now and Forever, One and Inseparable

North Dakota bison are among the largest in the world: they are up to 3 meters long and weigh more than a ton.

The Dickinson Dinosaur Museum houses twelve complete dinosaur skeletons, including Triceratops and Edmontosaurus.

90% of North Dakota is arable land - the most of any US state.

 

MiG-29 Aerobatic team - Oldenburg, Germany

MiG-29 - Soviet, now Russian modern frontline fighter, developed by the MiG design bureau. First flown in 1977 and produced since 1983.

It was used by the Iraqi air force during the Gulf War and by Yugoslavia during the NATO Allied Force operation. In 2005, the Belarusian MiG-29BM set 15 international records in the class of aircraft weighing up to 20 tons.

 

"Air dream" by Maria Dmitrieva - Moscow, Russia

The first public presentation of the hot air balloon was made by the Montgolfier brothers in a meadow near Annonay on June 4, 1783. Their balloon rose to a height of 2,000 m and during a 10-minute flight, it covered a distance of nearly 2 km.

 

#43 GF - Marrakesh, Morocco

Marrakech is Morocco's fourth-largest city but has for centuries been the unofficial capital of the south of the country, attracting countless merchants and traders. Called the pearl of the south and a city of cities, it is situated at the foot of the Atlas Mountains.

Marrakesh is called the red city. Local legend says that when the Koutoubia mosque was built, so much blood was shed that all walls, houses, and roads turned red.

 

Archway in front of the town of Xidi - Shanghai, China

Xidi is a village in the historical Huizhou region of Anhui province, China. It was declared a part of the "Ancient Villages in Southern Anhui" World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2000, along with Hongcun.

 

#44 FOTW - Porto, Portugal

The national flag of the Portuguese Republic is a rectangular bicolour with a field divided into green on the hoist and red on the fly. The lesser version of the national coat of arms of Portugal (armillary sphere and Portuguese shield) is centred over the colour boundary at equal distance from the upper and lower edges. 

The conjugation of the new field colour, especially the use of green, was not traditional in the Portuguese national flag's composition and represented a radical republican-inspired change that broke the bond with the former monarchical flag. Since a failed republican insurrection on 31 January 1891, red and green had been established as the colours of the Portuguese Republican Party and its associated movements, whose political prominence kept growing until it reached a culmination period following the Republican revolution of 5 October 1910. In the ensuing decades, these colours were popularly propagandised, green represented the hope of the nation and the colour red represented the blood of those who died defending it, this happened to endow them with a more patriotic and dignified, therefore less political, sentiment.

 

NASA INSIGNIA - Dallas, Texas

Johnson Space Center - is NASA's center for human spaceflight, where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It consists of a complex of 100 buildings constructed on 1,620 acres (660 hectares) in the Clear Lake Area of ​​Houston, which acquired the official nickname "Space City" in 1967. 

It is popularly known by its radio call signs "Mission Control" and "Houston".