UNSEEN TRAVEL AGENCY

Good news: Jedward lost at sea Bad news: Jedward no longer lost at sea X Factor stars (a loose term) Jedward have gone from being stranded in the musical wilderness to being stranded in the actual wilderness. Well, a sandbank in north Dublin to be precise, but you get the point. The driftwood – sorry, Jedward – duo were out walking with another family member when horror struck and their mother alerted the coast guard. After a helicopter managed to find the twins (which couldn’t have been difficult with that hair) ten rescuers bravely waded out to save them. We’re just going to let you process that scene for a moment. Speaking to the Irish Sun, Jedward's mother said her sons were "badly shaken" after their "terrifying experience", a condition anyone who has seen them perform will be able to relate to.

New app reads the way Reading just got revolutionised A new app which will allow people to read up to 1,000 words per minute – quadruple the average pace – is about to hit the market. Spritz, the software developer behind the new technology, aims to have 15% of the world's population using it to read by 2016. To understand how the app works, it's first necessary to understand how our brains process words. Slightly left to the centre of each word we read is something called the Optimal Recognition Point (ORP). This is the exact point at which our brains decode the random letters into something which actually means something. Spritz has shown than by breaking down sentences into successive displays of individual words, and highlighting the ORP of each word in red, our brains can process text much faster. Incredulous? Try it for yourself, beginning at 250 words per minute, which is slightly quicker than the average reader. You can go all the way up t...

The David Beckham effect Beckham’s latest move to PSG has caused an increase in people travelling to Paris Whether it’s playing football, getting inked-up or being a bloody nice guy, whatever David Beckham does we want to copy him. Since he’s announced moving to Parisian side Paris St Germain there has been a huge influx of people booking flights and accommodation to the capital city of France. Lastminute.com has seen a 34% uplift in flight bookings to Paris this month as UK fans hope to catch a glimpse of Becks in the flesh, which could be as soon as this Sunday 17. Mark Maddock, managing director at lastminute.com UK and Ireland, said: “David Beckham certainly strikes a chord in the hearts of the British public as fans snap up last minute flights to catch a glimpse of Goldenballs and his fancy footwork.” It has been reported that Beckham is being paid £150,000-a-week, all of which he’s giving to a local children’s charity (see, we said he...

Kosovo is now open for tourism and has removed all Covid-related travel restrictions and entry requirements for incoming tourists. In fact, Kosovo reopened Pristina airport for international arrivals on June 28 th , but we did not report on it right away for lack of official information. Note: Even to produce this guide there was a significant lack of clear government information, especially when compared to neighboring nations. If you do decide to travel to Kosovo at this time, please do extra research before going. Prizren, Kosovo Kosovo is a landlocked country in the Southeast Balkan ...

Man to jump from space to break a 50 year old skydiving record Gap years and backpacking are often about extreme challenges. Many travellers seek out extreme sports experiences while away, but few will ever look to rival Austrian BASE jumping and skydiving extraordinaire Felix Baumgartner. Having made a name for himself by always going that extra mile for his sport, now Baumgartner's extra mile is taking him right up to the edge of space. In 1997 Baumgartner made the headlines by breaking the world record for the lowest ever BASE jump, a jump of just 95ft, from the top of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Baumgartner has been all over the world on his extreme sports travels. Two years after the lowest ever BASE jump in Brazil, he was breaking world records again, this time for the highest ever jump. He leapt off the 1,479 foot Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a jump which took over two months of planning and required him to disguise...

Morocco will reopen its borders for international travelers this week to 67 countries including the United States.  In a recent tweet, Royal Air Maroc said “Nationals of visa-exempt countries with an invitation from a Moroccan company or a confirmed hotel reservation can now have access to our flights to Morocco. All foreign visitors must comply with the health measures issued by the Moroccan authorities, in particular the obligation to carry out the required tests for COVID-19.” Royal Air Maroc informs you that nationals of visa-exempt countries with an invitation from a Moroccan company or a confirmed hotel reservation can now have access to our flights to Morocco. — Royal Air Maroc (@RAM_Maroc) September 6, 2020 ...

The first major cruise ship resumed operations today after the worldwide halt of cruising due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  The MSC Grandiosa departed at 7:30 GMT from the Italian city of Genoa with 2500 passengers on board. The MSC Grandiosa will stop at three Italian ports and the Maltese capital of Valletta on the 7 day cruise. Earlier in the day, passengers checking in were required to  take a coronavirus blood test inside the terminal AFP reported. They were not concerned about the virus and some went as far as saying cruises were now safer than other vacation options. ...