Ever Widening Circles
For the past year, we have spent every Saturday celebrating the remarkable places around the world with our Saturdays Around the World series!
What was originally going to be a series that lasted only a month has become a staple in our Ever Widening Circles schedule. So after a year of going to places far and wide around the planet (from the comfort of our own computers), what have we learned?
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Saturdays Around the World we are going highlight the top 10 remarkable places around the world we’ve explored!
this was one of the hardest lists I’ve ever had to make! There are so many other amazing places we’ve explored so make sure you check out our other Saturdays Around the World articles too!
So, let’s head to some remarkable places around the world…
Dive into Jellyfish Lake
By far the most popular Saturday Around the World Article ever, go on a breathtaking adventure to one of the planet’s most magical places to swim with millions of jellyfish. This is one of my favorite articles as well, I could watch the videos here endlessly, they are so mesmerizing and remarkably beautiful!
6 MINUTES
Jellyfish Lake: An Otherworldly Place
On Saturdays Around the World, we take you to Jellyfish Lake, one of the most incredible underwater places in the world. It is home to millions of beautiful, virtually stingless Golden Jellyfish, and it is an aquatic marvel.
The Cheese Rolling Festival
If there’s one thing worth laughing at on this planet it’s how crazy humans can be! On this edition, we checked out the Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Festival. This annual celebration of falls and folly sends people running (or faceplanting) down a hill after a wheel of cheese. Yes, really.
12 MINUTES
To Chase a Cheese
The Cooper’s Hill Cheese Rolling Festival might be one of the strangest annual events in the world. This is what happens when thousands of people cram onto a hillside to watch brave souls chase a wheel of cheese down an almost vertical incline…
Say hello to the Birds-of-Paradise
This was one of our most viewed articles on record! I love this article because it gets you up close with some of the planet’s most beautiful birds.
(Fun fact, I wrote the majority of this article on my phone after knee surgery! Now that is dedication to proving it’s still an amazing world!)
18 MINUTES
The Unbelievable World of the Birds-of-Paradise
Deep in the rainforest of Papua New Guinea are some of the most unique birds in the world. Check out the expedition that set out to photograph and study them all!
How to Survive a Rhino Charge
This was our first Saturdays Around the World piece to be written by a guest writer! This amazing article, written by National Geographic photographer Theo Allofs, takes a fascinating look at what really happens behind the scenes to get the “perfect shot.” It’s also a great look at the important conservation efforts we need in order to save the planet’s rhinos! Theo helped us write another article about his incredible aerial photography, so make sure you check that out too!
13 MINUTES
How to Survive a Rhino Charge
Have you ever wondered, “How did they get that photograph?!” Today we introduce you to a professional nature photographer who will tell us some fantastic tales and start taking us on little journeys around the world once a month through his breathtaking images.
The Ice Music Festival
What happens when you send musicians up to the frozen North and give them a chunk of ice? This incredible festival hosted in Norway is a remarkable example of human ingenuity! This is still one of my favorite articles and one of EWC’s hidden gems.
15 MINUTES
Incredible Ice Music Festival
Once a year, under the first full moon, in a frozen town in Norway, musicians come together to create incredible music on instruments made entirely of ice. The world the festival creates is an incredible and unique aural experience.
Climbing China’s Stone Towers
Have you ever wondered what being an explorer really looks like? This article features a great interview with a National Geographic climbing and photography team that climbed some of China’s most beautiful and beloved rock formations. From drone mishaps to untouched cliff faces, this article has it all!
28 MINUTES
Climbing China’s Remarkable Rocks
What would it be like to head out on an expedition with National Geographic? These are the remarkable stories and images from an incredible adventure to climb some of China’s most amazing rock formations…
Celebrating Places in Your Own Backyard
Sometimes you don’t have to go far to experience the wonders of the planet. This article about a town in Illinois that is nuts for a population of albino squirrels seemed to really strike a chord in our EWC readers. I think that must have been, in part, because it celebrates the little wonders that we all have in our own backyard to celebrate!
13 MINUTES
Celebrating the Little Wonders!
What if we took more time to celebrate the quirky wonders in our own backyard? Olney, Illinois is home to a beloved population of albino squirrels, and their passion for this piece of local heritage reminds us to reflect on what makes our culture unique!
Food that Feeds Our Souls
There is no greater form of connection than food. In this article, we feature an incredible series that goes around the world exploring and celebrating the ingenious and diverse food cultures around the world. From table to table you get a marvelous sense of how close we all are in the end!
28 MINUTES
We Are What We Eat
What does dinner look like around the globe? Matthieu Paley, a National Geographic Photographer set out to document the culture of food in places untouched by supermarkets…
Giants that are Saving the World
I have to say, this article features a video that is one of the most beautiful films we have featured on EWC. This beautiful piece speaks to the conservationist in us all and is truly a masterful piece of cinematography and environmentalism.
12 MINUTES
The Giants That Can Help Save the World
After a near-death experience, arborist David Milarch embarked on a mission to use some of the planet’s oldest and most resilient trees to solve one of our future’s greatest problems. This is his remarkable story.
Exploring the Underground Rainforest
This video takes us to a place well below the ground we walk on, and yet it is both familiar and alien. Will their be beautiful and remarkable twist like this on other planets, once we get there? This is like exploring a new world.
30 MINUTES
Exploring the Underground Rainforest
Did you know there is an underground rainforest in the world’s largest cave? Join us as we explore Hang Son Doong cave in central Vietnam!
The Croatian Sea Organ
This was our first Saturdays Around the World Article! We took you to Zadar, Croatia and heard a marvelous piece of public architecture, an organ powered by the sea!
4 MINUTES
Just Listen: The Croatian Sea Organ
How does sound affect our sense of place? The Sea Organ in Zadar, Croatia is using sea and structure to transform public space by making us listen.
Get exploring!
Whether you get out there in person or visit remarkable places around the world from the comfort of your own living room, there is an amazing world out there to learn about and explore!
I hope you enjoyed this article and get a chance to dive into every one of these.
Like I mentioned up top, these are just a few of the many places we wrote about over the past year, so make sure you check out all the rest in our Saturdays Around the World Category.
If you know of any places we haven’t mentioned yet make sure to tell us via our Submit an Article page! All we need is a link to get us started in the right direction!
Stay beautiful & keep laughing!
-Liesl
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