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Cabinet of Chic Curiosities
Category / Don’t Be A Tourist

All Aboard Tito’s Train: A Dictator’s Time Capsule of Luxury Travel

In today’s internet rabbit hole adventure, I ventured far from home and ended up on a Serbian website for filming locations. To my surprise, one of the locations for hire just so happened to be an ex-dictator’s private luxury train. Sitting in a rather rundown warehouse in Belgrade, the luxurious Blue train was custom-designed in…

Cape Town’s Lost District, through the Eyes of its Transgender Darling

Once upon a time, at the southernmost tip of Africa, nestled in a hollow between the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and slopes of Table Mountain lived an awesome bourgeoning community of thespians. District Six was home to bohemians, artists, merchants, preachers, students, business people, gangsters and everyone in between. Think New York’s Greenwich Village…

The Town that Hemingway Watched Die

In the most arid part of Aragon, a northeast state of Spain, a ghost town with an unusual history waits to be explored. In a country full of vibrant traditions and an active monarchy, a small ruined city may seem unworthy of a place on the itinerary, but Belchite’s history is more than meets the…

When Cats, Peaches, Lunch (and Letters) were Mailed Beneath the Streets of NYC

For over 50 years, a 27-mile network of pneumatic tubes provided upwards of a third of New York City’s mail. Nowadays, speed is the name of the game, whether its technology constantly increasing the speed of digital communication or Amazon delivering goods at record rates. But 100 years ago, pneumatic tubes, basically 19th-century physical internets,…

Here’s what it’s like to Spend the Night in Chernobyl

Look online and the Hotel Desyatka appears on booking sites like most other hotels. A quick Google search will tell you that it consists of, “Basic lodging on leafy grounds, offering a cozy restaurant/pub, plus free parking and breakfast.” There’s even a Trip Advisor entry complete with favourable customer reviews and its own website that…

Little Tuscany in the Heart of Paris

As if plucked from a 17th century Mediterranean estate waiting to transport Parisians to the hills of Florence; tucked away in a corner of Paris’ Luxembourg gardens is one of the city’s most underrated beauty spots. The Medici Fountain, crowned with an Italian grotto and flanked by ivy drapes, is an impossibly romantic place alluding…

Cape Town’s Vanishing Red Coke Dens

Given you’re a determined adventurer, should you find yourself in Cape Town, we figured you might be interested in stepping off the beaten track on a quest to find a slice of kitschy nostalgia. In one of the oldest suburbs of the city (and becoming the hippest), we’re looking for the illustrious red-and-white watering holes that…

The Place Where World War One Planes Still Fly

Wander through the quaint, old fashioned town of Rhinebeck in New York’s Hudson Valley, and you may feel as though you’ve stepped back to another era. Especially when you look up into the sky: for its quite common to see vintage airplanes circling high above all day long, the distinctive sound of old, single propeller…

Meet the Italian Grandmothers Making the World’s Rarest Pasta

Pasta makes everything better. This we know. But in the ancient villages of Sardinia, where the art of handmade pasta is practically a sacred ritual, there are ancestral, mouth-watering secrets that even the finest fettuccine can’t hold a candle to. We’re talking about the most beautiful and intricate shapes you’ve never seen; braided, stretched, twisted…
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