Travel around Miami

Cairo is a city of stark contrasts. It is an absolute madhouse, every nook and cranny (even the cemeteries) packed with people, cars, and bicycles, yet extremely safe, possibly the safest urban area in the world. Cairo almost never lets up – it bombards you with noise and pollution every day of the week except Friday when the streets are so deserted and the city so quiet that you almost think the air is cleaner, too. It has all the characteristics of a third-world country – poverty, illiteracy, flies, smog, huge slabs of meat hanging everywhere and dripping blood, even a few lepers, but it also bears the mark of the first-world – internet cafes, every imaginable fast food joint, even Kenny Rogers Roasters and Arby’s, malls, and cell phones. Walk by the American University in Cairo and you’ll see a young Egyptian woman in skintight Levi’s jeans and Gucci shoes stepping out of a BMW and gingerly making her way through the maze of small children asleep on the sidewalk.

They say if you drink Nile water you will surely return to Umm al-Dunia (‘the mother of the world,’ as Cairo is known), but if you do drink directly from the Nile you are more likely to get bilharzia (a disease caused by parasitic worms found in snails in fresh water) and never want to come back. Diseases aside (and there are plenty), there is no shortage of things to do in Cairo. Contemplate one of the seven wonders of the world, visit the Egyptian Museum, take a felukka ride on the Nile, eat koshari (a typically starch-laden Egyptian dish), bargain in the souks and bazaars (remember never to express enthusiasm about anything you want to buy), smoke from a hookah, or engage your taxi driver in a philosophical discussion on the merits of harassing women.

In the America of the 1920s and 1930s, criminals would devote a large part of their energy to avoiding Alcatraz; in 1990s Tokyo they’re queueing to get in. The difference is that this is a theme restaurant and bar, in which customers (seated behind bars, naturally) are served drinks and food by staff glamorously decked-out in the very latest version of prison uniform chic. Despite the ominously large cover charge of Y1,000, prices are pocket-friendly (about Y1,000 per person), and though the food may not be of cordon bleu standard, it’s certainly a couple of rungs up the ladder from a real prison diet. Best of all, perhaps, Alcatraz is open late enough for you to make your escape on the first train home in the morning.

The time of year that Carnival occurs (typically the end of February and beginning of March) has long been associated with revelry in the streets. The ancient Romans would literally whip themselves into a frenzy every February at the festival of Lupercalia, when the planting of the harvest was commemorated by masked men who ran through the streets whipping specially selected women. The idea of a planting celebration heralding spring caught on faster than you can say “Hit me baby, one more time,” and a tradition was born. When the Christian church waltzed onto the scene, they adapted this pagan holiday period as a last-ditch week of debauchery prior to the penitentially ho-hum reverence of Lent, the forty-day period of self-reflection preceding Easter. Like most religious holidays nowadays, the spiritual significance is gone but the festive feeling lives on. Here’s your globe-trotting guide to Carnival, beginning with the big players, Rio de Janeiro and Venice.

No visit to Barcelona during the summer is complete without a visit to the night time café on the roof of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece, La Pedrera. The roof is a tiled fantasyland of slopes, passage ways and cream puff chimneys, with spectacular 360-degree views of the city, stretched out and shimmering before you. During August, the Flamenco group, Levante performs, while in September, the jazz orchestra, La Bohème will keep things cool and relaxed.

Learn card tricks and mind reading illusion in this new exhibition, which reveals the ancient arts of magic and entertainment. With the help of such legendary magicians as Penn & Teller, Jade and Goldfinger & Dove, the illusions are bared to show that these performers use a lot of physics, engineering and perhaps even a little bit of magic to perform their tricks. There’s plenty of interactive experiences and the museum-goer experiences the magic from two perspectives, that of the audience and then that of the magician’s apprentice. Not everything will be revealed and you’ll still go home baffled by all the illusions you see.

Many will welcome the appearance in Budapest of some genuine hip hop music and dance from the French suburbs. The Compagnie Les Black Blanc Beur was formed in 1984 by Doctor Jean Djemad, who went to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines council to initiate a project for the disaffected local youth. The result was this dance troupe, who will be performing two pieces – ‘Lamberena’ and ‘Wartane’ – choreographed by Christine Coudun, in time to their own music. The music has influences from Gabon and JS Bach, the dance from Senegal.

The celebrated Vaclav Hudecek is making a welcome return to Budapest with the National Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Zoltan Kocsis. Hudecek studied under Bohumil Kotmel and Vaclav Snitil in Prague and made his first impression at the 1966 International Concertino Praga contest, before appearing with the Royal Philharmonic in the early 1970s. His recording of Vivaldi’s ‘Four Seasons’ earned platinum status in his homeland. On tonight’s programme are pieces by Tchaikovksy and Wagner’s ‘Flying Dutchman’.

Love ‘em, hate ‘em, bartenders have played a variety of roles in our lives. They’ve been friend, confidant and psychotherapist. Your local bartender has helped you impress a date and has seen you at your drunken worst. As long as you’re buying, he/she is always there to listen. In his one-man show, Louis Mustillo examines the bar life and the people who work in them.