Kosmos

Culture, travel, fashion and culinary delights: the Kosmos pages of Lufthansa Magazin bring you interesting and useful tidbits from around the world

Shadowplay

CULTURE CLASH

It’s all just staged: The art of using light and shadow to tell stories can traditionally be found all over the world

Epic Gossip
Dainty puppets made of buffalo leather expertly controlled by thin rods, Indonesia’s wayang kulit shadow puppets are famous
the world over. They usually depict scenes from ancient epics, but indulge in current gossip, too.

Punch and Judy in Turkish
Turkey’s traditional Karagöz theater is sure to make you laugh. The hero is a rough but witty fellow who comes up with all kinds of tricks to get by.

Shining Light
It wasn’t until the 17th century that Europeans discovered the shadow play. Today’s artists, such as Fabrizio Montecchi from Italy, are experimenting with music, space and light.

Sofia, Bulgaria

Floating on air

Remember Tetris, the classic 1980s computer game? It inspired the Bulgarian photographer and graphic designer Mariyan Atanasov to create a photo series showing sections of buildings in Sofia, his country’s capital, floating in space as if they were about to fall into place like the pieces of an architectural puzzle.

behance.net/stastny

Yasothon, Thailand

Warts and all

In Phaya Thaen Public Park, about an hour’s flight from Bangkok, Phraya Khan Khak (The Toad King) towers above the Chi River. The statue represents the amphibian spirit that is said to forecast rain. Inside the giant toad there’s a museum on toads and Thai mythology.

Mr. Know It All

Step this way

New Year’s resolutions? How about stair climbing instead of going to the gym? On these steps, you could break your personal record.

Legendary ascent

The mother of all stair climbs is the Empire State Building Run-Up in New York featuring 1576 steps. The record time: 9.33 minutes.

esbnyc.com

Stairway to the stars

To get to the top of Adam’s Peak, Sri Lanka’s famous pilgrimage point, you have to climb about 5200 steps, some of them hewn into the naked rock. The best time to climb is on a clear winter’s night with a full moon.

Long way up

With 11 647 steps and an altitude gain of 1700 meters, the Niesenlauf up the Niesen Mountain in Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland region is a run on the world’s longest staircase and the ultimate challenge for stair climbers.

niesen.ch

Arctic Circle

Culture clash

If you thought winter was cold and depressing on the Arctic Circle, think again: These events will warm you through and through (and also warm your heart)

Low temps, high spirits

In Tromsø, Norway, winter blues are all but unkown. Why? Thanks to the excellent Tromsø International Film Festival (Jan. 13 to 19), for example.

tiff.no

Playing in the snow

2000 athletes attend the Arctic Winter Games in Whitehorse, Canada, where specifically Arctic disciplines include high kick, snowsnake, sledge jump and dog mushing (March 15 to 21).

awg2020.org

Festival Fun

The heat won’t actually melt the snow this early in the year, but these sizzling festivals in Reykjavík, Iceland are not to be missed: the Dark Music Days take place January 25 to February 1 and the Winter Lights Festival is on February 6 to 9.

darkmusicdays.is
winterlightsfestival.is

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Boomtown Baku

Gourmet to go

Good looks, green soul

Gastrocity Gothenburg

Islands of hope