Happy Birthday to Panama!

Luzhniki Stadium, the largest football stadium in Russia. It will host 7 games of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, including the opening and the final matches. *Photo from Wikipedia June 12 is Russia Day, the national holiday of the Russian Federation. It commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) on June 12, 1990. Following the Russian Revolution, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic became the largest and leading constituent of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the world’s first constitutionally socialist state. The Soviet Union played a decisive role in

Coconut palms line the beaches of Fiji. *Photo from Wikipedia October 10 is Fiji Day, celebrates the independence of Fiji from United Kingdom in 1970. The first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 5000 years ago. Over the centuries, a unique Fijian culture developed. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman visited Fiji in 1643 while looking for the Great Southern Continent. Europeans settled on the islands permanently beginning in the 19th century.The first European settlers to Fiji were beachcombers, missionaries, whalers, and those engaged in the then booming sandalwood and bêche-de-mer (sea cucumber)

Vitosha Boulevard, the main commercial street in the center of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. *Photo from Wikipedia March 3 is Bulgaria’s Liberation Day. The Liberation of Bulgaria refers to those events of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 that led to the re-establishment of the Bulgarian state under the Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878. The treaty forced the Ottoman Empire give back to Bulgaria most of its territory conquered in 14th century. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian state dates back to the establishment of the First Bulgarian Empire in 681 AD, which dominated most of the