I was surfing travel blogs this evening, and came across one called The Most Dangerous Roads in the World. Now that's a catchy title, lol. Also, bad roads were on my mind because I was driving around on them today, and had to rescue my husband who got stuck in snow today. We chained our vans together and I hauled his out of a snowy, icy rut.

Anyway, I thought Utica had lousy roads... some of these are incredible. The Russian Siberian Road to Yakutsk makes Number 2 on the list.

...it is full of clay from mountains. Trucks and vehicles can stuck in mud. This road in only 30 km long, but fatal accidents are reported very often. Some experts speak about underground gas seepage, it can cause people (especially motorists) feel sleepy. These stories seem to be true because of car accidents survivors, they do not remember how it happened.

It also happens to be the only official federal government road to the town. *snicker* Talk about government ineptitude...

Another wild road is the Guoliang Tunnel in Taihang mountains. The village had been almost entirely isolated by mountains. In the 70's, a tunnel was dug in the rocky mountainside. Looks amazing. Don't look down, though!

In other travel blogs, this site has some photos of houses along a canal in Venice, Italy. Now, why are American homes so drab and dull?

And this Russian site has some cool photos of Russian night life. I don't know Russian, so the blog didn't mean much to me. I've always been interested in Russia, though. (My step-dad was of Russian heritage). When I lived in Manhattan, a young lady in my apartment complex had worked as a publicity agent for the Russian Ballet. She said the strained politics and the Soviet's tight rein on the ballet (this was during the 80's) made the job excruciatingly stressful. She quit to work at Christie's. We used to have such interesting discussions. I do like to meet new people, especially people from other lands. Now, even though I live in Upstate, I can "meet" all sorts of people through their blogs. Love it.

Speaking of Manhattan, I also found a really great website with beautiful photos of New York City architecture (warning-- dial-up alert-- large photos). It brought back such memories! The photos of the Chrysler Building are very impressive. I used to live near it. On December nights, the usual white lights at the crown of the building were changed to red and green lights, in celebration of the holiday. I wonder if they still do that?

On that site, scroll down to the bottom of the page and there you will see links of places all around New York State. The pictures are very large, but it is quite enjoyable. I see the photographer made it to Fort Ticonderoga and even to Mount Defiance! I am jealous.