For starters let's get the terminology right. Don't be running around asking the good people of Barcelona about Carnival, it's Carnestoltes. As a side note, Catalan is widely spoken in Barcelona so no one really expects you to use anything but your own language.

Something very special that happens every year without fail and without any doom nor gloom, just plenty of elegance, colour and tradition. It is the event of the year in Venice's calendar and it explains why you'll find rows and rows of masks in the souvenir shops and how you will find the magic of Venice is still alive.

Despite the constraints they face, Baklahorani demonstrates that, at least on the street level, Greeks are more comfortable about expressing their identity. Istanbulites have in recent years begun celebrating the city's native culture.

Until now, the issue of obesity has been very much an "us" and "them" dynamic- think Supersize vs Superskinny writ large. Burger Queen is asking everyone - regardless of body size - to step into a pair of wide width stilettos and try our chubby lives on for size.