This and other famous quotes of Salvador Dali, my lifelong favourite artist, make you smirk a little bit, but they very accurately describe how well aware he was of his own genius: "I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait" or "At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since". This past summer, I was extremely grateful to visit The Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, a museum that hosts the second largest collection of his finest artwork in the world. You too want to get a quick glimpse? Click a link below or scroll down.

It's not uncommon to stumble upon a town or a city in North America that bears a name of a famous town or a city from somewhere else, mostly from Europe. And it always amazes me how different a real place and its North American namesake can be. I was driving through the northern part of New York state the other day, and in 20 minutes I saw three European capitals - Lisbon, Madrid, and Stockholm. If you try hard enough, you can find some similarities between that area and Scandinavia - rushing rivers, blue lakes, pine trees, and old rocks, but nothing resembled Portugal or Spain. Keep in mind: those places were named by early immigrants who probably never came back. Lucky us, we can now shoot pictures and videos, make phone calls and send instant messages, but those immigrants had nothing like that and must have been feeling really homesick if they gave names of their native towns and cities just to any place. So Lisbon, New York reminded me that I haven't yet shared my pictures and stories from the real Lisbon which I visited last year.

Named "The Loveliest Town in Canada", Niagara-on-the-Lake has got quite a few things to brag about. In late 18th century, the British Crown appointed it as the first capital of the Province of Upper Canada that is now known as Ontario. Niagara-on-the-Lake's climate is ideal to produce wines, one of the best wines I've ever tasted including a world-famous ice wine. The oldest continuously used gold course in North America calls this cozy town home. While apples and strawberries flourish all over the country, your "Canadian Grown" peaches, apricots, or cherries are likely brought to your local grocery store from Niagara-on-the-Lake.

You heard me say how much I like the American Southwest for its vast and simplistic beauty. Well, Arches National Park in Utah is yet another place in that region that had been sitting in my bucket list for quite some time before I had a chance to visit it this past winter. Though not entirely unique as there are other places on Earth that feature natural sandstone arches, the park holds the largest concentration of them - more than 2,000. Scroll down to check them out and learn five things about these natural marvels before visiting Arches National Park yourself.

Vieux Port de Montréal (or Old Port of Montreal in English) draws about six million visitors a year.  For most Americans and Canadians from English-speaking provinces and territories, Old Port of Montreal is a quintessential piece of Europe carefully preserved by the Québécois over the years. If you're up to cobble streets with old stone buildings, cozy cafés, delicious crêperies, bakeries selling fresh French croissants and baguettes, sharp gothic spires, look no further - Old Port has it all. But to have the best experience, try to visit it after dark on a week day in May or June, and you'll be amazed how intimate and lovely this place can be.