The very last days

my group

Well, i hate to say goodbye, that's why till last moment i didnt think about leaving, but itwas hard because somepeople left already. On my last night we didnt sleep,we were packing, we wentout, we drank a lot, i was joking andnot thinkingabout anything else.

dear liuba

Yes there were some diffficulties in our project, not all people were that nice andfriendly, but in general it was greta, i met amazingpeople from all over the world, spent 45 days in paradise place, travel, ate. had fun. So i have nothing to complain,and i dont want to XD I know that will miss my wonderfull Liuba, other people, but we will meet one day)

Actually after final presentation we had something like good bye party were people wrote each other diffeent nice things and put it in a special place, but you know, i hate this girly stuff and i dranka lot of wine, so i offered to write nice things on me, at list i can remember it that way XD

But now it is time to move on, as always XD

Last presentation

It was too official,too unnatural, i didnt like it, but the winers' video was great, i put it her eto let you enjoy it

P.S. Did you notice my anorexic hand twice?) Yeap, i was a part of this great job))

Castiglion di Sicilia and our new friends

Do you remember ive mentioned girl Liuba? She was my roommate all this time and we became good friends) But Im not abou it, somehow she found russian girl, who studied in catania, and who asked her to take photosof her and her boyfriend  in different places around) And liuba suggested me to go with them)

So we started with family house of that italian guy, then we came to his huge orange garden (amazing place fullofdifferent kinds of oranges), then we went to the canyon, that i've been to that summer, and after we went to the totally amazing and almost forgotten place - Castiglion di Sicilia (you can find it on the map).

That place was increadible: very old, almost empty, once very powerful but that was falling apart now.We climbed to the very top of it, from wherewe had anamzing view on the sicily country side (much more beautiful than Tuscany). Also we visited the first church in Sicily, that was almost ruined but still wroked, that church was on the way to that place.

like this cruassaint

Aftre we went to Isola Bella, that was part of Taormina and once was private island, but nowedays was reconstracted as park. And had diner in amazing place where they make everything 4-times bigger than normal food)

That was my last journey in Sicily, actually

Agrigento, or the greek part of Italy

It isnt a secret that for a long time Sicily was part of Greece, and greek people left a lot of foodsteps after them, and the biggest place where you can see them is Agrigento, where i went on my last week in Sicily.

Agrigento was on the other side of Sicily so i had to take first bus that was at 6 am,but because of it i saw hourse on th emain strett in Catania and Etna at sunrise - nice, right?) Also roads in Sicily are quite high so we were driving in fog, even through it, and sometimes it was possible to see villages that were higher than fog, so they were like islands in the sea of fog XD Then i woke up in Agrigento.

Of course from the bus station i went strightly to the ruins. You know, i love ancient history, so there i felt so good, so in the right place. There you can see real history, all thiese ruins are like symbols of once most powerfull country in the world who failed, and you really understand tha you are in the same place where people where thousanda years ago, and this feeling is really great. You know i loved that place that much that i found there some old piece of some building and took some sunbath XD

mediterranian sea

But after i went to the city of Agrigento and i hated it. It was very emrty, everything was closed, i even couldn't find place to eat! And city in general is quite ugly and forgotten, so i escaped from there as fast as i could. But on my way back i saw rainbow, what made me understand again why i love sicily so much =)

Last week

So after second presentation we had week anda half till the last one, and i had 10 days till leaving. During that time we had an amazing brasilian party with their famous "caipirinha" drink, russian party with pancakes, vodka and grechka, some drinking games parties and just a lot of fun)

Actually our russian party was the most disorganized party, we didnt have enough vodka and didnt explain people that you cant eat grechka with dolche de leche XD 

Second presentation

It was great, really
I just put here videos, it will say everything better than i can do XD

Our group video

Discovery Project - Group C - 21 Nov 2011 from AIESEC Catania on Vimeo.

and B group (they used my favourite song!)

Discovery Project - Group B - 21 Nov 2011 from AIESEC Catania on Vimeo.

Ragusa and Modica, or how to travel in Sicily

I stayed in Siracuse overnight only because next day i wantedto visit another place, that was too far from Catania and too small to there from there - Ragusa!

Ragusa consists two tawns in itself: Ragusa itself,or new city, and Ragusa Ibla, old city. The last one was my aim. I loved that place the moment i saw it from the train - it looked like very very old greek style italian city - amaaazing. But when i came there as always i had no idea where to go and i took totally wrong direction, so when i asked some local how could i find Ibla he told me to forget about it because it was like 5 km away. But he was wrong, because when i came to the tourist information center (yes, they had it there) they told me abut vey short but comlicated way there: by stairs.

Actually i want to tell a bit about new city center because it isnt that new) For sure there is very old Duomo, that is quite nice, and lots of very old buildings, but more or lees almost all sities in Siciliy look like Palermo and you know my opinion about it XD

So i headed to Ragusa Ibla. Oh, guys, when i saw it i fell in love with it. First of all Ibla is separeted from Ragusa by deep ravine over what they have very very beautiful arch bridges. Actuall Ibla is situated on the very top of quite high hill, so it is separetted from everywhere, that's why there they have an amazing combination of panoramic view and amazing architecture.

stollen orange)

In Ibla thera many many teeny tiny streets like in Venice, huge square, like in Rome, medieval churches like in Padova, so that place brought together everything i liked about Italy! And even i dont like empty ciies, i loved to walk there only by myselfbeause i enjoied every moment there. Ibla isnt that big, you need max two hours to walk all around it, at the end you can reach very nice church garden where i stole some oranges, but hush XD

Modica

Then i came back to the city center and i had planty of free time, so i thought why not to go somewhere else. Then i memorized that on my way to Ragusa i passed Modica, so i checked train timetable and ran to the train station to take only one possible train) But there was one problem - ticket office was closed, ALL ticket offices were closed. And i knew that in Sicily they check tickets always (be aware). So i asked some locals to help me, but they said that it was impossible, that's why when train came i asked ticket controller the same. Actually i was the only passenger in the train, so we talked a bit with that guy and he said that i can skip paying, it was a gift for me for my first visiting Modica XD

So i came to Modica and had around 3 hours till my bus to Catania. What did i do? The same: walked around, climbed to the very top, saw the sunset and night lights) Modica was nice, but nothing to compare to Ragusa. Thing i liked about it was its location: it was situated on two hills and one part was separeted from another by road between it,so at night it looked very cool, i even forgot about time and had to run to be in time for the last bus to Catania XD 

Siracusa, new city with old history

one side

So, today i went to another place that you even could hear about - Siracusa. Actually i know about it only because of The Sindbad cartoon that i saw long time ago) So more or less i oped to see there something very old and beautifyl, and i succed!

another side

There are two main attractions in Siracusa: Ortigia island, that is really old and full of all kinds of old beautiful buildings, and Neapols, the ruins of Greek theater. The second is open nly till 3 and i came there 1 minute past 3,so i was unlucky with that) But i spent all day in Ortigia and i loved it. It is island but it is connected with the city by several bridges. When i was there i decided to walk around island, and on the one side sea was really stormy with huge waves, but  on the ther - totally calm, i have no idea how it was possible)

On this island you can see thousnds churches, greek ruins any many other different things, really nice, i liked it)  Then i went to that greek theater that was closed, but there i met some italian who told me a lot about its history (like tomb of Archimedes was there), and after took me to the plantation of original papirus and to some nice wild beach where we watched sunset, after what i told him that i was terribly late and asked him to take me back XD

St the evening i met my host: really nice Canadian guy, we ate some pizza, drank limoncello and watched some russian music channel (dont ask why) XD

Global Village party

I was so into my traveling that i totally forgot about "work" we had to do, and when i came back from Messina (all wet and tired) i met AIESECers in our residence who were waiting for us to go to the Global Village party, so i had to change fastly and join them)

What was this party about? Well, more or less it was presentation of our traditional food (there we were supposed to bring from our countries) to italians) So everybody just brught some snacks, their country flags and souvenirs and that was it. As we were 7 russians we had the biggest place there with almost no food XD

This party was in the "MA" club, so after small presentation we went to the dance floar and had fun there all together as always, music was shity but we didn't care, well, after italian wine you dont care about abything XD

Messina, or where Sicily meets Italy

I'm sure that none of you had ever hear about italian city called Messina, neither did I, untill I googled all possible tourist attractions not far from Catania XD And as i had a free day (like any other) i decided to go there. It was quite easy to do by train (and i love trenitalia) so i just came there.

I knew that i would love Messina when on my way there in the window i saw italian coast! Not sicilian, but italian! And so so close... It is hard to describe, but it was like deja vu from my big summer trip. But later about it =)

Duomo

As always i had no idea where to go or what to visit, so i just came to the city and walked around. Then i saw big church so it was obviously Duomo, very beautiful, that reminded me of the one in Florence. Then i saw another one that was on the hill and for sure i climbed there) From there i had an amazing panoramic view on the strait between Sicily and Italy.

love this art piece 

You know, for me Sicily isnt Italy, they are like different countries actually, so seeing Italy was a real temptation because i missed it so much and it was so easy to go there from Messina, because Messina is a harbor city and has very god ferry connection, but you can be proud of me, i overcame myself)

What else did i like about Messina? Well, as you may know i study literature in my university and I've read Odyssey there, and Messina is the place that was described as Scilla and Haribda monsters, so i felt a bit like part of a huge greek history there)

After i went to the harbor, walked around the city, ate something, said goodbye to my beautiful and so close italy and took train back to rainy Catania.

Caltagirone,what the hell is it?

So, so, so

When i start to travel it is really hard tostop me, that's why the next day after Taormina i went to some very small place called Caltagirone. This tawn is famous for its ceramics, but i wasn't interested in it, i just wanted to visit some new place, so i went there.

The city center has two main attractions: Duomo and stairs. Stairs? Yeap, stairs. This tawn as many other places is situated on the hills, so the very center is the highest point, and to make it easier to climb there people built stairs. But what is it tawn famous for? Right,so they decorated it with ceramics, and, i must say, stairs were pretty nice))

Besides it you have totally nothing to do there) 

Taormina, magic is real

So, after another wek of partying hard we finally got out of Catnia to the place that was almost next to it - Taormina. I guess Taormina is the most touristic place in Siciliy: you have Etna right next to you, mountains all around, very nice beaches and everything you only can dream about)

I understood that thatplace was special on our way there - from trin we saw Etna and it was sooooo beautiful! We came there quite early to spend all day. W: Lyuba, Adrian and me. As i love to walk/climb/swim or whatever else we walked from the train station (that was next to the beach) to Taormina (that was upside) XD Then girls went to the old rome theater and i walked around a bit and met other people from our project, so we left Adrian (who was dieing walking) with them and Lyuba and me decided to go upper, to the Castle, but when we came there we discovered that it was closed, but come on, we are russians! So we found some path and climbed to the wall of the castle. That Castle was situated on the very edgeon the mountain, so there you fill like you can fall any time XD

But we didnt stop there, we went further, to the small tawncalled Castelmola, that is even higher then castle. Actually we stopedcar to go there)) There was so so windy, i didnt feel my hands! But at the sametime it was so beautiful: Etna, sea, sunset! Ooooooh, i loved that place, at the top of Castelmola we met somefrench movie director who was filming sunset, we talked a bit, took some photos, but then we understood that we were almost late for thelast train, so we ran back, stoped bus n the road, and came in time.

If you are in Sicily, dont miss Taormina)

First presentation

Hey, hey guys! How are you doing? Im very good, drinking wine and eating a lot, also traveling little by little)

So today was our first presentation. It was bad) Standart PowerPoint resentations with music and good photos, i think we were drinking too much and didnt concentrate on our "work" (if you can name it so). Actually i really have nothing to say about past two weeks, it was nice, warm, with a lot of alcohol and food.

Ciao

Let the party begin!

It is 23 of October and I'm in Catania!

This day was pretty long, at morning i met with my very best friends to celebrate Rita's birthday, so we had breakfast together after what i went to the airport, took my favourite WindJet airlines (200 euro for return ticket!) that took me to Milano, where i had my connection stop. There i met with another participant of that project - Lyuba: really nice girl from St. Petersburg. And 2 hours later we were in Catania already.

OMG how i missed this place! Everything is so familiar to me here, and after Moscow is so much better)

But ive already written everything what i think about Catania, so now ill stop on my project. this project is a photo and video competition between 4 teams that italians devided us in. We will have to travel around Sicily, take photos and make presentations every 2 weeks, and the biggest and the best presentation for the final conference - sounds ok XD

There are 20 participants in this project: 1 serbian girl, 2 girls from croatia, 1 from venezuela, 1 from Austria, 2 guys and 2 girls from Brasil, 1 guy from Mexica, 1 girl from Kazakhstan, 2 from Bolgaria aaaaand 7 ryssian girls. SEVEN! Do i have to explain that responsible for chosing participant were italian guys?XD After deviding in teams i was in Team C with two russians and two latin-americans, you can guess what was our favorite thing to do together))

Updates!

Hello my dears,
Missed me?)

It had been a long time, right? I have something new to tell you: i'm leaving soon!! Even more, i'm going to Italy! "Again?!" you can ask. "Always!", i told you i would come back there)

Do you remember that last year i hosted a girl from Colombia who came to Moscow for social internship? Now it's my turn. There is an international student organization called AIESEC, who is organizing international internships. So one day i was looking through their web site and found an amazing social internship in Catania! In my favourite Catania, in Sicily! Do you thing i had any doubts about it? It was like a sign XD

So, i just applied for it, had an interview with local organization, then with italian organization, and then i was matched! How i've understood there we will make some photo-project about Sicily, what is nice, but honestly i dont care what this project is about, i just want to come back to Italy)

So so so, less than in one month I'm going back to Sicily to drink a lot, eat even more than drink and enjoy my life there XD

Chernobil, or how I escaped from Moscow rains)

Do you know anything about Chernobil? Brifly, it is a small town in Ukrain where on 26 apil 1986 was the worst nuclear power plant accindent in history. Place was totally abandoned and closed, but several years ago the radiation level there fell down so it was possible to visit that place. You can say i was crazy but i decided to go there and besides to visit Kiev, that i'd never been to) Also weather there was way better than in Moscow, so here were the reasons why i went to Ukrain)

You know, in Russian we dont consider Ukrain as an independent country,for us it is more or less lost part of Russia: they speek russian, they look like us, everything there looks the same =) But i really wanted to visit Kiev, because actually that city was the first russian capital (funny, right?). But when i came there i had strong feeling that i cameto some old russian city: all the same ortodox churches, the same monuments, the same soviet-style buildings. Nice, even beautiful in some points, but definitely not for me, i prefer crazy italian places, you know XD Buuut, there was something i loved - they had very unstabelpolitic situation andpeople there were protestings all the time, but the funny thing was that they used soviet (!) songs in their protests XD

But then i went to Chernobil, and, guys, that place blowed my mind. Totally goast city, i had feeling there like people just disappered at one moment and left everything there (well, more or less it was so). It was like a screenshort of Apocalypse movie, when nature was destroying all footsteps of humanbeings step by step (it look like NYC in "I Am Legend" only without lions). I was shoked by that place. There you can see how humans are destroying themselfs. It is hard to describe feeling that i had there ...

But but but, it was time tocome back to my real life, to my university, and to my friends, so i stayed in Kiev only two more days and on monday morning was home already read to face wet moscowfall =)

To sum up...

Well, well, well, as everything in this world, my trip came to its logical end. Here i am in cold rainy Moscow and its time to sum up a bit this summer)

Iremember once, when i was in Siena, my american girls and i talked about Italy and i said "i had so strict plan about all my trip,everything was scheduled so well, but then i met this americansand my plan went to hell" XD More or less that is what happened. To be more exact everything started to fall apart when my first project was cancelled at the middle of it =) Just to make you understand how chaotic my trip was here is the map of it:

• More or less ive visited 23 cities, towns, and villages
• Tried endless amount of traditional italian food
• Started to speak italian (!) 
• Drank endless amunt of italian wine 
• Got lost at least 10 times 
• Was robbed once
• Slept on the street ones
• Used italian trains at least 50 times)

It was a great experience, a lot of fun, a real test for me. I fell in love with this country, and i know for sure that i will come back there many many times) But also during this trip i met old and new friends who made my trip unforgetable.

Grazie e basta XD

Paris always will be Paris

Paris. For me it always was a finish point in my big itlaian trip, thats was the first reason why i didnt want to go there. The second - because id been there already and didnt like it. But i had no choise and wonderful Vueling airlines brought me there.

Actually there were some good points in Paris. First - i was going to meet my friend Mathieu, who i met year before in Moscow. Second - Suzie, my dear american friend was coming to Paris the same day with me. Third - my another very good friend Pasha, and fourth - my granny finally desided to realise dream of her life and also was coming to Paris. Because of the last i just had to go to Paris =)

french alcohol also looks refind =)

Well, what new can i say about this place? There are so many books, movies, poems and songs about Paris that i have nothing to add XD For my taste they talk about Paris too much, there is nothing THAT special abut this place. Yes, it is beautiful, yes, it is like a oicture onsome postcard, yes, you see Eiffel tower there. But nobody tells you about a crowd of tourists, about rude local people, about not that good weather (comparing to italy especially)

my personal heaven)

But, wait, thee are some things that i like about Paris. I do love its Musee d'Orsay with my favourite Van Gogh  and Monet paintings, that i can look at for hours, i love to go for a french picnic with fresh baguette, cheese, and wine(that is what we've on my second day there XD) and i am in love with french food (i think im in love with all food XD)




So, french food. It is so so good, very different from italian, but it doesnt make it worse =) First of all sweets! For sure you know about french macarons, but hadnt tried them if you didnt try them in Paris. Here you can find all possible and impossible combinations of tastes, so far my favourite one is vanilla with solty caramel. Besides macarons you can fins as many kinds of cookies and chocolate as you can imagine. What else? Pastry! Not only croissant, but also different kinds of brioches, eclairs, financiers and many many other refind decerts, talking about what makes me starving XD


Also i love french dishes made of duck (they know thousends ways of cooking it). But my leaders of french cousine are wine and cheese, oh right combination of this two make you forget about everything. And talking about cheese i cant forget to mention fondue, after what you smell like ell, but so so sutisfited)

picnics, i love it)

I dont want to write here how i went toall possiblemuseums with my granny, or how i spent 6 hour in Gallery  Lafayette, but if i want to describe shortly my staying in Parisis enough to say that i was drinking wine and eating cheese, not forgeting about sweets of course XD

Rome, last goodbye

Here it is, my last days in Italy. I came to Rome to spend there my last italian days. I staied with new host: very nice guy Alfredo, at whose place was another CSer - girl from South Korea Injung (i love this accidential meetngs). That girl stayed there only one more night and i was there for two nights).

gelateria!

It was my forth coming to Rome but i stillhad something new to know about it =) That time my host took me to the oldest gelaria in Roma that is also the cheapest one - G Fassi at Via Principe Eugenio, 65. They have a lot of frozen stuff there and very good one, and it is close to the central station XD

Best gelato fromSan Crispino!

Next day was my good bye day. I just went to my favouriteplaces in Rome, took my favourite gelato in Sn Crispino, visited Collisseo, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain... Wah... At evening we made big food shopping, i spent 42 euro on food (i knew that i wouldnt survive without it in Moscow)

Oh guys, i am really sad and i dont want to leave this place. Italia, ti amo!

Napoli,or the best pizza in the world

So from Rome i went to Napoli, place that i knew as the most dangerous city in Italy) Did i care about it? Sure no. There were three reasons why i wanted to go there: Pompei, Vesuvio aaaaand Pizza Napolitana =)

So the day i came was a holiday and Napoli was empty for the all weekend.It was a goast city, really, but i even liked it! The first day my host took me to someoar from where we watched sunset an, what is more important, Vesuvio (actually you can see it from everywhere but from there it was especially nice XD). Also i couldn't wait anymore and asked my host to bring to the best pizza place. As i'm extremelly lucky that place was closed (if i remember right it's name was Pizzaiolo del Presidente (because Bush was there once)), but we went to another place which's owner was daughter of the owner of the first place XD OMG, do you remember what i worte about pizza in Orvieto? That one was nothing comparing to Pizza Napolitana. Guys it is really the best pizza in Italy and in the world, i enjoied every bit of it!!!

Next day i went to Pompei, city that was destroyed by Vesuvio. There was hot, a lot of ruins and tourists. I didnt know anything about it, so i just joined some touritic group and listned some information, but the only one thing i remember about it was the story tha Pompei was famous for its prostituts, because it was a port city, so sailors were coming there to piece out lack f women XD

very empty citycenter

After Pompei i went back to Napoli and walked around goast city. Napoli is very beautiful place, very colorfull, and a bit dirty. Actually during all my trip people were telling me about problems with garbage that were going on in Napoli, but just before i came they solved it) So i walked here and there around city center just wondering how beautiful and empty was that place. I think it is even good that all people are aware of it, you have some space there))

Sorrento

Next day we went to some wild beach near Sorrento. Beach was really cool, but i cant say it about Sorrento. Sorrento is very touristic, VERY. You have tourist everywhere around you, and you know, i dont like it. But there was one place i loved - local very famous gelateria with quite good gelato (the best one is in Rome). Also i tried some napolitanian sweets that were as good as sicilian ones. My favourite one is Baba: it is a sponge-cake sodden with rum, not that sweet, but so yammy =)

Procida

Near Napoli there are several islands. The most famous and expensive one is Capri. You can guess that i skipped it and wewent to the beach at Procida island. Nice island,nice but very hot black beach, but nothing extraordinar. After cool boat trip we came back and finished that day with pasta with salmon and my favourite white wine Orvieto