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