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 =)

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

Sicilian food,or how to forget about any diet

pizza alla norma

As i promissed i wirte here about the best italian food ever - Sicilian food! You can ask, what is so speial about it. Oh, guys, it is so good that you cant believe it is real)

First of all all pasta and pizza: the most traditional pasta/pizza is alla norma. It is past/pizza with fried eggplants and something else =) Also pasta with seafood is really good here, because seafood is all around you)

Cannollo

Second, Arancini. Arancini is the best invention for the quick snack/lunch/brunch. It is fried riceball filled with anything you can imagine (literary!) My favourites are arancini with ragou and arancini with pistachio - try it, you want regret)

What i loved is sweets. Sicilian people know everything about it. They make amazing thing from pistchio, almonds, lemons, ricotta, fruits and chocolate. The best thing here and very wellknowen is Cannollo.It is fried dough filled with delicious ricotta or chocolate cream. It is heaven for your mouth! Also sweets made from pasta di mandorla (like marzipan) are really good and you have a lot of different fillings in it. What else? Cassata! It is cake filled with some cream chees and dried fruits, very good, VERY sweet)

Also in Sicily people believe that gelato was invented there, so they have really good one! And they have very strange way of eating it: they put THREE scoops of gelato into brioch and decorate it with weaped cream. To be honest i didnt finish mine XD

Sicily is also a native place for granita. It is semi-frosen swwet made from sugar, water and some fruites or nuts. It is something between gelato and juice) My favorite aste is mandorla and pistachio together, try it)

As they have almond there they make amazing drink out of it - latte di mandorla. I cant describe it, it is just very very good)

Aaaaand alcohol) The most famous wine (and the best one for me) from Sicily is calle Nero d"Avola. Also they make famous Limoncello (that i dont really like) and many other liquors, like chocolate, pistachio,almond and many, many other.

OMG after writing all of this i'm starving!

How to love Palermo

I came back to Palermo very sad, because i liked Catania so much, but i hoped that with my new host ill see Palermo from the different side and i was right)

I got to the very international flat full of crazy, funny and outgoing people (my place). At day time we went to the seaside, than we came back home to take a nap, but my host Sebastian and me got stuck playing Cut the Rope on my IPad)) Then we went out and what a night it was! We started drining bear at some square where one guy wasplayig music. On our way there we met australian girl and some strange guys i dont remeber from where) After we went to the place in the city center that is surrounded by totally empty houses, so people can go crazy there XD (if i remember right that houses were empty and a bit ruinedbecause juges who fighted against mafia lived there and were killed there, but dont believe me))

We danced all night lond, drank tequilla, lost australian girl andother gys, almost got lost but at the end got home, where i slept couple of hours and went to the airport, where wnderful aircompany WindJet took me to Rome just in 35 minutes) 

Catania, or how i felt in love with volcano

I got so tired of Palermo that i crossed all Sicily just to visit biggest city there - Catania. I took a bus - and it is the only right way, because trains are so bad and slowly that you need a day to get from one place to another)

What can i say about Catania? It is so different from Palermo, i love this place. Even sea here is less solty and prices are lower) The first day my host took me to the beach at Aci-Castello, where you can see black medieval castle) And after at night time we went around city - that was very beautiful, friendly and calm. Here i understood that i got really tired of italian men, i think italy could be perfect for me without them XD

Second day in Catania became my best day there - we went to Etna. ETNA! I felt like in Iceland again! And Etna was erupting....Oohh, i felt so free there, i just was running around up and down like a kid - i loved that place! And colors, they are crazy there - brown, green, black, red, all together, all around.... And because we were high it wasnt that hot there. After we went to canyon with very beautiful waterfall and very cold water) There my host tought me how to play sicilian card game Scopa and lost me breakfast))

Next day we were walking around city. If you dont know the name of some place in there it is probably named after Bellini - the famous compose from Catania, really, try it) Also city is full of baroque architecture and churches, almost one building out of ten) In the very center they have elephant monument, because somehow elephant is the symbol of the city) But all of this isnt as interesting as nightlife inthere - at night we went to the beach party! Dont forget im from cold Moscow, beach party always sounded a bit unreal for me.  It was crazy night with alcohol, sea, Etna's eruption and strange man who came out of the water fully dressed

But next morning i was on my way to Palermo

You are not gonna believe where i am now

You are not gonna believe where i am now. Sicily... Yeah it's... it's amazing!

OMG after totally green Italy i came to another world - world os send, sea and sun. World of amazing food, especially sweets, and very good wine. This place is amaaaaaazing!

I landed in Palermo, my host met me in the airport and, what a surprise, he didnt speak any english XD He tok me to the seaside where we spent all evening, trying some local food, drinking, walking around. Oh, Palermo has its own smell: mix of solty water and backery, pretty good actually XD Here is haven for the foodlovers (like me) because you can find everything. Seafood, amazing pasta, sweeets. Oh, i'll write about sicilian sweets another post)

At night we went to some mountain, that was near Palermo. When you get on the top of it you can see bright stars all around you. Yes, yes, not only in the sky, because this mountain is right next to the sea so you can see lights of boats, but you cant see the sea or boats, so you have an impression that you are in the space)

But after such a grate first impression i discovered real Palermo that i didn't like that much. And it is not about the city - it is about people there: they are too rude, too intrusive,you are just getting tired of them. Sicily is like a penis world: you see only men on the streets, so any woman is a magnet for their attenntion XD

In general you have a lot of things to see here, like the biggest theater in the world, or the main cathedral, but what you can't miss is best gelato place in the city - it is right next to the train and bus station and there are always a lot of people)

Almost all days in Palermo i spent on the beaches, my favourite one was Capo Vale and one wild beach that was really beautiful, but more or less all of them are the same, just be aware of the sun, it can burn you))