2016 in pictures

Hey, guys! Happy New Year! 

One of my favourite New Year morning traditions (besides eating leftover salads with a spoon while watching old movies) is to look back at the past year. Yes, I usually don’t do it before midnight (maybe I just want to make sure that the old year actually retired and will not get offended?). 

My last year’s post you can find here – 2015 in pictures. 

So, here we go. Many things had happened in 2016, good and bad, it was quite kind to me personally. I got to travel much more than I ever did, I got great opportunities, I worked hard and I’m quite happy with myself. I also got very aware of some of my limitations and started my own personal self-education – mostly on the topics of self-love, self-respect, not putting myself down and not letting anyone else do it.

I’ve met many wonderful people and sadly parted ways with some others. So let’s look into it month by month. 

#45daysofblogging 03: beautiful Helsingborg

Day 3 - August 20

Welcome to day 3! Today I will tell you about a gloomy day in a beautiful cozy Helsingborg and show you some photos, as I made quite a few.

Helsingborg is a small city in the South of Sweden, that I already mentioned in my first post of #45daysofblogging. As we spent a week in Örkelljunga, which is very charming, but also very little, it was very nice to a bigger city and feel it's atmosphere a bit.

#45daysofblogging 01: quiet beauty of the Swedish countryside

Day 1 - August 18

So welcome to the day 1 of my crazy ambitious blogging marathon!

As I promised you a few posts ago, this post is dedicated to the Swedish village I had a chance to visit in March. I have to admit - Sweden stole my heart in the first few hours. So in this post you will find a lot of love and admiration for the aesthetics and the beauty of Swedish nature, houses and life overall. Also it's a great post to have a drinking game with - take a shot every time you see words "beauty", "beautiful" and "aesthetic"!

I went to Sweden to participate in a seminar on migration, which is my field of research and work. You already know that my first stop on the way there was in Copenhagen. From there I took a train and in a few hours was in Helsingborg (I will tell you about my visit there in a few days).

Going to Scandinavia!

Yes! Finally, for the first time in my life, I'm heading to Northern Europe!

Tomorrow, first thing in the morning, I'm traveling to Milan, where I'm going to spend one day - to see my Milan-based friends and to see more of the city, because my first and only visit there lasted for 8 hours. 

On Wednesday morning I'm flying to Copenhagen where I plan to go on a walking tour and then explore the city on my own. In the evening I'm taking a train to Örkelljunga, Sweden, where I'm going to stay for a week-long seminar on the topic of migration. On my way back I will also have a full day in Copenhagen, and then a day in Milan, before coming back to Palermo.

Confession time - even though I've traveled quite a bit during the last three years, by any means of transportation (well, except maybe a helicopter and a hot-air balloon), traveling still gives me a bit of anxiety. 

Ever since I almost missed my flight from Moscow to Kyiv about 6 years ago, I always have a bit of fear of missing a flight - oversleeping, getting into a traffic jam, missing a bus. Ever since my 2014 trip to Budapest for a Council of Europe study session on gender-based violence, when my suitcase was one cm bigger than is allowed on a WizzAir flight and I had to pay twice the price of my ticket to take it with me, I'm a little scared of being over the luggage limit.

It doesn't matter how much experience you have (traveling, studying, working, etc) - it's normal to feel anxious from time to time. Important thing is not to let this anxiety or fear control your life and take away opportunities from you.

Do I feel anxious about getting up at 3 a.m. too take a bust to the airport at 4 a.m? Yes. Will it stop me from seeing another beautiful parts of Europe? No way in hell!