Travel time - Turin -> Milan -> Bergamo work trip

Hey, lovely people!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that a few weeks ago I travelled to the North of Italy to conduct some interviews for my research. I've already visited Turin once (check out my blog posts about that trip here and here)  and also been to Milan multiple times (I love to write about my complicated relationships with this city so you can check my previous posts here), but have never been to Bergamo.

And even though I was mostly working and didn't have much time to just enjoy my trip, I still manage to squeeze in some fun activities - a cup of cappuccino at the cat cafe, a few nice walks and the visit to the Museum of Cinema (last time we did only the elevator to the top of Mole to enjoy the view).

So let's go!

I came to Turin on the warmest, sunniest and loveliest day and, walking through the city centre with my suitcase, thought how lucky I am to find such a lovely weather up in the North of Italy.


Check out my travel vlog over at my YouTube channel (and remember to subscribe and switch on notifications not to miss any future videos)

Continue to read and see some photos!

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. 

October in Milan

As you already know, in the middle of October I went to Milan for 4 days - for work (mostly meeting people for my research) and pleasure (seeing friends). But interestingly, those days, full of rain, cold, sun, blue skies, endless coffees and walks, meetings with my darling friends, broken umbrellas, aperitivos at Naviglie and panzerotti by Colonne di San Lorenzo, cozy mornings at the loveliest under-roof apartment and many other cool things, managed to surprise me in the best possible way. 

You might remember that I had to take quite a weird route to get there. Normally the trip from Palermo to Milan takes about 2 hours (even less, I guess) and doesn't cost that much (at the first glance, because later Ryanair makes you pay for it with your nerve cells by constantly trying to sell you sandwiches, lottery tickets, perfumes and handmade bracelets). But this time the tickets were kind of pricey and I had no choice but to buy a ticket to Paris (well, not Paris - Beauvais), wait there for 8,5 hours and then head to Milan.

You might tell me that it's ridiculous - to travel from an Italian city to another Italian city by going to France and coming back, and I will agree with you. But who wants to pay 70 euro more? It's the price of 24 aperitivo's in Palermo (or 10 sandwiches in Copenhagen).

So on a lovely October morning, me and my #horriblypinksuitcase (check my Instagram to have an idea, but I must warn you - it is horribly pink) went on an adventure. 

#45daysofblogging 44: spontaneous decisions

Day 44 - September 30

Few weeks ago the weirdest combination of study and life related stress, insomnia, not being able to wait till October 17 on my own and desire to both create connections for my research and to see friends lead me to a very spontaneous decision. I've checked all possible plane ticket aggregator, spoke to everyone I know in Milan, wrote to many professionals in my field and ended up buying the ticket to Bergamo and back.

* trivia - by this point when it comes to finding cheap lowcost tickets I'm almost a professional. If I have a cup of of good tea and a few episodes of Friends, I'm able to find quite nice deals. But! Sometimes you need to really choose between money and time. 

This time I chose to pay less and spend more time travelling. So on October 13 I'm going from Palermo to Paris (Beauvais), where I will wait for 8 hours, and then from Beauvais to Milan. Which sounds like quite an adventure!

I will only stay in Milan for 4 days, but I really hope I will manage to do everything I want for work and also to enjoy meeting some friends. I have a few previous posts on Milan, so I believe I already mentioned - I've been to Milan three times and never managed to stay there for even 24 hours. So this time I will definitely break this curse!

Also - I cannot believe I've managed to finish all 45 days of blogging! Yes, technically the last day is tomorrow, but it will just be the reflection on this experience. So yay, I did it!

See you!

#45daysofblogging 05: the new face of Milan

Day 5 - August 22

Welcome to day 5!

Today I want to tell you a bit about Milan. This year I've managed to visit it twice - on my way to Sweden and on the way back to Palermo. So you probably already saw my post on what to do in Milan is you only have a few hours.

But this post will be a bit different, as during my last time there I wanted to find the answers to the major questions, that are really torturing me and all of my foreign friends, who also live in the South of Italy - why people are either in love with Milan or hate it, and, which is the most important, why in Milan they call cornetto brioche?!

What is EVS?

As I mentioned in a few of my previous posts, the first time I came to Sicily for a volunteering project. Actually, it was a complete accident, but yeah, some people call it coincidence, I call it fate.

After returning to Kyiv from Thailand, I was very happy to be back home. Well, I was very happy for about a month. After that, when all the emotions faded, all the Thai presents were gifted, all the delicious food and all the Cambodian coffee was finished the reality kicked in (even though I still have dreams about that coffee…)

I realised that I’m back to where I started from - in my room, just that now it was decorated with lovely Thai lights. And somewhere there, far-far away, the world continues to be interesting and full of adventures. Just that someone else was living it, not me.

Don’t get me wrong, it was my decision to leave Thailand and go back home. It was a great experience, but for various reasons, at this point of my life, I can’t see myself moving to Chiang Mai permanently. But the desire for adventures was already fully awakened and wanted to dance.

So I started researching volunteering opportunities – my newly grown sense of self was telling me that I shouldn’t even be bothered with searching for a job as I will not be happy in a corporate environment anymore.

What to do in Milan if you only have a few hours?

First time I've visited in Milan in October 2014, on my way to the study session in Budapest. In total I spent there eight hours, including debating whether I should go there, searching for a place to leave my suitcase and two hours spent on a bus - to get to central station from Bergamo and return back to the airport. 

My second stay in Milan (four days ago!) lasted about 15 hours, mostly because my flight from Palermo was delayed for 5 hours. So I arrived there tired, sleep deprived and hungry, but still wanted to make a little trip around. 

I really hope that one way I will be able to say "I stayed in Milan for __ day" instead of "I stayed in Milan for __ hours", but I don't know when it's going to happen - on my way back I will also have something around 18 hours there.  But still it's a great experience, because it makes you really appreciate time and opportunities you get in life. 

So what can you do in Milan if you only have a few hours? 

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!