Palermo Sunday - Steve McCurry and photo exhibitions of 2016

Welcome to the new series - Palermo Sunday. It's more of a youtube series, because I'm really enjoying making Sunday vlogs, but I'm in the mood to extend this habit also to my blog.

So keep reading to see my first Sunday vlog, some photos and my ode to Steve McCurry - a genius photographer I've been admiring for years.

As I already wrote on numerous occasions, photography is one of my biggest passions in life.

I've got the "photography bug" from my dad, and one of my first memories in life is of him developing his black and white photos in the red light. So every time I have an opportunity to take one more photography class or see one more photography exhibition, I'm there in no time.

Christmas #2, New Year #2 and New Years resolutions

Merry Christmas, Orthodox and Greek Catholic people! Happy old New Year!

I was planning to make a few separate posts on all of those topics but then realised that I will not manage to do it for many reasons. So let's mix it a bit!

It took me a long time to understand what are my New Year's Resolutions, or should I rather say - New Year's Goals. But now I really want to put them in writing to have something to measure this year by later. Some of this goals you might have seen in my birthday post, but that's the plan.

Photo by Tarmo Tõnismann 

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 43: Searching for equilibrium

Day 43 - September 29

So here's Ana's story. Created during two days in July 2016 in Slovenia, in the framework of the TC Facing the Street. 

#45daysofblogging 42: creating a photo story (and a photo exhibition)

Day 42 - September 28

As I already mentioned, I went to Slovenia not for tourism, but for a project. It was focused on developing our skills in the field of digital storytelling and also on helping each participant to create a photo or a video story. 

The best part was that we were not creating out stories. We were going to tell some one else's story - the stories of people, that lived through tough times, encountered obstacles in their lives and decided that they want to tell their stories to us (and to public).

#45daysofblogging 33: Ljubljana

Day 33 - September 19

After the crazy, but nice day in Venice it was the time to continue my adventure and go to Ljubljana. 

For me it was my first time in Balkans, so I was very excited to see one more country and learn useful things along the way. 

Logistics

The tricky part about traveling to Ljubljana and Slovenia in general is that airplane tickets are quite expensive. The cheapest way to get there from, for example, Italy is to go to Venice or Trieste and take a bus from there (for example with GoOpti). 

#45daysofblogging 31: Venice and revelations

Day 31 - September 17

As I've mentioned before, this year I'm quite lucky with projects and travels (knock on wood!) and I really hope it to stay this way for many-many years to come. 

One of the projects I've participated in was a training course on digital storytelling for professionals that work with vulnerable groups. As I'm one of those people and I also love and do photography since I was very little, I felt like it was a perfect match for me. Also it was hold in Ljubljana, and I've never been to Slovenia (and Balkans in general) before. So yeah, of course I took the opportunity, that came with a side bonus - visiting Venice for a day. 

#45daysofblogging 16: Sicily is...

Day 16 - September 2

Sorry, I'm still struggling with internet and really hope that tomorrow the problem will be resolved, but for now I have no choice but to write all my posts in Word and then post all of them together. Oh, so much for 45daysofblogging and posting every day as a personal challenge!

I think I’ve mentioned my photo exhibition I’ve had in Palermo in the beginning of 2015 (yes, I am modest like that!). But I’m pretty sure I’ve never posted any photos, so here we go. 

I’m very aware of the fact that I have a long way to go before I will be able to call myself a photographer with confidence. I have many things to learn and many experiences to live. But this is the thing I absolutely love to do and I will not change it for the world. I was actually seriously considering doing a master’s degree in photography, but then life took me in another direction. 

#45daysofblogging 15: Castellammare del Golfo

Day 15 - September 1

Sicily gave me many amazing things – a community to belong to, the new language, lots of great experiences, both personal and professional. But the biggest treasure I found here were people. And sometimes those people were from the same country and even city, then I am, but we’ve got to meet only here, in the land of fried food and beautiful sea. 

So yes, during my EVS life decided that I need a roommate that actually lived in Kyiv at the same time I was, worked in the place I loved to come to and I’m pretty sure we’ve seen each other before, as we remember the same Spanish conversation club, that was my Saturday morning activity for a bit.

#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?!

#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).

Living in times of change

*UPD*: Unfortunately, I had to edit this post delete all the nice things I have written before about one of the YouTubers who participated in BlackLifeMatters protests. I just can't keep a rec for a channel, whose creator things that it's acceptable to fight discrimination with discrimination and bash Eastern European women on numerous occasions. I never supported discrimination and will not support it now. I'm absolutely disgusted by the whole situation and don't want to have her name on my blog. 

In my country people love to quote an old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times (times of change)”, even though, as far as I know, it’s highly unproven that a Chinese curse like this ever existed. In any case - I never agreed with this. 

We live in times of change and we need to appreciate it. We can see the history being made and can even help make it. For example, I’ve participated in two revolutions and, as horrible, tragic and difficult as it was, I’m happy I got to see everything with my own eyes. To be one of the people that change history is a huge honour and a huge responsibility. But also it’s in some way a blessing, as all your experiences and opinions are your own. 

As I love authenticity in everything, I don’t believe in sterile blogging, separated from real life and serious topics. It will never work for me – I’m a human rights activist, I volunteer a lot and work in the social field, I’m doing my PhD research on domestic violence and it’s a huge part of my life. So, as the result, it is also a huge part of my blogging life too.

* I’m not going to go into details on my experience of blogging during the revolution – for many reasons it was not a nice experience. Let's just say that I had reasons to delete my old posts when I moved my blog to this address. Maybe once I will dedicate a post to it, but for now, I still remember it all too well (including quite ugly comments and accusations I received while describing my life at that time). 

My article about the life of Palermo

A few weeks ago I got an offer to write an article about Palermo and the way it embraces diversity for a Ukrainian cultural magazine. 

Of course I agreed. Palermo became my second home two years ago, and I have a lot of admiration for the way people here find ways to live together quite happily, even in the face of economic crisis, all types of migration and high levels of corruption. 

Sicily is one of the most diverse regions in Europe - not only due to migration, but also to comparatively low prices and developed civil society, that brings here many international volunteers, interns and Erasmus students.

So I wrote an article about all the projects I personally am involved with and the ones I know about, about block parties and Palermo Pride, about Catholic church that invites Muslim community to pray, as they currently have no mosque and works with LGBTQI organisations to organize manifestations against hate crimes, about international volunteers that make workshops on urban gardening for children from underprivileged neighborhoods and many other things that I see with my own eyes every day.

Unfortunately the article is available only in Ukrainian, but if there's any interest in this topic, I'd love to write something regarding this topic also in English. 

You can read the article by clicking on the link:

PALERMO: THE PLACE FOR EVERYONE

Rain and sun in Copenhagen

In the end of March I participated in a great training course on migration, which is my field of work for more than two years and also one of the topics of my PhD research. It took place in a beautiful Swedish countryside (about which I will tell you a bit later, because for a week I was in my own personal aesthetic heaven), and on the way there and back I had a chance to visit also a bit of Denmark, particularly Copenhagen and Helsingør.

I know people who love Copenhagen, I know people who hate it. I honestly cannot tell you if I liked it or not. On one side - it's absolutely beautiful and doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. On the other - as a city it gave a sense of anxiety and uneasiness. Everything is under construction now (I checked - it will be like this for at least 2-3 years), so there's a lot of dust, a lot of noise and a lot of inconvenience.

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? 

My article about life on Sicily

Some time ago I was contacted and offered to become a part of a project about Ukrainians who live abroad and write an article about my life on Sicily.

I had the best time writing, editing and looking through my photo archives, so now I'm very, very pleased with the result. Unfortunately it's only available in Russian, but I plan to translate it into English in the nearest future.

You can read the article and/or look at the photos by clicking on the link:

LIFE ON THE ISLAND

2015 in pictures

Normally I have no patience to do posts like this, but this year I felt like doing it. This year was very difficult for me. I had a lot of disappointments, rejections and doubts, but, at the same time, I had a few really great accomplishments I’m really proud of. So yeah, difficult, but very important. I wish there was a way to grow and learn in a less painful way, but that’s just life, I guess.

Let’s go!

January

January on Sicily started with a wonderful snowstorm – first in more than 30 years. The days were quiet cold and sad – people from my project were leaving. I was happy I was staying, but we started this wonderful adventure all together, and saying goodbye is always hard for me.

On January 6^th (which is my Christmas Eve) I went on a day trip to Isola delle Femmine – a small town one hour away from Palermo – and made this photo, which became one of my favorites.