I am impressed!

Po pierwsze nowy port Surakuz. Odkad tylko przybylam na Sycylie, ten temat zawsze byl na ustach wszystkich, zarowno wladz jak i mieszkancow. Co chwila dowiadywalam sie o nowych planach modernizacji, rekonsctrukcji, innowacji portu. Politycy co rusz obiecywali i informowali o swoich pomyslach i planach. Co wiecej, prace juz sie nawet zaczely, ale potem, bez waznego tak naprawde powodu zostaly zanichane. My, mieszkancy Syrakuz bylismy swiadkami "wynuzania" sie wielkich cementowych blokow jeden po drugim, ktore mialy okazac sie "szkieletem" calego projektu i ktore mialy byc "wrzucone" do morza i co nigdy potem nie nastapilo... A teraz to. Nowy projekt ze zdjeciami i opisami i zakladanym czasem ukonczenia prac (lato 2015)

Firstly, the new port/marina of Siracusa. Ever since I came to Sicily, this port has always been a hot topic. I have heard about reconstruction, modernization, upgrading, transformation projects. Politicians informing, promising and describing their ideas and plans regarding the new port. What's more, the process of building the new port has actually started and then, out of no good reason, stopped. We, Siracusa residents, witnessed emerging big, hideous pieces of cement on the coastline (which supposedly were the "skeleton" for the new project) and which were later meant to be moved/thrown into the water and which obviously never actually happened. And now this. A brand new project with pictures, "demos" and complete information and expected time to complete it (4 years).

 Oto co mozna przeczytac na oficjalnej stronie projektu:

"Nowa Marina di Archimede stanie nad zatoka Porto Grande w Syrakuzach, u podnóża zabytkowej wyspy Ortygia, pomiędzy zachodnim nabrzeżem Sant'Antonio i brzegiem przystani łodzi rybackich. Po dlugim okresie zaniedbania, ten zakątek ziemi będzie żyć nowym życiem i będzie oferować Syrakuzom nowoczesna i funkcjonalna infrastrukture. Obiekt będzie rozciągać się na powierzchni 147.000 metrów kwadratowych, gdzie znajdzie sie seria najnowocześniejszych stoczni i sprzęt do uprawiania żeglarstwa, gdzie bedzie mogliwe garażowanie / montaż lodzi."

This is what you can find out regarding the port on the official website:

"The new Marina di Archimede will stand on the Porto Grande bay in Syracuse, at the foot of the historical Ortygia island, in between the west quay of the Sant’Antonio wharf and the shore quay of the fishing boats’ harbour. Once abandoned and in disgrace, this corner of land will live a new life and will offer Syracuse a modern and functional infrastructure. The facility will extend over a total area equal to 147,000 square metres where cutting-edge boat yards and equipments for yachting and garaging/refitting will also fit in together with the quays." 

A oto kilka zdjec a tych dwoch stron:

And here are some pictures taken from these two websites:

Po drugie, Lady Gaga. Nigdy nie bylam jej fanka, wydawala mi sie po prostu wielkiem komercyjnym produktem marketingowym ubranym w dziwne "konstrukcje", majacym na celu wywolanie skandalu i tym samym wszechobecnosc w mediach. Jej wystepy wyobrazalam sobie zawsze jako typowe dla Madonny show, z tysiacami swietnych tancerzy, milionem efektow specjalnych, gry swiatel, aby tylko "zagluszyc" malo interesujacy glos i wydobyc najbardziej sklandaliczne zachowania Lady Gaga. I co? Wczoraj uslyszlam po raz pierwszy jej wystep na zywo, podczas ubieglotygodnowych demonstracji gejow i lesbijek w Rzymie. Zatkalo mnie. Nie mialam pojecia, ze gra na pianinie (jak sie doczytalam, zaczela lekcje gry w wieku 4 lat!) i ze spiewa tak dobrze na zywo. Posluchajcie sami:

Secondly, Lady Gaga. I was never hooked on her. She seemed to me to be a great commercial product dressed in strange “constructions”, designed to bring about scandal and omnipresence in the media. I always imagined her performances as a typical Madonna-like- shows, with thousands of wonderful dancers, a cascade of special effects, lights, just to "drown out" not very interesting voice and bring out the most scandalous behavior of hers. And then? Well, yesterday, for the very first time, I heard her live performance, during last week gay and lesbian demonstration in Rome. I was speechless. I had no idea that she was playing the piano (I have just read on Wikipedia, she began piano lessons at the age of 4!) and that she sings so well live. Just listen:

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This season, this time...

First of all, I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the warm words you had for me before my work as an interpreter during the conference. You're all the best! It was great! We have received some official feedback and it was extremely positive! : ) I'd be elated if I could have working experiences like that on a daily basis : )

So as you can see, I have officialy started the Christmas season. Despite the fact that this year I'm going to spend it in sunny Sicily (which you can associate with anything but winter and Christmas), and not in white, cold (I hope) Poland, I cannot resist the Christmas spell, charm. and beauty.. Deva, I'm soo envious of your spending Christmas in PL!

So I'm here, changing the blog template for more festive, preparing the Christmas decorations I'm going to use to embellish my appartment this weekend while listening to Christmas songs/carols. Yet, this Christmas is also different from the others because we're all going to avoid the present-shopping frenzy... Actually, we have decided to help a family we know who is in big financial trouble and need money to cure the 2 paralysed children... it's better this way. Of course I need to buy at least one present for my bf. He deserves it, he never wants anything from me and at least at this time of the year he cannot refuse and decline it (yeah, I know YOU are reading it now)!

Apart from that, I'm really fine. We have some rain instead of snow but I'm still dedicating my time to apply to different public schools as an English tutor (I suppose everything will finish at the end of December and then in January they will conduct interviews followed by the official announcements of the "verdict"). We'll see.

On the other note, I have just discovered the newest CD of Alicia Keys- "The Element of Freedom"... Wow! Bewitching! You all want to have it, I'm sure! : ) Just listen to the first 2-3 songs and tell me you don't like it.. Come on, I'm challenging you!

Have a wonderful evening everyone! Tonight I'm going out to my bf's cousin's Birthday Party. Hope it'll be fun : )

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Siracusa Spot.

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My birthday, my presents, and some update! : )

This will be quite a long post...

I know it took me a while, but here I am, finally! : ) I have started to advertise my lessons, especially among people who work in the tourism industry who, as you can imagine, are a big part of the population in Sicily in general. Some of them have already responded, and so I'm getting really busy: in the morning I'm (still, for the last 4 weeks) in the office, and then from 5.00pm I work as a private tutor. I love it and I don't have time to waste! : )

Anyway, girls, I had a wonderful time during this little gathering with my "second family" and my closest friends : ) I think these pictures (some of them are not of a perfect quality, we forgot to take the camera with us, so used Ra's IPhone) speak for themselves:

1. Some of my invitees, i.e. all the people I care about most when in Italy (unfortunately not all could be here with me that day):

I had a problem with the ONE wish I had to think before blowing off the candles.. there are so many of them these times...




3. And then... PRESENTS time!!!!


The necklace from my collegues:

and in this little box...

I found this little beuty from my bf... :)


.. somthing for the senses by Coloniali from my dearest friends:


and a bag from Benetton from my bf's parents, sister and her husband:

Aprt from those, I received also a beautiful plum coloured coat by Benetton (together with the bag) that you can see in one of the pictures above and a violet shawl for colder days. from another colleague of mine. I love all of them!

Then, yesterday, we went to Ragusa, a little town in Sicily, where we participated in the "Buskers Ragusa Ibla" event. Travelplan website describes it this way: "Since 1994, Ragusa Ibla’s streets and squares have been invaded by street artists from all over the world every October for a week: jugglers, acrobats, clowns and others all perform in exciting shows." It's a wonderful occasion the city gives to local artists to exhibit their works and present themselves to the public.


.. I just couldn't resist this Dalmatian with a red ribbon (on the right there's a real fortune teller..at work!)...



... and we also performed! : )




You should visit the website for some wonderful pictures!

And in the end, when ironing at home, we had some rain here, and then, we spotted this:

Mother Nature.. isn't She great?!

That's all from me, my Dears! Have a wonderful Sunday! : )

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My little "quasi" holidays (part 2)

So the holidays are over now. On Friday I came back from Rome. It was pretty hot there (about 30°C) but it wasn't impossible to do some sightseeing. In fact after 3.5 days of continuous walk in the city, I almost didn't walk at all this weekend (used the car to go everywhere), my feet were so sore!

Anyway, let's start from the beginning. First, last weekend we went to Piazza Armerina (famous for the mosaics) and Agrigento (famous for the amazing Greek temples which date back to V century B.C.)



On Saturday night we stayed in this hotel:



Then on Monday I worked and on Tuesday we went to Rome. I love this city even though I have never explored it in summer before and I do not recommend it! Lots of tourists, confusion, and hot weather do not contribute to a relaxing vacation. Nevertheless, I'm quite satisfied, we managed to see all the spots I had planned to see, and most of the tickets I booked online which saved a lot of time! Here are some pictures:

1. Spanish Steps



2. Fontana della Barcaccia



3. Fontana di Trevi



4. Vatican



5. Rome seen from the Dome



6. View from Colloseum



By the way, I wanted to let you know I removed the "word verification" when you post your comment, so I hope all the problems you have had on my blog are finished! : ) Let me know!

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My little "quasi" holidays (part 1)

I used "quasi" (amost) because I cannot entirely dedicate myself to pure pleasure, beach, sun and fun.. there are days I need to go to work but it's ok.

So it's been now 1 week since my parents came to Sicily. So far we have visited "must see" places like: Taormina, Etna, Noto, we took delicious pizza here, we went to a traditional sandwich stall where my Dad wanted to try the famous "carne di cavallo" (horse meat), which try as I may cannot say is disguting, just the opposite, it's mild and delicate, a bit sweeter than pork or veal... Anyway I tried it only once and will never again... I care too much about these beautiful animals... Talking of which, tonight I'm going to take my parents to see the horse races in one of the most spectacular and mordern hippodromes in Europe, it's called Ippodromo del Mediterraneo. Tomorrow we're heading off to Agrigento & Piazza Armerina then on Monday work again and on Tuesday we go to Rome for 3 days. On Friday my parents take a plane back home in Poland and I return to Sicily. That's the plan.

Here are some pics I took during the last days.

1. Isola bella in Taormina





2. Taormina center (my Mum in the 2 pic)







3. These are NOT real! Can you believe it??



4. French writing on an Italian wal... At least bizzare knowing Italians hate other languages, they refuse to learn any, they love Italian and think everyobody should speak it!



5. What was written on the bathroom door in one of the b&b's we spent a night... I don't know German but Ella, is the writing as hilarious as the one written in English? let me know!



6. Etna





7. Some of the delicious Italian dolci...

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