Campania and Paese Alto

So, in these past days I've visited Napels, Avellino and Atripalda in the Regione Campania, moved to Paese Alto of SamBe and made a couple of friends.

I have a 3-sheet written record of my weekend in Campania. I'm not going to post it all, or maybe I'll scan it and post as a hand-written diary.
I visited my mother's friends Ivana and Pino (Giuseppe) who are just great. Well-educated, funny, caring, beautiful. All in all, bravissimi.
I arrived in Napels on Friday and spend half of the day there. Eating pizza in the most ancient pizzeria (Da Michele).

check out the queue

 I'm going to be honest. The pizza was a disaster, if I served something like that everyone would tell me to quit cooking and do something better with my life. It was not a Pizza. It was not even a pizza. It was just a piece of half-burnt dough with tomato soup on it, with pieces of melted mozarella. Not funny, though.

Doppia Mozarella for 5 euros

Then I tried to get into La Chiesa di San Gregorio Armeno, but it was closed. And it's my second visit to Napels and both times the church was closed. Not funny.

I shoot this through the bars on the gate

 I walked up and down the via San Gregorio Armeno looking at pretty presepe's and then headed back to the Piazza Garibaldi, because I needed to get to Avellino, where Ivana and Pino took me to Atripalda in their car.

On the way home they introduced me to this singner - Giorgio Conte and my favouirte song by far is Passano le nuvole. The most beautiful line is - Passano le nuvole, ma il cielo resta sempre lì. Which means - The clouds will pass, but the sky will always be there - or something along these lines. Also Pino has a collection of vintage film cameras, and Ivana is a principal of a school. Their flat occupies the whole of the fifth floor and they have an elevator to deliver guests right into their living room. The balcony surrounds the flat and all the rooms including kitchen have an acces to it. Which is beyond cool. The view from the windows and balcony is mind-blowingly beautiful with all the mountains surrounding the city of Atripalda. And my room was OH.MY.GOD beautiful and the best. All light and pretty. And also with an ensuite bathroom, really convenient.

 

Vintage cameras

Grandfather camera :)

Just a still life composition

Also, I met the Ukrainian lady who cooks for them, Maria by name. And I met Pino's cousin Mario with his wife Carmela. A lovely couple who want me to meet their son Paolo, who was born 8 days earlier than me.
On Saturday I took a bus to Avellino with only my camera and a map in my hand. I first had a look at the Duomo, which was very very old. And then on my way to other sites I got people asking me how to get to the Duomo. They definitely could see that I was a tourist, however they chose to ask me. And I told them. No kidding.

Just a random gate near the Duomo

 Then I walked along the zona pedonale, visited the garden where young men were gathered in small groups and ... played voleyball, no kidding. Also I had ice-cream in some ancient (I hate this word already, honestly) gelateria. The pistacchio was bad. The nutella was good, but only because it was proper Nutella, not chocolate ice-cream with nutella hints. Then I broke my sandal, and walked to the bus-stop. There was one shop I entered and they offered me Emporio Armani black suede ballerina pumps for only 260 euro. I said no thanks and went back to Atripalda. We had the midday meal, watched some photos from their trip to Russia. Ivana had cought a cold and it was no good. I got a pair of pumps for 15 euro. They are pink-white-darkgrey and totally awesome. In the evening the six of us went to one of the nearby villages to attend to a nut-fest or something. We had the evening meal there. Some mushrooms-chestnut soup, some salami, and pepper stuffed with meat and bread, and also cheese and bread with Persian walnuts right in the cheese and dough and some red wine. Oh and some dessert with chocolate icing, nuts and fine crust. It was all yummy, we listened to local bands performing tarantella Napoletana and left at about 11pm.
Next morning we had breakfast, then I packed, then after midday meal Ivana and Pino took me to the Piazza Kennedy in Avellino from where the bus was to leave.
On the way back to Naples I heard another beautiful song Ti amo e non lo sai by Francesco Baccini. It translates as I love you and you don't know.

On the 6th of October I had a lovely day although I have cramps. Yesterday I moved to Paese Alto, and today in the morning I went food shopping and also got some goodies for the house. I also visited Mom and had a Skype-talk with my sister, I don't have internet up at my place.
When I was leaving, I met an old man at the gates. He wanted to talk about Bible, but I said I don't speak Italian. And then he said that there was a girl about 20yo who didn't speak Italian and spoke English, and asked me if she was my friend and was waiting for me. I said that I didn't know anyone here of that age who spoke English. Then I rode to the crossroads and found the girl. I greeted her in English and she immediately looked kind of relieved. We talked a bit, she was looking for the train station. I said I could show her where it was. And then she told me her name was Shante, she came from Namibia via South Africa. She's gonna stay here for 40 days and do modelling. Which is cool. And also, we exchanged phone numbers and agreed to hang-out together sometime.
Will it be too rude if I quote Mean Girls here? Remember that line about Africa?

Ok, then after midday meal I washed-up and then loaded the washing machine and went to bed because I felt SOOO bad. And also the chain on my bicycle fell off the gear and I couldn't fix it because I felt so bad.
I slept for two hours and then headed back into the center with my laptop and the camera, to take pictures and use a wi-fi in a cafe. I met up with Mom at this shop called Non solo 99 cent. Where I got sticky papers for shopping lists. Then we had coffee at Caffe Moretti and I checked my e-mail and everything. And that's when I found out about Steve Jobs's death. Devastating. I was so sad, I almost cried. To cheer me up, I downloaded the latest episode of Glee and a couple of songs.
Then I came up here, because the Old town is up the mountain. Which is not fun when you ride up but it's totally cool when you go down the hill on a bicicletta.

First days here

Day 1. September 24, Saturday

Day one started way too early to my liking, at about 4:30 when we moved out. Although I didn't go to sleep at all that night. I did right. Nick came around 4:20 and then we headed off with my dad, my brother-in-law and my cousin. And Nick, of course.
At one of the roadside shops I finally saw Arizona tea. I didn't know you can buy Arizona tea in Russia.

There were three varieties: Green tea with Ginseng, Chinese Apple (Pomegranate) and Blueberry white tea.

We dropped my bro-in-law and cousin at one of the airports and then Dad took me and Nick to the other one. We were way too early for the check-in and the flight. So we parked and Dad got his sleep. Nick smoked a lot. A LOT.
Then when it was time, Dad headed back home and we had to check-in. I put some of my luggage into Nick's suitcase because his was underweight, luckily.
We had too much fun at the airport (I'll link you to this post right here) and on the plane.

We landed at about 20:00 (we were late for two hours, how crazy is that). Then two more hours by car and finally we can sleep.
Nick was staying at my mom's friends' place.

Day 2. September 25, Sunday

Next morning after the breakfast I ran some errands and went to fetch Nick. I showed him around the city a bit, and took him home along the seashore and the port. Though Lungomare (promenade) is not very impressive right where I live. He stayed at our place for a couple of hours (we were at the balcony, using Wi-Fi, the fresh wind and the opportunity to watch Christian downstairs) until it was time to go to the station. The train was late for half an hour. And so we waited, and when it arrived finally it remained for only half a minute, literally. We only had time to push him and his valigia (suitcase) into the carriage.
Nick's mom lives in Calabria, so he had another 7 or 8 hours of traveling. Poverino.

Day 3. September 26, Monday

On the third day I finally got to go to the beach! I haven't seen the sea for so long, I almost forgot how it looked liked, for real. And so, off to the beach I went. I luckily took my DSLR camera with me. But before that let me show you a low-quality video of my first encounter with the sea.

An hour or so later a small group of people arrived to the vacant beach. A bride, a groom, a photographer and a videographer. They were doing a whole boring routine of every wedding - taking boring pictures. But then something funny happened, they took off their shoes and walked barefoot along the water. And finally, the groom jumped into the waves, fully dressed. And after a while he dragged the bride into the water as well, also fully dressed.
I took a couple of pictures too, they look so happy together.

Day 4. September 27, Tuesday 

Two days a week there's a mercato at the central part of the city. You can buy anything there. From clothes to shoes to accessories and from flowers to fruit to sweets. I enjoy just walking around there, watching people bargaining.

flowers, ofc.

Fruit and veggies. Ready to go.

In the evening we went for a walk with mum. The weather was nice and warm. But the wind. It was really strong and drove my hair crazy.

the waves indicate the strength of the wind.

 After the walk mom went home and I decided to have some gelato and just walk around the city. Italian ice-cream (gelato) is something totally different from what you have in any other country. And during my previous visit I was absolutely overwhelmed with all the flavours and colours. And I tried almost every flavour possible in every city I visited. Best so far was in Grottammare, I don't remember the name of the Gelateria, mi scusate. That was long ago. This time I tried Nutella, Ananas and Pistacchio. I won't take Ananas another time, but I totally liked Pistacchio. I was literally moaning in the middle of the street. Because the ice-cream was sooo very good. And also some scenery for you.

Day 5. September 28, Wednesday

In the morning after the same breakfast as usual (caffe-latte con biscotti) we went to Ascoli Piceno (the prefettura of this province is located there). The scenery along the road is breath-taking, seriously.
We went through the gates to Piazza Arringo (I remembered the name from my previous visit there). I called one of the houses vecchia, and it turned out that you don't call anything in Italy - vecchia. You say antica. Altough it is Mercoledi (Wednesday) and the office is closed, they were able to do something about me. Well, because I went there with this guy, who used to be the Major of one of the cities in this province. Along the way, we would pinch the policemen on the cheeks and pat some really important looking people on the shoulders. It was fun. After everything was done, we went to this Caffe' Saccaria. My companions asked for caffe (i.e. espresso), i wanted cappuccino. And then they asked for caffe macchiato and the girl at the counter added a tiny bit of foamed milk to each of their cups.
What almost killed me was the way they drank their coffee. It went in one go, like a shot. And I just stood there enjoying my cappuccino, because you can't have this kind of coffee in a moment, you have to indulge in it. And man, it was good. Buonissimo.
On the way back the speed was about 160 kmph. And my coffee wanted out as buono as it was. Ugh. I was glad to be home.
After lunch (some nicely baked fish + spinaci + insalata) I went to visit a friend of my mother's in Paese alto (old part) of this city. I like it up there, it's on the hill, and the view of the sea and the rest of the city is beautiful. But this particular part was a bit washed-out and not too appealing.
Then we went shopping with mom, and then Emanuele came along. Omg. Is he hot? You bet. Is he married? Yes, unfairly so. Sometimes he's just mean and really nasty to others, but man, is he hot! And he speaks English in this godforsaken town where everyone claims to speak English and no one actually does. He has the nicest smile, the softest handshake and his eyes are just asdfghjkl. Srsly. I can't even.
Ok, and so he exchanged a couple of phrases with me, in Italian first (I didn't yet know about his English). And then he says: Benissimo. (Very good. He means, my Italian is good). And then his Nonna says: E vero, benissimo. (True, very good). And points at my impressive bosom. I mean, really? UGH. It was so awkward for all of us. Bless her, she doesn't know what she's doing. 95 yo, for real.
I'm going to watch the new episode of Glee and sleep. And hope that my trip to Napoli doesn't get cancelled. Please please please.

Some new photos I took

cocktails we had while playing Party Alias at this cafe

Twilight at Moskovskiy avenue, Bryansk

Sunset at Peresveta str, Bryansk

foggy night, right across from my yard

Saturday Cuba libre

This few days have been really nice.
On Saturday I had one of my besties over (the other one is moving places, so I'll see her later this week). I had Bacardi and coke and lime. Well, basically I wanted to make some mojitos and sushi, and my neighbours new wife (or really close girlfriend) said she could bring some fresh mint with her (as she was also invited). But then when I called her at noon that day she said she'd be at 6 and she hasn't got mint. So I just decided to make Cuba libre-s instead of mojitos.
My bestie came about midday, we had sushi and tons of Cuba libre-s.

i know, it's a martini glass.

I took some pictures of her. They came out really lovely.

When she left, my other guest finally came and she is so stupid that I don't even want to blog about her.

Andrea

So, there was this Italian guy who.. oh, snap. There still is this Italian guy who is hell of a cute and his name is.. wait for it! WAIT FOR IT! Andrea. I KNOW, right? Andrea? Who would name their son a girl's name?
But, as it happens Andrea is a male name in Italy, who knew?

So there's this cute hot tanned toned and dreamy Italian guy. And there's also this slightest problem. I know like three words in Italian and he knows right about one word in English. And so we can communicate through this only language we both know and it's body language. I know that he's slightly younger than me but who cares. After all, he's the cute hot tanned toned and dreamy and Italian guy. Don't we all just have this thing for Italian guys? and drummers.

We used to come to the beach at the same time as the day before, so that we don't lose track of each other I guess. And we always would go to the same beach, to the same spot day after day.
And we would just lie in the sun a few feet away from each other and occasionally shoot glances to see if the other one was looking. Sometimes he would come with his friends and show off a lot. He would dive into the waves and look at me after emerging from the sea, they would play football on the beach. Well, he got me at diving already, so..

There was one time when he came with this long-haired skinny friend. And I got all jealous. She was so tiny and all. He could've grabbed her, put her on his shoulder and taken anywhere at all. And I was really really jealous. I wouldn't even look in their direction when they were diving. Lol. But this one time there was a huge wave, and they both dived and then as the wave rolled back.. Well, this long-haired skinny chick appeared on the surface of the water and I could clearly see that she was a he. Literally, it was a guy friend all along. And Andrea didn't appear for a while. And then this friend of his started to panic: he would just madly look around and shout: Andrea.

And a second later I could see Andrea's smiling face right behind this friend of his. And we both laughed so hard, it was like a bonding moment for the two of us. And this friend looked at me and turned around and decided to drown Andrea in a boyish manner, you know. And I still laughed and laughed, as I was sooo relieved at that. But as I'm recollecting it all now, I come to think that maybe.. oh well, of course not, Andrea was not. I mean, he is not a gay. Right?

This one time they were playing football. There were like four or five of them, and I guess they were not actually playing football, they were just passing the ball around. And I was going for a dip. And my path went right through this circle of boys fooling around with a football. And then Andrea said the sweetest thing that a guy ever said in my presence. He said: Aspetta, aspetta! (Which means: Wait, wait!) And he addressed it to his fellow ball-kickers. Which means, he was concerned that this strange girl could be hit with a ball and he didn't want this girl (i.e. me) to get injured. How sweet is that?!

I could have dropped a casual: Scusate. (I'm sorry) For interrupting the game of course, but that thought only occurred to me when I was far in the sea, lying on my back and squinting my eyes against the bright blue sky.

I'm not a very fast thinker after all. Yes, I am still quick-witted.
But not fast at responding, I guess.

P.S. I wish I had pictures of him. Ugh.
P.P.S. I named my blue turtle Andrea after this Italian boy. Though I got him from the Isle of Wight, England.

Eat. Pray. Love and sunrise.

So, as I was finishing this book by Elizabeth Gilbert it was already well past midnight. And I wanted to watch the movie after reading the book.

Then I was watching and liveblogging on my twitter account. The dawn was near and I decided to go on a bicycle ride so that I could watch the sun rise and meditate a bit. I paused the movie and while I was getting ready to go it suddenly occurred to me that it's been raining for almost a week now and I couldn't possibly see the sun rise as the whole sky would be covered with clouds the colour of Abdel Kerim's beard (it's #cdcdcd folks! I can't believe you didn't know.) But I went there anyways. I took the longest way but it also was more comfortable.

At one point I was passing by stray dogs, there were four or five of them. I hate passing by these dogs because there's this one chance out of 100 that they won't chase you, bark at you loudly and try to bite you by the ankle. As you can guess, this wasn't that one chance. I got really scared and shouted aloud. Out of fear or out of desire to scare the dogs off, I can't really tell. But I guess I have woken up the whole neighbourhood with that. The only thing you can really do to avoid dog bites is speed up and try not to be frightened to stay concentrated.

After that there was one encounter with an amiable plump man. He had this bright orange vest of a railroad worker on and he wore a huge moustache. He smiled at me as he was getting in his car and said: "The best means of transportation". All I had to do was smile and say: "Indeed". And then I thought, maybe it's quite a good morning after all. I had a box of chocolate and my hot-pink nails, right?

Then I had to walk a lot in damp grass because I'm short-sighted and perspective can play tricks on people like me and my light sneakers became all wet from the dew (or the raindrops, I'm not sure). =)

I reached this high towers (I have visited them last year, in September), locked the bike and got up the stairs rather quickly. The towers are almost 20 meters high. At first I just sat there watching the eastern part of the sky but it was not any different from any other part. I had a couple of chocolates and some water and lay back, watching the clouds. That was so boring, I almost fell asleep. After quite a while I was so bored I needed something, anything, to do. I got up and warmed up and stretched up a bit. Then I noticed (oh, wow! where have my eyes been all this time?) this long pipe that is sort of connecting the two towers. I'll show some pics from 2009.

These are the towers and the staircase is between them. You can see the pipe right up there, in the middle.

Here's the pipe as seen from the top of the right-hand tower.

And here's the same pipe as seen from the left-hand tower.

You can also see that there's this narrow staircase landing right under the pipe. So basically, this pipe is about 20 meters high above the ground and there are a lot of metal details right under it. And I had this dumbest idea of walking on the pipe, from one tower to the other. And I did. Halfway across the distance I lost my balance and.. oops. no, I didn't fall all the way down. I clumsily sat on the pipe and held on to it. And I could see the pink plastic bag fly down from the top of the tower, caught in the wind. I carried my chocolate and water in it and now it was gone.

I was so scared again! Scared as I was I tried to cross the distance one more time. Successfully this time. And as I reached the other tower I just grabbed the railings and stood there for a while, with my legs shaking. I collected my belongings and descended the stairs and rode home.

So the results are as follows:

a) my stomach is aching, because basically it's not the very best idea to have chocolate and water for breakfast.
b) my back aches because I didn't have enough clothes on to prevent it from freezing on that rooftop after getting all sweaty after riding.
c) my butt aches. 'Nuff said.
d) I could've stayed in my room with the blinds shut and I would've seen exactly as much of a sunrise as I saw sitting on that rooftop and freezing my butt off.
But all in all, I came to overcoming (no pun intended) some of my fear and that's pretty cool, I guess.

my tribute to Andy Warhole

I was never very much interested in Andy Warhol and his work. But his pop-art works always caught my eye. I mean, how can this NOT catch your eye?

So yesterday I googled a photoshop tutorial for creating this Andy-Warhol-effect pictures. I used this one, as its first step is observing and analyzing Andy's works. And I had to work hard on learning how to use Pen Tool. I've never used it before and I didn't like it, it wouldn't obey me. This time it actually was mighty hard, but I did my best. So..

Here's what I got as a result.

Now as I compare my picture to Marilyn Monroe's I see that I could've hushed the colours. Anyways.
Let's say I'll do it better next time. I like the result as it is.

Strangest day

My grandpa's brother died today. He's in Armenia. This news found me at work and I was headed for our HR office with the new girl and stopped half-way along the corridor and started weeping, while talking on the mobile with a relative who thought it appropriate to deliver such news at the beginning of my work day.

I really love this grandfather of mine. He somehow always appeared more caring to me than my own grandpa, his brother. I never really was very close to him. We visited him occasionally during summer trips to Armenia. And I last saw him a year and a month ago. He always looked the same to me. Perhaps I just noticed that he moved and reacted slower and he looked really old. But since I've always considered him old I never fully realized that he was old and was getting even older.

My very first memory of him (which can't be really a memory because I only know this thanks to my mom) is that once we have been at my grandpa's and grandpa was doing some work in the front yard. And then this late grandfather was there, sitting in the shadow of vine. And I ran out of the house straight to grandpa, and asked something or said something. And then grandfather made a comment. And I swung around and stared at him and asked: Who is this grandfather?

And that has become a family joke. Everyone uses this formula to ask about things and mock me.

And now this grandfather has passed on. And I hope he is in a better world now. In his own personal heaven.

So this new girl at my work (who witnessed my tears) is to take my place because I am quitting. And I asked her to come and have an interview with my boss. After I had talked to him yesterday and said that I needed to leave the job, it made me too tired. And he had agreed to talk to this girl.

I have talked to her on the phone for a couple of times. And she has the sweetest of voices. And today while I was waiting for her to arrive for the interview (she came 20 minutes earlier!) I was hoping beyond hope that's she'd be pretty at least. When she entered my office, I knew she was the perfect thing for this position. She's really cute, very good-looking, young and fresh. And besides that, she has special training for the job, unlike me. I am trained to teach and that's what I'll be doing for these couple of days. Showing her around and making her familiar with the peculiarities of the position.

After that I was just goofing around, surfing the interntes. I read this whole journal thing called 100 days of Harry Potter. Then I got links to The Harry Potter Companion and this essay on Fred and George in particular, which is called Not just Fredandgeorge. And in the comments to the essay I got the name of a really good fanfic about the Weasley twins - Long-Distance Extendable Ears. (google it and read it).

I was reading Elizabeth Gilbert's 'Eat. Pray. Love' for a couple of days now but I only got to liking it today and couldn't put the book down. I enjoy it a lot. And for her fans information, Elizabeth needs a better website than this (I googled her to see what she looks like and came to that bright yellow-orange web-page, my eyes still burn =) )

When I came home tonight, I needed to go buy some personal stuff and as it was raining (and it still is) I literally made myself go out - with my rainbow umbrella ofc. I also bought 3 Ikea candles in lowball tumbler glasses. The scents are vanilla, caramel and chocolate. I love them all! They are like the three of us girls. Me being the caramel scent, and the two of my best friends being opposites of each other: sweet and light vanilla and dense and deep chocolate.

On my way home I was reading and then suddenly I looked up and saw a beautiful double rainbow. I just stepped into a water puddle and froze. The sight was mesmerizing. I couldn't make a picture on my cameraphone. It just wouldn't respond to the button-pressing. And I didn't get back outside with my dslr because I had to make food.

This ends this strange day.
I hope I'll be able to wake up early tomorrow. I plan on waking up at 6am when I quit my job finally later this week.

Memories

Memories by asatrian featuring umbrellas

Day 1 of handwriting challenge

Here 15 days of handwriting I said I would do the challenge. So here we go.

Day 1. What do you think of your handwriting?
It's pretty nice and easy to read. And I am a fast-writer but the readability doesn't suffer.
Of course my Armenian, Cyrillic and Latin letters differ. I have a handwriting for every alphabet I know.

And if I write a lot at a time, my handwriting will change every three lines or so. It's never the same for the whole piece.
So that's it.
Tune in for day 2 of this challenge.