Posts in Adventure

Letters from Lapland: Santa Claus, the great hero of children’s dreams…

Adventure Travel 5 Comments

My dear travellers, how are you today? Maybe today’s post will be quite inappropriate because we will talk about the man who is the main symbol of the winter fairytale, but I’m sure you will enjoy as much as I do. I believe that we all of us have one little child who reminds us and teaches us some small things, but very important life lessons that make life better and more interesting.

Santa Claus, the most beloved grandpa in the world is a symbol of the happiness and winter holidays in children’s hearts. A super-hero with his unusual team which is made up of elves – little assistants and reindeers who help him with his sleds to visit the world and share gifts and happiness to children around the world. There is no such child in the world who has not heard and even “met” Santa Claus.

This post would not be possible without the help of the Tourist Board of Rovaniemi – Visit Rovaniemi and the Finnish national airline company Finnair and other local partners.

My first “meeting” with Santa was when my mom took me to New Year’s celebration in her company, where I started to cry when I noticed that it was actually her colleague who just glued up huge white beard. I guess I experienced it as a great trauma, since I had lived in that belief that it was a real Santa Claus.

My mother who decided to “save” my childhood tells me that real Santa Claus lives in the North Pole and is busy and sometimes can not visit all the children in this world, he “asks” his friends in every country to help him. He gives them a special permission to replace him and share gifts and joy with children, while he is on his Christmas tour.

As far the years passed by, little Marko decided to check all these information and on the Internet I found that the real Santa is living in a village of Rovaniemi in the north of Finland, in the area known as the Lapland.

Almost 25 years later, Marko finally got a chance to meet Santa Claus, a superhero of children’s dreams. No matter the years, Lapland will awaken the little child in you. Do not think that only parents with children come to Rovaniemi, there are elderly people who have remained small children in their souls, so they decided to get to know the superhero who marked their childhood even in their golden age…

When you come to Santa Claus Village you have the feeling that you are in fairy tale. It’s a fantasy that lives 365 days a year! The village is adapted to all ages, so that no one will feel neglected at some point during the visit.

In this village, Santa has its own special North Pole post that receives thousands of letters daily, the farm of reindeers and its office where he receives all visitors.

When you enter Santa Claus office, you will see elves who are busy storing presents because less than 200 days are left for this holiday season! Everywhere you can see a lot of lockers full of gifts and ready for delivery!

You can also see the gift packing process and how elves do it with a lot of love and patience.

You can also see a wall of celebrities who came to visit Santa, Claus so you will have the opportunity to see some music star or a serious politician who came to visit this unusual superhero.

Just a couple of minutes and a cheerful elf that led us to Santa Claus, I completely lost myself with the great excitement I met the superhero of my childhood dream. After I passed through one of the doors, I expected to see a continuation of the “Wall of famous people” who had the opportunity to meet Santa Claus. Instead of the wall, I went into the living room where Santa was sitting. Just behind the Christmas tree, I saw the world’s most famous hero with a long, white beard. As I heard those most famous words “Ho ho ho”, I think I wanted to cry out of luck and excitement.

No matter how old you are, this place will surely bring you back to childhood in those nice, carefree days when you believe in the magic of New Year’s holidays and Christmas. It just happened to me! Reality was different it was the summer season, but in this living room with a fireplace and the Christmas tree I had the feeling that the holiday season has already come!

I spent a little more than half an hour with my favourite superhero, I think that Santa Claus realized that a little five-year-old Marko came to him in the body of an adult man. I was interested in how looks like one of his working days. Also, I wanted to check some myths about Santa, so he was more than happy to answer on all my questions.

In this unusual village, you can meet the reindeers, who help Santa Claus every year to visit the world as soon as possible and share the joy along our planet. Not far from Santa Claus’s office there is a small farm of reindeers, where I had the opportunity to see the albino reindeer for the first time in my life! He is a real attraction here in Lapland.

My photographer and I got some herbs with which we can more easily get in touch with animals. I must admit that they are socialized and act like domestic animals. How cute was an irresistable baby reindeer who I wanted to take home with me, but there are minor problems with the transport of animals across the borders of Europe! 😀

For the first few minutes, I was a little scared because I saw that they had very big horns, but after you see that these horns are “coated” with small hairs, you have the impression that they are so fluffy! Reindeers are very lovely animals, until they get a little better knowing you, they still will want to bite you a little. Do not worry, after a few moments when you show herbs as the sign of the friendship, the reindeer will follow you along the farm and will be very jealous if you try to get close to another reindeer on the farm. Believe me, they are very jealous!

This visit brought me back to childhood and I’m glad that I managed to meet the favorite superheroes of my dreams. Perhaps it was so judged, and after 20 years I finally got the opportunity to use my moment of sleep!

After meeting with Santa Claus and visiting the Reindeers Farm, my photographer and I sent postcards to our loved ones from a special post office located in the North Pole. Maybe I’ll get a special letter from Santa Claus this holiday season, but we’ll see! Everything is possible! Maybe I’ll get a bike with the letter, who knows…

My dear travellers, once again we have come to the end of our post. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of this post, I would like to thank my friends from Visit Rovaniemi for this incredible adventure and Arctic Light Hotel for their huge efforts to make our stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Lapland? Have you ever visited Rovaniemi? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Finland before? I would like to share with me your experience! In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Lapland, and I will show you one interesting outfit which I did in collaboration with famous luxury street wear brand Makia. Stay tuned!

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,
Mr.M

This post was sponsored by Visit Rovaniemi Tourist Board and the main partners of this project Finnair National Finnish airline company and Arctic Light Hotel. I also thank my friends from Santa Claus Office, Santa Claus Reindeer farm and my friends from Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the Sony Alpha 7r Mark II camera with Sony FE 24-70 mm lense from special G Master series of professional lenses.
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Letters from Finland: One interesting day in Rovaniemi

Adventure Travel 5 Comments

My dear travellers, I think now is just a perfect time to read another letter from Finland. I sincerely hope that you are doing good to and you are on some vacation, whether if you have been able to travel somewhere or relax at home, vacation is a very important thing to people who works, they need to relax! First of all, I would like to thank you for the wonderful comments you sent me for the previous post, as well and the wonderful messages and questions that you send me to the Instagram about Azerbaijan.

Today on the blog we continue our adventure in Finland, but I promise you that within a few days we will officially “start” our adventure in Azerbaijan! In the previous post, you had the opportunity to meet my new furry friends – Huskies with whom I had the opportunity to hang out. If you are interested to remind a little or you have missed a chance to read my previous post from Lapland, please take time and click on this LINK.

Of course before I start today I would like to thank the team from the Rovaniemi Tourist Board – Visit Rovaniemi as well as the national Finnish airline company Finnair on this wonderful trip. This trip was an incredible experience, which I will for sure remember, for a lifetime.

Today I have set myself a special task, which is to prove that Rovaniemi and Lapland are not only the land of Santa Claus and the cute Reindeers, but that there is also something else that this area is known for. Also, some of you have sent me the questions: “Is it worth it to go to Finnish Lapland in the summer time? Is there anything special and interesting to be seen? ” In a way, for us from the Europe, Finland is one cold Northern European country and rather unexplored country, but that does not mean that it is a country where 365 days of snow and that it is only known by Santa Claus. My shortest possible answer to the previous questions would be: “Yes, there is a lot of interesting things to see!”.

To understand what I’m talking about, I think you should read this post till the end. Have you ever wondered how daily life in the Finnish part of Lapland looks like? How to live in the Arctic? What is the Arctic Circle?

To find out something new and by the way maybe to provide answers to all these questions, the first station in Rovaniemi would be the Arktikum – Science Center and Museum.

Arktikum is a science center and museum located in the center of the city and with its modern look, attract views of tourists. This is the perfect first “station” you need to visit because it will help you to get to know Rovaniemi and the Arctic area better.

The first interesting thing you will notice at the entrance to this museum is a beautiful glass dome over the main hall, and if you look better, you will see a finger-shaped dome that “shows” to the North Pole. At the Arktikum Museum, you always have interesting and educational exhibitions that are interactive, so that they have made every effort to enjoy, while discovering some new interesting facts about the Arctic.

The first exhibition which I visited was dedicated to the history of the city of Rovaniemi, as well as the regions themselves. In addition, you have the opportunity to learn about Saami people. Saami are indigenous inhabitants of the Arctic region of the Sapmi, which includes today’s space of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola peninsula in Russia. They are the only remaining autochthonous people of the European Union who lived in Lapland even before the national borders were established and their history was nearly 7,000 years old.

In addition, you can find out a lot of historical facts related to Rovaniemi, such as what happened to the city after the Second World War, as well as the remaining animal and plant species found in this region.

Rovaniemi, like the whole of Lapland, had an interesting history. The city developed until the Second World War when it was literally completely destroyed, and after that the city was completely rebuilt out of the ashes again. Only a few objects have “survived” the attack, and one of them is the building of today’s Korundi, a gallery of modern art. I promise that I will write about this art gallery about this extraordinary treasury of contemporary art.

It is believed that this region was a settlement 7,000 years ago, when the first representatives of the Saami people who came to these area. They developed some basics of the exchange of goods, which were just the roots of some trade systems that we know today.

In my head it goes like this: “Buyer: Hello, can I get these boots for 4 salmons? Seller: It’ ok! (or seller wants to bargain and raise the value of his goods).

This exhibition is really incredible because you have the opportunity to experience the cold Arctic in another way and just to see that life is happening there in a similar way as it was in other parts of Europe and the world.

Of course, in addition to learn more about the progress of society, you also realize that nature is also the most important thing which need to think about and take care. This region has an extremely rich herbs world and Arctic animal breeds.

I personally saw one beautiful owl and some other animals in just one day, but that does not mean you will not meet a wolf or a polar squirrel. Who knows, everything is possible!

I must admit that the Arktikum was one of the most interesting museums that I had the opportunity to visit in my whole blogging career. It’s simply incredible how much a person can learn something new and useful through some interesting exhibitions in the museum.

Lapland is a place where you can find some reindeers and mooses more than people! (of course that is one local joke) I am sure that this land has more than one species of these deers than dogs, and this is a sign that nature is in the strong connection with the people in Lapland.

After the story of the history of this city, as well as of the entire Arctic region, you continue your journey to the second part of the Arktikum museum, where there is an exhibition that explains some of the natural phenomena.

In this part of the world, there are known natural phenomena that occur in various seasons. For example, in the winter, polar light appears. Today, this is just a beautiful colours on the pictures on Instagram, but in some past times people were afraid of this incredible phenomenon.

There are more legends, but one of the most interesting is the myth of Polar Fox. “When the winter comes, the fox can’t be calm, she jumps through the sky, and with the tip of her tail, she forms certain parts, and thus, those unreal rays of green color appear in the sky. It was not a good sign, ghosts are not happy! ”

The natural phenomenon I must admit most of all is the phenomenon known as “Midnight Sun” that occur in the summer months from the beginning of June to the middle of July, and during that period the Sun does not go down at all.

Imagine seeing the sun at midnight or at 1 o’clock in the morning… Oh yes, there is no sleeping at all! I think that this part of the world is ideal for us bloggers, because we can work literally 24 hours a day, just to take photos of our outfits and finally little Marko can finish all the work on time! 😀

In addition to these famous phenomena, you can find out more about the effect of “Greenhouse Effect” and the problem of the melting of ice on the poles. These are extremely huge problems and we have to treat them all as humanity if we want to survive.

Nature helps us, we can help her and continue the normal flow, and we all live in harmony with nature. So we need a little bit of happiness, why should we ruin it all?

Well, after we have a little thought about our current state as humanity and if we have awakened the consciousness, I think that it requires a cultural upbringing. If you remember, I mentioned to you that Rovaniemi during the Second World War had literally been destroyed and that a couple of buildings had survived the attack.

One of these buildings is today’s building, which is home of the Korundi Modern Art Gallery. Korundi is a real treasury, where you can find exclusively some master-pieces of modern art.

A few years ago, Rovaniemi city administration has decided to help young artists and encourage their work. For some time they thought how to help develop creativity and keep young hopes and Korundi opened its doors to all young artists.

As an ordinary observer, who really does not understand the true value of these works, I enjoyed conversation with my guide, who was trying hard to explain their way of working.

New art workshops were opened, young artists opened their art schools, and I had the opportunity to see how a young artist taught some seniors how to develop their talent for painting, completely free!

I thought that artist can not live normally, but it seems that it’s just about how much consciousness is developed about the need for art. Maybe I do not know the value of all these artworks, but I realised that I was staying in front, while I was sitting and watching some kind of modern art, I was calm down in some unusual way.

Maybe I do not understand art, but that does not mean that I can not understand how to enjoy their beauty. Still the beauty of the work itself is in the eye of the observer.

My day in Rovaniemi was fulfilled and I did not feel any special tiredness, I think this was a form of educational vacation where I learned a lot of new things that I was interested in, so maybe that’s why I’m excited as I write this post now.

Of course, this blogger must have something to eat, so I received a recommendation from the Rovaniemi Tourism Board to try some local cuisine in Rakas restaurant. My photographer only love this part of our trips when we are going to eat, so the team from the tourist board and the restaurant itself wanted to prove their culinary skills…

My photographer is more of a type of “meat” lover person, but I decided to eat some vegetables this time because this blogger got a little weight up, so there was something wrong with the jeans, so I had to go on the diet.

My dear travellers, once again we have come to the end of our post. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of this post, I would like to thank my friends from Visit Rovaniemi for this incredible adventure and Arctic Light Hotel for their huge efforts to make our stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Lapland? Have you ever visited Rovaniemi? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Finland before? I would like to share with me your experience!

In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Lapland, and I will introduce you with the most beloved man in the world – Santa Claus! I can’t wait to share all those beautiful photos with you. Stay tuned!

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,
Mr.M

This post was sponsored by Visit Rovaniemi Tourist Board and the main partners of this project Finnair National Finnish airline company and Arctic Light Hotel. I also thank my friends from Arktikum Science Centre and Museum, Korundi Art Gallery, Rakas Restaurant and my friends from Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the Sony Alpha 7r Mark II camera with Sony FE 24-70 mm lense from special G Master series of professional lenses.
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Letters from Rovaniemi: One day with Furry Friends…

Adventure Travel 4 Comments

Dear My travellers, welcome to the new post on Mr.M blog. As I promised you today, we are starting a new adventure somewhere in Northern Europe, more precisely in the north of Finland – Lapland. At the very beginning, I would like to thank the national Finnish airline company Finnair and the Rovaniemi Tourist Board – Visit Rovaniemi for this wonderful experience.

Have you ever wondered how looks like daily life in Lapland? Lapland is a cultural region in Finland, which is known as the home of the world’s most desirable grandpa – Santa Claus. In addition, Lapland is known as the Saami country that settled this land 7,000 years ago. The first inhabitants were exclusively engaged in hunting and fishing.

In addition to hunting and fishing, the process of domestication and raising of reindeers has begun. Saami people are inhabitants of the Arctic of the Sapmi region, which includes today’s space of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola peninsula in Russia. They are the only remaining autochthonous people of the European Union who lived in Lapland even before the national borders were established and their history was nearly 7,000 years old.

I must admit that when I received an invitation from the Rovaniemi Tourist Board to come and visit the heart of Lapland, I felt a great satisfaction and special feeling of happiness. I am honored because I have the opportunity to be one of the ambassadors of the city and share my stories on the blog of this charming town in Lapland.

Today’s post will be dedicated to lovely beings who love us unconditionally, regardless of everything. Our most sophisticated four-legged furry friends who do not leave us when it comes to the worst periods of our lives, who don’t know the value of money and seek only for love, little food, a warm space when it’s cold and rainy, and in return you will get incredible love for the lifetime…

Valentijn is the person who dedicated most of his life to the Husky, a breed that has always fascinated him. The Husky is a dog which is totally different from all other breeds because of its excessive love for running. “It’s a special dog that is not for every owner!”, This is the first sentence I’ve heard from Valentijn, a man who for almost 20 years loves this incredible breed of incredible dogs.

This breed for centuries has been used exclusively for sledding and racing, and today they attract attention with their beautiful fur and incredible color of the eyes. During my visit to Bearhill Husky kennel, owned by Valentijn and his family, I learned many new things about this breed of dogs, as well and some of his wishes and dreams that he plans to achieve in the future.

The Husky is a fast, powerful and agile dog, a real athlete who simply has an incredible desire to run. Some people would have thought it was too much of an effort for the animal, but as I just mentioned, Husky is a breed that has been used for sledding and racing as well.

Dogs, like humans, have their own desires and needs. Each dog is a personality for itself, you have those dogs who are simply born to be leaders and lead others in the team and those who need someone to lead them and direct them in the right way. This is also one of the most basic rule in raising this breed of dogs.

In Bearhill Husky kennel, Valentijn and his team build with all dogs a relationship that will be beneficial to the dog, while meeting all the basic needs of the dog to be happy and satisfied. Valentijn, alongside his family, has another large four-legged furry family of more than 100 members. Beside the fact that he had the opportunity to grow up in Africa, most members of his furry family are named after by the tribes, rivers and lakes in Africa.

All members of this furry family have some of their responsibilities, younger members carelessly enjoy the charm of growing up and childhood while coaches work with them to learn some of the basic commands such as sit, lay down, turn around. I have to admit that it was so sweet to see the youngest members of the furry family who are confused looking at the coach and the older dog who is there to properly train them. Depending on the age of the dog, the tempo of training is properly individually adjusted.

The youngest members – puppies 2,3 months old exclusively stay in the “dog nursery” with their mother and all initial trainings are done with the help of their mother who shows them basic commands as the best model. In this way puppies easier to learn commands more quickly.

The first more serious trainings for young dogs start when they are 7,8 months old where the dogs reach a certain age and strength they need to work and train. After that, young adolescents dogs successfully direct their attention and energy and easily overcome new tasks.

I attended the training of young puppies who are currently learning the first and most important command – to return home. After 14 years, I again had the opportunity to see so many cute puppies on one place so much amount of sweetness in one place, since it was 14 years now when I chose my best furry friend – Bebi (Labrador – Golden Retriever). I was a kid and it was my first time to see so many little souls in one place. After so many years, with a little help of the Tourist Board of the city of Rovaniemi, I again felt that excitement in Bearhill Husky kennel!

Now you will understand a quote “the dog is the best man’s friend”, that is really one big truth. Dogs do not care if you are rich or poor, he will always give you love, and as your best friend, you will become his whole world and help him to connect with the rest of the world.

When you bring a dog into your life, you need to know the fact that it is not a toy, it is a living being that feels it all. Dogs, like humans, are afraid of being alone and being rejected, so always before you take a pretty and cute puppy, keep in mind the fact that puppy will grow up and become an adult dog, and after a senior dog then you have to help him when he is the hardest time. So you need to be aware of all those important thing before you get a dog or any animal.

Dogs may not be able to speak, but they can show you the love with their unselfish gestures just to show their devotion which is priceless. Each owner has to help his dog understand some things, without any use of violence of any form, as this can affect the dog. Like humans, not all dogs are over-intelligent. Some dogs need more time to master some commands and rules, while some dogs need significantly less time to learn the commands.

If you don’t teach your dog or hire professionals to help your dog, your dog will not be able to behave and to learn some things then you must be prepared to understand some things and you wouldn’t have to be angry at your furry friend, because he didn’t have opportunity to understand you what you really want.

Valentijn equally loves all members of his furry family, but only slightly shows love to the youngest members of his community, while on the other hand those oldest members who have more than 10 years show love after training. Regardless of age, every dog likes to cuddle and play with his owner.

These dogs are not trained to be pets, but they build a fair and friendly relationship that helps the dog to properly develop his personality, to meet all his basic needs and to keep the dog in good shape. Husky is a dog that love sledding and racing is absolutely in its blood, it is a true four-legged athlete who raise a lot of love for running. Running for this breed is not an effort, it is the joy of life that other breeds of dogs do not capable to do the same.

After I had the chance to see how looks like one day in a dog kennel where over 100 members each have something to “say”, you realize that this is a big mess, but also a cute noise. Valentijn patiently waited for us to feed together the youngest members of his furry crew, since after breakfast they go to training and on a small holiday where almost all puppets are going to sleep.

After the noise and distress, the rain distracted us, so we continued the story of his life and work in the Bearhill Husky kennel with tea and cookies in his interesting cabin.

Valentijn as a little boy, was raised with huge love for this dog breed. Since this job requires a lot of investment, it was necessary to pass a certain period of time and finally managed to open his kennel after more than 15 years of hard work.

Every kennel’s owner dreams to have the best dog team for sledding and race. Valentijn told me his biggest dream is to go to Alaska, where the biggest snow sledding race is held, where only the best dog kennels come from the whole world with their sledding breeds. This race is not at all naïve, it lasts for a couple of days, there is a specially defined route with which dogs must pass, but they also take great care of their safety.

Specifically this sledding race itself lasts for several days and each team has at the beginning 14 to 16 dogs in their teams. Of course, due to unforeseen circumstances, some dogs do not finish the race because of their effort, they stay quarantined until the end of the race, depending on where the owner left them.

For this race, all kennel owners are preparing for years because the dog needs a certain racing experience besides the strength, so before this big sledding race, dogs go to less difficult races where they just get some experience and learn some rules of racing.

This race itself is very difficult both for dogs and for the owner who goes with them because only one person can go with the dogs in the team. Which means that the owner is there to feed the dogs, wearing them special jackets that are needed for these weather conditions and preparing the dogs for a successful continuation of the race. During the race there are certain places (smaller cities) in which each team can take a break, during which it can take food and water for dogs and other necessary equipment. There are also veterinarians who check the health condition of the dogs, so that everything is organized in the best possible way that dogs can do what they like most, TO RUN!

In these sledding races, the most important thing is to have dogs that simply have the cheerful spirit and who are always ready to continue their journey and in that way motivate other dogs in the team to continue the race. The more dogs like these you have you have a better chances of winning. After a couple of hours which I spent with this wonderful and very intelligent dog breed, my photographer and I continued to discover the beauty of Lapland, so we went to the hills with special bicycles.

I have to admit that for some time I was not active, although as I was as younger, I was constantly riding a bike around the mountain because my father insisted that in a healthy body you can find a healthy spirit. That is why my grandfather, grandmother and my father decided to buy a house on the mountain so that they could raise my awareness of the importance of sports and healthy mountain air in my sister and me as well.

My father still one sportive active guy, who is riding a bike around the mountain, while my sister and I decided to replace it with city transport! What my grandmother would say “Guys, your mission has failed!”. After a few years, little Marko again sat on a bicycle and with the help of Johannes, the guy who is one of the founders of the Roll Outdoors mini company, which allows all visitors to a slightly different way awaken their adventurous spirit and that with bikes of new generation with engines easier overcome obstacles and enjoy the nature of Lapland.

My dear travellers, once again we have come to the end of our post. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of this post, I would like to thank my friends from Visit Rovaniemi for this incredible adventure and Arctic Light Hotel for their huge efforts to make our stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Lapland? Have you ever visited Rovaniemi? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Finland before? I would like to share with me your experience!

In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Lapland, and I will show you how you can spend quality time in Rovaniemi! I can’t wait to share all those beautiful photos with you. Stay tuned!

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,
Mr.M

This post was sponsored by Visit Rovaniemi Tourist Board and the main partners of this project Finnair National Finnish airline company and Arctic Light Hotel. I also thank my friends from Bearhill Husky kennel, Roll Outdoors and my friends from Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the Sony Alpha 7r Mark II camera with Sony FE 24-70 mm lense from special G Master series of professional lenses.

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Postcard from Sardinia: Cagliari, Metropolitan city with a soul!

Adventure Travel 4 Comments

My dear travellers, how are you today? I hope you are ready for a new adventure, because after Malta it is a time to visit a “neighborhood” – Sardinia. Today’s post will be dedicated to the capital of this unusual Italian island – Cagliari, where I had the opportunity to spend a few wonderful days.

Before I start with today’s post, I would like to thank the organizers of this trip – the Regional Tourism Organization of Sardinia which normally belongs to the National Tourist Organization of the Republic of Italy. Without their help this journey would not be possible and I would not have the opportunity to share my impressions and the beauty of this interesting town today with all of you.

When you think of island tourism in Italy, people often think of Sicily. What people mostly forget is the beautiful pearl of the Mediterranean – Sardinia. Always wondered about the famous question which the island is better and why. The answer to this question is difficult to give, because it all depends on the personal preferences and needs of the passengers. Some say Sicily is better because it has more to show and that Palermo is a significantly more developed city, while on the other side for Sardinia travelers say that there are more beautiful beaches and that the jewel of Sardinia – Cagliari is also full of interesting touristic sights and that it can be equally with Palermo as well.

It’s a “fight” that will always be up to date, but my advice is to visit both islands and to feel the difference yourself. I had the opportunity to visit both islands and personally think that Sardinia is better because it has more natural beauties and if you want to provide yourself a real holiday without crowds, it is a perfect place to spend your holidays in Sardinia.

Cagliari (Sardinian: Casteddu) is the main, and also the largest city on the island. If by any chance we want to translate its meaning from the Sardinian language, its translation is extremely simple – CASTLE. Cagliari has about 160,000 inhabitants, while taking into the whole metropolitan area with other surrounding municipalities, this city boasts nearly 450,000 inhabitants. Cagliari is 26th place by size all over Italy and is the largest city in Sardinia.

Of course, this time I tried to find some interesting historical facts. Cagliari is an ancient city with a long history, experienced the rule of several civilizations. In the foundations of the buildings of today’s modern city, there are evidences which confirms the claims of scientists and historians that the first human settlement of this part of Italy began around five thousand years ago, from the Neolithic time to the present.

Historical sites that include the prehistoric house Domus de Janas, a large necropolis (a cemetery) from Cartagena, a Roman amphitheater, a Byzantine basilica, three towers from the time of Pisa and a powerful fortification system that has made the city a core of Spanish Habsburg in the western Mediterranean. The main natural beauties are natural sheltered port in Cagliari, a strong fortress Castel di Castro and a modern Casteddu city (Cagliari).

Cagliari was the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1324 to 1848, when Turin became the official capital of the kingdom (which in 1861 became the Kingdom of Italy). Today, the city is a regional cultural, educational, political and artistic center, famous for its diverse Secession architecture and several monuments. It is also known as the economic and industrial hub of Sardinia, which has one of the largest ports on the Mediterranean Sea and an international airport.

During the Second World War, the Allies bombed Cagliari in February 1943. To escape the danger of bombardment and difficult living conditions, many people have been evacuated from the city. After the war, large losses of human life were identified, and about 80% of buildings were damaged. After the war, the city itself won the gold medal of military courage.

After a ceasefire with allies in September 1943, the German army took control of Cagliari and the island, but soon retreated calmly to strengthen its positions in continental Italy. The US military then took control of Cagliari. After the war, the number of inhabitants of this lovely city began to grow again and numerous important facilities were built.

I will tell you some special useful information that you should know if you go to Sardinia. The international airport is located near the city, so you can reach the city center by train in only 5 minutes and the price of the ticket per direction is 1.30 euros. Also, in the very center of the city there is a supermarket at the square where are prices the cheapest in Italy.

The whole city can be reached by foot and from the main square to the sea coast you can reach quickly and easily because everything is relatively close and it is not necessary to use public transport. Of course, if you want to go to the beach you need to use public transport services, because some of the beaches are not close to the centre of the city itself.

The cathedral in Cagliari is a cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the Holy Cecilia. This is the seat of Archbishop of Cagliari.

The church was built in the 13th century, having received the status of cathedral in 1258. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the cathedral was restored. In the 1930s, it finally got a facade that we now have the opportunity to see in the neo-Romanesque style, inspired by the cathedral in Pisa.

My dear travellers, once again we have come to the end of our travel adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of this post, I would like to thank my friends from Regional Tourism Board of Sardinia for this incredible adventure and for their huge efforts to make my stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Sardinia? Have you ever visited this lovely island? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Cagliari before? I would like to share with me your experience!

In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Malta, and I will show you my last outfit which I wore on Malta Fashion Week! I can’t wait to share all those beautiful photos with you. After that we will together find out how looks like the North of Finland – Lapland, the land where lives the most beloved grandpa in the world – Santa Claus. Stay tuned!

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,

Mr.M

This post was sponsored by Regional Tourism Board of Sardinia. I also thank my friends from Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the Sony Alpha 7r Mark II camera with Sony FE 24-70 mm lense from special G Master series of professional lenses.
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Letters from Malta: Gozo, your new happy place!

Adventure Travel 5 Comments

Dear my travellers, welcome to another new post from Malta. This series of posts from Malta was one of the longest I’ve ever worked on, but also one interesting experience. Certainly you would not expect one person who is afraid of water and does not know how to swim, while having extremely sensitive skin on sunlight, so he is protected from the sun as best as he knows, and besides all that he adores the seaside places. This person I described in the previous sentence is real ME, I was always delighted with Malta, and for years I had planned to go there, but my wish finally came true.

Today I will show you a natural oasis of peace, located not far from the island of Malta. Before I start with today’s post, I would like to thank the team from the Malta Tourism Authority, who made the most effort to present Malta at the best possible way and that I was able to feel all the beauties of this wonderful paradise island in the Mediterranean. Thanks again!

Gozo is the island of the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, the island belongs to the Republic of Malta. After Malta, it is the second largest island in the archipelago. This island is totally different than the southeastern “neighbor”, Gozo is rural and famous for its picturesque hills, which make the relief of this lovely island.

The island of Gozo has long been linked to the island of Ogygia, the homeland of Calypso’s in Homer’s Odyssey. In this story, Calypso is nymph who possesses great supernormal powers, is fondly in love with Odyssey, holds him captive for several years, until finally she frees him to continue his journey home.

Since March 2015, nearly 40,000 inhabitants live on this island, and its inhabitants are known as Gozitans (Maltese: Għawdxin). Gozo possesses an extremely rich culture and history, which is of huge significance, such as the temples of Ggantija, which, along with other megalithic temples of Malta, are among the oldest natural existing structures in the world.

Gozo is mostly rural character and is not so developed and urban like Malta. It is well known for its Azure Window (natural sedimentary arc), a natural port that was an extraordinary masterpiece of nature, which unfortunately was destroyed in 2017 due to a natural disaster. The island has other significant natural sights, including the Inland Sea (lagoon) and Wied il-Mielaħ (natural sedimentary arc).

On the island there are many beaches, as well as coastal resorts that are popular with locals and tourists as well, and the most popular are Marsalforn and Xlendi. Gozo is considered one of the best diving destinations in the Mediterranean and the best natural center for water sports.

Of course, as always, I tried to find out some interesting facts about this unusual island. Gozo was inhabited from 5000 BC (before Christ), when farmers from nearby Sicily settled the island. Due to an interesting discovery of similar ceramics originating from the Gār Dalam era, it is believed that the first settlers of this island were from the area of ​​Agrigento, but it is currently not known where the farmers from Sicily came from. They are believed to have lived in caves on the periphery of today’s place on Gozo – San Lawrenz.

Gozo was an important place for cultural evolution, and during the neolithic period, the temples of Ggantija were built, which are among the oldest freestanding natural structures in the world, as well as the oldest religious facilities in the world. The name of the temple is in Maltese, due to “belonging to the giants”, because the legend in the Maltese and Gozitan folklore says that the temples were built by giants.

Another important Maltese archaeological site on Gozo, dating back to the Neolithic period, is the Xagra stone circle. Also, unconfirmed myths that were passed from generation to generation, some ancient Greek historians (especially Euhemerus and Callimachus) claim that Gozo is an island Homer which described as the island of Ogygia, the home of the beautiful nymph Calypso.

The Gozo was occupied by the Carthaginians, who erected a temple in Astarte on the island. It is believed that the island was merged with the Great Roman Empire around 218 BC, where the first bronze coins in the 1st century BC were also minted. On them there was the head of the Astarte in the form of a half-warrior, a star and legend Gaulitn.

In 1551, the Ottomans, led by Sinan Pasha and Dragut, attacked and devastated Gozo and seized most of the inhabitants, about 5,000, who were forcibly taken to Libya. The island of Gozo was resettled between 1565 and 1580 by the people of Malta, the period when Malta was under the leadership of the Order of St. John – the Maltese knights.

The history of Gozo is strongly linked to the history of Malta, since the island of Gozo was ruled by Malta, with a short period of autonomy after the uprising against the French forces following Napoleon’s conquest of Malta, between 1798 and 1801.

How can you reach the island of Gozo from Malta?

Tourists and local people can reach the island by ferry. There are regular daily departures between Mġarr port on Gozo and Keirkewwa on the northwestern coast of Malta. Departures are arranged so that every 45 minutes during the summer and during the winter you can enjoy the beauties of the island of Gozo. The ferry ride takes about 30 minutes in each direction. The service is used by travelers (locals, including students of Gozitan studying at the University of Malta and tourists), and is also used to transport goods between the island.

At the end of the 20th century, the first proposal was made to build a special underwater tunnel between Malta and Gozo. After some time, a feasibility study of the project was carried out where it was concluded that tunnel construction between these two islands is possible, but would have a negative impact on the environment. Of course, this project would allow people to go and visit the island whenever they want, but on the other hand, Gozo might have lost even the most valuable – natural beauty. We will see what will happen, I am sure that their leaders will make an appropriate decision that would contribute to the preservation of this natural treasure.

My dear travellers, once again we have come to the end of our travel adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of this post, I would like to thank my friends from Malta Tourism Authority for this incredible adventure and for their huge efforts to make my stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Gozo? Have you ever visited this lovely island? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Malta before? I would like to share with me your experience!

In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Malta, and I will show you my other fashion outfits which I wore on Malta Fashion Week! I can’t wait to share all those beautiful photos with you.

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,

Mr.M

P.S. If you want to know more about Malta you should read my other posts, I am sure you will find plenty of interesting tips and information about this incredible island.

  1. Letters from Malta: The Mediterranean Love at First Sight… (Travel Post)
  2. Letters from Malta: Mdina. Silence speaks more than Words… (Travel Post)
  3. Letters from Malta: My Glamorous Escape to Valletta (Travel Post)
  4. Letters from Malta: Stylish and Fashionable Summer on the streets of Valletta (Fashion Outfit Post)

This post was sponsored by Malta Tourism Authority. I also thank my friends from Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the Sony Alpha 7r Mark II camera with Sony FE 24-70 mm lense from special G Master series of professional lenses.
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Letters from Malta: My Glamorous Escape to Valletta

Adventure Travel 5 Comments

Hello, my dear travellers, how are you today? Summer has officially come in Serbia and I have not yet managed to put off all the wardrobe yet, I still have clothes for the entire 4 seasons around the house. What’s your situation? I hope you are doing good on these tropical temperatures, but today I will try to refresh you with the waves from Malta.

Last week, I promised you a new letter from Malta and I will dedicate this post to the capital of this paradise island – Valletta. This post was made in cooperation with the National Tourist Organization of the Republic of Malta – Malta Tourism Authority and its partners, without this project just would not be possible. I hope you will enjoy and learn something new. Before I begin to want to give you a little friendly tip: take some refreshment and some snacks, you’ll need it! There is a lot a lot to be said about this city!

Valletta is the main capital of Malta. Located in the southeast part of the island, between the port of Marsamxett in the west and the Great Port in the east, Valletta is the southernmost capital of Europe. The city itself has about 6000 inhabitants, while the surrounding metropolitan area has a population of just over 400,000. Impressive numbers, right?

The city architecture is of baroque character, with elements of neoclassical and modern architecture, although the Second World War left great scars, especially because of the ruined Royal Opera House. The city was officially recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.

The cities fortifications, together with the beauty of Baroque palaces, gardens and churches, have led Europe’s ruling forces to give the city a special nickname “Superbissima” – the Italian word that signifies “The greatest pride.”

During the long and tumultuous history of Malta, it was under various influences. Periods:

  1. Malta under the leadership of the Order of St. John the Baptist: 1566 – 1798
  2. Malta as a colony of France: 1798 – 1800
  3. Protectorate Malta (Part of the Sicilian Kingdom, but under the protection of Great Britain): 1800 – 1813
  4. Malta as the British colony: 1813 – 1964
  5. State of Malta (the predecessor of the modern Republic of Malta): 1964-1974
  6. Republic of Malta since 1974, until today

A MONUMENT SIGNIFY AN INDEPENDENCE, WHEN MALTA IS AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY FROM 1964.

The city was founded by Jean de Vallette, the Grand Master of the Order of St. John, after a successful defense from the Turks in 1565. An interesting fact is that the streets all over the city are designed to channel the flow of pleasant wind from the main port. Valletta is a masterpiece of the baroque architecture of the 16th century. After the great siege, the knights of the Order decided to build the city. If you want to know more about history of this charming city, you can visit this link.

Pope Pius IV sent his best friend and best architect of that time, Francesco Laparelli, who worked with Michelangelo on construction of Church of St. Peter in Rome, in the great wish to build a city that will be a fortress for the defense of Christianity, but also a cultural masterpiece. Lapareli designed the city in just seven days, leaving the completion of his work to architect Girolamo Cesare.

Baroque Cathedral of St. John is a masterpiece of Girol Cesare. It is also a masterpiece by the Calabrian painter and knight Matia Preti, who decorated the interior of the Cathedral. The cathedral is the sanctuary of the knights of St. John. There is also Karavaggio’s masterpiece-the work of Capturing the head of St. John the Baptist. On the floor are mosaics, in fact tombs of knights. The interior of the cathedral is extremely rich, as opposed to a simple façade. Preti designed intricate carved stone walls and side altars with scenes from the life of John the Baptist.

Paintings on the ceiling look like for an average human eye as three-dimensional images, but when you look better, you can see that the artist wisely created the illusion of three-dimensionality with little help from the shadows. It should be noted that the carving was done directly in-place, instead of being self-engraved, and then subsequently attached to the walls as it used to be at that time. The Maltese limestone from which the cathedral was built is especially suitable for such kind of art carvings.

I have to tell you that the whole marble floor is an entire series of tombs, in which are about 400 knights and officers of the Order. There is also a crypt that contains the graves of great masters like Philippe Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, Claude de la Sengle, Jean Parisot de Valette and Alof de Wignacourt.

The famous Caravaggio masterpiece with a display of the splitting of the head of St. John the Baptist is also the most famous work of art in the church. It is considered one of the Caravagio’s masterpieces, the largest canvas ever painted with the only painting signed by the painter. The painting was restored in the late nineties in Florence, this painting is one of the most imposing applications of Chararoscuro style, which is best known with a circle of light that illuminates the scene of the cut of the head of St. John at the request of Salome.

The Cathedral contains nine rich chapels, one dedicated to Our Lady of Philermos and the rest dedicated to the patron saints of each of the Order’s eight langues. The following chapels are located on the south side of the church:

The Chapel of Our Lady of Philermos, also known as the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, originally contained an icon of Our Lady of Philermos, which was in possession of the Order since the Crusades. The icon was taken to Russia by Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch zu Bolheim when the Order was expelled from Malta in 1798, and now it is found in the National Museum of Montenegro.

Cathedral of St. John is located in the center of Valletta, a short walk from the bus station near the City Gate. The main entrance to the cathedral is located on square St. John, but the entrance for the visitors is from the Great Obsidian Square, which is located in the Republic Street near the main court. The cathedral can be visited every working day and on Saturdays, on Sundays and during the holidays is closed.

We are continue our walk tour through this charming town and soon we come across an unusual park. The Upper Barrakka Gardens was once a private garden of Italian knights. From there, there is a fantastic view of the Great Harbor, the largest and deepest natural harbor in the world, three cities – Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua), as well as in numerous bays and the town of Kalkara.

At the top of the first finger of the bay is Kalkara and the fortress Rikasoli. There was recorded a movie called “Troy”. Next is Vittoriosa. At its top is the Fortress of St. Angelo, the jewel of the Maltese military legacy. On the next finger, Senglea and the Fortress of St. Michael. And between them is the Cospicua. These three cities represent the cradle of Maltese history. In them was the first home of knights when they arrived in Malta.

Below the Upper Gardens of Barrakka is the military cabinet Laskaris. There are tunnels from the 17th century, which during the Second World War were rebuilt into a complex of military rooms. From there, allies planned a deployment to Sicily under the name “Husky”. From the garden you can see the Lower Barrakka Gardens, where is the monument to Alexander Bell, the first British governor in Malta. There is Fort Saint Elmo, nowadays a famous military museum, where faith, one of the three gladiator planes, as well as the baptism of St. George, give Malta for the courage in the Second World War.

In the park there are several monuments dedicated to many prominent figures, including Gerald Strickland, Thomas Maitland and Winston Churchill. In the garden there is a replica of the statue of Les Gavroches (Street Boys) of the Maltese sculptor Antonio Sciortin. The original is in the National Museum of Fine Arts.

The gardens are connected with the lower Valeta valley, where the Lower Gardens of Barrakka and the nearby Lascaris Wharf are located to the Barak lifts. The first elevator on the construction site was built in 1905, but was closed in 1973 and dismantled in 1983. The new elevator was officially opened on December 15, 2012.

What else can I say about this incredible city? Valletta has been declared the European Capital of Culture for 2018. This year was marked by a manifestation called Erba ‘Piazzas (Four Squares), with manifestations that were focused on events in the 4 main squares in the city – Triton Square, St. Gorge, Square St. John and Castille Square.

Valletta is a lovely and irresistible town that will remain for a long time in your heart. You will experience an adventure that you will not forget, and I am sure you will always have enough reasons to return to Valletta and continue your adventure. I am sure that I will return to this city again, there is still a lot things to see, but I have tried to present you my first impression about Valletta.

There is an interesting event – International Festival – Days of Baroque in Valeta is held every year in January. Jazz music in Malta was presented in the Valetta area by Allied sailors during both World War II. The first Maltese Jazz Festival was also held here. My reason for visiting Malta this year was the Malta Fashion Week, which is held every year in May/June. A fashion event that gathers some of the most famous names of the European fashion scene each year.

This year, it was the famous Spanish fashion designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, who this year, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of her first fashion show, opened her Foundation and showed her new Autumn-Winter 2019/20 collection at Malta Fashion Week.

My dear travellers, once again we have come to the end of our travel adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of this post, I would like to thank my friends from Malta Tourism Authority for this incredible adventure and for their huge efforts to make my stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Valletta? Have you ever visited this lovely city? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Malta before? I would like to share with me your experience!

In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Malta, you will find out more about this island and I will show you my first fashion outfit post which I did in Valletta! It is one simple outfit with the great summer vibe, one of my outfits which I wore for the Malta Fashion Week. I can’t wait to share all those beautiful photos with you.

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,

Mr.M

This post was sponsored by Malta Tourism Authority. I also thank my friends from Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the Sony Alpha 7r Mark II camera with Sony FE 24-70 mm lense from special G Master series of professional lenses.
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Letters from Malta: Mdina, Silence speaks more than Words…

Adventure Travel 8 Comments

Dear my travellers, welcome back to my blog! How are you today? I have to admit that this weather is too hard for me, the headache do not allow me to work properly. I am sure, this is because of this change of weather, but what to do, everything I know is that: “Show must go on!”. Today I will keep my promise and I will dedicate today’s post to an unusual town in Malta that delighted me with its architecture. Now, I will officially say – Welcome to Mdina!

This post is also the second post from a special series of posts from Malta in collaboration with the National Tourism Board of Malta. Without their unselfish help, this project wouldn’t be possible. I would like to thank the whole team, the wonderful guides that managed to introduce Malta in a completely different way. This was a wonderful experience, which I will remember for a long time.

Mdina is a fortified town in the northern part of Malta, which served as the capital city on the island from the Ancient Age to the Middle Ages. The city is still surrounded within the walls and in this lovely city lives a little less than 300 inhabitants, but with the neighboring city of Rabat, which was otherwise named after the Arabic word for the suburbs. According to the latest population census, these two cities together have slightly more than 10,000 inhabitants.

It is considered that Mdina has been formed in the 8th century BC (before Christ), and the original name of this city was “Maleth”. The city was founded by the ancient Phoenicians, and later the Romans renamed it to Melita. The ancient city – Melite, was larger than today’s Mdina and was reduced to the present size during the Byzantine or Arab occupation of Malta.

After, the city received its present name, originating from the Arabic word “medina”. The city remained the capital of Malta for almost the entire Middle Ages, until the arrival of the Order of St. John in 1530, when Birgu became the administrative center of the island. Mdina experienced a period of great fall – the dark ages of Mdina, but in the 18th century Mdina managed to regain it’s glory.

Mdina still remained the center of the Maltese nobility and religious institutions till today. The city has never managed to regain its former glory which Mdina had until 1530, which has also led to the nickname “The Silent City” by the inhabitants  and tourists. Mdina is on the “UNESCO World Heritage List”, and is currently one of the main tourist attractions in Malta.

According to law regulations, it is forbidden to use any type of transport vehicles that law does not apply to property owners, and this may be one of the reasons why this unusual small town in Malta got the nickname “Silent City”. I know you always love to find some interesting historical facts so I tried to find out as much as possible about Mdina this time.

Certain historical writings prove that the plateau on which the Mina was built has been inhabited since the prehistory period, and until the Bronze Age it was a “natural shelter” for its position and natural conditions. The Phoenicians colonized Malta in the 8th century before the new era. After the ancient Phoenicians, the Roman Empire took over Malta in 218 year BC and the city was named Melita. At the time of the reign of the Roman Empire, the city was about three times larger than today’s Mdina, including the area of today’s city of Rabat.

Today there are very few remains of Melite, a city from the period of the reign of the great Roman Empire. The most important are the ruins of Domvs Romana, where several well-preserved mosaics, sculptures and other remains were discovered. The remains that are considered to be the foundations of the Temple of Apollo, the remains of the city walls and many more are excavated.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, an additional fortification was built in the city, reducing it to the present size. This was done to make the city core easier to defend, and this phenomenon of “downsizing” of cities was common throughout the Mediterranean in the early Middle Ages. Although people believed that the Arabs built these additional walls, some historians believe that they were built during the Byzantine Empire around the 8th century, when the threat by Arabs increased.

In the year 870, the Byzantine Melite, ruled by Governor Amros, was surrounded by Aghlabid headed by Halaf al-Hadim. He was killed in the battles, and Sawada Ibn Muhammad was sent from Sicily to continue the siege after his death. The real duration of the siege is unknown, but it probably lasted for several weeks or a few months. After Melite fell down from the occupiers, the inhabitants were massacred, the city destroyed, the churches looted. Marble from the church in Melite was used to build a castle in the city of Sousse (Tunisia).

When the Order of Saint John took over Malta in 1530, the nobles handed over the keys of the city to Grand Master Philippe Villiers de L’Isle-Adam, but the members of the Order were placed in Birgu and Mdina lost the status of main capital city. During the 1540s, the walls began to be upgraded, and in 1551 the city successfully sustained the Ottomans attack.

During the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, Mdina was the base of the cavalry of the Order, which was successfully examined by Ottoman conquerors. The Ottomans attempted to carry out the siege of Mdina in September in order to stay there during winter time, but they gave up their plans when members of the Order of St. John attacked the cannons, claiming them to believe that they possessed heavy weapons. After the siege, Maltese military engineer Girolamo Cassar created a plan by which the size of the Mdine would be reduced by half and converted to the fortress, but this was never carried out due to protests by city nobles.

In June 1798, Mdina was occupied by the French forces without much resistance during the French occupation in Malta. The French garrison remained in the city, but on 2nd of September that year a large Maltese Rebellion broke out. The next day, rebels entered the city through the harbor and massacred a garrison of 65 people.

These events marked the beginning of a two-year uprising and a blockade, and the Maltese people formed the National Assembly. The rebels were successful, and in 1800, the French surrendered and Malta became a British protectorate. There is also an interesting fact that between 1883 and 1931, Mdina was connected with Valletta, it was a special railroad and during that period regular railway traffic was established.

Today Mdina is one of the main tourist attractions of Malta, which yearly hosts about a million tourists. You can see that the city has an interesting mixture of the Norman and Baroque architecture, including several palaces, most of which are in private possession. In the period from 2008 to 2016, a great restoration of the city walls was carried out.

As I wrote in the previous post: “Mdina is on the list of the most expensive cities in Europe at the price of a square of real estate, so if you want to have the “smallest palace” in this city you must be ready to pay at least 5 million euros, while for the magnificent palaces you have to pay more than 50 million euros. I promise you in the next post I will dedicate to this unusual town where you will be able to enjoy the architecture of this most expensive “village” in the world.” If you didn’t have time to read my previous post about this incredible island, take your time now and enjoy! I hope you will like it – link.

My dear travellers, once again we have come to the end of our travel adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of this post, I would like to thank my friends from Malta Tourism Authority for this incredible adventure and for their huge efforts to make my stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Mdina? Have you ever visited this lovely city? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Malta before? I would like to share with me your experience!

In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Malta, you will find out more about this island and capital city Valletta! I can’t wait to share all those beautiful photos with you.

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,

Mr.M

Main Square city of Rabat in Malta

This post was sponsored by Malta Tourism Authority. I also thank my friends from Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the Sony Alpha 7r Mark II camera with Sony FE 24-70 mm lense from special G Master series of professional lenses.
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Letters from Malta: The Mediterranean Love at First Sight…

Adventure Travel 21 Comments

My dear travellers, how are you today? Finally, these sun rays today proved that for us in Serbia finally begins June and summer is officially ON. I honestly do not remember when was the bad weather condition of the previous years, but this year is obviously full of surprises.

It’s still strange to me, and I can not get used to these changes in time, so I’m sorry that my adventure in Malta did not last for at least few more days… Okay, maybe this new series of posts from Malta will help me just to remember how nice it was there. I’m writing to you today my first post about Malta. This series of posts about Malta will be a little longer because there will be a little more travel posts, and of course, as you have been used to, and special fashion posts where I will tell you about my adventures. So let’s start!

The Republic of Malta is a small, but densely populated island country made up of an archipelago in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea in the south of Europe. Malta, otherwise geophysically, forms part of North Africa, but this country is geopolitically located in southern Europe. It has an important geographical position on an important road to the central part of Sicily and Italy as well. Malta is a Mediterranean pearl located somewhere between Europe and Africa.

The climate is Mediterranean with extremely mild winters, which is one of the main benefits for a pleasant holiday for most of the year. The culture of Malta is a blend of many cultures that have been in contact with the island for centuries, which makes my trip an interesting adventure.

This spring I received a kind invitation from the National Tourism Organization of the Republic of Malta to come to Malta and visit their biggest fashion event – Malta Fashion Week. Since I have been planning to come to Malta for a long time because I heard it was a land of knights and lost dreams, I thought this was an ideal opportunity to explore Malta and finally to check out all those legends about knights.

At the end of May this year, little Marko and his photographer headed to this Mediterranean paradise. I have to admit after the cold of Russia, Malta was the perfect next fashion station for Mr.M, but this adventure is a little bit warmer, because of the Mediterranean climate which I really love.

In collaboration with the Tourist Organization of Malta, I visited the capital of Malta – Valletta, Sliema, Birgu, Mdina, Marsaxlokk and, of course, the sister’s island of Malta – Gozo. This incredible adventure lasted for 6 days and I think that for 7 to 10 days it is quite enough to explore this island without any rush.

According to the plan and program, the first stop was: Sliema. The city is located on the northern coast of the island and is not to far from the capital city, about ten kilometers away. Otherwise, Sliema is known as a major residential and commercial area and a centre for shopping, bars, dining, and café life. There is the largest shopping mall and retail complex – The Point Shopping Center. Since I was able to visit a couple of stores, I can tell you that as far as prices are concerned, almost as much as in other parts of Europe, such as Italy and France. It was time to find my car and to go to my next destination – Birgu.

P.S. For all lovers of Zara, the prices of products of this famous street style brand are the lowest in Greece and Malta, so now you will know where you can buy some of the fashion pieces of your favorite brand. I believe that some of you will say after this: “Thank you Marko!”, I will only say, “No worries!”.

Birgu or Vittoriosa is one of the official 11 cities in Malta. Have you heard the famous legend of the “Three Cities” in Malta? The three cities represent a collective description of the three fortified cities of Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua in Malta. The oldest of these cities is Birgu, which exists since the Middle Ages. The other two cities, Senglea and Cospicua, were founded by the Knights of St. John in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Birgu is a very old locality with its origins reaching back to medieval times. Prior to the establishment of Vallettaas capital and main city of Malta, military powers that wanted to rule the Maltese islands would need to obtain control of Birgu due to its significant position in the Grand Harbour. In fact, it served as the base of the Order of Saint John and de facto capital city of Malta from 1530 to 1571.

When the Order of Saint John first settled in Malta in 1530, all of their administrative divisions were based in Birgu, so the Church of Saint Lawrence was used as the Order’s first conventual church in Malta. It served this purpose for 41 years from 1530 to 1571 until the Knights were transferred to the new capital city Valletta. The foundation stone of the present church was laid in May 1681 by Bishop Molina, it was completed in 1696. The church was inaugurated by Bishop Davide Cocco Palmieri on the feast of St Lawrence, August 10, 1697.

In January, 1941 the church was bombed. Both the sacristy and the chapter hall were destroyed. They were both re-built in 1949. In March of the same year the chapel of the blessed Sacrament was destroyed and in April, 1942 the dome of the church was destroyed. The chapel was re-built in 1951 and the dome was re-built in 1952.

The architecture of this church is incredible and I must be honest that I did not expect something like this in Malta. After this visit to this lovely island country, the picture of Malta in my head is totally different. Of course, due to the legend of the “Table of Knights” and the Knight orders of Malta I imagined completely different. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to visit this country.

Birgu is still rich “in heart” just because of beautiful facades, whose architecture shows historical heritage, despite the damage that it suffered during the bombing during World War II. His other name Vittoriosa was awarded as a result of its winning position in the Great Siege of 1565.

After this wonderful walk around the streets of Birgu, my photographer and I were headed to another important city in Malta – Mdina.

Mdina is a fortified city in the northern part of the island, which served as the island’s capital from antiquity to the medieval period. The city is still confined within its walls, and has a population of just under 300, but it is contiguous with the town of Rabat, which takes its name from the Arabic word for suburb, and has a population of over 10,000 people.

Its mixture of medieval and baroque architecture, the fortifications walls and its position make it one of the most beautiful cities on the Malta.

Today, Mdina is one of Malta’s major tourist attractions, hosting about a million tourists a year. There are no cars (other than a limited number of residents, emergency vehicles, wedding cars and horses) are allowed in Mdina, partly why it has earned the nickname “the Silent City”. The city displays an unusual mix of Norman and Baroque architecture, including several palaces, most of which serve as private homes.

Mdina is on the list of the most expensive cities in Europe at the price of a square of real estate, so if you want to have the “smallest palace” in this city you must be ready to pay at least 5 million euros, while for the magnificent palaces you have to pay more than 50 million euros. I promise you in the next post I will dedicate to this unusual town where you will be able to enjoy the architecture of this most expensive “village” in the world.

Bye, bye my dear Mdina, for now see you again next week! Now I just want to warn you to prepare on time for the most colourful village on the Malta. Welcome to Marsaxlokk! Marsaxlokk is a small, traditional fishing village in the southeastern part of the island. It has a harbor and tourist attraction famous for its incredible landscapes, fishing and history. In March 2014, the village had around 4,000 inhabitants. The village is also known for the famous Marsaxlokk market, which is mainly a large fish market, which is held almost every Sunday along the whole coast.

This colourful and lovely village is still inhabited and known since antiquity. Marsaxlokk had an important role even with the ancient Phoenicians and Cartagines making business with local harbour, and also has the remains of the harbour from the Roman era. It is known for its traditional and colorful ships “Luzzus”. The village is also popular among locals and tourists for walking around the coast and the harbor, restaurants, as well as because of its large areas which are reserved for swimming.

The Blue Grotto represents a number of sea caverns on the south east coast of Malta, a short distance off the fishermen’s harbour of Wied iz-Zurrieq. The location of the caves, combined with the rays of sunlight, lead to the seawater mirroring and showing numerous shades of blue on the cave walls and ceilings. Several caverns also mirror the brilliant colours of the underwater flora and fauna, whilst other caverns show a deep dark shade of blue.

Underwater, different colors of red, green, orange and yellow give an impressive and most beautiful photo to its visitors. The Blue Grotto is a popular destination for tourists with boat trips visiting the caves running almost all days of the year, depends on weather condition. Scuba diving and snorkeling on the coastline walls, together with rock climbing, are the most popular activities practiced in this area.

My dear travellers, once again we have come to the end of our travel adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of this post, I would like to thank my friends from Malta Tourism Authority for this incredible adventure and for their huge efforts to make my stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Malta? Have you ever visited this island? Did you enjoy in the story of the interesting Mediterranean pearl of Europe? I would like to share with me your opinion!

In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Malta, you will find out more about this island and amazing city Mdina! I can’t wait to share all those beautiful photos with you.

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,

Mr.M

This post was sponsored by Malta Tourism Authority. I also thank my friends from Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the Sony Alpha 7r Mark II camera with Sony FE 24-70 mm lense from special G Master series of professional lenses…
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Grace Patricia Kelly: The Glamorous Journey to Monaco

Adventure Travel 4 Comments

My dear adventurers, how are you today? I hope you are ready for the weekend because I have a new interesting story for you! You know that I always try to keep my promises so here I am today with the new travel story. Today I will present to you the second smallest country in the world – the Principality of Monaco. All who followed my adventure this month on Instagram had the opportunity to see some pictures and enjoy the beauty of this small, but lovely country on the Mediterranean coast. Of course, the first neighbor is France, but this country is also located near the border with Italy.

What is your association for Monaco? Is it only story about luxury and famous casinos or Monaco has something more to offer? There is always more, but for the Principality of Monaco only one woman was enough to mark the history of this small principality in Europe.

I’m sure that at least once in your life you heard her name: Princess of Monaco – Grace Patricia Kelly. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), on November 12, 1929. Grace Kelly is considered one of the greatest actors and fashion icons of all time. The woman, who radiated with her beauty and grace, began her first acting steps  in the theater, and then she got first her roles in the TV series and thus “moved” her career on television.

Shortly thereafter, she also received her first role on the “big screen” in the film “Fourteen Hours” after that film, for everyone it was clear that another great star was born in Hollywood. During her rich acting career, she won the Golden Globe and the Oscar, which have always represented the prestige and value of the best actors. The last film she recorded in her career was the “High Society” in 1956.

That same year she decided to end her acting career and marry Renier III, Prince of Monaco. Grace Kelly may have fulfilled the dream of many girls who dream to marry a prince, but is it a guarantee of happiness? Can the true prince contribute to the happiest and caring life and to be happy for the rest of your life?

Like every question in life and these questions give you a space for numerous answers, but the Princess of Monaco has chosen her own path. There are various sources who claimed that Grace Kelly was unhappy in marriage, that she had been trying togo to Paris and try to at least somehow return to her acting career… The truth is somewhere out there!

The Princess of Monaco was a huge fashion icon, so one of the most renowned French fashion houses, Hermes, just named by Grace Kelly one of their legendary handbag models – Kelly. This bag today represents a real status symbol and if you decide to buy it, just keep in mind that you need to be ready to pay a little fortune for that nice, fashionable bag.

Her coming to the royal family, Grace Kelly changed the public picture of the royal life. She always tried to actively participate in humanitarian actions and she became a mother. The princess of Monaco with Prince Renius III had three children – daughters Caroline and Stephanie and son Albert.

How this interesting love story began? Aristotle Onassis, a wealthy Greek shipowner, bought a casino in Monte Carlo in 1953, but the Monaco economy began to slip. Onassis talked about it with Gardner Kauls, the publisher of the magazine Luke, who noted that Prince’s marriage with a Hollywood star could attract wealthy tourists to Monaco. Kauls suggested to Marilyn Monroe, whom she really liked this idea.

However, Prince Renius III met Grays Kelly at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955 and thought she would be the ideal wife and Princess of Monaco. Prince, otherwise, had to marry because of inheritance, if he did not accidentally succeed in securing the heir to the monastic throne, his principality would belong to the Republic of France. With serious intentions to marry Ms. Kelly, the Price visited her on filming set of the movie “The Swan”, a few days later he visited her family in Philadelphia.

Because of this marriage, Grace Kelly gave up on her acting career. Shortly after their wedding, Prince Renius III presented her with a full list of strict rules which, as a princess, had to follow. Soon afterwards, the prince forbade the screening of his wife’s films in Monaco.

In 1962, Alfred Hitchcock gave Grace a lead role in his movie “Marnie”. Although she really wanted to return to the movie screen and her acting career, Prince even allowed her to make this film, but the people of Monaco protested because people didn’t want their princess to interpret the figure of kleptomaniac or to record love scenes with Sean Connery. Later she returned to television, reading poetry and doing narration for documentaries.

Grace of Monaco on her return from France to Monaco, along with her daughter Stephanie, had a car accident. The cause of the accident was a stroke, in which Grays Kelly lost control of her car. She died one day later at the hospital and she was buried on September 18, 1982, in her 52 years of age. She is buried in the family tomb of Grimaldi in the cathedral of St. Nicholas (you can see the picture of the cathedral in the picture above).

Prince Renius III, who never married again after her death, passed away in 2005 and was buried next to her. The funeral of the Princess of Monaco was attended by about 1,000 people, most of whom were from political life and members of royal families. Television broadcasts of the funeral were watched by millions of people.

Monte Carlo is a city dedicated to a woman who marked it’s history – Grace Kelly. Interesting fact, there is almost no store in Monte Carlo that does not have a picture of the royal family. There is also a beautiful portrait in the shop of the famous French brand Louis Vuitton. I tried in various ways to make some photos, but the pictures did not turn out just the way I planned, so I decided not to share those images with you on the blog.

The monument which you see in the picture above is located near the Prince’s Palace in Monte Carlo and erected as a sign of gratitude to Prince Albert I of Constant Roux, who was father of the Prince Renius III. Today’s prince of the Principality of Monaco, was named after his grandfather.

Monte Carlo is an interesting, vibrant city that never sleeps. There are always the best parties, beautiful expensive yachts, a city where the famous Formula 1 races are held, better known as Monaco Grand Prix. Of course, there are still many interesting events, that’s Monte Carlo! ?

It is a fact that the Principality of Monaco is one of the richest countries in the world because there is no tax and this is one of the main reasons why rich people want to obtain the citizenship of this small country. In Monaco there is no property tax, inheritance or donated property for direct heirs. To become a citizen of this country, you will need a lot of things… ?

My dear ones once again we have come to the end of our travel adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of the post, I would like to thank my friends from Air France for this incredible adventure and Tourism Board of Monaco that made my stay pleasant and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Monaco? Have you ever visited Monte Carlo? Did you enjoy in the story of the life of one Hollywood diva and suddenly who became the princess? I would like to share with me your opinion!

In a couple of days we will continue our adventure across Europe, you will find out more about Malta and amazing event called Malta Fashion Week! I can’t wait to share all those beautiful landscapes with you.

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,

Mr.M

This post was sponsored by Air France company and Visit Monaco – Tourism Board of Monaco. I also thank my friends from Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the Xperia XZ3.
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Hotel National Moscow: Revealing the Secrets in Room 101

Adventure Travel 5 Comments

My dear travellers, how are you today? I hope that you’re doing good! Finally it’s time for the weekend and a right time to share with you my new story from Moscow. I am always looking forward to sharing an interesting stories and I am quite sure that today’s story from Russia will be interesting to you. In previous posts you had the opportunity to get know better the rise and shine of the Russian capital and read my little fashion story. It’s time to tell you an intriguing story about a hotel that is at the same time one of the oldest hotels in Moscow.

Hotel National is located in the very heart of the city, right next to the famous Red Square and the political center itself – the Kremlin. Due to its location, the hotel was at the center of the battles during the October Revolution. The hotel officially opened the door to its guests in 1903 and at the very beginning it has gained the status of luxury and prestige hotel. Despite the high prices, the hotel was always reserved a few months in advance. Famous actors, politicians, traders, artists and diplomats were the dear guests of this hotel.

It all changed with the October Revolution and the National Hotel became a main station for the great revolutionaries. After the Bolshevik’s victory, all hotels in Moscow were nationalized. Hotel National also became the First Counsel house in 1918, members of the new government stayed in the rooms of this hotel.

Hotel National was the residence of the Central Executive Committee of the Russian Federation for a long period of time. In the 1930s was decided to return the former functions of the hotel. The hotel building was reconstructed, the ground floor was tiled with granite. After the reconstruction, the hotel looked a bit like a museum because of the furniture which was brought from the palace of Anichkov and the Kremlin Grand Palace, which also affected the price of services. Accommodation at that time was extremely expensive even for foreigners. The hotel worked with great losses, but in the 1960s the first stage of the reconstruction of the hotel was successfully completed and the hotel lost its fame which was gained at the very beginning.

In 1985, the main board of the hotel decided to restore the Hotel National completely. Part of the old furniture was sent to museums, the rest of the furniture was restored. The goals of this reconstruction of the hotel were to upgrade the hotel building, modernize the building, renovate the hotel’s interior. The health center, the attic with twenty additional rooms, a winter garden cafe are located on the north side of the Hotel National.

Ten years later, the hotel was completely renovated and it was ready to welcome its first guests. A new period of his history began. The hotel was awarded the category of a five star hotel. The present and the past have been successfully connected in the interiors of the National Hotel. In 2000, the hotel celebrated its 100th anniversary!

This hotel welcomed many celebrities such as the famous French diva Catherine Deneuve, renowned world fashion designer Pierre Cardin, current US President Donald Tramp, Kofi Annan, famous actor Alain Delon, Jack Nicholson and many others.

One thing is certain that Hotel National has survived everything in its existence, there are the scars may not be seen easily, but the turbulent history left a trail. Today it is a magnificent hotel that radiates elegance and its architecture shows the luxury of the Russian Empire.

Since the end of March is the beginning of the tourist season in Moscow, add to everything a fact that Fashion Week begins, it is very difficult to find accommodation in Moscow. Otherwise, I am very connected to Moscow because it is a city that has also marked my childhood. I remember how I made my first steps on Red Square and my mom could not stop me when I was trying to chase pigeons while we were waiting for Dad to finish with his business meetings.

Hotel National remembered me for a pastry shop which was near the hotel that always had beautiful, colorful cakes. They were nice moments when I got nice big fruit cakes and of course I get dirty, my mother was always crazy about my passion for cakes and my “lovely” behaviour to get dirty my new clothes. Okay, at least I was eating. After all, my Dad was my hero, my rescuer always comes to take me to the famous fairy-tale fountains, so much so that my mom can rest a little and go to do some shopping. Oh, memories!

Staying at this hotel was wonderful! The outside may have been cold, but the welcome was warm enough to warm my heart… It was strange how the gentleman on the entrance of the hotel knew my name and welcomed me to the hotel National.

Mr. Viktor is not just an ordinary doorman who has been working in this hotel for almost 20 years, he is a real living legend. Victor is the first smiling face that will welcome you to this famous hotel and will be happy to tell you the history of this hotel as he did in less than 20 minutes to tell the exciting story about this hotel.

After routine check-in process, I received information that we will get the most interesting room in the hotel. In the meantime I checked my email, admired the speed of the Wi-Fi and the lovely lady from the reception told me: “Sir, we have prepared for you room 101, we wish you a pleasant stay in our hotel!”. All right, I’m thinking of course the room must be beautiful when it’s in this hotel.

We get to the elevator and I still do not understand why we have a special escort to the room, the photographer makes me laugh that I have become a blogger huge star and I must be more careful now when I going out maybe paparazzi will wait for me in front of the hotel. It’s easy to make some jokes with me, I’m always a great inspiration to my team for making some “lovely” jokes…

It is because in our team we have a relationship built like a small family that is always there to help its members. Together we celebrate our successes of Mr.M blog, we are having fun together and of course we share all those less beautiful moments when we cry sometimes when things do not go exactly the way we planned.

We got directions and in a few minutes we found out that the original agreement was changed and that we got a presidential suite. I could not listen to the whole story because of lack dose of shock, I just remembered that we must be careful when it comes about the mirror… The person who brought us into the room went and left us in shock. At first I thought that they might have mixed up at the reception, but it is impossible that there are actually two reservations with the same surname.

We wanted to use this sunshine morning light to shoot phots for the blog, because who knows is it going to be still sunny whole day. Of course, I opened all the gifts and I got the famous Matryoshka doll.

The most interesting gift was a book in the leather band and a little letter. Since I have received few letters, you can assume that I have opened everything immediately because I am very curious person. It was strange that I got a small envelope, but I opened it. A note with a message: “If you want to find out why I’m special, open the page 101!”. The first thing you noticed on the indicated page is the image of the mirror. It was the story of room 101 and this unusual mirror.

There are two such mirrors in the world, one in Venice, and the second is in the room of this legendary hotel. There is not much information about the mirror, but it is considered it is old as hotel maybe even older than itself.

Our photo session interrupted the knocking of a butler that reminded us that the breakfast will be end in less than half an hour and it would be good to go to the breakfast room. As soon as I tell my photographer about food, then every work stops. Luckily, we had enough photos for the blog.

For the first time in my life, I made a photo in the dining room. You must be wondering why? I wanted to make a photo of young couple who seriously understood the term “Breakfast and Champagne”. She was absolutely amazing dressed, it seems that the dress is a handmade work with pearls and crystals. After a couple of minutes I felt more comfortable while I went to take a dessert, I met a young lady and I asked for a brand of dress. I’ve been struggling to remember the name of the designer until I get to ask the photographer for the price so that I forgot to take a chocolate cake.

Photographer told me it’s better to go back to take a chocolate cake because that designer has a really expensive dress so for me it will be better to get something to eat before I hear the price… I just back again to the dessert table and with the smile on my face come back to our table with the chocolate cake. We didn’t talk about the price after, I just wanted to enjoy in my cake.

Finally, after breakfast, we had a few hours to visit the city a little before the beginning of the fashion shows where we were supposed to attend that day. My fairy-tale fountains didn’t work, it was maybe still cold weather for the fountains. As you can see, the weather was wonderful, so we used to make another fashion outfit post. You will see more pictures of this outfit next week.

We spent this day wisely to visit the sights. First I wanted to visit the St. Basil’s Cathedral, who remained in my memory as a child of 3 or 4 years as one big ice cream factory. You can not possibly explain to the child that it is a religious object, but my mom has decided that the easiest way is to calm me down when I was a bad boy if it presents me the object in my eyes as an ice cream factory.

Moscow has changed a bit, of course, as a child I couldn’t understand that Moscow is one big metropolis that now has more than 20 million people. One city has almost 3 times more people than my entire country – Serbia. That is really impressive fact!

Moscow is one exceptional city and I’m always very happy to hear when someone is going to visit this magnificent city. In April 2019, it was my turn to feel the magic and beauty of this city, but I hope that one of you will soon visit the Russian capital and you will have your own opportunity to write down your story.

My dear travellers once again we have come to the end of our travel adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of the post, I would like to thank my friends from Red Wings for this incredible adventure and the friendly staff from Hotel National that made our stay pleasant and we felt like we were at home.

How do you like this post about Moscow? Have you ever visited Russia? Did you have chance to enjoy in the magic of the Russian culture and maybe to buy some interesting matryoshka doll? I showed your mine in this post and I would like to share with me your experience!

If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.

Best,

Mr.M

This post was sponsored by Red Wings  Russian Airline company and Hotel National who is the member of the Marriott chain of hotels. I also thank my friends from Loro Piana on amazing outfits and Sony who made it possible to enjoy in these beautiful photos made with the camera Alpha 7r Mark II.

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