Posts tagged G Master

Letters from Azerbaijan: What We Really Need to Be Happy?

Fashion Outfit Post 3 Comments

Dear travellers, Good morning and welcome to another new post on the Mr.M blog. The season of vacations is going to end soon and we are preparing for some new work “victories”. I sincerely hope that you had a great time and that you made the most of your vacation memorable. As I did mine in Azerbaijan. This morning I was thinking about: “What We Really Need to Be Happy?”

Today’s post will be dedicated to the capital of Azerbaijan and one slightly different story. I am sure that for many of us it is always a problem to pack adequate clothing for the journey. I have to admit that I found myself in huge problem when I needed to pack my luggage. I had no idea what I need to pack and to prepare for 34-36 degrees in Azerbaijan when I checked weather forecast for the last time before my trip.

The first question I asked myself was, “Is there high humidity?”. The capital of Azerbaijan – Baku is blessed with climate. Due to its geographical location, colder air from Russia comes from North. While slightly warm and sandy air comes from Iran from the South. This unusual combination of climate and proximity to the Caspian Sea makes it easy to survive a tropical summer in Azerbaijan.

For the first time in my life, I packed a small suitcase and that half the things I didn’t manage to wear. That’s why I sometimes fool myself in the judgement… Anything is possible!

Due to the weather conditions in Azerbaijan during the summer, it is best to equip yourself with the clothes made mostly of Linen. Linen is the best natural material which allow our skin to breathe, I know there is another side of the story – it is hard to iron. Linen may be the best material when these high tropical temperatures come, but be prepared to iron almost every time when you come back to the hotel. If you are not used to iron, try a well-tried recipe.

When take off the linen clothes, place it immediately on a chair and fold your hands over the material, imitating the movements of the iron and leaving it overnight. The problem is that not every type of the linen react the same, so depending on the quality and the fabric processing of the linen itself, it depends on whether you will be able to straighten your linen garment. I have succeeded on this trip a few times since I have not separated from my white linen shirt. Sometimes we need so little for happiness! My happiness is when I do not need to iron my clothes too much, because I’m perfectionist, so I just can’t stand it if it is not good!

The second best material that can help you withstand high temperatures is viscose. Viscose is also natural material that cools and refresh the skin, of course, sometimes the opposite effect can occur when the combination of high temperature and high humidity, then only God is helpful to you, I will just say that I well remembered what spring in Sri Lanka looks like… You do not know Is it worse that you feel like you are a chicken in the oven or a feeling of helplessness that you cannot fully enjoy in a tropical paradise…

Baku is different and be prepared to bring with you comfortable and light clothing with you very, very comfortable shoes because believe me, YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED THEM! Baku is a huge city, boulevards are long and wide, so if you’re a fan of walking, get ready for a marathon. Transportation in Baku is very cheap, so you can use the transportation. The transport system is such that you can buy one card, but the difference is that one card can be used by more than one person, so you do not have to buy more than one card. The price of the card is about 2 USD, while the price of the ticket for one way ride is about 0.20 or 0.30 cents (USD), which you have to admit is much cheaper than Germany, where is one ride costs almost 3 Euros (2.80 in Berlin to be exact)…

As far as we are talking about food, trust me you won’t be hungry or thirsty, food is extremely affordable. I will only tell you that lunch for 4 people cost about 60-70 euros, and on the table were more than two kilograms of meat roast, various salads, various pies and sweet treats which is again similar, if not cheaper than the prices in European restaurants. Market prices are ok, I know prices of candies are much lower than European ones.

In previous posts from Azerbaijan, you have seen the cutest Marko in some pretty fancy cloths, but 80% of my time was spent in this let’s just say a simpler casual outfit. I changed two pairs of jeans and 3 linen shirts (which, by the way, were the same colors, same model) otherwise I am a person who binds to one model for a some period of time so in my free time (when I not taking photos for the blog) I only wear that one model in multiple colors (sometimes even in the same colour) until I’m not get bored, so I find some new “love.”

As I mentioned earlier, when you travel the most important thing is comfort. This is some of my suggestion for a summer version of the vacation outfit when traveling somewhere in the summer and exploring other parts of the country along the way, since I also went to rural areas where expensive clothes would surely be of no use for me.

OUTFIT

Shirt: Makia

Jeans: Pedro del Hierro

Backpack: Picard

Sneakers: Makia

Camera: Sony Alpha 7r II; Lens: Sony G Master 24-70 MM

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friends at Makia Clothing for their trust, as well as my associates from the Picard brand who have always been there to support my work. The products of these two companies have always been helpful to me on my trips. Makia clothing is simple, practical and functional, while other Picard leather accessories are of high quality and very durable.

All the backpacks I got from Picard are still like new, of course I clean and treat them nice after every adventure so I don’t let leather get ruined. As a traveler who always carries a laptop, camera and big lens in my travel bag and some other necessities I need to survive a classic day on the journey, I can tell you that Picard products are high quality.

My dear adventurers, 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 National Tourism Promotion Board of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan Airlines for this incredible adventure and Qafqaz Thermal & Spa Resort Hotel Yengija for their huge efforts to make our stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this story about this simple and casual outfit? I am sure that you have one nice white linen shirt in your closet, use it and make this summer unforgettable! Have you maybe had a chance to visit Azerbaijan before? I would like to share with me your experience! In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Europe. This time i will take you to Baltic and we will visit the capital of Latvia – Riga.

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 Azerbaijan you should read my other posts, I am sure you will find plenty of interesting tips and information about this incredible country:

  1. Letters from Azerbaijan: Lahij, place where dreams are made of Copper…
  2. Letters from Azerbaijan: Gobustan, the Cradle of Azeri Culture…
  3. Letters from Azerbaijan: Baku, a modern city made of traditional dreams…
This post was sponsored by National Tourism Promotion Bureau of Azerbaijan and the national airline company Azerbaijan Airlines and Boulevard Hotel Baku. I also thank my friends from  Makia Clothing and Picard Lederwaren for amazing outfit 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 Azerbaijan: Lahij, place where dreams are made of copper…

Adventure Travel 12 Comments

Hello my dear travellers, welcome to new post on the Mr.M blog. How are you doing today? Has something interesting happened to you today? Some people are back from vacation, while some lucky ones are just getting ready to start their journey. In the past few days, I read on the social networks comments from some people, like: “Why we call our vacation “annual leaving”, if it only lasts for 2,3 weeks… It is not fair!”. I agree with them, but what to do it looks like it’s another “wrong” name, such some terms like “final discounts”, and in the store you will find the maximum of 20% discount… Sweet “white” lies which we just love and want to believe.

In the previous two posts you had the opportunity to get to know Baku and see where the cradle of Azeri culture – Gobustan National Park. In today’s post you will meet an interesting village, which is located in the most beautiful part of Azerbaijan, at the heart of the Caucasus.

Of course, before I start today’s post I would like to thank the National Tourism Board of the Republic of Azerbaijan for its excellent organization, as well as other partners of this project who made our stay in Azerbaijan unforgettable!

Tural, our guide told us the opinion of the local people in Azerbaijan, which is that they consider that the road to Lahij village is one of the most beautiful in Azerbaijan. You can see how nature has adapted to climate and you have the great opportunity yo enjoy the view of mountains, plains and sea.

I must admit that usually when traveling somewhere by car, I try to rest and get some sleep because press trips can be extremely stressful at times and I use every free moment for rest and relaxation. However this time was different, the trip was different and I decided to show you these beauties of nature to people who may choose to visit Azerbaijan one day!

The people of Azerbaijan are simple, kind and frank. The language may be a small barrier, but because of its close proximity to Russia, many people know Russian. Maybe this fact helps from Balkan region like me because the Russians can understand some of Serbian words which makes it easier for some basic communication. Of course a lot of people speak English as well, but we are talking about older generations who lives in rural areas.

Tural explained to us the geographical location of Azerbaijan and some basic things about places where we are going, so this trip passed so fast for us quickly. Of course we took a couple of breaks, maybe the trip was a little longer, but we learned a lot about Azerbaijan.

At the first break, I used the time to take a picture by the sea… Well, I went well all way to far away Azerbaijan, I guess I deserved to have at least one nice picture with my best friend, I’m most afraid of – water. Strange, but very interesting love!

Shortly after these breaks, we came to our first stop on this short car trip. My hosts wanted to show me their oldest and largest mosque in Azerbaijan – the Juma Mosque. According to legend, it was built in the 8th century when Shamakhi was chosen as the residence of the Arab Caliph. This is why Shamakhi Juma looked like one of the oldest mosques in the Caucasus region. The architecture of this large complex is as follows – the huge prayer hall is divided into three independent sections that are connected with wide open arches.

Each part has its own separate mikhrab and an entrance. After considerable destruction of the mosque during wars and earthquakes, it was repeatedly reconstructed and restored. The current appearance of the mosque was formed in the early 20th century. The mosque was practically rebuilt on an old basis without losing the basic principles of its structure. There are still three halls. In addition, the central hall is covered by a huge dome and the other two smaller domes.

Below the central dome is a window belt. The windows are decorated with bars. The whole facade is decorated with tracery lattices. Built more than 1,200 years ago, the Shamakhi Juma Mosque remains one of the largest cult structures in the Caucasus region.

Mikhrab in the main Hall.

It was a great honor for me to visit this holy place and learn more about the history of this part of Azerbaijan. I was particularly attracted to the harem of the mosque (this word has different meaning, but also it is the name of the enclosed courtyard of the mosque) at the entrance to the mosque, as it was arranged as a small green oasis of peace and happiness.

We had to continue our journey, because we had a long way to go to Lahij village, and we had a few more things to see. We got in the car and continued our trip. Of course I got my camera ready, the photographer fell asleep from the heat, so I had to do some of his work. Nobody knows my “blogging” troubles on the trip when I have different roles to play at the same time…

You are maybe wondering why we headed to Lahij village? Lahij is a remote village located in the Ismaiilli area of Azerbaijan, on the slopes of the Greater Caucasus. About 2,000 people live in this village, mostly belonging to a minority ethnic group that speaks Tat.

Lahij is one of the oldest permanently populated places in the world. Moreover, the sewerage system of the village dates back to 1000 years ago, which during this time you must admit was very unusual and commendable. For example, large European cities such as Paris and London did not have sewerage system until the 13th – 14th centuries. Incredible, isn’t it?

The facilities and master plan of the village are very unique. As a result of frequent earthquakes, locals have developed sophisticated and authentic construction techniques. Traditionally, people used the ground floor of houses as workshops and workrooms. The houses here are characterized by flat roofs. In addition, some houses have balconies overlooking the street.

The history and story of the village, are associated with many legends. According to one legend, many years ago there was a town of 36,000 inhabitants called La. One day a major earthquake happened and La was leveled to the ground. There was no town afterwards, but the place name changed to La-hec. “Hec” in Azerbaijani means nothing or zero. Over time, people came to live in this settlement again. At that time, La-hec changed to Lahi.

According to another legend, the Persian Shah Kai Khosrov killed a prominent ruler of a city, which caused great unrest in his country. Finally, after some power and throne struggles, the defeated chess decided to flee the country to save his life. He later found refuge in the mountains near modern Lahi. The Shah servants established the village of Lahij for their families. Eventually Kai Khosrov died there, but gradually the small village expanded and turned into a settlement.

This is the way how locals consider themselves to be descendants of Kay Khosrov’s original court. Moreover, they claim that the name of the village comes from a place called Lahian in Persia. A tomb with a tombstone belonging to Kai Khosrov was found at the Zavara cemetery in Lahij along with other tombstones dating back more than a thousand years.

In the medieval period the village became an important center of craftsmen in Azerbaijan. Lahij’s artisans have started to become very popular throughout Asia and Europe. In the 18th century, the city gained a reputation for producing cold steel weapons and copper. Many of them, such as copper pots and lamps and weapons, still adorn famous European museums, especially the Louvre and the Hermitage. Today, the village and its entire heritage are protected, but open to tourists. The spirit of medieval times and the path of ancient silk is still found in Lahij.

Also, there is one interesting museum in this picturesque place called the Museum of Local History of Lahij and you can find many interesting exhibits in it and learn more about the history of this unusual village.

The museum was opened in 1985 within the Lahij Historical and Cultural Reserve. Initially it was part of the historical and cultural nature reserve, but since 1992 it has the function of an independent cultural object of significance. The museum itself is housed in a building known in Lahi as the “Aghaoglu Mosque”, which was built in 1914.

The exhibit of the museum consists of more than 1000 exhibits in 10 different sections. The exhibits date from ancient examples of crafts, including ceramic specimens, specimens more than 2000 years old, bellows made in the 18th century for copper smelting and other livestock and trade related parts, as well as information on the city’s underground irrigation system operating since 15th Century!

The development of international tourism, together with some new knowledge about people and cultures, has resulted in a gradual interest in the cultural diversity of the region. Lahij has attracted the attention of many world tourists in recent years and as a result Lahij village is now included in the tours of several leading travel agencies.

The time for move came and we continued our journey, we had an amazing time in Lahij village, but Gabala is calling us! Gabala (Azerbaijani: Kəbələ, also known as Kabala, the capital of the Kabbalah district) The municipality consists of the city of Gabala and the town of Kusnat village. Previously, the city was known as Kutkashen, but after the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the city was renamed in honor of the much older city of Gabala.

The geographical location and mountainous relief of the city greatly influenced the formation of complex climatic conditions in the vertical arid region, as well as the density of the river network and the richness of land and vegetation cover.

The facilitated and humid climatic conditions of the Gabala region led to the formation of a dense river network in the area. The city is rich in chestnut and hazelnut trees. The flora and fauna of the district are very rich. Deer, wild boars, rabbits, bears, wolves, foxes and numerous birds can be found in the forest.

Gabala is an ideal tourist destination due to its combination of unusual spring climate, mountain scenery and diverse fauna. There are many world-class hotels and resorts, much of the Kafkaz hotel chain. The region’s natural climatic conditions create opportunities for summer and winter tourism development in the region. The northern side of Gabala belongs to the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus mountain range, the central part of the Alazan-Haftaran Valley, the southern part of the Ainohur Mountains.

In addition, Azerbaijan has the highest mountain peak in Azerbaijan – Bazarduz Mountain (4466 meters). Also in Gabala is the Ieddi Gozel waterfall. In translation, it means ‘seven beauties’ because of its seven phases of decline, but it also depicts the classic story of Nizami Ganjavi. The city also contains the Gabaland Amusement Park, a skating rink and Greek-style theater built specifically for concerts and outdoor events. Gabala also has several malls. The city is home to the Tufandag Ski Resort, which is rated as the best ski resort in Azerbaijan and one of the main in the Caucasus.

My dear adventurers, 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 National Tourism Promotion Bureau of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan Airlines for this incredible adventure and Qafqaz Thermal & Spa Resort Hotel Yengija for their huge efforts to make our stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about National Park Gobustan? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Azerbaijan before? I would like to share with me your experience! In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Azerbaijan, and I will show you one interesting Lahij village which I visited during my visit. 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

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

This post was sponsored by National Tourism Promotion Bureau of Azerbaijan and the national airline company Azerbaijan Airlines and Qafqaz Thermal & Spa Resort Hotel Yengija. I also thank my friends from Loro Piana, Makia Clothing and Picard Lederwaren for amazing outfits 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 Azerbaijan: Gobustan, the Cradle of Azeri Culture…

Adventure Travel 4 Comments

My dear travellers, how are you today? Before I begin with today’s post, I would like to thank you for the wonderful comments which you have sent to me for previous post about Azerbaijan. I am glad you liked Baku and I sincerely hope you will enjoy the post I have prepared for you today. For anyone who has not arrived yet to read my story from Baku or you would like to remind of some details, you can visit this LINK.

Have you ever wondered what the world looked like 20,000 years ago? What kind of people were then? What was their culture and religion customs? Has their consciousness been developed as it is today? Which language did they speak? We can find answers to all these questions from experts in archeology and history, but so far it all comes down to interpreting certain assumptions.

In today’s post, you’ll have the opportunity to see the cradle of Azeri culture, I’m taking you to Gobustan National Park. This trip was a whole new experience for me as I learned a lot of new information and had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful landscapes of this lovely country.

Before I begin today’s post, I would like to thank the National Tourism Board of the Republic of Azerbaijan for this wonderful and exceptional experience. It has been a huge honour for me to get to know a completely different culture and I hope that I will be able to go there again and continue my adventure during my lifetime.

Gobustan National Nature Reserve, located just few kilometres west of the city of Gobustan, was founded in 1966, when the region was declared a National Historic Landmark of Azerbaijan in an effort to preserve ancient carvings, mud volcanoes and gas rocks. Gobustan National Park is very rich in archeological monuments, the reserve has more than 6,000 carved stone paintings depicting primitive people, animals, paintings of fights, ritual dances, boats with armed paddlers, warriors with spears in their hands, camels, images of the sun and star. These paintings are thought to be on average 5,000 to 20,000 years old.

Gobustan National Historical and Cultural Reserve gained national status in 2006. In July 2007, the Gobustan National Couple was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The carvings and petroglyphs in this place depict fascinating images of prehistoric life in the Caucasus. Well-preserved paintings depict ancient boat-traveling populations, antelope men and wild bulls, while some depict women dancing. Well-known Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heierdahl returned to Azerbaijan several times between 1961 and his death in 2002 to investigate the site in his work “Search for Odin”.

The language of the ancient population of Gobustan is partly controversial, but the petroglyphs still provide information about the lives of prehistoric people who lived here. More than 4,000 pictures of animals, humans, certain life experiences, hunting and dancing have been carved over thousands of years. Most petroglyphs are found on large cliffs, and in some cases are carved on larger older rocks. The first carvings depicted natural figures of humans and animals, often irregularly, but over time they began to increasingly resemble the dimensions and proportions of their subjects, including such details as the muscles of the feet of humans in the hunting scene.

The heads of human figures are usually small and carved with no nose, mouth, eyes or ears. However, experts do not interpret this lack of facial features as an indication that Gobustan artists lack technical skill, as some carvings show a greater degree of complexity and detail. Many scenes from tribal life have been shown among the petroglyphs, and pictures from the “Seven Beauty Cave” indicate that women may have been involved in the hunt.

I have to admit, it’s an amazing feeling when you see all those pictures in stone that who knows when done by people who lived there thousands of years ago. The pictures prove that they had an awareness of all the things that surrounded them, that they had a particular religious cult that they believed in and studied the stars.

The natural world of Gobustan is much more convenient than other regions of Azerbaijan. However, the natural conditions of these places were completely different 20-25 thousand years ago. From the drawings of animals and human figures on Gobustan, the rocks appear to have been under a warm climate of 10 to 12 thousand years. Men wore light clothing, men tightened their limbs, and women wore short leather dresses. Due to the constant warm weather, greenery and large amount of water, these places were the habitats of wild animals: bulls, horses, deer, goats and other animals that lived in Gobustan.

From stone drawings and archaeological writings, wolves, tigers, foxes, jackals and other wild animals were found in this place in ancient times. In 1968, when they cut a layer of stone about 3 feet in size near Atbulah, large bones of an unknown animal were accidentally cut off. The workers informed the Ministry of Culture of the Azerbaijan SSR, not knowing what those bones were. After examining the discovered bones, it was determined that these bones were the remains of a “Southern Elephant” that lived in what is now Gobustan.

Perhaps during my visit to this national treasure of Azerbaijan, weather was one of the aggravating factors, but I enjoyed the beautiful view that stretches along the region.

Due to the temperature and the landscape, I had the impression that I was going on a safari and that I would see a giraffe soon, but that was just my imagination!

It is estimated that 300 of the world’s 700 mud volcanoes on the planet are located in the Gobustan, Azerbaijan and Caspian Sea. Many local and world-renowned geologists have come to study this natural phenomenon called “Mud Volcanoes” such as Firuz, Gobustan, Salian Crater and have come to some discoveries where they have stated that mud from these volcanoes has healing purposes.

After we finished our tour of Gobustan National Park, our guide took us to see some more interesting sights, one of which is another natural phenomenon that attracts tourists who come to visit Azerbaijan, called Yanar Dag.

Yanar Dag (translated from the Azeri language, meaning “Burning Mountain”) is a natural gas fire that burns constantly on the slope of the Apsheron Mountains in the Caspian Sea near Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. You may remember when I mentioned in my previous post how Azerbaijan was known as the “Land of Fire”. Flames can reach up to 3 meters in the air from a thin, porous layer of sandstone.

Yanar Dag officially belongs administratively to the Absheron region. Unlike mud volcanoes, the Yanar Dag flame burns fairly steadily, as it uses a continuous outflow of gas from the underground.

It is claimed that the Yanar Dag flame was only noticed when it was accidentally ignited by a shepherd in the 1950s. No mud or liquid can be seen, which distinguishes it from the nearby volcanic muds of Lokbatan or Gobustan. In the territory of Yanar Dag, by the Presidential Decree of May 2, 2007, a State Historical, Cultural and Natural Reserve was established, which is under the control of the State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan.

After a major renovation that lasted almost 2 years (2017-2019), the Yanar Dag Museum and the Yanar Dag Cromlech Stone Exhibition were launched in the area of this unusual reserve.

Our next stop – the Temple of Fire! I know this may not mean much to you at first sight, but remember the fact that Azerbaijan is a “Land of Fire”, so it is quite logical that they have a “fire” temple.

Baku Ateshgah (Azerbaijani: Atəsgah), often called the “Baku Fire Temple”, is a religious temple similar to a castle in Surakhani city. Based on the Persian inscriptions the temple was used as a Hindu, Sikh and Zoroastrian place of worship. “Atash” (ạtsẖ) is a Persian word for fire. The Pentagonal complex, which has a courtyard surrounded by cells for monks and a tetrapillary altar in the middle, was built during the 17th and 18th centuries. This temple was abandoned in the late 19th century, probably because of the diminishing Hindu population in the surrounding area. The natural eternal flame extinguished in 1969 after nearly a century of oil and gas exploitation in the area, but is now lit by gas from Baku.

Baku Ateshgah was the pilgrimage and philosophical center of the Zoroastrians from the northwestern Indian subcontinent, who were involved in trade with the Caspian region via the famous “Great Road”. The four sacred elements of their belief were: ateshi (fire), badi (air), abi (water), and heki (earth). The temple ceased to be a place of worship after 1883 with the erection of oil plants (industries) at Surakhani.

The complex was turned into a museum in 1975. The Ateshgah Fire Temple was nominated for a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998, and on December 19, 2007, by the decree of the President of Azerbaijan, it was declared a National Historic and Architectural Reserve.

My dear adventurers, 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 National Tourism Promotion Bureau of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan Airlines for this incredible adventure and Boulevard Hotel Baku for their huge efforts to make our stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about National Park Gobustan? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Azerbaijan before? I would like to share with me your experience! In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Azerbaijan, and I will show you one interesting Lahij village which I visited during my visit. 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 National Tourism Promotion Bureau of Azerbaijan and the national airline company Azerbaijan Airlines and Hotel Boulevard Baku. I also thank my friends from Loro Piana, Makia Clothing and Picard Lederwaren for amazing outfits 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 Azerbaijan: Baku, a modern city made of traditional dreams…

Adventure Travel 5 Comments

My dear travellers, welcome to my blog! The holiday mood is ON, so there is a plenty of time that we can spend on a nice trip. As I promised you a few days ago in the previous posts, August will be very interesting time as we will discover some new unusual destinations together.

When I received an e-mail from the National Tourist Board of Azerbaijan few months ago, I could not imagine that this summer I would have the opportunity to get to know a whole new culture of Azerbaijan. The first email I received from them was short, but it was straightforward with the question of whether I was free this year to meet the land of fire, which is located somewhere between Europe and Asia. I couldn’t even think about the trip, but my minds were already somewhere in the Caucasus region.

In collaboration with the Tourism Board of the Republic of Azerbaijan and their national airline Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL), I was able to visit this incredible country and I’ve got an amazing opportunity to #takeanotherlook. In July, my photographer and I just checked in our suitcases full of dreams and we started our adventure!

After less than 5 hours from cozy Berlin, my photographer and I jumped into summer outfits, because surely the temperature difference at that point was about 20 degrees. Azerbaijan Airlines definitely “bought” me for a little interesting little sign of attention! They had an ice cream on the flight, so far it was the first time that I experienced that on a flight I have dessert like this, so you could enjoy on their flights with this lovely summer sweet treat.

Journeys are a wonderful thing and anyone who is able to go around the world you should pick up magnets just to have some nice memories from the trips, until as they can normally open the door of the refrigerator! 😀

In my case it will be my aspirator in the kitchen where there is no room for new magnets anymore. My mom constantly criticizes me, but again somehow we clean the dust on the aspirator together, so I’m the one who even though I’m scared of heights, climbing on the ladders while mom is cleaning the magnets which I give to her… And so the same story repeats every 2 to 3 months. Sometimes is hard, but that is the price of having some priceless memories.

This is the first picture I made in the capital of Azerbaijan – Baku, a city that you will learn more about in today’s post. At first sight, Baku looks like one city from the future, you see all those skyscrapers that just don’t know which one is bigger. As you approach to the center, you realize that the city has some unusual warmth and architecture is totally different than in other countries.

Previous rulers and politicians have been great lovers of the arts and aesthetes who have strived to beautify their country in the best possible way. The inspiration for the architecture of Baku comes mostly from Europe, specifically from Italy and France, where architects have found unrivaled inspiration.

Baku represents the social, cultural and industrial center of Azerbaijan. In recent years, Baku has become an important place where many international cultural events take place. Azerbaijan hosted the 57th Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, European Games 2015. Baku, the F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix of 2016, also hosted the 2018 UEFA League Finals and will be one of the UEFA Euro 2020 host cities. Impressive isn’t it?!

Hotel Boulevard Baku

Since my photographer and I arrived in the evening, we wanted to rest and to prepare for the next day. We had a real adventure and a long tour which will help us to get know Baku! The next morning I woke up fresh and with smile on my face and we could start our first official day in Azerbaijan!

The nice weather, the sun, the full camera battery and the ready photographer was just enough for me to start a new adventure! Of course, my photographer immediately did his best to show me how good I could look in Azerbaijan. I think because of my beard, I was able to pass all out like an Azeri guy…

Shirt: Makia 
Backpack: Picard

Whoever has followed my stories on Instagram certainly remembers the intensity of the wind and then I fully understood those words of our old wise people: “The wind blows so heavily that it carries the trees!”, Now I had the opportunity to feel it on my skin. It was quite exciting!

In the picture above in the background you can see 3 buildings that are symbol of the city. Surely you’re wondering why they’re the symbol of the city? These are just three ordinary, beautiful modern buildings. You get the right answer to that question in the evening when these buildings, with the help of modern technology and ice screens, become the “Towers of Flame” that are a symbol of Baku.

After we had finished our photo shooting and we used the morning light, our guide Tural came to us, who was there to reveal to us all the secrets of this lovely land, which lies somewhere between East and West, somewhere between Europe and Asia. Tural told us that if we want to get to know Baku better, we must visit the old part of the city first, because that is the only way to understand the real value of this wonderful city.

About 100,000 years ago, the territory of modern Baku and Apheseron was savannah with rich flora and fauna. The first traces of human settlement date back to the Stone Age. Since the Bronze Age, rock carvings have been discovered near Bajil and a bronze figure of small fish has been discovered in the Old Town.

These findings led many to the existence of Bronze Age settlements in the city. Near Nardaran, at a place called Umid Gaia, a prehistoric observatory was discovered, on which rock images of the sun and various constellations were carved along with a primitive astronomical board.

Further archaeological excavations revealed various prehistoric settlements, temples, statues and other artifacts in and around the modern city. In the 1st century BC, the Romans organized two Caucasian actions and reached Baku. Near the city, in Gobustan, Roman inscriptions dating from 84-96 BC have been discovered. This is one of the earliest written evidence relating to Baku and Azerbaijan.

Maiden Tower (Azerbaijan: Kız kalası) is a 12th century monument located in the Old Town of Baku, Azerbaijan. Along with the Shirvanshah Palace, dating from the 15th century, it forms a group of historical monuments that were listed as a cultural property by the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001. It is one of the most prominent national symbols of Azerbaijan, so this tower can be found on Azerbaijani banknotes and coins.

There are various mysteries and legends related to the Maiden Tower. However, the main mystery is the design and purpose of the tower itself. In the meantime, there are 20 legends related to the Maiden Tower. A large number of them are related to the Islamic and medieval period of Baku history. Quite a few legends are deeply rooted in Azerbaijani Zoroastrian or pre-Islamic history, religion and culture.

Probably the most famous legend is that of a fiery-haired girl who rescued the Baku people from slavery. The epic shows the roots of the Azerbaijani Zoroastrian faith and culture and reaches to the modern day.

The view from the Maiden’s Tower is amazing and it is worth climbing to the very top where I was able to take the photo you can see above. The Maiden Tower houses a museum that tells the story of the historical development of the city of Baku. It also owns a souvenir shop. The view from the top crosses the streets and minarets of the Old City, Baku Boulevard, De Gaulle House and Baku Bay View.

The Old Town is the first ideal stop for every tourist who comes to meet Baku. It is a city with a long and rich history that will intrigue everyone, legends that leave people breathless.

Azerbaijan is different, their culture is unique and when you come in contact with it you should be open minded to understand its value and essence. This trip has completely changed my picture of countries in the East.

After tour of the Old City, it was time to visit unusual modern part of Baku. As we crossed the line from traditional part of Baku that led straight into the modern era of new Baku, our guide told us so many legends about the emergence of modern Baku that even 10 posts would not be enough for you to write down all the stories in detail.

On the other hand, somewhere in the streets of modern Baku you will see a bunch of cars and very wide boulevards that are mostly one-way streets. To be clear what I’m talking about since I was a kid growing up in Europe, one ordinary boulevard in downtown Baku is wider than some boulevard in Paris and all lines are one-way. Maybe now you can just figure out what I’m talking about.

T-Shirt and Trousers: Loro Piana 
Backpack: Picard

Little Marko didn’t miss the opportunity to take some photos on the streets of Baku, the photos turned out great at the end thanks to my photographer. Due to its unusual architecture, the city is extremely photogenic, so it was easy to make good pictures. Baku has some special energy, which perfectly matched my sensibility.

In the heart of the city is a monument to Nizami Ganjavi, a medieval Persian poet in Nizami Square. The opening ceremony of the monument was held in April 1949.

The position of the monument is set symbolically so that the famous poet will look in the arts – the National Museum of Literature Nizami Ganjavi. This museum represents the largest and best collection of rich Azerbaijani culture. Collecting, researching and storing scientific and other materials on Azerbaijani literature and culture presents these materials in the exhibition and is the main objective of this museum.

Sculptures of eminent Azerbaijani poets and writers were placed on the facade of the museum by this order: Muhammad Fuzuli, Molla Panah Vagif, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, Khurshidbanu Natavan, Jalil Mammadguluzadeh and Jafar Jabbarli. There are 120.000 exhibits in the museum’s rich collection.

In the picture above you can see what the Heydar Aliyev Foundation looks like. This institution is a charitable foundation headed by First Lady of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyev. The foundation is named in honor of the former leader of Azerbaijan – Mr. Heydar Aliyev, who was also the father of the current President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. The people of Azerbaijan really appreciate and love Mr. Heydar and many establishments in Baku is named after by him. In this post I will show you what the Museum of Modern Art looks like, which also bears his name – Heydar Aliev Centre.

By the time, Baku became a metropolis with sophisticated architecture. Each corner is unique and original, the parks are beautiful (especially Philharmonia Garden which you can see in the photo above) and represent a real little paradise where you can rest your eyes and soul. Surely you may be wondering how Baku “became so green”? Tural told us an interesting legend that Baku has become so green.

Few decades ago, Baku was like a desert, they had oil, but they had no nature at all. The rulers implored their dear guests who plan to visit Azerbaijan to bring seeds of their plants and plant trees instead of expensive gifts and to contribute to the improvement of nature in Baku.

However, it did not help too much either! Then they thought of asking their customers to send a certain amount of soil for each gallon of oil sold, to allow them to create suitable conditions for the land to be able to plant some plants and plant trees. That’s how this “green” story began, and so Baku became a green oasis where you can find pomegranate trees. I have to admit that in Azerbaijan, for the first time in my life, I saw the trees of pomegranate.

After we are done with the city tour, it is time to fulfill my promise and present to you the collection of modern art – the Heydar Aliyev Center. The Heydar Aliiev Center is a 600,000-square-foot construction complex in Baku, Azerbaijan, designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid, and she is recognizable for its distinctive architecture, curved style that emerges from sharp angles.

The center is named after Heydar Aliyev, the first secretary of Soviet Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982, and the president of the Azerbaijan Republic from October 1993 to October 2003.

As a great piece of post-modern architecture, the shape of the building is an eternal cycle of life, which connects the past with the present. The building has a conference room, galleries, museums and more and the basic idea is to unite people of different backgrounds in the place of common ideas. The building won the prestigious London Museum of Design Award in 2014.

In this rich art treasure house you can always find masterpieces of contemporary art. In addition to modern art, one part of the center is dedicated to Mr. Heydar Aliyev, a man who was the father of democracy in Azerbaijan and the president for life of the Republic of Azerbaijan until his death in 2003. A museum dedicated to his life and work depicts the political development of Azerbaijan until modern times and when his son Mr. Ilham Aliyev became the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Also, you can learn some new and interesting information about Azerbaijan, see what the Scriptures and the Koran looked like, as well as some of their traditional musical instruments. This museum is unusual and has an interesting doll exhibition. The dolls are made to look natural, I also learned that the hair, eyelashes and eyebrows on the dolls are also natural.

Also, I was impressed by the exhibition of dolls depicting society in Azerbaijan. The museum is suitable for all ages, so I’m sure it will be enjoyed by both young and slightly older visitors. Believe me, fun is guaranteed here!

For the end of today’s post, I decided to show you the Bibi-Heybat Mosque. The Bibi Heybat Mosque (Azeri: Bibiheibət məscidi) is a shrine located six kilometers southwest of Baku, Azerbaijan. Fatima al-Sughra, daughter of Imam al-Kazim, was buried in this mosque.

This place is also called Pir Bibi-Heibat and is referred to by the locals as the Fatima al-Zahra Mosque. The mausoleum was built during the Safavid dynasty, but was destroyed when Stalin conquered the area. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of Azerbaijan, the President of the country ordered that this shrine be restored.

This mausoleum – the mosque hides a very sad love story, but of course it is part of history, there are many legends, but people always believe in the power of love. This mosque was decorated because its original purpose was to be the place where the daughter of the imam would rest in peace, but later it became a mosque.

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 National Tourism Promotion Bureau of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan Airlines for this incredible adventure and Boulevard Hotel Baku for their huge efforts to make our stay unforgettable and I felt like at home.

How do you like this post about Azerbaijan? Have you ever visited Baku? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Azerbaijan before? I would like to share with me your experience! In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Azerbaijan, and I will show you one interesting Lahij village which I visited during my visit. 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 National Tourism Promotion Bureau of Azerbaijan and the national airline company Azerbaijan Airlines and Hotel Boulevard Baku. I also thank my friends from Loro Piana, Makia Clothing and Picard Lederwaren for amazing outfits 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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Last Letter from Lapland: Explore Rovaniemi with Makia

Fashion Outfit Post 6 Comments

My dear travelers, I hope you are doing well. We may not all present at the moment right now because the holiday season is open, but the blogger’s work doesn’t know anything about vacation! Just another month is going to end, and another adventure on the Mr.M blog is also finishing, but a lot of interesting stories await you in August, do not worry.

It may be a little strange, but as a person gets older and becomes an “adult” personality goes through a few stages. I am currently in the phase of “being my own boss and paying my bills”. Tomorrow is the 1st of August and that means only one thing in the Western world, it’s time for payment and on another hand bills must be paid. It’s that little bit of a grown-up thing when you are young, you don’t have a sense of it because your parents are doing it for you, and your job is to enjoy in the life and to find your way. After is quite different!

Then you grow up, and you enter the world of adults where you see that everything is totally different. My first book on university with which I had contact began with a famous sentence, which was not very clear to me at first sight: “There is no free lunch!”. After you finish your studies, you start working and breaking into life every day repeating that sentence and every time it gets a different meaning, but whatever you turn it is not free! 🙂

Of course we all have to grow up at some point of time, but it would be best for all of us to save that little kid that sits somewhere in our soul and reminds us of some nice little things which are really important lessions in life. Sometimes that little kid can teach us more than some school or university can ever do.

Today I am thinking and trying to summarize these 27 years, what has changed in my life… I realized that as I opened my blog and started to write you here about my troubles and beautiful things in life, my personality has changed drastically. The blog is really a great thing, it came to me as a kind of psycho therapy. I managed to conquer my fears, to conquer myself! Sometimes it is very important to prove to yourself how strong you are and believe me, results will surprise you!

Before I start with my last post from this Lapland edition of posts, I would like to say huge thank you to Visit Rovaniemi and Finnair for this incredible opportunity to be one of the Rovaniemi Summer Ambassadors for 2019.

Today I will write you about my fashion adventure and how I explored Rovaniemi with a little help of my friends from fashion house Makia. Maybe you remember my adventure from Helsinki and one interesting yellow jacket – LINK. Yeah, that jacket was from the special collection Makia x MOOMIN, which was a collaboration between Makia, the most famous Finnish luxury street wear and MOOMIN. For the final part of their collaboration with the Moomins, Makia designers team got inspired by the easily relatable and curious character of Moominpappa.

Now it comes the time to present you a new Fall – Winter collection of Makia Clothing on my blog. I am sure that the first thought on your mind was: “What he is talking about, it’s still summer!”. Maybe for you is summer, but fashion brands need always to be prepared for a new fashion season.

When I had started my journey from Berlin to the heart of Lapland, in Berlin was around 35,36 degrees and I came to Rovaniemi with short sleeves T-Shirt. I will just tell you that in Rovaniemi was around 12 to 14 degrees, so it was like twenty degrees difference. For all humans, you know that would be a huge temperature shock for your body.

But, my friends from Makia have already known all those facts, so they sent me one box with all must have things to “survive” Lapland. At the first moment I just wanted to hug them all, because they really thought about everything, about every detail and they knew my favorite colours, so it was just a perfect match!

After I finish with my schedule it was time to show gratitude to my friends from Makia, so my photographer and I made a very last walking tour around the Rovaniemi and we made these photos.

Rovaniemi is a very interesting city, which can fulfill all your wishes and Visit Rovaniemi team did absolutely everything to show me all the beauties of this lovely city. This trip really was one interesting mix of everything: educational, funny and of course I met the Santa!

Makia clothes helped me a lot, so it was nice to explore Rovaniemi with their help. This outfit is ideal for casual city walk, as you saw in one of my previous posts from Lapland.

What I love about Makia? Makia is a brand which makes simple and functional design clothes that focuses on the quality materials which is the most important thing.

What I also love about Makia? Their way of communication with the influencers. For example, I received my package which was prepared on time, because my visit to Lapland was shorter than previous one in Helsinki. They made for me few outfits, they just asked me to confirm my sizes and they with their stylists made quite interesting choice of outfits for me.

After I’ve got my package, I saw on their online store one interesting beanie! It was simple, but the colour was just amazing, so I asked them is it possible to send that beanie, because I love red colour. The next day I’ve got a call from reception of hotel in Rovaniemi and they informed me that some new package is arrived for me, if I am free thay would like to bring it for me. Couple minutes ago I saw one big box, bigger than previous one…

My first thought was, this is too big for one small beanie! I opened the box and I was surprised because there was a totally new outfit which completely match with the beanie!

That was much more than I expected so I got 4 outfits instead of 3 and I just wanted one small, simple red beanie…

Life is interesting when you don’t have some high expectations. I am happy because I have my job which I really love from the bottom of my heart and I have family and friends who are always there in every single moment ready to help me and support every crazy idea of mine…

Last couple of days, I’ve got a lot emails with some questions, so I will use this post to give you an answer on the most interesting question.

“Dear Marko, I follow you for 3 years now and this is the first time that I have something to ask you. Is this blogging thing something what you really like or it is just because of money? If you feel that some part of question is not right, you do not need to respond me. I will respect your decision.” – Kelly from UK (She gave me the permission to share her question here on my blog and to publish her first name).

Dear Kelly, I decided to follow my dreams, but I worked long years to make my dream come true. I always wanted to become writer, but as you know life has some other plans for us. This bloggers, influencers thing now is in the spotlight because of money. This is a job like any others, there is no difference. If you do not make some effort, do not expect something in return. First of all, I love my blogging job because it helped me to change myself to become a better version of me. I don’t want to lie anybody, this job is good, you have a lot of perks, freebies which sometimes you can’t pay if you work some regular job with some average European salary. People are curious to know, what exactly are we doing and getting so much money? I know that I work a lot, and this can be seen by the content I regularly share with all of you on my blog and social networks. Once again I love my job, even when I am not making any money, I am capable to work some side jobs to help myself if I need some money. I also love this because because it always give me a great feeling of freedom and relaxation when I have opportunity to write some new story, because I am the writer and editor at the same time! This is my little kingdom where I am always free to be myself and that is a real luxury in nowdays world.

OUTFIT

Coat: Makia

Jeans: Pedro del Hierro

Sweatshirt: Makia

Beanie: Makia

Boots: Makia

So guys, my dear travelers, once again we have come to the end of our adventure. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! At the end of this last post of this special series of posts from Lapland, 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. It was my pleasure to visit Rovaniemi and to feel their hospitality.

How do you like this series of posts 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 Europe, and I will introduce you with one interesting and unexplored country – Azerbaijan! We are going to see Baku together and 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

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

  1. Letters from Rovaniemi: One day with Furry Friends… (Travel post)
  2. Letters from Finland: One interesting day in Rovaniemi (Travel post)
  3. Letters from Lapland: Santa Claus, the great hero of children’s dreams… (Travel post)
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 fashion house Makia Clothing for amazing outfits 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 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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Last letter from Malta: Dear diary, it was amazing!

Fashion Outfit Post 4 Comments

My dear fashionistas, welcome to my new post. I hope that you are well and that you are relaxing on some beach and enjoying the sun. Why am I talking about the sun? In previous posts I regularly complained about the heat and begged just to stop more and then I came to my second home – Berlin…

It seems that the Sun in Germany has lost its plan and program, and here at the moment there is a gloomy and rainy weather, so I see more people dressed in some autumn outfits on the streets. I would never say that it’s July, as I said, the Sun has lost its calendar here!

Well, not to be so negative as I constantly complain about something, at least to finish this series of posts from Malta as it suits – in a nice and cheerful mood!

Yes, you read well, we came to the end of this special series of posts from Malta, and this is my 7th, and also the last post from this special series. I hope you learned something new about this beautiful island country. I’ve tried to show you Malta in my eyes and help my adventures to get much easier on this island.

Through this special series of posts, we walked together along the streets of Valletta and the unusual town of Mdina and we saw some of the incredible natural beauties of Malta. It was a wonderful journey and little Marko had fulfilled one more dream from his loooong bucket list.

The fashion outfit that you have the opportunity to see in the pictures in this post I wore during my last night of Malta Fashion Week. This event lasted until the end of May, but due to my obligations I had to come back home earlier.

The last day in Valletta has just flied so fast, it’s always happen on the trip, the time passes like the flash light and, the next day you regret it because time has come to go home, then you are tired because of the trip and so every time we return from some nice holiday.

I decided to wear my beige pants, yes, I know … They are very bright, very sensitive and you have to watch every time you sit down, but … we bloggers must do everything for beautiful photos! 😀

At the end of this fashion “battle”, little Marko came out as a winner because he did not mess his pants, and I must admit to you that wearing light-colored clothes can help you to lose some weight.

I’m sure that you would’t like to see some stains of ice cream or other deacons that can ruin your clothes, so you will lose sugar craving of sweets over time. Now I slowly begin to understand the Italians and the French, because they constantly wear clothes of brighter colours. I think we finally discovered their biggest secret!

Many of you asked me on Instagram and Facebook about this lovely blazer, so finally, I can answer on some of the most frequently asked questions. First, it’s from Zara, the new spring collection – 2019/20, and you can buy it now at summer seasonal sales. As the final downturn is slowly approaching, the price of this blazer is changing so it is not grateful to announce its exact price now. You can check it online on Zara website.

As for other pieces, some are new, others have been in my wardrobe for a long time, and so far you have had the opportunity to see them in some of the previous posts before.

My dear fashionistas, once again we have come to the end of our 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 outfit which I chose for the second day of Malta Fashion Week? Have you ever visited Valletta? Have you maybe had a chance to visit Malta before? I would like to share with me your experience!

OUTFIT

Blazer: Zara

Trousers: Seventy

T-Shirt: Loro Piana

Sneakers: Saint Laurent

In a couple of days we will continue our adventure in Europe. This time we will explore Lapland, the homeland of the most beloved grandpa in the world -Santa Claus and 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)
  5. Letters from Malta: Gozo, your new happy place! (Travel Post)
  6. Letters from Malta: My second day on Malta Fashion Week (Fashion Outfit Post)
This post was sponsored by Malta Tourism Authority. I also thank my friends from Loro Piana and Seventy for this wonderful gifts and 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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