Mont Saint Michel: against the flow

Mont Saint Michel. Photo: Natalia Maiboroda

Here it is: gloomy, mystical and grandiose. The spear of medieval town scratches the sky. But the bottom is surrounded by water and quicksand. This is how my geographical dream looks like. It is called Mont Saint Michel.

Baku: brand signature

Heydar Aliyev Cente in Baku, made by Zaha Hadid. Photo: Natalia Maiboroda

I never wanted to go to Baku, until Zaha Hadid created her statement building in Azerbaijan’s capital. The futuristic construction situated not in the very center. But it makes people travel out of the historical part, also beyond Soviet way of thinking. 

Shenyang: who let the dogs eat?

Shenyang, Xita street. Photo: Natalia Maiboroda

“No dog, please!” – I asked my waiter in the restaurant. I showed her hieroglyph to make sure they will not cook a dog for me. The waiter smiled and opened the menu. Every single meal on the page contained familiar character.

Switzerland: speed-up laziness

Photo of Natalia Maiboroda

When it comes to Switzerland, imagination brings to mind pacify picture without rush or over-hastiness. In a country, where time has stopped, they build a machine to accelerate the pace. I visited the world’s largest particle collider – Large Hadron Collider – just before it has restarted since long pause.

Patagonia: Fifty shades of blue

Photo by Natalia Maiboroda

44 hours from Buenos Aires by bus and you are in the tip of Argentina – chilly and severe land. In other words, in small town El Calafate, which is situated closer to Antarctica than to the capital. This place is so isolated from the rest of the country, that you can easily describe it as being “in the middle of nowhere”. El Calafate lives off tourism due to world-famous attraction called Perito Moreno. This breathtaking glacier is just 80 km away.

Nizhny Novgorod: hero of the fete.

The 4th of November – a day to remember. At least in Russia. Some people can’t remember what exactly they celebrate nowadays (Unity Day). Just because before the feast had another date – 7th of November – and was dedicated to  October revolution. This celebration survived Soviet Union, yet was finally abandonded. As long as people got used to November holidays, state historians burried into “this day in histroy” statistics and found out that … in the beginning of 17th century it was in this autumn month that Russia firstly overcame long period of anarchy and state degradation. So, since 2004 National Unity Day has been celebrated on the 4th of November. Another official holiday in Russia needs to be spent somewhere, but not in Moscow. So we choose to travel to the birth place of super model Natalia Vodyanova – Nizhny Novgorod. And what a symbolic trip it was!

Istanbul – a trip between two continents

Istanbul was my Birthday present from my boyfriend. We had there 5 days, but this time I would like to mention only the birthday itself. We did something in Istanbul that is just impossible to do anywhere else. We made a trip from Europe to Asia in one hour and jumped in 5th century.