From dream to reality!

Once again, hello my dear friends!

Today I decided to take some time to tell you about an important event (at least for me it was very important indeed) and at the same time I would love to keep this story written somewhere (for memory) and blog is the best place to do so! 🙂

I want to start my story by saying that on March 31, 2018, I was lucky enough to attend the performance of Nick Vujicic in St. Petersburg! As Wikipedia states: “He is an Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder (called phocomelia) characterized by the absence of arms and legs.“My mission is to help people find their way in life,” he says ”(c). So, it seems to me, he showed me my way, or rather, another direction that I find interesting and which I would like to do besides other thousands that I already have))

That day I left his performance very inspired knowing what I wanted to do. I was full of determination, ideas and inner fire. The fact is that I have traveled the world and whenever I began to talk about my life, the miracles that took places here and there, my ideas and aspirations, people immediately stopped doing what they were busy with and started to listen to me, I saw the light in their eyes.My students in South Korea told me that I was sent to them by fate, in France people told me that they had never met such a motivating person (even if this is far from true). Nevertheless, I know that by my example I can “charge” everything and everyone around, and so I realized that I would like to share my stories and advice with others. And all of a sudden less than a year from that day my good old friend sent me a message on Facebook with a proposal to speak in Moscow. This girl’s name is Elena Sedova. She does everything: she is a singer, a presenter, a member of the Russian Union of Journalists, a kind of producer, a radio guest, and much, much more. Of course, I was very glad that the Universe heard my desires and reacts to them in such a quick way! It’s interesting that we hadn’t communicated with Elena for several years and then suddenly there was an offer from her site to mine that could not be refused. It was decided that from now on Moscow was on the list of my plans for 2019 and then, postponing for a long time, finding reasons to do it later, the date was chosen – June 15, 2019!

(Elena made this poster and the photo was taken by Sergey Sirotin)

I was given a cinema-hall in the Travel-library in Moscow, which was very nice! By the way, the director of the library is a very sweet, pleasant, polite lady. I still remain grateful to her for the opportunity to speak at such a library. This is very symbolic, because travel is my whole life! I didn’t even know that the library of Travel exists!

I must say that I began to be afraid and have terrible expectations of the upcoming event in early May, long before the X-day! Sometimes I asked myself a question – why do I need all this, what did I subscribe to, but as I read somewhere “Go where it’s scary. There you will find yourself “or something like that. In any case, I believe that we become stronger while overcoming our fears, there is more self-esteem and faith in ourselves after all. Moreover, it was my dream to speak out loud … There was no way back.

Sapsan train took me to Moscow the day before the performance. Therefore, I was able to meet with Elena (the leader and organizer of the event), discuss all the details and I also had a wonderful time with my mother, who had flown specially for this time to the capital. Her support was important to me and I had missed her a lot.

Actually there were some sad things too. I am quite a sociable person and I have many friends – acquaintances thereforeI invited almost everyone I knew in Moscow. But on Saturday (June 15) it turned out that one got sick, another got sick, the third was at work, the fourth was at school, the fifth got the date mixed up, the sixth … well, I just kept reading messages like “Natash, forgive me, really wanted to see you, support you BUT … ” If I received only one or a couple of messages like that but I had almost all of my invox of such news. On the other hand I was so happy to see when some people texted to me: “I’m with you! I will come! See you soon” and someone wrote that he could not wait for 17:00 (the beginning of the event). There was even a person who spent 2 hours on the way to the library and 2 hours back! This is a hero indeed! I also had a girl from Argentina (who speaks Russian) at my presentation (in the audience).

Did I get upset that my friends, acquaintances did not come? At first, Yes, and very much. But then I realized that I did it for those who wanted to travel, learn about some life hacks, learn how you can quickly start speaking foreign languages and much more. If a person did not come, it means that he/she simply did not need this information. Perhaps he (she) him/herself knows everything…therefore, I believe that on June the 15th there were only those to whom it was interesting and useful, and I am grateful to everyone who gave me as much as 2 hours (not counting theway to the library) and the information I wanted to convey. And especially it was very nice to get feedback after the performance. I already know that some people use my advice and that’s great! So it was for a very good purpose!

This photo was taken when almost everyone gone (here I am with my friends though I don’t know the lady with a dark blue dress). And on the right side from me is Elena.

Here you can see Dinara Aidakeena – the director of the place (with the grey dress).

As for the performance itself, I felt very comfortable – I was sitting on the armchair, I was provided with a microphone, I did not have to shout worrying that people won’t hear me well. I was very relaxed, talking about what I know well – about my life))) there were some very close people in the hall and of course, it gave me strength and energy. So, except for the fact that after 1.5 hours of communication, I began to wheeze, otherwise everything was very calm, sometimes fun (humor is my everything) and completely natural.

I prepared a presentation in Power Point and all my words and stories were backed up with pictures, photos and jokes. I talked about England, about how I was offered a place in the prestigious university as an exception, why I left this university in my beloved London, the way I danced at the Paralympic Games in London,my winning in a design competition in America, about French and Italian, about finding work abroad and much more.

I hope this was not my last talk. And, perhaps, soon I can be heard on one of the Moscow radio.

And since all those who did not come to see and hear me speaking they began to send me messages like “How did it go?” I answered the first 4 people, and then decided that I would better write a blog article which I am doing right now))

Summing up, I can say that there were less people than I expected and wanted to see but there were wonderful people so the quantity didn’t matter but the quality! By the way, there was a nice young man who left my presentation right in the middle. It was hard for me not to pay attention to it and continue talking, but who knows, maybe something happened in his life, or he was in a hurry to attend Muse concert, which took place that very same day in Moscow.

I felt absolutely comfortable and everything went great! I am grateful to my fried Elena Sedova, the library, every listener and my life of course!

Best wishes to you all!

How I met Gregorian or a really happy day!

Hello everyone! It seems that I started to write more often here. Well, maybe it’s all about spring!

The reason of my urgent writing today is happiness that has no limits, emotions that are sweeping and that’s why I really want to share what had happened with me!

As you could probably guess the post will be about Gregorian – a German musical group performing pop and rock songs in a style imitating Gregorian chants. I’m sure they (Gregorian) are known very well but for those who doubted their knowledge I advise you to read about them on Wikipedia and even better listen to their compositions on the Internet (especially «a moment of peace» as it’s one of the most famous songs of their). You will immediately realize: “Well, of course I know them!” or you’ll discover a magic treasure chest full of sounds that probably came to us from Mars.

I discovered these musicians only few years ago or rather to say I found them earlier but listened to them deliberately on a purpose only that time, and of course I could not resist of the idea to go to their concert on March 12 held in the city on Neve  when I came across advertising of their farewell tour.

It happened that during my preparation for the concert (not that I was engaged in the descant))) but in my free time I “was flying” with the music of Gregorian) I realized that I really wanted to draw and to give them a picture (3-4 days before the date). I somehow manage to get the phone of the concert manager (whose name was and still is Natalia, just like mine)). I called her a couple of times and wrote a message, but there was no answer … I just wanted to know if I would be allowed to enter the stadium with a painting and how I could give my present to the ones I love!

Finally I decided that I’d draw a picture no matter what. The problem was that a definite decision came to me the day before the concert and only on March 11 at 12 pm I started to draw and finished it on March 12 at 12pm. If take about 2 hours of sleep and couple of hours for breaks and snack I spent about 20 hours painting “Gregorian” art-work, plus all of my energy resources as well as I spent the night without sleep which was the most difficult for me especially if consider my drawing technique where every detail is important and therefore I should be very concentrated…

Unfortunately it happened that I was almost late for the concert because I am a super-punctual person and being late equals being 30 minutes before the concert for me))) so I was out of breath and disheveled, I was running to the arena Sibur (where the event took place).

By the way the story with the concert manager did not finish on the mysterious silence. Natalia replied to my message just 30 minutes before the concert and explained how I could give my “Little Present”. Imagine if I had not decided to paint due to the fact that I got no answer from her! After all, in fact, I could not be let in with the picture or anything like that … but I still decided to “Just Do It”))

This is a view on the whole hall where the concert was. The white arrow shows our sits approximately.

Some photo-shooting before the show

Gregorian’s concert was a bit late (for 10 minutes perhaps) that did not bother and certainly was forgivable. I think that it is generally the norm when events begin with the delay in Russia.

The show was great! The advertisement stated that musicians were taking 15 tons of scenery with them (well, I read this). I do not think the monks costumes weighed so much)). Most likely it was the lighting installation and things like that. In terms of light show everything was done at the highest level: various rays of the light emphasized heavenly voices of vocalists.

Amelia Brightman was divine. My arms were prickling with goosebumps and a shiver ran through my body almost every time Amelia sang. It was such a strong but sometimes very fragile and angelic voice! Also I liked her womanly image demonstrated by her outfits and arms beautifully-choreographed. Her movements were smooth, graceful and really amazing, though, I think I would be able to do pretty similar things (thanks to ballroom dancing), but my singing is definitely waaaaaay far away from her))))

Photo by ©Andrius Pelakauskas & Matas Baranauskas

Also there were some really touching moments at the event starting from some of the words / phrases that were said by Gregorian in Russian and ending with a pleasant surprise from them when they went to the auditorium, stood next to all of us and sang a couple of short songs and one of them called “Good luck companions” about it is being time to say goodbye and that they were thanking their audience, spectators, fans for their support and love … the text and the performance itself was so touching that many barely kept the tears, and some actually sobbed pretty loud)) it was the perfect gift from Gregorian for which I want to thank again and again! THANK YOU so much!!!

And in one of the songs Gregorian were playing guitars and at the end of the performance they turned their musical instruments to the back of the audience and there were glowing letters on each of the guitars and the entire composition showed the phrase «THANK YOU»! It seems I even broke down and set off into the world of emotional interjections with my loud “Awww!”. (You can view the moment of “Thank you” at 1:52:34 on the video in PS part)

From really cool things I remember the singing of one of my favorite songs «Crying in the rain» (originally performed by  “A-ha”). Around the middle of the song “monks” took few umbrellas and simultaneously opened them. The arena was completely dark and umbrellas were lightened and in addition to that there was pouring rain on the stage! Very impressive and atmospheric! (can be viewed at 1:03:40 on the video)

There was also a very interesting and a bright point with plates that reflected the light  but I won’t describe it here because I don’t want to go into so much details (Natasha said after describing all inside and out already))), because it is better to see once in real life than 100 times read in my blog)

Photo by ©Andrius Pelakauskas & Matas Baranauskas

In other words the show was absolutely spectacular and exciting but at the same time touching and very sincere that I even had a “fear” during the concert: that soon this story will end: “What if this is the last song and this magic is over? ? “and afterwards I again had a chance to listen to stunning and enchanting voices of Gregorian and I felt like I was floating above the ground! Indescribable feelings!

But, alas, the concert went to its logical conclusion. However my great evening of happiness was not yet finished. I phoned the manager of the concert and Natalia (that time my unknown angel) told me to meet her near the stage which I did together with my Dale (talking about Chip & Dale)),meaning my lovely friend Susanna, who supported me in my wish to do the painting for Gregorian and she also supported me in the “marathon” on our way to the concert and much more! Natalia took us behind the scenes of the stage. I found singers being in a little vanity: one was drinking water while packing things at the same time, another was changing, etc. Alas, they were not all together in one room but we were able to meet with majority of Gregorian and talk face to face with them, as well as to present my painting and even take an unforgettable picture!

My good and fluent English certainly allowed me to say a little thank-you, an emotional speech but to be honest I was over-emotional I think and this moment was like a dream for me: everything was quick, spontaneous, incredible and very happy!

Berwyn Pearce holding the picture very gently)

It’s been almost a day from the moment of the meeting and I am still full of enormous happiness as Gregorian vocalists we met with Susanna were very welcoming, friendly and just fantastic! And when Daniel Williams (a young blond man) said to me “Spasibo!” (“Thank you” in Russian) I smiled to him and tried to remember that Russian word that we say after “thank you” (it was hard to switch from English and from overwhelming emotions)). Daniel so I wanted to reply “Bolshoye spasibo tebe I vsey vashey komande”!!! (a big thank to YOU and to all your team!)

Once again, thank you so much my dear friend Susanna for your support and a photoshoot)))

PS. By typing on Youtube «Gregorian – Live @ Crocus City Hall, Moscow 10.03.2016 (Full Show)» you will find that video to which I referred in the article. It’s not my video, I found it accidently. The quality is not that bad but of course it cannot be compared with the live concert which I certainly advice everyone to go to!!!

Magical world of “Erarta”

Hi all, that adore cultural events! How are you, my dear friends? (do you hear the rhyme? I know I am superb, ahaha and modest). I hope the sun is shining where you are and if the weather is “sad” and the sky “is crying”, then perhaps the sun shines inside you!! Well, it should!

A lot of things has happened over the past couple of months, and I so much wish I could share all of experience, information, photos…so here I am with another story for you, my friends!

Today I would like to tell you about my quite recent visit to the Museum of Modern Art called “Erarta”.

I must say, I was warned in advance that it’s not as good as Saatchi Gallery (which is in London) and in many different aspects Erarta losing in comparison with the other London galleries and museums. Anyway, it was good that I was warned before the visit so I didn’t expect something really extraordinary and therefore I actually loved it.

Her Highness of Art “Erarta” surprised me already at the entrance: there was a very interesting sculpture in the form of a rotating sphere with different textures, lines, points, and so on. The main thing was that it (a ball or more precisely a disk) could be rotated! Interactivity is our everything! And two very unusual  statues at the entrance were also creating a sense of something magical and intriguing…

I propose that I will not talk about all the rooms, exhibitions and museum staff, but just tell you about the most memorable works of contemporary art that I saw there. Let’s get started.

My attention was drawn to the technique using colored tape. In my opinion, it’s a very interesting, bright, detailed and rather laborious work. Please have a look and judge yourself.

In this particular room (that I am talking about right now) there were works one way or another connected with the city on the Neva River, with some different facts, that were giving the city a charm, grandeur and individuality. And one of the things that shocked me and thus remembered was  St. Petersburg being the third largest city in Europe by the number of citizens in it. Prize-winning places were distributed as follows: 1. Moscow (12 million) 2. London (8 million), 3. St. Petersburg (5 million). Immediately I had a thought coming to my mind: it must be so hard to live in Moscow. Although, I must say that London with its big population has never provided me with the inconveniences, and even on the contrary – it gave me its love and it was mutual!

I do not remember what it was and how it was called, but for some reason I want to call it a “shattering reality.” (the photo below)

Magic carpet or “airplane-carpet”))) (in such moments, you realize that the genius lies on the surface)

There were also some self-portraits of the artists represented in the museum. All portraits were individual, unusual and many of them captured my attention, because each artist (and hence the portrait) had (and still has) its own soul! Here is one of them – quite creative, isn’t it?

And this was a creative and fun installation in the museum. I like it as it captured my attention! I always enjoy the things that stand out from the crowd. I can imagine that this work calls us to take any forms of art easy, especially in the modern world… or maybe vice versa: it is trying to draw our attention to the disappearing art which existed earlier.

What else…there was a plaque with a famous person’s statement about art on each floor, next to an elevator. I loved all of them and one particular I want to share with you, dear people!

I would translate it as the following: “An artist and a buyer are two crazy people. One paints a picture for no reason and another one buys it for no reason”© Boris Borsch.

I always kind of suspected that I was a little crazy, but Boris Borsch only confirmed this fact.

This is a painting made by Vladimir Migachev “Oil” written in 2008. In truth, I do not know what attracted me to this creation. In my personal opinion oil is a product that somehow associated with the pollution, something poisonous and not really natural (though it is so necessary in the modern world). And the picture itself is kind of dark and gloomy, it gives somewhat rainy, sad feelings … and at the same time I really liked it! Perhaps it corresponded to my inner mood at the time I was observing it. I am not really sure…

This was a 3D picture (or whatever it’s called?)) or it was just my split personality (you can see my reflection on the photo). It was nice to try a new fantastic face, even for a few moments.

Here it is!!! This is the masterpiece that won me over. In my opinion, this is just super! As many of you guessed it’s  “The dance” by Henri Matisse in its new interpretation with some dancing going on around the Christmas tree on Red Square in Moscow. I was just thrilled, but I am not really sure how Matisse would feel about it)))

Dolce and Gabbana – how can one live without them))) This painting was pretty huge (as the designers themselves). You may not understand from the photo but the work of art occupied a pretty large part of the wall. What did the author want to tell us by this? I cannot be sure but perhaps it illustrates the 21st century where your look is more important than personality and that people meet you by the clothes (at least for the first time). We can see the shirt and the huge one but there is not a person that wearing it.

And another very bold masterpiece – “The Last Supper” by Pavel Grishin. I think there is no need in any comments and, of course, it’s quite different when it’s seen live.

I would like to finish with the exhibition, that I was very impressed with, shocked, surprised…(and the other verbs that convey certain state of “Surprise”)). It was an exhibition of the Mad Hatter, a hairdresser and stylist, a Frenchman by his origin – Charlie Le Mindu. In truth, his biography really amazed be and inspired in some ways, and so I decided to upload a photo with the text of his life. Maybe you can be inspired as much as I was)).

Without saying much,  here are some photos for you. My dear friends, the only thing I wanted to mention is the fact that almost all the exhibits, dresses, wigs were made by Charlie and his team from natural hair!!! Thus I can conclude that probably all the materials can be used in the art field … but, you never know))

And this is me, your Cinderella (or the Queen of tires))

There will be more cultural events, great emotions, educational stuff and positivity going on so please stay with me, dear readers! I trully wish you all the best, my friends!

From Saint Petersburg with love

Dear readers, I am alive and everything is well with me. I just wanted to say that I still remember that I have a blog and all of that. However, there have been lovely changes in my life. I moved to Saint Petersburg which is the cultural capital of Russia (as we call it in Russia). I had so many things to prepare for my move and then it took all my energy and time and it is still taking. I mean everything is new here, I have a lot of job-interviews, cultural events and simply walking and discovering new places everywhere. That’s why I am keeping silence nowadays BUT I will share a great experience of having a job-interview (as I feel as an expert by now) and many other interesting educational things with you, my lovelies!

And therefore I will finish this post with the Terminator’s words “I’ll be back” 🙂 and it’s true! Coming soon, see you here again and for now I wish you all the incredible things, dear readers!

The photo was taken from the site called “holidays-rus.ru”, not sure about the author but it’s certainly not me. (c) The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood is shown on the photo.

Next stop is…BEIJING!!!

 

 

Today, my friends, I will tell you a fairy tale…a new one, real one, that happened with me just recently, about a month ago. Actually, it’ll be an opening for my Asian story that I promised to write about. I’ll try to tell everything briefly (don’t trust myself when I say such things)), that I won’t become like Scheherazade with her thousands stories (even though they were interesting and helped to save her life and become a happy woman). 

And so…the first part of my fairy tale is dedicated to Beijing, because it was the city that opened my astonishing voyage.

Obviously, the city has a great history behind it, that makes it a bit difficult for me to write today, because omission of certain historical facts may be perceived as a lack of respect from my side. But at the same time, my blog is not unlimited ​​and going into details of the story doesn’t fit my plans (not today, at least). Therefore , as an aperitif to our big lunch/dinner (as it’s more suitable for you) I will say that “Beijing” is composed of two Chinese characters ‘bei’ (北), which translates as ‘north’ and ‘jing’ (京), which translates as “capital”. Literal meaning of Beijing – northern capital . For us, Russians, it’s Saint-Petersburg is a nortern capital, sorry Beijing)) 

Beijing National Airport is the second bussiest airport in the world (after Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta ( U.S. state of Georgia)) for passenger traffic and congestion. According to the official 2006 census (I believe the statistics has not changed incredibly for the last 7 years) the most popular surname among the inhabitants of the town was the surname Wang . I don’t think it’s historical facts, that can really illustrate the power and greatness of the city, but my blog is not about that  anyway.

And now, after a short introduction, lets back to a fairyland of Cinderella. So, I arrived in Beijing. I should mention that I wasn’t alone, but with a cute lady in her early 25s)) , who I like to call “Mum”, but even though my blog is pretty personal and sincere, I still try to avoid writing much about my relatives and friends, and, consequently, as this story goes on, I will use more pronoun “I” (instead of “we”) , simply because my family – it’s personal for me, that I would like to leave unsaid , not open to the public gaze of curious, beautiful eyes. Maybe I am a bit strange but I am who I am))

The language barrier 

So BEIJING … I have an impression that I am about to start writing my article for the third time today and it’s only an endless introduction going on here))) 

Being such a positive person I want to start with the fly in the ointment))) to the city’s residents. And I am really sorry about it, in advance. My problem is that I was able to visit the only one attraction during those 8 hours that I was there, and I’m not a turtle, I move quickly. Especially when I have a very busy schedule I am like a meteor, but how difficult it was to navigate in Beijing, while almost nobody could speak English (though we have pretty same situation in Russia). As I jokingly (with a big exaggeration) say ” I speak English perfectly “) ) ). Anyway, I am always sure that I’ll find what I am looking for because I speak English, but it was different in Beijing…When I was asking: «Excuse me, could you please help me? Do you know how to get to the Great Wall of China?” I usually got an answer like this: “Oh tse, nishou sama uate emputo nor HuaShen chyuon na kul.” I know, it’s a bit strange that I could not understand what was said to me. I was asking myself: “How?? How does this city host the Olympic Games in 2008?” Or, perhaps, the whole world speaks Chinese, and the problem is just me. Anyway, I was amused by the situation and, according to a statement “people who laugh more live longer”, I extended the life on this trip quite a lot (while laughing), so thank you very much for the people I met in Beijing. At some point I felt like a Hoax-show’s participant  while asking the Chinese a way. They couldn’t really say anything but were showing me the direction with a hand and, just in case, after a few meters I was asking the same question and direction another local resident, and he/she was showing me the opposite direction from where I had just come. Perhaps it was funny and I must say, I did laugh. From this story I can make the following conclusions, contradictory to each other. The first one is that  my experience illustrated that knowledge of English is not a big advantage while travelling in China, therefore it’s maybe better to visit other countries or even to learn Chinese. The second conclusion is quite a contrary one. I know a lot of people who do not speak the international language at all and feel all right going abroad, using only gesture language, which means that you do not get deprived of any benefits (that English-speaking travelers have), so welcome to Beijing! Although, who knows – maybe there are only 100 people out of 20 million living there, who don’t speak English and I was lucky enough to meet this hundred))) 

The Great Wall of China

My big wish was to go to the Great Wall of China in Beijing. Of course, I wouldn’t mind to  capture the EiffelTower in the same touristic plan, but apparently “nothing is impossible” doesn’t work always. What’s more, Beijing and Paris are still to be different cities) ) ) .

As I said earlier, finding that cherished wonder of the world wasn’t that easy and it is not because cherries and miracles were in shortage. No, everything was fine. However, it would be much better if only I knew Chinese language (although I think it would have provided several years of torment before, if I decided to learn this really hard language). I can imagine – Cinderella, speaking Chinese. That would be fun) )

I want to make a point here – if you are an independent tourist, you’ll better be prepared to go to the Wall, like, for instance, knowing which route to take, varieties in prices, how to get there, which part of the Wall you need, etc. I had a slightly sad experience in search of the wall as a local taxi driver himself was not sure exactly where to go and even when we came to the most coveted and popular attraction, he could not drive up to the gate, so I was offered to go there on foot. Well, thank you for this help, at least.
The walking way to the Wall also didn’t  inspire much as it was laid along kind of forest, trails, some strange terrains and the thought was no longer about getting to the miracle of China, but about how to then find a way out of this miracle and catch flight at the airport. Anyway, at some point in time, all the stress was left behind, and in front of me appeared the Great Wall of China! It was doubly beautiful, partly because of the difficulties that have been experienced earlier in the search of this miracle place.

I’ll tell you a little about the mind-blowing experience I had there. Obviously, the wall itself was stunning and powerful. But it looked even more beautiful due to the recently awakened in the morning, nature, and slightly enveloping the landscape misty haze. It was magical! It became even more powerful while adding the feeling that you “touch”  the ancient, cherished, world-famous miracle. It was too much written, said, shown about it, and now you are a piece of history, past and present, now and then. It is unbelievable!

And some facts:
– The Great Wall of China was built about 2000 years ago in order to protect the land (particularly agriculture) from enemies as well as a barrier to local residents’s movement from the empire;
– there were over 1 000 000 people (prisoners peasants, soldiers) who attended the building process of  the wall’s structure. About 1,000 of those people were killed during the construction of buildings;
– Earlier this wonder of the world referred to as “The Ten-Thousand-Li-Long Wall” that referred to the structure’s length (1 Li = 500 m);
– Today the Wall divided into 4 sections: Badaling, Mutianyu, Simatai and Juyongguan.
I was lucky to visit  the part called Badaling (as it was planned). It is believed the area is good for tourists named Natasha (or Cinderella), who arrived from Siberia and who also loves ballroom dancing … (kidding, of course).

Of course, I was struck by its beauty (the wall I mean), majesty and length, as well as … curvature. The thing is that the stage which tourists used for descending from the wall were really crooked, angled, somewhere even erased. Thus, the parting with the object of great beauty was a bit complicated (maybe it’s a special trick by the Chinese sages that prevents tourists from leaving this popular place. The photo above proves my words, where you can see a girl sloping down the stairs and as her feet bent. Imagine how I risked my life, when taking a photo during the descent. It’s all for the blog and my loveliest readers!))

I also noticed that many bricks of the wall, were inscribed with some characters, words, signs. Alas, I did not have free time for leaving my own ” footprint” in the form of an inscription “Cinderella of Westminster was here “))

In general, the impressions of the seen were incredibly awesome! This is a must see and for sure it’s better to experience yourself than to read many times from different sources. 

The way back, from the wall’s part called “Badaling” to the city, took about an hour, maybe a bit more. I cannot say exactly now, but I know that it was not as short as I would like it to be (especially when you can spend less than a day in the city and each second becomes priceless). By the way, this touristic attraction (meaning the wall) has its own bus station and you can easily reach the city from there, at the same time you buy a ticket on the bus, which, in my opinion, is very convenient.

Another important point of “I love Beijing” programme was tasting Beijing duck, but, alas, when there are scales appered in front of my eyes, where there is a world-famous dish (duck) on one half, and on the other one is a flight (in addition with Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong), the second option outweighed and the duck remained live… ( I want to believe so ) ). Thus, the airline saved an innocent soul!

Also, on the way to the airport, I was able to taste a fruit skewers (unfortunately, I have no idea how it’s called there, in Beijing) . The dessert was consist of some pieces of kiwi and sour red apples (probably local harvest), caramelized, skewered on a wooden stick (the photo above). I would advice to try it! (Of course, if you don’t have that difficult choice between the food and an aircraft) ) ) .

In conclusion, I would like to say that I, personally, didn’t like Beijing as much as I liked other cities that I visited in December 2013, but I can convince that it is wrong to judge a city (or even a country) by only 8 hours spent there (4 hours of which were spent on transportation anyway). I should also consider how tired I was after a long flight when arrived to China. Anyway, sincerely apologize to Beijing and people who love the city ! In my case it happened this way…

I may sound a bit sad and pessimistic but it’s not like that! I am still to be very happy and will then provide some colourful and lovely posts here! See you soon, dear readers!