Happy New Year 2019!!!

#HappyValentinesDay #Nevis #BotanicalGardens

From Nevis with Love!

New Album Solomon's March, 2015

After 7 weeks of sailing without Internet or any other signs of the normal civilization, but with a lot of real organic food, very authentic aboriginal people, ritual dances, mountain villages, beautiful beaches and deserted islands, hundreds stars in the night sky and amazing anchorages, one of which was inside the old Volcano's crater, and rain, and even typhoon, and more rain, when you are feeling blue and missing your family and friends. 

Finally we are in Port-Vila, the capital of Vanuatu and here we go I've just posted new Album Solomon's March 2015

Stories are coming!

live your dream,

Daria 

#California

Before the Bahamas, where I was sailing during November and December 2014, I flew to Los Angeles, California for a week and then boarded a plane to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the annual Miami boat show. 

Not much new I can tell you about California. It was very stunning as usual and the middle of October is a nice time to explore the coast.

Here is few highlights of my journey. 

The first day I spent relaxing, exploring Santa Monica and Venice beach, local art and music.

Next day I visited Walt Disney Concert Hall, which is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry, the acoustics designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, opened in 2003. After the last few years at sea I really appreciate opportunity to listen an amazing music in such a magnificent place. 

Next I spent a day on Rodeo Drive. And who wouldn't  want to feel like a “pretty woman” once in a while?  What was really confusing to me, was that so many fat and not so looking good people were around? I  felt like I was in a huge MacDonald’s!  But actually I was on the most famous and most expensive street in US, if not in the World…

The day came to a close and the  sun slowly was going down, the crowd changed from “cheese burgers” slinging fatties to super fancy sexy chicks on high heels and with Chanel or Birkin in the hand. And the night began…

My friend Steven, super-awesome-best guide ever, was showing me around. He made a very cool surprise and made the reservation for the dinner in Mr. Chow Beverly Hills, a very famous chines restaurant, opened in 1974.  Art, celebrity and superb cuisine all blend together in this stylish restaurant in the heart of Beverly Hills. We had a blast and even saw Pamela Anderson. I have to tell, she is breathtaking beauty in real life! I don’t know how the paparazzi can take such a bad shots…

Next day I explored Getty Center. It was my first time, I was amazed, that is totally free, except parking fee. Going up from parking to museum is by monorail and was exciting. You can easily spend all day there, there plenty to see and to explore. The architecture , gardens, and the views overlooking Los Angeles. It is well worth the visit. I can’t compare to Hermitage or Louver, because they have such large collections of treasures, but it is still unique and spectacular place. I enjoyed my day very much.

 

For the weekend Steven took me to Santa Barbara and Montecito. What a beautiful place. I completely fell in love! It has its own spirit and feels like a mixture of Europe and US. The restaurants are superb and maybe even better than in Napa Valley. 

 For my last day Steven showed me Newport Beach, his backyard.

More pics with the comments you can find in Album California, Oct 2014

live your dream,

Daria

Venice, Race, Birthday and France.

On the second of October I flew to Europe for 10 days. It was my fourth and the last time in Europe for this year. With this little adventure I killed 4 rabbits with one shot. The first, I saw final race of Karting Italian Championship 2014, second was to celebrate my nephew’s 13th birthday, third was to see Venice for the first time and the last one was to spend a few days in my sister’s summer house with my family. 
The price of this sweet deal was a ticket St-Petersburg-Venice-Nice-SPb around $450 + some miles, not too bad for the last minute decision.

My flight to Venice was early morning, I left home at 4am and didn't have any sleep. Damn Lufthansa and Frankfurt airport. You have to be a real sporty girl with really speedy carry-on to catch your connection flight. I almost missed mine, but somehow I ran very fast at 7am and thanks God I was in Venice at 9:30am. My sister and my nephew, Arina and Dmitriy flew from France and my sister’s husband Sergey flew from St-Petersburg, but all of us had to meet just at 10pm. So I had 12 hours to explore the beauty.

I left my luggage in a funky store room at airport and decided to save money and use public transport for the day... I bought a ticket which included bus between airport and the city and all public boats around Venice unlimited for 24 hours. The price was 28 euro, don't know what to say... Maybe - Welcome to Italian tourist attraction. I was just guessing, “how much can it cost for boat ride from airport, around 100 euro one way 15 min ride... maybe...”

Nothing new about Venice. It is as beautiful as you can only imagine. Can easily spend a few days there.

There are around 10 different routes for public boats with maybe 20 stops each, making it easy and pleasant to explore. You need definitely more than a day. I took a few different routes, fell asleep during one of them like I always do on a boat and went out on a few stops to see some architecture and Piazza San Marco. If you want to go inside churches or museums, you need buy a pass, other way you can spend more then a 100 euro per day per person...

Lunch was crappy, but it is really expected at such touristic places. But I feel very good in Venice, it has unique sprite or maybe I liked it because I am from St-Petersburg, which also called North Venice...

After all it was not so pricey, glass of Prosseco 2 euro, for another 2 euro you can have unlimited snack bar... the cheapest sparkling water is San Pellegrino , almost a paradise for me. I even visited a store and bought a fancy t-shirt for another 15euro.... So if you don't have to pay for a hotel, it is okay.
By 8pm I took a bus back to the airport and while waiting for my family, I decided to make someone happy and sold my ticket for 10 euro, it was still good for next 12hours... Economy degree he-he...

Next day was the first day of race and it is just training day, when pilots can check a track. It was also Dmitriy’s 13th Birthday, so we had a party with few Italians from his team... I even wore high heels first time in years, which amazed the local crowd of tiny town. It was fun!

Second day is a qualification and "mong" means lap after qualification after which everyone has own number in final race.

Dmitriy races for Italian team called BabyRace, every pilot has a mechanic. Quite interesting to watch a boy who is telling to adults what is wrong and what needs to be fixed... And Dmitriy has a talent, he is very good at that. But other kids had really rich parents who can built private kartodrom for kids at home or buy an entire team... So it is very a tricky sport...

When we got back to our hotel, my sister and I took bicycles at our hotel and went to the beach for little sister adventure. The boys wanted stay at the room to watch TV or play games, hehe typical boys. We could take electro bicycles or normal, it took us 10 minutes to decide, both of us never tried electro bicycle, but decided to be sporty and sexy)))

On our way back I lost Arina and could not find the hotel. It was getting darker and it is off season already, so I could not find anything open or even simply any person on the street, real ghost town... Finally after 20 minutes I saw a local guy, who had no idea where the four star Hotel President was... By luck I found it in 400 yards...

Sunday was the main day, there were two final races. First is the most important and has more points for total results of all... Dmitriy was just 8th. But by rules for the second race, first 8 places from the first race changing in reverse order, so my nephew started first in the second final and he won.

New member of the family, his name is Yakov or Yasha

The same evening we flew to Nice and spent a few wonderful days together at my sister house with an amazing view.

Dmitriy had been waiting for a surprise at home, the birthday present. His name is Yakov or Yasha. It is a brabanson, smart little dog. Yakov fell in love with me, then my sister said - finally! someone loves you))) 

My sweet sister! 

My beautiful sister! Love ya!!!

View from the house. Boats are following me)))

So next story is about California,
live your dream,

Daria Friday
PS: more pics in Album Race in Italy 2014