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

Life update on Downtime. Philippines, Russia, Palau.

We are very late with blog updates this year and I have to tell you it was quite a strange year… Not much sailing and no new countries either…

So during we are still posting stories about land travel in USA from the end of last year: Part 5. East Coast and Liberal and Part 6. Hawaii and Baja Race are coming soon… I decided to write this story…

Here is some freshest news from Downtime and Co. But let's do it in order…

Pete and I flew back from USA to Davao, Philippines in the end of November, 2013. After 2 weeks the boat was ready to sail and we started our adventure in the country of little people. Two fun stores about Philippines are coming soon as well. And here is few pics for the start …

After few months cruising our sailing plan had been changed, we decided to sail back to NZ and spend next hurricane season there. We missed Pacific. There are some beautiful islands in Philippines, but both of us didn't like Asia so much, not so great place for cruising, not much infrastructure there, not many cruisers either… And personally I have been to 85 countries so far and never saw so dirty one… Pete had stomach problem twice and I had once, not to mention the most of the time I was cooking for us and our friends on Downtime, we ate out maybe twice per week… Friend of mine, Paolo Grazzini on Smar (SuperMario) was sick twice after eating some food on shore…

To everyone who is asking about Paolo, I believe he is fine, he is still searching for "perfect crew". We spent 2 months with him and saw maybe 12 different girls. But no one was good enough, so everyone still has a chance! Please contact him directly, I am not his secretary and I don't speak Italian either :) paoplosupermario@onsatmail.com, paologra.sail@gmail.com

Say shortly we sailed from Davao to Cebu with some stops on our way and next Boracay, El Nido, Coron and back to El Nido and Cebu.

Philippines looks very attractive in pics, which is remind me Cuba… Photos are much better then reality… So I took 1000s of great shots…

How I mention already our body boat from Boracay to El Nido was Smar. Paolo and Pete were looking for kite spots and Boracay is way too crowdy. So we sailed 30 miles south and found an awesome spot… just for ourself…

During guys were having fun to learn new jumps, I and Tia, Paolo's girlfriend enjoyed the beach life.

My best Mango smoothie for my best friend!

Captain Amazing and awesome crew!

My friend Jenny flew to El Nido in January for 2 weeks to experience our sail life, we had wonderful time with her and even celebrated my Birthday together!

new friends

first try and first up!

who is not working, not eating))) how we say in Russia

captain lessons!

girls time!

wild adventure

crowd on the tree)))

our selfie

mango-mango-mango!!! Yummy!

happy people)))

prawns are dirt cheap in El Nido!

having fun with kids during Downtime is getting heavier with fuel 

Happy Birthday to me!!!

In the end of February I flew to Russia to see my family, friends and doctors… yes sometimes you just have to…brrr… freeze my skinny ass…

Pete sailed back to Palau, according new plan. 

His daughter Cassandra with her boyfriend Antony visited Pete in Palau for 10 days in April! 

They had a wonderful time together. Cass and Antony learnt how to dive and explored  an amazing underwater world. Pete shown   them a lot of beautiful little islands on SD , include Peleliu! Kayaking, wakeboarding, laughing and having fun. Life is hard on Downtime with an amazing Capt. Pedro!

Just before to come back on Downtime I flew to France to visiting my sister's family. Isn't it lovely, when your sister has a villa near Cannes? Yes! Indeed!

view from the house

My nephew Dmitriy is racing the cars in Formula1 for teenagers. He is in Italian team, living in France for the last year, from Russia … Funny combination, but it works. He is number 1, very proud of him!

nice little forest for me behind Pete)) hehe

I flew to Palau on 1st of May, it took 42 hours, but it was worth it! I had an awesome time in such a beautiful and warm tropical country… Pete prepared everything to leave next day for 11 islands… So we spent almost 3 weeks in paradise together. 

rainbow!

homemade waffles! can life be better?

 














One day Pete took me and our friends Lisa and Paul on Lorelei to explore Peleliu, all day adventure, "must do" activities during you in Palau. The Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II, was fought between the United States and the Empire of Japan in the Pacific Theater of World War II from September–November 1944 on the island of Peleliu, present-day Palau. U.S. Marines of the First Marine Division and later soldiers of the U.S. Army's 81st Infantry Division, fought to capture an airstrip on the small coral island. This battle was part of a larger offensive campaign known as Operation Forager which ran from June-November 1944 in the Pacific Theater of Operation.

view from the top of the hill

watch out! police here!

strong russian woman!

very beginning of the long-long tunnel…

need to  be Japanese to feel comfortable there…

all together! 

Other day we explored Jellyfish Lake, one of the wonder of Palau. The Lake is located in the Rock Islands, a group of small, rocky, mostly uninhabited islands in Palau's Southern Lagoon, between Koror and Peleliu.  Millions of golden jellyfish migrate horizontally across the lake daily. You need to buy permit in the town before to go there… It is worth to see! Very unusual and beautiful!

Another day we shown our friends Lisa and Paul Milkyway… The last year we spent hours trying to find it… It is part of Rock Islands with white mud, so you can have Spa Day for free!

Paul and me in mud

Random beautiful pictures of leisure time on Downtime…

Thanks Anthony on Liquor Desire for this fish!

Few times I cooked some specialty of Downtime like Leg of lamb, fish green carry, pizza-night… And one night Paul did awesome rolls and sushi for us! I guess he spent hours to cook all those goodies! Thanks Paul!!!

And another Big thanks for all amazing underwater pics!!! They are priceless! We did around 15 dives during I was in Palau and every single dive was Spectacular!!! We saw few different types of sharks, mantas, turtles, barracudas,  tuna's, groupers, trigger fish and a million other beautiful fish and corals in 87 degree crystal clear water… truly paradise!!!

me and Nemo!

our group at Blue hole!

I am skinny mermaid))

prawns

Pete and Angelina Jolly are the best friends)))

Suddenly Pete changed our sailing plan again… Finally he decided to sail back to Philippines, park the boat there and fly to USA to spend few month with his family and friends… 

And I decided to come back to Russia and work my ass off to make some money… I raised way when you have to take care about parents and your self… I was traveling for past 10 years and almost spent everything what I saved in the past… so now I feel unsecured… and it is what it is! Time to remember what is real life about!

So the latest news about Downtime. The boat is safe, in Davao, Philippines. 

Pete is having fun in USA with family and friends, he will fly back to Davao in Oct and sail Downtime to Australia for hurricane season. 

live your dream,

Daria