Tag Archives: travel

Summer

 Hello my dear blogofriends! I’ve been out of blogging for some time, but I have a reason: I’m currently on holiday in my home-country. The weather is perfect here, only +30-35C during the daytime, and evenings are cool and fresh. Moreover, it’s a strawberry season here, and my parents have got lots of delicious strawberries in their garden, so you can imagine how many berries I’ve been eating every single day. 😀 Local strawberries are totally different from those ones in Dubai’ supermarkets, they are flavorful, sweet and of course organic!
 Another amazing thing about fruits, that cherries and apricots are both in season in Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan), and fortunately for me, plenty of these fruits are sold in Russian markets straight from sunny Uzbekistan, which is known for their tasty fruits.
 And here is the picture of ‘zemlyanika’ or wild strawberries which I picked myself in the wild woods near one Russian village. I have no words to describe them! These little germs are full of wonderful aroma! You need to try these little berries at least once. 🙂
Zemlyanika or Russian wild strawberries

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, guys! It’s the very first day of the year, and it’s -13C/9F and snowing in Russia currently. What does your family do every New Year eve? Do you have any memorable tradition? Every family celebrates holidays in their own way. The New Year Eve is a very important holiday in Russia, it’s time when all family members gather together, bring salads and sweets, cook pork or roast goose, socialise and discussing passing year, watch music tv-shows and exchange presents.

From the Soviet time Christmas wasn’t widely celebrated and most of the religious traditions, which are common for the Western people took their place on the New Year Eve. And so it is every since.

Traditionally all the best foods and treats were set on the festive table, the most popular salads still shuba and oliver (will post soon). Cold cuts, salted mushrooms and pickled cucumbers are also served. The dessert can be any cake or chocolates, and every home is full of mandarine aroma.

By one tradition, we open a bottle of champagne sharp at twelve midnight and make a wish. 🙂

By another  tradition, Grandpa Frost (Santa Claus) and his granddaughter Snow-maiden come to children and they should tell festival poems and songs, and children receive gifts in return.

Russian Winter

Have a fabulous winter!

Winter trees

Morocco. Part I

Hello there! How is your week going on? I promised to show you some photos from my holiday trip to Morocco, here they are.Cherries!

Morocco is an amazing and charming country, where time appears to have stood still.. May be the only exception are cosmopolitan cities, such as Casablanca.

RabatMorocco has turned out to be the endless country; we have covered about 2,500 km by car for just only a week. All major cities are located quite distant from each other, but if you rent a car and take a highway, few sights can be seen from the car, but mostly vast fields, and red Atlas Mountains closer to the Southern part of the country and lonely houses of shepherds and farmers. Reasons for stop on the road are limited, only same-looking petrol stations spread unevenly along the road. On the radio were played Arabian songs, thus we were forced to recall all word-games from our childhood, and looked at passing scenes. Moroccan landscape is very diverse, we passed medleys, mountains, coastlines… I was surprised to see a lonely house in the middle of corn or sunflower field, but after several hours, it became normal to see a small hut far away from the road, even in the middle of dried and cracked area.. Once, I and husband felt ourselves in the middle of nowhere! We drove an amazingly awful and damaged road across the desert, pure darkness surrounded us and I have never fell myself in a such dark place, there was no even a single light around. While we drove, we decided to stop in the middle of the road, then we switched off the car lights, opened the windows and began to listen… Nothing! It was absolute silence and pitch darkness…

Spending time in the heart of the Moroccan cities is one of the great ways to enjoy this country. They call old part of a city – Medina. Very ambient place with narrow streets, and ancient buildings, souks (markets), craftsmen’s and regular workshops.. Medina is cars free, so you can walk and enjoy! But be careful – it’s easy to get lost in its chaotic, tiny alleyways. I was amazed by an exotic medley of smells that came from spice souks! And all those fruits and vegetables stalls.. Fruits are so cheap, that I wish I could buy a hundred kilos of cherries and figs! I imagined how many delicious pies and jams I could made! 😀

Rabat StreetThe first city we stopped by was Rabat. It’s a capital, which lies on the Atlantic coast. To describe the city in few words, I can say the following: amazing wooden stuff, beautiful carpets, honey-touched and the tastiest figs ever tried, cheap cherries (around 2.6US$ per kg), too fatty cheesy pastry (wasn’t good), yummy street-baked crepes (yes, crepes!), pestering henna-painting women, and gorgeous green doors!Stunning Rabat Doors