The temperature has suffered a significant drop, the sun has started to leave the stage to be replaced by grayish clouds, rain is becoming more and more frequent and the first leaves are starting to fall. Yes, autumn is here -not yet winter, that is coming afterwards ;-)- and with it, here comes that which happens to be my favorite month, my dear October.
Yes, yes, I was born on a cold night in October almost 24 years ago, that obviously is quite enough to make me rather fond of this month. However, it is not the only reason. Incidentally enough, I can link some of my most precious memories to the 10th month -such a nice, whole number, 10-.
For instance, I recall managing to safely ride a bike without wheels for the first time in October -although my technique had yet to be improved by quite a lot eh ;-)-, and what a success for any kid (and for his already quite scratched poor knees! ;-) ) that is!
Jumping ahead into the future, I realized my dream and finally managed to visit London for the very first time in October, and that happened in 2016. Of course, back then, I couldn't know London was going to become something similar to a backyard to me in a few months time, but that is another story ;-).
I also passed my very first exam at university in October, and with a pretty decent score too -again, my month cannot let me down, can it? ;-)
I could go on talking about such things forever, till next year's October, trust me, but it's not just about personal experiences, there's much more that one could say.
This is a month that has something magical in itself, something that, to my eyes, makes it unique compared to the remaining 11. It's the month right in between summer and winter, the month when the old starts to fade, but it's not dead yet, thus allowing us to appreciate its beauty one last time and then to wave goodbye. The leaves are turning colours into beautiful shades of red, gold and orange and there's no snow yet to turn into muddy slush. I have witnessed this cycle repeating for quite a few years, yet I can't help but fall in love with it over and over again. It's autumn, yet everything seems more alive than ever.
Quoting a dear friend of mine, it's also the time of the year when the cozy and delicious food makes its triumphant comeback onto our tables, some of the best treats ever are there for us again!
Comfy jumpers and scarf too, they're out of the wardrobes again and wearing them without the risk of self combustion is something I had missed! :-)
The best for last, Halloween. This means fake blood and cobweb decorations, Disney movies, candies, haunted houses and so much more. All things fun. Halloween is exciting at all ages too. Everyone can participate because you're never too old to dress up as something you are not and have a little fun along the way. Just, this year, let's try to keep cars and windows out of the equation when choosing a suitable target for the jokes, shall we? ;-)
....
Or maybe it's just me imagining things while sitting on my bed, surrounded by absolute silence, occasionally interrupted by raindrops welcoming another special October.
"Each month paints with a different brush, and takes colors from a different palette and its inspiration from a different artist. If dreary winter is, say, something from Picasso of his Blue Period, October is a Van Gogh creation, a runaway riot of color that dazzles the eye and wakens the senses."
-----
This is probably the first time since I started the blog that I feel I want, no, I need to write despite not having a real "event" or topic to talk about, or to create a story from. It's just the atmosphere, the thoughts, feelings and stuff, everything put together that's given me the urge to come back here and just type, regardless of how boring or out of context this might end up being. Unfortunately, communicating certain stuff has never been my forte, nor has it been writing in general...Oh well, I guess I can be forgiven for once? :-)
Monday 1 October 2018
Saturday 30 June 2018
A Special Week, Special Places & A Special Person
Well, it's truly been an awful lot of time since the last post got published, I believe we're past the 4 months!
At this point, only something special was going to bring me back here and, guess what, it's precisely what this holiday of mine was, something unforgettable that requires some lines to be jot down! :-)
-I haven't written much lately, please forgive any mistakes/confused and imprecise bits and just focus on the story itself, as it's definitely the main thing here! ;-)-
Now, what happened? Well, I went to Poland! It was a plan I had been cooking up for quite some time, hence why I was ready to take up any convenient offer that was going to come out.
But why did I go there? Admittedly, Poland wouldn't be the first choice for many, as that beautiful country doesn’t often get the credit it deserves and most people wouldn’t think of it as the perfect destination for a summer getaway -cold, grey, etc...(reminds a bit of certain parts of England in that sense eh ;-) )-. Luckily, I am not one of those people who get easily influenced by others' opinions and, after doing some research on my own and hearing how the mother and another couple of lucky friends had fallen in love with the country, I could but be eager to take off :-).
But I would be a huge liar if I said that sightseeing was what pulled me the most: I actually wanted to visit the dear Aurelia so bad -it had been almost a year since that way too quick meeting in Brighton, I couldn't have that, definitely not! ;-)- and she wanted to see me too, so, considering the motivation, a plan was bound to come out at some point, as it did eventually. Booked the flights, booked the hostels, bob's your uncle, I was going to Poland!!
Now, I am not going to give an accurate description of everything we did during those 4 days we managed to spend together, that'd take me ages...Knowing I won't get to see that lovely person in God knows how long -I always get quite depressed when I think about it-, I did my best to treasure every second of that precious time (having a good memory helped a lot in that sense!), which means I have potentially enough material to write an encyclopedia size post. Nah, better if I hold myself eh? ;-)
I'll start with saying it was special. Special beyond any possible imagination. I was welcomed in the warmest of ways, both by Aurelia herself and by her parents, despite being not much more than a complete stranger to them. I know some of you might think it's normal -I mean, I was the guest and she had to take care of me/be a good host etc etc-, but I can assure it is not, at least not at this level.
-with this I absolutely don't mean I thought they weren't going to be good with me, just that I wasn't ready for such kindness, generosity and hospitality...after all, who was I to them? Why should I deserve that much? I still am a bit surprised, but oh so thankful for everything...I can't really find the proper words, it's just too huge to be put down in writing!-
To give you an example, besides driving me around on a daily basis and giving advice on where to go and which activities to indulge in, I was even invited for lunch at their place on my very first day in Katowice (after an endless walk in Park Śląski with that bloody boiling temperature -thanks for that darling! ;-) ) and had homemade Gołąbki (see, they even took the time to prepare them for me!), a traditional Polish dish which consists of a cabbage roll with meat inside (apologies for the poor description eh, I suggest you google it to have a more precise idea) which I found absolutely delicious -despite the obvious struggles to learn the correct spelling and pronunciation (I believe it was funny for them to witness my pitiful attempts at that, but oh well, it was hilarious for me too ;-) ).
That aside, as mentioned before, Aurelia was an awesome host. She took great care of me -maybe too much, I am sure it wasn't a piece of cake for her, I would have been more than happy with half of what she did for me- and well, I am thankful for that, wholeheartedly.
-maybe my liver doesn't exactly stick with me on this one, but hey 'When in Poland, do as the Polish do', right? And they drink a lot, therefore my respect for their culture brought me to swallow quite a few liters of beer -surely more than I normally do, as I have never been a huge beer drinker haha-. On top of that, I was challenged by her -trust me, she was a tough opponent, overall we can call it a draw-, so naturally I had to take that up and go for it. Pride was involved here, it was serious ;-).-
Thanks to her I also got to see quite a lot in such a short period of time, which means I was able to appreciate Poland even more. Apart from Katowice, we spent a day in Wrocław (again, I dare anyone who doesn't speak Polish natively to guess the pronunciation. I'll pay you a tenner if you get it right on your first try and without using any extra resources ;-) ), which was simply lovely -worth the 2.30 hours on a train to get there -I was fascinated by being on an old fashioned train, that was some great experience for me! :-)- and the 3 hours bus trip on the way back spent worrying that our unlucky seats wouldn't break ;-)-.We tasted Pierogi and I fell in love with them (gotta learn to make them myself at some point, or I'll end up going back to Poland on a weekly basis to have them! ;-) ). Then she showed me more around Katowice, including, besides the huge park they have, some characteristic neighbourhoods dating back to the early 20th century, then we also visited an underground mine. It was great, even though I am sure someone was a bit scared of the lift eh? ;-). Jokes aside, it's understandable, I am a bit claustrophobic myself, and she did awesome in both trips. Admittedly, we spent most of our time underground in a lovely bar having, guess what, beer -second round of the aforementioned competition-, chatting, laughing and having an awesome time in general.
NB: she fancies having beer with a straw, apparently it's common over there. No need to add that such a peculiar habit needed some mocking by me -I believe I will never get accustomed to it! ;-)
Sadly, those 4 days with Aurelia went by in an instant and we soon reached that 'goodbye' moment I had been hoping not to come. Realising it could take an enormous amount of time before I get to see that splendid girl again made me quite emotional afterwards, so much so that I needed an hour or so before being ready to go out again and buy some souvenirs (and paprika for the mother!). I believe emotions getting the better of me was also due to how great I had been treated and how sorry I was that such lovely people live that far from me.
The last two days, I spent them in Krakow, exploring, eating delicious stuff and generally falling in love with another part of Poland, which was yet so different from what I'd seen before in the previous days.
One last bit of adventure, as I almost missed my flight on Wednesday, due to being led to jump on the wrong bus and finding myself lost in the Polish countryside, miles away from the airport and with my flight due to take off in 2 hours. Two bus trips, many missed taxis and an endless amount of swearing later -"Kurwa" came quite in handy I must say, thanks for teaching me darling! ;-)- I finally got to the airport, where I was further delayed by a bunch of bloody idiots who forgot to take the liquids off the hand luggage, thus slowing down the controls and wasting some crucial minutes of my time. Luckily for me, I got one single bit of positive karma, which was, quite frankly, the only thing I could hope for in order not to miss my flight: technical problems and consequent delay. I swear I've never been so happy for a plane taking off 50 mins later in my life! So much for being a thrill-seeker, eh? Never again do I want something like that to happen!
Summing up what has turned out to be quite a long post -I definitely am out of practice writing wise, but the topic being so dear to me made everything easier-, I had an unforgettable time in Poland, I am thanking for the billionth time Aurelia and her parents for being quite simply splendid with me. I hope to see her again soon (maybe it's going to be her turn visiting next, eh? That'd be great!! ;-)<3 ), I really do, she is awesome and well, she's grown to become an extremely dear person to me. If only there wasn't 900km between us...nah, she probably couldn't stand me being closer ;-P
Anyways, needless to say that this holiday has already taken a special place amongst my most precious experiences and dearest memories, I won't forget anything about it! Dziękuję bardzo, see you soon!!
"One day, you'll leave this world behind,
So leave a life you will remember"
That's my plan and so far it seems to have worked out not too badly I'd say... ;-)
PS photos will come out in the next few days on my fb. Dunno if you're reading this, but be ready for some shots of yourself too darling! And don't hate me too much for publishing them please! ;-)
At this point, only something special was going to bring me back here and, guess what, it's precisely what this holiday of mine was, something unforgettable that requires some lines to be jot down! :-)
-I haven't written much lately, please forgive any mistakes/confused and imprecise bits and just focus on the story itself, as it's definitely the main thing here! ;-)-
Now, what happened? Well, I went to Poland! It was a plan I had been cooking up for quite some time, hence why I was ready to take up any convenient offer that was going to come out.
But why did I go there? Admittedly, Poland wouldn't be the first choice for many, as that beautiful country doesn’t often get the credit it deserves and most people wouldn’t think of it as the perfect destination for a summer getaway -cold, grey, etc...(reminds a bit of certain parts of England in that sense eh ;-) )-. Luckily, I am not one of those people who get easily influenced by others' opinions and, after doing some research on my own and hearing how the mother and another couple of lucky friends had fallen in love with the country, I could but be eager to take off :-).
But I would be a huge liar if I said that sightseeing was what pulled me the most: I actually wanted to visit the dear Aurelia so bad -it had been almost a year since that way too quick meeting in Brighton, I couldn't have that, definitely not! ;-)- and she wanted to see me too, so, considering the motivation, a plan was bound to come out at some point, as it did eventually. Booked the flights, booked the hostels, bob's your uncle, I was going to Poland!!
Now, I am not going to give an accurate description of everything we did during those 4 days we managed to spend together, that'd take me ages...Knowing I won't get to see that lovely person in God knows how long -I always get quite depressed when I think about it-, I did my best to treasure every second of that precious time (having a good memory helped a lot in that sense!), which means I have potentially enough material to write an encyclopedia size post. Nah, better if I hold myself eh? ;-)
I'll start with saying it was special. Special beyond any possible imagination. I was welcomed in the warmest of ways, both by Aurelia herself and by her parents, despite being not much more than a complete stranger to them. I know some of you might think it's normal -I mean, I was the guest and she had to take care of me/be a good host etc etc-, but I can assure it is not, at least not at this level.
-with this I absolutely don't mean I thought they weren't going to be good with me, just that I wasn't ready for such kindness, generosity and hospitality...after all, who was I to them? Why should I deserve that much? I still am a bit surprised, but oh so thankful for everything...I can't really find the proper words, it's just too huge to be put down in writing!-
To give you an example, besides driving me around on a daily basis and giving advice on where to go and which activities to indulge in, I was even invited for lunch at their place on my very first day in Katowice (after an endless walk in Park Śląski with that bloody boiling temperature -thanks for that darling! ;-) ) and had homemade Gołąbki (see, they even took the time to prepare them for me!), a traditional Polish dish which consists of a cabbage roll with meat inside (apologies for the poor description eh, I suggest you google it to have a more precise idea) which I found absolutely delicious -despite the obvious struggles to learn the correct spelling and pronunciation (I believe it was funny for them to witness my pitiful attempts at that, but oh well, it was hilarious for me too ;-) ).
That aside, as mentioned before, Aurelia was an awesome host. She took great care of me -maybe too much, I am sure it wasn't a piece of cake for her, I would have been more than happy with half of what she did for me- and well, I am thankful for that, wholeheartedly.
-maybe my liver doesn't exactly stick with me on this one, but hey 'When in Poland, do as the Polish do', right? And they drink a lot, therefore my respect for their culture brought me to swallow quite a few liters of beer -surely more than I normally do, as I have never been a huge beer drinker haha-. On top of that, I was challenged by her -trust me, she was a tough opponent, overall we can call it a draw-, so naturally I had to take that up and go for it. Pride was involved here, it was serious ;-).-
Thanks to her I also got to see quite a lot in such a short period of time, which means I was able to appreciate Poland even more. Apart from Katowice, we spent a day in Wrocław (again, I dare anyone who doesn't speak Polish natively to guess the pronunciation. I'll pay you a tenner if you get it right on your first try and without using any extra resources ;-) ), which was simply lovely -worth the 2.30 hours on a train to get there -I was fascinated by being on an old fashioned train, that was some great experience for me! :-)- and the 3 hours bus trip on the way back spent worrying that our unlucky seats wouldn't break ;-)-.We tasted Pierogi and I fell in love with them (gotta learn to make them myself at some point, or I'll end up going back to Poland on a weekly basis to have them! ;-) ). Then she showed me more around Katowice, including, besides the huge park they have, some characteristic neighbourhoods dating back to the early 20th century, then we also visited an underground mine. It was great, even though I am sure someone was a bit scared of the lift eh? ;-). Jokes aside, it's understandable, I am a bit claustrophobic myself, and she did awesome in both trips. Admittedly, we spent most of our time underground in a lovely bar having, guess what, beer -second round of the aforementioned competition-, chatting, laughing and having an awesome time in general.
NB: she fancies having beer with a straw, apparently it's common over there. No need to add that such a peculiar habit needed some mocking by me -I believe I will never get accustomed to it! ;-)
Sadly, those 4 days with Aurelia went by in an instant and we soon reached that 'goodbye' moment I had been hoping not to come. Realising it could take an enormous amount of time before I get to see that splendid girl again made me quite emotional afterwards, so much so that I needed an hour or so before being ready to go out again and buy some souvenirs (and paprika for the mother!). I believe emotions getting the better of me was also due to how great I had been treated and how sorry I was that such lovely people live that far from me.
The last two days, I spent them in Krakow, exploring, eating delicious stuff and generally falling in love with another part of Poland, which was yet so different from what I'd seen before in the previous days.
One last bit of adventure, as I almost missed my flight on Wednesday, due to being led to jump on the wrong bus and finding myself lost in the Polish countryside, miles away from the airport and with my flight due to take off in 2 hours. Two bus trips, many missed taxis and an endless amount of swearing later -"Kurwa" came quite in handy I must say, thanks for teaching me darling! ;-)- I finally got to the airport, where I was further delayed by a bunch of bloody idiots who forgot to take the liquids off the hand luggage, thus slowing down the controls and wasting some crucial minutes of my time. Luckily for me, I got one single bit of positive karma, which was, quite frankly, the only thing I could hope for in order not to miss my flight: technical problems and consequent delay. I swear I've never been so happy for a plane taking off 50 mins later in my life! So much for being a thrill-seeker, eh? Never again do I want something like that to happen!
Summing up what has turned out to be quite a long post -I definitely am out of practice writing wise, but the topic being so dear to me made everything easier-, I had an unforgettable time in Poland, I am thanking for the billionth time Aurelia and her parents for being quite simply splendid with me. I hope to see her again soon (maybe it's going to be her turn visiting next, eh? That'd be great!! ;-)<3 ), I really do, she is awesome and well, she's grown to become an extremely dear person to me. If only there wasn't 900km between us...nah, she probably couldn't stand me being closer ;-P
Anyways, needless to say that this holiday has already taken a special place amongst my most precious experiences and dearest memories, I won't forget anything about it! Dziękuję bardzo, see you soon!!
"One day, you'll leave this world behind,
So leave a life you will remember"
That's my plan and so far it seems to have worked out not too badly I'd say... ;-)
PS photos will come out in the next few days on my fb. Dunno if you're reading this, but be ready for some shots of yourself too darling! And don't hate me too much for publishing them please! ;-)
Saturday 10 February 2018
Happy Anniversary To Me!!!
Ebbene sì, è passato esattamente un anno da quel 10 Febbraio 2017, giorno della mia partenza per Cambridge! Un anno bellissimo, un anno speciale che mi ha insegnato tanto e che non dimenticherò mai. Questa volta, data l'importanza dell'evento in sé - dovrebbe esserci quantomeno un articolo sul Times a riguardo, d'altronde si tratta di me... ;)-, ho deciso di fare qualcosa di un pochino diverso dallo scrivere un lungo e ripetitivo post, e questo è il risultato!
Spero vi piaccia (al di là dei numerosissimi errori che so per certo ci saranno -anche se, non essendo né Human Safari, né tantomeno un qualsiasi altro youtuber con 1/10000 del suo following o esperienza, è abbastanza logico che sia così, no? ;) -).
Ma adesso basta, ho parlato anche troppo :).
Enjoy!!
-----------
And here we are!
Yay, it's finally time! On this same day last year, the 10th of February 2017, I was leaving home, family and friends and, last but not least, Italy and I was moving to the lovely Cambridge! What a year this has been, a special year during which I learnt a lot, one I will never forget!
Therefore, considering the importance of the event -I wouldn't be surprised should some article be coming out on today's edition of The Times or of The Guardian...after all, it's me we're talking about eh ;)-, I decided to do something a tad different from the usual and at times repetitive blogpost. This is what I came up with!
Hope you'll enjoy watching it (regardless of the enormous amount of mistakes I'm sure I made in the editing process -Ops!! But hey, I'm not a professional youtuber [although I reckon Casey Neistat may want to collaborate with me after watching this], that's to be expected haha-).
Anyway, enough talking Jacopo, you said this wasn't going to be a long post! ;)
Enjoy the video! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEM8MaIva8g
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