trip

29 Nov 2009 3 Comments

From the richest to the poorest European country and back

I had a short vacation in Moldova together with my friend Diego. Probably you are asking yourself “Why Moldova!?”. At least this was the reaction of all of my friends when I told them that I had planned a trip to Chişinău. To be honest, despite the fact that I came back from this trip just few days ago, I am not sure what to answer to this question. :)

As far as I am concerned, I just wanted to have a trip to an east European country, eventually an ex USSR country. The idea was to go to a country which was culturally, architecturally, geographically and economically speaking very different to what I am used to. After several discussions with Diego about which country to visit, Moldova caught our curiosity… And there we went.

I have to admit that I knew really little about this country before to go, and two things impressed me the most there. The first is, unfortunately, the poverty. The time seems to have stopped in the Nineties there. The average monthly salary in Moldova is around 2500 MDL (151 EUR) while in Norway is 30000 NOK (3533 EUR). Of course, life is cheaper in Moldova than in Norway, but even normalising the salary to the cost of life the difference remains huge.

The other thing that left me puzzled is the lack of linguistic and cultural identity. Native Moldovans belong to the Romanian ethnic group. The official language in Moldova is Romanian, although natives speak a Moldavian dialect which is not so different from the original Romanian. However, Russians and Ukrainians form a large ethnic group in Moldova. Russian is then the default second language at all levels of education, and everyone in the country can speak it fluently. Oddly enough, local Russians refuse to speak Romanian and oblige native Moldovans to speak Russian. Walking around Chişinău I heard more conversations in Russian rather than Romanian, which is quite sad. Maybe this is a superficial analysis of the integration problems, but what kind of cultural identity is this?

I learned a lot from this “very original” trip… especially to give value to the things I am lucky to have in my life. Being at home with all the comforts seems like a luxury now… I hope I will always remember about it.

by Alessandro in Travels Tags: , ,

06 Aug 2008 4 Comments

Norge-Italia-Norge-Россия

This year I applied for 20 working days of vacation… Strange feeling to have vacations constrained by a contract… Well, I am a full-time worker now, first or last it had to happen.

Planning my vacations was not so easy this year. I wanted to go home in Italy, but at the same time I wanted some action somewhere else in the world… And I had to make it fit with some deadlines at the University. The final choice was the following: Italia at the end of June, and Россия — it means just Russia, but I could not resist to write it in Cyrillic :) — at the end of July.

A journey to Italy always gives me a mixture of contradictory feelings. On one hand it is pleasant to come back to my home-sweet-home after a long while: my family, my wonderful nephews and niece, my (few) good old friends, good weather, good sea, good food, good wine… On the other hand, the little old-fashion culture of Italy makes me pissed off every time I clash with it. Italian society seems hopeless and passive, staring at the cultural and economical decline. You can sense it everywhere, even in the speeches and faces of people. Every time I am preparing my trip to Italy I am so excited, but once back I always feel that my vacation has a sour after-taste. Anyway, my home village is very little and I did not do that much except sunbathing, swimming and going out with my friends. At least one day I was brave enough to climb the Gran Sasso mountain up to the top (2912m). This was the most exciting moment of my vacation in Italy, and I have to thank Antonio for being my guide.

If the first vacation was calm and relaxing, the one that came after was absolutely thrilling and exhausting. I visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, together with Diego and Federico, probably the best — or the worst depending on the point of view… :) — “colleagues” I could ask. The same way Diego said it to me one year ago, now I can say as well “la Russia mi ha cambiato la vita” (Russia changed my life). Part of me will never be the same after this vacation… It was probably the best I have ever had, well done guys!

St. Petersburg is a lovely old-fashion city, quite European in the way of living, but still Soviet in its symbols. Being full of art, it was a very good place to enlarge my photography experience. Moscow is young and dynamic, somehow too big for my taste, but definitely magnificent. Very good night life, even though we had only a couple of chances to experience it. It is difficult to compare those two cities, they are very different but I was fascinated by both.

I was very surprised by this country and by its people. Russians, especially Russian girls, were extremely charming and welcoming. I got in touch very special persons, who helped me in many ways and acted as tourist guides just for me. Curiously, I noticed that Russians dress up on more occasions than Europeans do. Even to go for a casual walk, a Russian woman could wear high heels and a nice dress. A hardcore feminist might have the wrong impression that women do this because they are victimized, but Russian women themselves explained it this way, “We only live once; I want to look and feel my best”. I was actually very glad of it. ;) Moreover, all the stereotypes I heard before about criminality in Russia were exaggerated. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we spent most of our time either sightseeing or in our apartment, but I had the impression that both St. Petersburg and Moscow are not more dangerous then other big cities in Europe.

What else can I say? Probably that I will be back in Russia one day, hopefully soon! I uploaded pictures from my trips. Check my Flickr photostream, and do not forget to leave comments!

До свидания.

by Alessandro in Society, Travels Tags: , ,