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Diana Kot's travel journal. Some pictures www.instagram.com/catidiana Articles www.facebook.com/catidiana Videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHI8QPW7XQDwz4hwN2B7z-A
I never wanted to lighten my hair, but you can't argue with nature, I’m going grey. And after much persuasion, I went for lightening. To be honest, the result upset me. I liked my natural color much better. Which one do you like more?
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My short visit to Gibraltar is over.
Surprisingly, when leaving it, you are not checked by Gibraltar border control, only Spanish one. Moreover, the officer simply saw that I had some kind of document in my hands, and did not even took to verify that it was mine. In fact, a lot of Spanish people and Gibraltarians walk back and forth across the border every day, the controls are very relaxed.
Gibraltar can really be visited in 1 day. Take the cable car up and walk down, visiting all the sights. Buses run from the center to the Europa lighthouse every half hour. You can watch the sunset there.
I haven’t been to the eastern shore, where the beaches are, I tried to explore the western port shore - but there’s nothing particularly interesting. But since it takes 2.5 hours by bus from Malaga, I decided to stay longer.
I have Austrian umbrella and hiking raincoat that can cover 3 people.
Also me when I need it:
Did you know that Gibraltar is a UK overseas territory? I always thought this was a region of Spain.
I don't know if I'm allowed to visit Gibraltar. Information from different sources differs - some say that I need a UK visa, others that not.
As a result, I woke up at 6 am to take the train at 7 am to take the bus at 8 am and in 2.5 hours we will find out whether I can visit Gibraltar or not.
2 years of war. I don't know what to say. I never thought it was possible.
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It is not the one person who kills, but the indifference and inaction of millions.
But should I be a hypocrite? I became indifferent to everything as well.
Today I am moving from Barcelona to a small resort town. I really liked Barcelona and don’t want to move at all, but I can’t afford the cost of living here.
So, I rented a room for 2.5 months. I'm really tired of living with 4 other people. Plus, not all the neighbors were good, and one in particular was a complete nightmare.
On my last evening here, I went to the cinema to see the film "Poor Things". Almost all films are dubbed in Spanish, but in Catalonia there are many cinemas that show films in the original language with Catalan subtitles.
I really liked the film and gave me a lot to think about. The main character Bella commits suicide, but her body is found by a scientist who transplants the baby’s brain into her, and Bella, with the body of a woman and the brain of a child, begins to learn to live in a new way.
First, the film is incredibly beautiful. Sometimes I wanted to cry because of how beautifully the frames were drawn.
Secondly, the topic described in the film is very close to me. All my life I have suffered from a depressive disorder caused by many traumas experienced in my early years, I see no meaning in life and feel trapped in a cage of my own body. And although now I travel a lot, experience a lot of new things, and have no reason not to indulge in hedonism in search of ever greater pleasures, I feel almost nothing.
I would also like to start with a clean slate, with the brain of a child. But we don't live in a fairy tale.
Walking around Barcelona, you can see a special red tile on the ground with the inscription "Ruta Modernista". After 2 months here, I continue to discover more and more masterpieces of architecture, and here, especially for you, and for myself in the future, I am attaching a map of 71 masterpieces of modernist architecture in Barcelona that are worth seeing.
Or you can also buy a guide or join a tour on this website:
https://rutadelmodernisme.com/en/modernisme-route/
Do you like churros? To be honest, I never liked them, but as it turned out, Spain is the home of churros, so I decided to test it responsibly. And to be honest, in most tourist places they were even worse than I remember.
To me, these are the French fries of the baking world (for those who didn't get it, I don't like French fries and consider them a violation of the potato's rights).
But today I found the most delightful place 5 minutes from home - Xurreria Trebol - where they bake churros to go and serve the most wonderful hot chocolate. They bake the churros on place so they aren't as dry and thin and have a creamy filling inside.
And the best thing is that when I went for churros, I discovered another masterpiece of architecture next to my house - Casa Comalat.
For the New Year, I asked people around me what goals they have for 2024. And the majority said that they don’t have any. In general, now we have only one goal - to survive. But I have another one - to travel as much as possible. A small review of travels in 2023. In italics - places I visited not for the first time.
Turkey: Istanbul, Marmaris, Fethiye, Ölüdeniz, Selimiye, Orhaniye.
Montenegro: Budva, Sveti Stefan, Petrovac, Kotor, Perast, Podgorica, Ulcinj, Bar, Tivat, Cetinje.
Austria: Vienna.
Poland: Krakow, Warsaw, Przemysl, Gdansk.
Germany: Dusseldorf, Cologne.
Italy: Rome, Florence, Siena, Pisa, La Spezia, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Vernazza, Portofino, Genoa, Milan, Bergamo, Venice.
Vatican: Vatican City.
Ukraine: Lviv, Kyiv, Carpathians.
Portugal: Lisbon, Madeira (Funchal, Porto Moniz, Santana, Fanal, Ponta do Sol, PR1, PR8, PR9).
Spain: Barcelona, Montserrat, Mallorca (Palma, Soller, Port de Soller).
Will be happy to your recommendations where to go next and also if we can meet somewhere.
By the way I still record all places on my travel map
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1vrhKHMMpzL7rEAICYxOfC-1-HJk&usp=sharing
Traditionally let’s summarize the book results of the year. Unfortunately, much less was read this year, for 2 reasons: I started reading books in English and I started buying paper copies.
1. Markus Zusak “The Book Thief”. This book made me fall in love with historical fiction. It is both adult and childish, hard and light, it makes you cry and laugh. Released in 2005, it has already become a classic and received a film adaptation (rather weak). I liked it very much and recommend reading.
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. So, I decided to finish the entire book series of Harry Potter and it’s magical.
3. Khaled Hosseini “A Thousand Splendid Suns”. Khaled’s book “Kite runner” I recommend to everyone. It's hard to find a book that makes such a strong impression. Of course, after Kite runner, expectations from the author are very high, but this book is simply very good. It tells about the fate of Afghan women during the Taliban's seizure of power.
4. Vladimir Nabokov “Luzhin’s Defense”. Nabokov's early works are honey for the ears. Naive stories but an incredible level of mastery of words. You feel as if you are immersed in a jar of your favorite jam. This is the last work by Nabokov in the list of those that I wanted to read. I guess that this is the last work in the list of russian authors as well.
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I know it's on everyone's mind but everyone is afraid to say it - David Yates ruined the Harry Potter franchise. Therefore, read books.
6. John Steinbeck “The Grapes of Wrath”. I'm always suspicious of classics and all sorts of awards, but this book is simply incredible. Steinbeck restored my faith that realism could be interesting. During the Great Depression, many families from the northern United States were forced to migrate south in search of work to survive. Our reader has never been close to the theme of the Great Depression, but now that we are all refugees, you will find many echoes in it.
7. Neil Gaiman “American Gods”. And again I fell for pop culture. Shantaram’s story repeated itself. The book is also huge. The idea of new gods versus old gods is really good. But there are a lot of questions regarding implementation. I don't like it when the volume of a book is inflated with side stories that have nothing to do with the main plot. I don’t like it when there’s dirt, sex and dirty sex. I’ll say this: if you didn’t like the first 50 pages, you shouldn’t read further.
I really hope that next year I'll read more. At least 1 book every month. Meanwhile if you also like books, join me on GoodReads
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144732589-diana-kot
New day - new adventure.
Prices in Barcelona kill me! But recently I found out about app ToGoodToGo. Bakeries, cafes, hotels and shops give away food at the end of the day with a 70% discount. And in my area, a lot of places participate in this program.
Its mainly bakeries, pastry shops and cafes with Spanish fast food. You also can't choose what to take away - you are given a "surprise-bag". I didn’t want to take sweets buns and fast food and decided to buy a surprise-bag from an organic grocery store.
Most of all I was afraid that they would give me meat. And yes, my "surprise" included buns and 2 packages of meat products. Although everything looked very good, I was upset and asked if there was anything without meat. The boy at the checkout was confused because they were not allowed to change the packages, but “especially for me and in secret,” he put together another order. Wich I also didn't like 🥲
Its fish spaghetti and a bag of greens for 3€. In general, no healthy diet...
Couple of words about recycling.
This is a ticket I just bought from tickets machine at Mallorca Airport.
Idk if I should regret choosing city center as a location for leaving. We have this second evening straight
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Today my apartment was flooded. If you thought our construction industry was bad, a house in Spain cannot withstand ordinary rain.
At first I thought that the highest apartment above me was flooded, and water leaked from them. But it turned out that no - the woman upstairs did not sleep all night and cleaned her balcony. Owners: insure your home. Renters: be prepared for anything.
But not a single story has yet compared to the one that happened to me in Vitebsk 7 years ago. One of my upstairs neighbors flushed chicken soup with chicken legs down the toilet. The legs got stuck in the pipe at the basement level, and I was on the 1st floor. And everything that was subsequently flushed down the toilet by the residents of this 9-story building ended up in my apartment.
Facts about Gibraltar:
1. Traffic on the roads is right-hand. But there are a lot of additional markings and signs, apparently so that British people do not get confused.
2. Time zone as in Spain, GMT+1
3. Currency - pound sterling. Almost everywhere you can pay by card, the exception is the city bus where payment is only in cash. You can pay in pounds and euros, but don't expect any change with euros.
4. Type G sockets!!! WTF!! I was shocked. The hostel gave me an adapter, but it seemed like I took the only one they have.
5. Almost immediately my mobile roaming turned on. If you do not have roaming on your SIM card, even Spanish, you will be left without connection.
6. Absolutely all signs/signs/plates are in English. For some reason I expected that there would be dubbing in Spanish, but no. 100% English everywhere. At the same time, there are a lot of Spanish workers, and in the stores there is a lot of food in Spanish packaging.
P.S. Check the car number on the picture
So, I'm in Gibraltar.
Crossing the border is quite interesting. On the Spanish side they didn’t stamp in my passport. Apparently because I have a resident card. But in general, few people were stamped. On the Gibraltar side, 99% of people simply showed their passports to the border guard and moved on. No stamps. Apparently these are citizens of the European Union.
But I was detained. They asked if I have a resident card. How long am I traveling for and do I have a hotel reservation? They asked to show it. They took my phone and wrote down the hotel contacts :) they wrote down my phone number. And then I waited 5 minutes and they slapped this stamp on my passport. This is a short-term visa for 21 days, but as you can see, it was carefully written on mine when I promised to leave.
After passing the border, you need to cross the runway of Gibraltar Airport on foot. And here I am:)
I made a crime against ecology and human rights and bought Shein dress.
I wouldn't buy anything from them again for sure because the quality of clothes is awful. I just really wanted this dress.
The main question is: where do I suppose to wear a dress that doesn't suppose to have any underwear with it?
Trying to relax reading the sci-fi novel of Cixin Liu where all adults died and children began to rule the world. Also book:
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Health problems after 30 is a stack. And new ones appear faster than you can solve the old ones.
The New Year began with a strong deterioration in my health and before I could blink, 2 months had passed.
And this is a constant situation in my life when months and quarters and sometimes half a year fall into nowhere. I can’t remember anything specific for 2023 except that the first third of the year I felt very bad, the second third of the year I went to doctors with specialties new to my medical history, and the third third of the year I took pills.
Our brain creates a protective psychological mechanism to convince us that we will live forever. And even despite all the facts, we continue to believe in it.
If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do? Ray Bradbury answered this question best in his story "The Last Night of the World." Nothing. You would spend the day the same as if tomorrow were a new one.
Murmuration is an amazingly beautiful phenomenon. I once had the opportunity to swim with a school of fish and watch them murmuration, but never birds.
Many starlings spend the winter in southern Europe. These individuals are most prone to murmuration. Every morning at dawn they begin their dance. I know this video is not as impressive as those you can find on the internet, but every morning it simply fascinates me.
I'm an adult and I buy groceries.
Any ideas on how to cook romanesco?:)
For many people, New Year means a new beginning, a certain starting point from which new plans can be made and brought to life.
Unfortunately, the last 4 years of our lives have not been predictable. It was difficult to make any plans beyond a few days. And it seems that 2024 will be no exception.
Nevertheless, I wish all of us that the changes in 2024 will be great, but only for the better.
Happy New Year, my dears, have a good time celebrating it, make plans, drink a note with champagne, eat 12 grapes, fall into salad and wake up tomorrow cheerful and fresh, ready for new achievements!!!
Tió de Nadal is a Catalan Christmas tradition.
The idea is: on the day of the Immaculate Conception, a wooden “tio” - uncle - is brought into the house. Before Christmas, he is “fed” in every possible way, and on Christmas Eve he is beaten with sticks to make it easier for uncle to “poop.” Then tio "poops" with gifts. Of course, I couldn’t resist such a beautiful tradition and bought myself my tio.
I wished him to poop me some nice boyfriend. So the Christmas noche will be dificil noche para tio.
While ago I got addicted to flat white. I'm not a big fan of capuchino's foam and caffe latte is too weak for me. Also due to the stomach problems can't drink espresso anymore.
But the is no flat white in south Europe (except hardcore hipsters places).
On Madeira I discovered coffee called "chinesa". But it seems like today I found my new love for the rest of my days in Spain - cortado.
Would be glad for your advice if you know some other coffee types I can try:)
Today I gave my fingerprints to the police. I was already prepared that they would smear my hands with ink and I would go around getting everything and everyone dirty.
And this situation has been repeating itself for 10 years in a row: I think about ink and every time I am disappointed when I see electronic scanner.
Picasso museum in Barcelona.... It's so overcrowded I can't stand it and want to leave.
Do you like Picasso? (Me - not really, honestly)
