Weekend in Messina...part II

Brrr.... it was cold, but still much nicer than in Munich!

A few snapshots:

Weekend in Messina, Sicily with Carlo's parents

Over the Valentine's weekend we travelled to Messina, Sicily for a quick visit with Carlo's parents and his brother. Of course we had chosen the weekend with THE worst weather of the entire winter in Sicily. Usually that doesn't mean much compared to Munich weather, but it turned out to be wet, cold and snowy! Yes, there was snow in the hills above the city and all he mountains on the other side in Calabria were covered! Wow! Nevertheless we had a nice time with the family, even though Carlo had indigestion and had to stay in bed on Saturday night... Not the Valentine's Day I had imagined.. ;-)



Behind me, the snowcovered hills of Calabria!



The Aeolian Islands in the far distance
...

Looking towards Messina!

The light on the water was breathtakingly beautiful.

Third Highlight on Trip to St. Petersburg!

The third highlight was meeting up with our friends Yuliya and Harvey, who were visiting from California. We were present at the evening Harvey proposed to Yuliya, which we thought was really lovely! We also celebrated Harvey's 30th birthday on my last day there. Wow, talking about DOING IT ALL! :-)

Here some pics from the birthday dinner at a hungarian restaurant!!!

Grilled, stuffed eggplant rolls and red-beet herring salad
Carrot and apple salad with hazelnuts and hazelnut oil...

The world famous hungarian "borsch"
After dinner we stuck around and took some snapshots in the traditional kitchen style dining room...

The Christmas decorations were simple, yet very fitting... I loved the twisted raffia style garland!
They DID have a very artisan toilet...along with matching water tank!



I don't know how we had the energy to go dancing at Club "Rossi" afterwards...but somehow we managed.



I returned to Munich on Jan. 4th and Carlo stayed another week.

On Jan. 7th I was already off to Texas to spend time with my mother and organize our wedding celebration in May...

The Nutcracker at the Marinsky Theatre!

The second highlight was seeing the Nutcracker ballet at the historic Marinsky theatre. It was so unbelievably cold out and we peeled out of our onion layered style clothing as soon as we entered the theatre, which was unusually warm. The performances, the stage settings and music were superb! We really loved it.






The historic inside of the theatre....



The orchestra...
In front of the stage and main curtain...
During the intermission ... since there was a huge line at the concession stand, we decided to use the time for a few shots in front of the christmas tree...here with Anna and Luciano.

New Year's Eve!

Well, I am pretty behind in postings...I guess we've really been on the go and it's taken its toll...

Here a little recap:

We arrived on the 30th of December in St. Petersburg and pretty much cooked and slept all the next day before heading out to a restaurant with an all night entertainment programm. Carlo's brother and his wife had eaten there before and we weren't disappointed!

There were loads of typical style russian salads (chicken salad, carrot salads, things with cucumber, mushroom salad and the list goes on...also cheese and sausage platters..and of course all the "Champansky" one could consume. :-)

The highlight was when Carlo and I got picked to participate in a dance contest, which we ended up winning due to the applause by the audience! I guess it was a good way to start the new year. At midnight, the central clock in Moscow was displayed on TV and President Medvedev held his new year's speech, but we mostly celebrated with sparklers and pops and, of course, more Champansky.


Before dinner....
and after dinner....



OH, and there was our waiter who looked like the actor from "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Blades of Glory"!!!
The MC, or "Tamata" ( Showmaster) was a transvestite, who did a fantastic job! Even though we didn't understand a word he was saying, you could tell enough to where we were laughing despite the language barrier. Here he is in one of his outfits, singing...
The performers ranged from belly dancers to comedians...it was a "colorful" show in every way of the word! :-)