Local dances (:

The hotel invites local artists for an evening performance. It's honestly really cool. I totally didn't expect anything like this.

Rehearsal of a performance in Segovia with laser show and artists.

January 6th is a public holiday in Spain, everything (well, almost) is closed, everyone celebrates Epiphany. And they prepare performances like this one.

upd. Initially it was stated that Spanish people celebrate Christmas on January 6th, but of course that's not true. Thanks for the correction and my apologies for the inaccuracy.

The ship has 3 watch shifts with 4 people each (sometimes more). Each watch is on duty for 4 hours every 8 hours (but that doesn't mean they do nothing the rest of the time :) ). A watch shift involves steering the ship on course when it's underway.

On top of that, you either have to scrub the deck, or clean everything inside the ship, or spend the whole day in galley slavery cooking for the whole crew. These duties rotate in a cycle. And the watch shift itself doesn't get cancelled. Today it's our turn to cook 🙈

For just 89€ you can take a little drive around central Paris in a Ferrari (you're behind the wheel). A photo session is included in the price :)

For the broke folks, you can just take some photos for 30€. Surprisingly, people actually buy this service too o.O

I was going to write a nice post about how I'd already made it to Paris while you were sleeping, but something went wrong along the way :)

Booking a flight with only a 50-minute connection during morning rush hour in Frankfurt, plus going through border control, was way too optimistic. The plane from Moscow even arrived ahead of schedule. But the border check and security screening for the connection took way longer than expected. I ended up at the gate about 20 minutes after takeoff.

I was really surprised that airport staff just ignore any requests to speed up the security process, even when you show them your boarding pass for a closing gate. It's like, "Just show up on time and wait like everyone else."

Lufthansa treats the situation like a natural disaster—something you can't prevent, but you can deal with the aftermath: they just rebook you on a later flight. I'm number 111 in the rebooking queue. They're currently serving number 84. Looks like I've got another couple hours to wait 🙈

There were so many people. In some spots, there were literally queues just to get through. People joked that it felt like we'd ended up in the New York subway. I arrived at 10 and it was already impossible to move. When I left, it was even worse.

They really did a great job promoting the park. And it's free (:​

You can find literally everything in New York. Even things you'd never dream of.

A colleague convinced me to go on a helicopter ride. There are tons of companies here that happily take tourists up in their helicopters. Some of them even do it for reasonable prices.

It's absolutely amazing. The pilot hovers in all the right spots. Turns wherever needed so you can see everything from every angle. At some points it felt like you could practically reach out and touch the skyscrapers.

They take safety seriously: passengers are strapped into the cabin so nobody falls out. Phones are secured and hung around your neck. Everything else gets put in storage.

P.S. The photos are mine. I wouldn't have believed this was even possible just a couple days ago.

Sabantuy in Kolomenskoye. There's lots of interesting stuff there and the food is amazing. Go check it out right now (:​

Campaigning for the opposition candidate for Istanbul mayor.

Actually, he already won (by a margin of 23,000 votes), even managed to take office and worked for a whole month, but the current authorities didn't like the election results and the obliging court decided to annul them and hold new elections (June 23). Such democracy.

Suddenly Kazakh music. Rare is the wedding that goes without this song (:)

I unexpectedly ended up at an event with tons of people in traditional national costumes. It looks really cool and unusual. Everyone's taking photos. All sorts of journalists with cameras showed up.

Actually, at first I wanted to write that everyone just dresses like this here. But in reality, you only see people wearing clothes with national motifs on the streets if they're older. And not even all of them. But even that looks so colorful and distinctive.

Sometimes ordinary guests turn into a wonderful mini-concert.
PS. If you don't understand Tatar very well, there's a translation in the middle (:​

You come to work and suddenly there's a concert. That's cool though (:‌