I have a confession to make: I have never been a good dancer. In fact, dancing is not my favorite activity and I rarely do it. Normally people like dancing as a sort of pleasant activity that helps you to deal with stress. But not me! When I think about going out and dance….well, that’s actually the last thing I would consider a relaxing activity. It was always difficult to go on and dance in front of the others. And there is a reason for it. Bad experience When I was in primary school my parents enrolled me to a dance classes. Not sure why, there was very few boys and many girls. So, I had a bad luck to play a male role in a dance from the very first day. I learnt all steps of waltz, rock’n’roll, samba, cha-cha and rumba as if I was a man! I got it all wrong from the beginning! This very unfortunate event made me a horrible dancer: every time I was dancing it was almost impossible to leave a lead to a dancing partner. Later in my life, there were very few occasions to dance so I didn’t bother to deal with it. Few years ago I focused on long distance running as a main physical activity and thought I simply don’t need to dance. I simply stopped bothering. Not all people are designated to it, right? That’s what I thought. Until one day a year ago. One of my friends – ah, did you notice how many things actually happens because of friends? – told me about her participation in a workshop called Dancing Poznan. My friend is a very talented person and she loves dancing. So even though I knew she has participated the workshop for years I never considered myself fit enough to try. But last year she showed me few videos on youtube and watching other dancers made me think that perhaps I should try. Do you know the feeling when you watch somebody and you wish it was you? Sooo badly! This workshop takes place once a year, every August so I had plenty time to think before the enrollment in May. Expectations When time came I was pretty determined to join. I felt in a good shape after intense training for half and full marathon so I thought that even if I can’t dance I’ll be still able to follow the warm up. Now it’s one week before this year 21st edition is launched and I have few expectations I’ll share with you. I would like to stop neglecting dance once for all! I would love to gain more confidence in the way I move and dance. Dropping the obsession for a leading part in dance would be awesome! And if I enjoyed dance that would be even more than I imagined. Do you think it is too much to expect out of a professional 1 week intense dance course? I would love to hear about your experience with dancing! If you have any encouraging words you can share please do! I’ll need it! Dancing Poznan It’s official name is “21st international workshops of contemporary dance”. Participants attend dancing lessons everyday and at the end of the course they are able to perform a short group dance. As many as 40 different dance techniques are provided and I picked up swing jazz! Dancing Poznan is not the only festival that is organized in Poznan! So many of them! Starting with widely known Malta Festival that for over 20 years has created amazing space for street, alternative and off theatres to perform art in our city. It’s been organized for so long that people of Poznan can feel it in the air just before it begins. Every June the city turns into a huge stage and people willingly participate in all events related to it. Further, we have two exceptional movie festivals: Animator focused on short animation movies, and much younger but already widely known  Transatlantyk, a high profile event focused on contemporary cinematography and film music. I’ll probably participate in the later festivals too but I’m especially excited about Dancing Poznan. Will I succeed? Will I learn anything? Or maybe it will all end up with frustration? Instead of empower myself I’ll find dance too complicated to enjoy? Follow this blog to find out. If I can do it, you can do it! Come back for more next week! I’ll share my experience directly after the workshop has been completed! Disclosure: this post was kindly supported by City of Poznan, however, all opinions are my own and not influenced in any way.  

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Acqualagna, along with Alba, are two Italian towns associated with truffles. As a highly appreciated delicacy truffles play important role in haute cuisine. Known from ancient times they have been eaten in a variety of traditional dishes throughout Europe. Due to its high price and restricted hunting regulations only selected restaurants serves dishes with truffles all year round. The industry of Acqualagna – a small town where I stayed in – has been focused on truffles for almost 50 years. They made a huge effort to switch their production towards truffles and it is impressive today how many shops and restaurants sell high quality truffles. And what is even more impressive the conditions of Marche hills are so good they allow to grow all species of truffles! While I wish to visit Marche in December, when white truffles are collected, I still had amazing time there: I got invited for a truffle hunt! Giorgia and Laura from Marche Holiday made sure I won’t miss this opportunity and I am very happy I joined the hunt! Dog vs pig True: when I knew that I was going for a truffle hunt my mind produced a picture of a piglet on a leash. How silly of me! It’s the dog that hunts truffles nowadays. At least in Marche. My day started with a meeting in a downtown of Acqualagna where I had a look at the professional tools for digging the truffles. I was already impressed with highly specialized shops in such a small town! After all it’s ALL about TRUFFLES here! I was collected by Paolo (guided truffle hunt by this guy can be booked here) – a very nice owner of a well trained dog and a truffle grove. Even my trip in old Fiat Panda was an adventure! Paolo was telling me the stories about truffles, dogs, regulations, activity of national association of restaurants that serve truffle dishes without chemicals (FITA), well pretty much everything with joyful excitement. His dog – Freccia – is a treasure! Truffle grove Truffles can be collected in open state forests only for a short period throughout the year. It is allowed, however, to own a piece of land where you can ‘grow’ your own truffles. Season to collect truffles is also restricted but at least no one else will collect your truffles, which becomes a tough competition when time comes. Half of the local population has a certificate that allows them to collect and sell truffles legally. So try to imagine the local forest in autumn time! When we arrived to a truffle grove the dog started too look for truffles at once! The smell of truffles is very particular but for man it is hard to detect. Especially when truffles grow deep down. Dogs, not surprisingly, are able to detect truffles that grow up to 1 meter underground! I think it is amazing! Freccia found 4 truffles and the moment he started to dig I felt the smell of truffle from a considerable distance! Incredible! A truffle grove where Paolo took me and Giorgia was fabulous! A piece of land located on a steep hill with variety of trees, bushes, flowers and grass looked amazing. Paolo and all other owners of truffle groves are looking for a perfect combination of plants to support the truffles’ grow which is still a mystery. The view from this place was just like I have always imagined gentle hills of Chianti. If only for a walk it was still worthy to come here! With sun, blue sky and few white clouds this was like a most beautiful picture. Walking around chatting with Paolo and watching Freccia looking for truffles was a very pleasant experience. I admired how well the dog has been trained: the moment he starts digging and hears an order ‘leave it’ he stops digging immediately. It’s all not to ruin the truffle which is more expensive if found unspoiled. Well, I was pretty sure a huge pig is much harder to control and much more lazy to dig. The dog seems to be the best choice for this job. One thing astonished me: the dog eats parmiggiano reggiano for a prize. I guess he deserves it, after all. When truffles are finally hunted you need to focus on cooking. Here is a story of a cooking lessons with famous Italian chef: Alberto Melagrana. Have you ever thought about visiting Italy? Here is an alternative way on how to visit Italy and get really close to the Italian way of life. I created a project ‘I love Ferrara‘ so you could join me and experience how beautiful and tasty Ferrara is. If you wish to immerse in Italy book your holiday now!  

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Christchurch is not just another easy place to visit. This city is extraordinary: first, because of its British heritage and second, because of its recent history marked by the earthquake. I found this city fascinating for many reasons. Mainly because my own personal traumatic earthquake experience (yes, I am an earthquake survivor!) but I think it is simply interesting to watch any city re-creating itself. So, if you’re a community enthusiast, ongoing construction fan or natural disaster watcher this is the place for you! Bicycle The best way to see this city is by bike. It might be very true for many cities around the world but regarding the earthquake detriment it is even more so here. I rented bike in a very special place called Vintage Peddler where literally old bicycles are available to be rented for couple of hours or days. The owners are charming and they provide helmets and lockers along the bikes rented. What I really appreciated was the fact that bikes were old, the helmet was used and so I could easily melt into the local environment. At least I didn’t look like a tourist from a 10 km distance! And felt a bit like a local. I was enjoying Christchurch and my bike for five days in a row. I could easily go to a Botanic Garden or public park in a minute! What is really nice about this renting place is that each bike has its own name and history. I was riding Blue Monday Bike so if one day you’ll visit Christchurch and will ride the same bike please let me know! We could become bike mates. See it from the distance Christchurch is flat. As flat as you can imagine. No hills whatsoever. What is beautiful about it it’s the location (Location, location, location!). Although the city is totally flat it is surrounded with a mountain range and with Pacific Ocean. To fully appreciate its location you need to see it from the distance. So, riding my blue vintage bicycle I went about 12km one way to enjoy a ride on Gondola. This was a sunny day so the first thing I did was that I burnt my skin. I used a sunscreen but apparently the UV filter was too low (lousy European one!) so in the afternoon my hands were burning badly. But before I realized that I enjoyed amazing panorama of the city and surrounding. The whole Gondola ride is really nice and the function centre at the top is impressive. It’s not only the views over Christchurch, Lyttelton, Southern Alps and the Ocean: it’s a very nice interior design. My favorite part were posters with Maori myths of the Sun and the Earth birth and explanation of “How to find south” using the Southern Cross in the night. I find it most astonishing that being in the Southern Hemisphere means that the sky changes. I mean, if you think about it, that’s awesome. Sky and earth are something I (we?) take for granted. They never change. They are stable and persistent. And here we are: you go out from caravan at night, you look at the stars and all is different! And in this particular case of Christchurch the earth is not as stable as usually considered. So many astonishing things in one moment! Gondola ride was a fabulous start of my holiday: sitting in comfortable armchair, drinking coffee and watching all of these wonders! Chill out OK, so here I am: I have a bike rented for five days and skin burnt after one day of riding it. Where should I go? International Antarctic Centre, where else? Riding a bike to the Antarctic Centre was weird. I mean, it is 12km from the city centre and there is no bicycle road at the very last part of it, but who cares? My question at the desk about the bike parking was confusing to the staff but- lucky me!- there were some places to lock my vintage bike. You might wonder why international antarctic center is located here, in Christchurch. Well, New Zealand is one of the closest countries to the South Pole (second to the southern shore of South America) so many antarctic expeditions are organized from the airport here. There are four things to see here: penguins, 4D movie, antarctic storm and hagglund ride. Starting with penguins I went to see the feeding ceremony, just like all other visitors. It is nicely organized as you can see it from 3 different angles, including underwater through the glass wall. All penguins are blue penguins and almost all of them are here to recover from all kind of mishaps. Some of them are limping, others have no wings or can’t swallow any food by themselves. The feeding involves caretakers and their individual help to each penguin. Penguins are cute. And very small, these little fellows. New Zealand is their natural habitat so their home here is in open air. 4D movie brings you to a short cruise in Antarctic Sea, including special effects of splashing water and shaking your armchair when a ship crushes iceberg. It is nice to see the penguins and the blue ice so close but I wouldn’t call it “extreme” at any measure. What really amazed me was an anorak worn in Antarctica by the researchers. I put such anorak on and this was the only cloth that warmed me spontaneously in my life! Two minutes I tried it on I was warm! This was extreme, I would say. The antarctic storm was somehow less impressive. They give you an anorak and put you in a large fridge and then they turn the wind on. It’s -8 degrees inside and with the wind the temperature drops down to -18 C. But hey, what’s the fuss? It might be impressive to someone who lives in a tropical climate but not for me. I’m from the north and here when it’s -25 and it is windy (which gives you feeling...

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You know that story of my twisted travel plans and so, instead of the round the world journey I’m going to New Zealand. It’s the furthest I can go, really. It’s on step over the date line. In 36h I’ll be walking around Christchurch in South Island and will bring you the news live. All you need to do is to visit regularly the timeline. It is quite simple: it collects all updates from Twitter, Instagram and Foursquare. So, if you visit the timeline you’ll browse through all pictures and messages in one place. So, join me and be the first who sees the sunrise: Here is the first post about my New Zealand trip. Quick Look At NZ  

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