A trip to Bodie ghost-town

California state is a really nice place to travel to. The nature is amazing! You can find there so many different types like desert, mountains, ocean shore, big trees and more. But also, California is reach of history. And one of the historical jewels is Bodie ghost town.


It's hidden in deserted Sierra Nevada mountain range, and it used to be a pretty much big gold-mining town where population was nearly 10 thousand people once. For those times, it was a really big town. Well... You can find facts about Bodie on Wikipedia.



I've been in Bodie before, and at that time, I promised myself to come there again. Despite of tourists visiting the place, I always feel loneliness and abandonment of Bodie. It feels like only howling winds and an occasional ghosts live in this town. I'm not sure about the second ones, but winds are really frequent guests there. Roads to this historic state park are open only in summer time, and Bodie is covered with snow and silence on winter.



Unfortunately, only small part of the town survived the time, but interiors remain are as they were left and stocked with goods.


This trip, we were really lucky! It was a day of Bodie. Volonteers arrived from all over the country, dressed up in old clothes, and pretended they are real Bodie residents.




Real old A-1 Ford cars filled up Bodie's streets


Some buildings such as casino and old saloon was open to public. I felt like we jumped through the time to the old days and dived into that simple and difficult life in deserted Bodie where hot and dry in summer and cold and snowy in winter.




So when you travel to California, save a couple of days to visit eastern Sierra Nevada and Bodie historical state part. Feel the history breath on your own; absorb the years. Believe me, you won't regret!

Story by Irina (IrinaPhotography)

Exploring the World. Matera, Basilicata by Katya (KatrinShine)

Yes, we all speak Russian; most of all were born in Soviet Union, but by a twist of fate, we all live in different countries around the world. Today, we'd like to take you to a virtual tour with Katya (KatrinShine) to Basilikata in Italy.

Matera is a small town in 150 km from Brindisi in Basilicata region. Matera is listed in the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1993. It's became worldwide famouse because of old house-caves carved directly into the rocks. These rock structures are called the Sassi (Stones). The oldest of them is about 7000 years old. In a new caves, there are churches some of them were buit in the sixth century AD. There are very old frescos in some churches that are painted in XI-XII centuries Ad. A lot of famous movies were filmed there, and one of them a very famous Mel Gibson's movie "Passion of the Christ".

There are 1950 house-caves that were people's homes at that time. You will not believe it, but around 15,000 people had lived there. It was almost a half of the population of the city! They had no sewerage, and rain water was collected in a big stone tank to supply their needs.

Now, there are two parts in Matera: modern upper town and historical down town which is called Sassi. Going down to the old city, it seems like you are going to a different world. Beautiful view of the low town:

This is a view of the most ancient rock caves in the down town. They abandoned long time ago.

This how the house-caves look.

This house is a museum. House partially is in the rock, partially built outside it. 11 person family had lived in this small space: two adults and 9 children, with all home scarp. Animals had lived in the same room in the corner.

Kitchen:

Probably, you are wondering... where did they all sleep? Adults with one or two smallest kids slept in a bed.

At night, the bottom drawer dresser and food storage chests were turned into beds.

This is a bed for a little baby.

And this is a model of Matera

Story by Katrin (Katrinshine)
Translated by Irina (IrinaPhotography)