Home » Russia » Travel to St. Petersburg and Mongolia (part I)

Hello my dear subscribers,<br /><br />Tomorrow I am leaving to my next trip It is not only my travel addiction, that drives me. I have to travel for health reasons also. Life in America is pretty unhealthy. People in the not so prosperous countries walk for groceries, walk to work, run after overcrowded buses and fight with others to get inside. This provides them with much needed amount of daily exercises, the natural way. Americans almost do not walk. They go everywhere by car. Every task which requires even a small muscular effort is mechanized or automated. Even two story buildings have an elevator. This, along with abandons of food produce an un-intentional result. Americans became fatter and fatter. Dedicated people with strong will, would wake up earlier and go for a jog, go to gym and eat, not tasty, but healthy vegetables. This way they stay in shape. Ordinary folks don't do that and get fat. A Stunning 70% of Americans are overweight.<br /><br />This is an unexpected result of a sincere efforts to make people's live better and easier. I did not get overweight yet, but I definitely got out of shape during four months of sitting in front of the computer and traveling between the computer and the fridge.

Travel to St. Petersburg and Mongolia (part I)

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 18:13:34

Displayed times (last time: )

all tickets were sold out. Please read later about Russian passion for bards. I asked incoming people for an extra ticket and eventually bought one. I took my seat and heard a familiar voice behind me. It was my old friend Ed B. who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico; an incredible coincidence. He, and his Russian friends invited me to join them the next day to visit the State Congress Palace in Strelna which just recently was visited by 20 presidents including George Bush. It can be visited only by organized groups, 15 persons per hour. The palace, also known as Konstaninovsky palace was restored in two years for a price of $250 million. Peter the Great planned to build the Russian equivalent of the French Versailles here, but later switched to Peterhoff because the landscape in Strelna is bland and featureless. The landscape has not changed from Peter's time and it is still un-inspiring. Anyhow president Putin decided to re-build a State Palace here. The tour guide many times showed us projects which were started by Peter the Great and finished by Putin. I guess the major motivation for for Putin to build a state palace here was exactly this. He like to be mentioned as a person who finished Peter's projects.

Pushkin's mountains

I bought a two days tour to visit Pushkinskie gori (Pushkin's mountains) in the coming weekend for $40, including hotel, transportation and food. As usual I took a look at Lonely Planet book which is the best source of information on where to stay and where to eat, how to get there and so on. LP usually provides a historical and cultural background, written in a way that is digestible to its readers. Here is a quotation from the LP book, "Russia, Ukraine and Belarus" second edition page 395:

"For visitors to Russia, the veneration and attention enjoyed by the bards is hard to understand, and all the fuss the country makes over its wordsmiths sometimes borders on the absurd"

...