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It was kind of a memorial trip. My friends and I used to visit Ladoga lake many times a long time ago and we loved the lake and nearby forest. The Ladoga lake was favorite place of my friend LG, who recently died from cancer. It was on Ladoga where he broke his toe during soccer game, and broke my nose with his head during another rough soccer game. We were pretty reckless. It was not just our group habit, it was generally accepted approach to life in Russia and still is. If you put a safety belt in car for example, the driver will feel insulted. Once our recklessness resulted in tragic death, on Ladoga lake also. We took abandoned boat and tried to sail on it to the city of Priozersk. Boat sunk and one guy, VM, drowned.

Trip to Russia 2004

Alex Mumzhiu
2006-03-22 19:00:59

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and she said that because of various American policies she was ASHAMED to call herself an American. This ticked me off to no end. I can understand that people from time to time disagree with their country's policies, but to say you're ashamed to call yourself a countryman/woman of your homeland seems atrocious to me. I don't always agree with American policy but I'm proud to call myself an American. The Russian girl that I was chatting with on the train echoed this sentiment. Anyway, enough political rhetoric from me.

Shortly after coming to St. Petersburg, my Dad and I set off on a week long camping trip to the forested areas north of St. Pete. My bag held a tent, mattress, sleeping bag, a few other minor things and ONLY 2 pairs of sock and 2 pairs of boxers (1 pair of each was already on me). Since we biked most of the trip we had to pack light. I have to give a little background about these bikes. They are my Dad's foldable bikes and the wheels are about 15 or 18 inches in diameter. The seat and handlebars are full height but everything else is miniature. Being 6'2, I'm sure I look rather funny riding this child size bike. Anyway, with our toy bikes in hand, we set off biking first along paved roads, then not so paved roads, and then roads that resemble more of a slight path through boggy marshes. The first day we biked in pouring rain and I was becoming miserable. At one point, I was near the end of my rope (tired and wet) and the last straw was a giant truck driving through a lake sized pot hole and splashing about 100 gallons of water on me. That was it!! I threw down my bike and started yelling and huffing and puffing about. Well the sun finally came out and we made camp in a picturesque forest in the middle of no where. The next few days the weather was much better and we camped in several beautiful places. We cooked our food on the fire and brushed our teeth with bottles of water we'd ...