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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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When I was young I tried to travel to far remote places. There is Russian expression "wind of far travel" (veter dalnix stranstvii) This wind blew me as far as possible from the home. Now, when the most of far remote places are already visited, I feel interest in traveling to these places which I always ignored: North-Western corner of Russia: Pskov, Novgorod and Veliko-Lukskii Region. I expected that it may be sad and even masochistic experience. But anyhow I decided to go there.

From SPB I took a bus to Novgorod and as usual slept on rear bus seat, even the sleeplessness should try it, as the best remedy for this disease. In Novgorod, I took the boat tour to the lake Ilmen, where one well dressed man offered me a drink. He was Russian representative of American company looking for the local sales representatives. He was very disappointed to learn that I live in the Washington. For some reason people all around the globe consider me a local, maybe with exclusion of China and India.

Novgorod is nice, especially oldest churches built in modest and romantic pure Novgorod style, like Church of Our Saviour-at-Ilino (Spasa-na-Iline)in attachment. Unfortunately later this style was replaced by more bulky Moscow style.

From Novgorod I took early morning bus to Valdai, another old Russian town. My friends recommended me to visit Valdai National Park and they were right. It is real good area, nice and ecologically clean. Putin's dacha is located there. In Russia you will not be wrong if you will go to president's dacha neighborhood.

From Valdai town I rode bike around the Valdai lake and Uzhin lake, through villages Shuia, Uzhin, Borisovo, and Dolgie borodi (long beards). I camped in forest and ...