Home » Russia Belarus » Trip to Russia 2004

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

Displayed times (last time: )

and had mushroom soup for the supper. There were plenty of white (portobello) mushrooms there.

I came back to Valdai Sept 1 in the afternoon. It was first day of school and children already were going home. High school girls were dressed in high heels and stockings. Some boys were already drunk, some barely kept balance. Probably they started drinking in recess.

I took late afternoon bus to Tver, another old Russian town. Tver is located on Volga river and there are several churches beautifully situated on the Volga shore, one of them is in attachment. I found a place to stay in train station hotel but in luxury loft for $17. Hotel manager gave it to me only till early morning. They normally keep it permanently "reserved" for railway executives and do not rent it to ordinary customers. So I had a chance to experience nomenklatura (high management) luxury. It was a lot of rugs there, but towel was slightly large than handkerchief.

From Tver I took bus to Ostashkov, the town on the Seliger lake. My father took me to tyrbaza (campground) "Seliger" in 1947. I remember lake shores were filled with fun loving campers and lake was filled with canoe and small yachts. Unfortunately, they built military plant producing rocket fuel (or something like this) on the island located in the middle of the lake. Once upon a time they spilled radioactive beryllium in the lake. Dead fish was floating all over lake. According to locals radioactivity level is still higher than normal. So Russian tourists prefer to go to the Turkey. Fortunately Turks do not built nuclear facility on the Aegean shore. But gem of Russian nature, as Seliger lake used to be called, was not abandoned but definitely is out of favor. There are many abandoned buildings in Ostashkov and city doesn't have a single ATM machine.

From Ostashkov I took a train to Velikie Luki. I stayed at train station hotel (komnati otdixa) for $1 per night. It was OK. ...