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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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is left from Yugoslavia called Serbia and Montenegro. After Belgrade I went to Zagreb, Croatia; Ljubljana, Slovenia and eventually to Venice, Italy. Nowhere in a world I had observe such dramatic gradient of changes as I moved from the East to the West in Eastern Europe. After the still pretty wild Bucharest, the Belgrade looks like fine European city. There are many people sitting in the outdoor cafe and drinking coffee. Ljubljana is even more European. It looks like entire population of this city is sitting in the outdoor cafes and drinking coffee. Actually they pretend that they are drinking coffee. That they have in front of them is a half cup of very small cup of coffee. I usually drink it in one sip. How can they drink it for an hours, I do not understand.

And eventually I came to Venice. Nobody waist time on drinking coffee in Venice. People are walking and staring at the beautiful sites of this most beautiful city in the world. It was hurricane when I came to Venice. At one moment strong wind blown off the large pieces of plaster from the tall building. These pieces hit the ground around me with terrible noise, but none of them hits me. Even in such bad weather I barely found a hotel room and it was pretty expensive. Next night I camp on the Adriatic shore near the Cavallino Triporti, just half an hour NWW from the Venice by ferry. These who are scared off by high hotel price in Venice, keep it in mind.

I camped many times during my trip. I do not like to be seen when I camp. You never know if it is against the law in that particular country, or you may be on the somebody's private property or your tent may be seen by wrong people. You never know. In order to sleep peacefully you should be sure that nobody have seen you. So I have abandoned the idea of camping near the lake or on the river shore, like in old good times. These places usually are already occupied by somebody. What I normally do, as the night approach, I buy ...