alferov

This entry consists of three parts: the story about Vyazma, a couple of sentences and several photos from my hometown Birsk, and a short description of Petersburg’s Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery. I combine them all here for convenience and to make the entry more informative and varied. The central story is about Vyazma, the other two simply add to my previous experiences of two most frequently visited places in my life (Birsk and St. Petersburg). ****************************************************************************** There are several ways to choose the best Russian cities to visit. The first would be to check out the list of UNESCO world heritage sites in Russia, which includes such places as Moscow’s Kremlin, St. Petersburg (its whole centre and lots of places in the environs), Kazan’s Kremlin, Velikiy Novgorod, Suzdal and Vladimir, the wooden churches of Kizhi etc. That ... read more

This entry introduces you to four interesting sights in the city of St. Petersburg and its environs: the Pulkovo Observatory Museum, the Sablino cave, the Museum of City Electric Transport and the Museum of Railroad Vehicles. On September 24th I and my wife went on an excursion to the Pulkovo Observatory. I had bought the tickets via an excursion website in advance. The decision to visit the observatory came after we had watched a couple of popular scientific films about the Universe, the Sun, and our planet. Those topics are unbearably interesting and thought-provoking. Individual persons will not be able to visit the museum (not without a guide), I’m afraid. But I think it is possible to do so by paying the full price as for a group. We first went to Moskovskaya metro station and ... read more

This entry deals with my visits to Helsinki, Kouvola and Loviisa on September 7-9. I bought Lux Express tickets for a 50% off deal (I would not go Helsinki for the full price unless badly needed) and booked my lodging at Stadium Hostel. I departed at 6-45 in the morning on September 7 and arrived in Helsinki almost an hour before the scheduled time, which was quite good. During the whole journey I watched films on the Buspad, such as “28 weeks later”, “Cloverfield”, and “X-files”. There were no queues at the border crossing. I went from Kamppi station to the Stadium Hostel on foot; it was drizzling, windy, and cold and I wished I had an umbrella and a raincoat. In the hostel I studied the map carefully and decided to walk via the Sibelius ... read more

I was too tired to collect my bus tickets on the previous evening and had to get up at four in the morning in order to get in time to the bus station (tickets should be collected 30 minutes before departure), the departure was at 5.30 and I had about half an hour to wait. Actually, the bus appeared some 40 minutes late. The name of the company was Croatia Bus. The drive to Slovenian border took about 25 minutes and we quickly passed it and in about two hours arrived in Ljubljana. I went on Miklosiceva Street in the direction of the city’s heart, and saw an office of my own Russian Sberbank – actually the only bank I’m using for my payments, cards and other money matters. I managed to withdraw cash from my ... read more

It was a most exciting adventure, going on a train from Budapest to Novi Sad. I do not remember why, but I bought a train ticket (from the website of Hungarian Railways) to Novi Sad from Budapest’s Ferencvarosz Station. It was a difficult task to find it; I of course went the right way, but somehow overlooked the station. I expected it to be large and tourists all over, but instead I had to ask two persons for directions. One woman sent me in a wrong direction, and a man explained to me the correct way. I even managed to drive a couple of tram stations for free. Nobody checked my tickets. Ferencvarosz Station is very small; next time I will be cleverer and book tickets from Keleti Station, which is central, and from which my ... read more