Blogs from Kola Peninsula, Northwest, Russia, Europe

I make the preliminaries as short as possible: once I decided to join the 6-day ski touring of Hibiny with Club Perehod (my second trip with this company), paid the booking fee online (later paid the whole price also online), and waited. It is not necessary to explain my affection to skiing - and skiing in Hibiny Region, among rather noticeable mountains, is a treat not offered to many, though it is so cheap. In this case, I mean not Alpine skiing, but rather “ski-trekking”. In the next paragraph we will read some data about the region. Hibiny is the largest massif on Kola Peninsula, about 350 million years of geological age, its highest peak being Yudychvumchorr with 1200.6 meters above sea level; and the towns of Apatity and Kirovsk at mountains’ foot. To me, Apatity ... read more

The mountainside rumbled under the hooves of 4,000 reindeer. When you put such a huge number of this species together, something very strange but well documented by science happens, and was taking place on a mountain on Arctic Russia’s Kola Peninsula at that moment: the reindeer were galloping around and around in a giant, perfectly-formed ring five hundred meters long and a dozen animals thick all the way around. Over the course of a day this grunting, snorting, mass of constantly circling animals was driven carefully down from the snowy heights, over the short, springy, brown vegetation that covered the boulder-strewn lower slopes and into the tundra and forest below. In this way the indigenous Saami reindeer herders began their Spring migration. I had arrived on Kola a few days previously after a 33-hour train ride ... read more

It really is too Russian to be true. Tanks and military enforcement everywhere. Not long after I came out of the 20 kilometer so-called control zone after crossing the Norwegian border 15 kilometers outside Kirkenes. In this control zone there is absolutely nothing and it is prohibited to go there without a visa to one of the countries in mention. Nothing really happened before 40 kilometers after, when suddenly a medium-sized city of concrete apartments erected from nowhere. Until then it was only the road and bushes. Zapalyani was the name and besides the soviet residential areas there was two 24-hours supermarkets. I tried both as it was getting chilly outside. In the second one I got one of the lady cashiers to heat up some water for me, so I could get a cup of ... read more

Communist Symbols I have a soft spot for communist symbols, communist statues, Lenin statues etc. I don't like what they stand for, but I like the way they look. One reason for that is probably that you can take excellent photos of them, and I like to take photos. In the years prior to the fall of the Soviet Union people in the communist world were to be constantly reminded of how great a system communism is and so on. Therefore every town had a Lenin statue, there were always a few streets in each town named after Lenin and Karl Marx, statues of war heroes dotted the cities and on city walls you could find plaques conmemorating communist leaders or a visit by Lenin or something. The symbol of hammer and sickle was to be ... read more

I've made it - into Russia at long last! Sorry for the lack of updates over the past week or so - it's been really hectic here what with travelling and also a lack of internet cafes. Anyway, I'm typing this from a place in Moscow, just off of Red Square. A few of us got up early this morning to queue to see Lenin in his mausoleum and wow, what an occasion! As you can imagine, the tomb itself is very austere with soldiers around making sure you keep in line and keep on walking around the glass cabinet containing his body. The place itself is very dimly lit and cold (especially as it's about 30C outside at the mo). It's just off of Red Square with the huge walls of the Kremlin providing the ... read more