Luga

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We started the trip slowly, taking 3 days to get from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The first night we stayed with Karolina and Nikolai at their dacha in a delicious-smelling pine forest near Luga, where we swam in the lake and drank fresh milk. I’ve known Karolina for a couple of years; she worked in a company where I taught English and I went to her and Kolya’s wedding last summer. I’ve only ever met her in the city before; in the countryside she seemed like a different person, somehow in her element while tending the vegetable garden, picking berries and preparing kompot.

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