Blogs from South, Russia, Europe - page 4

Yesterday I and my friend had a walk from Birsk, my native town, to Sosnovy Bor - a place located some 15-18 km from the city. I had the idea of making foot walks in the roundabouts of my town not long ago, and yesterday this plan was completed. There was no need to go on foot from Sosnovy Bor back, we drove in a car, which took some 15 minutes only, while the walk itself took about 4 hours. Sosnovy Bor is a picturesque place on the bank of River Belaya. There used to be a children's camp and a rest home there. Now everything seems to be abandoned, there is no sign of cheerful life as it used to be in 2008, for example. I worked in Sosnovy Bor as child leader in 2004 ... read more

Apres un peu de repos a Volgograd, nous voila donc en route pour Elista (Элиста), capitale de la Kalmoukie (Калмыкя), la ou nous attendent si tout se passe bien la steppe, quelques loups et surtout ce fier animal en voie de disparition qu'on ne trouve qu'ici et au Kazakhstan : la saiga. Apres un souriant Vitali tellement supris qu'on veuille aller en Kalmoukie qu'il nous fait faire les 300 kilometres quasiment d'une traite et nous fait une premiere introduction a la cuisine locale. Comme on le decouvre la viande a un cote incontournable, un plat vegetarien est du domaine de l'introuvable. Apres quasi trois semaines a dominante vegetarienne ca fait un peu bizarre, d'autant plus que 250 grammes de mouton au bouillon quand il fait 35 dehors c'est rattaquer un peu violemment =) Mais c'est quan ... read more

Arrival Getting here is a challenge in itself, the nearest train stations are Mineralnye Vody and Nevinnomyssk which are a 4 hour and 3.5 hour drive respectively. Once at the train station you can start bartering for the cost of the taxi fare to Dombay, if you're lucky there will be some other people on your train going in the same direction and you'll be able to share the cost. Or you may be even luckier and meet an Armenian driver who went to English school, Victor's English wasn't great but with our Russian and his English we had a good chat for the four drive. We agreed on 3000R for the drive eventually but expect to pay 3,500R, Victor started by charging us 4,000R. We chose to go to Mineralnye Vody because from our research ... read more

When we studied the history of WWII in school we learned of the triumphs of the allies over the Nazi regime. We watched films and read accounts of the fierce fighting that raged for four years in the fields of central Europe and watched shaky black and white films of soldiers grovelling up the beaches of Normandy while warships launched barage after barage of cover fire and many of us came to regard "D-Day", rather by default, as the most critical event in the war. The role of the Russians was either largely left out or we missed it somehow as we passed notes beneath our desks, but to people on this side of Europe, the Second World War was one of the most devastating and unifying events in modern history. After all, they suffered more ... read more

Tuesday 6 May - Volgograd to Akhtubinsk, 162 km Kasha for breakfast, which I ate with some of my new pot of jam . Fortunately it was a fine sunny day with light winds, and the terrain was steppe - flat with low rolling hills, so the distance was not too bad. We crossed the huge hydroelectric dam across the Volga, very impressive. Much nicer landscape now, bushes and trees and no longer the endless fields. We saw horses and several herds of cows, which we have not seen up till now in Russia. At the closed town of Znamensk we were met by a big delegation of the inhabitants, who greeted us with lilacs and booklets about the town. It was the original rocket base inRussia, from which the first Sputnik was launched, and is ... read more