Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 3

What a treat to be able to visit virtually the Faberge Museum with Anna in St.Petersburg The collection is made up of over 4000 display items which represent the many different items created by the House of Fabergé. Anna gave detailed information on many of the items with the main focus on the Imperial Eggs all so beautifully displayed. The First Hen egg (Given by Tsar Alexander III to his wife in 1885) was not on display as it is part of the Faberge collection currently being shown at the V&A museum in London. The Renaissance Egg is a jewelled Easter Egg and was the last Faberge egg Alexander gave to his wife Maria. The Rosebud Egg opens like a bonbonnière to reveal a yellow-enamelled rosebud, where the surprises were originally contained. The surprises are missing, ... read more

Fear is like a gas...a cloud that can linger...weakening if breathed in. Being an anticipation...like a gas it can be blown or simply drift away. I have often experienced fear...but rarely terror. Terror is like a liquid...beyond anticipation...beyond fear...helpless...nothing more I can do here...resigned to my fate. Only when the cause departs does terror slither away. If catastrophe is the solid...I would not be here to tell this tale. Yet at the time I could see no chance that we would survive without injury that day. Uzbekistan flight to Moscow to catch our 11:55pm plane home...our double entry Russian visa expiring 5 minutes later at 12 midnight. Train travellers from Russia to Ukraine caught as their train delayed before the border...detained by boarding police as their visas expired during the delay. Surely can't happen to us! ... read more

The impressive Olga's and Tsarina's islands were created between the years 1830 to 1840, on the order of the emperor Nicholas I. They are dedicated to his spouse Aleksandra Feodorovna, and their daughter Olga. Anna always brings history to life in her tours. So many wonderful stories she explained so eloquently. https://www.heygo.com/annaylevina The pavilions were closed but we could enjoy all the beautiful gardens and surrounding lakes. Tsarina's pavilion - There is a flower bed between the bench and the pavilion, with a fountain in the marble basin in the center of it. In the bowl of the fountain, there is a statue of Narcissus, admiring his beautiful reflection in the water. The "Praying boy", set in the niche of the pavilion - is the Roman copy of the Greek original. A shimme... read more

After flying through Novosiberisk again, and again at the airport hotel and bar, most of us continued on another 6 hour flight to Moscow, with a few going to St Petersburg. Here there were some changes as most people were returning to Dubai and waited to get the Covid rapid test before checking in. However, Luke and I were going to stay a couple of nights in Moscow to do some sight seeing. Initially, it was intended to not be rushed home, but now I was supposed to extend my stay as part of a 14 day quarantine to go to Saudi Arabia. We finally found the express train to the city center, getting business class tickets and having an empty car for the 40 minute journey. We arrived and found our way to the correct ... read more

Our next adventure was to head to and climb Gorely Volcano. The Beast came back to pick us up, only this time we had to take ALL our luggage because the hotel would not keep our extra stuff overnight. We were assured that the extra luggage (like, my work laptop) would be kept in the Beast overnight. We stopped again for snacks and set off. This ride would be much longer than our previous one, so we settled in. For a while, we were just travelling along main roads, then main flat gravel roads, but we were soon obviously deeper into volcano territory. Everywhere we looked, there were grand peaks, many of which were conical. A few of us had also noted what appeared to be a constant jet trail, but it was actually smoke from ... read more