Sochi, Subtropical City In Russia

I began to tell you about my trip to Russia this year in my prevous post. The city where I was is one of the most known places because it situates in the only subtropical zone of Russia and everybody -specially the most rich of the country and the "serves of the nation" ( delegates, governors, ministers and similar) love to pass time there. There are villas for relax for presidents of the country, and Sochi will be the capital of the Olympic Games in 2014.

This has different bad sides for those who live there because the prices are often higher even as in Moscow. But the city is really very beautiful in any time and there are very good (and not too expensive) possibilities to cure the health in countless "sanatoriums" that use the most new and modern technologies.

There are not so many persons in this period (in autumn) and you can see it when you enter the room where you can buy train tickets. The railway staition is much more clean as the stations in Italy (even those of Moscow are more clean) and there are many policemen there and in the streets too. This gives you the sense of security surely.

Sochi has an incredible quantity of tourist attractions and the tour operators offer you all the tours practically on every step -in every important place in the central part of the town sitting in the street like this one. Trips are from 1-2 hours introductory walks to all-the-day-long trips (one of them I'll describe you next days)

There is not only railway station but touristic sea-port and airport in Adler (that is one part of the city) too. I think, the airport will be international and very great for Olympic games.

And here are the panoramic photos of Sochi I made from the tower of the aerial cableway in high part of Dendrarium (More about it in Animals As Friends)

From Moscow To Sochi With Train

Russia is a big country. From the times of the SU there was a great migration of the persons from one to other part of it. Somebody wanted to find best life, other looked for romantic, many young persons went to very far places, where the Motherland sent them after she finished to educate them (logicaly, the Motherland needed them in the places where nobody wanted to live or to work).

So, today we have the situation that many families have members all over the ex-SU. To visit our parents and relatives we use trains mostly (when possible). The peculiarity of our trains is that they are slow. So, to to make a little trip like that I had to do, only about 2000 km, you need some days. I had a very rapid train, I came in Sochi after only 24 hours.

Here is the second class sleeper. My place was that upper there. And it was very comfortable travel.

All you can do in this days is to look through the windows. Sleep, read and eat. One day it is possible to survive, specially if you found a very good company in your carriage.


Our train had only some stops on it's road. And it is good. I remember when I was a little girl, my parents wanted to visit my grandies that lived in Nord Kazachstan and Altai. We travelled about 5 days, our train stopped near every post, people went down to pick up flowers, than train began to move and they jumped in it. Fortunatelly nobody remained on the way... Our family was in the last carriage and we, children, set in the open door of that carriage with the legs out in air...

Today it's unpossible, I think. But the stops remain a great joy of the travellers. They go out and walk here and there, buy something in the shops if they have time. For the persons that live near these railway stations it's a good way to sell something the travellers need. Something to eat mostly. Like hot potatoes, cakes, vegetables, fruits, drinks. If they have fish in that village, they sell fish, if honey, they sell honey. Everything they can. Women -mostly- come to the trains with great bags full of all that and go from one carriage to the other and offer it to travellers standing near them.



The most loved and eccellent way to pass time in good company in train is to drink tea.
There are tea-lovers that drink it all the way paused only by train-stops, toilet and sleep (if they decide to sleep).
Till today we have this special model of glass with glass holder that seems to be the most important part of travel in train in Russia. Well, everybody takes own glass from home in train today, but these glasses are there in the carriage, and the conductor gives it to you if you ask about it. You have to pay tea now, but you can do it only the first time and then use your own tea or coffee with this glass till you come on your destination.

The Fable Castel To Visit

I have to go in vacation this evening. It will be a travel to Russia. Maybe not too happy and interesting because I go there for the documents, but if you think about the place to visit during your vacation, I have one to advise you. One blogger wrote about it and I like this place soooooo muh that I decided to show you a photo of it here to make you dream befor I'm back and offer you photos of Russia in autumn...

This photo is from the collection of other photos of Neuschweinstein Castle

Book Your Flight And ... Remain Home

I just told you that I have to go in Russia from October 2 till 29. These are the dates today. But it was not always so. Here is my sad story about flight booking online.

Some months ago, precisely at the beginning of July or maybe at the end of June, I wanted to see if there are cheap tickets to go in Russia. I'm expert enough in this researches now and it was not so difficult for me to find the best offers. There were different possibilities from 150 till 600 and more euros. But one of them was INCREDIBLE. The direct flight with "Meridiana" from Naples to Moscow -you will not believe!- 92 euros and 86 back.

Could I say "No" to an offer like this? The offer was only for the period of September and October. In September we have some work in our garden, so I choose October. It was not good for me, in October our Lama, Lopon Tenzin Namdak will come in Milan to teach the last part of "The Heart Drops Of Dharmakaya" and I wanted to go there, but it was unpossible with this unique offer I had from "Meridiana"...

Well, about 2 weeks ago, in the middle of September I received a call from the company. The flights from Naples were cancelled, I have to go from Bologna. The flight is at... 6:55 in the morning. Or renounce on the flight.
Because the decision was taken 1 month before the flight, I can have any claim.

It's unpossible to find a ticket with reasonable price one month before the flight. First. So I had to look for the possibilities to go to Bologna. There are trains that come in Bologna at 3:13 in the night. But I couldn't take a bed there, because they do not allow to disturb passengers at that time. I could only have a sit. And than: how have I go to the airport at 3 in the night? Taxi do not answer when I write or call them.

I wanted to buy a ticket online but I made an error and noticed it only when I received the confirmation. It was unpossible to change this ticket online. And it was unpossible to change it in the railway station because I bought that ticket online. Nobody wanted to speak with me.

Now, my life became a horror. I have all tickets now. But I have to come in Bologna at 3:13 and fly in Moscow at 6:55. Trains in Italy never rispect timetable. It is perfectly possible that I will come in Bologna not at 3:13 in the night, but in the afternoon. I did not think about it when I bought the ticket. It said me the man in the railway station.

Do we want to count now how much costs my "very convenient" ticket?

How People Live In Moscow

Continue my virtual walk around Moskow with the photos of the persons living in the capital. These are some views on everyday events there.


«День Города» на Яндекс.Фотках

Many -most maybe- persons pass different hours every day to go to the work and to turn back. From the house of my sister for example, she needs about an hour and a half to reach her work. About 40 minutes with metro till the center of the city.


«Попутчики.» на Яндекс.Фотках

When youngs meet their friends they want to show how they are free from the rules and near to the culture of US ecc. Sitting on the street, on the grass near the street. Interesting that they don't do it near the houses in the "sleeping parts" of the city, I noticed.


«Встреча без галстуков» на Яндекс.Фотках

But in the parks in center you can find often these scenes:
It comes from "capitalist culture" too. "A sign of freedom". It seems to me, that I've never seen something like this many years ago when we visited the capital. But I'm not sure.


«Москва. Александровский сад. Жара...» на Яндекс.Фотках

River Moscow alows you to go from one side to other with this river-tram. I don't know if there are tourist river tours, but I think they have to exist.


«Классический речной трамвай "Москвич" и храм Вознесения» на Яндекс.Фотках

Moscow Seen By Non-Politics -My Virtual Trip

I was tired to listen and to hear all these political stupidities and decided to look at the photos made by the persons living in Moscow. Than I thought you could be interested to make this virtual trip with me and post here some of the photos I like. I have photos I made a year ago too, but I wanted to see this city with the eyes of it's residents.


«Прогулка по Москве и встреча фоткинцев 7 сентября» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Тучи над моим городом» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Между небом и водой...» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Храм Семи Вселенских Соборов» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Терема Измайловского Кремля» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Коломенское» на Яндекс.Фотках


«Ночной город» на Яндекс.Фотках

Places To Live In

Linkinn.com (where are these photos from) is one of my favourite sites. I find there often very interesting photos that remember me something interesting or -as in this case- something like a dream. I wrote often that I'm surprized where the persons can live. In the last period I wrote about Salerno. The old town is based on the walls build in the Roman times.

Here you can see other interesting solutions. Would you like to live in a place like this all your life? It's difficult that the residents can/could have the modern education for their children or to have great earnings. These are Houses on stilts at Fisherman’s Point, Orinoco Delta, Venezuela.

Here we are in Town of Koh Pannyi Phand, Nga Nay, Thailand. Incredible, mmm? Some days ago I've seen a documentary where in the houses like these there were hen-houses and gardens too.

But this is a real dream. The Corcovado overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is the best photo of this city I've ever seen.

"What to see before you die"... as publicity writes.

Mount Everest -Dreaming With Open Eyes

«2008-07-28_18-45-55.jpg» на Яндекс.Фотках

Maybe you are dreaming climbing the mount Everest as I do. Maybe you think the best in the world is to stay on the pick and to sleep there. But you know, it's unpossible. Even if I had so much money and could buy this event for me, it could not be real. In any case. It's not for everybody.

Wait! Maybe not everything is lost?... Before you disperate read this:

Here are some ufficial dates about the alpinist season on the highest mountains this year.

The oldest person this year was a man from Nepal that had 76 years, other from Japan 75.
There were 9 women from 9 different etnic groups from Nepal.
One alpinist family from Canada -father (57), mother (56) and their 3 children (20,23,25).

Maybe you don't know it, but there are 14 mountains that are higher than 8000 m.
One alpinist reached the 14-th of for him pick this year and there are now 14 persons in the world that climbed all 14 mountains. But this man was the 7-th that did it without the additionaly ossigen and he is the first from South America.
one alpinist, Juanito Oiarzabal, is the only man that did this climbing 22 times (8000 m).

The black side of this beautiful dream is that the men that climb mountains remain there sometimes.
This year 6 alpinists fall from their dream-mountains. One of them was a legend of the alpinism, from Spain (1967) that had 12 climbings on 8000 m picks in his life.

We will be more prudent. We will lookat the world around us from the top of the mount Everest directly from our PC. Visit this panoramic photo to do it.

Everest:


«Эверест» на Яндекс.Фотках

What Do You Need For Your Vacation

I read today an article telling about the things a person has to take when preparing a vacation. There were necessairs, bottles, boxes, pillows... "A sensitive person has to think to create comfort when she/he is going for a trip." It is a publicity and education of us to buy more and more, to create more and more comfortable life for us.

I like comfort too. Confess. The first thing I do when I reach this or that place is to create comfort around me. If I need a telephone I buy radio telephone to feel free from the wire. If I need igienic paper I prefere something soft and resistent. And I have a recipient with 40 pieces of it an arm far from the sit. I want to feel cleen hands (and not only them) in any potentially dirty place, so I have all sorts (for every part of the body) of wet cleaning napkins in my bag. Etc etc.

But...
Tell me pls, when you were more happy and the travel was more memorable: in the place with all comodities or when you were a "wild tourist"?


«Начало пеше-горной части похода! (ДАТЫ в ФОТИКЕ ГЛЮЧАТ !!!)» на Яндекс.Фотках

"Norman" Towers Of Salerno

One of the romantic and very attractive things of this region were for me "Norman" Towers. I think you will agree with me if you look at this photo. This is the tower of Vietri Sul Mare, the town situated about 3 km from Salerno. The part of earth that you see on the right is Amalfi Coast.

Once I read about the next on the right tower, the tower of Cetara: the owner wanted to sell it and wanted 2 millions for it. Maybe it was not too much for a building like this.

Interesting is that these towers have nothing common with Normans. They were built after 1537 to protect the coasts from the Saracens and others. The joke of the fate was that they were never more useful.

In these towers lived a corporal and 4 soldiers. They had to guard the sea day and night. If they wanted to eat, thay had to go to the resident persons and ask them for food.
The ships navigated near the coast at that time and on the place in the top of th tower was a cannon to fire transgressors.

The tower over here is in Salerno today. But about 100 years ago the people lived only inside the town-walls. And this place was far from the town.

As you see, the latest owners of the towers use them for different aims. They build houses on the places for cannons. I've seen the plans of some of these towers, they have staircases inside and maybe 2-3 little rooms without windows. So, the only possibility to live there is to build a house on the top.

Incredible, but people in Salerno live in the houses built thousands of years ago.