Vacation 2004: Suzdal

After we left St. Petersburg, we arrived to Vladimir, which is often a place where tourists start their cruises around Golden Ring - bunch of old Russian towns famous for their architecture and spiritual treasures. Besides visiting my relatives in Vladimir, we also had a guided tours to Vladimir and Suzdal.

Suzdal, explored on June, 30th, is a nice cozy town-museum. I think there are more orthodox churches in town than the houses where the people really live. It is also green and quiet, relatively free from tourist crowds. This picture is taken in the very centre of the town.




After we strolled along quite streets for some time, we reached the open-air museum, where ethno-scientists had collected quite a number of wooden buildings from the nearby area. This included wooden churches and living houses, mill and well, and other houses. On the next photo I pose on the bench which is situated under the windows of the house which belonged to a middle-wealth peasant in XIX century.




Of course, we got hungry at some moment. Choosing a place to eat, we skipped the place that had a banner telling that "our menu is 300 years old" (we did not want to try if the foods themselves are as old as menu) and sat in the place which as called "Little cellar". We actually found that cellar itself is not that attractive as the ground floor and climbed back. There we had our lunch and as you can see from the picture, were quite happy with it.

Vacation 2004: Tavrichesky Palace's fence

Strolling around Tavrichesky Palace and Gardens, we have found lovely sculptures in the fence and pictured one of them. On this image, one to the right ;)


Near the fence around Tavrichesky Palace

Vacation 2004: Papa Carlo in St.Petersburg

While walking around St. Petersburg for two hours before changing to train to Valdimir, we visited a small cozy place called "Papa Carlo's", interior of which was pretty much dedicated to famous fairy-tale by C.Collodi. This is a sly fox with Pinoccio, throwing a huge shadow on a ceiling.

"Papa Carlo's" interior

Vacation 2004: Welcome to Russia

I think it's not big surprise to anybody that I had vacation this summer. To many's surprise, however, I chose the eastern direction instead of long-planned western direction to go to. On July 29th, me and Lena sat on the bus that went to Saint Petersburg and in 7 hours we have reached the Baltic Station, where bus driver was rather creative in choosing a place to stop. Right near the heap of trash. Welcome to Russia, dear estonian tourists!

This is my cat, Glasha.