Estonia: swamps as tourists magneto

Last weekend we visited Endla Nature Reserve. This piece of estonian land is famous for its swamps. If you don't believe that swamps could not be picturesque, you should definitely visit this place too.

Vacation 2004: Moscow

Thanks to Lena's friends in Moscow, our comeback to civilization was painless. they took a great care about us. They met us on a railway station at 4:30 am (!) and transfered us right to they summer house which is well outside of Moscow. There we ahd a wonderful morning with a breakfast (which was very different of what we had for two weeks), a little bit of sleeping, a sauna and just relaxation. Lena's friend Anya also owns this wonderful mops Sophie.



In the evening we were back to Moscow, where we had a terrific tour around the city centre after a nice evening in Italian restaurant. Anya and her boyfriend Sasha are very keen on Italian cuisine!

The next day we continued to refresh our impression about Moscow, where we in 1997 recently. The city has changed a lot since then, of course. But this sculptures on Patriarshi Ponds are still there. We have seen the first time, however, and I was happy to picture myself together with these characters of fables by Krylov, famous Russian writer of fables.

Vacation 2004: Ice-cream Party in Yuryevec

On July 16th we finally left the island. It was sad to leave, and it was desperately sad when we were forced to say farewell to all the people we had two weeks around us... But in the end, we spend the whole last day together anyway, getting to Moscow on a boat, bus and train. We went for a walk in both Yuryevec and Kineshma - two hop stations between island and Moscow... During our exploration of Yuryevec people were happy to buy an ice-cream, which was not available on the island for two weeks. As you can see, people are happy :)

Vacation 2004: Men in Red

The last evening on the island was as usually spend in exchanging the addresses and taking memorable pictures. On this photo you see me with Petr, ultimately kind person from St. Petersburg. Interestingly, colors of our t-shirts almost matched :) Men in Red :)))

Vacation 2004: Ceramic's Fate

You have already seen how section of Ceramics craft started. You have seen those serious and optimistical, enlightened faces of participants. They followed the whole process of doing things from raw material to ready things. giving a shape to material was just one part of the fun, the culmination happened during one of the last days of Festival. It was a day, or should I say night, of a big bonfire. BIG, I mean. Vadim, the teacher, was carefully designing the bonfire from the beginning. It was not an easy task, because using just plain bonfire usually does not give enough heat to process ceramics...



The whole evening people were picking fuel throughtout the island, gathering it in big heaps. The thinnest branches were used for warming up raw ceramic at the beginning. It was getting dark when bonfire was burning at full scale. People started to dance shamanic dances around the bonfire to add an extra heat to the process... Fire was looking like a demonic animals sometimes. Look at this horse of fire:



Guys and girls were taking care about bonfire the whole night and met the sunrise afterwards. Ceramic was waiting for its temperature to low enough levels to withdraw it from the bonfire. Around 8 am next day the first things were excavated... and the results were surprisingly bad for Vadim. Shamanic dances and people enthusiasm made an impossible thing - temperature of fire was much higher than it could theoretically be using this kind of fuel. Too few things survived the last stage of the process. On the picture below you can see grim faces of Vadim and Co.



But the main thing was the process, and not the results. People felt happy about the section, because it gave invaluable experience of doing things without any modern tools.

Vacation 2004: Life Performances

I attended some sections on a Festival, even made my own personal bumerang, but most "advanced" things liek magical rituals were too difficult for me. the one thing which was easier to understand and participate in, were the live performances, organized by Shahodat and Natasha, our nice leaders of two popular sections - Children's and Dances of Universal Peace. I liked a lot to fill in positions in a screenplays which were not even written. Natasha just read us a fairy-tale and we played it as we could. Each day during the Festival it was the day of some tradition. On the photos you can see a performace of indian fairy-tale:



... and japanese fairy-tale:

Vacation 2004: Jogging over hot coal

One day some of experienced campers came and said: you would like to try jogging over hot coal. And so we did. Gurus prepared a bonfire which gave enough coal for some twenty people or even more to run through. I ran once because I wanted also to take pictures of people doing this. Lena used her possibility to run 4 more times before coal faded.



After this ritual, which has a good cleaning effect, as gurus say, we ran to the hilled bank of Volga in attempt to catch a sunset. Well, this is a result of the try. Of course, picture is nothing comparing to the Real Thing.

Vacation 2004: Sections of Festival

There was quite a number of different sections during the Festival. In principle, one could skip an of them and spend time on the beach or fishing. But most people attended some sections during the Festival. They included crafts, magics, physical excerices and rituals. Day usually began with Qi-gong or other excercises, time before and after lunch was reserved for bigger sections, after supper we danced and watched/played improvised performaces. Photos below are just showing some of the sections. More thorough report could be found in my personal photoalbum at foto.zlo.ee/johnny.



Ceramic section was one of the most popular. Spanned over the whole last week it was fun for the teacher, Vadim, and 23 interested learners. This was just one of crafts covered by festival. Another was making a personal bumerang. On the photo below you can see Aydar with his younger son and number of bumerangs.



Magic rituals included building and using deeply spiritual things [that I personally did not understand] like the Ring, the Spiral, the Labirynth (below) and the Gates. All of them pretty magical, of cause.



People were also drinking Yerba Mate (ritually), making their own Masks of Power, attended Shaman Practices section. I also was on one of shaman things, when teacher told us how to try to get more information through ears and fingers rather than eyes. I guess it was fun to see people roaming in the woods with theys eyes shut and closed by bands. One of the most enjoyed sections for me and lot of others was section called "Mystery of Sound". It wasn't too wise or esoteric - we just sat and listened to Sergei Gasanov. He is a musician from St. Petersburg, who is able to play quite exotic instruments.



Gasanov is on the right, on the left you can see Andrei Cherkashin, helping the maestro with second instrument.

Vacation 2004: Celebrating Ivan Kupala

July, 6th is a big day for all pagans of Slavic origin. This was one of the biggest holidays for Russians before Christianity was forced over the country in early XI century. Since the Festival we participated in, was dedicated to cultural traditions of different nations, it is quite natural that we had an insight into festivities like this. Of course, it was not completely the same thing as it was millenia ago, but at least it made a good overview of the tradition to those of us who did not know pretty anything about it.

Being held in the middle of summer, this holiday had a big value for people - this is a time when men and women formed couples and the whole holiday was mainly dedicated to helping people match each other. In our version of Holiday we just kept additional attention to our own sexes. The whole day before men were learning to feel themselves more masculine through old rituals and meditations; the same thing women did with their feminine feelings and traditionds. In the end of the day we just had a party which could remind the antic guys their beloved holiday.

Before the population of a village gathered to the holiday, girls were decorating themselves with flowers and the best clothes. Here you can see just three of the beauties that surrounded us those evening on the island.



After all people are gathered and formed a huge ring around the bonfire (not fired yet at the moment) the old Gods are hailed. Dolls of Yarilo and Mara, two significant Slavic gods are brought and ritually buried to symbolize throwing away all bad things . After that all the big matching game starts. Girls are dancing around the young birch, which symbolizes virginity. Men are trying to steal the birch from girls, hence symbolizing the assault to girls' virginity. On this photo, which I like very much, you can see men planning the attack.



After birch is conquered and destroyed, the most fun part of the holiday begins. Dances, songs, games. And the big bonfire. And jumping over it. And nude swimming afterwards. Great fun. On photo below Anya and Vanya are jumping.

Vacation 2004: Before two-week-long sunbath

Check out the color difference between back and neck. Just in two weeks they will have the same color. Not a big surprise, the darker one :)

Vacation 2004: Raising the Flag of Festival

As I probably mentioned earlier, we were not just campers on the island, but we also participated in a big event called "World Traditions Festival" held by Russia-based organisation with a modest name "Whole world". The next day we arrived, the Festival was officially opened and the Flag was raised. On the picture you can see the beginning of this ceremony: each person presents his town of origin. As you see, geography of participants was rather wide.

Vacation 2004: Settling between two pines

After we landed on the island, we put our tent between two pines on a small hill, unlike many other participants of the Festival, who put their tents lower, in the woods. We were told that there are few mosqitos on the island, but we ensured ourselves with the place that was most secure in this aspect. From the other side, as we discovered pretty soon, our tent was just on the main road between major sites. When the signal man was running along the main road beating into the gong, calling people to wake up, or to eat or to attend meetings, we were heavily puniched by the sound of the gong each time! However, we were free of frogs in the tent if we forgot to lock it, unlike those who lived lower in the woods :)




One big thing we also noticed is that our tent is so ridiculously small for two with luggage!

Vacation 2004: Towards the Unknown

July 2nd. This day started early, very early. We had an uneasy task to get from Vladimir to Kineshma railway station by 10 am, having no timetables for transportation, no enough money to take a taxi for that long trip, no any clue if it is at all possible. Slava took us to Vladimir bus and train station by 4:30 am - sun has just raised and threw beautiful light on cupolas of orthodox churches - and we started to wait for a minibus that might go to Ivanovo - next big town on the road to Kineshma. We waited 2 hours, but it did not appear, so we were forced to use normal bus instead. It was more comfortable, but much slower than minibus. When we arrived to Ivanovo, we could catch the bus to Kineshma, but it would arrive there one hour later than we needed. So we found a minibus driver who promised us to get to Kinechma by 10 am. And so he did, but what the hell trip it was :) At 10 am we met people who were also aiming the same island as we. We managed to buy a train ticket to Moscow for a way back in two weeks, and loaded ourselves into the bus that took us to Yuryevec - smaller town on banks of Volga river. Then, a boat transfered all the people in two parts to the island. On the photo you can see me watching the Big Land disappearing. I was going towards the Unknown. I did not know what to expect, and I did not know almost anyone on the boat except my wife...

Vacation 2004: Vladimir Area

On July, 1st, we had a guided tour on Vladimir Area by my cousin Sonja and her dad Slava. At first, we took a ride to nearby village of Bogolyubovo, which is by itself listed in Golden Ring. To be precise, we looked for a stand-alone church Pokrov-upon-Nerl, which is listed in UNICEF heritage list. This is a wonderful example of medieval orthodox architecture, standing among meadows on the bank of a pond called, of course, the Holy Lake. I think the main big thing about this church is the harmony between itself and surronding nature. We took pictures of church and they are very very beautiful, although we know that the best ones are made during big water in spring at dusk...



We were not only visitors there. We managed to meet a brazilian woman who arrived to Vladimir in the same train with us; but we could not resist to take picture of these cossacks who participated in religious holiday held in Bogolyubovo that day.



When we returned to Vladimir, we explored the city centre with all its treasures: Uspensky Cathedral (see picture below) with frescoes by Andrei Rublev, the Golden Gate (part of medieval city wall), very interesting City Museum (it also has good panoramic view, since it was once used as firemen's tower)



We spent the evening at my cousin's place. Here below you can see himself demonstrating his working place at home. To remind you, more photos of vacation can be found at my photoalbum at foto.zlo.ee/johnny