Russia

Travel washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. So we love, we want and we need to travel for refreshing feelings, exploring new worlds, its hidden natural beauties, for learning many things we have not met before.

Today planning any trip we have a great opportunity to get any information we need online including information on different places, hotels, destinations, airline tickets, car rents, cruises, adventure tours and whatever you just can imagine.

This year I had 2 trips and usually, every time I’m going somewhere I meet all my travel requirements online. Firstly I visited Ukraine (passing through Prague) and then took a short business trip to London. Both of them were last minute packing things and frankly saying this is the kind of travel I love because it always adds the feeling of excitement.

Actually, as you see, there are many things in the world which can bring excitement in your life, making it more interesting, adding element of risk and feeling of elation and anticipation of new adventures.

Just think, today you can get anywhere you want though it were the most exotic places on the Earth or space related travels such as Edge of space flights, sub-orbital flights, and even orbital flight if it’s on a budget of course.
Let youself wash away the dust of everyday life with a wonderful and the most unforgettable travel experience.

I call this city by its former name, the name of those times, when I lived there.
I want to speak of its wonderful parks. At the age of twenty I spent summer in Poushkin, named also Tsar village. It is not far from Leningrad, you can go there by train from Vitebsk railway station. There are two spacious parks there: Katherine Park named after empress Katherine the second, and Alexander Park. Katherine Park is more decorated, full of statues, pavilions and grottos. Katherine Palace in baroque style reminds of Winter Palace in St-Petersburg.

It is a museum full of wonderful furniture, china, exquisite clocks and other objects of luxury.
Everywhere in Katherine Park you can see engraved lines from verses by Poushkin, the famous Russian poet, who studied in Lyceum here and wrote a lot of verses dedicated to this place.
Alexander Park is not so sunny and smart. It was rather gloomy in those days and more in romantic style. There are many ponds there, and green trees look into waters. Much later I visited this park and found it again beautiful and lively. We could hear an orchestra, playing wonderful music in the open and birds sang at the same time, supporting the musicians.

Another wondeful park is Pavlovsk park, it is the biggest of all. Its long straight lanes are very regular and impressive. There was a music pavilion there, This park wasn’t so decorated, as parks of Poushkin, being more natural. You can reach Pavlovsk also by train from Vitebsk railway station.

From Baltic railway station you can go to famous Petergoff. It is famous with its unique fountains, there are scores of them.

The biggest is Samson, a very prominent and high. There are lots of small fountains, some of them with tricks. There is also a palace there.

In Leningrad itself there are fine parks: Michailovsky, Victory Park and many others. A very fine and spacious park is in Elagin island.
It was always a place of culture with many attractions. It is on the shore of Baltic sea, there is a beach there. In my young days there was sometimes a balley on the water and many other shows. The most interesting celebrations were at the beginning and at the end of “White Nights”, usually in May and June.

In Leningrad there is a very famous Summer Garden (Letny Sad). It is near the Neva river. There are a lot of statues of Greek Gods and nymphs. In the centre of the garden there is a monument to Ivan Krylov, a famous Russian fabulist. The garden is surrounded by a long water pool named “Swan ditch”.

Very often  after the lectures I walked about the centre and went to Hermitage, the wonderful museum, known all over the world, where I usually went first of all to see my favorite picture “Danaya” by Rembrandt. After the Rembrandt collection I turned to the neighboring room and watched the pictures of famous Italian artist Titians. I became rather well acquainted with the museum with its labyrinth arrangement. The big windows gave much light in the daytime, the halls and rooms with lots of exquisite tables, arm-chairs, mirrors, clocks made by ancient European masters, all of them guilt with gold – really not only the pictures attracted the viewer’ attention. You could see the wonderful view of the Neva embankment from the windows.
The whole picture of the city centre with Winter Palace (a part of the museum), the wide Neva river, Petropavlovsk fortress, the Admiralty and the statue of the founder of all this beauty, Peter the first (the Horseman of Brass) made the impression of grand and strict beauty.

It is necessary also to mention the suburbs: the Tsar village with Katherine Palace and park and Alexander Park, Petergoff with a great number of fountains and much greater Pavlovsk park with its long alleys and strict planning.
In that special “Socialist Paradise” of Soviet Union most of the population received miserable salary, but the culture was accessible, as the people of art also got the same small sums. We had Kirov Theatre of opera and ballet, the Philharmonic Society, the houses, that left from tsarist time.
I was last time in Leningrad 18 years ago, I hope it is still as attractive as before.