Oto in Motherland: a (huge) photo log

[Otohiko]

Streets near the bridge


Someone’s ex-lunch


Bridge


Crappyship. My inexplicable hate for its ugliness knows no bounds.


This KamAZ (a UKMS[Z]-produced multi-purpose truck – yes, that’s where the famed Russian AMV editor gets his name from – Uralo-Kamski-Maschino-Stroitel’nyi-[Zavod], “Ural-Kama Machine-Building [Factory]”) is much prettier than the “ship”


*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

Pipe


Fortress and another floating restaurant


The Music Hall theatre


Entrance to the Gorkovskaya subways station


Uh, my grandfather watching TV?


*to be continued*






But later, now is the regularly-scheduled pause time!

[Otohiko]

And now for something entirely different – my one departure out of St. Petersburg.

As some may or may not know, Russians have Dachas – summer cottages. I was quizzed repeatedly by Orwell on this one – “what’s the difference between a cottage and a Dacha?” I couldn’t give an exact verbal answer, but I will say this: a dacha is a cottage, NOT. A dacha is a dacha. Don’t argue with me, just accept this as fact and move on.

Anyway, my grandfather has a dacha on the Karelian Isthmus, former Finnish territory northwest of St. Petersburg. It is actually quite unlike many dachas – it’s located on a small island in the middle of a lake, with rowboats as the chief means of transportation. Very quaint.

I dubbed this my favorite place in the world before, and I stand by it. In the mere 3 days that I was there, I unwound better than on any other given break I had in recent memory. Spartan living conditions but amazing nature. The fact that it’s all focused on water and self-powered water transport is probably what makes it particularly special.

So off to the trip, starting at Udel’naya station


…and this friendly pigeon who wanted to pose for the camera:



Railz



*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

Freight train


Commuter train



*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

Riding through the Motherland


No comment

(the train was moving fast and I didn’t know what I was even shooting. I personally find this scene amazing[ly sad])

Bus in the bush


Guy at the railroad


*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

Arrived at Vyborg, formerly known as Viipuri


Fast train to Vyborg. Unlike the commuter trains, it only stops once between Udel’naya and Vyborg. It’s also blue.


Naturally, Vyborg has a lot of Finnish and Swedish architecture.


There’s a lot of Finnish stuff around town in fact. Many stores have their names in Finnish, and the buses serving local routes were apparently bought from Finland and are used without even changing signs (like ‘seats for pregnant and disabled people’ or whatever) from Finnish.
Then again, some recently-imported used German buses in St. Petersburg even didn’t bother taking off German advertisement



*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

Viking boat near a local hotel, commemorating Swedish heritage of the place




As some may or may not know, Oto has Viking blood in him as well (Varangians from the Roslagen Archipelago are reported to be his oldest-known ancestors)

Guess I fit right in

*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

Mushroom Cloud Bush


Funky building near the bus station


Vyborg train station

WTF is that tractor doing?

Pigeons


After the stupidly cramped bus ride (the Finnish bus was not made for standing in at all, with a very narrow aisle, and yet it was crammed to twice its seating capacity)

Welcomed by our cat, Mathilda


*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

As I said, the dacha itself is on a small island – with about 7 other dachas. Naturally, the only transportation is boats.

One of the two boats owned (and built!) by my grandfather – this one the… more utilitarian variety

Clearly not the speed lover’s choice

Neighbouring island containing only one dacha, albeit belonging to a rather big family


Neighbours’ dacha


Our dacha


Mathilda at the water.

A few meters of land here, such as where Mathilda is located, was reclaimed by my father’s handiwork – using buckets of sand brought by boat from the other shore

*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

Our island viewed from its less populated side


A sandbar at the exit of a creek into the lake. It’s grown a lot in the 9 years since I’d last seen it.


Hay from the layk


Water lily


Mah boat.

This one not flat-bottomed as you can see – speed lover’s choice!

*to be continued*