Oto in Motherland: a (huge) photo log

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Postby Otohiko » Wed Dec 27, 2006 7:37 pm

Streets near the bridge
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Someone’s ex-lunch
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Bridge
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Crappyship. My inexplicable hate for its ugliness knows no bounds.
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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” :|
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*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Wed Dec 27, 2006 7:39 pm

Pipe
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Fortress and another floating restaurant
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The Music Hall theatre
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Entrance to the Gorkovskaya subways station
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Uh, my grandfather watching TV?
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*to be continued*






But later, now is the regularly-scheduled pause time!
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:34 pm

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
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…and this friendly pigeon who wanted to pose for the camera:
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Railz
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*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:34 pm

Freight train
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Commuter train
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*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:35 pm

Riding through the Motherland
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No comment
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(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
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Guy at the railroad
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*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:36 pm

Arrived at Vyborg, formerly known as Viipuri
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Fast train to Vyborg. Unlike the commuter trains, it only stops once between Udel’naya and Vyborg. It’s also blue.
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Naturally, Vyborg has a lot of Finnish and Swedish architecture.
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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 :lol:
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*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:37 pm

Viking boat near a local hotel, commemorating Swedish heritage of the place
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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)
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Guess I fit right in :roll:

*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:38 pm

Mushroom Cloud Bush
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Funky building near the bus station
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Vyborg train station
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WTF is that tractor doing?

Pigeons
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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
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*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:39 pm

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
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Clearly not the speed lover’s choice :roll:

Neighbouring island containing only one dacha, albeit belonging to a rather big family
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Neighbours’ dacha
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Our dacha
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Mathilda at the water.
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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
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:39 pm

Our island viewed from its less populated side
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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.
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Hay from the layk
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Water lily
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Mah boat.
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This one not flat-bottomed as you can see – speed lover’s choice! :D

*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:40 pm

Underwater rock
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One of the many thousands in the glacer-cut lakes of the area.
I had to be particularly careful, since an exceptionally dry summer left water levels over a foot below normal, meaning many more rocks – some of those I wouldn’t know about – were exposed as new dangers to boating.

Oto and his fast rowboat:
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This is the riskiest thing I did with the camera by the way – leave it on a sharp rock that stuck out just above the water and cast off for the picture. Were it to fall… it’d be a good 20 feet underwater now :roll:

Rocks; our island and the buildings on the far shore further still in the background
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Rock
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Like an ancient dinosaur or something

Rapids
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No, they don’t look impressive. I told you about the water levels – it is normally a very sizeable stream, leading from a whole chain of large lakes above it.

*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:41 pm

LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT

(or something)

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*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:41 pm

LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, continued

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*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:41 pm

LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, page 3

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*to be continued, without liquid tension*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

Postby Otohiko » Sat Dec 30, 2006 8:44 pm

The Seagull’s Rock
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It was actually owned by more than one seagull, but only one could sit on it at a time. I saw at least 3 different ones occupying it during my stay there.

Green+Blue
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Our island to the right, the rocks I photographed before – straight ahead, behind trees
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1st Big Lake
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I recently found out the actual name and purposely forgot it. To me it always was and will be the 1st Big Lake. It’s separated from the small Ozernoye lake (in the centre of which Our Island is located) by three small ‘straits’.

The 1st Big Lake is followed by several more Big Lakes arbitrarily separated by islands and ‘straits’. Each is a couple of kilometers long and around 300-400m wide.

Sneaky rock
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*to be continued*
Otohiko
 
Joined: 05 May 2003

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