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*
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…