Oto in Motherland: a (huge) photo log

[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*

[Otohiko]

Underwater rock

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:

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

Rocks; our island and the buildings on the far shore further still in the background


Rock

Like an ancient dinosaur or something

Rapids

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]

LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT

(or something)






*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, continued






*to be continued*

[Otohiko]

LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, page 3






*to be continued, without liquid tension*

[Otohiko]

The Seagull’s Rock

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


Our island to the right, the rocks I photographed before – straight ahead, behind trees


1st Big Lake

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


*to be continued*