While almost every member of KTP is somewhere in faraway lands, I'll take a minute and speculate on the topic what are the most interesting towns in Russia. Of course, I understand that it's 100 per cent subjectively: first, I haven't attended lots of Russian towns, among which peculiar Pskov, Ufa, Habarovsk and Vladivostok (and many others). Second, everyone has his own criteria of town 'quality'. For me it is not even the places to see, but the best balance between places to see and opportunities to stay and even live. Russia lacks simple facilities, you know.

But, as far as I'm quite and experienced traveller and a journalist, I think, my list can live.

So here it is.

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I use to say that KTP is a bunch of (lonesome) heroes, because travelling around Russia can be filled with surprises, often unpleasant. Last Saturday I've got a nice example of this.

Last week I played soccer and finished with a hand in plaster. Other KTP guys were on their big trips (Alex Fetisov heads to Pripolyarny Ural, Wsewolod S.Putnik is somewhere near Baikal now etc.), so I decided to go to Serpukhov town by myself and ride a local ship line there.

Serpukhov is less than 100 km from Moscow, so could I expect any surprises?

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There are two types of people who will approach you and start talking to you in Russia: drunk men and homeless men. The two groups, of course, are frequently intermingled. They don't target you necessarily because you're a foreigner: they would talk to anyone. It's just that Russians have the sense not to indulge them. That said, some of the most interesting conversations I've had with Russians have been with the homeless. On my first trip to Russia I had encountered a well-educated homeless man who spoke excellent English, even though he had never been outside of the country. He explained that he had been an historian during Soviet times but since the collapse of Communism “no one needs historians anymore”. And so he drank and lived on the streets. But that one is probably too depressing to recount at length, so it will be more fun to write about the "bomzh" I met in Suzdal.

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I recently got a text message from a Moscow-residing American friend on his first trip to St Petersburg: "The streets are clean, there are no passed out vagrants anywhere and the woman at the Produkty smiled at me! What kind of strange alternate reality have I stumbled into?" Bizarro Moscow: it seems to be a common impression. Every time I go to St Petersburg I start making plans to relocate there from Moscow. The relative serenity, beauty and ease of life is such a refreshing change from the unwelcoming, over-populated and ugly Moscow. But on my most recent visit to St Petersburg "ya byl v shoke". It has become even more foreigner friendly than I remembered...

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Gavryusha - diminutive form of old Russian name Gavriil or Gavrila. Nowadays, frankly speaking, it sounds pretty funny, especially after 'Troe iz Prostokvahsino' cult cartoon. Double-Trouble calf was named Gavryusha there...

Aprroximately in 2005 we heard that in Tolmachevo, village in Leningradskaya oblast (St.Petersburg region) a craft named Gavryusha makes trips along the small river Luga. It was a huge surprise - navigation on such small rivers in Russia ceased to exist during 1960-1980.

It turned out that Gavryusha is a project, or even a hobby, of a Cossack who long time ago came to live to Tolmachevo. He built the craft himself and once a week carries people to their villages and dachas along Luga river.

We still haven't managed to ride Gavryusha, but I made some brief trip to take pictures last weekend.

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