26/06: Kizhi in February
So this will be the first of my reports with pictures.
It will be quite short, I'm still testing... In February, 2006 we reached famous wooden architecture museum Kizhi in Karelia. As for me, that's probably one of my favourite places in Russia, but it's broadly visited from people all over the world mostly during summer, when you can get to Kizhi Island by 'Kometa' hydrofoil from Petrozavodsk.
In winter you can reach Kizhi by foot :), by helicopter that goes twice a week from local airport (or any time you like if you rent it) and by the hovership you also need to rent. Hovership variant was quite ingenious - nowadays hydrofoils are in a huge decay and ports that need vessels like that buy hoverships. But they do not know often what to do with them, confining themselves to service needs and taking people to a short trips on ice on weekends.
Our idea to hire a hovership to Kizhi was appreciated by bosses of Petrozavodsk port, who are, in fact, nice and enthusiastic people, although a bit greedy. It turned out that we can hire a hovership practically anywhere we wanted, so we were thinking of going to Vytegra, but final decision was made in favor of Kizhi.
So at the appointed hour nine of us reached Petrozavodsk and it's port, where captain and a guide were expecting us. The guide was nice dark-haired museum girl (although a bit too tall for my 6ft) who showed us churches and other wooden buildings. Frankly speaking, the hovership trip was much more spectacular experience for us, because no-one of 9 has ever made it before.
And the show happened - on the way there we get stuck on some tricky ice trap. First we waited, then we pushed, than we pulled, than we were completely covered with snow, but we managed to set it free! On the way back another hovership followed us in case of some technical troubles, so we had a rare chance to have a small 'hovership race' and make lots of photos.
I guess next winter we are going to reach Vytegra, or go to Sortavala and reach Valaam (they also bought one), or (better) we invent some even more exceptional route. Winters are long here, you know.
It will be quite short, I'm still testing... In February, 2006 we reached famous wooden architecture museum Kizhi in Karelia. As for me, that's probably one of my favourite places in Russia, but it's broadly visited from people all over the world mostly during summer, when you can get to Kizhi Island by 'Kometa' hydrofoil from Petrozavodsk.
In winter you can reach Kizhi by foot :), by helicopter that goes twice a week from local airport (or any time you like if you rent it) and by the hovership you also need to rent. Hovership variant was quite ingenious - nowadays hydrofoils are in a huge decay and ports that need vessels like that buy hoverships. But they do not know often what to do with them, confining themselves to service needs and taking people to a short trips on ice on weekends.
Our idea to hire a hovership to Kizhi was appreciated by bosses of Petrozavodsk port, who are, in fact, nice and enthusiastic people, although a bit greedy. It turned out that we can hire a hovership practically anywhere we wanted, so we were thinking of going to Vytegra, but final decision was made in favor of Kizhi.
So at the appointed hour nine of us reached Petrozavodsk and it's port, where captain and a guide were expecting us. The guide was nice dark-haired museum girl (although a bit too tall for my 6ft) who showed us churches and other wooden buildings. Frankly speaking, the hovership trip was much more spectacular experience for us, because no-one of 9 has ever made it before.
And the show happened - on the way there we get stuck on some tricky ice trap. First we waited, then we pushed, than we pulled, than we were completely covered with snow, but we managed to set it free! On the way back another hovership followed us in case of some technical troubles, so we had a rare chance to have a small 'hovership race' and make lots of photos.
I guess next winter we are going to reach Vytegra, or go to Sortavala and reach Valaam (they also bought one), or (better) we invent some even more exceptional route. Winters are long here, you know.
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