My final post

Ok time to sum everything up. Firstly I had a great time and made new friends, I would like to do it again but not for a long long time. St Petersburg reeked of wealth and came as quite a shock after Petrozavodsk. I didn't enjoy it as much as I should because I booked into the worlds noisiest youth hostel, hence I couldn't even be bothered taking photos, I will go back sometime later on a holiday to see the Hermitage etc.

Britain seems really quite strange, Leeds especially so purely because their are so many people and they all look so English. I didn't realise that England is the world capital of broken windows and hyperactive attention deficit children but it seems like it is. Russia had some bad points corruption, dodgy plumbing etc but people seemed so much better behaved. Ho hum.

I have been featured in the Huddersfield Examiner. Fame at last, unfortunately the journalist obviously had a particular slant in mind before he interviewed me, hence the headline "Chess player caught in Russian warzone". They even describe where Petrozovodsk is (ie no-where near the bloody war zone) but never mind, it did read quite well.

I may have some photos being sent to me from other students which I will put on the site but I feel I have typed enough.

конец (The End)

All the rest of the photos

Well I'm back, I will blog again in a few days and sum up what its like to be home and what I did in St Petersburg. I have spent several hours uploading the pictures and need to go out and eat so will annotate them later.



The only photo I could be bothered taking in St Petersburg - it looked better in real life


Alternative view of Petrozavodsk best known sculpture on the lakefront

Art gallery

The opera house which is about half way through a 3 year renovation, it looks seriously impressive closer up

Lots of the city blocks have areas of greenery around the back and quite often wooden houses, I photographed this one purely because of the striking colour of the house.

local beauty spot called the devils armchair

look closely - its a double decker car

map on the wall of my classroom, I spent 3 months looking at this map when I was struggling to remember something.

Insect bites - I had these all over

Logs in the river in Kondopoga - along the lakefront are hundreds of garages all of them at least hal a mile away from any flats of houses!

Me and Larisa - Larissa isnt as stern as she looks, but I wouldnt dare go to class without doing my homework

Eastern europes larges paper mill

The above 4 are all pictures of Kivach waterfalls a locl beauty spot, it is a russian tradition on wedding days for the party to visit a war memorial, several beauty spots and the statue of a dead commie. The result is that on a summer Saturday you happen across newlyweds everywhere you go.

2 more of the paper mill

another wedding

Lake and fountain in one of the cities many parks

cruise ship docked in Petrozavodsk

Outside the Karelian resteraunt - where the village theme commences

Korean students giving a talk

My honey pie

I think this bloke was the vice-chancellor of the uni

2 pictures of the war memorial with eternal flame. In the top picture its the view beyong the memorial with the tractor factory in the distance - really I am not making this up, zoom in on the picture and look closely and you will see the tractor monument thingy outside.

One of the cities formal squares

Kazan, the host families dog

The bus station in Sortavala - the sign on the left of the marlboro sign says that it is the cash desk of Sortavala bus station, I was rther pleased that I was able to find it to get the bus home.

releasing balloons at one of the bars I went too, apparently it was the bars birthday.

The above two are countryside near Sortavala

The above are all the nicest buildings in Sortavala

View towards the promenard and across the lake, their are some very popular beer and kebab tents and of course lots of public sculptures.

Countryside on Kizhi island

View from the que for the drop toilet on the way to Sortavala

Some of the lesser buildings on Kizhi

My mum - slightly off topic

View from my window during a rainstorm

View from on the lake.

6201 Princess Elizabeth - for anyone who I have mentioned my mums train enthusiast tendancies too - this is the engine. Thanks to Steve for the photo.