BUY Буй

Буй, Костромская-область, RUS

Next on my tour was BUY, no not buy but Booeey. 100 kilometres north of Kostroma. Invited by Olga, I was heading for a day full of activities and meeting a lot of very talented students.

Anne was to be my tour guide for the day. a wonderful English speaker, with an exciting future ahead of her. Here is Anne on the station bridge on our tour. I am turning into a rail buff! Russian railways are fascinating!  Buy is an important railway station and it was clear with the amount of traffic across the station and yards.

Here is a huge locomotive, that was exhibited proudly at the station.

Here I am with Olga and the Head of the town, maybe the mayor? Thank you for your hospitality,  I will be back!

Шувалово 

Shovalova 

Monday 13th May, I continued my tour of Russia and Kostroma Oblast with a visit to 

Шувалово

I was invited by my colleague Irena to visit her school where she works as an English tutor, although she is retired , she spends 3 days a week working here with the students. 

A relatively small school, with around 200 students, I was delighted to be invited and have a tour of the school and talk with the students.

200 miles north of Moscow and  a 1 hour drive from Kostroma. I was delighted with the scenary on the way, with memories of home being re-ignited by the green fields and even some hills.

 The school has its own museum and as it was not long after the 9th May. the exhibits were concentrated on the Great Patriotic war and local heros and former pupils of the school.

 

 A room for local exhibits was fascinating and many artifacts from the farming community were very well looked after and proudly shown to me.

The girls gave a wonderful interpretation of an Irish dance. Well done, It was great!

So dainty and light on your feet!

 The school has a proud sporting history and a link with Ice hockey coached by a former international .
Here is our headmistress with a section of cups and awards.

Victory day May 9th 2019

бессмертный полк

The immortal regiment.
Families march through every town and city in Russia holding portraits of their loved ones lost in war.
Here are a few memories of a very emotional day in Russia.

Flags from the U.S.S.R. were abundant as the day is to celebrate victory in the Second World War, during the soviet period.
The immortal regiment or бессмертный полк has become very popular in Russia after having been introduced only recently in 2012
The figures of casualties suffered by the Russian people are staggering, frightening and almost incomprehensible. An estimated 27 million fatalities have been recorded.

Young and old, groups, soldiers and veterans marched together, it was a sight that will live for a long time in my memory.

Some younger people got into the spirit of the day by dressing in period dress, I think this gentleman is carrying a period machine gun!

A single woman led the procession carrying two photos of her lost family, followed by a woman in period uniform and a wonderfully restored motorbike and sidecar.

I think this is my favourite! Generals and officials being transported in a period miltary vehicle.

Bikers, some on Harley Davisons, proudly parading their Russian flags.

Russian soldiers with the soviet CCCP flag.

A very proud officer wearing a full display of his medals, no doubt with many memories of his career.

Солига́лич

Солига́лич


My trip to Солига́лич [Soligalich] was arranged by my new friends and colleagues Yulia and Lubov,who are both language teachers at Солига́лич school. a large school with  around 800 students.

The journey started at Kostroma bus station, I managed to ask about the platform and get on the correct bus.

Well in my experience this is a mini bus , but with curtains, but quite a new vehicle,it has to be said!

F. Scott Fitzgerald 

A 5 hour journey was in front of me, but I am a good traveller and I had my current book to accompany me on the journey.

 
                                       

Soligalich is situated in the north of Kostroma Oblast, 200+ km from Kostroma and 550+ from Moscow. Oh and by the way it is 1644 [2645km] miles from my home town Middlesbrough!

We passed through towns such as  Судисла́вль,  Га́лич and Чухлома.with views of amazing countryside and lakes on the way.I was on  my way into the real Russian countryside, without a doubt.
Then we approached Pothole Hell! The road seemed to get more and more bumpy, but I persevered with my reading and enjoyed the views.
We arrived in the town on a beautiful warm, no hot! day and I managed to get off the bus at the school where Yulia was waiting for me. [ My transactional Russian is definetly improving!]

After meeting Yulia and Lubov , we were invited for a tour of the town. The students of English did a terrific job with their tour and I was impressed straight away by their English!

The beauty of the Holy Mother's Virgin Cathedral took my breath away, especially when I was told it was not open for use and in danger of  further deteriation. I commented had this been in Italy for example, it would have been a World Heritage site  swarming with tourists.

The church in Russia is and has had a tough time throughout its history that's for sure and there is no other place, that I have so far visited  in Russia other than Soligalich, that can confirm this.

More was to come as we walked through the beautiful quiet streets around the town.

The Resurrection monastery is a sight to be believed and it will stay in my heart for the rest of my life.  Time, Lightening and neglect has left this magnificent building to the elements, So sad!

Another sad story touched my heart as we moved around the town. A former home for disabled children, deserted with a children's playground left in an unkemp state. American sponsors had apparently pulled out of the project and although I do not have the full story, I can't help thinking that politics are to blame.

It may seem as though I am painting a drab, sad picture of this town, well to be honest this is part of its magic in my opinion. We walked further and came across the river Kostroma, or the Kostromska, as it is a fast running shallow river, no doubt teeming with fish and an abundance of wildlife which cheered me up no end! 

 I was just a bit jealous of this fisherman, fly fishing on the river just outside my hotel. I don't know if he caught any fish, but it was such a perfect day. 

 At last! I felt organised, I had remembered my Binoculars and my camera was charged correctly, 

A pair of large ducks zig zagging across the current of the Kostroma river in Soligalich.

 I was delighted to see some wildlife and just a bit jealous of the fisherman enjoying the wonderful weather.

         Not sure yet what this is but I took this shot from my hotel bedroom window. Wonderful!

 My hotel / boarding house on the right bank of the river Kostroma.

After the tour we spent some time with the students, visiting classes and practising our English. I was made to feel very welcome by the students and enjoyed listening, chatting and discussing English life and traditions as well as Russian life and how it is to live in Soligalich. The students are very proud [rightly so!] of their town and it shows! 

                      

   Many students expressed the desire and in all honesty, the probability of leaving their home town to find work , study and hopefully return to contribute to their community.

  I especially liked the project about 'Healthy eating', this project used a strategy that crossed curriculum , using art, sciences and of course languages 

 Students hard at work in our conversation class. 

 A highlight of the trip was a visit to the museum with my two guides

 Have you ever had the feeling that someone is watching you? 

красное на волге

красное на волге
Or in its English literal translation. Red on the Volga is the first of the towns in my tour of Kostroma Oblast.
I have visited this town now on a few ocassions, the last of which I was helping on the Dacha of Olga's family.
Having had an allotment of my own for a few years back in Yorkshire, I was delighted to help and enjoyed the trip to the country.

[Red] Krasnoe on the Volga is an important centre for jewellery and you would think that this would mean it is a rich town an affluent town, well it is not. Far from it. and in many ways reminds me of East Cleveland and towns like Skinningrove and Loftus. set in amazingly beautiful countryside, breathtaking countryside in fact , yet , just that bit grubby for want of a better word.

As I am without shame an adopted country boy, I appreciate nature as much as any 'Townie' could ever do and I wasn't dissapointed with my visit to Krasnoe. Ever ready with my camera, but of course I had forgotten my binoculars! I caught a couple of natives in action.

Dragons! probably in fact just a common lizard, who was a bit peed off when I disturbed his hibernation in the compost heap.

And a majestic raptor. Probably a buzzard, but at first I thought I had seen an Osprey and got very excited. I have seen this type of bird on every occasion now, so it is clearly a regular on the Volga and aroud the marshlands.

The lands around the Volga here are covered in acres of marshland, it is just wakening up from the long winter freeze and the smell of rotting vegetation is overpowering as we made our way across the rickety rackety pathways of boards and planks.

But oh my goodness it was worth it!

The Volga seems to run into space and forever, This mighty river never ceases to amaze me and please me with its beauty.

A distance blob on the horizon turned out to be a fisherman waist deep in the spring water of the endless lakes and ponds on and about the waterland.

In this shot, you can se the chimneys of Volgarechensck. A place where fish farms produce caviar!

A place to visit without doubt!

A visit to Krasnoe is always welcome and I will be back, maybe to help with the Dacha, maybe just to take in more sights around the Volga.

May day, May bugs and Dachas

So as we head into May, a busy month, visits to all corners of Kostroma Oblast loom. A visit to the U.S.A. and new challenges including a Russian language test!
Cafe Pierre Languages has a new Social media portal on VK and projects are developing with our partners at OK English, Kostroma Library, and Kostroma University, along with groups and schools in the area.

Keep an eye on Facebook, Twitter and VK for posts regarding school visits and new conversation projects.

At the moment my writing is concentrated on gibberish or perhaps to be more accurate, continuous free writing in the form of a 'stream of consciousness'. Influenced of course by the amazing book that will and has changed my life.
Ulysses by James Joyce.