On Loooove boaaaat… Na na na na na na na na na

This Friday, after a tiring week at work we decided to do boat tour on the river Ob. The goal was simply to enjoy the river in its liquid state while it lasts. I was not expecting the tour to be so nice: what a beautiful and inspiring moment… almost spiritual. The light was almost perfect (I hardly had to warmify the pictures to give them this yellow light), and the boat was slightly too fast for the mosquitoes and horseflies to keep up with us… perfect. It felt like on the Love Boat TV series, which the not so young among you must remember…. I was expecting to see the doc, Gopher or the captain’s red hair daughter to show up at any time. The boat went upstream to a tiny island with a name I don’t remember (Ob Island HV554 or something like that) and the cool kids left the boat to spend the night on the island. I could have spent the night out too, no question about that, but I had this 5000-piece puzzle of a DNA molecule at home which I really wanted to complete.

I am posting a few pictures of the trip below. You will see the sunset by the longest bridge of Siberia (still, just long enough to connect both ends of the river), some guys fishing, a nice picture of a power plant shining in the sunlight... All that within a 60 minute boat ride.

Scenes of the Volga

I had the chance to spend a magnificent week end by the beautiful river "Volga", in the city of Kostromo. It is about 250km from Moscow. Why would I go all the way there while I have the beautiful river "Ob" right by my place? Well, look at the shots below. How could I resist? I enjoyed the many opportunities the city can offer:


Enjoy the beautiful beach, only minutes from the highway.

Relax or challenge yourself with all sorts of activities, also minutes only from the highway.













Discover the local fauna (minutes from the highway).













Finally, the town center and its highlights.













Now, being serious for a second: I had a splendid week-end there. The long evenings on the banks, with seagulls warming their butts on the lamps, and the charms of the city made it really nice. I am ready to go back there in a second.

A peaceful Saturday eve

I am back in Novosibirsk after a short trip in the UK... Good time there by the way, but out of he scope of my blog. You'll have to contact me directly to know how I spent my time in the Highlands of Scotland and know about my time in Wimbledon and Cambridge.
So for my second day back in the city, I decided to spend the evening in Novosibirsk on Saturday, just wandering around in the parks and enjoying the calm and relaxing atmosphere of a late summer evening. So I went and I walked around Lenine's square, in the very same parks where they have the snow sculptures during the winter, and watched for random things. This was a pleasant moment, as the temperature is very nice and people enjoy being outside and socializing in the parks. (Myself, I am not really socializing much yet, as my conversation is very limited, but I tried to be in harmony with the overall atmosphere by walking slowly and smiling. I hope the locals appreciate the effort.). The pictures below are random shots around Lenine square: the parks, the opera, the three lads and some more bear pictures.



And finally, this little show from our local Central Park, right in the heart of the city. Far from Manhattan, but the similarities are striking, aren't they?