Wales - 2016/05

North Wales used to be our favourite destination for a weekend break in the UK for a long time and coming back from Russia we realised that it’s been a long time since our last visit to Wales and we decided to come for a short trip before our travel to Poland. 


As usual we chose Betws-y-Coed as the place to stop and explore from.  After a 4 hour drive from London we stopped for lunch at a café by the Conwy waterfalls and were joined by bird robin.  After visiting the waterfalls we checked-in to our B&B and drove for a short walk round the lake, on the way there passing a real steam truck on the road.

Conwy waterfalls

The walk around the lake is an easy and flat 3km, which we finished within an hour.  Our efforts were rewarded with a local Welsh cream scone, from the café which stayed opened especially for us.

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Back at Betws-y-Coed everything was closed as when we returned and after a short walk we decided to have for dinner a customary large portion of fish and chips al ’fresco







Monday was going to be a big day with the Snowdown climb planned and after a hearty English breakfast we headed out into the crisp mountain air for the day’s adventure.  Snowdon 1,085 m (3,560 ft); we opted for our favourite route Horseshoe (12km) starting from Pen-y-Pass, this Snowdonia walk crosses Y Lliwedd to reach Snowdon's summit and the return is the Pyg Track;

View from Snowdown - "Horseshoe track"  which we climbed to get to the top

After a pleasant 3 hours hike we reached the summit.  Snowdown Ale and coffee was waiting for us.

Made it to the top of Snowdon

After some rest and recovery and a couple of glasses of wine we headed out to dinner to our favourite place Ty Gwyn.  The best pint of The Rev. James Ale was followed by the best Lamb Sheppard’s Pie and some more wine and Ginger Pudding.

The following day we were due to travel back and before driving back we went to see the Great Orme near Llanduno with a fabulous mountain railway, nice beach and relaxed atmosphere.

we could take this tram be we chosen to walk (took us only 25min)

On the way back to London we once again stopped at one of our favourites – Ironbridge on the river Severn for a short walk and more Cream Scones

Coming back we realised how much we missed some of these places, the walking in nature and some of the traditional food.  We definitely will not wait another several years to come back.

  

Zegnaj Moskwo - 2016/05

Półtora roku minęło, czas pakować torby i pożegnac się z kolegami z pracy i zacząć szukać za nowymi przygodami. Często nas pytaja "co będziemy pamietać?" ale to nie jest łatwe pytanie.

Elbrus i Pyatirgorsk był najlepszym wyjazdem w czasie naszego pobytu w Rosji i pokazał nam, że nasz rosyjki jest wystarczający by się dogadać i podróżować samodzielnie.
Elbrus 5.642m jest najwyższym szczytem Europy.
Nie było turystycznie, widoki były przepiękne (szczególnie ze szczytu Cheget) Michal zadowolony ukończył 46km bieg, ostatnie parę dni spędziliśmy w Pyatigork (tu mieszkał i zginął w pojedynku znany poeta Lermontov).

Przyjeżdżając do Rosji chcieliśmy doświadczyć prawdziwą zimę i to doświadczyliśmy w Irkutsku, który przywitał nas z -27 stopniami. Tu Michał i Daniel mało nie zamarzli biegnąc Baikal Maraton, po zamarzniętym jeziorze, z jednego brzegu na drugi. Po tej zimnej wyprawie nie mamy już nam się nie chce ogladać zime, teraz bardzo nam się chce pojechać i pogrzać na słoncu.

Nasz wyjazd do Eekaterinburg zapowiadał się nudno ale szybko wciągnęliśmy się w historie ostaniego cara i dynasji Romanowów i wszystko zrobiło się interesujące. Odwiedzaliśmy muzeum stojące na miejscu gdzie zostali rozstrzelani, pojechaliśmy do Gama Yama gdzie ich ciała zostały znalezione a wieczory spędziliśmy ogladając filmy o historii Romanowów.  

Nasz wyjazd do Kazan stolicy Tatarstanu bedziemy pamiętac jako bardzo relaksujący. To tu odbyły sie ostatnie mistrzostwa świata w płwaniu, miasto jest czyste i odrestaurowane. No wróciliśmy z mieszanymi zdaniami, Michałowi sie bardzo podobało a dla mnie było za mało wpływów tureckich.

W St Petersburg byliśmy parę razy, na ale nie ma co się dziwić gdzyc St Petersburg jest klejnotem Rosji z bogatą historia i niepowtarzalna architecturą. Na długo pozostaną w pamięci fontanny w Peterhof, sala bursztynowa w Carskow Selo (dziś zwane Puszkin), muzeum jaj Fagerge oraz dom gdzie zmarl Puszkin....

Jesień spędziliśmy w Moskiewskich Parkach. Zdecydowanie naszym ulubionym i najczęściej odwiedzanym pozostanie Park Gorkiego, 15min spacerkiem od nas. To tam w sobotnie ranki Michal biegał, to tam jeździliśmy rowerami, to tam chodziliśmy na spacery i to tam zimą chodziliśmy na lodowisko. Bo lodowiska w Moskwie to nie zamarznietę boisko, to kilometry ścieżek w parku zamienione pokryte lodem, oświetlone i udekorowane światelkami.

Duo chodziliśmy po Moskwie, Plac Czerwony i St Basil Katedra pozostan niezapomniane. Teoretycznie Moskwa jest najzielenszą stolicą Europy (33% to zieleń) ale w zeczywistości są wielkie parki i jeśli ma się szczęscie i mieszka blisko nich to super, jak nie to jest się otoczonym mnóstwem betonu. Niestety Moskwa nie jest miastem przyjaznym dla rowerów ...

W weekendy dużo jeździliśmy na jednopdniowe wypady pod Moskwę. Szczególnie pamiętny były stare domy w Suzdal, białe cerkwie w Włodzimierzu, klasztor w Sergey Posad. Dużo o sztuce i artystach dowiedzieliśmy się w Abramtsevo (po tym wyjeździe zwiedzanie obrazów w Trekjakowska Galeria miało wiele więcej sensu), fajny wyjazd byl do domu Czajkowskiego w Klin ..... Nejlepszym wypad był do Melihowo, podmoskiwska posiadłość Antona Czechowa.

Michał na pewno nie zapomni grupowe wyjście na grila do parku przerwane burzą i wielką uklewą ani tych dlugich nocy spędzonych w sklepie robiąc migracje RFID .....
Pożegnanie było imponujące - video, piwo ze specialnie zrobionymi nalepkami, koszulka No 1 oraz para czerwonych butów (a wszyscy co znaja Michala wiedzą jak on lubi buty).

Ja zapamiętam mój zespół, z który pracował ciężko ale zawsze znalazł czas na trochę śmiechu: Max "żółw", Alena "zajączek" uwielbiający mięso i herbatę, Sergey B "kwiatuszek", Serhey P "Spielberg" oraz Nikifor "Gucci"

Obchody Dani Kobiet 8 marca jest narodowym świętem. Przygotowania w pracy zajmują tygodnie i dyrekcja też jest zaangażowana. 9 maja są obchody zakończenia II wojny światowej i zawsze jest wielka parada sprzętu wojskowego. Wieczorem jest zawsze spektakularny pokaz fireworków.




Trochę nam zajęło się przystosować. Szczególnie sporo czasu nam zeszło nauczyć się jeździc po "rosyjsku", nigdt nie zrozumieliśmy skąplikowanego systemu liczenia urlopu i szokująca była cała papierologia. Recycling nie jest jeszcze wprowadzone a ulice są myte nawet jak pada no bo norme wykonać trzeba.







Podsumowując mieliśmy super czas w Moskwie i wróciliśmy ze wspaniałymi wspomnieniami W Moskwie poznaliśmy fajnych ludzi, którzy pokazali nam Moskwę z drugiej strony i pozwolili popatrzeć sie na Rosjan z innej strony.

Bye Bye Moscow - 2016/05

A year and half has passed, time to pack the bags, say goodbye to our work colleges and look for another adventure. Many asked us what we will remember? This is not an easy question to answer.

Elbrus and Pyatirgorsk was our first and definitely favourite trip in Russia. The scenery was amazing and there we got confidence that our knowledge of Russian language is sufficient for independent travel. It wasn’t touristy, views were spectacular, especially the view from Cheget overlooking Elbrus, Mike completing Elbrus 46km race, relaxing time in Pyatirgorsk, where we visited home and duel place of Lermontov and huge sanatoriums in Kislovodsk. Elbrus - the highest peak in Europe 5,642 m

Coming to Russia we wanted to experience proper Russian winter and we did experience it in Irkutsk with -27 degrees and Baikal Marathon that was from one shore to other across the frozen lake. After that we don’t have any more desire to experience the winter, we are now longing for hot climate. It was properly cold there. 

Our trip to Yekaterinburg started not very promising, but then we got hooked up on the Romanov history and the trip got so much more interesting. We visited Romanov museum, we really enjoyed the trip to Gama Yama where Romanov’s bodies were found and we read a lot about the events related to their killings.  

Our trip to Kazan, capital of Tatarstan was very relaxing. Mike liked it a lot, while I found it a bit disappointing, because I was expecting more Tatar influence. We left with very positive feelings, we found Kazan a nicely restored, very clean town almost like on the poster.

St Petersburg we visited on a couple of occasions. We will always remember it as “jewel” of Russia with impressive fountains in Peterhof, amber room in Carskoe Selo (now called Pushkin), lovely buildings in the centre and Hermitage. We didn’t stick to main attractions only, we visited some less popular ones like Pushkin House and Faberge Egg Museum, which we enjoyed enormously.

In autumn we were on the mission to visit the Moscow’s parks. Our main favorite remains Gorky Park, which happens to be walking distance from our apartment. We spent there many many hours, walking and cycling and running and skating in the winter. Unforgettable is how the parks beautifully transform into ice rinks.

Moscow with the Red Square and St Basil Cathedral will always remain in our minds. Every New Year on TV there are shown fireworks from around the world and Moscow is always there - they never going to look the same for us. We walked a lot around the Moscow, we enjoyed the museums and parks and restaurants … But didn’t like the traffic and the pollution and fact that Moscow is not a cyclist friendly city.

During winter in Moscow we visited many house-museums, there was hardly any weekend in winter when we didn’t go and see a museum. We were quite good in doing prep work and usually read and prepared before the visit. Our favourite from winter times remains the house of Leo Tolstoy.

During summer and winter we did many one-day trips outside Moscow. For long we will remember old houses in Suzdal, white huge cerkvas in Vladimir, impressive monastyr In Sergey Posad, Abramtsevo where we learned so much about famous Russian artists (after that we visited Tretyakovskaya Gallery and our visit was so much more meaningful), Tchaikovkyj house in Klin….. But our favorite will be Melihovo, estate of Anton Chekov where Chekhov plays were performed during the day, what else can I say, it was knowledgeable.

In terms of work, we both found it tough especially at the beginning. It took time for us to settle in and earn trust and to become a part of the team. But judging by the send off we received (we couldn't wish for a better one) we hope that we made some positive impact and will be remembered in a positive way.

Mike definitely won't forget team BBQ interrupted by thunderstorms and heavy rain, nights in the stores for RFID migrations and painful NPS rollouts, constant “fire in the zoo” and many other………
The send off was impressive - video, personalised beer and Jack Daniels, pair of cool red trainers and even a personaised Russian team shirt.

For me unforgettable will be my team, Max (aka turtle=czerepaha addicted to alcohol and drugs), Alena (rabbit = zajczyk who starts behaving like drunk when she eats meat with tea), Sergey B (big guy called cvetochek), Sergey P (called Spielberg after creating many promo videos) and Nikifor (called Gucci as he created team T-shirt, funny landing pages and laughable photoshopped photos that kept us entertained ). I would like to believe that we worked hard but never forgotten to laugh.







The quests will always be associated with Moscow. We visited many of them. The quests become "must do" when we had any visitors and a great activity for a team event. Myself and Mike took our teams to the quests as well. Hope they enjoyed them as much as we did ….

Celebrations of Woman’s Day on 8 March is a national holiday widely celebrated also in our office. The preparations are taking weeks and involve top management and it really makes all the girls to feel special. 9 of May, end of the II World War is another celebration that includes the big army parade and shows how proud Russians are of their heroes who fought and died during the war. Each celebration is accompanied with the spectacular firework display – Russian really know how to do fireworks.




It took us a long time to settle in and feel comfortable. We needed time to get used to the Russian way of driving. We never managed fully understand how the holiday’s payment is calculated and the amount of paperwork was a shock for us. The recycling has not been introduced yet. We never could understand why the streets are cleaned so frequently next day after heavy rain or on Saturday mornings in Gorky Park, so popular with runners (sometimes it felt like Wellies are more appropriate than trainers)




We had a great time in Moscow and are returning full of memories and stories to tell. We made good friends, whom we are very grateful for showing us around and explaining and teaching about Russian history and culture. We are definitely not going to forget our time in Russia quickly.