There is an old saying that goes: "amateur photographers talk about gear, professional photographers talk about composition, but great photographers talk about light." I don't consider myself a great photographer, but today I want to talk about light. There is a reason why Northern countries are increasingly popular with photographers (think Iceland, but also Norway,... Continue Reading →
Every year the Russian capital spares no expenses when it come to Christmas lights. This has been particularly true since 2015, with the first Moscow Christmas light festival. That first year the festival comprised 100 km of garlands and 8,000 different decorative elements, along with 20 luminous art objects by famed international artists. The festival has steadily... Continue Reading →
In parts of Russia, unsurprisingly for those who are familiar with the climate of Siberia, for instance, temperature dropped below freezing and snow arrived already in the month of September, but, at least for the European part of the country, this has been a very mild fall. This is not a tremendously unusual situation, but... Continue Reading →
Those of you who are most versed in Russian culture have probably recognized a little "play on words" with the Russian ptichye moloko (птичье молоко), the name of a popular candy (more on that below). Albeit not about the famous sweet, this post is also about a very heartfelt national tradition: that of feeding the birds during... Continue Reading →
The Nizhny Novgorod Cableway is a 3660 metres long gondola lift cable car link across the Volga River in Russia connecting the city of Nizhny Novgorod with the town of Bor, inaugurated in February 2012. It is part of the city's public transport system, so you can ride it for a very low price (around 1.5 Euros or USD for a round-trip). Compare that, for... Continue Reading →
When temperatures plummet below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) a very time consuming (but absolutely critical) operation that planes have to go through before departure is that of de-icing.
The Qolşärif Mosque in the city of Kazan is one of the most impressive mosques in Russia and arguably in the whole world and it is the main mosque in the Republic of Tatarstan. Situated inside the Kazan Kremlin, it was built between 1996 and 2005 in honour of the old mosque of the Khanate of Kazan, which was destroyed in October 1552 during the siege of Kazan by the Russian Tzar Ivan the Terrible.
his is just an example of one of the endless Russian gems that foreign tourist almost never get to experience. The main reason why is that this natural spa is a 2 hour drive from Ufa and a good 20 hour drive from Moscow, but if you are persistent enough to get to Krasnousolsk and then still a bit further up the road to the spa resort, you will be rewarded with a pristine nature and wonderful thermal waters.
The Vostok rocket, still proudly sporting the USSR (CCCP in Cyrillic) acronym in bright red letters on the side. To understand the historic importance of this rocket suffice to say that the first human spaceflight in history was accomplished on this spacecraft on April 12, 1961, by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.
Russia Through The Lens 