Petrozavodsk means "Peter¥s factory". The city was founded by Peter the Great in 1704. At the time he was at war with the Swedes and needed a city in Karelia to supply his army with arms and ammunition. Apart from the odd tractor, the factories in Petrozavodsk produce little metal today. The city is now dominated by students from the two local universities, as well as quite a number of Russian and Finnish tourists who promenade along the shores of the great Odega lake. We follow their example, and Maxim guides us through the city and down to the lake. Maxim also organises showers for everyone. Bj¯rn Kjetil, Torkild and Anders shower at Troll`s place, while the rest of us are catered to in Maxim`s appartment.
In the evening we invite Maxim and Tanya for dinner in the bus. Guro and Morten learns how to cook "pillemini", a russian dish similar to tortellini. Maxim has a Ukrainian hitch-hiker visiting who makes "dibosjr" - the official Russian hitch- hikers’ coctail. It contains canned, condensed milk, sugar, instant coffee, water and vodka. All of them supposedly ingredients every Russian hitch-hiker carries around in his backpack.
After a long and good day free of driving we go to bed on full stomacks and a bit tipsy from the vodka.
Anders. (translation-Ingrid)
Photo by Ingrid Koslung
7 comments:
herlig, keep it coming! :)
hva med google earth og kart? hvor pokker er dere?
og bilder. aaah. bilder.
Ja, lag dere et google map. Dere kan jo fylle inn info om hvor dere har kjørt.
Artig å følge med! :)
Countdown to Bishkek; 23 days left now
Haugenstua; the name originates from the ancient norse "haug", which means a limited elevation in the terrain, and "stue", a small wooden cottage. Back in the days before Norway became a wealthy nation, most families would live in one "stue". Large families that is, several generations with a lot of kids, grandparents and old Eric and often even his great-grandmother.
It easy to forget that, sitting in central Oslo, having a ball with those oil money, reading the popular Norwegian poet Alf Prøysen who used to write about “stue” all the time, but too often placing just one nice old woman in it. Yep, Alf Prøysen truly has glorified that stue-life.
Back to Haugenstua; it is not much that reminds you of the stue-days here now, but the people living here are still at the bottom end of the Norwegian wealth-scale. Situated between the two valleys of Furuset and Grorud, and while the latter is enjoing the benefits of Oslopakke 2 and a growing proletarian hipness (f.ex. Øyvind Holens “Groruddalen - en reiseskildring) and Furuset has a relatively successful ice-hockey team and at least some gangster wars going on, Haugenstua has neither.
It is pretty much a train station at the middle of the Oslo – Lillestrøm line surrounded by communal housing projects, a shopping mall and little else. The people who moved here once had hopes for a better future, but that seems long gone now. It is getting closer to the local elections, but again it seems like Haugenstua will be forgotten.
And this is where I am working the graveyard shift. In just a few hours I will start my journey back to Oslo, to what used to be the capitols jewish stronghold, Grünerløkka. More about this in the next chapter.
Blogcomment of the year. He's taking over this blog!
What about GPS? Perhaps a nice thing if one does not trust the road signs all that much? :)
Vi hakke tid til saant google earth-jaaleri. Vi kjoerer buss :-)
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