My experiences

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In -15 degrees and a changing weather between snow storm and sunshine hundreds of people met on February 25th in St. Petersburg to commemorate the assassinated Kremlin critic and former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov.

The text says:
Boris 09.10.1959-27.02.2015
You can kill a person, but not an idea
Boris Nemtsov was co-founder of the political party Union of Right Forces and was an outspoken critic of Putin. Nemtsov was shot and killed on an open street in Moscow on February 27, 2015. In 2017 five Tjetjens were convicted for the murder, but the circumstances surrounding the assassination and the order of the murder are still to be clarified.

At the meeting in St. Petersburg, several people held red notes with the text ‘КТО заказал?’ meaning ‘WHO made the order?’

The text says:

You cannot kill all. You cannot jail all

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In a small beautiful yard in St. In Petersburg you will find the Laboratory Distillata bar, a really beautiful place with high quality alcohol from around the world and a great atmosphere. It turned out that this bar also had gin from a family-owned distillery called Nordisk Brænderi in North Jutland. I met Anders Bilgram, owner of Nordisk Brænderi and his daughter Katrine for a talk about how his travels in Northern Russia inspired him to start his business.

Freezing toes and hospitality in Siberia

Anders is a true adventurer. From 1999 to 2008 he was on several expeditions around the North Pole for 2-3 months at a time, where the goal was to meet different cultures during their long journey.

The expedition led him to Russia, where he sailed along the Siberian North Coast for more than 5 summers. Here he met everything from reindeer nomads to yakutian fishermen who invited Anders and his friends into their homes. They ended up living with them for a while and become part of their daily lives.

“It does get cold up there sometimes,” Anders says. “And occasionally we were invited inside by some good people who made homemade spirits and at some point we got the idea that it might be possible to make these spirits at home.”

“I like the Russians,” Anders says. “I have had many good experiences with them and I know that there are many facets of it. There is not only one truth in the world. In reality, it is a very complex world. We have met many good people and have had many good experiences with them. Both with indigenous people like that … yes they are also Russians, but they have their own culture. And we also saw real Russians … but everywhere we have been, people have been very welcoming. ”

Anders tells me a story from when they were on one of their expeditions and his mate Frederik was very tired and took a walk up the beach where he saw a cabin. Here lived an old man who didn’t own much. He had however some reindeer skins stacked in a corner. He pointed at the stack and showed Frederik that he could sleep there. They didn’t exchange any words. Frederik went to bed and got a good long sleep of around 10 hours. The next day he was well rested and was far more energetic than the rest of us, who had just gotten a little bit of sleep on the boat.

“It was great to experience,” Anders says. “This random meeting of different cultures and strangers, who only want  the best for the other and where you feel that people open their doors to you…We have experienced a lot of that here.”

The difference between St. Petersburg and Moscow

Anders feel that St. Petersburg is more European than Moscow and that many more speak English. His daughter Katrine agrees. In Moscow, it can take some time before you meet someone who can speak English, but here it is almost certain that everyone can speak english, which makes it very easy to be a tourist in St. Petersburg.

Anders and Katrine had a fun episode some day ago, where they were in a antiques shop and had to communicate with an older lady who could not speak English. She ended up finding a very very old cell phone and calling a friend who translated the conversation between the older lady and Anders and his daughter over the phone.

Although St. Petersburg is very European and modern, the city, like most other big cities, also has a different side. Anders and Katrine drove out to an area at the outskirts of the city with buildings that were so worn out that Katrine was surprised to find out that there were actually people living there.

“Of course, that’s not what you see when you’re in the city center,” she says. “We know that it’s something else when you get further into the country, but this is still in the city and it did not look like something that belonged in a city. It’s important to know that there’s also another side of Russia. ”

I ask Anders if he will be visting Russia again and says that he wil. The journey is actually already planned.

“I’m going to Russia at the end of April, start May with my wife, where we’ll sail up the rivers a few hundred kilometers from Moscow in a kind of canoe with some friends for a couple of days. We’ll have fun from morning till night and live in tents. We will probably have some vodka. It will be something like smoking cigars at 8 o’clock in the morning. It will be really nice” Anders says.

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There are probably some people who wonder what I spend my time with in Russia. Do I just relax and go for long walks in a fairytale snow landscape and eat delicious Tatar food? I do that too. No doubt about it. But I also work as a volunteer in a hostel and teach English at a school for children. In this post I will tell you a little more about my volunteering at an epic hostel in Kazan.

The hostel is called Kazanskoe Padvorye and I found it through the platform www.workaway.info, which is a page where you can find volunteer work all over the world. I used the platform last year when I traveled to Israel, the Phillippines, Taiwan and Thailand and got so many unforgettable memories and new friends from all over the world. Being a volunteer in another country (and especially in a hostel) gives you a unique opportunity to get to know the local people and get a feel of how they work and live. At the same time, you will be able to meet other like-minded travelers who are also volunteers in the same place and often have the same openness, passion for travelling and curiosity for the world as yourself.

Kazanskoe Podvorye Hostel

One of the reasons why this hostel in Kazan wants volunteers from all over the world is that they create a special international atmosphere that is truly unique. And that’s why I love this hostel because it feels like the whole world is gathered in one place. I have already met so many amazing people from many places in the world at this hostel in the short 2-3 weeks that I have been here.
Firstly, I’ve met a lot of Russians as the people who work here are of course locals. From the receptionists to the cafe staff at the Haluma Cafe, which is linked to the hostel.

Secondly, I spend a lot of time with the other volunteers here. At present we have Juan from Uruguay, Olivier from France and Ayman from Morocco. Last week we also had Marlén and Doreen from France, who have continuted their travels.

Thirdly, I meet many of the guests at the hostel whom I talk to during breakfast or to the many events at the hostel in the evenings. I have talked to people from different parts of Russia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Taiwan, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Iran, USA, and even Denmark!

Events for the guests at the hostel

And what is it that I actually do here. The volunteers contribute with what they are good at and what they want to do. For example, Juan is really good at cooking, so he sometimes teaches the chefs in the kitchen how to cook various exciting Latin American dishes that they then sell in the hostel’s cafe. Having worked with social media and being a hobby photographer, I shoot pictures, make videos and help the PR manager of the hostel with managing the social media sites of the hostel. Especially with Facebook as Russians are not used to it, as they mostly use another social media called Vkontakte.

In addition, the volunteers organize events every evening for the guests of the hostel. It can be anything from cooking, teaching languages, film nights, board games or anything else. It’s entirely up to the volunteers. It is a great idea where both young and old people attend and it is something that truly makes this hostel in Kazan something unique.

So far, I have orgnized the following events:

Hear about Denmark

The first event I held at the hostel was an evening about Denmark. An evening with everything from LEGO, Carlsberg, Æ/Ø/Å and the royal family to cinnamon on your 25 year birthday, partying when becoming a student and (of course) ‘hygge’!

‘Drømmekage’ in Kazan

As a rule, volunteers make some traditional dishes from where they come from. As a vegetarian there are a lot of traditional danish dishes that I do not eat and therefore I chose to prepare a dessert. And one of the most Danish desserts (in my opinion) is something called ‘drømmekage’ which translates to ‘dream cake’.

The funny thing was that, there actually was a couple from Denmark living at the hostel that day. The woman is from Kazan and the man is from Birkerød in Denmark. What are the odds …

The cake was good, but we put too much sugar and butter in the coconut mixture that goes on top, so it turned out too sweet and not quite firm as it should be. Oh well, we had fun.

 

Yoga

I’m by no means a professional yoga instructor, but I’ve been to a lot of yoga classes and I can teach a yoga class for beginners. I know that yoga is very complex and there are many branches of yoga, but if I roughly split yoga into two types, there is the meditating kind and the physical kind. We did the physical kind.

Vegan miniburgers

I also organized another cooking evening where we made vegan mini-burgers made of kidney beans, onion, garlic, carrots and oatmeal. It was a hit!

Here are some examples of other events that we have held at the hostel in the last couple of weeks:

  • Learn arabic
  • Pizza from Uruguay
  • Salsa
  • Moroccan food
  • Karaoke night
  • French movie night

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It’s more than 140 years ago that there has fallen as much snow in 1 day in Kazan as it has done this past few days. The city is covered with snow and you constantly see people clear snow everywhere. On the main shopping street ‘Baumana Street’ you have a very special snow cleaner: Optimus Prime

Giant piles of snow

It was a sunny and warm morning with only -5 degrees celsius. The sky was blue and I chose to tage a stroll down the main street ‘Baumana Street’. At the moment, there are huge piles of snow all around the street, as snow remover guys remove snow from in front of the shops and place it in huge piles around the street. The snow removal guys are working 24/7 throughout the city clearing the roads. If I have to mention one thing that Russians complain about during winter, it’s not the temperature or the many traffic jams, but the need to clear snow all of the time.

10 Meter tall Optimus Prime

Halfway through the street I notice a giant statue that is standing in front of the cinema ‘Rodina’. I notice to my great amazement that it is a 10-meter high Optimus Prime from the movie Transformers. With a little snow on his shoulders and feet wrapped up well in a few piles of snow, he stands tall guarding the city (or maybe just the cinema that probably paid for him).

The 10 meter high statue of Optimus Prime was set up September last year and it is not known how long it will stand there for.

Sorry, the image quality with Optimus Prime isn’t that good. My phone does not take the best pictures for the time being, as some moisture has made way into the camera. It gives my pictures a slightly foggy effect that you really notice when putting the pictures next to images taken by my SLR camera as the first two in the post.

Hear the podcast about my very ordinary day in Russia, which ended up not being that ordinary!
Listen to the podcast on Itunes here!
Listen to the podcast on Soundcloud here!

 

Vinterbadning

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The temperature is -17 degrees celsius and the ice is measured to be 30 cm deep. A giant cross is cut out in the ice on the lake and the water doesn’t exactly look inviting. About 100 people stand in the cold in a long queue. They are all waiting to come out to the lake where the cross is cut out to take a refreshing bath in holy water to celebrate the baptism of Christ. And yes, I was one of them.

Holy bottled water and a dip in icy water

The Epiphany, or the baptism of Christ is celebrated throughout Russia this weekend, from 19th to 21st January. Russian Orthodox Christians go to church and fill up huge bottles of water, as this is their opportunity to get holy water. Another tradition is also to cut out cross-shaped holes in the ice, get a priest to bless the water and take an ice-cold dip. This ceremony will be performed throughout the country all weekend and, of course, also in Kazan.

Challenge accepted

For me, it’s not about religion or the baptism of Christ. I respect all religions and I think religious traditions and ceremonies are very interesting. However, for me it’s about challenging myself and experiencing things I will never forget. I have always liked the idea of ​​winter bathing, but at the same time I have always found an excuse not to actually try it. So why not start in Russia on a beautiful January day with -17 degrees celsius. Here is the evidence.

The worst about the whole thing was to stand and wait for an hour in the queue to get down to the lake. For safety reasons, only a certain number of people are allowed to go down to the lake at a time. Even with a shirt, a sweater, pants, a warm winter jacket, warm wool socks, winter boots, hat and gloves, it became really cold when you do not move very much and just queue for an entire hour. We shifted with some of the other people in the queue to go inside the church and warm up a bit.

When it finally became our turn to go down to the lake, we were jumping around to warm up our feet while waiting for a few minutes for a free changing box.

From here everything went really fast. We took off our clothes very fast and hurried out to the pool on bare feet. I went straight into the water. As soon as your body is completely under water, you feel a burning sensation throughout your entire body and you do not think it’s cold at all. It feels great and for the rest of the day the body is completely relaxed. We quickly got dressed and went straight to have a hot cup of tea and glühwein to celebrate today’s great experience!

 

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2018 starts out with a new adventure ladies and gentlemen: I’m moving to Mother Russia!

Had you told me a couple of years ago that I would move to Russia, I would probably have laughed and said it would never happen. But I guess there is something about that saying…never say never.

The last 1,5 years has been a huge adventure for me, where I have travelled and thrown myself into projects that have filled my life with amazing people, exciting challenges and filled me with lots of joy and energy.
I believe that the best way to live a life is to live it in as many different ways as possible and always chase happiness, even though it sometimes involves taking difficult and inconvenient decisions.

In 2018, I am going back to my roots to experience how it is to live in Russia. I’m going to experience going from -20 to +25 degrees celsius, I’m going to experience the presidential election in March and I’ll be seeing the FIFA World Cup this summer. But I will also experience everyday life in Russia with everything that comes with it: food, work, religion, children, transport, weather, music, relationships, language and everything we people go through on a daily basis. I will try to confirm and deny some of the prejudices that many people, including myself, have for this gigantic and in many ways complicated country, and I will certainly also be challenged on my identity and worldview.

I’m curious to find out what people are doing, how they think, what they eat and why they do what they do. And I would like to invite you to come with me! I would like to show and tell you about Russia from my perspective.
Join me when I return to my Russian roots and see another picture of the country you definitely know from the news, gaming world and American action movies.

5 quick facts about me and Russia

  1. Yes I speak, read and write Russian. There are some words I do not understand and I can also make mistakes once in a while, but in general I speak fluently.
  2. Almost all my family lives in Kazan, Russia.
  3. MyAcai is still running and you are welcome to buy a pack at www.myacai.dk
  4. I want to go on the Transsibirian railway from Moscow to Beijing this summer. Who wants to join?
  5. I have started a podcast that can be heard right here!