Stories

Those who have not been to Hong Kong, as well as to me before this trip, this place seems to be a sort of megalopolis of some skyscrapers, with an incredible number of cars and people, entirely in advertising and smog. Naturally, such naive delusions are easy to dispel, one has only to unfold the map, where it is clear that urban areas occupy only a small part of Hong Kong, the rest is lush tropical greenery and numerous sandy beaches.

Quit smoking - get up on skis, says popular wisdom. And if you do not go to extremes, then we change the habit of “smoking” to the habit of “floating” and go to the ski slope in the off season. A budget for the purchase of skis, you can safely lower on the road: in Lviv or numerous Hutsul "kolybah."

As you know, only mountains that were not better can be better than mountains. From the school lessons of geography, I knew that the Urals were, in fact, mountains too, although for some reason no one was serious about them. And on the map, Ural is temptingly located not far from Moscow, considering that I have already seen the Caucasus a bit. In this post, this was the main reason why this trip was started, and an attempt to convince skeptics that the Urals are completely worthy of the attention of travelers. Under the cut, there is a high-mountain lake and the Zyuratkul range, the Taganai National Park, and also the lakes Turgoyak and Bannoye (Yakty-Kul), which are popular with local tourists.

In response to our enthusiasm, “Hurray, finally winter, snow and frost” some Alaskan old-timers shook their heads: they say you live here for more than three years, and then you will sing in a different way - short days, long nights, you leave to work darkly and returning home in the dark, bad roads, boring snow that needs to be constantly cleared, frost, gas and electricity bills, a disreputable house in which you spend almost all the time ... No, summer is better.

I managed to visit only two Canadian cities in Montreal and Quebec. Located close to each other, they seemed completely different to me. If Quebec resembles a fallen asleep provincial French urban-type settlement, then Montreal is what you get, decide someone to connect New York with Paris, i.e. completely explosive mixture!

This year has already become the most active in my life. As I thought to myself on January 1 that I would earn less, but I would see more in this world, it turns out. Apart from numerous cities, for the first time I managed to see autumn at once in 2 mountain systems of Ukraine - the Carpathians and the Crimea. What and tell below.

The city of northern people - this is how the name of the city, which is the largest in the world, located beyond the Arctic Circle, is translated. Real miracles take place here, in the summer for almost 2 months the sun is shining day and night, and in winter you can see the northern lights. The city is not tourist, gloomy and scanty for the sights, but to appreciate it, one visit will be few, this is my second visit.

Outpost of the British Ost-Indian trading company, financial offshore, one country, two systems, seamlessly merging into one. Hong Kong is still thriving and impressive. Last time I was here in the summer of 2011. It was hot, stuffy and humid. This time came in the winter.