Trip to the village

I just want to describe one memorable day on our short fortnight visit to Russia this year 2012. This was the first time when Jignesh visited Russia in winter. Actually, it was his dream to experience cold weather conditions and see the snow. 

Generally, the best places to experience ample amount of white snow are outskirts of the city and country side. These are the only places where the nature is untouched by heavy traffic and dogs with their yellow marks prominently visible every hundred meters. 

Fortunately, we own a house with a big yard in the country side. Taking into account our tight schedule, we decided to plan our day out accordingly. We prepared our luggage mainly with hot tea and a big Ossetian pie to eat on our arrival into the house. We don't have a car so all the route was supposed to be done on public transport and of course our own feet. 

In general our village was 20-30 km outside Nizhny Novgorod, and after reaching the bus stop we needed to make a long journey on foot around 3-4 km. Luckily there were quite some residents who lived on winters there, otherwise all roads to the village would had been covered with thick layer of snow. 

We started out from home very early in the morning to be on time for the particular commuting bus which is the only one suitable for our destination. It was departing from that depot only three times a day. That was why we planed to catch the earliest possible bus so that we would be able to return home early evening.

So we were standing in the bus depot awaiting for the route taxi number 1000th, it was still very dark and snowing. Various buses were coming and going,  but no sing of 1000th. Suddenly, a lady conductor who came out of one bus announced that 1000th had been broken on its route and would arrive around noon. It was already 8 o'clock in the morning. Anyways, for us there were no other option but to get onto this bus, which could take us at least to the neighboring town, and there only search for another one to reach our place. 

Some people who were waiting for the 1000th joined us expressing lots of indignation and some stayed outside in the hope that it would arrive soon. There were passengers who needed to reach the fatherest destination most urgently and were blaming that poor conductor for that breakdown telling all the reasons why they had to be there as soon as possible. That conductor kept on saying that it happened and you couldn't predict especially at this time of the year when and where buses could break. 
Of course, most of the time they break when they are most needed and in our case this was the only bus travelling all the route directly from Nizhny Novgorod. Finally, we started our journey, but the atmosphere there was very nervous as long as one or two ladies kept on quarreling with that lady conductor, blaming that 1000th bus and everybody responsible for such inconvenience. In their favor, I must admit that it's very difficult to get a bus to that destination at this time of the year, except for you are not afraid of hiking. 

Gradually one lady gave up, but another one was still running a battle with that conductor, who had already understood her fault of getting into this situation from the very beginning. One could feel ill at ease in the situation when in a moving bus with all the passengers sitting silently and had been already obeyed the circumstances, one passenger was still fighting and voicing her indignation to the person who was not directly responsible for the problem, but on the contrary took the responsibility to inform and help people in some way.

Suffering from despair she proposed that lady to call the administrator of that route and ask if she could change the route. To me it sounded like a joke and I thought that at that point the conflict would come to an end, but that lady was so impatient and obstinate that she took out her mobile phone and inquire the number of administrator. In a minute she was already talking with the administrator explaining all the situation and asking to make necessary measures, then she lifted the mobile to the lady conductor... We would never know what they were talking about because she was just dumbly listening, and after a short talk she announced to all the passengers that this bus would follow 1000th route. 

It was absolutely unthinkable that the route taxi change its route! I had never ever in my life experienced the situation when commuting buses change their routes according to the desires of the passengers.

Obviously, we were very happy! We successfully reached our stop, thanked all those involved and got off the bus. 
Still it was a bit dark but the sun started rising. There was absolute silence around and you could even hear yourself breathing.  There was no signs of life and only stunning and motionless landscape of fields and forests surrounded us. Overwhelming piece and silence as if the nature was sleeping, and in the middle of all that we were the only people creating noise. Overwhelmed with emotions and relieved from all the tension  we all needed a small physical relieve as well :) 

We caught a glimpse of  a neighboring village covered with snow and started our long journey on foot which could took us not less than forty minutes. However, soon after we started one car which was passing stopped and the driver offered to give us a lift. The car was very small and already with one passenger in the front seat and all necessary and unnecessary staff jam packed at the back seats but still all three of us managed to squeeze into the car. And the car picked us up to the nearest point to our village where still we had a significantly long way to make in order to reach it. 

In order to make the walk more cheerful I was kicking and pushing Jignesh into the thick snow drifts on the sides of the road and mom was cleaning him from the snow after every such fall. Here are some photos.  

Finally we reached our village and had more fun rolling in the snow in the yard near our house. Actually, the weather was a bit dull as temperature was not very low. Due to that fact, snow was a bit wet so it stuck quickly to our clothes, but still it was fluffy enough to make every fall smooth. Now living in India I suppose that it may sound funny that we have different kinds of snow, especially the fact that it may be wet or dry.

  

Here Jignesh was amazed that we had bushes with berries at this time of the year. In general, these are the wild plants brought from the forest where they provide birds and animals with some scarce amount of food  on winter. And people use them mainly for medical purposes. 

And this was my attempt to make an angel. The idea was that while lying on the snow you should move your hands and legs on the surface. 

And this is synchronized falling onto the snow. Rolling in snow to our hearts' content :)

      

I am very keen on rolling in snow so I was eagerly throwing Jignesh into it. He was constantly trying to stand up on his own but I was always helping him in order to make him fall again :)

And this is our house, but unfortunately the construction had not been finished so there were no any facilities inside that's why we could not stay long there. And as soon as we finished snow diving entertainment and had some hot tea with Ossetian pie to refresh our inner man, we started our journey back. 

  

Some pics of a rural area. On this photo we tried to capture the silence and ineffable beauty and motionlessness of the nature which had reigned  in the village at this time of the year. Here are the photos of  some wood-log houses covered with wind  packet snow.  

Our village was left far beyond us. We were making some photos of endless snowy roads and fields. Jignesh compared this scenery to the dessert but instead of sand there was snow. Despite the fact that we were really tired, we accumulated all our will and power to make a long journey back to the bus stop.

And somewhere at that point another car was passing and again the driver proposed us a pickup. He was driving from the same village and heading off to Nizhny Novgorod. That was a great news, otherwise we would had gone all the way to the bus stop on foot and God knew how long time spent on waiting for a bus itself. 

  

So in less than an hour we reached the city and finally were back home saving ample amount of time on travelling due to good luck which was accompanying us throughout the day.