We began our journey in the historic city of volgograd with an inspirational trip to mamayev kurgan to see the enormous statue, the motherland calls. this city witnessed the full horror and heroism of world war ii and the statue celebrates the enduring spirit of the russian people. then, we headed back to the centre, which has risen from the ashes to become a major crossroads of transportation, and strolled along the promenade by the river before boarding our boat to begin the adventure of a lifetime. over the next few days the boat stopped at many small villages, and we sailed past saratov, samara and simbirsk. in every village there were small shops and street vendors selling clothes, matryoshka dolls and amber jewellery. it was a great chance to see rural life in russia, and the people we met were incredibly hospitable. back on the boat, we loved chatting with our new-found friends from all around the world. the third day of our trip brought us to kazan, where the volga meets the kazanka river. kazan is half russian, half tartar and completely charming. in the upper part of the city, we visited the kazan kremlin, where we saw the amazing annunciation cathedral and the mysterious leaning soyembika tower. then, in the lower part of the city, we visited some magnificent muslim mosques. as the river carried us further, nizhny novgorod came into view, standing on a high hill where the volga meets the oka river. the red brick towers of the grand kremlin dominate the skyline and the archangel cathedral lies within its historic walls. from there we visited many of the city's famous abbeys, such as the monastery of the caves and the annunciation monastery. we sailed onwards to kostroma - a city that's almost as old as moscow. the streets fan out from the central square, and we marvelled at the medieval peasant homes and the golden domes of the ipatiev monastery. the epiphany cathedral, with the 10"' century byzantine icon. our lady of st theodore, was also truly remarkable. finally, our voyage brought us to yaroslavl. the 17h century red brick churches were delightful with their brightly tiled exteriors and fantastic frescos. at the spaso-preobrazhensky monastery we saw many wonderful religious icons as well as the original manuscript of the russian literary treasure, the lay of igor's host. all too soon it was time to leave, but as we caught the train back to moscow we knew that we had taken a journey that would live in our hearts forever. what's your favourite place in the area where you live? which places would you advise a tourist to see? send in photographs or drawings of your favourite places with a short explanation of why you like them so much. we'll put the best on our website for the whole world to see! написать мини-сочинение, из 7-15 предложений, выделить самое основное

sorokovilya    1   17.09.2019 05:10    2