After May 9th's Victory Parade and yacht racing, what other delights awaited ?
Can you imagine - picking Tea ? Sochi's south facing slopes have the northern most tea plantations and I was invited to get up v.early to pick tea.
This was an abandoned plantation - the land is up for sale - not sold - and the ferns will soon out grow the tea bushes.
A 35 minutes drive north - past The President's Summer Residence and turn right, inland - up into the foot hills of the Caucasus Mountains .
The technique - apparently - is to pick only the top two/ three leaves - below the split.
Olga and Andrei picked far more tea, than I - I filmed the view and took in the sound of cuckoos, sheep, baying horses, and interspersed silence.
The video pans from Dagomys - the Black Sea resort - southwards , then east to the Caucasus Mountains
VIDEO Andrei dries the tea leaves overnight in a drier and next day - I had my very own tea to take by to the UK.
Some time ago, I was interviewed on the local news by Rossiya - one of the state channels..it was about international language day... I was filmed at a local school where I've been a guest native speaker.
That day had long passed - I thought my 15 minutes of fame had gone...then the phone started ringing on Monday evening..''Sveta, your Mark is on our TV news..''
I was now part of an article on 'foreigners who live in Sochi' and appeared in the headlines and for a few seconds - the part when I say I am impressed that the streets are kept clean :chuckle:
VIDEO 58 seconds and 9 mins 2 secs
On Monday, I booked my flight back - normally I like to go via Istanbul - much more direct - but this flight has gone from 2 times a day - to two times a week - I picked up a one way for 140 quid - with 3Okg luggage allowance, a decent meal - with proper knives and forks AND a decent plane - on the Heathrow leg -with USB charging for the phone and in-flight movies. Turkish are doing one-ways for 50 USD to London, from Istanbul :chuckle:
After an hour or so scanning the best deals on Kayak or Skyscanner and booking, I headed to the beach - to find Adonis personified - a long haired, tanned, micro-g-string swimming trunks - guy - lying next to SC and her mates... I felt OLD and 'FAT' ... and approached with a friendly smile. Turns out he was a stripper from Volgograd and was on a weeks break. He was offering 'professional massages' ... handing out his business card - but made his excuses when I arrived. Russian men are direct in their approaches - they put their towels right next to ladies they are interested in - I could never chat a lady up on a beach ... :chuckle:
When 5 o'clock came, it was announced we were going to a beer festival in a local hotel - 100 Roubles entry fee and 50 Roubles per half litre...sounded too good to be true.
We arrived close to closing time - so no-one took our 100 Roubles and Beer was flowing - literally freely. Luda, a lady from Belarus - told each and every one of the stands that I was 'in' Beer - an important business guest from Ireland - Luda can blag - and I was offered all sorts of delights - many of which I declined - as one beer was 24 percent and I could swiftly feel it's effects.
I promised to return the next day - and I did. Ekaterina - wanted to practice her English and saw I was rebuffing models in short shorts and boob tube tops and high heels - stating, ''I cannot speak Russian'' - as they tried to entice me to their stand.
Ekaterina was wearing a tight -fitting evening dress and I was lead like the prize bull to her stand - where I was plied with the beers and snacks they make. Remember this is 10.30 am and I get drunk on 2 pints, so I discreetly didn't finish my drinks. Their live beers were great. I brought a bottle of their live beer back home - which Sveta downed and pronounced tasty - she 'doesn't drink' - and I'm bringing home the 24 percent chocolate beer - for a rainy day.
I went to the top of the hotel to get some shots of Sochi on a horrible day and was accompanied by the two models I filmed - part of the way up to the roof-top They took selfies with the funny Irish guy and his blue glasses and I asked if I could post their video to show how 'interesting' Russia beer could be :biggrin:
The beer show models - cannot get preview to load .. http://youtu.be/8xa3g-5Lc5k?t=12 View from the roof top VIDEO In the evening, I went to see a film in English - with Russian subtitles - every Wednesday evening the local imax cinema runs a movie in English.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3530978/ with Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurilenko - it has a different title in Russian - sorry I can't remember.
I have always thought her acting was wooden - but in this - wow... 40 percent of the 'English Club' group that I went with thought she was 'poor' and the film 'silly' - I recommend it - if you are the sort that isn't afraid to admit they like romance stories. It was filmed in York, Edinburgh and the Italian lakes.
Coming back, we experienced a long delay - we remarked that there were Police every 100m - part of the 'fun' of Sochi living - in Summer - this becomes Moscow - the capital of Russia - and roads are often closed for special convoys - 'spez proyest' - leaders of nations visiting the President, etc., We cannot sail for three days - 'security'.. no unauthorised craft allowed.
God, I'm going to miss SC and the action..
