Wednesday 26th October

A relaxed breakfast this morning followed by a planning meting for the sessions over the next two days.  We still need all the resources we have been carrying until the last meeting on Thursday evening.  Once the resources had been prepared 

We again set off in different directions to see some of the life in St Petersburg which is set across a number of islands. 

Under Faith’s guidance some of us set off on the underground which is said to be the deepest in Russia taking 3 minutes to go down from ground level to the train!! We thought we were never getting down. A bracing walk along the Embankment set us up for a few more cultural visits before the evenings programme.

Susan stumbled on a film set, Muriel and Elizabeth climbed the 230 or so stairs up into St. Isaac's

Cathedral Colonnade for the most amazing views of the city, others visited the Kazan Cathedral finding themselves in a lovely service in Russian. 

We were met at the hotel by Rimma, a Guiding friend of Marina who was our interpreter for the sessions this evening with the scouts of St. Petersburg and our guide through the city streets to find the quite obscure location in a hidden courtyard.

The group we met with included leaders and leaders in training.  They were very welcoming and participated actively in the activities looking at the history of guiding and scouting, the promise, five essentials and group activities to encourage team work.

There was a lot of very frank and serious discussion about the appropriateness of having girl only organisations, this was seen by this group of our Russian colleagues as a backward step and not very appropriate for them.  They were eager to know about our organisation and membership and to tell us about  how things work for them in Russia and the history of their part of scouting in Russia.  There was an exchange of gifts of badges before some of the young people went off. 

The conversation went on late into the evening, we then retrieved our shoes and Rimma managed to get us away to catch the bus for the journey home! walking the last 20 mins.  The end of another busy day.

Thursday 27th October and our last full day in Russia.  We decided this was the day for a special visit for the whole team and headed off to Visit St. Catherine’s Palace in Peterhoff. Some of us had quite scary journeys as the vehicles weaved through the heavy traffic but we did get an idea of the size of St. Petersburg as we travelled through the industrial edge of the city, high rise blocks of  accommodation with very little in the way of parks here.

On arrival we started by visiting the palace, we were invited to wear the suitable footwear of paper overshoes to protect the lovely floors, or perhaps policy them!!   As we walked through the rooms it was difficult to take in the opulence and glory of the contents, wall coverings, ceiling painting and lavish gold leaf which is so typical of such buildings here in St. Petersburg. 

One room had silk fabric on the walls and matching fabric on chairs and couches.  When we visited the Church it was good to find only a few people there, a quiet moment to absorb the surroundings.

We had a little time to walk in the gardens to see the layout of the fountains but the water was closed off for the winter but we did see all the god figures set around the fountain park and down towards the river.

Another journey took us back to the city and into preparing for the evening programme with young scouts, prospective scouts and young leaders.

The young leaders liked the team building sessions and the ideas for activities which they will take  back to their groups.  The others participated with energy and enthusiasm in the  fun activities, tangrams,  Memory games edible campfires etc.  They loved the parachute games and we have promised to try to sent one out for the group.  

We have lots of good conversations, one young intense young man asked lots of questions about how we ran our units in UK, management activities etc.

We were again lat in finishing and were led back to our hotel by Rimma and we packed up all the remaining resources including the parachute for Rimma to send to Marina for use of RADS in future trainings. 

We have been made so welcome by the scouts in St. Petersburg and Rimma has looked after us so well, we will miss them all, but it is nice to be returning home.

Friday 28th October

Up early, last packing, last visits before the minibus takes us to the airport.  Special farewells to the hotel staff who have looked after us well.

Getting overweight bags through the customs was the next challenge!!  but we got through and are now all arrived at Heathrow safely after an amazing journey in mies and friendships made.

Thank to all have helped us on our way!!

I have one last plane to catch before getting to Scotland and home.

Elizabeth and the team.

Tuesday 25th October

Russia - St. Petersburg

We have had a lot of cool but sunny days so were taken by surprise this morning to set off in snow!!

We all had different plans so set off in all directions with an agreed time to meet for dinner at night.  The following is a list of some of the places we visited as the day progressed.  You can look them up at home to share the beautiful spectacles.

The Hermitage - Stunning rooms, objects, art collections, an amazing Peacock clock built by James Cox of London, malachite room and so much more.  It took most of the day to see even a small selection of the exhibits.  The ceilings and objects were so vast and ornate it was hard to take it all in.

St. Peter and St. Paul’s Cathedral

Faith popped onto the Metro to re-visit the area she lived in in 1993 she found it very changed, surrounded by Westernised shopping centres.

Rosie took a brisk walk along the embankment of the river and canals to a lovely park.

We ended the day with a special meal together as we will be training over the next two evenings before we leave, this was in an elegant high rise restaurant with views across the city chosen by Muriel.  We gave her 10/10 for this!!

It is hard to realise that we will be heading home in 3 days, the time has just flown in.

Morephotos for 23/24th October

PHOTOS AS PROMISED

Sunday 23rd.  October

Still in Moscow we went in different directions today. We visited some of the amazing marble caverns in 12 different underground stations, sculptures, marble floors and walls.  We did of course have to navigate the underground system to see all of these but came up to daylight every so often to delight in the Market, Hard rock Cafe for Maggie and one stop which provided beautiful river views in the sunset and other city delights.

We started the day with a visit to Ishmaeloski Market.  The vendors were very keen to sell us varies kinds of wares designed for the tourist!!  We learned to bargain and never pay the asking price. There was a variety of very beautiful items hand made by craftsmen who could show us photos of the work being done, some were just the usual tourist quality.  We spent some time choosing and bargaining for good prices and left proud owners of Russian momentos.

We got into conversation with a stall holder who described himself in Excellent English as from a small country close to Kurdistan.  A few of us braved the unknown by heading up some rickety stairs to the equivalent of a flea market where local Russians sold old items of every description, clothing, buttons, tools, scissors, old guns and ammunition, no photos allowed here!!

Maggie went to hard rock cafe on her own!!  she was really pleased when Jenny met her at the exit to the market to guide through the maze to where we were meeting for coffee.  This was a large hotel on the edge of the market with a very posh foyer and coffee shop.  

After a few more marble stations and some of Moscow’s famous buildings we returned to our hotel before going off to dinner in a German restaurant which proved one of our poorer choices! 

We headed for the railway station by minibus for the next and last overnight train journey.  This was a real leap up, the carriage has swags and tails curtains, and each compartment had a TV, chargers, slippers, water and nibbles and we were on the cheapest tickets!  We were invited to order break fast to be served at 7.00am.  It was not any easier to stow the luggage here though and took a good 30 minutes to struggle everything in before collapsing on the seats with legs across the luggage and climb to the top bunks had not got any easier!!  So to sleep!!

Monday 24th October 

After breakfast we started to get the cases out and prepare to disembark.  Our minibus driver, Sergai, met us on the station platform, his face was a picture of disbelief when more and more luggage kept coming out of the carriage but eventually we made or way to the vehicle and got packed in.  To our amazement and delight our rooms were ready and we were able to unpack and shower before heading for the Magical city of St. Petersburg.  Every corner we turned found an even more beautiful scene.  Across the day people used the hop on hop off bus to visit, Christ the Saviour of the Spilt Bood, calals and bridges, Churches, a rolls Royce shop, the Singer Sewing Machine shop, now a book shop where the coffee shop overlooked a Fountain courtyard and Kazan Cathedral.  We ate at Toni’s New York bar which was the most successful meal so far, they served Russian food, everyone served at the same time and with no mix ups.  10 /10.  We returned to the hotel really tired and headed for an early bed!!

Photos to follow!!!!!

Topaz Blog   Thursday 20th  October

Arriving at Moscow station at 7.30am it was a pleasant surprise to find no stairs!! and a welcome notice saying Trefoil Guild.

We were whisked off to the Peking hotel, an upgrade from the first one in Moscow where we were sharing beds!

We were allowed to put our luggage in store while some people has a quick walk and others rest in the lounge.

Near lunch time and under the very uncertain, watchful eye of the luggage porter all 8 of us invaded the sanctuary of his luggage store to get clean uniform, then resources for the afternoon and evening sessions before he locked everything away again.  We were in and out at least 3 times each and he seemed a bit grumpy at first but by the last of us he was helping us out!!  probably to get rid of us.  We took turns to get changed in a little cupboard. 

Then it was off to find the location of our first session at Moscow State secondary School no. 825.  We had directions for the underground and a small map of the area which helped us a bit but we were really glad of the advice from some local ladies as we journey from station to school.  We eventually arrived , a little frazzled, to a really warm welcome from the school staff and Head who escorted us up 5 flights of stairs!!

We expected 40 pupils but there was soon 50, then 60, then 70!!!  We were very quick counting the resources to see how far we could spread them!!

After a welcome and information about the team and the scouting programme we went on to do group sessions with the pupils.  They were so keen to participate in every group and tray every possible challenge.  The Head Teacher was also keen to join in and try everything.

We ended the session with parachute games and there was a lot of excitement before we sand camp fires burning and some other songs.

The young people must have been planning for our visit because at this point they put on a display of music and dance for us finishing with Maxim performing beat bop.  He is known in the school as very talented.  

After the sessions we were finished and the pupils dispersed we headed back down the stairs to the History room where we found a lovely wood panelled room with household artefacts, woodworking tools, dolls from around the world, traditions dress, musical instruments and many other items on display, the teaches had a lovely spread for us of cakes, chocolates and tea.

They presented us with a lovely doll to take back to Judy and our friends in UK and sent us off out again to find our next destination the Meridian Community centre.

We did have some difficulties on our journey as the Metro station in our information was a different one from the person who was meeting us had.  After a while we managed to get in touch through Marina and we met up. The power of the mobile phone in these situations cannot be underestimated!!   We arrived eventually but not all of the scouts had arrived at this point so still had time to set up and catch our breath as our interpreter arrived. 

This sessions was aimed at adults and scout leaders.  The presentations about the core `Scouting programme went well and everyone became involved in the activities used to demonstrate working in teams, even our external interpreter who loved it and decided she would like to join up!!  The all had fun making friendship bracelets and we finished with singing before the invitation to tea and more cake and fish sticks!!  We were presented with green Scouting tea shirts.

The discussions round the table were quite intense and went on late into the evening before we called taxis to take us back to the hotel at almost midnight.

Friday 21st October

A later start today before a catch up meeting to review last evening and regroup resources for tonights session.  the team went off in a number of directions to “do” a little of Moscow before setting off again for another underground journey to meet the Scout group ORUR.  We found our way to the building only to discover our hosts were at the station looking for us!!

One inside we found a small complex of 4 rooms used for scouting activities, one of which was a museum of scouting.  The Scout interpreter Grigory arrived and gave us a really full history of ORUR Scouting in Russia from its beginning around 1910.  Some of the history during the wars and the revolution was very painful to hear.  I was reminded of the war time stories of GIS members from UK as he went through the very detailed life of this group of Scouts.  They had many artefacts and books written about the life of ORUR.

The session following this with a small but enthusiastic group went well and we were again invited to tea and cake the evening finished by sharing some music from each of our countries and an exchange of gifts before returning to our hotel very late once again.

Saturday 22nd October

A day to recover and look a bit more around Moscow.  We all went in different directions and shared our experiences as we gathered for a meal at the end of the day.  Sites visited included Nova De Vinci, Kremlin armoury, the famous Metro stations and many others as we took the hop on hop bus around the city. 

We met in the evening for a nonsense photograph session on the stairs of hotel wearing the green T shirts. before setting off to find food in an Italian cafe before returning to pack for our departure on Saturday.  Luggage has to go into the hotel store before 9am. 

Tomorrow we have our last overnight journey!!!

Wednesday 19th October 

Watermelon for breakfast then an early planning meeting to finalise the sessions for Moscow before packing and storing luggage 5 floors up!!

Katia then arrived to take us of to the university and her favourite park before we lunched and struggled back to the hotel through the city traffic.  

Another  lot of manoeuvring of luggage from the 5th floor!! then off to the station where we manhandled it up 2 flights of stairs before checking in to our train. 

The stacking of our luggage in our sleeping compartment 7 cases into 4 spaces!  could be described as like the Krypton factor - took at least 45 minutes to get it right!!  

This is the beginning of a 14 hour journey to Moscow.  We spent some time updating our plans for tomorrow and practising some craft sessions,  nibbled on all kinds of goodies  including a delicious apple cake from Katia and her mum Marina babe to Grandma's special recipe.  The train staff came along to tell ice-cream and souvenirs.  

At a train stop on the journey some people decided to test the delights of the platform toilets.  An elegant hole in the ground with loo paper measured out as you went in!!  It was very clean though.

Then for the climb to the top bunks,  for some of us!!

Topaz 2016 - Russia  Tuesday 18th October

http://www.volgograd-trv.ru/flashN.aspx?id=37238

A few days ago we did the TV interview and this is the address to view or download the interview as it went out to the 3 TV stations in Volgograd.

An early rise at 6.30 to find our bus to Rovnoe, which turned out to be a minibus but part of the public transport system.  A very hot journey and the road was pretty rough as we speeded to our destination.   

The Terrain was mostly scrub land with some areas of trees, the main road was metalled but you could see the unmade side roads leading off into the distance.

We past through small villages with traditional wooden or brick houses, some set in compounds.  An area where the red army was based was pointed out to us.

It is really interesting to get the perspective of our Girl Scouting leaders on the local situations, when talking about housing she told us most people would like to live in the city where there is more work but housing there is prohibatively expensive so in many cases families stay in more rural settings.

We arrived around 10.00 to a guard of honour as we walked all through the school which has pupils from 7-18 years, all children from the local areas attend this school.  The have a very strong sense of identity with the community and the school.

Tea. Chocolates,  fruit, and cherry cake were served in a sewing area.  It was interesting to see the lovely craft work of the pupils and how they are encouraged to keep up traditional skills.  The building was fairly old but apparently watertight, some facilities were rather different from the city schools !!!!

Headmaster, Victor. Bomzarenko. welcomed us warmly and gave the history of the school, ably interpreted by Marina and Katie.  He was very attentive and interactive all during our visit.

We set up for 22, A mixture of boys and girls aged 13-17 joined us for guiding fun. Session was led by the story of the “Scarlet Flower” and pupils did activities at a number of stations.  They were really responsive and thrilled to succeed at each activity.  Where spoken language did not work sign language, facial expressions and actions were really effective. some activities included food and we discover a much greater preference for sweet tastes.  Every event has included lots of photography, young people all have their phones,  even here.

We were entertained to a really interesting Lunch which included a  mixture of soups, savouries and fruit companied by locally made fortified 3 year old wine!!!  We only sipped a little of this. 

Now for the sessions with teachers, they seemed a little apprehensive at first but really threw themselves into the sessions learning about Girl Scouting, team building and parachute games in good suits and high heels.

The team followed this with a royal tea party with crowns and goodies from UK and specially iced cakes accompanied by stories of our Royal families connection to Guiding. 

During the tea party some pupils conducted an interview about our visit with Marina translating once again.  This was for the school news paper.  The girls asked a lot of very pertinent questions recording the interview on mobile phones. It would be interesting to see the outcome.

School has 600 pupils aged 7-18    some from Belarous / Korea / 

On our arrival some of the pupils wore cadet uniforms which they were very proud of.

We were taken on a tour of Rovnoe  a town with 4,000 population 

Head Teacher and Depute were very attentive, depute was Katia’s mum Marina

We saw the River Volga at its Widest point 12k, this can freeze over in the winter!!

We visited more Monuments but the most remarkable was the water melon Monument, we were all giver replicas of this to bring home to uk and a real one to take back to the hotel for breakfast, this was so big we could hardly lift it!!!  But it did taste good.

At the tiny museum  was saw rooms set up for the local historical, clocks, Germany and a Water melon display -  impressive but fun!!

The exhibition was started the ex head of school and the school staff are very proud of it.

The staff and teachers at the school were truly delighted that the Topaz team had taken time to go so far from the central of Russia to visit their real community.  We left feeling the future might be good for Girl scouting in this area.  

Marina became an honoured member of UK Trefoil making her promise in Russian

We returned on the rocky road to Saratov on the school bus taking about 21/2 hours then dinner and bed!!

Monday 17th October

We had a spell on our own this morning and people went in different directions to explore.  We found a number of impressive buildings on our own street housing the University, a military academy and the local prison.  We got a little braver and explored along a few street to find an amazing indoor / outdoor food market.  This was an experience of the senses!

There were many sweet and biscuit stalls, a beautiful array of vegetables and fruit, not all known to us, whole stalls of eggs, cheeses and honey.  Most of the the traders seemed pleased to see us and posed for photos.  After a little shopping for top up resources and coffee! we started back for the Panda Hotel through circus square where some miniature ponies gained a lot of attention. 

We met up with Katie and Ksucha, who were ready to show us their  version of Saratov, a city they are very proud of. We visited book shops and one of the team purchased a much sought after football shirt for her son.  At one book shop a lady brought her 8 year old son, Ilya, to us to ask if we could speak English with him, he had had 4 lessons so far but wanted the hear the real sounds of the language.  He was a delightful little boy and very willing to try out all he knew on us!

The bridge over the Volga at Saratov is very impressive at 2.8 K long and it was decided we should take a bus across, another new experience, the buses were pretty old as they had started life in Germany then Moscow before being sent “down” to Saratov.   Lace curtains in the windows was a quirky addition to the experience. We viewed the bridge from all sides before exploring another little cafe!

We returned to the hotel to review our notes for Tuesday’s sessions and pack the resources for our early start tomorrow.  This task takes some time, it is the equivalent of planning an in depth training at home to train and enthuse leaders, including sessions which give them an understanding of the ethos of the organisation, ways to work with the girls and have some fun at the same time.  We have been providing different taster sessions for leaders and girls and need to be prepared to adapt quickly when needed.

An early start tomorrow.!!

Topaz Russia Blog  Sunday 16th October

We arrived in Saratov after a rather restless night on the train.  While trying to settle our luggage under the seats the lights kept going out, then it was making up beds and back to the climb up to the top bunk for some!!

In the late evening Vasily, a young boy of 11 came to visit us.  He was a superb English speaker and was really keen to show off his skills.  He told us about his fishing trip with his dad and his plans to study English for a year at a school in Brighton.  He was a delightful young man and shared some chocolate with us before going back down the carriage to his dad with a promise to return in the morning. 

We rose early to prepare to disembark and watched the sun rise and a shower of snow as well as some interesting countryside, we sorted our luggage in our tiny cabins before our young friend returned to continue our conversation.  We heard about his school life and when he left us on the platform was delighted to tell us that his very smart coat and hat made him look like Sherlock Holmes, and he was right!!

We unloaded the cases with lots of help, met up with Marina’s friend Kate and struggled up the ramp on the steep station stairs.  We think Russia needs to think about a conveyor belt or some lifts in their stations!!!

A walk to the hotel and we found ourselves sorting the the entry system before a few more stairs to reception.  The conveyer belt is beginning to sound a really good idea!!

Sucha and Dasha, local University students and girl scouts  now joined us and we were whisked off by cars, driven by Boris and Sucha’s dad as well as a taxi as we now numbered 12. Arriving at  Victory Park where the lanes were lined by trees interspersed by WW2 Military Guns and vehicles and a giant hospital train was on display.  The focus point of the park was the eternal flame and a tall monument to the fallen.  this was situated at the top of the hill where we could see across all sides of the city and the Volga river with Longest bridge spanning 2.8 kilometres.

We now can really feel the cold and are ready for the thermals, in fact we had two short snow showers today.  

Our next stop was to a Lemonarium!!! A new concept for us all.  It was a large hot house which grew an interesting assortment of many species of lemons and other citrus fruit as well as some other unusual tropical fruits.  Our guide was very knowledgable and enthusiastic, he also introduced us to an impressive iguana,  some scary tarantulas and the occasional rabbit which ran past our feet.   

It seemed appropriate and timely that we got another fix of our TOPAZ zest and we brought some home to our hotel for an evening drink.  We arrived back at the hotel and were allocated our rooms before getting together to do some work on our plans for the next sessions in Saratov and Rovnoe.

We are using our resources but the bags don’t feel much lighter!!

A stay-in meal this evening as we were all needing an early night ready for a busy day tomorrow.    Elizabeth and the team