The way Russians spend their summer vacations

Summer is soon and a lot of people start thinking of where and how to spend their summer vacations, make plans, surf the Internet in search for destinations and popular tourist routs. It’s needless to say that every nation does that differently and in this way shows its particularity. 

Tourists from west move to the East, people who live in east would like to see the West. Southerners tend to chill out in northern countries and northerners try to get as much of the hot sun of the South as possible. Besides there are some national preferences. 

Russians love holidays very much, especially in summer. Summer for us is like a dream we long for the whole year round as it’s the only option for us to enjoy the sun and warmth. Of course, there is always the opportunity to visit some exotic country even in our severe northern winter but still!

Everyone dreams of changing their routine atmosphere while having holidays. Most of people try their best to go to the seaside. Since Russia is a very big country, we have the opportunity to stay in the country and spend the vacations at the shore of the Black Sea in Krasnodar Region (Krasnodarski Krai) or the Caspian Sea. People start booking tickets and rooms beforehand, some of them apply to the travel agencies to arrange their vacation, some travel on their own. There are plenty of accommodation options at the destination. Resorts provide numerous hotels and hostels of different quality and with different services available. 

 Most of people go southward on their own and book stay in private houses or small private hostels; they are much cheaper but still provide all the necessary services. 

 You also may accommodate in open-air camps that are usually situated near the sea but far from beaten tracks. That’s the best options for active tourism lovers, there you may see big companies of friends living together in tents and making fire at night. Romantic, isn’t it?  

Transport system is all right in summer; tourists get to the destination by trains, planes, by cars, some even hitchhike though it’s rather dangerous. Train tickets seem to be a real trouble for tourists! In order to get them for sure you have to buy them more than a month beforehand! What’s the matter? The point is that they start selling tickets 45 days before the date of the departure. Since the competition for them for southern directions is extremely high in summer the only way to buy them is to head for the railway station on the very first day but still even then the queues are impressing! This is especially typical for northern parts of Russia; northerners are among the first willing to get the portion of the southern sun.

Oh, you should see the beaches of the resorts in Krasnodarski Krai in the mid of the tourist season!! It’s awesome! They are swarming with crowds of people! 

August is the most popular month as it’s the hottest one; people go to the seaside with children to let them have fun before school starts. If you go out to the beach too late it would be unlikely that you’d find any free place there! That’s why tourists try to get up pretty early. Plenty of them spend the whole day there; there are all the facilities for enjoying the time. Thousands of small shops, stalls and cafes are situated right on the beaches. It’s also impossible not to taste the local specialities that are offered by residents walking among the lying and sunbathing tourists.

 In plenty of resorts the residents make most of their annual fortune exactly in summer: it IS really impossible not to taste made-at-home patties (pirozhki), sweet southern delicacies, assorted cold ice creams… Moreover a lot of residents arrange various sea entertainings for their guests. Lying on the sand you always hear ads o sea trips, rides on catamarans, yachts, parachutes, extreme rides on so called “bananas”, scuba diving, safari….. 

But every tourist must know that all the services offered on the beaches, especially food, are much more expensive than those that are a bit further from the seaside. That’s why it’s a standard mostly for those who travel with families to prepare meal for the whole day and to make picnics. 

Not all the people enjoy such the atmosphere so they tend to go further form these public beaches and prefer remote parts of the beach or even paid ones; they are cleaner and more comfortable besides there are not so many children there who really are irritating sometimes and may destroy your rest! Various kids areas are available but still most of parents don’t let their children be out of their sight. The only way for the parents to have a good rest without children is to send them to special kid camps where they stay for a month of the whole summer and their holidays are organized by professionals.

Night life of our resorts is very active. At nights streets are as busy as in the afternoon! Clubs, restaurants, bars, cafes welcome visitors with bright colorful signboards and alluring music. 

The variety of cuisine impresses. The most attractive is luscious food of southern nations such as Caucasian, Usbek and many others.

Actually it’s almost impossible to travel on a low budget if you want to experience as much as you can!

That’s why many tourists prefer going abroad. Turkey and Egypt resorts are among the most popular in Russia. Oddly enough, to spend vacations there is far cheaper than in Russia. For moderate price you’ll be accommodated in a hotel with all the services available, besides you’ll be provided with various excursions and sightseeing. As a rule people go there with the help of travel agencies that guarantee insurance and complete safety. Actually, there are so many Russians living in these countries and so many Russian speakers that there are almost no problems arising in communication and asking for information. Nowadays practically every seller in bazaars speaks Russian (that’s pretty profitable!). From time to time it seems that there are more Russians on the streets and shops than natives!

The common notion is that it’s better to travel to the seaside in September; there are some advantages indeed! There are no children and it’s not so stuffy as plenty of tourists have already gone home. And the sun is not so scorching but still hot enough to sunburn. This time is called a Velvet Season (Barkhathyi Sezon).

Plenty of Russians prefer spending holidays in European countries; their aim is not to lie on a beach but to find out more about the countries themselves, their history and cultural heritage; making snapshots, going sightseeing, even studying.

The tradition is to bring back home some souvenirs from all the destinations. Therefore when you visit a Russian family you are likely to notice the whole collection of such memories stuck on fridges and walls, placed on tables and cupboards).  

Of course not every Russian citizen can afford spending summer in this way. But almost every family has a dacha. Dacha is kind of a country summer house or a cottage. In summer every weekend thousands of people leave towns and cities for dachas to relax, spend time with their families in the open air. There are the whole dacha areas with hundreds of such houses! Usually they are situated near a lake a or a river so you may swim in hot days, besides almost every yard has a Russian banya – one of our favourite activities Don’t confuse dachas with villages; dachas are only for summer. Russians are thrifty and industrious. One of the national traits is to keep all the things at home even if they are no longer in use. We say “Everything may come in handy!” and put the stuff on the balconies of our flats or bring it to datchas. That’s why in plenty of flats it’s impossible to get to the balcony at all as it’s full of trash. “Let it stay there for a year, next summer it may be useful” – we think and take old torn clothes, cupboards without handles and doors, one ski to dacha (it grieves us to throw all that away). Usually dachas are surrounded by small gardens where various vegetables, berry bushes and fruits are grown.

 

 For plenty of middle age and retired men and women gardening is a real hobby, they long for the dacha season all year round and start preparing for it in February planting seeds of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers in small pots right on their windowsills. When it’s warm enough for small vegetables outdoors they are replanted in the soil of the gardens and in special greenhouses. The retired lovers of gathering can live in dachas the whole season, those who work hurry there at the weekends to water the garden. Plants are taken care of the whole summer and the harvest is to be gathered in autumn. Then gardeners make preparations for winter; they make jams, juices, assortments of vegetables, pickle cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbages. Early September is the high time for gathering potatoes so the tradition is to get the family together and arrange picking-up-the-potatoes weekends. This time is like from the hell for young people made to do that by their parents or grandparents! 

 

 All the harvest grown in summer is the supply for the family for winter and reminds of warm sunny summer days. 

Those who don’t have dachas have to spend hot days out of towns near small lakes and river. There are plenty of small public beaches in towns and in the countryside not far from them. People make open-air picnics with barbeque (shashlik) in parks and forests, visit open-air cafes.

Actually the ways of spending holidays are different and every Russian may find something for themselves. No matter what we choose, the very must is to come back into routine being full of impressions and memories.

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