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Weekend in Issad: BBQ, visit to Staraya Ladoga & fishing

Since the engineer from Israel required a pick up also on Saturday morning, we decided to work that day and did our usual routine until early afternoon. Due power getting switched off on our part of the farm to investigate if other electricity circuits interfered with the ID-system we left at some stage and returned later for driving the engineer. There was some interference and we are now closer to solving the issue though it meant no PC and no weekly report. Monday is another day.
The vet students went to novaya ladoga on Saturday, which also was Lisa’s 23rd birthday. We joined them for a bit and briefly visited the annual town festival. The town really fails to impress and has its structural challenges (some 8000 people now vs 13000 in 1989 tell worlds about its demography akin to many eastern european cities after the iron curtain fell).

On our way back to the car we went shopping and decided to have a BBQ that evening. It ended up with some 7 people as Evelina invited two farm workers from Tajikistan along and Vlad the agronomist joined us too. Given there ain’t much to do in issad, all were pleased about some socialising. After we were done i visited a club in novaya ladoga while Jan stayed home to be ready for another driving job on Sunday. Thanks mate! The club was pretty low key. Some guys were a little aggressive in the beginning, but that settled quickly. We ended up doing some arm wrestling (which seemed a popular thing to do) and i was intrigued by how many people brought their own drinks (vodka & juice) to celebrate the night (ever watchful that the security guys don’t spot it). I ended up playing my own music in the boom box and got all people to stand up for the russian national anthem. Fun times though i didnt last all that long after a 6 day week at the farm.

Naturally, i didn’t get up too early on Sunday (with a small intermission to let richard in who returned from hungary for a brief stop before heading to another farm). 1pm jan and I had lunch and visited staraya ladoga after. Pretty village i have to admit with its fortress and monastery. Evelina, who is from there, said all the refurb was helped by a putin visit some time ago. Clearly he hasn’t yet been to novaya ladoga – it would help!
Staraya ladoga is sometime referred to as the first capital of russia given it was a trading center in the 8th & 9th century connecting the baltic sea and Constantinople at the time. The people inhabiting the city at the time were of Scandinavian origin and called Rus. So much for naming.


Near the fortress we practiced our hunting skills with crossbow and bow & arrow for 200RUB / 10 shots. I though we both were quite good and are sure that we would definitely have killed the wild boar we were aiming at.

Jan then had a brilliant idea – lets go fishing. Problem – no equipment. Now issad, a village of 1,000 people, surprised on the upside. There is a proper fishing shop right next to the supermarket. We weren’t even aware of it. For 750RUB each (11EUR) we got ourselves as fishing rod and all the little things to get going.

The weather was pleasant as the sun made an effort and clouds cleared. Just the wind kept it a little on the chilly side. Great afternoon though apart from an anchovy sized fish each nothing to brag about. Looks like we found ourselves a new hobby!

2 thoughts on “Weekend in Issad: BBQ, visit to Staraya Ladoga & fishing”

  1. Just keep in mind those Anchovy size fish are mere food for larger fish and who knows what you will catch if you try again… Thanks for an interesting posting and some great photography.

  2. Pingback: 9 things to do in & around Issad village | rocketontour

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