Ilford – Where is Gordypops?

During lockdown we took a couple of trips up to Lake Seliger. It‘s about 5 hours from Moscow in the direction of St Petersburg. I haven‘t been out of Moscow very much since getting here a year and a half ago. But after these trips I can say it really is worth exploring rural Russia. Ostashkov / Осташков is the largest town by the lake. There isn‘t much else there other than some small villages and a large monastry (Nilo-Stolobenskaya Pustyn‘ / Нило-столобенская пустынь) which is something of a pilgramage site for orthodox christians.

Ostashkov must have been a real pearl when it was built in the 1800s. It has beautiful architecture in its centre and you can see that once it was a prosperous place. Years of communism and then the corrupt recent government have not been kind to it unfortunately. Russians don‘t really appreciate some of the cultural heritage they have. Which is strange given their strong nationalism. Most of the old buildings could easily disappear altogether if someone doesn‘t take action. Some have been renovated and are cared for. But the delapidation does add a special and unique atmosphere to the place. The lake itself is big and quite beautiful with some great areas of solitude and nature. There be bears here!

It looks like Russia is making moves to relax its ridiculous Visa program. Hopefully more tourists coming and their Euros/Dollars will motivate the locals into caring better for places like this.

I took some pictures on expired film. The black and white film (Ilford and AGFA) expired in the mid 80s and early 90s. The colour (Kodak Porta) expired around 2011. I used my Zeiss Superikonta A 530. A 4.5 by 6 folding camera made in the 1930s.