Camping at Lake Zuratkul

The day after the plane ride, we left for a camping trip at Lake Zuratkul (озеро зюраткуль).



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There were 8 of us who went on the trip, Artem and Marina (main characters in our blog), Co-worker Svetlana and her hysterical husband Yegor, and their fun friends Ulliana and Anatoli.

We arrived at camp just before sunset, which in the Urals is about 11:00 pm. The lakeside camping area we selected did not include the typical American set up of a fire ring, picnic table, and specific tent area, but it was free! The way it should be. Everything was done from scratch including gathering our own firewood from the forest. We were up till 3 but managed to get a fire-cooked meal of traditional Russian soup of meat,onion,potato and macaroni a clear broth complete with a salad of chopped cuke and tomatoes.



The next day, we awoke around 10. Feeling lazy, here are some ways we passed the time.

lounging and eating,

sharpening your ax,

translating a technical document from Japanese to English to Russian,

Or geeking out on your PDA.

We brought several American treats to share: Necco wafers, Fig Newtons, s'mores, and we roasted red peppers. The red peppers were a failure, as most russians perfer them crispy and cold instead of warm and sweet. Marshmellow roasting turned out to be a popular sport, for desert and even breakfast!

Marshmellows (humorously referred to as "marshmellons")

Other past times included swimming, chopping down dead trees, and teaching the card game "Spit".

On Sunday we went to see a Russian version of Story Land, made by hand from wood.


Check out more photos from this trip.