On Friday it was the day of the big match. We decorated our jerseys with the world famous Inter Chapayeva logo (i found it out in 1 min, a capital cyrillic i in a circle). We are probably the most nature friendly team in the world because our all co2 emission is zero, we went to our only match by metro and 30 mins walking. The match was in artificial grass, the conditions were perfect, the crowd was amazing (about 20 spectators, mostly supporting the away team, Inter). Both side had 6 players, 5 and a goalie. The opponent finally bought official Ural (the local football team) t-shirts to exchange. They had 2 professional players and we had 6 professionals just in different professions other then football. The engineers were the most, (i consider myself engineer as well), but there were others as well. The play was surprisingly (for me, of course, i write the blog) balanced, there were no scoring chances in the first 20 mins. Then "Ural" or "Viz" or whatever, changed to a higher gear and lead some nice quick attacks. At the middle part of the game they managed to score 2 goals, making us think that this is gone for us. But then, Vassilis, using one small mistake of the Ural defence (it was that there was no defence), scored a close-up goal and then a bit later a similar equalizer. Both sides were unsatisfied with the 2-2 so the game was exciting at the end but finally penalties had to decide. Although were scored 2 out of 5, Ural did 3 so in the one and only match ever for Inter Chapayeva, it lost. But it did not make our mood decline, after taking a lot of team photos and exchanging the jerseys, both sides walked to the metro together, along with some well-deserved alcoholic beverages.
From the nearest metro station (Geologicheskaya) it is still 20 min walking to the dorm, which was running in this case due to the widely hated 1 o'clock closing of the building. The sleeping was not that long, because in the meanwhile we decided to go to a nearby (120 kms) national park for the weekend. The Julia and the Austrians found it out, i was among the firsts to be "in", and wanted to encourage other people but there was no need for it as most people were in anyway. We rented tents (3) and sleeping bags (many), and departed by an early morning elektrichka. The way was quite long, 3 hours including a change to a tourist kind of train for the last kilometres. The station of it is directly at the entrance of the national park. We played Italian cards on the train and learned some Hungarian (mine and Andras's are quite good already, others need some practice).
After eating blinchiki at the entrance of the park, we departed. The park is very well maintained, there are signs at every crossroads or even turns, the bridges and pallings are in perfect condition (the bridges can carry twice are much weight as written, as we often tested it). There is a nice small river in the park, were we swam and so did ancient activities such as catching a fish with hand or changing clothes in the bushes. Later we had the chance to do another ancient activity, to get clean water from a cave. I was not sure what does Dasha mean when she said i should not drink a half beer just before going for the water. I was just about to say that i know myself quite well, i can walk in the forest with a bottle of water in my hand after half beer. But she was right. The cave was maybe 100-150 metres long, and there was not even one easy step in it. Everywhere it was very slippery and without chains or anything to grab when u start to slip. And there was no light so we either did not see anything or had only one free hand. We had to concentrate very hard, and still we got some minor injuries, and a lot of mud in our body. But it was a great adventure, i will remember it for long. The next day, we went again, and with not so many other people inside, and with yesterday's experience for the half of the team (and maybe the high skills for the other, the newbie half), we managed it much easier and faster, and with less injuries and mud. The camping was great, we settled down somewhere along the path, in a quiet area. After making fire and cooking several rounds of tea and making some sausages, and having deeper and less deeper conversations, it was time to sleep. Some of us (Andras, Vassilis, Shan and me) decided to stay outside, and the luxorious-looking empty space in the tent could not tempt us to betray the open air either, just Vassilis had to give it up due t techinical problems with his sleeping bag (there was an uncluseable part of it where a dog could even get in, so a mosquito could do so very easily.
Staying outside had exactly one adventage: i could tell anyone that i stayed outside. And it had uncountable disadventages, let me just mention the two most annoying: cold and mosquitoes. So next time maybe tent, if i will still remember how enjoyable this occasion was.
On the way back from the national park, the time killing activity was a combination of sitting with closed eyes and sleeping, with or without beer in hand, instead of playing Italian cards.
Technical information: In this post pictures will come later due to technical problems (i cannot use a Mac).
Next post is probably about something very different from something what was never present in this blog so far… (help for non-mathematical minded readers: it doesn't mean anything)
