Hello, dear Local Guides, today I’m going to tell you about me as a part of our community. For a long time I’ve been interested for travelling, and this interest appeared in my childhood, when I adored to read magazines about the cars. Some articles were dedicated to the truck tests and car exploitation diring the long trips. I noticed that sleeping in truck cabine is so cozy and soulful, that it’s better than staying home. After I started playing computer game Hard Truck, but with time, craving for long trips became stronger. First my long trip was from Moscow to Rovaniemi by the train, when I was 12. While all of passengers got tired during 1,5-day trip, I was ok and wanted to stay inside the train more. Soon I learned about Trans-Siberian railroad, and I decided to pass it at least once. A good moment for it has come in Summer 2014, when I celebrated my 20 years. I asked my father to go by train from Moscow to Vladivostok. For him it was a great challenge: 6 days by train! But as for me, I enjoyed all this road. I saw several Russian cities, rivers, landscapes and mountains. Unfortunately, before Irkutsk the train was delayed, and near Baikal it was gone during the night - I saw this great lake only by moonlight.
I also like long flights. I haven’t tired even when I was flying from London to Los Angeles, or from Saint-Petersburg to Punta Cana (both flights were the longest in my life and continued for 11 hours. It’s not difficult for me to drive more than 1000 km per day, especially when I have a good playlist inside the car.
One day I went with my friend to famous monastery, that is located in 2 hours from my home - and saw, that there is no Google Street View in this area. I also noticed, that Street View is extremely limited in my region, and I decided to fix it in one town - I thought, it’s undeservedly not filmed on GSV. Soon I learned a lot of information about self-made 360-degrees tours for GSV and bought Ricoh Theta SC: with this camera I made my first good-quallity virtual tours. But as this model hasn’t video-mode, it was very difficult to upload panoramas and to take true location on maps. I bought Theta V, and from that moment I started mass uploading panoramas of new and new places near my city. Clother to the New Year after reading this article I bought GoPro Fusion, as I was inspired by Paul Saad, and then I went to Azerbaijan, where I filmed more than 100 km to Street View.
Today I have collected ~2600 km virtual tours of roads, streets and attractions in Russia and Azerbaijan.
My tours you can find from subtropics to subarctics, in unknown and abandoned settlements and in world-known attractions. Here I share some examples of them:
Solovetsky Island in Arkhangelsk oblast - the place with the rich history. One of the famous and biggest monastery in Russia is located here. Also this island is well-known as one of the most terrible prison camp during the Soviet period of Russian history. Now it’s popular place to visit as for Russians and for foreign tourists - here you can learn better about the history of Russia. For example, in Solovetsky Island in XVI Century was built incredible system of lake canals, which succesfully works now. Solovetsky Island is included to a list of UNESCO Worild Heritage. More I wrote here (in Russian).
Kizhi - architectural ensemble in Karelia, located on Kizhi Island in Lake Onega. One of the famous example of wooden architecture, that is traditional for Russian North. Here you can enjoy northern nature and complicated wooden churches, take a lesson of making wooden details for buildings. Also, in Kizhi you can learn about traditional crafts and listen to the wonderful bell ringing. As Solovetsky Island, Kizhi is the part of UNESCO World Heritage.
The road between Kislovodsk and Jily Su waterfalls - one of the most exciting roads that I’ve ever seen. This road often changes it’s elevation: up to 2100 m and down to 1300 m; then after up to 2600 m above sea level. Near Shadzhatmaz Observatory, that is located on this road during clear weather you can see Elbrus peak - the hidgest point of Russia. More about this trip in this post.
Southern part of Azerbaijan - the land of centenarians, wonderful and exotic nature, tea and delicious food. Thanks for close location of Talysh mountains to Kaspian sea, this area has one of the warmest climate in ex-USSR. You can read more information here.
I like my hobbie of making virtual tours on GSV: thanks for it, I have discovered a lot of interesting places and made them available to see them on Google Maps. I wish thousands of GSV-users can take a virtual jorney of places where I have been. I hope my contributions will be useful for travellers and any people, who like walking by Google Street View. Also, some of Street View users can use this system to remember some places that are dear to them, and I should be very happy to help them do it.