in russia summertime means. russians love their family country houses at the end of the working week millions of people head straight for the peace and quiet of the villages a chance to recharge the batteries take a did an escape the hustle and bustle. bus if like me you're not lucky enough to have your own dacha a little countryside or an on isn't too hard to find. around two hundred kilometers from st petersburg there's a holiday village that promises beautiful old houses a warm river and a complete break from city life it's called mundra and it's supposed to be a place to turn back time and leave the warnings of the twenty first century behind . although it turns out that trying to live the simple life isn't always quite as simple as it seems.

just. you go into mundra game. you can get a lift with the pope on. when you're heading deep into a forest a taxi can only take you so far you need a different kind of horsepower around these ponds. but also to be is always too late it is possible and as my ferry pulled up onto the river bank i had my first glimpse of my holiday home it could have come straight

from a time capsule both outside and in. one so i dropped off my bags it was time to some exploring. cat. and the caring two moves. both kids. old school chinese hat. plant. this i have absolutely no way whatsoever kind of old timey have russian. you know

as. i see one of these before an old. grind it all blimey that all takes a serious effort to it this is a war should it doesn't go to the supermarket or. from. nothing like a functional nineteenth century bar through the. well i wanted to get away from it all and it doesn't really get much more rustic than this it's not every holiday that you get your very own hayloft to tidy up. just in case the truth. is somewhere.

between lake blood again and lake. from the past an attempt to recreate a lost time and preserve an ancient way of life. rebuilt in the mid one nine hundred ninety s. it's wooden buildings are all original pieces of northern. that have been brought here from the all congo region and reconstructed piece by piece now the village has almost two hundred visitors a day from all over the world. back

at home it was time for me to start my holiday properly. the first things first of course. so with fresh and. as. he. took a. moment grabbing a couple of buckets and heading out signs no luxurious running water for me.

they tell me it's clean apparently it's pretty. handy stuff. now that i had my water i needed to boil it up. see if it's going to find. this home. everything seemed to be going so well. until we have one small problem.

and. it's now clean water. and i happen to be living in a massive pile of kindling. i think it may be time to in the help. i decided that burning my house down was probably not the best way to india myself to the locals so i headed into town to meet one of them and find out a little bit more about the mundra the way of life. hello james where are we going well this is our old village very happy to see you here all of our houses were built in the nineteenth century. they were brought here from the art congo and boulder regions i live and work here in these very houses. i have my own weaving

workroom and. a lot of people come to visit all the time and they can stay here for a while and rent a house take part in some handicraft masterclasses it's really interesting you can also try it. there are almost a hundred permanent residents in the village and many of them are our designs and craftsmen. a new pair of shoes or some homemade kitchen crockery is just a monster class away. of course many people come here just to enjoy the spectacular scenery and there's no better way to do that than on horseback. come on come on use your voice even. he doesn't get it don't let him drop his head.

back harder like that let's go buddy my guides might only be fourteen but he's an expert horseman and he spent every summer he can remember here in the village. the horse is a unique animal it has its own personality its own special traits. and then we might love you it might hate you it all depends on how you treat. b.d. and we friends now i'm not sure about that he doesn't care actually he's so lazy he only thinks about getting back home as soon as possible to eat something. we couldn't have a more perfect western style of setting. the wilderness the horses and bit jealous though the dean's got the only steps and. maybe next time go eagle. back in the village i was keen to do some more exploring

and even though only attractions in mundra be a popular there's one place that gets a few more visitors than all the others. i'm not surprised it seems the first few dozen bottles here seem to have a hunting theme. of course what could be more russian and some brown vodka. this is man druggies vodka museum supposedly one of the largest collections in russia with concoctions from every corner of the land. if you like a tipple there are all the sizes shapes and flavors you could wish for. well apparently there are three thousand and forty one different types of vodka in this museum so i think it would be grossly irresponsible if i didn't try at least one or two. but be warned with this much vodka.

you might get more than you bargained for to show another one. ok. to shoot to get. something straight because come on. what do you get so where are we going. straight ahead.

with a. little. i'm

sure i read somewhere that this chap is a very good guide so if you take me further down the rabbit hole by the. six. look at. what you just. pulled from. the family.

it was a family very hard to make a plan to get along here a lot happened that back with that her great care militants. claim. it was. just simply. play.

more news today is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing corporations to rule the day.

simply that simple look at it to come in please. everyone sit down. everything's ready now. the rough starts but my experiment with nineteenth century life was back on track and got the stuff going i had fresh water but even managed to whip up a little dinner party for my mundra good friends finally everything was falling into place. but i did have some help on the way. my first day in the village had not gone well and i remembered having a very strange dream bus to my surprise so i also had

a new pair of slippers and there was some water in the kitchen. and just don't try to freshen up i had a knock at the door the cavalry had arrived. james are you alive oh. my how are you fine but maybe you can use my help now yes please if you could. write that would be great come on of course i'll do all i can. james and as you can see the house is quite big there are two sections we have a living space and a housekeeping section we're now in the housekeeping section there are barns for cows and goats downstairs and here is the court yard called up. it's an extension

of the farm building. did james bring some firewood bit but the smaller pieces they'll burn faster sure ok just a minute. but bill let's see in my house but then he was able to explain to me exactly where i'd been going wrong. be careful watch your head. james before you put the firewood and you have to open up the chimney just pull this rope here if you don't then the whole house we filled with smoke. so handy hint to make you full and open the little sleep to cover the blocks the chimney. it would have been useful to have known that a bit. but you do as much as you can we're going to need some more from the some of our. careful head it can be said to see. finally the stove was working without

threatening to choke to death and even more importantly nellie also knew how to find out the sum of all. a man can only go so long without a cup of tea. getting it going isn't exactly a simple process you have to dismantle it fill it with kindling and set it on fire . and it's certainly the first candle i can remember that comes with its own chimney. but get it right and your water will stay warm five hours everything seems to be falling into place. peace in. thirty minutes and it will be ready. for.

you to get a feeling that day could actually be a really good. excuse me once again. it seemed that advice wasn't the only thing that nellie had brought me. just coming from down here i have might see can rustle up some milk to. well imagine rather expensive but welcome guests. so you have a present for me then let's see. what the hell. house

is this with this tail flicking about. let's. do that right now. are you sure you see rice in the exchange. do you think yeah every good little treat for you.

i was starting to believe it was possible to be self-sufficient in my dream and now we've got the stove working time to make the most of it. was on the menu what was missing. ingredient. there is a fact point in this rhythm and i've seen him as we've been floating downstream. just wondering. only a little bit too far out of his territory because i'm game that. both you often. it seems my technique was a little off if i wasn't going to go hungry i was going to have to get a professional involved. alexander has lived in mandurah b. for years and knows this river and its fish like the back of his hand. now we're

heading straight to the sphere of a river it goes from lake to lake a lot. of. this river can be up to fifteen meters deep in places. this is the lower island quite often people stop there to rest most of them are fisherman this is a special weighted feeder so let's put some fish food inside it. my goods. do you have worms in england yeah we've got them so you guys fish using worms we have the right bait now we just needed some luck and off we put a few more worms on the hook. if you've poked a fish it will fight back so if the tip starts to bend it's time to really. pick up a bit it's a young bream look that i think we've got one and then a big size one of if you grab the right place hold it. it's

almost. kind of fishy it's a young bream. so we've got a baby here this one apparently can be up to two kilograms in weight but a very nice cat a little while later i was back in the kitchen ready to get cooking and the whole point i want to get everyone together for a bit of a feast. we have a lot to do let's do it quickly here let me help you. get it so good what is ready to put in the still i have plenty of time to wait before everything would be ready a good chance to go and clean myself up. to get one element

of absolute luxury for my nineteenth century life style my very own house it just takes a bit of effort to fire it all up and a bar house has been part of russian tradition for literally hundreds of years and this is the famous black dahlia and as the name might suggest light is in rather short supply. and the thing is with the black bag if you have to shut it all up i keep it all inside. the classic northern peasant. is really.

no soap and sponge. is a bunch of these. now normally at this point you dump a bucket of water of yourself but here in mundra he does a far better option. of that. is the perfect way to cool off. but scrubbed up and my food was almost ready it was time to let the guests in and they brought an appetite. mundra he might not be a typical holiday sport but it was just what i needed. quiet and a chance to experience how russians might have lived almost two hundred years ago.

it's a little it built in a busy world a slice of life from the nineteenth century that at least for a while could help you forget the twenty first so you see the present life can be difficult but if you make the right friends it can also be rather divisions. but he sees things that sighted people don't notice. he's deaf. but he hears things that most people never do they call him disabled but he's the

world's first deaf and blind doctor of science. professor of xander savor of. the great life lived against the odds. put it on your. face. and. a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm sure.

it.

dramas the. stories others refuse to. places change. the old picture. from around the.

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