Veliky Ustyug - Residence of Santa Claus - Russian Santa Claus

Hello, my friends on Steem

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This is my answer to the task of the Your very first trip (contest for #club5050 participants) by Steem-Traveler.

10% of the publication rewards from this post go to the development of the Steem-Traveler.


Of course, I didn't remember my very first trip. I was 2 months old at the time. My parents took me to Ukraine. I was baptized there in the Orthodox Church. There was no church in my homeland at that time, they were destroyed and it was forbidden to baptize.
I wanted to show my first trip with my first camera. It was May 31, 1979, and I still have 2 photos from this trip that I took personally. I was 10 years old then.
But still, I decided to tell you about another journey. About my first trip with children to the homeland of the Russian Santa Claus in the city of Veliky Ustyug, which is located in the Vologda region.



This trip was made from December 16 to December 19, 2003. Then my son was 13 years old, and my daughter was 8 years old.


The trip started with an adventure. On the day of departure, it warmed up sharply and it snowed heavily. Because of this, our bus got into a big traffic jam on the motorway, because heavy trucks could not climb the mountain because of the slippery road. Because of this, we almost missed the Kirov-Kotlas train. We literally arrived 5 minutes before the departure of the train.
Но мы успели и поехали. Вы знаете, что такое ехать в поезде, в котором собралось очень много молодых людей без родителей? У нас была компания из 30 детей в возрасте 13-14 лет.



That time I was in this city for the first time. I was interested in everything there. There were old houses and many churches that were not destroyed in Soviet times. I always like cities in the northern regions of Russia. Now I visit the North every year and I always want to stop and take pictures of interesting houses.
I was in Veliky Ustyug 2 more times after this trip. And I want to go there with my youngest daughter.
Но вернемся к той, к первой моей поездки в Великий Устюг.



That day we visited several museums. It was all interesting for me, but the children were very tired. If on the way to Veliky Ustyug they did not want to sleep, then on the way back they all slept soundly.
I want to say that I like to visit local history museums. You can see a lot of interesting things there.

Veliky Ustyug is considered the birthplace and Residence of Grandpa Frost - Russian Santa Claus.
Therefore, the economy of the city is aimed at the development of tourism business, at attracting people with children to visit this city.
Almost 18 years have passed since my first trip. Now this direction in the city has developed more strongly than it was at that time.
But even then there was a post office and a workshop of Grandpa Frost in the city.

We got to the Palace of Grandpa Frost already in the dark. At that time, my camera did not allow taking photos in the dark.

This is my daughter standing with Santa Claus. He's not real, of course. This is a gift from Santa Claus to Grandpa Frost.

That was my first trip with the children. This year we were with them in Karelia.
I don't know yet whether we will be able to travel next year or not. But I really want to.

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Thanks for attention.

I wish you all good luck!

And I will be glad to have your attention to my posts again.

@apnigrich