Igor Zinovyev

When I was booking our fall vacation this year I suggested to my wife that spending a couple of days in Venice in off-season time was a good idea. She liked the idea, and we booked a two day stay followed by a train ride to Rome.

I have to admit that the destructive tides that happen in that city have totally escaped my mind. I was oblivious even to the regular tides that happen in winter every year. So it was quite a surprise for us both to learn that Venice was having the worst acqua alta case in the last 50 years.

11.27.2019

Seagulls in flight

This image was taken in 2017 near Cascais, Portugal. We were walking along the beach, some of my friends were trying to fly drones to take pictures of the shoreline. The seagulls became very aggressive, tried to attack the aircrafts, giving me several interesting opportunities to take pictures of them.

05.08.2019

Staircase window

Just as with the previous post, this one happened in Lisbon. But this was inside one of the houses that had a window in the center of a staircase. This reminds me to look up every once in a while.

12.12.2018

Lisbon at night

In May of 2018 I had a chance to visit the amazing Lisbon. We stayed in a hotel called TheHouse near the Jardim da Estrela park. One of the great features of this hotel is access to a roof terrace. While I believe many places in this city allow this, it was the first time I have seen anything like this.

12.10.2018

Basílica da Estrela

09.04.2018

The Nagano Tapes

Nagano 1998 is the first Winter Olympics that I remember watching on TV. Before that I was too young to understand sports. But this time it was properly heated up by the media because of all the NHL stars coming to play for national teams. I took the bait.

I remember team Russia nailing every opponent, even defeating Czech Republic in the round robin with a miraculous comeback from 1-0 to 1-2 in the last moment. I was amazed at how well it went, it seemed to me that the Russian hockey team was unstoppable.

Because I was a school kid back then, I couldn’t stay up late to see the games live, I would wait until they are shown in recording the day after. I remember calling my granddad to ask about the finals, and he just told me calmly: “Wait ’til you see it for yourself.”

The final was such a blow to me. Can you imagine that it was the first time I have seen my favourite team lose? And it was the gold medal game of the most prestigious hockey tournament in the world!

I have been waiting for Russia to win gold ever since. I have been granted my wish only 20 years later 🙂

But now looking back at it all, I can see that it must have been such a huge moment for the Czech team. Especially now that I know the back story of Czechoslovakia-USSR relationships. So my schoolboy feelings aside, this looks like a very very impressive documentary about the Czech victory, give it a shot.

https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/playback/the-nagano-tapes-five-rings-films/

03.06.2018