We'll have two things to regret on deathbed –
We have not had great love and great journey.
Mark Twain



I've heard a very wise phrase today
«borders are only inside you, in your head».
Indeed, between man and his dream is he, himself.
Aleksandra Boltenkova, a visitor

An inspiring story is hidden by the right door wing.

This postcard is put in the kitchen symbolizing the dream that has never been realized. Though, children of this spouse managed to make voyage on board a white cruise liner, a kind of solace for their parents.

How many of us having ambitions in conquering the world at the start stay at home passing occasionally the map of the world and reflecting on the unrealized?

On the last day of our exhibition we heard a moving narrative of one aged lady-visitor:

"I adore climbing the attic of my dacha, rolling out the world map and imagining my travel around the world. I watch far away countries, move from one city to another, cross oceans and sail down rivers. I do it for hours. My son calls me downstairs for dinner, but I just cannot tear myself away from this breathtaking journey. I say to him:" Wait a bit, I've not come back yet!"

But there are people who ignore this passive way of traveling. They want to breathe in smells of other countries, to find themselves in the middle of the limitless ocean, melt into roaring of the wind and sails flapping against the mast, and touch the soil of other lands with their own hands. Our dream blasts space, transforms life around man. Our destiny offers once in life chance. Just wait for it with your heart open and do not let it go by.

At the age of 22 , just after the army service , Valentin Sinelnikov was proposed making such a trip that is still hard to believe. He willingly accepted this risky offer.

On 1^st of May, 1991, two sail catamarans - "Kalininets" and "the Island of Freedom" sailed off the Ural village Kourovka. The intriguing part of that quite ordinary event was their port of destination – Barselona!!!

The catamarans went through rivers Chusovaya, Kama, Volga, Volga-Don canal, the Azov Sea and left the port of Feodociya in the direction of Bosporus at the beginning of August.

When the Black sea was behind and we entered the waters of Bosporus I saw a three-dimensional image of the world around me as if I had changed a black-and-white TV set for 3D monitor.

And then severe and intensive storms arrived, and only by miracle we did not sink.

We didn't want to go ashore on the Lipari Islands (in the Tyrrhenian Sea, north of Sicily), but it was stupid to hack around in a calm, so we started the engines and entered the harbor mouth of the Volcano Island.

When we were going to push off the shore a small jeep stopped nearby and a long-haired man naked to the waist with frivolous tattoos all over his body was out of the car in a flash. He ran clumsy towards us and started to express his delight, jumping on us trying to kiss and hug. He didn't even try to speak English or Russian exclaiming something in Italian. We kept on shrinking from him till we picked the words "il comunista italiano" and saw golden hammer and sickle hanging on a thick chin. After that we flung ourselves upon his mercy.

His name was Franco Gitto. He took us to his house and it made all of us want to become Italian communists: a big house in a paradise, two cars, and a garden crowded with the host's sculptures portraying the author and his wife intimate life. He appeared to be Jack of all trades: a sculptor, a poet (he gave us his books with inscription), an athlete (there was a bike on the platform in the yard and all the walls were crowded with a collection of medals).

In the middle – Franco Gitto with his wife, on the right – the tour leader, on the left – Valentin Sinelnikov.

We were sitting round the table and Franco explained to us what he had been doing to be a genuine Russian communist: " I try to drink often and a lot but I'm getting anywhere. You know there a lot of work to do". It was also hard for him to deal with party business as there were only two communists on the island – he - the head of party chapter, and his wife - a secretary. He even compared them with Lenin and Krupskaya.

We sang Italian song like "O, sole mio!" without any problems with words. On saying good-bye we gave them a giant Soviet ensign from a warship, and the hostess wrapped in it was almost invisible, a heap of soviet badges. I presented a 10-ruble banknote with Lenin, Franco cried out "Mamma mia" and kissed the note from both sides.

Was it typical of the Soviet era only? To design and construct 5 vessels (4 projects) without money but with support and enthusiasm of the team and their friends and manage to sail off the uncivilized beach. "For the team of 12 people we had 600 monetary units. No telecommunication devices, just flashlights. Navigation: a radio "VEF", sextant with a micro-calculator MK (made in Russia). In the morning and at noon we shot the sun, then the calculator computed longitude and latitude. Just two of the team members were professional sailors".

Such a voyage will never vanish from memory.

Valentin Sinelnikov is married to sails. At present he works at «Spray» shipyard constructing sailing vessels and playing the seas.

In 2010, Valentin dropped in on Franco Ditto for the second tome. The Italian communist was happy to see him and presented his old friend with another book of poems.

Balentin made the exhibition a present – a video from a grateful traveler who sails across the Russian lakes on board a yacht designed by Balentin. This film has become emblematic for us and some exposition visitors.

When she was 24 Anya, a student of Liberal Arts University, came across an article on travel in a glossy "Stolnik". It dwelled on a US traveler who after moments of despair that his childish dream of discovering the world would never come true set about changing his life. His example has changed Anna's life, too.

Since then I've stopped being afraid. I decided to take on travelling, love this world and everything in it. There are always certain things that hinder you from learning something new. Traveling enlivens your outlook, makes your life spectacular.

I've been traveling for 3 years. I've skydived in Bashkiriya, ridden on elephant back in Thailand, fed Giraffe (they are beatific), been to Nepal and UAE, climbed up Annapurna.

The world is admirable and miraculous! In a Buddhist monastery in Nepal I was told that man destiny could be foretold by the day of his birth. It happened so that my day of birth is Friday and for those who are born on Friday traveling is their fate.

At the age of 30 Dmitry Petunin, a worker at Verkhneturinskiy Metallurgical plant, learnt about the first motor rally Beijing- Paris (1907). One was the cars drove through Yekaterinburg. We don't not know whether Dmitriy had met a driver of that car. We know that he was stunned and inspired to create his own auto. He succeeded in completing the assembly in 1914.

The single cylinder auto was almost wooden. The cylinder block was assembled of radiators, engine capacity - 6 h. p. The car could carry about 40 stones and ride at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour. It ran on petrol and later on wood fuel.

He never went far and used the car for carrying cargo around Verkhnaya Tura. Yet, we can suppose that the drivers who had ignited his imagination might have made him feel interconnected.

A lot of people nowadays dream of going round the world by car. Some of them just need a pretext, an incident to be pushed. We hope that our exhibition Autojournal can become such a trigger.

The first story-teller of our project, Andrey Shevchenko, made up his mind on world rally at 33. It has been his dream since childhood. The time passed and he was as far from traveling as he had been before. At 33 (and everybody knows how dangerous this date is for men) he decided: if he failed now then he would never do so.

At 54 G. Levitsky ventured to make the greatest journey of his life.

What made him capable of it can be only guessed. At this age looking in the stereoscope and studying overseas countries by books from his father library would be more appropriate.

or spending time in the dacha near Yekaterinburg.

But there was something that kept him on the run: imposed by his father profession and biography did not bring peace of mind. Longer ways were calling him. His dream might have been formed during his study in St.-Petersburg when he was watching the foreign going ships sailing away. Or he might have read "Around the world in 80 days" by Jules Verne which was published, by chance, in the year of his young wife death.

At that he acted quite unexpectedly: he became a naval priest on the belted cruiser "Saratov" and went on it to Japan, stopping at China, Singapore, Egypt and Ceylon.

Arriving in his native city Levitsky showed his collection of souvenirs at the exhibition of Ural Natural History Amateur Society. When the exposition closed Georgiy Ignatievich donated most of exhibits. Nowadays they are stored in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local History holdings.

Levitsky died 12 years later after having realized his dream.



How old are you? Perhaps, it is time for you to….