my entry to the @neoxian-city photo challenge, week #12 prompt is: lighthouse!

so, the Pisan leaning lighthouse of Hikkisaari

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На маленьком острове Хиккисаари в ладожских шхерах мне случилось побывать дважды, и с первым визитом у меня связана смешная история, которой я хочу с вами поделиться. Фото сделаны тогда же, в 2015 году.

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Well, actually it is not leaning, and it dont look so -- just in my pics, not in reality. (I joked about Pisa). This lack of a dictating horizon line in the frame helped to create such an impression, the whimsical rounded line of the cliff does not make it clear where the horizontal and the horizon really are.

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On this one you can clearly seen the lighthouse and horizon are well perpendicular.

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So, the story. During my annual weekly travel to the Ladoga skerries, we landed on this island - to examine it at a hand distance, not thru the spyglass. The island is very small, but the coastal line is winding, it is impossible to go to the lighthouse straight.

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We are there; suddenly, everyone's flamed with idea: shouldnt we try and slip inside? I never seen how it look like inside a real lighthouse.

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We discovered it is possible to penetrate inside through a window, and everyone began to climb.

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Of course, the entrance door was sealed with a solid lock... after all we are not in Sweden, it is Russia! Note this good heavy padlock in the left corner pic... And now, the funny part!

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The tenth or so person standing in line was tired of waiting, and leaned on the door. And... then it turned out that the lock was simply hanging there, not locking the door or anything but itself !!!! Of course, the rest of us entered in through the door. We laughed at this like crazy. Of course, as I was letting women and children go ahead (and also shooting this performance), I was deprived of this thrill "to enter it illegally thru the window". But I kept this wonderful story in my memory... By the way, many things in Russia are exactly like this: everything is forbidden, but if you really want to, then you just do it (and find yourself guilty, here and there ... everywhere... this is a long historical tradition in my country).

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I would say 20-30% of the island is visible within this frame below.

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It was pretty cool inside: a lot of emptiness, a lot of peeled-off paint, good views at our ship at the parking lot .... Unfortunately, I was equipped with a 50 mm lens only, so could not capture that packed room in other way.

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This dark red paint is another tradition of the Soviet state. All the stuff that should and should not, have been being painted in this particular shade in the Soviet epoch... the colour of official bureaucracy. So... I can not guarantee, but it seems quite possible this painting can remember the time of Gorbachev or Brezhnev.

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This aint an artificial Christmas tree -- its the giant light bulb of the lighthouse within my hand's distance. And a billion of dead moths and flyes all around.

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this picture and two more below, are the shots of my teammates.

We found the remains of a wooden house' foundation - once there used to live here a lighthouse keeper. Now, of course, nobody is here, only a few times a year an inspection comes to change the batteries.

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Hare! For the first time in my life, I saw a real hare and so close ... and even chased it a little around the island. (In fact, we all chased it ... of course, with cameras). The most amazing thing for me in this story is: where did it come from? The island is very small, 500 meters on the short side. In fact, no mystery: most likely the hare was brought here in the spring on an ice floe, and when "the winter bridge" disappeared, it remained cut off on the island. And here's another thing: you can notice it only if the hare gets scared and rushes to run away from you, when it sits quietly - its invisible, the disguise is excellent!

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This is how a seagull looks like a nest and eggs. We found them in mid-July - when the season has long been left behind, at this time the chicks of gulls are already actively growing. For some reason (possibly the death of the parents), these eggs were thrown. Otherwise, children would have hatched from them and I would not have seen them intact. It happens that curious tourists pull their silly dirty hands towards them, after such an event, the seagulls-parents may not return back to the nest. That is why the islands where the seagulls predominantly nest, from May to June are considered a restricted area for tourists to visit.

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Dont ever act same as this boy! / Ни в коем случае не делайте так, как этот мальчик!

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We are leaving the island... good bye, and next time, and thanks for the visit.

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images taken with Canon 350D +50mm 1.4
location: Ladoga skerries, Karelia, Russia
location at steemitworldmap

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