Story at the picturesque bank of the River Volga.

There surely exist embarrassing moments we come across, odd or endearing people we meet, anecdotes we share, dramatic episodes we experience in the course of a trip. I consider these as the most precious reminiscence that will always make the corners of my mouth turn up.

When I arrived at Uglich, a small town in the Golden Ring of Moscow. It turned out that I had the good fortune to participate in the Uglich Fair of Harvest.The middle-August is a time for harvest and in the central square of downtown Uglich there organized a traditional fair where local organic food like vegetables, various types of berries, home-made cheese and honey wine, fruits, milk, flowers or even horticultural products and orchard shears are presented and sold. Local folk processions and buffoons gave enthusiastic performances to support the fair.I had great difficulties buying a Chayka watch because I couldn't understand the Uglich dialect the counter girl spoke. So I gave it up and threw myself into the newfangled and exotic celebration where my curiosity could be greatly satisfied.

At the moment I sopped a booth, photographing the lovely puppets carved from pumpkins or eggplants, a hand suddenly grabbed my arm, I was startled and turned back immediately, it was an old man with well-shaved beard and a professional Digital Single Lens Reflex. He took me to a booth selling strawberries and daisies and asked me to sit near a large middle-aged woman who wore a traditional Russian dress and a substantial Jane Eyre hat. I thought he was going to charge me or steal my things, so I insisted that I didn't want to. He was anxious and made efforts to explain in Russian, there was no time left so I decided to leave, then he rushed up, seated me on the chair, placed a fake cat in my hand and quickly take a photo of the Russian lady and me. I was about to expect his apology for the rude and ridiculous behavior and told him that I have no money to pay, but he seemed excited and "invited" me to appreciate his "masterpiece". That was a pretty picture indeed but I began to worry about wether he would force me to buy the photo, he actually realizes that and explained in broken English that he was a photographer of a Russian geography magazine , it turned out that he was just taking photos for his new article introducing the Uglich tradition and he discovered me, "an exotic Chinese lady" like he said, he told me that he would use my photo in his article and would be willing to send a copy to me. I declined his offer without hesitation, for I cannot read a single word in Russian.