The Winners of the Contest of the RGS "The Bluest in the World..." Went on a Cruise Ship Trip

The winners of the All-Russian intellectual contest «The Bluest in the World …», which has been held for many years by the Krasnodar Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, went on an exciting cruise ship trip. This year, a boarding school team from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation from St. Petersburg went on a two-week trip. The girls got acquainted with the historical, cultural, and natural heritage of Russia, Turkey, and Egypt.

Almost 290 teams from 65 regions of Russia, as well as from Mongolia and Egypt competed in the 16th contest «The Bluest in the world…». The best experts in geography, ecology, and the history of the Black Sea met in the finals at the federal territory «Sirius».

Once again, the victory was won, as it was a year ago, by the boarding school team of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation from St. Petersburg. It consists of team captain Evgenia Prokazina from the Murmansk Region, Natalia Lysenko from the Kursk Region, Alina Vorobyova from the Smolensk Region, Maria Makarieva from the Republic of Bashkortostan. All the participants are activists of the Youth Club of the RGS «Neva», which has been operating at the boarding school for the fifth year. The girls regularly participate in the educational campaigns of the RGS «Geographical Dictation» and «Geography Not-Lesson», and undergo an educational program within the framework of specialized sessions of the Russian Geographical Society at the best children’s centers in the country.

«We traditionally send the winners of our intellectual contests on trips so that they discover new horizons, get to know firsthand the historical, cultural, and natural heritage of Russia and other countries of the world. We thank our partners who give talented children this opportunity,» said Ivan Chaika, Chairman of the Organizing Committee and the jury of the contest, head of the Krasnodar Regional Branch of the RGS.

The program organized on board the Astoria Grande cruise ship was very eventful. The winners of the contest attended lectures by RGS experts from Krasnodar, Anapa, and Gelendzhik, documentary film screenings, master classes, productions of the Old Park Theater, participated in intellectual games, and also took an excursion to the captain’s bridge.

The first stop of the route was ancient Istanbul. Here, an exciting tour of the main attractions was organized for the winners of the contest. The trip to Turkey continued with a visit to the pearls of the Mediterranean, the cities of Alanya and Marmaris.

Then the liner took the girls to the shores of Egypt, the cradle of one of the oldest civilizations in the history of the planet. The team toured the Nile, saw the mysterious Sphinx and the majestic pyramids of Giza, Cairo and the famous Grand Egyptian Museum, Alexandria with its legendary revived library and the Greco-Roman Museum. On the way back, two more Turkish cities, Izmir and Amasra, were waiting for the participants of the trip.

According to Anton Muzalev, the team’s mentor, seeing several cities in Turkey and Egypt, sailing across the four seas and through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits, and taking a tour of the Nile is really an intellectual prize.

«The students were able not only to see with their own eyes those unique objects of natural and cultural heritage that they were familiar with from books, but also learned a lot during the trip, were able to see new horizons and directions of personal intellectual development,» said Anton Muzalev.