A journalist, traveler, collector, director of the PA "Pavlodar House of Geography" Alexander Vervekin released this year a book dedicated to his travels around the world, the 300th anniversary of his hometown Pavlodar. The publication is called "From Luxembourg to Tashkent: Travel and Meetings". The volume, published in a very convenient format, fits into a pocket, contained travel notes, sketches and reports from different years (from 2006 to 2018).
The book "From Luxembourg to Tashkent ...", published with a circulation of 5,000 copies, begins with the essay "The Seaman's Tales". It tells about a man who spent his youth in the oceans. When A. Vervekin first met the hero, Mikhail Doroshenko, he was already 63 years old, and the author then only turned 21. However, despite this, they had become friends.
The travel book tells about the countries of Europe and Asia. There are many different stories in the book, for example, what is Christmas in Luxembourg or the military cemetery in Gruzbek. The reader will learn what it is like to get lost in Granada, experience a fetid adventure on the way to Omsk, as well as how to have a delicious dinner in Poznan, smile at Manneken Pis in Brussels and run up the Eiffel Tower in Paris on foot.
The reader will remember some heroes forever, thanks to their unique life story: Tululuk's boyfriend from Senegal, Nargul nurse from Antalya, Frau Shprave, a pensioner from Kranenburg, fellow travelers on the road to Dushanbe Tolib and Daler, the head of the Tashkent mahalla Shukur aka and many others.
The abundance of faces, names and stories in this book gives out in Alexander Vervekin a correspondent devoted to his profession, and the mass of information about the cities and regions reveals the author as a lover of geography. Love for travel notes is clearly visible even in the introduction. Moreover, the author allows the reader to laugh at the funny stories that he fell into on the way.
The story begins with the cozy Polish city of Poznan, many cities in Germany, for example, Kleve, Osnabrück, Essen, Kranenburg. Geography is pretty broad and covers more than 20 cities around the world such as Paris, Luxembourg, Brussels, Amsterdam, the Spanish cities of Granada, Fuengirola and Malaga, Turkish Antalya, Moscow, Tomsk, Omsk in Russia, Tashkent, Bishkek, Dushanbe, Belarusian Dobrush and Gomel ... I n the preface, the author makes it clear that he can not imagine his life without travels. Thanks to trips, Alexander is able to get interesting experience, learn about people’s life in other countries and continents. It is very interesting to discover new things, new places and different ways of life, says author. According to him, travel is a wonderful world.
The chapters can be read in any order. They were written at different times, in different moods and conditions, performed in different genres, but they are united by the idea of how wonderful it is to meet interesting people in every corners of the world, discover new cities, study the geography of the Globe by own diary entries, and make new friends and readers. Because putting expressions into words, is just as strong a passion of Alexander as travels themselves.