Do you manage to see the city during your work trips?
Usually the schedule of meetings is very tight. Trips to Europe are rarely longer than two days. When traveling to Asia we might stay three or four days. Sometimes the inviting side includes some excursions in the program in order to show us their city, just like we do for our guests. There is time for sightseeing only if it is part of the schedule. In most cases there is time for only a little walk around the city in the evening.

Which one of your business trips was the most memorable for you?
This is a difficult question. I travel for work relatively often, abroad usually once every 1.5 months. All of the trips are very different. One of the most memorable ones was a trip to America about a year ago.

What made this trip special?
The trip was six and a half days long, including traveling there and back. We took a flight from St. Petersburg to Moscow, then to New York and finally to Phoenix in the state of Arizona. The entire journey to our first destination took 29 hours. We saw a new city every day for 5 days, Phoenix, Tucson, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York. To give you a full picture, we traveled through the entire country from the west coast to the east coast. It was quite exhausting to go to a new city every day, but it was also a lot of fun, as I had great company. There were three people in our group. We had time to work, to look around and to get to know each other. It was not my first time visiting the USA, but traveling with colleagues from our university was especially memorable for me. Among us I was the oldest; actually my colleagues weren’t my age even with their ages combined. Even though I survived the whole week, I have to admit that it was not easy.

Do you ever take time off? When was your last vacation?
Of course I do. I try to take around 20 days of vacation per year. Sometimes there have been situations when my vacation has been interrupted and I had to take part in some very important meeting for example. I usually take my vacation in August, right when the admission campaign is finished. Once I have signed the order of admission, I can go on holidays until the 25th of August.

How was your first trip abroad?
The first country I visited was Czechoslovakia. It was the year 1970 and I was a second year student at university. I was the youngest member of the scientific delegation of the Soviet Union. We spent 17 days in Czechoslovakia. The trip was extremely memorable, and I still look back to it almost every day. We stayed in Prague for eight days, and there I decided to visit all the churches of the city. I couldn’t visit all of them, but I did go to 87 churches out of 100. Everything was new for me, and I fell in love with the city. Later I went to Prague several times, and I still love this fairytale-like city, especially its center. For some reason, it makes me think of the tales of Andersen. During the first trip we visited also High Tatras, Brno, Mariánské Lázně and other cities.

Which countries would you like to visit?
I would really like to go to the countries of southern Africa. Most of all I’m interested in South Africa. There is beautiful nature, elephants and tigers. At least this is the image I have of the country. The second most interesting place to visit would be the islands in the Caribbean. I have visited a couple of them already, but for example I still have Cuba to discover. I assume that in Cuba I would feel a little like back in the Soviet Union, and all of us would love to go back to our childhood for a while, wouldn’t we? The third place I would like to visit is Australia. I imagine Australia as a unique country with open-minded people, as a place where all cultures mixed. Also I have never been to Brazil, but for some reason I am less interested in going there than before. Earlier I really wanted to visit the country, I love football and Pelé, and I read a lot about Brazil. In my childhood Brazil seemed like a dreamland, but the magic has faded over the years.

Interview by Veronika Mazulina (Megabyte Media). Link to original interview in Russian.