robertpulciny: Extreme Fitness ? a Recreation Center, or Resort, or Camp near ...

A recreation center, or a camp, is a typical Russian way of spending a weekend or a longer period. In Russian this type of location is called ????? ???????, and it is very difficult to find a similar term in English, because, as I can guess, such type of thing just does not exist. In Europe it is either a hotel, or a house for rent, or even a farm where you rent a room or a house. All this exists in Russia now, too, but a camp, or a recreation center, appeared in the Soviet period and was extremely popular at that time, just because there were nearly no other kinds for spending a vacation.

Anyway, this type of spending your leisure time is not at all bad, and it is very good for a family. You normally live a small house, which can be only for your family, or it can be a bigger house, which you share with 1 or 2-3 other families, and\or couples or groups of singles. It can also be a big hotel-type house where more people stay. You normally have meals 3 times a day (so-called ?full board and lodging?), or it can be so-called all inclusive, when you can have meals and drinks 24 hours a day. Normally you can have some kinds of entertainment, including dancing, inside and outside sports (skiing, skating in winter, tennis, football, volleyball in summer). In most cases there is always a bar. Nearly always the center is located somewhere in the forest, or on the shore of a river, quite far from the city, and there is a fence around the place, so you can let your kids run around, and usually there is a playground for them, as well as opportunities to cycle.

You can spend as many days as you want there, and you usually pay per day. If you come to some place on business, you can use such center as a hotel, but it makes sense only if you do not have to drive a long distance.

It was a theory for you to understand better what I?m talking about, and the main idea of this post is to tell you about a wonderful place we discovered a couple of weeks ago. In February I did not feel well, and I urgently wanted to get away for some time, somewhere, where it is quiet, where there is fresh air, no hectic, good food and some entertainment for my kids and husband. And my friends recommended a camp called ?Extreme Fitness?. The name did not sound right for me at first, because I didn?t want any fitness, but I looked at the website of the camp and fell in love with it. The camp belongs to the chain of fitness clubs with the same name, and the chain offers all kinds of fitness, including power training, aerobics, pilates, yoga, and much more. But the camp offers something different, and it looked very appealing to me. First of all, it lies about 40 km away from the center of Novosibirsk and actually it is located in the town called Berdsk, which is a kind of suburb of Novosibirsk.

It lies in the forest, on the shore of the Berd gulf, and it is a marvelous place (we go there for a picnic sometimes). It is even prohibited to set an automatic heating of your car (which is typical here in Siberia, because if it is -30 in the night, it might be problematic to start a car).

Secondly, but very important for me ? the place is purely vegetarian, with full ban on alcohol and smoking! Which means, you cannot smoke in the whole area of the camp, definitely not in houses, and smoking is only allowed on the parking lot. Complete ban on alcohol means that the canteen offers no alcohol and even no beer, there is no bar, and even if you take alcohol with you and drink it in the house, you will feel very embarrassed when the room service comes to clean. And vegetarian food means that you can?t receive meat, chicken, fish and seafood in the canteen. Just nothing of this! You can take some meat with you, of course, and try to make shashlyk, but for this you?ll have to go outside of the territory of the camp to the forest. I understand it may sound depressing for some of my readers, but I?ve mentioned that I and my husband are vegetarians, and our kids can do perfectly well without meat for several days.

You can reasonably ask what one is supposed to do there, without a bar and without meat (oh, I forgot to say that there is no TV there, too). The answer is ? a lot.

You can walk in the forest and on the shore of the gulf, you can do skating and skiing (but as the camp is pretty new, you cannot rent skis and skates, so take your own with you), and you can visit sauna and open-air Jacuzzi!

The Jacuzzi is open even if it?s -40 outside, the water is warm and you can sit there as long as you wish.? The same refers to the sauna.

And there is a fitness room, where a skilled teacher offers various types of fitness several times a day! All kinds of fitness are suitable for beginners and people who have never done any sports.

I have already said about meals. No meat, but the food is so nourishing and the dishes are so big that you won?t feel hungry. Besides, the canteen is open from 9 am to 8 pm all the time, and you can always have a glass of juice, a fruit or a cookie. I can even say that the food is quite suitable for vegans, as dairy products are in rather limited amount, and even raw food eaters won?t feel very bad, as there are 3-4 kinds of nuts and always fresh fruit, and vegetable salad for lunch.

Attention! Sometimes there are eggs in the food, such as pancakes, but in general it is purely vegetarian. Coffee is offered for breakfast, but in very limited amount, about 1 smll cup for each person.

Even if you are not a vegetarian and do not want to be the one for the time being, you won?t starve there, and might even like it. Give it a try!

And fresh air! This is something each citizen of a big city desperately needs these days! We spent two wonderful days there and definitely intend to come again.