Alright, so are little deeper recap of what's happened:
We took a bus to the train station in Moscow, but the bus was SO small! We had so much luggage and so many people. The aisles were completely full, and we were all carrying stuff on our laps! It was actually pretty funny.
The sleeper-train to Novgorod was nicer by far than the couchette to Prague! Keith and I volunteered to room with some random Russian. We also ended up rooming with Bob, an ex-prof on the trip. Our Russian roommate was named Sergei, and he spoke perfect English. He talked about going on digs around Novgorod to find planes and tanks from WWII that have been stuck in the mud (Novgorod is surrounded by swamp). He showed us pictures. He was really apathetic about the catastrophe and loss of human life; he showed us a picture of a plane cockpit with the pilot's hand still holding on to wheel, but he was nonchalant about that and was mainly interesting in the fact that the plane's clock had frozen so you could tell the exact time of the crash. After talking about the digs, conversation got really freaking dull, and I fell asleep with my head on the little table in the room. I was out hardcore, and I didn't even realize it.
Bob and Sergei talked for hours and after I woke up from my short (about 1/2 hour) nap, I couldn't go to sleep again till we were only 2 hours away from Novgorod.
Our hotel in Novgorod was quite nice. We got breakfast once we got in. It was really gross, but it was free, so that was nice. We had canned peas and hot dogs. That was literally breakfast. Odd. That day we toured Novgorod. It was beautiful. Our tour guide was insane. She was this Russian lady Marc (our prof) knows from doing orphanage work in some little town outside Novgorod. She was… long-winded. Very long-winded. Very. She just kept rambling on about everything.
Actually before we met up with her, we went around the city museum, which was interesting - all kinds of artifacts from ancient times (Novgorod is the oldest city in Russia).
We did spend the night in Novgorod. I slept really well, cuz Keith and I roomed together, and neither of us snore. Plus I was exhausted, cuz I'd slept about 8 hours total the last three days.
The next day we basically did nothing till we left by bus for Petersburg.
Yesterday we went to this really strange play, which started out with some fat guy in a kilt getting naked. Strange. Then the rest of the play was the actors just yelling at each other. The acting was actually pretty good, tho.
After the play Keith, Marie and I wandered around looking for a Kofe Hauz with WiFi, but we couldn't find one ever; the ones in this city don't have WiFi. Right now I'm in "The Ideal Cup" (Идеалная Чашка), which isn't that far from the hostel and does have WiFi (100 rubles/hr - yes, I broke. I'm spelling it correctly now).
Anyway, so we did end up at a Kofe Hauz, and I had the best bliny in the world. (Bliny, by the way, is like a crepe, except Russian). Mine was covered with chocolate and had ice cream and pirouettes. Delicious and only 120 rubles.
Today we went down Nevsky Prospect, "the main drag of Petersburg," to quote Marc. I bought Anna a sweet gift. Really sweet. You'll love it! … Or else.
Anyway, it was kind of interesting, kind of boring, until Sean (the guy who was stuck in Germany), got mugged and had his wallet stolen. He's having a bad time.
That basically takes me up to where I am now. No pictures from Petersburg yet, but I'm gonna upload my pics from Novgorod in a second.
5 comments:
Wow! I love these last posts and the photos from Novgorod are beautiful. I have to run to work so can't write much else, but great to hear from you, thanks for the photos. love ya mom
Poor Sean! This must be the JTerm from hell for him!
Great pictures! I had been reading up on Novgorod and had read that there are an enormous number of old churches there. I guess all the old guilds would build one, so there would be one on almost every block... Also read that they were all filled with icons.
I also stumbled across another blogger who is currently in Petersburg studying Russian - peterinpetersburg.blogspot.com He also commented on the Mullets in Russia!
The latest photos were beautiful! I can't wait til you get home and we can look at all of them and hear all of your stories!
Love ya,
Dad
I hope Sean has a great sense of humor. He will be able to tell some entertaining stories later.
MARVELOUS photos of those churches, etc. Yes, the man on horse shows up well; I loved the huge chandelier inside the church.......this is going to be early, I know....but....
BIRTHDAY GREETINGS to Colin in this Blog.
Now, off to some Coffee House he must jog.^^^^^^^
Hopefully, our now 20-year old will find
Oodles of messages from family, signed....
We love you! from Grandma Pat
Here we are, Saturday evening the 20th. Just a tiny bit warmer today, but we still have a ways to go before normal San Diego. Many articles in paper re the tremendous loss of produce, esp citrus fruits...from freezes we had.
Last evening, we all headed for the Amer Legion (Fri night special), and as usual the food was delicious, and our fav musician Alec, was there. All by himself he can produce better music than most of the groups they have. Well, it was Alec's 50th birthday, turned out it was a huge party (lucky we get there early) decos/balloons all over, packed crowd (latecomers were standing around watching, not sitting), and the second half of the music segment was turned over to Karaoke. I haven't been around K for years. Was surprised how many people got up and sang solo, and didn't sound bad at all. Mostly adults prob about 60s, 70s, some younger people. After the first night of Amer Idol on TV this last wk, boy, these singers sounded GOOD. We talked Bob, Mark, Sharon, and David into going up and sharing "Country Roads" with everyone. Did very well, that's Sharon's theme song as she is from W Virginia.
Again, Happy Birthday to Colin, Love, Grandma Pat
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