This sunset would be a lot prettier if it wasn't happening at 4 in the afternoon. Although getting used to 7 hours of daylight in a day will me appreciate daylight a lot more when I get home!
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Things that I really liked about Russia
1. Beauty. Especially St. Petersburg. The architecture is beautiful.
2. Pancakes. The Russia way of fast food is a crepe-like pancake rolled up with all different kinds of things inside. I had ones with chicken with cheese sauce, ham and cheese, blueberry pie filling, and apple. They were all soooo good. And really cheap too!
3. Cultural Activities. The circus, ballet, and orchestra were all amazing!
4. Sleeper Trains. We went and came back on sleeper trains. They are so soothing when you a try to fall asleep. It is like being rocked to sleep.
5. Churches. We went to so many absolutely beautiful churches. The Russians really know how to build them.
6. Clapping. Instead of shouting Encore or something like that, when Russians want more, they clap rhythmically. It sounds like the slow clap except that it doesn't speed up.
Things that I didn't like as much in Russia
1. Cost. Moscow is the most expensive city in the world and St. Petersburg isn't much better.
2. Language. Not that I have anything against the Russian language. More that I didn't know it. The Russian language doesn't use the Latin alphabet but I knew the letters. I would transliterate the word and fell proud but then realize that even though I could now read it, I still didn't know what it meant.
3. Weather. Cold and rainy. My favorite. Not.
4. Churches. This is ironic because it is on both lists. The churches were gorgeous but I would always think about how much they probably cost and how Jesus would have rather had them give that money to the needy. God doesn't need beautiful churches in the world, I think he would have the Church do beautiful things for the world.
Day 1
So we left the dorms at 7 am to head up to Riga, Latvia to get onto the train. On the way, we stopped by the Hill of Crosses ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill_of_crosses ). It is literally a hill that is covered with crosses. They are all over. Big ones, small ones, metal, wood. It is definitely a sight to see. We spent about 30 minutes walking around taking in the sight of it all then returned to the bus to continue the trip. In Riga, we stopped at a really awesome restaurant called Lido that we had gone to when we spent the weekend in Riga. A little after 4, we got onto the train to go to Moscow. There were four beds in a room that was approximately 6 feet by 6 feet. A tight fit but it was a fun journey. We watched Ferris Beuller's Day Off on one of the girls computer, hung out, talked, and I read for a while.
Day 2
We got into Moscow around 10am on Day 2. I was confused about the time for a while because Moved forward 1 timezone but then we also fell back because of the whole day light savings time thing. The first thing was to go to our hostel. It was called Godzilla's Hostel. Pretty cool. We went to the hostel by the metro. Which we used it to get pretty much everywhere we were going all week because Moscow is pretty spread out. The metro is really awesome. It was built during the Soviet area and the Soviet believed that anything that was used awesome or that you went to often should look good. So a lot of the stations you would think that they are in a palace or something. I'm talking back-lit stained glass, panoramic murals, mosaics, frescos, even sculptures! Seriously, it's amazing! I was really bumbed that they strictly forbid photography in the metro for security reasons.
Anyway, we drop our stuff at the hostel and head to Red Square ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Square ). Red Square was beautiful! It's a ton bigger than I thought it would be. The square could hold 3 if not 4 football fields! We walked around the square for a big and took it in then had a tour of the Kremlin. We went to the Armory in the Kremlin which is a museum full of everything from Russian history from silverware to weapons to carriages and clothes to thrones etc. It was awesome! We also got to walk around and check out some of the churches in the Kremlin. We actually checked out a lot of churches in Russia. One thing that is central to Russian culture is Russian Orthodox ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Orthodox ). It is different from the other branches in Christianity because of their use of icons. Icons are pictures representing God or Saints that are put all over the church. A lot of their worship is done while in front of the icons.
At night we went to the Russian circus. It was soooooo good! I had a lot of fun! After the circus we came back to the hostel and I went to sleep kind of quickly because I was so tired.
Day 3
Monday morning we tried to go to Red Square again to go into St. Basil's Cathedral ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Basil%27s_Cathedral ) but the Square was closed. Things in Russia were sometimes closed for no reason, and by no reason I mean that there is no reason that they want to tell the public. So instead we went to Christ the Savior cathedral ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Christ_the_Saviour_(Moscow) ). It was gorgeous! The Soviets tore down the original and built a swimming pool in its place. The new one was built to be just like the original and only took about 8 years to do the entire thing.
After the cathedral, we went to Vernishazh Market. It was a big market full of food and clothes and touristy things. I scored a Russian fur hat and a sweet flask. After that, we headed to Arbat Street, the Moscow equivalent of 5th Avenue. We walked around and explored.
That night, we went to see Sergey Stadler and the Russian Symphony orchestra. It was amazing! First of all, the music was ridiculously good and second, we had balcony seats but the floor seat weren't full and we got to move down to the floor so I was in the middle, 4 rows back! When we got back to the hostel, I hung out with of few of the other study abroads in the kitchen with a Scottish guy named Wilson. He had been backpacking for months and was heading toward Sidney, Australia. He was a really cool guy and had some amazing traveling stories.
Day 4
Tuesday we went to Red Square to see Lenin's body. It was really weird. You enter on one side and walk around him on 3 sides. It was really weird. He was a lot shorter than I thought.
After the viewing, I went to the State Tretyakov gallery, an art gallery full of all different kinds of aft from Russia's history. It was great! I really enjoyed it. After the museum we went back to the hostel to grab our stuff and head out to the train to go to St. Petersburg.
We went to the train station in our small groups but when we got there, we didn't see anyone else from the study abroads even though the train was supposed to leave in 5 minutes. We realized that we were at the wrong terminal and had to sprint to the other one with all of our stuff.
We got into St. Petersburg around 10 and checked into our hostel. After we had dropped our stuff, a couple of us decided to grab some food so we walked around for a little bit and found a japanese place. I had chicken with some kind of sauce that was cheesy but also soyish on rice. It was delicious.
Day 5
On Wednesday we had a walking tour of St. Petersburg. The city is gorgeous. It is very european in architecture. It was originally built on a marshy piece of land so it has a bunch rivers running through it and has a ton of bridges. We saw all of the major sights on the tour (it was 5 hours!). That night, we went to a show called the "Feel Yourself Russian" folk show. It is a show of traditional Russia music and dancing. We were told it was a total tourist trap and that made me not that excited about the whole thing but it turned out to be really good. It was a lot of fun.
Day 6
Thursday kind of sucked because it rained all day and my shoes got soaked but I got to see and do a lot so it isn't all bad. In the morning, I went to Peter and Paul fortress, the original fortress of the city. In the fortress I went to a museum about the history of St Petersburg and to a really awesome church where a bunch of the tsars were buried. We then went to the Hermitage. The Hermitage is the second largest museum in the world. It's an art museum built from the Palace in St. Petersburg. It was amazing. It was like double amazing because on one hand, you have a ton of gorgeous rooms because it was a palace on the other hand, there were thousands on ten thousands of works of art. I saw all different things from egyptian art togreek art to Monet to Rembrandt. I sat in front of Rembradt's "The Return of the Prodical Son" ( http://mendingshift.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/rembrandt06.jpg ) for a long time just staring. That night we went to Mariinsky Theater to see the Russian Ballet perform Swan Lake. I was confused by the story at first but after an explanation of the story half way through, I enjoyed it a lot more.
Day 7
Friday morning I went to St. Issacs Cathedral ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Isaac%27s_Cathedral ). It was crazy big. We climbed up the to the colonnade around the dome and got to see a great view of the entire city. Then we came back to the hostel and got ready to go to the sauna. Saunas are a large part of the culture in Russia. THe program rented one out for the guys and one for the girls. The guys one was like a whole men's club. It had a bar, pool table, ping pong room, and sauna area. The sauna area was made up of a room with showers and a small pool full of slightly chilly water and the actual sauna. The sauna room was only about 8 feet by 6 feet and was 185 degrees in it and was kept around 70-80% humidity. You sat in the sauna until you feel you can't breath anymore then go out and jump into the pool which would cool you off and then back into the sauna. I did it about 7 times with a few breaks to play some ping pong and pool. It might have been my favorite thing about the trip. All of the guys had an amazing time and when I left I felt more than clean. I felt totally cleansed outside and within. It was a great feeling! After we came back to the hostel, I went with a bunch of people out to a german restaurant and then to a pub that was right down the road from the hostel.
Day 8
In the morning I packed then I went with the group to the Church on the Spilled Blood ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Isaac%27s_Cathedral ). It looks a lot like St. Basils. the inside of the church is covered with mosaics. It was totally awe-inspiring. I got some great pictures before getting yelled at for not buying a photo pass. In the afternoon, I went to an open air market and then I sat in a coffee shop with a few people. At 6 we met the group at Kazan Cathedral to go to a Russian Orthodox service. It was really different. It can last up to 5 hours and as I said it involves a lot of prayer and use of the icons. There is also a lot of singing and chanting. It was beautiful but I think it lacked a sense of community, something that should is central to Christianity. After church we grabbed our luggage and headed to the train station to head back to Riga. We got on the train at 10pm, same type of train as the one that we took to Moscow
Day 9
We got into Riga around 10 and then took a bus back to Klaipeda. We got to my dorm around 3.
I am now more cultured and have a lot of dirty laundry!
A really cool park that was right at the beginning of our tour of Tallinn
A beautiful Church
This is the Estonian Parliment building. It's pink!
Another church
The view of Tallinn from the Governor's Palace
And this is the governor's palace
Tallinn's Old Town Square
Just off the square
This is Kadriorg Palace. It was built as a summer home of Peter the Great of Russia
Here is the front of the palace
I thought this statue looked cool
While we were in Tallinn, the Arts and Light festival was being held. In Old Town Square, people dressed up and then wore Christmas lights and then danced a waltz
This is the church that we went to in Riga
The Occupation Museum. The thing covered in glass which you can't see because the light is too strong is the map on which Hitler and Stalin drew a line separating Europe then signed it.
A really cool Orthodox Church. Look at the clouds, that is why I didn't take many photos in Riga
Another shot of the church
Riga's statue celebrating their freedon
The view from a rest stop right after we crossed the border back into LithuaniaThursday night we left Klaipeda around 11:45pm. We went to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, first. It was a long drive and they guessed that we would get there around 8am on Friday. The trip was funny because everyone was really excited so they didn't want to sleep but at the same time we all knew that we would need all the energy we could get to make it through the next 2 days so we tried to sleep as much as possible.
We got into Tallinn as planned and hit up breakfast then we took a guided tour around the city. Tallinn is really cool. It is right at the northern tip of Estonia, the most northern place in the Baltic States, right across the water from Finland. People started living there as early as 8000 BC so thats crazy! The city is built in and around a castle on a hill which had walls that go around all of the old town. It was really cool walking around the old town because they were these really skinny cobble stone streets and every so often you would go through a what was a door of the castle through a thick castle wall and you were on another street. We got see all different kinds of parts of the castle, churches, government buildings, etc. We grabbed a tiny bit of lunch and then explored some more of the city that was around our hostel. Our hostel, by the way, was right in the middle of old town right by the square. We went to a place called Kadriorg Palace, it was amazing! It was a palace of Peter the Great of Russia. We walked to the sea which was only about a half a kilometer from the palace.
For dinner, the program payed for dinner at a medieval restaurant just off the square called Old Hansa. It was easily the coolest restaurant I have ever been too! Seriously. It was amazing! The inside looked like a banquet hall of a castle and all the people were dressed in Estonian attire from the 1300s. Our waiters came out and announced that the feast had begun and they brought out the first course. There were 2 kinds of bread one was whitish but crumbly and had tons of spices and the other was kind of like pumpernickel. After that they brought out a cheese dish tasted a lot like pizza cheese. It was melted and really soft and they told us to eat it fast before it hardened up. Then the main course came out. Baked sourkraut (which I tried a no thank you helping, it was better than the regular stuff but still nasty), dill turnips, and lentils both with sauce (which tasted kind of like bbq sauce) and with out sauce. They also had what they called Arabian Beef, it was a stew with dried beef and some sauce that I don't think I could even explain and sausages. The sausages were really good. And get this: They were bear, wild boar, and elk sausages. I ate bear! So cool. For dessert they had the lovechild of apple pie and apple strudel. After dinner we were free to do what we want. In the square there were people dressed in classy 1800s costumes with Christmas lights around them. There were musicians with the lights and the people were dancing to it. It was really fun to watch!
After dinner, a few of us decided to explore the city and experience the culture. So we went to some pubs. The first was a really cool looking Irish pub which wasn't experiencing the culture but looked really cool so we hit it up. After a beer there, we walked around some more and went to a place called the Beer House. It was a micro brewery right in the heart of the old town. It was really awesome. We walk in and there are were a ton of long wooden table with benches where people were just chilling, drinking, and watching because there were people doing traditional Estonian dancing in traditional attire. We went into the second room we got a cool table that was in a tiny room that had a gate into the main room so we could still listen and see but it was a little quieter. The place made 7 beers in house and everyone got a different a different kind so that we could try all of them. Every single one was better than any beer I have every had! A guy came up to our table with an accordian and asked us what we would like to hear so we asked him to play an Estonian song then he asked if we were Americans and when we said yes he played When the Saints God Marching In. We then went to the table in the tiny room next to ours and started playing and we heard a ton of guys singing along. Estonians love music.Almost everyone sings and plays an instrument. Their revolution against the USSR was called the Singing Revolution. So we left there a wandered around ducking into a couple of other places. We chilled there a bit then headed back to the hostel.
The next morning we woke up and went to the Baltic's version of Starbucks then wandered a bit and in the early afternoon we got on the bus to head to Riga, the capital of Latvia. Estonia was really cool because we felt really welcomed there. Many places had English names and I didn't see a single place that didn't have an english menu. In Lithuania, it is weird to hear English on the streets but in Estonia it is not very uncommon.
We got into Riga around 8 and checked into our hostel. We were then free for the evening so I went out with a few people to go looking for dinner. We went to the first place that was not terribly priced (the Latvian Lat is much stronger than the US Dollar a little bit over 2 to 1). It was a pizza place, it was ok. Not bad but not what I would call great. We then walked around for a long time. Riga has a ton of beautiful old churches.Again our hostel was right in old town so it made exploring easy. We went to a couple of parks and shops and we went to a really amazing lounge. It was in the Radisson on the top floor we got to take a glass elevator up to it and it was a bar/lounge that was full of couches and comfy chairs and it had big windows the whole way around it. It was a great view.
Sunday morning we woke up and I went with a group to an English speaking church. It was really good. It was really small in terms of people but it was close knit and I got to meet some cool people because they serve cookies and coffee at the end. In fact, I got to meet the Canadian ambassabor to the Baltic States there. After church we went to the Occupation Museum which explained all about the occupations from the 1914-1991 by the Soviets then the Nazis then the Soviets again after that it was raining a little bit so I didn't get to do much photography but we explored any way. At 3 we got on the bus and went to a restaurant that my Latvian roommate calls the Ultimate Latvian Food Experience. It was all you can eat and full of all different kinds of traditional and modern Latvian food. It was all delicious! We then returned to the bus to come back to school.
It was a great weekend!
Pictures to come!
This is a bridge on the river that goes through old town. It is a tradition for couples to put a lock on a bridge when they get married and then throw the key off into the water.
This ship is permanently parked in the river in old town
this is looking down the river into the city. Old town, for the most part, lies to the left and to the right, where the tall buildings are is an area that has many businesses, financial centers, and the like
This is old town
Another shot of Old Town. It is a beautiful part of the city with cobble stone street and many shops, restaurants, pubs, and open air markets. My dorm lies just beyond the edge of Old Town.
This is the Black Cat Tavern. It is an awesome tavern right on the edge of old town about 10 minutes away from my dorm.
