Russia as it Was.

This past weekend was full of all things Russia, as I celebrated Victory Day on the 9^th, then took off for a two day trip to visit some very historical, very important, and very beautiful Russian towns with my friends. It was a great getaway and fitting end to my time in this fascinating country. We’ve experienced beautiful spring weather lately and this weekend was no exception, minus a few hours of clouds and rain here and here. So, what do you get when you combine a national holiday, fantastic weather, good friends, and some traveling? My weekend. Here it is.

Victory Day

May 9^th, 1945, marked the Nazi surrender to the Soviet Union, thus ending their involvement in the Second World War. In Russian, the war is known as “The Great Patriotic War,” due to their significant contributions and loss of Soviet lives. It must be mentioned that though it’s true that the Soviets are culpable for committing great atrocities during the war, they must be credited for their enormous war effort and contribution to victory.

Waiting to wave to the veterans, across the street from the Kremlin.

For the Soviet Union, WWII hit hard, from the day Hitler took Stalin by surprise and invaded Russia to the home soil much of the fighting took place on to the siege of St. Petersburg, then known as Leningrad. After the loss of nearly 20 million Russian lives, the war was finally over, and The Soviet Union was left to try and figure itself out post-war. One thing they did figure out was how to celebrate their victory by partying all day.

I made it to the city center around lunchtime, where people were still gathered along the main streets Confused at this, I used my expert eavesdropping and mild Russian interpretation skills to figure out why everyone was still waiting. Though the official Victory Day parade was over, it turned out that after the parade the veterans and military servicemen and women were bused throughout the city on the blocked off roads, so after about twenty minutes there were cheers and flags waving as about two dozen coach buses paraded by, with everyone waving to each other. After this, everyone left the sides of the street and walked around in the beautiful weather, most likely to walk with friends, meet for a picnic meal, or enjoy the festivities at various parks throughout the city.

I met Jen for lunch, then we walked around the Red Square area, stopping to look at the souvenir stalls, listen to music, and just enjoy

being in the lovely holiday weather. There was a bandstand, decorations, and events for children set up outside Red Square. We eventually parked ourselves on the lawn near a pavilion playing live music, where our friends eventually came and joined us for a few hours. Most people were proudly sporting military caps and the orange and black striped Ribbon of St. George, the widely recognized symbol of commemoration for Russia’s participation in World War II. The best part of the afternoon was the collective mix of the sunshine, our friends, and the festive atmosphere.

In the evening, we hopped on the metro and joined the masses heading to Sparrow Hills Observatory, the same place we gathered (though significantly warmer now) for New Year’s Eve, in order to watch the annual fireworks display. In addition to being warmer, this trip to Sparrow Hills was also different because I did not lose my iPod in the snowy forests, so that was great. The view over the city was stunning, and we positioned ourselves to watch the magnificent show before heading home.

Vladimir

The next day I headed to the train station bright and early to meet my friends Jen, Taylor and Suze for a mini tour of the popular Golden Ring historical cities. Located within one to three hours northeast of Moscow, these cities are easy to get to and renowned for their beautiful architecture, traditional crafts, and historical importance.

We had a bit of an adventure on the way to Vladimir which involved getting off a few stops early (on purpose) but then missing the next two forms of transport to get to Vladimir from there (kind of our fault but definitely not on purpose) and having to walk about a mile along a busy Russian highway until we could flag down a bus. We felt it added greatly to the excitement of getting out of the city, and hey, we made it to Vladimir only two hours later than planned.

Vladimir

Vladimir can best be described as a ‘long city along the river,’ with the river forming a natural southern boundary and the city built up along the northern hillside. When it was founded in the early 12^th century by Vladimir Monomakh, (clearly a humble dude, naming his town after himself, not to mention crafting a giant diamond studded crown for himself which now resides in the Kremlin Armory Museum) the city held more importance than Moscow until the Mongol invasions of the 13^th century.

Vladimir's Golden Gate

We spent the afternoon wandering, enjoying, and photographing. We walked along Avenue Lenina and explored a monastery, some parks, churches, and monuments all along the way to the end of the avenue. Lenina culminated at the Golden Gate, the former entrance to Vladimir on the road from Moscow. Though there were cloudy skies and a threat of rain, the air was still warm and pleasant to walk around in.

Our hostel for the evening had been booked for Suzdal, so after getting our fill of Vladimir, we said goodbye to Suze and Taylor, then Jen and I hopped on the bus for a quick half hour trip. By the time we arrived, it was starting to rain and to get dark, so we wandered a short while down a hill and along the river to find our hostel, then delightfully settled ourselves in the comfortable, cozy beds. We had to drag ourselves back up the hill in the drizzle in order to find some food, but once we did we enjoyed another round of hearty, traditional Russian food.

What is traditional Russian food, you might ask? Even if you don’t ask, I’ll tell you anyway. Russian food is, in a word, hearty. Think meat, potatoes, bread, and an assortment of pickled, stewed, or mayonnaised vegetables, then add some sour cream and some dill to top it off. One of my favorite Russian foods is pelmeni, the Russian version of dumplings. Pelmeni is simply dough, some sort of filling – either meat, potato, or mushroom, typically – which is then boiled and served with sour cream and dill. It’s deliciously flavorful and is one of the best comfort foods for a long, cold winter. Or just because you want some. Blini, the

Google Images: pelmeni and borscht

Lenten pancakes I’ve already talked about, is also a typical food found on most menus, and can be enjoyed with either sweet or savory fillings. Then there’s borscht, the Russian beetroot soup with a tomato and beef stock flavor, with a variety of shredded vegetables – always beetroot - and usually some meat. This is usually eaten with dark brown bread and some (what else?) sour cream. Next, on most menus you can usually find pirogs, which translates to ‘pie’ in English. Pirogs remind me of a smaller version of an Italian calzone, with a meat or vegetable (or sometimes sweet fruit) filling surrounded by bread dough, which is then baked or fried.  Last, there is a variety of Russian salads, which usually involve chopped vegetables and a thick layer of mayonnaise. Not my favorite, but still tasty. The beauty of being outside of Moscow is that these typical Russian foods were much cheaper at restaurants, making them even easier to enjoy. Jen and I slept very well that evening, as I’m sure you can guess.

Suzdal

'What the monks drew!'

The next morning we set about exploring our new locale. Suzdal, founded in the eleventh century and rising to importance as a center of religion due to its numerous churches in medieval times, is now a beautiful little town preserved as an ‘open-air museum.’ This suited us excellently as the open air was wonderfully sunny, so we set about on our walk to explore the town. Our first destination was the 12^th century Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, founded on the outskirts of town, which contained at least five museums, a cathedral, and monastic structures which are no longer in use. Unfortunately, there was not much English to help us out with what we were looking at, so we had to use our limited Russian language skills and our imaginations to fill in the blanks (‘this is what the monks painted all day’, ‘this was the spoon the monks used to eat their borscht’, and ‘this is what the monks wore!’) We were absolutely impressed with some of the beautiful jewels and religious art, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you much more about them other than they were sparkly. It was still worth a look at though, and we especially enjoyed walking around the beautiful grounds of the monastery. One fun fact we did learn, based on my limited understanding of Italian and Jen’s Russian, that during WWII the monastery was one of many POW camps for Italian soldiers. That’s probably not very fun to know, actually, as I can’t imagine the soldiers were treated very well, but it helps put history into perspective and was interesting to learn about.

Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery

Cathedral of the Nativity

After the monastery we were threatened by rain again, so we hurried up our walking tour by heading down the main street (also Avenue Lenina, as in Vladimir) to reach the beautiful Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin, first built in 1225 and remaining well preserved to this day. It made the UNESCO Heritage list due to its unique original white limestone architecture, joining the ranks of seven other important monuments in the area. After a walk around and a stop at a well preserved seventeenth century wooden house, the rain finally let loose, so we were forced to finish our trip sitting in a café drinking coffee and people watching.

Suzdal at a glance

Our adventure came to an end with a packed train ride back to the city, (standing room only) during the majority of which I stared out of the window at the green fields and forests. Back in Minnesota, we would call this landscape ‘boring,’ but after living in the city for eight months, it was refreshing to see open air again. That was one of the best parts of the weekend, to be out in a normal town again, with no high rise buildings, eight lane highways, or metros. We were grateful for the opportunity to get out of Moscow for a little while and enjoy the beauty of provincial Russia. If you look on a map, Vladimir appears very close to Moscow even though it’s a substantial three hour train ride away, which puts into perspective just how massive Russia actually is. It’s a shame I didn’t have more time to venture further away from Moscow and see more towns like Vladimir and Suzdal, but this just means I’ll have to come back to Russia in the future, of course.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend also and are enjoying the lovely spring weather! Take care.