Россия! Russia! Day 1

I was going to wait in the hopes that I would be able to transfer the rest of my pictures from my camera, but it's been too long and I want to post while the trip is (relatively) fresh in my mind.

As you all know, I was in Russia last weekend (EDIT: Holy cow, it was actually two weeks ago! Time flies!). This was the result of a very lengthy and tedious process that required entirely too much time, paperwork, and money. But who knows if I'll ever visit again, so it was worth it. The trip was organized by a local travel agency and was a whirlwind tour of Russia's two major cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the smaller but still very significant town of Pskov.

We set out on our five day trip and spent our first day at Pskov at the nearby monastery.

Our guide said it was like something out of a Russian fairy tale. I guess I need to read more Russian fairy tales.

Pskov was really a peaceful little place, and obviously very solemn given the monastery (technically this was Pechory, but close enough; later pictures are from Pskov proper). It was really neat being amongst the monks and other believers, although it did feel a little odd. Women in the monastery were required to wear head coverings and skirts over their pants, which the monastery thankfully provided.

surprisingly, that skirt was not originally part of her ensemble 

entering the monastery

I took hundreds of pictures, nearly all of which are on facebook; these are some of the highlights.Also in these places a lot of really interesting things they wouldn't allow you to take photos of. We got to observe some sort of ceremony being performed by a high-ranking orthodox monk or something inside a burial chamber, and a lot of religious buildings don't allow photos to be taken inside. We learned a lot about Russian religious history (all of it extremely fascinating, actually), drank some holy water, and generally absorbed the aura of sanctity that pervaded the place.

orthodox monk, stereotypical russian woman 

so much color in russian architecture

After that we headed into the real city, particularly the old Pskov kremlin (ancient russian word for city walls, most medieval cities had them) and the cathedral inside. I took a bunch of cool pictures there; the rest of the city was mostly unremarkable (although I took a picture with my homeboy Lenin). This uploader is a pain and I hate moving the pictures, so they're kinda out of order (sorry!)

heading to the kremlin

inside the cathedral

me and Lenin, no big deal

probably bad for PR

argh the construction mucks up this awesome picture, but I don't care

we took a 12-hour night train to Moscow with a bunch of Russian army soldiers. They gave me a free shirt though! Not like our military gives people shirts as a recruiting tool, t hey were literally giving away their used clothing. Kinda gross, but also kinda cool!

if this can give you any idea of how ridiculous this train was, this little seating area folds to sleep two. Yeah. we did this twice, by the way.

cathedral lavish enough for ya?

another shot of the beautiful kremlin

I really like this one

And that was pretty much our day in Pskov. I'll include an amusing anecdote about crossing the six-lane highways in Pskov. Our guide, this tiny frail little woman in a headscarf, just walked out into the middle of traffic. That's apparently how they do things in  Russia. And thankfully the people stopped for her. There were no signals or crosswalks or anything. You just step out into the street when it feels right and through sheer force of will manage to not get run over. Also this first day I came to realize (even more than in Estonia) how strange it is to be somewhere where you can't even begin to read or speak the language (different alphabet! and no English anywhere in sight, which is an oddity anywhere nowadays!) and everything is so different to what you're used to. It was terrifying in some respects, but also really exhilarating. I've been quite a few places in my life but Russia was definitely the most "different." I definitely enjoyed it, though. It's really late here so I may not post more until tomorrow (hopefully won't put it off like I have been). Also day five will either not be posted or will be without pictures as of right now :( I'll get to work on that. Good night, and do svidaniya! (goodbye in Russian, knuckleheads)