Last Thoughts!

Last thoughts of our time  in Russia I am typing this on the flight home. We are ready to go but what an adventure we have had. We have learned so much about our friends in the Russian Federation and have put to bed many preconceptions. The Russians have a tumultuous history, but they have incredible resilience. I especially found that the women were strong, smart, determined. Not one woman we talked with was unopinionated, and most had strong ideas. Will would say "what's new?" but, for some reason I found Russian women open and frank. Our questions were answered without filter and I found this refreshing. Maybe it is a new found freedom to be able to share their opinions but I could have asked a zillion more questions just to hear their answers. Not to discount our wonderful male guides...Michael was just as opinionated and informative but I felt like he was the sensitive man-type (from his charity work) and that he was the exception and not the rule. As to dark and scary, Russian is nyet! Although at times a bureaucratic nightmare, we could have been in any western country. Food was plentiful, with restaurants and markets that could be the envy of anyone. Fashion, well, re-read my Fashionista blog. Religion was a bit confusing. My opinion is that there is freedom of all religions now, a clear sign of the change from the Soviet era. There were beautiful  Mosques, especially the Blue Mosque in St. Petersburg. Jewish Temples and Catholic Churches. And, of course,  the gadzillion onion domed Russian Orthodox churches and cathedrals.  When asked, a guide in St. Pete's told us whole generations were brought up without knowing anything about religion and faith except for visiting the Soviet's Museum for Non-Religion housed in beautiful St. Isaacs Cathedral. She felt that presently many attendees to mass may be fulfilling a rite and not a deep spiritual commitment.  She said that since the revolution in 1917  parents could not take the chance that if they told their children about their faith that their child might go to school and tell a friend who in turn told their parent. Many Soviet citizens were imprisoned, exiled or simply disappeared for practicing their faith. The risk was too great and now the tradition of passing one's faith from generation to generation was  lost for 70 years or two generations.  She did tell me that she was baptized at 21, right after Gorbachev came to power and she will let her child have the freedom to choose to practice or to believe. As to politics, Russians are beaming with their freedom to own property and to own a business. Many were cynical about Putin and this was the only time I found anyone guarded when answering questions. One guide said that in theory they were supposed to have the freedom to criticize the President but that if one is overheard, it could do permanent harm to one's career.  Sad story: Four young girls dressed in masks made a You Tube music video in Christ The Savior Cathedral in Moscow about how even Jesus didn't want Putin as president. It went viral for several weeks until it was taken down. The four teenagers have been sentenced to seven years in prison. And, who can forget the journalist that was assassinated  several years ago for her critique of Putin and his policies? Many Russians speak a foreign language and education is very important to them. Craftsmen and artists are held in high esteem and there is much pride in all disciplines. So much more but I'll leave it here. We are coming home with many wonderful memories of our two weeks in Russia. There is much of the country we did not see but I think I will look into the Trans-Siberian Express for maybe an adventure in the future!? PS  Katherine told me this morning that Americans complain too much and just don't realize how lucky we are and how much we have. I would call this trip a success!!!

St. Petersburg

We were dropped off at the Moscow train station at around 7:00PM. We checked our bags in a holding compartment and ventured to the metro station, journeyed to the city center to locate a Pizza restaurant we had checked out earlier in the week. We were not disappointed. It has been like The movie, Groundhog Day, as every meal is exactly same, including breakfast and including a whole lot of dill. Our overnight train trip was very entertaining as we were in a four bunk compartment and our luggage took up half of our compartment. Our new guide in St. Petersburg was Anya, an English teacher on a 3 year maternity leave. She spoke excellent English and was completely different from our other guides. She was frank and unfiltered with her opinions, mostly humorless but a very intelligent and responsible guide, worried that we were happy at all times. Wow is all I can say about seeing Palace Square with the Winter Palace and Hermitage Museums. St. Petersburg was totally destroyed during the Nazi's 900 day siege during WWII. Millions of died from the years of bombing and starvation. But, as then, the people are resilient. They have restored the city to its former beauty and there are few signs that 60 years ago it was a pile of rubble. This city is very westernized, where anything that can be bought in London or Paris can be bought here. Cruise ships line the port and tourist are everywhere. Our guide confided that Asians were not liked because they are too pushy. I asked if Americans were pushy and she said not at all. I made a point not to change her mind. We toured resorted palaces Peterhof and Catherine's Palace, both decimated by Hitler's army. We were told Hitler's thoughts were that to win a country you had to first destroy its past. I don't see how anyone could destroy such beauty. We are nearly finished with our adventure. I'll wrap up next time.

More Golden Ring

Six towns in four days and three nights. A whirlwind. Here are some of my favorite moments. 1.In  Bogolubovo, a small dot on the map outside of Vladimir,we made our own pilgrimage, plodding down a small path across wheat fields, around streams, over train tracks and hill and dale to view a small Chapel that was situated high on the banks of two converging small tributaries. It was a glorious day and well worth the trek. I just wish one of us could pronounce it. 2. Sergiev Posad and the Holy Day of St. Sergio. We were extremely blessed, or just plain lucky that the Russian "Pope" was in this village at the same time we were. The Patriarch gave two masses at the Monastery across the way from our hotel and while we did not attend a mass, we witnessed the most spiritually uplifting sights. There were several thousand Russians that made the Pilgrimage to the Monastery on this Holy Day, many of them older women dressed in their best peasant skirts and head scarves. We were witnesses to some of the Russian Orthodox rituals including the kissing every icon in the Catherdral,sometimes kissing, then making the sign of the cross and then kneeling for a split second and then doing it all over again.  There was a palpable excitement all day. The faithful stood in huge lines that snaked through the Monastery grounds to get to the Cathedral. Lee B., BS friends and my extended family, you all would have enjoyed all the outward and inward sharing of love for Jesus! Also traveling to hear the Patriarch to hear him say Mass were many monks, priests, young men in the Seminary and Church elders.  The Monastery is a working Monastery where about 100 monks make their home. In the center square in front of the Church was a well with a wooden cross that poured water out of the arms of the cross. The faithful were lining up to drink, splash water on themselves, fill bottles and buckets up and all because the water coming out of the cross is said to be Holy Water. It is said that several miracles have been performed upon those that have drunk from this well. I was the only one to stand in line to drink because my motto is"one should never pass up the opportunity of Holy Water that is Sid to perform miracles." I think I rather felt a little differently after drinking and splashing my face with the water. Will thinks I might have a touch of Giardiasis . 3. Matryoska dolls are the nesting dolls that are so common and identifiable as Russian. Well, I'm here to disappoint you, the first dolls came from Japan. But, when the Communists came to power the icon artists were out of work so they found a way to support themselves by painting these dolls. We decided to take a Master Class on Matryoska doll painting. Yep, Anna Ho takes cooking classes wherever she travels, the Hodges' paint nesting dolls. It was so much fun and even though our dolls probably looked more Japanese that Russian, I still think we did better than if we had taken a cooking class.  The Golden Rings were amazing, albeit very difficult, to visit. We would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Politically correct Russians? Your chuckle for the day.

1. Having our guide tell us that she and her husband predicted that if Obama were to be elected 4 years ago, America would have a Mexican president this election. 2. Having a Russian friend tell us that as Russia was trying to become more Democratic, America was becoming more Socialist. 3. Our driver took pictures of us to show his friends that not all Americans were overweight. (I think he left me in the picture to be nice) 4. One of our guides asked us how Obama could be President since he was a Kenyan.

Jesus and The Golden Ring

Jesus and The Golden Ring I planned our trip to the Golden Ring, the most historically and culturally significant grouping of villages and towns outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, literally the last day before we left the USA because it was so difficult to find a travel agency to book it. It is still very uncommon for individual travelers to travel into the countryside; there are many regulated bus tours, but private or individual trips are difficult.  First, the cities form a bit of a ring around Moscow and are not easily reachable, I.e., one must have a vehicle and a strong constitution. The first day we visited Vladimir and Suzdal, spending the night in Suzdal. This ring has the most incredible collection of onion domed cathedrals and churches and more working, not to mention non-working, monasteries and convents. To get here we traveled with a driver, Nickalaus, and guide, Youlia,  on a 2 lane road that the Russians thought was a 5 lane road. Shoulders on either side were the 3 and 4th lanes and the center line is the 5th lane. This is your Russian Driver's Ed course. Barbara G, eat your heart out... One car is passing on the left shoulder while another car coming the opposite direction is passing on the right shoulder while every one is using the suicide middle line and there is weaving and speeding and I am quite sure some are vodka drinking and oh, my Jesus, there are no atheists in a foxhole. Even our guide, cute Youlia from Vladimir confessed to nervousness when asked. I chose to close my eyes and pretend to sleep. Hell, I damn near wet myself when we ran over a large remnant of a truck tire and had to pull to the shoulder to assess the damage!! But, that was just one road we traveled. Another one was a field and forest country back road, so remote that I thought I heard banjo music. It was paved back in the Tsar era and hadn't been maintained since. I swear you could have lost a Volga in some of the holes.  Nicholas did his best to save us from whiplash, but I aged two weeks in the three hours it took to drive to Yaroslavl. And, tragically, there were no tualyet along our route. I will leave the rest to your imagination.  As for Jesus, Christianity is alive and well in the post Soviet Russian Federation even though the Communists destroyed many churches and others were converted for the good of all, i.e.  a beautiful gold domed cathedral in Suzdal one of only 33 out of 70 that survived, was converted to an electrical plant. Religion of all faiths was outlawed and if caught, you were persecuted. Our guide said that they had to secretly congregate in their homes but only with those that they trusted not to tell on them. We were amazed by the number of working churches, and by the mass that is said for a service. 2 hours. No pews, no chairs. One wanders from Icon to Icon and kisses each one. One after another, with no sanitizing spray. One after another. Americans would have a cow. I was astounded by the depth of their faith. In fact, most of the faithful were of the age where they grew up in the Soviet era. The ratio between young and old was disparate. Hard to know why except that maybe the elders realized just how fragile the freedom to worship could be.  We ended our tour of The Golden Ring with a night in Sergiev Posad and it was the most Holy day of the year and the Patriarch, or the Pope of Russia, was offering mass. It was thrilling to be here as the pilgrims from all over made their way to the monastery. More tomorrow about The Holy Day of St. Sergius. P.S. today is the day that Tsar Nicholas was killed along with his entire family.

Eat less, weigh more!

With apologies to Dana for the play on words, eat less, weigh more is exactly what is happening to us.  Let me explain. Russians eat three meals a day with lunch mostly being the larger meal. At  lunch and dinner it begins with a salad and the three main ingredients are cucumbers, tomatoes and yellow peppers. Additions to all salads are mayonnaise or sour cream and dill.  Soup follows and there are only 3 types of soup in all the Russian Federation--  Solyanka, a mixture of spices, several types of sausage, potatoes, and pickles.   Borscht , a  beet based soup with mystery meat, cabbage, potatoes, onions and dill.  And, chicken noodle soup, an American favorite. These two courses have not changed at any meal and I must say, cucumbers are the favorite of the people. For salt lovers there are several ways that cucumbers are prepared and they all have to do with salt. It is common to order a full plate of salted cucumbers, or pickled pickles or salted and pickled vegetables, well, you get the point.  Plates of assorted cheeses and cured mystery  meats ( I swear there was tongue on our last plate) are common as well, eaten without bread or crackers, just naked. I don't know about you but I need a Triscuit and some Dijon to get that mystery meat down. In other news, Katherine has developed a very convenient "allergy" to fish. We weren't very descriptive with the allergy and it didn't translate to Russian well, but it saved me from eating the pre-planned meal, which included dill, dill and a little bit of dill. Shishkabobs are popular dinner entrees. Lamb, pork, beef, mutton, chicken. I have eaten several types of grilled kabobs and they were quite tasty. But, chewy, very, very chewy. I kept wondering if my chicken  had free range in a small village called Chernobyl.  The fish has been very good, but dill is added to almost everything except coffee and I think I am developing a dill phobia, which is a little like Williams's aversion to curry from living next to the kitchen in his freshman dorm at Georgia Tech.  Because of my new found aversion, it has been difficult to find enough to fill us up unless we ordered dessert. Or, we resort to our stash of Pringles and peanut butter and  cheese crackers directly from Nabisco. Therefore, eat less but my pants are  definitely  snugger than they were before I left. Ugh! Now, to caviar! It is on every menu to some degree and mostly served with a pancake/blini. Sturgeon have been fished almost to extinction and are now widely regulated which means that black caviar prices are through the roof, even for Russia. Red caviar is what most locals are eating now. I, of course, ordered the black caviar at a fabulous restaurant, which also  has locations in NYC and Paris,  called Cafe Pushkin. One heaping tablespoon of the most delectable, melt in your mouth, black caviar. Neither Will nor Katherine wanted any so I felt like I had won the lottery. No, the Powerball. The only downside is that I ate about as much as I would win in the lottery. Sadly, We won't be bring any caviar home, my friends, and if we did, we wouldn't tell anyone. Shout out to Liz G. and her sister and brother- in-law, Tricia and Rob, for the restaurant tips. Bon appetit! P.S. we just got our bill and instead of mints or fortune cookies, we got doublemint gum. 

Fashionistas

Everything you think about Russian fashion, forget it. We read and googled  any thing that might help us when we packed. Over and over we read the words  conservative and dark,  Nyet!!! Russian women are some of the nicest dressed women in the world, especially the younger generations. The majority  wear chic dresses, not low cut or hoochie- coo short lengths but something all mothers would love to see their daughters wear.  Most will wear  high heels but beautiful flats were also abundant. The stores in Moscow were filled with designer wear from all over the world. We could have been in NYC or Paris.  The babushkas,or grandmothers, wore stereotypical outfits from every old Russian film. A scarf over their hair tied in a knot under their chin or in a Heidi look,  medieval-patterned skirts down to their ankles  with leather flat shoes or sandals and a tucked in white shirt pulled tight by ample breasts. Maybe it is a throwback to Soviet days or there is a secret Putin decree that designates when a woman transforms from being stylish and attractive to a hunched over, church going elder.  I can't figure it out excerpt to say that the young Russian women are very attractive as a whole. Needless to say, Katherine and I packed all the wrong clothes. We perpetuate the stereotype of ugly American. Well, not Kath. She looks good in a potato sack.  But, as we are not going to send anyone a Christmas card, we just smile through our dark jeans and Tom Toms. I have however left all my shorts in my suitcase. Men only have one fashion rule. No white tennis shoes. I just hate them.