Yesterday we ventured down a very wet highway to visit the very old Russian city of Novgorod. The city was founded over 1150 years ago and remained a bastion of Russian culture and history during a time where Russian identity almost disappeared after an invasion by the Tartar-Mongols. It was the sight of other tremendous events of Russian history and was once one of the largest Trading cities in north Europe. Now it is no longer an economic or poetical powerhouse, but it remains a very important cultural landmark with some amazing buildings.
On the 3 hour bus ride out of St. Petersburg I was reading a well timed passage of my current book, a history of the siege of Leningrad. I did not plan it at all but I ended up reading about a drive by the Soviet south of the city attempting to break out through German lines towards Novgorod. So we were in fact driving at 90 kph in our heated tour bus over a once hotly contested and pivotal battleground of the Second World War.
Our first stop in the city was the Kremlin (walled city center) of the city. I am sure you all have heard of the Moscow Kremlin before and know it is commonly used to refer to the Russian government. However older Russian cities have or at least had a Kremlin at their center where the citizens could go to defend themselves in times of peril. The Kremlin of Novgorod looks like what my mental image of a medieval walled city says it should be and it was quite an imposing sight with a commanding view of the countryside and the Volkhof River beside it. Inside this impressive set of fortifications there are two even more impressive structures.
The first is a huge stature commemorating the history of Russia built on the occasion of its millennial. The monument chronicles 6 phases of Russian history with statures of military, religious, political, economic and cultural leaders through Russian history over a central bell shaped structure. The second, and most impressive, structure was St. Sophia’s church a key symbol to the citizens of the city. It was originally built well over 1000 years ago and to this day is still quite an impressive church in its design, construction, longevity and beauty.
Upon moving away from the Kremlin we found a… BEACH!!! (On the banks of the river) Now it was cold and rainy, no waves to speak of but they had a playground, beach chairs and umbrellas and changing rooms out on a sandy length of the riverbank. That’s as close as I am likely to see a beach for the time being so I appreciated every minute of it!
We then moved across an impressive pedestrian bridge over to the former commercial side of the city and once there, I have never seen a greater concentration of churches in one place in my whole life. I can recall counting at least 9 of them within a 400 yard radius, some ancient and some “merely” a few hundred years old. After that we wonder the city for a bit, ran into some nice Russian cats and saw the local World War Two memorial and victory monument.
After that, we then got back on the bus for a short drive to the museum of wooden architecture. While it was interesting to see old peasant houses and churches, the place seemed to just be a big tourist trap and was not as much fun as other places we have visited before.
A 3 hour drive home (and my first trip to McDonalds in Russia) later, we returned to our building with a Sunday of laundry, grocery shopping and Russian homework to look forward to. Next week I have nothing big on the schedule, next weekend half of our number move off to their home stay families (and I assume a corresponding reshuffling of our rooms in the dorm), and I am going to continue my search for gloves in this city!
(My quote of the day and source of the title for the blog: On the bus ride over one of my friends here, Emily, pointed out a line of trees along the road with leaves changing yellow and red, and in perfect form for a person from the northeast US mocked the Californian with evidence of the seasons.)
On the 3 hour bus ride out of St. Petersburg I was reading a well timed passage of my current book, a history of the siege of Leningrad. I did not plan it at all but I ended up reading about a drive by the Soviet south of the city attempting to break out through German lines towards Novgorod. So we were in fact driving at 90 kph in our heated tour bus over a once hotly contested and pivotal battleground of the Second World War.
Our first stop in the city was the Kremlin (walled city center) of the city. I am sure you all have heard of the Moscow Kremlin before and know it is commonly used to refer to the Russian government. However older Russian cities have or at least had a Kremlin at their center where the citizens could go to defend themselves in times of peril. The Kremlin of Novgorod looks like what my mental image of a medieval walled city says it should be and it was quite an imposing sight with a commanding view of the countryside and the Volkhof River beside it. Inside this impressive set of fortifications there are two even more impressive structures.
The first is a huge stature commemorating the history of Russia built on the occasion of its millennial. The monument chronicles 6 phases of Russian history with statures of military, religious, political, economic and cultural leaders through Russian history over a central bell shaped structure. The second, and most impressive, structure was St. Sophia’s church a key symbol to the citizens of the city. It was originally built well over 1000 years ago and to this day is still quite an impressive church in its design, construction, longevity and beauty.
Upon moving away from the Kremlin we found a… BEACH!!! (On the banks of the river) Now it was cold and rainy, no waves to speak of but they had a playground, beach chairs and umbrellas and changing rooms out on a sandy length of the riverbank. That’s as close as I am likely to see a beach for the time being so I appreciated every minute of it!
We then moved across an impressive pedestrian bridge over to the former commercial side of the city and once there, I have never seen a greater concentration of churches in one place in my whole life. I can recall counting at least 9 of them within a 400 yard radius, some ancient and some “merely” a few hundred years old. After that we wonder the city for a bit, ran into some nice Russian cats and saw the local World War Two memorial and victory monument.
We also had time for a low intensity photo war:
After that, we then got back on the bus for a short drive to the museum of wooden architecture. While it was interesting to see old peasant houses and churches, the place seemed to just be a big tourist trap and was not as much fun as other places we have visited before.
A 3 hour drive home (and my first trip to McDonalds in Russia) later, we returned to our building with a Sunday of laundry, grocery shopping and Russian homework to look forward to. Next week I have nothing big on the schedule, next weekend half of our number move off to their home stay families (and I assume a corresponding reshuffling of our rooms in the dorm), and I am going to continue my search for gloves in this city!
(My quote of the day and source of the title for the blog: On the bus ride over one of my friends here, Emily, pointed out a line of trees along the road with leaves changing yellow and red, and in perfect form for a person from the northeast US mocked the Californian with evidence of the seasons.)
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