A Week in Russia Part 2: Novgorod and Moscow

On Tuesday afternoon we all piled on to the bus and drove to Novgorod, a medieval town between St. Petersburg and Moscow. It was colder there than anywhere else in Russia, and there wasn't all that much to see, so it was definitely one of the low points in the trip. We saw the Novgorod Kremlin (kremlin basically just means a fortress wall), St. Sophia's Cathedral (the oldest in Russia), and met with a monk who lives in a monastery near by. 

St. Sophia's in Novgorod

From Novgorod, we took an overnight train to Moscow, arriving at 5:30 a.m. the next morning. I'd never been on an overnight train before, so I suppose the experience was good just because it was something new, but it's really not very glamorous. Our sleeping cabins were tiny, cramped, and hot, and you could  We were able to stop by our hotel (a huge 30 story building, which we soon learned is not so unusual because Moscow is ENORMOUS) before heading out for a full day of site seeing. We took a bus tour of Moscow and saw some of the most famous sights, including the Kremlin and the Red Square. 

St. Basil's Cathedral 

The Red Square, which isn't red at all, but the buildings around it are 

Moscow's Kremlin 

On Thursday night, we met up with our "forced friends," students and 20somethings from Moscow with whom we were to buy groceries and make dinner at their apartment. Two of my friends and I met up with two recent college graduates, Alexi and Svetya, who showed us around Moscow before meeting up with two other acquaintances of theirs, Sousha and her brother Vladimir, whom Alexi worked with. Together we took the train to a bus stop and took the bus another 30 minutes or so out into the high-rise suburbs of Moscow to Sousha and Vladimir's home. We bought groceries and made dinner and they were all confused as to what exactly I was supposed to eat if I didn't eat meat. There were definitely lots of awkward pauses, especially because not all of the Russians knew each other, and because my American friends and I had only really known each other for a few days. Despite that, it was a really cool experience and definitely something that made the trip unique and unlike any kind of experience you could get traveling on your own. 

Multiple churches inside the Kremlin 

On Friday we went inside the Kremlin and to another famous church. I'm not sure what I was expecting to see inside the Kremlin walls, but definitely not what we did see, which was just a lot of churches. You see, it's not enough to have one multi-purpose church, not when you can have one for your baptisms, one for your coronations, one for your weddings, and so on and so forth. And so that's what they (the czars back in the day) did. 

Cathedral of Christ the Savior 

The last important cultural place we went was the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the tallest orthodox church in the world. In 1931, the entire church was demolished on the orders of the Stalin administration.  For a while, the site was slated to house a monument to socialism, but due to lack of funding it was never built. Then it became the site for the largest open-air swimming pool in the world, until finally the cathedral was reconstructed in the 1990s, once again rising up to become the tallest orthodox church on the planet. 

Matryoshkas in the market 

On Saturday, we had the option of going to largest market in Moscow, conveniently located within walking distance from our hotel. Due to the exchange rate, stuff is relatively cheap in Russia (and much cheaper than in most other cities I've visited), so I was able to pick up lots of great presents for family and friends back home. 

I had a great time in Russia, and sometimes I still have a hard time believing I was actually there because it all seems so foreign. It's definitely not a place I can ever see myself going back to (although I guess you should never say never) and I feel really grateful that I was able to go at all. Next time, I'll tell you all about my trip to London and the lovely visits I had from my friends Claire and Dana!