Day 2 ~ Fourth of July

04. July ~ Happy Holiday!

Today was a really fun day, a lot more laid back then yesterday. I feel pretty comfortable already here at Olga’s. I got to sleep around 11 the night before, and woke up and thought I had slept a long time, but when I looked at my clock it was only 4:45 am. Being as light as it was, I thought my clock was wrong, so I went out into the kitchen, indeed it was 4:45. It didn’t seem like it. I stayed up for fifty minutes to write in my journal. It was 5:35 when I finally went back to sleep, but my blanket over my head to keep out the light. I don’t think jetlag has really done much to me, as I slept a whole 11 hours. I woke up again at 11:10. Olga knocked on my door and told me it was breakfast time!

For breakfast Olga made these omelet things that had crème in them. The crème looked like crème cheese, but it was really sweet and has the consistency of yogurt. It was called блини (Blini). Apparently on Russia holidays you eat lots of блини. I think we had it because it was July 4. Anyways, it was really good. Had зеленыи чаи (zeloni chai… green tea) also.

From here, Olga and I got ready for her to take me to the Kremlin to meet the rest of the group. We took the bus. To get to the Kremlin I have to take bus 20 and get off at the 5th stop. To return take bus 19. The bus takes frequent stops, and there are lots of buses taking people back and forth around the city. I have a bus pass that I was given that I show to the bus lady so I don’t have to pay a fee. My bus pass lasts all of July I believe. I don’t know what I do in August, perhaps get another bus pass.

The group all met, and we figured out how we were to get back home at night. Host families were to meet us at 8 at the statue of Lennon that’s right outside the Kremlin. Here we met another member of our group, Colin, who is not taking classes but only doing an internship. He is from Texas!

We were starting our tour and saw a statue of Sergei Rachmaninov that was just unveiled in the city in June, and his granddaughter actually came to Novgorod for the ceremony! Apparently Rachmaninov was born in the area. From here, onto the Kremlin!

The Kremlin is about 10 minutes maybe by bus from Olga’s. I wasn’t really paying attention to the time, but after stopping many times, I would assume 10 minutes, maybe a little less. The word Kremlin means fortress.

The Kremlin is the heart of Novgorod, home to St. Sophia Cathedral, built in the 11th century and to the Monument to Millennium of Russia as well as other things. The Kremlin walls are all brick and has 9 tours. At the moment many parts of the Kremlin and buildings inside of it are being renovated because there is a 1,150 anniversary celebration of Novgorod in September, also Putin is coming to Novgorod in August.

The foundations of Novgorod Kremlin were laid by Prince Yaroslav the Wise. It is the oldest of Russia’s remaining Kremlins. It functioned as an administrative, civic, and religious center (all according to my Novgorod Travel Map). City meetings and elections were held here. It also protects St. Sophia Cathedral and the residence of the city ruler. Aleksander Nevsky gathered here before fighting the Swedes. Historical records are kept here and books were collected and copied here.
Inside the Kremlin there are many things to see including an eternal flame that commemorates fallen soldiers, as well as St. Sophia Cathedral, and the Monument to the Millennium of Russia.

St. Sophia Cathedral is one of the oldest stone buildings of Russia (1045-1050) and is dedicated to the Holy Wisdom of God founded by Prince Yaraslov the Wise. The people here say that, “Novgorod is where St. Sophia is” . We went inside the church and it contains many religious icons and pretty chandeliers. We were not allowed to take any pictures. Renovations of some icons were taking place as well. It’s such a pretty Cathedral. The inside is very dark, lots of candles.

Magda, myself, Steve, and the tour girl, Katya, decided to go on a little adventure of our own. Well there is a door that you’re really not supposed to go in it, and Liza always says she’s to chicken to go up it. So Magda and the tour girl (who’s about our age I think) wanted to go really bad so they did. Steve and I were there too and he’s like wanna go in, so we open the rod iron door and sneak it. There’s a windy staircase and the girls were ahead of us. They got further when all of a sudden I heard a noise, like they fell. They come running down yelling Babushka (grandmother, or old lady) and laughing . Apparently at the top of the stairs to the right is a door, where the church choir would sing, and a Babushka was guarding the door and heard them. Babushka never saw us, but it certainly was a thrilling experiencing running down the stairs. In hindsight, this probably wasn’t the best idea, but oh well. Oh and yeah, there were Babushkas downstairs too, they just sit in various places and make sure the people are behaving I guess. Hah, I know what you’re thinking, there’s something wrong when we find going up a flight of stairs amusing.

On top of one the main dome of the cathedral, one of five, is a dove. Legend has it, that there was a dove flying over the Church and when it saw all the killing of the people by Ivan the 4th, it turned into stone. Ivan had killed a whole bunch of people over a period of three days and the Volkhov River was red with blood. Just so you know, Novgorod sits along the Volkhov River.

Now to The Monument to the Millennium of Russia. The millennium was in 1862. The monument was built by Mikhal Mikeshin. The monument was the idea of Emperor Alexander the II. It was placed in Novgorod because Novgorod had a key role in the creation of the Russian State.

Anyways, this statue contains almost all of Russia’s history through the many figures and depictions on it. It’s 50 feet tall. The monument is divided into three levels, representing the hierarchy of Russian society at the time, The church, The Monarchy, The people. The top of the monument has a figure of an angel representing the Orthodoxy, who is blessing a kneeling woman, representing or symbolizing Russia. The second tier contains six groups of figures each of them representing one of the stages of development of the Russian state. The statue is round by the way, and Peter the Great is on the Northern side of the monument. The low tier is a complete timeline of Russian History. Liza talked a lot about the statue, I don’t really remember much of what she said, I plan on getting a book about it or something. Honestly, it’s quite an amazing looking statue.

From here Liza ended her tour, and the group was on it’s own to do whatever until 8. So, we decided we wanted Pizza. We first walked to the bank, I exchanged my American money. The Russian currency is really pretty looking, at least the bills. 1,000 ruble bills are bigger than the 100, 50 and 10 ruble bills. (Wiki link to money).
The Pizza place was small and really cute, on the wall where Latin phrases. We decided to get two pizzas, that were 800 grams each. Various people got coffee, beer, coca cola, and water to drink. It took us longer to figure out how to split the bill than to actually eat the pizza. But, it was really amazing. Apparently the lady who makes it learned how to make it in Italy. We toasted to the fourth and enjoyed ourselves. All 9 of us ate for around 30 dollars. The menu listed the amount of food in grams, which to me is really not helpful at all.

From here the group split up, and Masha, Dough, Steve and I, decided to take a walk around the city, we had about two hours. We were bench hoping! Haha, Masha and Steve were tired, so we’d walk around and find a bench, get up and walk around some more to find another bench. We wandered around and saw things that Liza ran out of time to show us, however I’ve got 7 weeks to see everything, so I am not worried. Our adcenture lead us to the beach and to a monument called the Victory Memorial. At the top of it you could see a lot! Very Pretty. We walked around the park and came across an amustement park of sorts, I don’t know if this is always here, or just temporary. There are blow up bouncing areas and rides! I think you have to pay to go on some of the stuff most likely. Our journey also lead us to a fountain in the park! It’s also really pretty; lots of people were taking pictures in front of it. All in all we really enjoyed walking around just wandering; personally I love these types of adventures.

Around the park there are lots of little roadside stands where you can buy ice cream, popcorn, helium balloons, water, soda, and snack things.

Olga picked me up from Lennon’s statue at 8 and took me home in her car. It’s a cute small car, the same color as my mom’s car at home. Olga took Beesha for a walk, and I played with Shira in the living room. These animals are really friendly to me, and enjoy sitting on my lap or resting by my feet when I eat. Shira is entertaining as always. For dinner Olga made pasta with an alfredo type sauce. I was her putting milk and cheese together, along with cooked chunks of ham and dill. It was really good as usual. For dessert, strawberries with crème (the same from the Blini at breakfast) and green tea.

It seems that drinking tea is a regular thing here, especially after dinner. I don’t mind it at all, I really like it. Perhaps I should use all the tea I have in the cupboard when I get home!

Ahh, oh yeah, during our walk, Masha, Steve, Doug and I realized that we didn’t really know where Adrian went. We all left the pizza place together at 6. We didn’t remember if he said he was going on a bus like some of the others or what. We figured he was smart enough to be alright, but we were still a bit concerned. When we met with some our hosts at 8, Steve’s host mother said she was supposed to pick up Adrain per request of his family. His family said he hadn’t come home; this is when we were like yeah we have no idea where he is. We called Liza and told her we didn’t have a clue where he went. At 9:45 while Olga was making dinner and she got a call that we still did not know where Adrian was, and apparently Liza had been driving around looking for him and even called the police. By 10:25 Olga got a call that Adrian was finally home, apparently he went by himself walking around the city. Liza was very mad at him.

After dinner I showed Olga my pictures from today and she watched television. There was an American movie with Danny DeVito on it that was dubbed into Russian. Our Russian communication is getting a bit better, I guess. There are many tourists in Novgorod, most of them Russians who do not live here.

I saw a most interesting site today too! While wandering around the Kremlin walls, near the beach of the river, there was this boy whose father was holding him a few feet above the ground, and his pants were down and, you can tell where this was going, he was going number two, and his behind was all for the world to see. Haha, it was awkward, and we were like wow!

Another thing, there were three weddings today. The couples were walking around having their pictures taken by photographers by the Monument to the Millennium of Russia, and in front of St. Sophia’s. I assume that they were probably going to get married in the cathedral. It was pretty exciting to see!

I see lots of children and young adults riding bikes, motor bikes, and scooters. One man was roller blading on what looked like ski’s with wheels and ski poles. Very interesting, looked like he was doing laps around the outside of the Kremlin.
The city is very beautiful; I very much enjoy the architecture. I am glad that I am here for so long, I have lots of time to check it out and take pictures. The Kremlin area has a small park outside the walls. I love it, so many nice big trees and lots of vegetation! I really enjoy this type of thing, it’s just so pretty! Lot’s of places to walk and sit on benches.

It was warm and sunny in the afternoon, but during our adventure it got cold and it rained, but then the sun came out again and it was nice. Olga said that the weather in July is cold and rainy and in August much better. Today Olga said she went to her Dacha (a small building, like the size of a shed I assume) and picked strawberries and other vegetables. A dacha is place where people often have gardens and grow things, at least that’s what most people there do at one. It’s really hard to describe what a dacha really is, Liza had a hard time telling us in class. Liza says if any of us have a chance to visit a dacha to go. Olga’s dacha is 10 minutes by car from her house.

I checked my email today at the Telecom building in the city across from the Kremlin. You have to pay for 30 minutes of computer time. Steve, Masha, and I all split the time to send quick messages to our families. We haven’t found a place where wireless is free, although a few exist. Perhaps tomorrow.
Well, goodnight, it’s 12:20am, I should really get to bed!

~ Caша

PS - I will post links to pictures soon, be patient!