In Russia, the cold is good because the snow gives good traction. However, the past few days it's been mid 30s and my walk to school is over an ice skating rink... I took a brutal fall the other day walking through the dark Russian morning, as did the poor babyshka walking in front of me. Ach.

In other news, we traveled on a bus to Veliki Novgorod, the second great city of Russia, the first being Kievan Rus. It basically meant traveling three hours through shanties and massive empty fields. The cities tend to be like an oasis here. And the city itself was like no other, some bleak Soviet city that consisted of what seemed few people, horribly shitty roads, and straight blocks of concrete buildings. Randomly scattered throughout Novgorod are these fantastic archaic churches from the 13th century, the insides of which consist of intricate arches and iconic paintings covering every inch of the walls. Odd.

Needless to say we had come upon a wooden town that at the same time had some certain male travelers. Well they came up to Kendall and I, wanting a picture, and suddenly it meant the entire brigade of males wanted to be in the picture. I had asked one of the twenty guys surrounding me where they were from, and they excitedly said Militia from Tver. Oh boy. We were asked for every kind of number, facebook, or icq screenname from a horde of young militia trainees... Never have I been more scared to say no! Ah ha.

We ate that day in some medieval restuarant that fed us Meade--honey wine. I didn't even know the stuff still existed.

At any rate, I really need to get some pictures up.

written by  The_Red_Life on February 9, 2009 from Novgorodovo, Russia
from the travel blog: Exploring the Streets of Saint Pete!
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Lil,
Yes you need to post photos! Hey I can't believe you had Meade. I want to try some! That's in Harry Potter.
Hope you are having fun. Hey Allison heard about a really good idea for you if you want to stay for the summer...one of our friends is a professional basketball player in Kazhackstaunarama. I don't know how to spell that country northwest of China. Anyhow, he has some (mafia) connections. I'll let her share it with you.

written by  gary staunavich wangski on February 14, 2009

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