Moscow

So Moscow is one of those cities that emits a certain kind of feeling.

We arrived in Moscow amidst the pouring rain, which was followed by a walking tour I had enlisted us for because I was feeling sluggish - I haven't been for a run, or done any means of physical activity in three weeks... my body is screaming at me! I digress.
We set off in the rain to ride the metro - beautiful metro system!  Many of stops are made of marble walls and columns, they have intricate chandeliers and marble engravings. One of them must have been built around the time of the Olympics - the station was full of engravings of all the Olympic sports, both modern and ancient. Another had huge mosaics of Lenin, there were huge statues of soldiers, and countless images hammer, sicles and wheat!

The walking tour was nice because we were walking, but crappy because of the rain, and honestly we only walked down one road to the Red Square. Obviously that was because of the age of the tour group... but still... not what I was anticipating. REGARDLESS! Red Square was great! It was so amazing to think of all the history that happened in the square! It was so vast and grand! At one end was the magical St. Basil's cathedral, to the right is the Kremlin and Lenin's Mausoleum, to the left the extravagant GUM Department Store.

Our second day in Moscow we went on an excursion to the Orthodox Church Holy City - Sergiev Posad (or Zagorsk during the Soviet times). That day was freezing! The place was very pretty, we observed part of a service and I lit some candles for Nana. The best part was that they have a Miracle fountain there!
I misunderstood, originally I thought it was Holy Water, the fountain was crowded with guys filling up litres of the water for their grandmothers... I pf course want Holy Water! Mum didnt trust it, so wouldnt let me drink any to see if it really created miracles....

That night we went to see a fantastic Russian Folk Orchestra. They were great! A bunch of students just having fun, playing their instruments.  They played Lara's Theme to end the night... of course... I think every Balalaika player must know that one.

Wednesday we had a tour of the Kremlin and its Amoury - we got to see Faberge eggs, coronation gowns, carriages like the ones from Cinderella and soooo much gold and silver! The Kremlin itself was meh... lots of golden churches and office buildings. There were a couple "biggest in the world" items - Bell and Cannon, which both have silly histories, the Bell never rang, it cracked when being cast and the cannon was never fired.

All in all Moscow was neat and I feel like I missed at lot being forced to stick to the pre assigned tours, or only having a few hours on our own. Mind you, my lack of understanding the Russian language was really intimidating... I'd have to study the alphabet first.

Rivers of Russia

Disclaimer - Google Services have been really hit or miss here, no searching, no maps, no email, no blog - it's been quit infuriating. 
For the past few days we have been sailing along the Neva, Svir and the Volga Rivers.

Approaching the island of Kizhi with its 17th C. churches made from pine.

We've had a grand time with fantastic scenery. Reminds me a lot of home, with all the golden birch. We've jammed a lot into the past five days on the rivers: I painted a Matrioshka doll (really a bell since they ran out of dolls), enjoyed as classical piano show, taken in Russian language and history course, visited two UNESCO sites to add to my every growing list - Kizhi Island and Yaroslavl City.
Kizhi was amazing, and definitely a highlight of the trip. I would never have had the opportunity to see this place if I had come on my own to Russia. Thank you for including this marvellous place!
We've passed through numerous lock systems, a total of 16 I think at the end of the sailing. Mum loves these locks. She gets so excited when we come to one and is out on the deck taking photos and watching the boat rise up/sink down.
Another event mum had a time at was the Vodka Enrichment. This was a night where we learnt the history of vodka (it's not made of potatoes). We learnt different manners of ordering drinks with hand signals, how to take different shots - off your shoulder or elbow (mum liked these). We tried six different kinds - regular, nettle leaves, mandarin, black current, arrow root and chilli pepper. The hangover tip provided - drink a cup of black tea before you go to bed. After the tasting there was quite the party down at the tea centre heeding the advice.
The next day we entered the Golden Ring, and there were gleaming golden churches dotting the river banks. Some had beautiful blue and gold domes, others had the plain green ones. I heard that there was a meaning behind the colours of the domes, but I have yet to have unearthed the explanation.

We stopped at Yaroslavl, in the heart of the golden ring to visit these immaculate churches - the icons in them are amazing. One we went to is still an active church and when we entered, we were hit with a wall of the smell of incense and wax. A continual singsong was chanted the entire time. I bought my treasured icon at St. Elijah the Prophet - this place contained the most icon and frescos I have ever seen. Thus far Kizhi and these Yaroslavl churches are tied for the best of the trip.

Icons in St. Elijah the Prophet

Unfortunately the weather has not been on our side and our walking tour today was done in a torrential downpour. Ugh. Awful  though today mum and I managed to get an umbrella, which we missed out on yesterday. The walking tour was through the Kremlin of Ulgich, more gilded churches, some with services going on - ladies running in and out with lovely head scarves and constantly crossing themselves. This walking tour was followed with a house visit. I was a little uneasy about going into someones house as a tour... but it turned out to be dandy. The couple, Vladimir and Rita, invited us into their home, explained what they did (silver jewellers), treated us to cake, toasts of their homemade vodka and tea. It was really a nice visit... not sure how they enjoyed it. Vladimir had everyone circle their town on his map of the USA, took our photos and told us jokes.
Tonight we had our Captain's farewell dinner, and saw a bit of the sun - tomorrow we arrive in Moscow. PLEASE let there be no rain for our special walking tour!

St. Petersburg

Mum and I have spent the last four days in St. Petersburg for the beginning portion of our seniors cruise. It is a beautiful city, and it's a shame that we are here on an organised tour and cannot just go walk through town.
It's quite different going from doing whatever one wants while travelling, to being only allowed to do what is planned and having to stay with the groups - mind you Russia is kinda intimidating, and I'm glad there are people looking out for us, and who speak Russian with us always. I'm sure we'd be fine after a couple days... though it would taking a little more time to get use to the Cyrillic, than trying to piece together only a foreign language.

Anyways, we've seen the Hermitage, gone to a ballet performance, visited Catherine the first's summer palace, travelled through St. Petersburgs city centre, ooooed and awed at the Peterhof Palace and cruised through the canals of the city.
The Hermitage was amazing, it rivals the Louvre and the Prado for art collections, though the added brillance of the Winter Palace makes it that much more visually appealing. The ballet was of Sleeping Beauty - not the disney version, but they did play "I know you..." and I had it stuck in my head all night. The ballet tutus reminded me of parasols, amazingly beautiful! I'm glad I knew the disney version, had I not, I would have had no idea what was going on... obviously no words in ballets.
Catherine's Palace and the Peterhof Palace were both so indescribable  Catherine's was much more ornate and "gold" but Peterhofs had the most amazing grounds and fountains.
It's hard to imagine that people lived like that. To have acres of land full of fountains and paths to walk, giant ball rooms and all this amazing furniture. Peterhof Palace was only a summer palace, somewhat modeled after Versailles. The other pretty impressive thing was that they were all utterly destroyed during the Second World War. Roofs and walls missing, rooms gutted, just the shell of a building. Immediately following the war the Soviets began restoring the palaces, to promote their history, and brought all the building back to their former glory, with many original pieces of furniture. Quite impressive!

We did two city tours, one by bus and one through the canals of St. Petersburg. Apparently there are over 500 bridges here and is loosely compare to Amsterdam for its waterways. I believe it.

The tour was ok. I couldnt really make out what the guide was saying over the speakers, but the scenery was nice. The buildings here are so grandious and have lovely colours.

We are setting sail tonight for the cruising portion of the trip, starting on the Neva River in the Volga-Baltic system. Should be interesting scenery when we wake up tomorrow - it's dark now so we are missing a lot. I guess thats what happens when we pick the cheap tickets: not only do we get cooler weather (not a matter for us) but we get early darkness to less our view times.