Two medals

Well yesterday was just insane.
In the morning we went to the rink early enough to catch the last flight of men practicing - super cool. Everyone warming up their quads and routine run throughs. It was sure getting us eager to see them skate that night.

The first event was the pairs finals. Such energy! The Canadians blew me away. They were grand. Sadly it's all sort of a blur. I cannot really remember what happened - other than I was thoroughly in awe of Moore-Towers and Moscovitch and Duhamel and Radford when they skated.
Then came the defending Germans who fell and poped their jumps.

World Champions triple twist

Wow. The crowd around us (myself included) was convinced that Radford and Duhamel had it. Not so, apparently the technical levels were higher for Savchenko and Szolkowy... the judges got booed quite loudly.

Interestingly enough, everything the judges score is immediately online after they are announced so the lady next to us would pull it up on her phone and tell everyone in our area what the downgrades were and why they were scored the way they were.

The last pair was fabulous, minus the trip after the throw schow. And they rightly won! It was fantastic.   And their reactions were just as great to watch! Duhamel and Radford came third! Some would ask why they came third... and would question the judging. I however, am over it.

We finally left the arena for the break between events. Before we hadn't had enough time to leave, and mum found a restaurant review in the county museum that peaked in her interest. Seems that place was super swanky as all the big wigs from US Skate were there for lunch, as well as Toller Cranston. We met up with Uncle Ron and Aunt Maureen at the Skate Canada tent. Seeing it convinced us that's where we should watch the ladies tonight - I donated our tickets to my cousin and her daughter for the Ladies finals tomorrow. I don't follow the ladies enough and both of them are involved in skating... perfect match. The daughter is who we gave our practice tickets to on Tuesday.

We went back into the rink for the men's finals. What a night. We were surrounded by former competitive skaters,  data specialists and other experts who provided their "expertise" comments - what was done, what level they were at, whether they were nice people, blah blah blah. Actually I wanted to ask the girl behind us to zip it because she was being so negative. No matter how well someone skated, she had something to say. Javier, Denis, Yuzuru, Misha, don't even get me started on their criticisms of  Aaron, Chan and Joubert. They all had personal vendettas against Joubert.

Kevin Reynolds entering the ice

The skating was great to watch, and Max Aaron, despite his lack of footwork (when he gets that I think he'll be a great skater) was thrilling! I loved his "clean hit"call in the kiss and cry after he hit the boards. Then Patrick took to the ice. The arena roared! Then he fell, and fell again, and the arena went silent and the energy was sucked out of the place. Honestly, I thought he was done. His astronomical score in the short saved him. And had Denis Ten not doubled his triple flip he would have passed Chan. Not taking anything away from either of them... but Ten's performance was just so entertaining! But, being the great Canadian that I am, I am thrilled Chan won his third championship.

Worlds Comp Day 1

Holy. 

I cannot even begin to explain the overwhelming impressiveness of watching today. Watching live is such a different experience... than any skating I've ever seen. Practices the last couple days were unreal... but competition days! Oh my'lanta.

The energy in the rink when the Canadians skated was amazing.

The warm up session of the last two flights of men were just a billon quads, which are so flippin cool in person, especially right in front of you. Then Patrick Chan had to go and skate a near perfect short program and get 98 points! What!
The crowd was insane. What will tomorrow hold with Tessa and Scott skating?
It was just so intense that I am just going to post photos.

Oh and the opening ceremonies were neat, they had precession teams preform. It made me really miss syncro...

World Figure Skating Championships

So, big trip of 2013 - World Figure Skating Championship in London.
I bought tickets to this a year ago and forked over big money. There was no way I was letting going to Worlds pass me by this year with such great talent! Top ranking Canadians in every category... eons since thats been the case. I have a place to stay and company to go with... so why wouldnt I go, right?
To make it even more enjoyable, I spent the past weekend with Jane and Eric before coming here. Very relaxing, a nice change from -30... and as always, great foods :)
Arrived in London yesterday and went straight into the arena - walking in to hear Kevin Reynolds short programme (love the music!) over the speakers. No way. Made out way to the ice to see Kevin, Patrick Chan and Max Aaron (also like his music).
I was sooo excited to make it to see them, totally unplanned as well. Mum and I then decided to scope out our seats for the rest of the week, I knew they were in a corner section of the lower bowl, but that was it because I didn't get to pick them, they were assigned. We started walking up the stairs and realised the alphabet was going the other direction... turns out we are in the 3rd freakin row!!!! Seriously. I cannot even being to explain how elated I am.

Duhamel/Radford twist lift

We spent the next few hours there ooohing and aaahing over the men's and ice dancing competetors, though exhaustion won over and we left early... also because word around the rink was none of the Canadians or Davis/White would be be practicing that night - I was really excited to see Gilles/Poirier. But we did see Tomas Verner, Brian Joubert and Plutawska/Gerber who I thoroughly enjoy.

Savchenko/Szolkowy death spiral

This morning I gave our tickets to my young cousin and her best friend to spend the day there while mum and I were off scoping out this house that they are eyeing up for a potential relocation down south. Beautiful house, in Woodstock? I find it an odd location, but great house! Once that was over with, we headed back to the rink to swap tickets with my cousin.
Perfect timing again! We showed up just as Canadian super stars Duhamel/Radford and Moore-Towers/Moscovitch took to the ice.
Wow.
Watching skating in person dosent compare to tv (mind you the commentary is great and seeing different angles is grand). Being right next to skaters landing triples is amazing. Let alone watching them do throwing jumps and twist!

Mao Asada entering triple axel

The Germans came up next and.... ahhh just amazing.
Our night ended after watching Kaetlyn Osmond, the American and Japanese women.
So far, after two half days of practices.... the tickets have paid for themselves in experience alone. I cannot wait until competition commences tomorrow - Pair's and Men's short programmes. Eep!

NWT Road Trip

Well, it's been forever since I wrote... I haven't really travelled since coming back from Finland (which I never wrote about - whoops).
And I have  travelled, I was in St. Thomas for a week right before Christmas followed by a weekend in Calgary to see Blue Rodeo.

Anyways, Patrick's home for a week and mum has been on for a while about driving up to Whatì... so we decided to go! I took off yesterday, we packed up the truck with lunch and snacks, gassed up and off we went! We made it to Edzo and turn off to the winter road. When we scoped out the DOT website, the road was open only as far as Whatì, that's where we planned to go but the sign at the turn off indicated that the road to Gamètì was now open... the first part of the road was in great condition so once we reached the junction, the decision was easy to continue the 120km north to Gamètì and add another NWT community to my list!

Just after the junction we stopped for our picnic lunch and were so intrigued by the lack of wildlife on the way. Really. We saw a grouse just after Marian Lake and that was it. Luckily us bringing that up must have convinced the animals to come out cause then we saw a bushy little red fox!

The way to north was much different than around here - really hilly! Not mountains by any means, but not flat either like the drive to Providence. I'll have to ask Tom about the storys around there. Ton of massive boulders too! I'm sure there are some great Giant Beaver explanations for them.

We reached Gamètì around mid afternoon. (We had stopped a lot for photos and to change drivers), drove around the community, then headed back to make it to Whatì so Patrick and mum could add that to their list.

Sadly by the time we made it there it was dark :( so they couldn't see how pretty it is - I think Whatì is a wonderful little place after my week there.

All in all it wasn't an exciting trip to go on and on about, but it was a nice way to spend the day, and show Patrick some NWT he's so greatly missed out on. Plus I am now at 19 NWT communities. Whoo!

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.