It snowed yesterday.
It is the middle of April, on Easter nonetheless, and Russia has found a way to rob me of what remained of my heart. I can safely say that I prefer –30 snowy winters to this kind of weather in April.
Luckily, today’s weather revived my spirits with beautiful sunny skies, much warmer weather, a lightness that lasts until at least 9 o’clock. With just about a month left in Russia, my hopes are for steadily improving conditions, and no more of these winter regressions like yesterday.
This weekend’s trip took us to the town of Yaroslavl, about 4 hours north of Vladimir on some of the best-paved roads in all of Russia (absolutely dripping in sarcasm… i almost died). Yaroslavl is the biggest of the Golden Ring Towns, an elite club that naturally included Vladimir, and in four years will be celebrating its 1,000-year anniversary as a town. It lies on the Volga, and just about every other building seems to be an old, and usually closed, church. They are currently building a new church right on the Volga to be the main church for the city, because apparently their 2:1 church to people ratio just isn’t good enough. Russians are crazy.
Some of the highlights of the trip included staying in the nicest hotel yet, where we each had our own rooms along with bathrooms with working toilets. Also, while exploring the city, Amanda and I, in our unending search for markets, walked unknowingly into a meat market. On our way in, we passed a man who was carrying to cow heads by the horn (this maybe should have been a sign to turn around). The market was full of animal heads (eye balls still intact), tongues, basically every body part imaginable, along with a stench that made even meat-loving Amanda want to barf (it is times like these when I am thankful for the kind of allergies that render your nose completely worthless). We also visited the “Museum of Music and Time.” Don’t let the title fool you, however. The museum had in it large collections of clocks, gramophones, bells, irons, and samovars (large and completely ridiculous Russian hot water holders) among other things. To give you a better idea of just how crazy this collector really is (and I know first-hand, because he led part of our tour) I have included a picture of a 100-dollar bill that he gave us. Remember, this man collects irons, many of which were smaller than a teacup. Russians really are crazy.


I’m including two of my very favorite pictures of Russia, which I took this weekend. They are of the outhouse and the makeshift sink we used while in-route to Yaroslavl (there is definitely someone in the outhouse as this picture is being taken, but it smelled so wonderful that we left the door ajar). Doesn’t the addition of a bar of soap make the whole thing seem that much more sanitary? Note the beautiful background of the picture – could spring possibly be any more beautiful?