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Published: February 3rd 2012
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I decided to visit Tikhvin because of the same reason I went to Tver. I had a full day off. I bought the train tickets the day before departure. It takes about 3.5 hours to get there. I departed at 10 o’clock and returned at half past nine in the evening. By the way, now I’m staying in the very centre of St. Petersburg, in a small hotel. It’s so convenient. There is a metro station and a cinema right across the door, and some other important places for me.
In 2009, as I spent much time in St. Petersburg, I visited several places near it. One of them was Vyborg. I bought a map that time and still have it here. There is the map of Tikhvin included and I got really interested to see the Tikhvin Uspensky Monastery.
However, one has no justified reasons to travel to Tikhvin when temperature is minus 22 degrees. It is cold now in St. Petersburg, and it was cold in Tikhvin. I’d rather spend a day outside than sit entrapped in four walls, but I would simply have nothing to do. So without hesitation I went to
see the monastery.
Yesterday I bought a book, The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear. That was my reading matter for the train and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I’m familiar with Lear for many years, and love his limericks. I also ordered a book entitled Filthy Limericks. That must be fun. I’ve also read W.S. Maugham’s The Painted Veil (rather serious and sad book) several days ago and realized how much I need the Wodehousian cheerful spirit, so I’ve also planned to order several books from abroad, but it turned out they are available in Moscow. So, in several days I’m going to my home town by train via Moscow.
I slept for almost three hours in the train. If one ever decides to visit Tikhvin, it’s the churches and the monastery which make the trip worthwhile: Znamenskaya Church, Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral, also Vvedensky Convent, the latter being in a very poor state. Otherwise, the town is small, with one or two-storey buildings, narrow streets and very few cars. I would recommend spending several hours in Tikhvin and combine this journey with a trip to, say, Arkhangelsk or Vologda.
I repeat that it
Church
I liked this one particularly was cold. I was not frozen, but it was no nice time for seeing the sights. I think in spring and summer the town looks very green and cheerful.
It’s the monastery that made the trip worthwhile for me. It has no conspicuous entrance, so you enter via the icon shop. The monastery has a large territory and is enclosed by high walls, everything looks orderly and peaceful. It stands to reason I shouldn’t visit religious sites so often because I wasn’t christened and all I ever do there is taking photos, which is in fact prohibited in most of them. There is the Uspensky Cathedral and a bell tower.
Should be a musician or interested in classical music, not far from the monastery is a monument to the famous Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov and his museum house.
Then I finally got uneasy with cold and had a pizza at a very small café, after which I quickly went to the train station and read the book of nonsense till the end.
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