Pskov

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These pictures are from Pskov. it is one of the oldest fortress cities from old ruse and the only stronghold against both the mongol invasion and polish/lithuanian/german invasion. yes, it was a long time ago when both mongolia and poland were military superpowers. we also went to the place where Pushkin was "exiled" for 7 years and where he wrote a lot of his famous stuff. then we went the another, smaller fortress, izborsk, and this really awesome monastery at pechori. hope you enjoy!

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Photos

Pskovsky Kremlin
here is the main stronghold of the area. and omg, there is blue sky!! and the air isn't filled with smog!! yay (but still really strong wind and pretty cold)

wall
here is the wall of the kremlin. in front of this used to be a miniature town, but not anymore, just excavation

cathedral
this is the cathedral inside the kremlin, so pretty with the blue sky!

cathedral
here is the cathedral from afar, obviously

wall again
here is the wall of the kremlin again.

Battle on the Ice Monument
this was a HUGE monument to the battle that fended off the germans and rescued old ruse, yay alexander nevsky!!

yay alexander nevsky
here is the front of the monument

liza and me
just for a reference, liza and i are standing in front of the monument and above us are the bottom of the feet of the people in the monument

church
this was the view from our hotel window at sunset

Pushkin's "Mountains"
this was what our tour guide called a "mountain" (one of three such mole-hills that gave this area part of its name, the other part coming from the fact that pushkin lived here and wrote a lot here)

pushkin statue
of all the pushkin statues and monuments in this country, i think this is probably the coolest.

scenery
i hope you can see how this could be really beautiful if it weren\\\'t muddy/icy/cold/windy. i could, i just wish i had seen it when it was summer.

izborsk
this was at a smaller russian fortress like 3 kilometers away from estonia. it was so pretty here.

me!
this is the view from the fortress

sky
the weather on this day seemed like it was going to rain, but it didn't. it did make for a very interesting sky though.

fountain of youth
this is the russian fountain of youth, and omg! there's green grass growing, in Russia! there's a first for everthing.

fortress wall
this is the view from below of one of the towers of the fortress wall, with the sun behind it.

monastery
this is the coolest monastery in the world, i think. it looks like disney world. plus, underneath there are caves, and we got a candlelit tour of them from an orthodox monk! it was so interesting.