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Published: August 25th 2016
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Our third and last day in Novgorod was a little complicated because we had to check out of our apartment at 11.30am and take our suitcases to Left Luggage at the station before our tourist day could begin. The good news was that we weren't moving on until 21.20, so there was plenty of time to see some more sights.
Our apartment owner picked us up to help us to the station in his Volkswagon. In the light of what we've seen of Novgorod, I've now realised the architecture of the handsome 1950s railway terminal reflects the design of its ancient Kremlin churches and associated buildings.... the windows, decoration and ratios. A handsome station.
After waving goodbyes we sussed the system for stowing bags and soon were headed back towards the river, taking a meandering route to walk through parts of the city as yet unvisited. It's a quiet, green place, or, at least, what we've managed to see has a small-town feel.
We mused on the housing system. Apartment blocks here have the names of building agents who we assume are in charge of repair and maintenance ......but we're not sure if people like our landlord, rent
and renovate .....or actually purchase the propert! whilst still laying a service fee. On the Kremlin side of the river the blocks are all part renovated with upvc window frames but unpainted render and, externally, look bit down at heal.
From a website called 'Communal living in Russia' I've gleaned this information: In Soviet times Russians often viewed flats and communal rooms as having been given out "for free" because there was no initial cost to occupy the space and the monthly fee was small. The Russian noun "kvartplata" is often translated as "rent," but the people who paid it understood it as something like the monthly "maintenance", a single charge that covers heating, water, gas, repairs, and so forth. The Russian language reflects people's understanding of what they could do with their living space: the verb "snimat' "with the direct meaning "rent," was only used when you rented space from another tenant ......at a cost of four or five times greater than kvartplata.
The Soviet system of subsidized rental differed in important ways from a landlord-tenant situation. In most market economies, landlords and tenants sign leases for a specific period of time. When that time is up,
a landlord can raise the rent. In the Soviet Union, the government provided people with permanent housing at more or less the same subsidized cost, unlikely to be ever moved on, and the family could keep the tenancy if parents died.
But now, according to Wikepedia, 84% of people owned their houses in 2012 in Russia, making them 10th highest home owning country in the world...... Can this now be true? A middle class has emerged, it's clear, but in terms of living standards city life is much different from a country existence ..... and I hear that that is where the biggest divide in wealth lies in 2016.
The constant barrage of megaphone advertising in St Petersburg and here is often in pursuit of river cruise sales. In Novgorod there are two firms and they take turns to broadcast messages at great volume, non stop, all day long. We 'hopped aboard' the larger of the pirate ships, 'cos it was leaving in only ten minutes, and took an excursion to Lake Ilmen, a huge expanse of water and trading route, just south of the town. We passed a water sports club, a water pumping station,
St George's Monastery, the remains of an old bridge, but mostly we passed Russian families sunning themselves on the river banks, angling, swimming ...... much in the way Serbian, Slovakian and Romanian families do by the Danube. The land is flat and unremarkable, there's a heron or two flying by, but mostly the river is a cheap source of leisure for local family life.
Back on dry land we sought lunch in what turned out to be a posh restaurant, owned by the Berg family since the 14C ..... It was a bit dull (plastic flowers and monosyllabic serving style) but the borscht was tasty. And it was just in front of.....the music ancestry museum that we failed to access yesterday. This time as we approached we ignored the closed door and went round the back where there was an elegant building in wood and stone embellished with carved horses heads. A knock on this door was greeted with a fine welcome from ladies in traditional costumes. They debated the best way to communicate with us for while ...... and then one lady very ably took me and Marion around the exhibits. It turned out that the whole establishment
was the handiwork of one man, Vladimir Povetkin. He had excavated the remains of ocarinas, whistles, jaw harps, and psalters called 'gusli' in marsh bog peat in Nogorod ..... wood, ceramic, leather and metal artefacts. Then he had renovated some remains with new hard wood and then created new psalters and bowed three string fiddles. He had built the lecture room we were now in and when he died left a legacy that continues..... A young archeologist, Anton Kamensky, leads a programme of study has sussed some tunings and ways of playing the stringed instruments, ...... and he played them for us. The main technique was to strum with the right hand, dampening strings with the left hand, leaving a a chord to resonate, then changing positions to dampen different notes and create a new harmony, all played rhythmically with left hand pull-off decorations to make if more funky.
A charming and fruitful visit...... Lovely people, and beautiful music.
We headed north on the eastern side of the river and found a much busier Novgorod...... older housing stock, wider, busier roads and a large indoor market. I saw candied kiwi fruit here, for the first time, spice stalls,
fish, meat, cheese, veg, toys, clothing, bakery, biscuits, hats, uniforms, shoes.
We passed a number of new sculptures on the river bank heading back to the footbridge.
By six in the evening, a sprinkle of rain didn't put us off spending a hour by St Sophia's Cathedral sketching. Then a bite to eat in a restaurant with mTV playing over our heads ........... and to the station for our adventure in luxury train travel to Moscow!
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