Weekend!!

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Today was a superb day!! Today was exactly what I've come to Russia for... to fully soak up the Russian way of life and participate in it.

We were picked up in the morning by the same crazy van as they picked us up with from the airport - we had more seats now as there was no luggage. We then drove an hour into the country side. It was nice to escape the buzzing of town. You could compare Riazan with London with regard to traffic, only add some more sand, bad roads and more coloursful buses. At crossroads (where they are lights) all pedestrians get green at the same time, so it's really normal people seeing people cross the street diagonally. Where there aren't any lights you more or less need to risk your life when you want to cross. Cars don't stop for anything, not even at pedestrian crossings. Russians are definitely no gentlemen in traffic. In fact, Russians are the most unfriendly people I've come across with. I'm not referring to the people from uni because they are all lovely - but people on the street, in shops, on the bus,... are as near as rude. They will walk into you because you are walking in their way, they will never appologise or hardly say thank you, they don't bother speaking slower and will in fact look at you like you're stupid for not understanding their language. Riazan is not a tourist town (I was shocked to hear an American in the internet cafe yesterday!) and perhaps that's why people aren't used to having to adapt to foreigners, but even so, they could give it a go!

Anyway, back to our trip. Our first stop was Konstantinovo, the estate of Ecenin, once a very popular poet. We were shown the house he lived in, an old Russian school, the master house of the estate (which I thought we dissappointingly small - but then again, the rouble has never been a strong currency) and an isba. An isba is a typical Russian 'hut' where peasants used to live in. It was so small, it felt you were inside a midget's house. (Yves has issues standing up). The fabulous thing about this estate were the spectacular views! They were very much England-like, only flatter. We had some photo shoots there; especially the ones with our boys and the Russian boys from uni were spectacular.

We had a biscuit for lunch (no other food available in the country side) and drove to an old monastery. The bosy weren't allowed in because they were wearing shorts instead of long trousers. We girls were allowed in only after they gave us skirts to wear over our shorts, we covered our shoulders and we got a scarf to over our hair. I can tell you, we looked like a right bunch of farmer girls! Wait till you see the pictures... Even though we weren't allowed to take pictures of the monks and inside the churches, I couldn't control my camera (damn thing!), I just had to take a picture of one of the monks. They only wear black, have a very long beard and long hair in a pony tail (I little bit like Darth Fader) which make them all look alike. Little scary nearly.

But then it got good! The last thing we were doing that day was to visit the to St. John's spring. The spring is known for his healing powers and is therefore quite a religious place. People come from all over Russia to have a dip in it. We walked down some woods for about 10 minutres (the path was in the same state as most of the Russian roads) and ended up at a wooden hut. There were about 50 people waiting to go in. We all (not all actually, some had chickened out because of the temperature of the water) put our bikinis on in the morning and were ready to give it a go. The temperature of the water is a constant 4 degrees. But after having showered for a week in our dorm, we thought we could handle it!! They say God looks over you when you go in the water and he will heal all. Let me tell you, it's quite impossible for the ill and cripple to get down there. Wheelchairs are simply impossible and people with crutches need to have seriously good balance!

Anyway, the men were coming out of the hut, so it was the women session next... Ahhhhhh. And then they told us we had to do this naked!! Yeeeehaaaa, brilliant! Elke decided not to go after all, but Sarah, Liesbeth, Petra and I went in. Before we knew we were getting naked in between 25 other Russian women. I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of sharing this religious moment with these women... It had something very devote and really special. Picture yourself a wooden room with in the middle in the ground a square hole filled with clayee spring water. There's a ballustrade around the water and you all queue up around the room until you get to the steps to get in the water. There were icons on the wall and all women made a cross sign before going in the water. They all made it look so easy. Four steps into the water, then you hold yourself on a little beam and you go down (fully, head and everything!) three times.

Petra went first and was quite reluctant to go further than her big toe at first. Sarah, Liesbeth and I were thinking if Petra can't do it, none of us can! (Petra is the one who has a cold shower with pleasure each day, once in the morning, twice in the evening!) The other Russian ladies told us we weren't allowed to scream when going in the water for religious reasons. Petra then decided to go for it, four steps in the water and dip once, twice, three times - and out! She didn't say all that much when she game out so I was still quite reluctant to go in it being my turn next. But I did it! The water was indeed absolutely freezing but ones you went under once, the other 2 times weren't as difficult. Looking at it afterwards, taking the cold showers is probably worse because it's just a little bit of water here and there. Fully going in this water was cold everywhere and less harsh. But don't get me wrong, I don't think my heart has ever beaten so fast, and my fingers went in spasm for a while because of the cold, not to mention the funny feeling in my leg muscles for the first 2 minutes after I got out... (oh and there was definitely some peanuts smuggling going on!) But is was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And then they told us, to get fully blessed and healed by God we had to do this 3 times!! So whilst we were at it, we thought we might as well... We went under 9 times in total. I felt alive and awake!!

I couldn't stop smiling all the way back to the dorm. This was exactly what I've come to Russia for...

In the evening we put 3 bed together, got pillows and biscuits out and watched a film on the laptop. Brilliant ending to a brilliant day!

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Comments

[AmLoQ]

My girl
Nice story!!! I know my girl is that strong ;-)