Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 17

I let Darina drive me to her apartment in the beautiful city of Ufa. Darina was a fulltime employee who took care of her mother and her 8 year old son. There in her apartment was her mother and her son eager to greet me. Tehy gave me some Russian dishes to try when I got a bit hungry. They had prepared sliced potatoes and a special Russian soup called Borsh. I got to talk with the young boy and we ended up talking about school and translations for Russian and English words. Still struggling to speak in Russian, I managed to hold a conversation with everyone without many problems, just sometimes. When it was time to go to bed, it was already 12:00 AM and it was time to go to sleep. Since there were ... read more

Day 20 This morning’s outing was to Pushkin and Catherine’s Palace. The palace was built by Peter the Great for his wife Catherine, although it was significantly enlarged by Catherine the Great. The opulence is like Versailles, but the scale is larger because everything in Russia is larger than Europe. The highlight is supposed to be the Amber Room, but I found the most interesting part an exhibit showing the reconstruction after WWII. After the war broke out and it became obvious, that the Nazi’s were going to get close to St Petersburg, Russian women (all the men were fighting) buried a large number of statues and artifacts. The Nazi’s never made in into St Petersburg, but they did capture and destroy several of the summer homes, palaces, including Peterhof and Catherine’s Palace. All that was ... read more

Day 18 We started the day at the Hermitage which truly is one of the worlds greatest museum. The building is splendid and the art collection is one of the greatest in the world. It doesn’t make sense to talk about the Hermitage because so much is already on line and I’d have nothing insightful to add. At 2:15 we met our guide for a Jewish tour of St. Petersburg. Our guide, Elena, recommended we focus on the Ethnology Museum and the Choral Synagogue. At the museum it was interesting to see some of the dress worn by Jews in parts of Russia. Given how much we already knew there wasn’t much to learn. Next we went to the Choral Synagogue which is where our tour guide belongs. She explained that the synagogue is Chabbad, but ... read more

Day 16 We started the day with a tour of some of the subway stations. In the 1950’s the government constructed magnificent subway stations as a way of showing the people what their country would be like at the end of the Revolution when the new world was ready. The stations are decorated with marble, chandeliers, statues, stained glass and mosaics and immaculate. 8 of the 15 million residents use the system on any work day. The comparison to our subways is unavoidable and our subways are dirty and unreliable. All the stations are immaculate. On one of the train rides, we were approached by a young Russian man. He said he really liked the USA because of the NRA and our ability to buy guns. In Russia he said it was hard to even buy ... read more

Day 13 Jack went out to photography before breakfast and I relaxed with Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich. Breakfast consisted of a plate with bread, ham cheese and vegetables, a bowl of rice porridge, a large square of something that looked like noodle kugel, two fried eggs with sausages and a bit of fruit. It was almost comical to see all the dishes laid out on the table. It turns out that Suzdal is the best preserved of all the Golden Ring cities near Moscow. It was once extremely prosperous, but in the middle of the 1800’s the business people did not want to contribute to the construction of a rail line. The rail line bypassed Suzdal and that was the end of its economic boom. Buildings didn’t change and there was only very limited new ... read more