today marks to the beginning of the next leg of our trip, and Russia which was our first country as a group was amazing.
From start to finish, Russia was funny, exciting, eye opening and much different than i had expected. As i got off the train i tried to tune in and listen to some of the russian being spoke around me, and i heard someone say something that sounded like "rocky" and then i heard this hilarious russian national music. the entire situation made me think of Rocky beating up the Russian dude, and i started howling in the train station. From there things kept getting better.
When we walked into the train station, to my left was a beautiful mural of Lenin and to my right was a row of five or six cameras watching my every move.
In my first five minutes in Russia, i had encountered many of the things that i had expected: nationalism, Government surveillance and the remnants of it's communist past. Then, as the next five minutes rolled by, i was abruptly slapped in the face with realizations about Russia's present state that i had not expected. First, the rumored mob controlled services, like the metro the train systems, and building companies had allowed for much of St. Petersburg to stay very much the same as it had been at the start of the cold war, which by now was suffering greatly from the decay of time and weathering. and Finally that there was practically no middle class and that the two major socioeconomic classes were very rich and very poor. The latter being the majority. It was a major reality check to see that a G8 country and a country that had a powerful standing in world politics could lack so many social programs, which also made me realize that Russia at this point in it's history was much farther from any form of socialist than America.
From then on in Russia, my trip continued to be awesome, but made me realize how lucky i am in America and how many things i have taken for granted. We met up with Mark's aunt Anna, Sergei, and his beautiful cousin Sveta. They welcomed us with more than open arms, feeding us lots, which Mark's mom made sure of. We stayed at there apartment for a couple of days, it was fun trying to understand them when they spoke Russian, which failed miserably and exploring Russian food, which was simple but very tasty: Blinies (russian pancakes), which were a close cousin to crepes and blintzes (yea jewish food). Then came the city.
St. Petersburg is a very old and beautiful city, the canals, the churches, the shopping. It was amazing to see the buildings that were built by the Tsars. Like the Hermitage which was a beautiful expression of Peter the firsts dedication to making St. Petersburg ascetically western. But after St. Petersburg came the Russia i had been waiting for.
The third night of our trip was spent traveling to a little village called Kamenka, where the majority of Mark's mothers family lived. It was mix of powerless homes and powerful looking apartment buildings that the Bolsheviks had built in the mid 20th century. We stayed at his cousins apartment on the first night, which included; meeting his babushka, who was an amazingly strong person, and tasting my first sip of Russian Vodka, which was much less umpfy than i had expected, it was actually really taste. Then when we woke up, we were invited into the daily rituals of Mark's family. First we went to his grandma's house, who like his mother fed us way to much :). We had Blinies, these little salted white fish and home made juice. Then came the cows. Every morning the village is visited by a bunch of cows and if you come out and milk them then you can keep the milk, I really wanted to milk one, but the lady told Mark as she laughed at me, that if were to milk the cow, that didn't know me, it would probably sit on me; so i pet it instead. Then there was Mark's Babushka's garden. It was amazing. Dad you would have not wanted to leave. It was full of everything imaginable, and the entire thing was tended to by just one 75 year old women, and finally we had to leave. On our final day in Russia, which was spent in St. Petersburg, we went to the Hermitage. Like the Louvre, it was originally a castle, which is beautiful, but not always the best for a museum. We sadly only had two hours to spend to we went only to the very important things and saved the rest for later. Much to my chagrin, we saw no Munch and all of the Talous Latrec, which apparently the Hermitage has a lot of, was in storage and not yet on display, but they had a lot of Matisse's work and some of Picasso's pottery, which i love.
Now, after all that excitement, we are back in Helsinki, and getting ready to take the next leg of our trip. I just bought a new Finnish made backpack that i got a rediculous deal on, because Mark knows the owner and at 4 we are hoping on an all night ferry to Stockholm.
I hope all is well with everyone at home, and Mark and I will be hopefully be posting photos today.
Love,
Aaron
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