Our train out to Suzdal was WAY nicer than I thought it would be. In my excessive need to always know what is going on, I had googgled Suzdal and came across the little tidbit that the train to Vladimir (where you catch a bus to Suzdal) is bathroom-less. Obviously, this is not ok and I proceeded to dehydrate myself for the entire day. At the train station Ben told us that our train was actually continuing on farther and therefore would have a bathroom. I promptly bought a liter of water and downed it. Ok, just kidding, but I did drink around a liter on the 2 hour train ride.
The train itself was NICE! Six seats in a compartment, no gross feeling like you don't really want to touch anything, and the bathroom was decently clean for a public bathroom. The train back wasn't as nice, and we were sitting with this babushka who laughed at me as I tried to figure out how to use the Russian nasal spray that would make my head reattach to my body. But over all, pretty satisfied. We were supposed to take a bus from Vladimir to Suzdal but alas, the bus was all booked except for standing room only. On an hour long ride. So Ben and his gf (who came with us) did some quick thinking and we got two taxis instead and split them 7 ways, making them quite inexpensive. We did the same thing on the way back and the 30 minute drive in a taxi was well worth the $8 spent on it. Much better than standing next to a chicken on a crowded bus (disclaimer: I don't know if there are actually chickens on the bus, but it's highly possible. Or a goat.)
We settled in to this very rustic cabin - cute and Russian and FILLED with pictures of the Madonna and child. I like Jesus and Mary as much as the next Christian but I was a little freaked out. Luckily at night I was so pooped I didn't think about the staring pictures and have nightmares. Every morning this cute little babushka made us a super traditional Russian breakfast - meats and cheese and (of course) cucumbers and pickles; blini (like crepes) with a cottage cheese-esque filling and fruit preserves. Yum.
The first night we found a little place on a hill to eat at and we liked it so much that we stayed until closing time (only 11 - apparently staying up late is a Moscow thing not a Russia thing). We hung out, chatted, etc, and learned a lot of interesting things. I got a lot closer to the group as a whole this trip. Since I'm not living in the dorms I'm not around a lot but we were living together this weekend and I got to know people better. Anyway, it was a pretty good first night and it was amazing how clean and fresh the air was. We wandered around downtown and got a feel for it too, well as much as possible since everything was closed! Seriously, where are the 24 hour grocery stores and flower shops (because everyone should be able to buy flowers at 4 am)
Finally - the cucumber festival! I donned my green skirt in celebration of the occasion and obediently put on my hat before venturing out into the sunny streets of Cucumber land. We only spent a little time in the festival itself - lots of pickles, very few cucumbers, a demonstration on how to make a cucumber into a pickle quickly, some people dressed up like cucumbers, cool old buildings that have nothing to do with cucumbers, fair games, etc etc. There were lots of vendors inside and out of the festival and I did some serious browsing before picking out a few presents that I think people will like.
We grabbed some lunch and headed down to the river where we lounged, swam, got stung by bees (that was just me), and bitten by ants (that was a couple of people) before deciding that we were pretty much done with that. We wandered back to the booths and browsed. Several hours late, hot and tired, and maybe a little bit grumpy we returned home. We were supposed to go in the banya, a Russian sauna/hang out thing but decided that since it was so hot and we were starving and wouldn't have time to get dinner, that we would forgo it. It's definitely something I want to do at some point, maybe on this trip, but the last thing I really wanted to do was be even hotter, so I'm glad we passed on it.
We headed a little farther from home for dinner, to a place the landlord recommended, which was ok food-wise but had the SASSIEST waitress ever. She looked at us like we were the devil incarnate when we tried to give her 500r to pay for something that was 250r. (For your reference, 500r is essentially $20) Apparently I'm not the only person who hates those who get between them and food when they are hungry, as everyone else was annoyed too. We finished quickly, hit the grocery store for snacks and then settled into semi-coma states. We tried unsuccessfully to play at least 4 games and then just settled in to talking before heading to bed decently early. A long day in the sun plus lots of walking pretty much did us in.
This morning we got up, had the blini, and headed back to Moscow. I met Dad in the elevator and immediately turned around to go to a Formula 1 car race at the Kremlin. It was pretty cool, at least what we could see of it, and we kept moving around to get better views. At one point we ended up in the very front row right on the side of the "track" (aka street) which was awesome and we thought it was the best ever. Then we moved to a place where we were farther away but it was apparently donut alley because all of the drivers were spinning countless donuts there. The whole thing was less of a race and more of a show, but there was lots of fast driving. We walked around a little before hitting the grocery store and coming home for dinner.
A quiet evening to a busy weekend was just what I needed and I made my presentation which is due Tuesday, ate dinner, made some salsa (that just tastes like tomatoes so is apparently a fail) because salsa is really expensive/hard to find, and now I'm planning on taking a shower and hitting the sack. Thankfully, we have tomorrow morning off of school so I can sleep in and do some work and maybe go for a run in the morning. Or maybe I'll just lay with my feet out the window and try to get rid of the shoe tan I apparently picked up this weekend! Whoops.
No comments:
Post a Comment