Russia Research Trip Day 6

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 3:50 p.m.

Sailing Baltic-Volga Waterway, #Russia, Viking ship Rurik stateroom

My husband got a cold this morning, so he didn’t go with me to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Here are some of the pictures I took while there.

The Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery is the biggest monastery in Russia. At its most populated, it housed 200 monks. Today, there are 15 monks who live there. We learned about Eastern Orthodox icons while there as well as embroidery. You had to pay to take pictures inside, which I opted not to do.

As we walked back to the bus, I met this sweet guy! After I gave him some nice pats and told him what a хорошo (kho-roh-shoh) boy he was, he followed me for a bit. He even held out his hand for me to shake!

After the monastery, my group went to a museum, which was set up like a 19th Century merchant’s house. It was very informative to see the layout, especially the kitchen. It helped me better understand the Russian fairy tale I read yesterday called At the Pike’s Behest. Now, I get what the story meant when it said Yemelia didn’t want to come down from sleeping on the stove.

The tour guide at the museum told us that 30 percent of the population in Kirillov still don't have running water. They get their drinking water from wells or from the lake and have to boil it. And they wash their linens in the lake even if they have to cut a hole in the ice to do so! Brrrrr.

As we left the merchant’s house museum, it started to snow big, fat snowflakes, and when I got off the bus again, I met this guy!

On the way to the bus, we passed through some merchant stalls. One guy’s samovars caught my eye and he showed me some old coins he had from the 1700s!

After boarding the boat, I went to lunch, and it was all I could do to avoid a conversation about religion with the couple who ate with us. There are too many days left in this trip for me to fight with someone...