Impressions

Travel is a very intensive experience. I’m impacted with more impressions here in a day than I have in a month at home. Yesterday we took advantage of the very warm sunny weather to get out and about in the city. Our first stop was the Moscow Railway Station where I bought round trip tickets to the village of Borovichi where I plan to visit from July 3rd to 7th. The trip each way takes about five hours. I paid 500 for these tickets (about $18).
Next we tried to register my passport but the office was closed. Then we scouted out a little excursion I plan for a few of the more adventurous members of the choir of the Presbyterian Church of the Master (hereafter PCOM). We went one metro stop from their hotel and walked to the last apartment of Dostoevsky which is now a museum where we inquired about a guide and found we’ll have to call somebody Monday. After walking through a big farmers market and looking in the old Vladimir Church we walked a few blocks to Tanya’s brother’s apartment. Their big collie dog there I played with on previous trips greeted me excitedly. I really think she remembered me.
After a brief visit with Sasha and his wife Natasha and her daughter Lida, a chemistry student at a university, Tanya and I went to Mollie’s Irish Bar where I enjoyed a wonderful Kilkenny beer and Tanya had a small Guiness and we shared some snacks.
From there we strolled along Nevsky Prospekt, the main street of St. Petersburg. We stopped to go inside the hugh Kazan Cathedral. This old cathedral, modeled after St. Peter’s in the Vatican was turned into the Museum of Atheism in 1932. Now it has been returned to the Orthodox Church and there are always worshipers inside lighting candles and saying prayers. Sometimes there is a worship service in progress and the beautiful sound of a choir. Russian orthodox churches are very ornate with all kinds of icons and paintings on the walls. There are no pews. Worshipers stand and move around during services.
From the Kazan Cathedral we walked to a very different kind of church, The Evangelical Lutheran St. Mary’s Church in St. Petersburg. In front of the church we saw a photo of the PCOM choir announcing their concert this coming Tuesday. This is an old church. Peter the Great, who founded St. Petersburg in 1703 granted to Lutherans (from Finland) the right to practice their own religion. In 1938 the church was closed and Soviet officials turned it into a residential home and later into a venue for natural history exhibitions. Tanya told me of attending several such exhibitions there. In 1990 the church was re-founded. The interior looks as if it were recently restored. It is nearly all white, with neat rows of pews, and large painting of the resurrected Christ in front of the congregation. It is as austere as the orthodox church is ornate – a striking contrast. Services are held there in Finnish, Russian, and occasionally in English. We’re looking forward to the PCOM choir’s concert there.
After continuing our leisurely stroll through the city, took the metro home and arrived just as it started raining. There was a hard rain for about two hours in the evening which cleared the air. The weather is much cooler today with big puffy white clouds drifting across the sky.
I slept well last night. Night here doesn’t mean darkness. According to the newspaper the sun will set today at 11:25 p.m. and rise at 4:36 a.m. It only gets really dark for about three hours. So the trick to sleeping is to have a darkened room or put something over ones eyes. I did the latter with a little “eye cover” from Aeroflot airlines.
Today Tanya’s mother, Anastasia Yevseyevna, arrived by train from Baronovichi in Belarus. She is a cheerful and energetic woman whom I like very much. She brought souvenirs for all of us, pails of fresh sweet strawberries, and even about two dozen eggs which she said were more tasty because they are from a village.
So these are just the highlights of my experiences in the last 24 hours. I’ve had many more impressions than I have time or ability to share.