For my next very late blog entry I'll talk about the Aleksandro-Svirsky Monastery and a really cool B-440 Foxtrot class Soviet submarine we got to go on.
The monastery, as I'm sure you can see from all the other amazing posts about it, was truly an incredible experience. It was founded in 1497, and as you can see from the pictures, the monastery was gorgeous in its old age, despite all the cracks and slightly faded murals.
We also had four professional singers perform for us. I believe Craig wanted to upload a video of them singing, so you should stalk his posts until you find that one; they were great!
If I could, I'd rave about the monastery for hours, but seeing as there are already so many posts about how beautiful it is, I'll move on to the submarine, which was definitely awesome.
One thing I really love about being in Russia is that there seem to be no rules with museums. Whereas in America, if you go to a submarine-turned-museum, there would be signs all over saying "NO TOUCHING" and strict people yelling at you for getting too close to exhibits. In Russia, they know we are extremely curious about everything, and they seem to really embrace it. They encouraged us to touch everything, and even helped us make announcements when it was time for us to go. We also got go look through the periscope, which was really cool.
Apparently they used to sell souvenirs at one time, and here's a picture of one of them. We all thought it was adorable, and we wish they still sold them!
Your blogs are fantastic! I feel like I'm on the trip with you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the journey!