Vladimir
Saturday, April 23rd
My morning started at 6:30am, but I was wide awake and ready to go. Today we were going to visit Vladimir. For those of you who do not know much about this place here is a brief history. It was founded in 1108 by Владимир Мономах (Vladimir Monomach). It is located Northeast from Moscow, about 180km, on the shores of the river Клязьма (Klyazma). The golden age for Vladimir was in the 12th century when Князья Андрей Боголюбский (Prince Andrei Bogolobskii) and Всеволод Большое Гнездо (literally translates as Vsyevolod of the big nest) built churches, monasteries, and restored and decorated the city.
Vladimir is really well-known for the Golden Gate, (the picture is shown to the right) which was built by Prince Bogolobskee. It was through this gate that Princes Александр Невский (Aleksandr Hevskii) и Дмитри Донской (Dmitri Donskoi) made their entrance into Vladimir. In the 15th century Kievan Rus separated into two different regions of power. Those areas were Vladimir and Novgorod.
Alrighty, so now that you know why it is an important city in Russian culture let's get down to what happened while I was there! My lovely group of Americans met us with a woman from our Foreign Faculty named Tatiana. Marina wasn't coming with us this time. We met Tatiana at a metro station where we then met up with students of hers who were all natives of Russia. Their English was really good, and that was because they had spent quite a bit of time in the US studying the language and culture. We got on a day train which took about 3 hours. It was so packed. People were bringing plants, suitcases, and food of all sorts to their Dachas for the weekend. This made perfect sense since it was Pascha (Easter) weekend. It was very difficult to sit together considering the amount of people there, but we got through it. We had to switch trains only once, which went smoothly. When we got to Vladimir Tatiana had a huge pile of papers of all the churches she wanted to take us to. However, everyone was starving as it was just after noon. We decided to just walk around for a little while until we were able to find a restaurant. We walked into one which from the outside didn't look like much, but once we got inside and our native friends took a look at the menu, they ran out of there. It wasn't because the food was something horribly unusual, it was because it was a 5 star restaurant that no one would have been able to afford! After wandering some more we found a really neat small restaurant. It was partly underground, the ceilings were low and lined with brick. The tables were all small but on each corner of the place were black, comfy couches. The people there automatically deemed us as tourists which was true even for the Russian natives we were with, but we couldn't help but feel that it was incredibly rude. We however stayed, because the owner offered us business lunch for 200 rubles which consisted of a salad which was a small plate of cole slaw, a soup, and the main course turned out to be chicken with cheese and a fresh cut tomato on top, with rice on the side. It took about an hour for us to get our food, because they like to make everything fresh. Of course it was unfortunate that we spent that much time inside when there was so much to see of the city, but the food was delicious and well worth the wait.
At this point we left and went around to see many different churches. Unfortunately, I don't know what they are called, but here are some pictures to enjoy:
From the outside, this church had to one of my favorites. If you look really closely it is possible to see all the details in the marble.
The picture above and to the left is the oldest church in Vladimir. It is unfortunately no longer open and working. One of the Russian girls told me that all the money the city is collecting is going to the monasteries and it is there that they are renovating the churches, and putting flower beds around the monastery.
This is one of the monasteries that we visited:
It was here that we witnessed the blessing of the Pachal baskets. Once the service was drawing to a close, we went inside. Oleg, Rachel's Russian boyfriend came with us, and knowing that I was Orthodox was very sweet and bought a candle for me to light. I venerated all of the icons, said a few prayers and lite the candle for my family and friends back home.
Behind the church was a beautiful view of the oldest part of Vladimir:
There were mostly houses there and a few churches.
It was within this monastery that we visited a few other churches as well. We ran into another service of the blessing of the Paschal baskets, but this time there were only three families there, so there was plenty of room. We waited patiently while the priest was blessing the baskets, but he didn't skip us! He reminded me of a particular priest from my childhood who would always go crazy when it came time to bless the baskets and the people. He would make sure that everyone would get blessed, and his children especially would get soaked. Every single one of us got in the face. Even Tara who was the farthest away. The priest made sure that she got an extra splash of holy water. The inside of this church was being renovated. It was painted completely white, except for one wall where it was painted with pictures from the bible. It looked beautiful, and I'm sure once it's finished, it will look great. Soon afterwards we entered an even smaller church. There was a nun inside who pointed to the wall behind us. All the way to the top of the ceiling were cabinets that were filled with human skulls and bones. She explained that there was a prison here in Vladimir. The prisoners were martyred, so now all of their bones rest in that church.
While walking from church to church we came across some very interesting things. Oleg became really excited when he saw this restaurant and made me take a picture of it.
It's called Hedgehogs in the Fog. Oleg explained it as being a very famous cartoon in Russia. What makes it so famous is that no one knows what it is about, but alas, people love it anyway.
Before we knew it we were out of time, and had to head back to the train station. For the first hour, I sat with the 6 Russian girls and spoke to them in Russian. I was really proud of myself, and I can say for sure that my Russian speaking skills have improved immensely since I have been here. Of course here and there I had to say something in English just because I didn't have the vocabulary for it, but it was a lot of fun, and I wish that I could do that more often. After the first hour we had to get off and switch trains. Everyone except for Tatiana, Spencer, and I went to use the bathroom. We were waiting for like 10 minutes when we all of a sudden saw Chris by himself on the platform for the train. Spencer shouted over to him, and the Russian girls called Tatiana, saying that the were on the train and it had already left. Crap. We went on the platform with Chris, and ended up waiting for about 30minutes until the next train came to let us on. We ended up having to switch trains about 3 times before we made it back to Moscow. Instead of it taking 3 hours it was closer to 5 hours. It wasn't torture, thankfully. By that time of night there were only a couple people on board, so we were able to chat, be silly and loud. My dinner that night comprised of chocolate chip cookies that I bought in Vladimir, chocolate candy from Tatiana, and gummy bears that Spencer bought. Yum. We made it back to the dorms around 1am.
It was overall a really nice day trip, and was so much better than spending the day in Moscow with nothing to do.
My morning started at 6:30am, but I was wide awake and ready to go. Today we were going to visit Vladimir. For those of you who do not know much about this place here is a brief history. It was founded in 1108 by Владимир Мономах (Vladimir Monomach). It is located Northeast from Moscow, about 180km, on the shores of the river Клязьма (Klyazma). The golden age for Vladimir was in the 12th century when Князья Андрей Боголюбский (Prince Andrei Bogolobskii) and Всеволод Большое Гнездо (literally translates as Vsyevolod of the big nest) built churches, monasteries, and restored and decorated the city.Vladimir is really well-known for the Golden Gate, (the picture is shown to the right) which was built by Prince Bogolobskee. It was through this gate that Princes Александр Невский (Aleksandr Hevskii) и Дмитри Донской (Dmitri Donskoi) made their entrance into Vladimir. In the 15th century Kievan Rus separated into two different regions of power. Those areas were Vladimir and Novgorod.
Alrighty, so now that you know why it is an important city in Russian culture let's get down to what happened while I was there! My lovely group of Americans met us with a woman from our Foreign Faculty named Tatiana. Marina wasn't coming with us this time. We met Tatiana at a metro station where we then met up with students of hers who were all natives of Russia. Their English was really good, and that was because they had spent quite a bit of time in the US studying the language and culture. We got on a day train which took about 3 hours. It was so packed. People were bringing plants, suitcases, and food of all sorts to their Dachas for the weekend. This made perfect sense since it was Pascha (Easter) weekend. It was very difficult to sit together considering the amount of people there, but we got through it. We had to switch trains only once, which went smoothly. When we got to Vladimir Tatiana had a huge pile of papers of all the churches she wanted to take us to. However, everyone was starving as it was just after noon. We decided to just walk around for a little while until we were able to find a restaurant. We walked into one which from the outside didn't look like much, but once we got inside and our native friends took a look at the menu, they ran out of there. It wasn't because the food was something horribly unusual, it was because it was a 5 star restaurant that no one would have been able to afford! After wandering some more we found a really neat small restaurant. It was partly underground, the ceilings were low and lined with brick. The tables were all small but on each corner of the place were black, comfy couches. The people there automatically deemed us as tourists which was true even for the Russian natives we were with, but we couldn't help but feel that it was incredibly rude. We however stayed, because the owner offered us business lunch for 200 rubles which consisted of a salad which was a small plate of cole slaw, a soup, and the main course turned out to be chicken with cheese and a fresh cut tomato on top, with rice on the side. It took about an hour for us to get our food, because they like to make everything fresh. Of course it was unfortunate that we spent that much time inside when there was so much to see of the city, but the food was delicious and well worth the wait.
At this point we left and went around to see many different churches. Unfortunately, I don't know what they are called, but here are some pictures to enjoy:
From the outside, this church had to one of my favorites. If you look really closely it is possible to see all the details in the marble.
The picture above and to the left is the oldest church in Vladimir. It is unfortunately no longer open and working. One of the Russian girls told me that all the money the city is collecting is going to the monasteries and it is there that they are renovating the churches, and putting flower beds around the monastery.
This is one of the monasteries that we visited:
It was here that we witnessed the blessing of the Pachal baskets. Once the service was drawing to a close, we went inside. Oleg, Rachel's Russian boyfriend came with us, and knowing that I was Orthodox was very sweet and bought a candle for me to light. I venerated all of the icons, said a few prayers and lite the candle for my family and friends back home.
Behind the church was a beautiful view of the oldest part of Vladimir:
There were mostly houses there and a few churches.
It was within this monastery that we visited a few other churches as well. We ran into another service of the blessing of the Paschal baskets, but this time there were only three families there, so there was plenty of room. We waited patiently while the priest was blessing the baskets, but he didn't skip us! He reminded me of a particular priest from my childhood who would always go crazy when it came time to bless the baskets and the people. He would make sure that everyone would get blessed, and his children especially would get soaked. Every single one of us got in the face. Even Tara who was the farthest away. The priest made sure that she got an extra splash of holy water. The inside of this church was being renovated. It was painted completely white, except for one wall where it was painted with pictures from the bible. It looked beautiful, and I'm sure once it's finished, it will look great. Soon afterwards we entered an even smaller church. There was a nun inside who pointed to the wall behind us. All the way to the top of the ceiling were cabinets that were filled with human skulls and bones. She explained that there was a prison here in Vladimir. The prisoners were martyred, so now all of their bones rest in that church.
While walking from church to church we came across some very interesting things. Oleg became really excited when he saw this restaurant and made me take a picture of it.
It's called Hedgehogs in the Fog. Oleg explained it as being a very famous cartoon in Russia. What makes it so famous is that no one knows what it is about, but alas, people love it anyway.
Before we knew it we were out of time, and had to head back to the train station. For the first hour, I sat with the 6 Russian girls and spoke to them in Russian. I was really proud of myself, and I can say for sure that my Russian speaking skills have improved immensely since I have been here. Of course here and there I had to say something in English just because I didn't have the vocabulary for it, but it was a lot of fun, and I wish that I could do that more often. After the first hour we had to get off and switch trains. Everyone except for Tatiana, Spencer, and I went to use the bathroom. We were waiting for like 10 minutes when we all of a sudden saw Chris by himself on the platform for the train. Spencer shouted over to him, and the Russian girls called Tatiana, saying that the were on the train and it had already left. Crap. We went on the platform with Chris, and ended up waiting for about 30minutes until the next train came to let us on. We ended up having to switch trains about 3 times before we made it back to Moscow. Instead of it taking 3 hours it was closer to 5 hours. It wasn't torture, thankfully. By that time of night there were only a couple people on board, so we were able to chat, be silly and loud. My dinner that night comprised of chocolate chip cookies that I bought in Vladimir, chocolate candy from Tatiana, and gummy bears that Spencer bought. Yum. We made it back to the dorms around 1am.
It was overall a really nice day trip, and was so much better than spending the day in Moscow with nothing to do.
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