We went to Novgorod yesterday by a three-hour bus ride. The countryside was beautiful, even though some of the houses were leaning to one side or totally dilapidated. There were some interesting sights along the way, such as a car wrapped around a telephone pole, or a semi truck back on the side of the road without wheels or a truck that looked like it had fallen off right there and they didn’t know what to do with it. My personal favorite was the chicken house. It was a little house with chicken feet.
Novgorod was pretty but little, the only thing to do there is go do a zillion different churches (okay really like 10 or 13, but how many churches does one own really need?). We did get to hear the history of the place a little. It was the oldest city in Russia, with the oldest surviving cathedral (St. Sophia’s), and the inner Kremlin wall. There were five churches on the other side of the river, including one that it is supposed that if you run around it three times you will find a rich and handsome husband. Some of the girls did do this, it was fun to watch.
We had a hard time finding a place to eat for some of the group members, because there is really only like two places to eat. It was as Charlie said “A true Soviet Town. Lots of pretty parks and monuments, with nothing to eat or drink.” However, we did find two good, cheap food places in the end.
I went souvenir shopping and got a spoon and shot glass. I was contemplating getting some more items, before I realized they were basically fake stuff glued on to something else.
We came back to St. Pete and a few of us went out to eat at the “CCCR” or USSR café on Nevsky (sp?). It was expensive and not so great on food or service. We then caught the metro back and realized that it was doing its last stop at our station. Which we thought we had another 20 minutes or so, but apparently not. But hey, we got back in plenty of time!
See you around the globe!
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