Pskov!

We left Petersburg Saturday morning and took a very warm bus to Pskov--a smaller city (only 200,000 people compared Petersburg's 5 million) southwest of Petersburg.  Pskov is near and dear to Jesse's heart because he served there for 8 months on his mission--quite a long time by mission standards! I was very excited to see the place I'd heard so many stories about.  We arrived that afternoon and did a lot of dragging our suitcases around in a little bit of mud, on and off buses until we found our hotel, which was in a part of the town that Jesse was less familiar with.  I didn't take any pictures, but it was little and quiet (and unairconditioned and more humid than Petersburg meaning we got lots of mosquito bites...) and overall very comfortable (minus the bites) and had the awesomest shower I've ever been in! I'm seriously upset I forgot to take a picture of it.  There was a seat to sit down on and jets for your back and awesomeness.  

Anyways.  The first night we got there we actually discovered that it was the city's festival day, complete with local handmade merchandise, cotton candy and icecream (russian popsicles are the best EVER) and Russian music and dancing! Some of the music was just Russian pop music, which pretty much combines all the worst elements of bad american pop in the worst way possible...but there was ALSO lots of Russian folk dancing and music! It was SO awesome. It was definitely a side of Russian culture that I wouldn't have gotten to see if we hadn't randomly come that day, and one that really helped me formulate more of my view of Russians as a people.  It was sweet.

Ok.  Moving on to the photo dump.

This is random, but on Sunday we went to the local branch of our church, which Jesse knew the location of but not the time.  We got there 2 hours early and so got to sit on the stoop for an hour til someone got there early to open the building.  This is the view from the stoop. Minus all of the rubbish on the ground (from where it seems someone replaced the roof of the house but didn't find a big enough trash bin to remove it) this is a lot of what Russia looks like.  Not a lot of money, and not enough infrastructure to be really benefited by capitalism.  That's really another discussion entirely, but I did still find the view interesting. 

We really only had one day in Pskov (since the previous day was Sunday and we really needed to use it as a day of rest after so much traveling!) so on Monday we went out and saw some of the old parts of the city! This castle wall was begun around 900 ad.  Like a thousand years ago.  Like 600 years before people even thought about maybe founding my country.  No big deal.

And this, my friends, is a real life babuska.  Yes, they are as cool as they look.  There were actually a ton of them in Moscow, and they get themselves places and are tough and awesome and old.

A sweet russian orthodox church! This one is still in use and I wasn't wearing a skirt and didn't have a scarf to cover my hair (requirements for Orthodox women to enter) so we couldn't go in, but Jesse assures me it's even more awesome inside. 

Yep.  We stared at it a lot. 

Battlements!

A little old possibly abandoned church in the middle of the city.  The picturesque-ness makes me sigh.  *sigh*

An old castle tower, just sittin' there in the middle of a field!

That afternoon, we took a bus outside of the city a little to see the monument built by the Soviets in honor of Alexander Nevksy, who went out on the FROZEN lake to battle the oncoming Teutonic knights and their cavalry with his infantry.  Oh, and did I mention the lake was FROZEN?!  Yeah, and Nevsky still won.  They had really big spears and braced them in the ice and speared the horses and riders as they came at them over the ice! Needless to say, the knights saw that this was going to be a fight they didn't actually want to fight after all, so they retreated.  Go crazy Nevsky!

Oh yeah, and the monument...it's really big.

Russians really just like to build big, impressive stuff, I think.

And lastly, the serene view we had looking back towards Pskov.  It was wonderful.  

I really enjoyed getting this glimpse at Russia that wasn't just comprised of the tourist-y places and such.  I feel like I got a little more insight on actual life in Russia this way!