I’ll start this post by telling you all that I had an absolute blast!  I was very apprehensive at first since this was such a costly venture.  Not only did we pay for our travel but also for our tuition and it couldn’t have come at a worse moment (for those of you who don’t know…our sewer main here at home is clay and on the verge of complete collapse…I’m looking at a VERY costly repair for the damn thing and unfortunately cannot dig up the street myself and will need to hire professionals).  Before I left I was really questioning whether or not this trip/class was really going to be worth the money.  Looking back, I would go again in a heart beat.

During this trip I learned so much about business.  Not only did I learn about doing business in Russia and the headaches that can often be involved, but I developed a new found appreciation for my own country and its business environment.  Although I may not always agree with many of the rules and regulations for doing business in the US, but at least they are predictable.  I can’t even imagine operating a business in which fees (bribes really) can change on a whim.

I also take from this trip a few new relationships.  This paragraph is officially dedicated to my host family in Syktyvkar for their unparalleled generosity, love, and hospitality!  This is for you Elena and Mary!  Thank you both so much for opening up your home to me and showing me around town.  My stay with you in Syktyvkar was the highlight of my trip and it was all because of you!  I’ll be back someday…it may take me a few years but I’ll get there again!

Although time and space doesn’t warrant me the ability to post every detail of the trip (there is in fact a space limit to this blog and I’m sure I’ll max it out someday), I think I’ve done a pretty good job painting the big picture for you all throughout the past two weeks.  I do want to take a moment and share a few of my favorite random moments that I will never forget:

• Our epic night at the “Ugly” (otherwise known as Coyote Ugly) and getting back to the hotel from there
• We got to “make a picture” everywhere we went
• Never quite knowing how to flush the toilet
• And then the toilet situation…or lack of toilet situation…in Yb
• The crazy bus driver who I’m pretty sure passed someone on the right
• Chuck’s digger he took on the sidewalk and the resulting “skid marks” on his shirt from his great crash
• One group’s attempt to run across about 10 lanes of road (Have they seen how Russians drive in the city?  What were they thinking?!)
• Fish, pasta, spaghetti and other random dinner type items for breakfast (I missed “American” breakfast so bad!  I just wanted some eggs and bacon with a great cup of coffee!)
• The light blue cap meant I was buying still water and the darker blue cap meant gas water (we call it sparkling or club soda)
• Getting out of the shower was a carefully crafted activity…the tubs are much taller in Russia than in the US and when you’re used to a shorter distance…well, let’s just say things can get a little scary
• Baltika 7 beer = yummy cheap beer
• Pointing to what you want to eat can get you a long way in a foreign country (just because you’re in Russia doesn’t mean you should play Russian roulette with the menu…sometimes you might just end up with mustard)
• In the span of 48 hours we traveled by plane, bus, train, car and boat…I just thought that was pretty cool and wanted to share
• Amazing bus drivers (Slava) can really make for an amazing trip
• The boat ride…what can I say…it was the perfect ending to a fabulous trip
• Mystery meat is surprisingly yummy…especially with the added spice
• If you find the right spot you can eat a HUGE meal for less than $2
• The “governor” is not a hag of an old lady who tried to push her way around us at Peterhof (man…I can’t end with this one…must…think…of…one…more…memory…..)
• Ahhhh…I got nothing….oh well

Before I close I also want to thank all of the people who made this trip what it was.  “Uncle” John and “Papa” Andre (otherwise known as torturer #1 and torturer #2) were instrumental in making this trip what it was.  I know behind them were a slew of people that helped make everything come together.  I’m not going to name everyone because I know I will miss someone and then they’ll feel bad which will make me feel bad and nobody likes to feel bad.  But if you’re reading this, you know who you are so thank you SOOOOOO much!

With this I bid Russia a loving da svidaniya and hope that someday I will get to go back and show of the homeland to Colby!  I know he’ll love it!  Especially St. Petersburg.  I take with me from this trip new knowledge, a few new friends, and priceless memories that I will forever cherish.  I’m sad to say that my travel blogging days are over, unless someone out there works for a travel magazine and needs a professional blogger!  I’m totally for hire as long as my travel is paid for so call me and we’ll chat!  So now it’s back to our regularly scheduled program of DIY misadventures.  Russian traveler officially out!

Psst…I can’t possibly have a blog post without a picture…that would be sacrilegious.  So I leave you with this one:

We were all officially tired by the time we had reached our 35th straight hour of traveling.  This was in LaGuardia airport waiting for our flight to Maine. 

It’s a little blurry because we couldn’t use flash inside the building, but you get the picture (haha).  This painting was my favorite in the museum and it was massive, probably about 10 ft x 6 ft.  I can’t find my notes on who created this and I tried Googling it but can’t figure it out.  I’ll have to get back to you on that one.  But I do really love this painting.  Why?  I thought it was fun and less formal than many of the other paintings.  I also liked the comical feel of the whole series of these paintings.  The dog also kind of, somewhat looks like mine!

Post Hermitage we had some time to kill before our boat ride on the canals.  Since we were departing from the area surrounding St. Isaac’s Cathedral we parked the bus there and took a few minutes to cruise around, snap some pictures, and enjoy our last few hours in St. Pete.  Here is my best shot so far of St. Isaac’s:

Just across from the grassy park by the cathedral is the Bronze Horseman:

This is one of St. Petersburg’s iconic statues of Peter The Great.  It’s found on many souvenirs, postcards, and even guide book covers.  Under the horse’s hoof is the serpent of treason, which Peter is stomping on.  This statue really captures the spirit of the city’s uncompromising, willful founder of the city.

Next up on the itinerary is the “I’m on a boat” portion of our travels.  Here I am along the canal preparing to load the boat:

And here is our group on the boat:

This picture was taken very early on during the boat ride.  It didn’t take us long before our group was up and about, cheering loudly and loving our boat ride.  Professor Mahon has taken two other student groups to Russia, both of which went on a boat ride.  Both groups sat in their chairs and intently listened to guide, Natasha, narrate the trip through the canals.  Not our group…we’re rebels!  No one was listening to Natasha.  We were too busy yelling and waving to the crowds on the streets, drinking a few adult beverages, and trying not to have our heads taken off as we passed under bridges.  Random shout out to Chuck for saving my life and preventing my head from crashing into a bridge.  I admit, I wasn’t paying attention!  Because of our lack of intention, we invited Natasha up to the deck to join us for the ride!  It was awesome!

Here is a view on the water:

And here is Chuck and Allie enjoying the boat ride:

And Andrei on the boat:

Andrei had mentioned the next day that our group’s boat ride was by far the best boat ride ever.  Go us!  And here is Kim and Rich on the boat:

Oh…and then this was really funny:

Poor boat!  I felt REALLY bad for the owner of this boat especially when he discovers it is sinking, or had sunk, depending on when he finally shows up!  After our boat ride, we all professed our love for the adventure and trekked back to our hotel.  There we said goodbye to our amazing bus driver Slava and our equally amazing tour guide Natasha:

She was amazing and told us that we were a great group and very attentive…until the end!  Ooops.  But at least we had a blast.  We had a little bit of time to grab dinner before we had to grab our luggage from its stored location in the hotel and head to the train station.  About ten of us headed to a local English pub called William Bass, just a block or so down from the hotel.  We were still riding the boat ride high and continued our enthusiasm through dinner.  Here is Stefan and Jacob in the pub:

I ended up ordering the “Manchester” which is a plate of sausage and fries:

It came highly recommended by comrade Gary.  He had been in there the night before and absolutely enjoyed the place so he brought us all back this evening.  Of course being in an English pub I chased the sausage with a pint of Guinness.  Oh my goodness, my Guinness:

Colby would be proud.  It’s his favorite beer.  Or maybe he would be just jealous!  After our yummy, last Russian meal (even though it was really English), we headed over to the train station.  We were waiting for our train on the platform when Gary and Stefan approached carrying roses.  They presented the only three women on the trip: Kim, Allie, and myself each with a Rose.  Cue up the chorus for an obligatory “awwwwwwww”.  They gave us roses for an appreciation of our patience and very high tolerance of their boyish antics.  They weren’t really that bad but maybe I’ve just been preconditioned from working with boys.  Anywho, here we all are with our flowers:

And another shot with just the girls:

It was ironic that they did this because just moments before we headed to the train station I was really jonesing for some girl time and wishing there were more girls on the trip to balance out the hoard of boys, I believe there were 12 of them.  I also came to the conclusion that boys should never be left to their own devices and live together without good women in their lives!

We boarded our train and officially left St. Petersburg:

The train was an overnight train from St. Pete to Moscow that lasted about 8 hours.  When we rolled into Moscow we retraced our steps from arrival and headed to the airport for our 10 hour return flight to JFK, then took a bus from JFK to Laguardia, then left Laguardia for Portland, and finally drove home.  Needless to say we were tired:

From left to right that’s Jacob, Chuck, and Gary taking a power nap waiting for our flight to Portland.  The troops were really tired!

All in all it was a great trip.  I had a fabulous time, made some new friends, and experienced so many new things.  Stay tuned for one more post from the Russia front.  Tomorrow I’ll have a post concluding my Russian experiences.  I would write it now but no telling what I might say since I’m totally sleep deprived, which tends to affect the valve between my brain and my typing fingers.  Until next time…recently returned Russian traveler out.

Yesterday, our last day in St. Petersburg consisted of an uber touristic type of day.  It started here:

On one of the many bridges in St. Petersburg.  If you look across the river you can see the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is on an island and one of St. Petersburg’s oldest hoods.  Here is the first really cool thing:

If I remember correctly, boats used to tie up here when they came in from the sea, but don’t quote me on that one.  I just thought it was really cool.  And here is our group on the bridge with our bus driver, Slava (sp?):

Our bus driver was awesome.  Actually he was more than awesome, he was ridiculously awesome!  Everywhere we went he had amazing comments on history and other interesting stories.  Our entire group thoroughly enjoyed our time with him.  He could also wield that bus around some of the tightest spots!  Here’s to Slava!

We also saw a pink limo on the bridge:

It’s official, I’m moving to St. Pete’s.  Any city with pink limos is my kind of city!

And here’s a shot of Stefan, Allie and Jacob on the bridge:

Our next tourist destination was the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is one of the oldest portions of the city.  Here is a picture of the cathedral, which is very much unlike most Russian cathedrals:

We got to explore both the inside of the cathedral and the grounds inside and outside the fortress walls quite extensively.  Also, this was the first time we were allowed to take pictures inside one o the Russian tourist spots.  Before we move to the interior of the cathedral, here is a picture of John and I outside of it.  He was complaining that I was the only one who hadn’t taken a picture with him so I HAD to do it.  Just kidding, I was happy to take a picture with him:

Those are a couple of good looking people!  So next up, our amazing tour guide Natasha took us through the inside of the cathedral.  Like most cathedrals, the interior was absolutely breathtaking.  This is what we walked into:

The art, architecture, and decorations were all so ornate and beautiful.  I had a difficult time listening to our guide because I couldn’t stop staring up at the ceiling and the chandeliers.  I’m a sucker for ornate buildings and the art/architecture usually distracts me.  The cathedral is a very important one to Russia because it’s where many of the former Tsars are buried.  Here is one tomb area with Peter the Great and his family:

The cathedral also holds the tomb of the Romanovs:

I had heard the story of the Romanovs before but after seeing this tomb and hearing the stories from Natasha I become very much interested in their story.  John was telling us about many of the books about the Romanovs and I may have to pick one up.  But after I thoroughly kick Colby’s butt in beating him in our Time’s top 100 books competition!  Before we left the cathedral, we were treated to a concert by a group of monks:

All I have to say is chills!  It was a stunning concert!  So after the cathedral we were given some time to explore the grounds of the fortress.  We went through the gates:

Which led to a beachy area:

This is a very popular place for the locals to go sun bathing in the warm weather.  Some of our group went for a stroll along the water to “check out the scenery”.  Here I am along the water, which is across from the Hermitage, a massive art museum and former winter palace:

Our next destination was the Church on Spilled Blood:

This is another one of those instances where I really can’t remember.  This church was built as a memorial for someone but I do not recall who.  We only made a quick photo stop here so we didn’t get to go inside.  Here is my best shot of the cathedral:

????

The Hermitage is HUGE!  It’s the former winter palace of Catherine the Great, who had an extensive art collection and most of the building was constructed to hold her private collection.  Now, it’s one the largest art museum’s from collections all over the world including Dutch art, German art, French impressionist art and much more.  We first got a tour of the winter palace.  Below are a few of my favorite rooms including the throne room:

The ballroom:

And a really amazing mosaic floor:

The view from the Hermitage was also amazing:

Ok…this post will have to be continued.  I’m about to board!  Wish me a great flight and I’ll hopefully finish this blog post from NYC in about 10 hours!

Our first stop was to the Leningrad Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry where we were given a great presentation about how the chamber operates and doing business in Russia.  What I really took from this presentation was the nuances between Americans and Russians.  This was the first time we were given such information and it was really helpful.  One of the most insightful comments our presenter made was that it was absolutely necessary to have a business partner if you’re an American doing business in Russia.  I know what you’re thinking, “Angie, we’ve heard this before.”  But how she explained it was different.  You don’t just need a business partner to help you navigate the rules and regulations but you need one for the relationships.  Russians tend to make purchases and choose services based on the relationship with the business or knowing someone who uses that product or business.  For example, a US company can enter Russia with a better product and better price than the Russian company.  However, Russians won’t purchase it because they don’t know the company and have a better relationship with the Russian company.  Interesting.  All in all it was a great presentation and will be very helpful for completing the market entry paper for this course.  Here is Jacob presenting a gift to our presenter (sorry…I couldn’t figure out what her name was when she said…thus the reason for so many shes):

Next up on the schedule was lunch.  A group of us decided to go down to Pizza Hut, mostly because Allie FREAKED our from excitement when she heard there was a Pizza Hut around the corner.  I was surprised I went for two reasons.  One, when I travel to other countries I would rather try new restaurants/cafes than eat at ones which are also back home.  Two, I HATE Pizza Hut.  But I went.  Here is Kim and Allie in our booth:

So I tried it and survey says…..not bad.  I think I actually like Russian Pizza Hut better than American Pizza Hut.  They had a full bar, had a slightly fancier menu than back home, was very nice inside and well decorated (you can kind of see the fancy little bamboo plants on each of our tables), and I even liked the pizza:

Some of the pizzas have different names and toppings.  I had one called Slavic pizza which included tomatoes, green peppers, and ham.  It was actually very yummy.  We also shared a pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade.  I’m pretty sure our Pizza Hut locations back home don’t do that.  But I don’t even remember the last time I was in a Pizza Hut so maybe things have changed.

So back to business.  Our next stop of the day was to Delovoi Peterburg, a small/medium business newspaper, where we were greeted by our presenter Lilia.  After a brief tour of the offices, we buckled down into the conference room.  Lilia runs the small/medium business section of the paper which is a weekly publication, but the entire paper is a daily.  Here is a picture of one of the editions:

For those Bangor area residents, it kind of reminded me of the Edge in style and layout except this paper only covers small business.  We learned a great deal about how small businesses operate in St. Petersburg but mostly about the business climate.  Lilia touched on how difficult it is to do business in Russia with many examples.  One example that really stuck with me was one of a local mini hotel owner.  The man had turned some residential apartments into a mini hotel.  Hotels are greatly in demand in St. Pete by the way.  He filed extensive paperwork, paid many fees, and ended up having criminal charges brought against him because the fire escape he had wasn’t good enough.  Criminal charges!  It blew my mind that they wouldn’t just slap him with a fee and make him fix it.  All in all, a top notch presentation.  Here is Jacob again, presenting a gift from us to Lilia:

Next up was Russkie Prostori, a Russian travel agency that puts together corporate outings to Russia.  I was astounded at the caliber of their clients including George Bush, Rudy Giuliani and many others.  They put together corporate packages for business meetings or travel, most of which go to St. Petersburg and Moscow.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend as much time as we would have liked with them because we were REALLY late.  All day the traffic in St. Petersburg was atrocious.  Apparently, many streets had been shut down because President Medvedev was in town.  Here is a picture of Jacob presenting a gift to Natalia from Russkie Prostori:

Next up was a quick, a very quick dinner, because we were running late for the folk show.  As we were running to grab a bite I snapped this picture of St. Isaac’s Cathedral:

I’m kicking myself for not getting a better picture since we were right there.  Unfortunately, there was no time since the entire day was spent running around.  A few us, actually just one of us….Chuck….took a digger!  He skidded across the uneven pavers with the greatest of ease!  So for dinner, the American food experience continued and a group of us ended up at Subway.  It was pretty much the same as Subway in the United States except that they serve beer:

Hmmmm….what would Jared think about that?  Next up was the folklore show, which we were a bit late for.  I’m running out of blogging time so I’m just going to insert many of the pictures:

Here are some more dancers with Stefan (they had audience participation):

And some more dancers this time with Kevin (he’s getting a smooch):

See the evidence on his face:

And here is Papa Andrei with his “son” Stefan at half time….I mean intermission:

During the intermission we were served champagne, caviar, vodka, you name it.  The spread was amazing and quite fancy.

Here are some more dancers:

And some serious dancing.  These guys were so acrobatic and entertaining.  It’s the traditional Russian dancing that you always see/stereotype.  I believe it’s called Kalinka…or something like that.

And some more dancers:

I’m glad we made it to the show even if we were a bit late.  It was amazing and so much fun!

We got out of the show around 9:00/9:30 pm Russian time and it was still brilliantly light out.  It felt like about 6:00 pm outside.  Now would be a great time to explain “white nights”.  Around this time of year, the amount of daylight far exceeds the amount of night time and it keeps creeping up as summer lingers on.  St. Petersburg is so far North that it’s kind of like living in Alaska.  There are days of sunlight in the summer and then days of darkness in the winter.  It’s really an odd feeling, especially for someone who can’t sleep if there’s any kind of light on.  I usually wake up with the sun so it’s been interesting getting used to having 20+ hours of sunlight each day.

So now it’s Saturday morning as I’m writing this.  I’m all packed up for the endless “day” of traveling.  We’re about to embark on a full day of being tourists in St. Petersburg including a trip to the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Hermitage, and a cruise along the canals.  After that, we’re heading to the train station for a 10 pm train ride to Moscow.  We’ll get into Moscow around 7 am in the morning, will transfer to the airport, where we take a 10 hour flight to New York.  We transfer airports again and then fly out of New York around 10 pm, getting into Portland, Maine.  Colby is picking me up and we’re trekking it back to Brewer.  I calculated it out last night and just the time from when we step onto the train tonight to when we get home to the Bangor area is about 36 hours.  And with no shower!  Ick!  Colby….I am so sorry for the stinky mess of a person you will be picking up tomorrow night.  And don’t foget….please, please, please bring me some clean clothes!  Comfy ones!

So I end this post saying goodbye to Russia since I don’t think I’ll have another opportunity to write before I’m back in the states.  But don’t fret…there will still be some more Russia travel posts to show you all what we did today.

Da Svidaniya Russia!

And here are Kevin and James with their hosts:

The next time I’m in Syktyvkar, I’ll definitely look them up!  I may even have to make a special trip because my host family was that amazing!

This morning our flight left the airport at 7:00 am which meant we needed to be there by 5:40 am.  The airport didn’t even open until 5:30.  I’m pretty sure a few of us in the group hadn’t slept at all, some had a few hours sleep, and a select few were just peachy and rested.  I was in the couple hours of sleep group.  Our plan for the day was to fly to St. Petersburg (only a 1 hour and 40 minute flight), grab our luggage and a bus, then head to Peterhof for the day before checking into our hotel.  FYI…Peterhof is a giant palace with incredibly vast gardens.

Just before we went into the Peterhof we had the opportunity to have lunch.  We stopped at a little cafe on the grounds and grabbed some bellinis (like crepes stuffed with pretty much any kind of food you can imagine…totally yummy).  Then I encountered these rascals:

Yup…those are birds alright…evil little birds!  They kept trying to steal my food!  They were worse than the sea gulls at most clam shacks along the coast of Maine!  I put my food on the table, took three steps to get a fork and they were already pouncing on my grub.  Even after sitting down they kept trying to steal my food.  Completely unacceptable!  It started to reach the annoying state when all you want to do is smack the little buggers despite their cuteness, so I started building barricades using my camera, water bottle, basically whatever I could get.  But that didn’t stop them.  Eventually Allie chose the plastic cup ammunition route which proved much more effective.

Sooooo…back to the palace.  Before I delve into many of the details, here is a picture of the palace, so you have a visual reference to what I’m talking about.

The palace was built for Peter the Great in the early 1700s.  Much of the palace was damaged in the war but much of it has been restored to its original grandeur.  Our group first took a guided tour of the inside of the palace and then moved to the exterior and explored the parks and fountains.  As usual, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace (flash photography + old stuff = fading) but I stole a few pics from Google images (man…I love me some Google images) so you can see what we saw today.  And I have to admit, I was thoroughly impressed.  Peterhof is often compared to Versailles.  Having been to Versailles and now Peterhof, I find that Peterhof is way may ornate and interesting.

Here is the grand staircase, which was our first visual treat inside the palace:

And next up we have the thrown room:

And finally we have the blue dining room:

These three rooms were my favorite rooms inside the palace.  I found most everything to be so ornate and gorgeous.  It was obvious that there was no expense spared in the creation and decoration of the palace.  Also, the whole time we were going through the building I kept imagining what kind of secret passageways there might be and how much fun it would be to explore them all.

After we concluded our tour of the interior of the palace, it was time to go explore all the gardens and fountains.  Here is a picture of myself in front of the massive canal that stems to the sea:

And another picture of the main fountain between the palace and the canal:

And some more fountain shots:

And one more fountain shot with James…I like to call this James & the giant fountain (get it…instead of James & the Giant Peach?  I know…I’m a dork):

We also got to explore the grounds at great lengths, which were just as impressive as the interior of the palace.  We were also blessed with some beautiful weather.  This may be the best time to tell you that we’ve had the most amazing weather the entire trip.  The sun and warmth seems to follow us where ever we go and I’m greatly appreciative!  Especially since I’ve heard that it’s been raining non stop back in Maine.  And cold…I can’t forget the cold.

During our tour of the grounds, we ran into this place:

And I fell deeply, deeply in love with it!  It’s a gazebo and there are four of them surrounding one of the larger fountains.  I absolutely love it’s style, details, and coloring.  Colby…Do you think you can build me one of these?  Well…it was worth an ask.

Our next stop on the tour of the grounds was the Baltic shore, which was incredibly warm…I know…I touched it!  It looked a bit like Kennebunk along the coast.  I know I’ve said this a thousand times, but Russia (at least the area we’ve visited) feels alot like Maine.

After we visited the sea shore, Andrei led us to the trick fountains.  Peter was a great prankster back in the day and created several “trick” fountains, all of which spray non suspecting people as they pass through the grounds or sit on a bench.  Here is one such trick fountain:

The trick was to follow the path exactly as Andrei led us through.  You had to step on the exact rocks that he stepped on because he knew the right ones, or else you would get wet.  The first group passed through until the very end.  My group also attempted it and got soaked.  Yes, that’s right, I was soaking wet in the middle of the Peterhof palace gardens.  It looked like I peed my pants!  But that’s cool…because in the great words of Mr. Billy Madison, “You ain’t cool unless you pee your pants”.  Here’s a group of Russian students who also got soaked.

If you look closely at the photo you can see the real trick.  It actually didn’t matter whether or not you stepped on the right rocks.  If you look behind the white bench you can see a man sitting on the bench behind it.  This man actually controlled the fountain and he got to choose the fountain’s victims.  Often, the leader of the group was not soaked but those unsuspecting followers paid the price.

So here’s a picture of our entire group in front of one of the many fountains on the Peterhof property:

A fine looking group I must add!  And finally, here’s a picture of one of the buildings down from the main palace:

This was my attempt at trying to take an “artsy” picture.  How’d I do?

So that concludes our Peterhof adventure.  I have to admit, I greatly enjoyed it and it’s my favorite tourist visit of the trip so far.  After our visit, we went to our hotel where we checked in, relaxed, and took it easy for awhile.  Our night was free to us so a few of us went to dinner on Nevskiy Prospekt, which is St. Petersburg’s main artery.  For all of you New Englanders out there, it’s kind of like Boylston Street in Boston.  We’re fortunate that our hotel is just off Nevskiy Prospekt so it’s easy to find food and entertainment.  After dinner we took a short stroll to check out one of the many bridges in St. Petersburg.  The city is often compared to Venice since it has many canals, ornate bridges, and water taxis.  Later on we will be touring the bridges and taking an evening canal ride, so stay tuned.

Thus, I am now officially exhausted and will retire for the evening.  I tried to sound proper, like Catherine the Great would have said back in the day.  I’m channeling my inner CTG right now.  Goodnight from St. Petersburg!

This facility is great and I wish every community, in the United States and elsewhere, had this.  Here’s the reader’s digest version of what they do: create an environment for small businesses to grow and prosper, providing them all the education and tools neccessary to do so.  There is even a grant program, about $20,000, to help small businesses with start up expenses.  They must be doing something right because about 80% of the businesses succeed after the first five years.  In the United States, almost all (I believe it’s less than 10%) small businesses fail within the first three years.  What I found most interesting was that the facility even provides space for the business.  Here is one such office in the complex:

This gentleman runs a couple of businesses: security systems and event planning, and quite successfully.  The one condition of the free office space is that it is only provided for the first three years of the business’s life.  After the three years, the business can stay but they must start paying rent to the Inkubator.  There are currently 60 businesses operating in the building.

We quickly broke for lunch at a little cafe.  We ate like kings (chicken, mashed potatos, bread, juice) and on the cheap.  By total bill came to about $2!  I couldn’t believe it!  Most meals in the United States of similar size/quality would cost $10-$15.  Anyway…a little off subject.  Next we were off to Mondi paper, which is a pulp/paper plant just outside Syktyvkar that dominates the Russian market.  It’s actually the largest paper mill in Europe.  Here is outside the building:

We got to tour the facilities, but first we had to “suit up”.  Now…since I work in industrial distribution and we sell alot of personal protection equipment, I was totally familiar with putting a hard hat on.  I was even able to adjust the ratchet strap without adult supervision.  I’m quite proud of myself for that one.  So here is Mary (my host sister who accompanied us today) and I all safety-d up and ready to go:

And here is our entire group (minus the picture taker obviously):

Then we got to tour the plant.  It was hard to hear what was being said, so I don’t have much info for you, but enjoy all the really cool pictures!  Here’s one picture of the plant:

The entire comples is huge and spans over 1,134 hectares (see….I’m turning Russian/European and now use hectares).  Here is another shot over near the wood chipping section:

Our entire group had a nice little photo shoot by the massive chip piles.  Here’s Mary in front of the chips:

I even got a few pictures that made it look like my comrades (see….I told you I was turning Russian) actually worked at the plant.  Here is one of Brian, Jessie, and Gary:

And another one of Andrei and Stefan (I think):

I loved the tour.  Surprisingly, it was my first trip to a paper mill and I loved it!  The machinery and processes were alot more technically advanced that I imagined and the whole facility was so automated.  It wasn’t what I expected at all.  After our tour, we were treated to lunch #2 of the day in the executive dining room:

And it was a full-on, eat until you can’t eat anymore lunch which included a salad course, a soup course, a main dish of pork chops and scalloped potatos, and then tea.  Even Kevin, the Shawn Burger devouring champion, couldn’t stomach two lunches of such magnitude.  After our lunch with strolled on down to the boardroom where we were privileged to hear a presetation from several of the company’s executives, including Vladimir Bondarevsky, managing board member:

Olga from human resources, and Jared who is a leadership/management advisor:

And before I move on, their board room was seriously swanky.  It was complete with microphones, a massive projector screen, five other 50″ television screens, comfy/modern chairs, and a massive table:

I could get used to a board room like that!  The presentations painted a great picture of how Mondi operates, who their competitors are, how they’re doing in the market and such.  Mondi is rapidly expanding capacity with their STEP project, which was the bulk of today’s presentation.  It seemed odd to me how so many Maine paper mills are shutting down, filing for bankruptcy, and cutting production while this one is growing.  So I asked Mr. Bondarevsky what he thought Mondi’s competitive advantage was over other mills.  I initially thought he would answer that it was their efficiencies which allowed them to expand so I was surprised he said it was the wood costs.  Mondi is much more technically savy than Maine mills who use old, dated “Canadian” technology.  They actually make fun of the Canadian technology and use it as a slang term for their old equipment.  Their newer processes and technology make it much cheaper for them to harvest wood and process it.  They’ve also managed to keep costs low and phase out unneccessary processes.  In the end, I was thoroughly impressed with Mondi, their operations, and their management team.  They treated us top notch, which is a trend in Syktyvkar, and were a wealth of knowledge.

Before I finish for the night, I have two more things to mention.  One, I got to go to a really interesting market this evening.  Check it out:

It’s like an indoor farmer’s market where each person/vendor has their own little booth.  There were vegatable booths, fruit booths, cereal booths (they even sold Cocoa-Puffs), fish booths, drug booths (the Tylenol type not the crazy evening type).  I thought it was really interesting and unlike anything I’ve experienced in Maine.  My second comment is a shout out to my host family.  I’m sure I’ll have more wonderful things to say about Mary and Elena as I leave them tomorrow, but it can’t hurt to tell them how awesome they are here also.  They showered me with gifts from their town, a stuffed dog for Goose (which I wanted to call Goose in Russian but it’s actually the same word), and my favorite item, a framed cross stitch that Mary made for me!  I love them and they’re amazing and saying goodbye tomorrow is going to be difficult.

That being said, tomorrow we fly out of Syktyvkar and head to St. Petersburg.  Our flight leaves at 7 a.m. and we have to be at the airport by 5:40 (the first one not to be confused with the second 5:40).  After we arrive in St. Pete (that’s what the locals call it and I love it) we’re going to Peterhof, which is a palace larger than Versailles in France.  Afterwards, we check into our hotel and have some free time in the city.  Also, our hotel lacks internet so my blog posts may be sporadic.  But have no fear…I will be stalking the local McDonalds in the evening because I hear they have the best wi-fi in town!

This concludes today’s blog post, thanks for tuning in.

It was official…we were off to the wonderful world of Yb!  And before I had mentioned that it was pronounced “eeeeb”.  I would like to retract that statement.  It’s pronounced more like “uhhhb”.  Yb is an old farming sentlement outside Syktyvkar and for those county folk out there it reminded me alot of the Menonite community we have.  Today actually made me miss the county!  So Mom and Dad….Angie’s coming home!  I need to visit you ASAP!  So back to the Russian road, we were off to Yb where we would tour the community, have lunch, and then be put to work.

First up….this is the countryside of Yb:

It’s very serene and completely contrasted our visit in Moscow.  It really remind me of back home in the county.  The settlement has about 2,000 inhabitants.  There is the community of Yb, which spans about 20 km and includes about a dozen villages.  This surprised me because I initially expected it to be just one village and not be so spread out.  When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by Svetlana (soooo many Svetlana’s to keep track of including tour guide Svetlana, museum guide Svetlana, and train Svetlana).  She welcomed us and then took us to their community museum.  Here are the troops making their way across the path from the bus to the museum:

Shortly after entering the museum, we were asked if we wanted to use the restroom before they gave us the tour.  I’ve learned on this trip that whenever you’re given the opportunity to pee that you should take it whether or not you have to go.  You just never know when the next opportunity will arise.  So I went and found this:

Umm…a hole in the floor?  Really?!  Needless to say I got stage fright and couldn’t do it.  Then I decided that the rest of the day I wasn’t going to drink anything for fear of having to use this.  Too bad it was also in the upper seventies and we weren’t leaving for another six hours.  I did in fact make it through.  I successfully managed to not have to pee until this evening and now I’m soooooooo thirsty!  Enough about peeing…back to the main show.  Svetlana and the museum operator took us through and told us many stories of how their people used to live, the tools they had/made, and generally how they lived.  I found it really intriguing that families lived in a room like this:

There’s a bed, a bassinet for the baby, a crate to hold the chickens and also serve as a table, and their tools/utensils surrounding them.  Also see in the corner above the table?  Every home had icons in the corner.  Sitting under them meant you were really special and was the best place to be in the whole house.  Remember that…it’s important later.  Their homes are so small compared to American standards but Jacob (in the picture above) fits quite nicely.  Jacob got made fun of a lot today because of his size.  I almost felt bad for him…almost.  Here is another one of my favorite exhibits in the museum:

It’s a really old Singer sewing machine.  Can you see the “logo” in the scrolling?  I loved it and it reminded me of my Mamere’s old sewing machine table that my mom now has.  It also made me realize the similarities between the old culture of Yb and Acadian culture up in Fort Kent.

We then exited the museum and made a pit stop at the village’s cemetary:

I love the old (and new) cemeteries in Russia.  They’re so different than the United States.  There is so much room, they’re usually fenced in, and they have so much more character than the solitary tombstone on US graves.  I also learned today about the bench and table.  Apparently, in Russia friends and family of the deceased are encouraged to come and sit with the dead.  They often bring food, pastries, and wine and celebrate the life of the person.  I thought that was actually sweet and a step beyond just visiting to change out the flowers.

Next, we went to Svetlana’s home:

Met Svetlana’s dog:

Saw Svetlana’s greenhouse:

And Svetlana’s sheep:

And Svetlana’s husband (here is both husband and wife):

And Svetlana’s garage:

And Svetlana’s car:

It’s a ’95 Volga (did I spell it right?) and still runs very well.  They don’t use their car much except to go into Syktyvkar on occasion and in case of emergency.  I was shocked when they even let one of my colleagues, Brian, test drive their car:

What surprised me about Svetlana’s house was that they still had modern things there including the car (if you consider it modern) and a four year old Stihl chainsaw.  I expected them to be more like the Amish and not use machines such as these at all so I was very surprised when I saw they had them.  Technology was taken even further with their neighbor’s home:

The had a television, satellite dish with 42 channels, and DSL internet service.  I was shocked!  But back to Svetlana and her husband.  They live a very simple life where they grow their own food, sell sheep wool to make some money, and live very happily doing it.  In Soviet Days it was less independence and more focus on farming as a community.  When asked if they thought if life was better today than twenty years ago, he failed to respond yes or no but gave us a few words of wisdom.  He felt that back then there was more sense of community.  For example, they’re building a new Banyah (did I spell that one right too?).  Back in the day, all the neighbors would have come over to help and it would be done in a day.  These days, he’s working on it alone and taking a long time.  There’s too much focus on individuality and money and not enough focus on community.  I think what he said also applies to the United States.

Also on our tour we got to see a couple planting their potato field:

A very familiar site indeed for this county girl!  There was also a very fun conversation about how potatos actually grow from potatos and grow underground.  Poor Jacob got made fun of again!

Next we went to another village where we were warmly greeted for lunch.  A young boy, I believe he was about six years old, was outside the house feeding hot coals into the samovar (how about this one…Russian friends…is it spelled right?):

Later, this hot water kettle was brought into the house and was used to prepare the tea.  Here is a picture of the spread we were treated to:

We all managed to fit around the table and started to dig in.  We were fed fish soup, meat and potatos, various breads, carrot salad, and other yummy foods.  Also, remember the icons in the corner of the house?  Note where professor Mahon chose to sit:

We finished off our meal with tea served with hot water from the samovar.  Check out Josh’s mad pouring skills:

After we ate we learned a quick game, it’s a teeter totter game:

One person jumps onto the board, then the other person is supposed to jump, and then it just keeps going and going and going.  There were many attempts and many utter failures with people smacking into the ground.  It was rather entertaining actually.  Then  FINALLY Josh and Brian got the hang of it:

Then we were put to work!  We planted trees:

The lady from the natural resources preserve (I absolutely can’t remember her name for the life of me) taught us how to do it by first spearing a hole in the ground, then a lady planted the seedling, then the man speared the ground again to push the dirt up against the tree, and then finally pushed his heel into the ground to pack the dirt.  Here is Jacob and Allie with our teacher:

Then we sawed some logs (go Kevin…go Jacob):

And chopped some wood:

Jacob, despite his small stature, did in fact chop the wood.  It must have been pretty soft.  We even carried water from the well as Brian demonstrated:

We even got to hang out with the local residents for awhile:

Next we were off to see Andre’s ducha, which means summer or country home, which was just a few houses down from where we were.  Apparently, Andre had purchased it back in 1983 for $20!  He spent a few summers there but hasn’t been back in years.  He doesn’t even know where the key is!  You could say he got his money’s worth.  Here is Andre himself (bright orange…you can’t miss him) and Gary outside his ducha:

Then we went down the road to a holy water spring.  To partake, you had to wash your hands and face with the water then you could drink the water, which would bring you many years of beauty, happiness, and health.  Here is Stefan taking the holy water:

And Andre:

And myself:

We said our goodbyes to Yb and our gracious hosts and saddled up the bus for another ride.  Here was a cute little church as we were leaving:

Not too shabby for taking it from a bus!  So goodbye Yb!  We had so much fun with you today:

We were so extremely tired when we got on the bus.  A full day of sun, fun, and “work” really wore everyone out.  We were all so very very sleepy on the bus ride home:

When we returned to Syktyvkar, Mary (my host sister who actually came with us today, had never been to Yb before, and had a blast…she thinks our group is very outgoing and entertaining) and I met up with host mumma Elena.  We went out for pizza and beer (have I mentioned I LOVE this family) Russian style, which is really no different from that of the United States:

So that concludes my day.  So to all of you out there following my crazy blog, goodnight.  Oh, and Boynyah (no idea if that’s spelled correctly), the beloved family cat of my host family, says goodnight too:

It all started with a trip to the Komi historical museum, seen here:

The Komi culture dates back to the days of wooly mammoths and primitive hunting over 30,000 years ago (I’m pretty sure that’s what our guide said…it was hard to follow since we had a guide speaking in Russian and an interpreter).  Speaking of, here is our guide and our interpreter:

Our interpretor, Natasha, actually attended college at UMaine Farmington and now lives in Syktyvkar and works at Mondi, a huge paper mill that we’re visiting in a couple of days.  Alot of information was thrown at us but there are just a few things that I really want to share.  One is the really big, really old tractor:

Cool, huh?  I thought it was awesome!  It was amazing that it survived since many of its type were turned in for new models than melted down to recycle the metal.  The other really interesting story from the museum concerns this picture:

See the metal notepad?  It’s in the middle of the photo?  It actually saved a Russian soldier’s life.  The notepad is traditionally carried in the breast pocket of the soldier.  In this case, the soldier was shot in the chest but the metal notepad protected him from the bullet.  This is the kind of story from movies!  I thought it was really neat.  Especially after hearing about how the Komi Republic lost nearly half it’s population in the war.

I also wanted to share the symbols of the cities in the Komi Republic.  Also, FYI, republics in Russia are like states in the US.  Just wanted to clarify since this is a “for dummies” situation.  Here are just a few of the symbols:

And here is the symbol of Syktyvkar (I can finally spell it without looking it up….yay….mini wave in celebration of me!):

Next we headed over to the Academy of Civil Service which is one of the many universities in Syktyvkar.  This one specializes in law and management.  Here we were first treated to a presentation with Potashov Pavel, deputy adminstrator of Regional Department of Russian Small-Scale Business Association:

This presentation was slightly frustrating because of the language barrier.  He spoke to us in Russian and Natasha translated it.  There were definitely things we were trying to discuss that just don’t translate well.  What I took from this presentation was that the government is actively trying to help small businesses get started, which is evident with the small business incubator, which we’re also visiting later this week.  Unfortunately, the government is hindering small businesses growing into large businesses with an ever-changing and burdensom tax system.  Ok…enough of that….now onto the 38 other pictures I have included in this post.

After a quick lunch, we went back upstairs to a very large lecture hall.  There, we were guests of honor in a room full of students and professors alike.  We were first treated to many presentations by the students and faculty about Russia, the Komi Republic, Syktyvkar, and the University.  Here are my favorite fun facts from the presentation:

• Russia spans ten timezones
• Lake Baikal is located in Russia and is the world’s largest lake
• Russia is the tenth largest country by nominal GDP
• Gaizer is the head of the Komi Republic
• A local youth parliament exists
• Nature is a source of the republic’s wealth (natural gas, coal, timber)
• And the Komi flag represents white for snow whiteness & purity, green for hope & wealth, and blue for celestial origin & greatness & health

After their presentations, we were on.  We went up on stage, introduced ourselves, and took questions from the audience.  After that, professor Mahon entertained the crowd with his dog and pony show about the University of Maine:

Andrei was busy playing interpretor while John kidnapped students…I’m serious.  There were definitely students in there trembling just like in BUA 649!  I kid…I kid.  After this presentation, since we always roll with gifts, John & Jacob presented the dean of the college with a Maine flag:

Next up was probably the highlight of the day.  We were treated to a concert complete with singers, dancers, and even food.  Most of the narrative/words were in Russian so I didn’t always know what was going on, but the pictures are pretty!  Here was the first singer:

And the duet of singers:

Then they passed us some tasty salmon bread:

Not only was it filled with salmon but it looked like a salmon too:

Then some more very talented singers:

A few dancers:

And some more dancers:

This one liked our boys!  And then there was a gymnast:

She was ridiculously talented and coordinated!  If I just had an ounce of her coordination maybe I wouldn’t run into as many door jams and trip up the stairs!  Then there were belly dancers:

One of them is actually Chucks host mumma.  I believe she is the one in the front left.  Then it was American music montage time, my favorite!  It include Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”:

Some more American music and dancing with the Spice Girls “Wannabe”….you know…I’ll tell you what I want what I really really want:

Gotta love the Spice Girls…they get two pictures in this photo blog:

And here comes Tom Jones himself:

With his hit single “Sex Bomb”:

Then it was time to disco a little bit:

And then it was the grand finale with confetti of course.  Every good finale has confetti:

This show was absolutely unbelievable!  There is no way that if a group of Russian students came to visit us at the University of Maine that we would ever do anything remotely close to this!  I was amazed that they would go through such trouble to put this program together for agroup of business students from Maine.  I felt honored and so priveleged to be there.  After the show we got to take some pictures with the students.  Here’s one of the boys with the belly dancers:

Here is Chuck with his harems:

And here is…well…all of us:

Next we went downstairs for a brief reception with the Russian students and faculty.  We got to meet them, talk with them, take pictures with them, and try to learn a little bit more about them and their lives/culture.  Here’s a pic from one of the tables at the reception:

Before I forget, I also need to mention how tremendously brave many of these students were.  Many of them today made presentations for us about their country/culture.  They speak fluent Russian but very little English.  Their presentations were, however, in English.  Their presentations, even in a foreign language, were flawless and I commend them!

Next stop was to the Komi Cultural Center where we met up with our host families and were treated to some Komi cultural dancing and singing.  Here are our first singers/dancers:

They are both very famous Komi folk dancers and they travel all over the world performing.  Here’s another shot:

After they finished performing it was our turn to perform.  Uh-oh was my initial thought.  I don’t really like to dance, or to be touched for that matter, so this was going to be interesting.  But I did in fact have alot of fun.  Here is Josh helping to present one of the dances:

And some more dancing:

It’s like a train and the leader got to pick the next person he wanted to dance with who then joined in on the train.  This train included my host mumma:

She’s the caboose.  I think she’s having alot of fun here!  And some more dancing including my host sister, Mary:

Mary had never been here before and she had alot of fun.  She also mentioned how vivacious, outgoing, and fun our group was.  Mary is actually coming with us to Yb (a small, traditional Komi village) tomorrow so she’ll get another dose of these Maine-ahs!  And some more dancing:

The dancing was a blast!  Before we left the center, Mary pointed out this painting that was decorating the walls:

It’s Komi art and was actually painted by one of her classmates.  It also glows under black lights…very cool!  At the end of the program, our host families were presented with gifts from the University of Maine.  These gifts included small Maine items including mini flags, t-shirts, hats, ice scrapers, and other such things.  Mary modeled the Maine t-shirt for me:

Future Maine-ah perhaps?  Doubtful!  After the program at the Komi Cultural Center concluded, Mary and Elena took me for a nice evening stroll through their city.  We went past the government building, which I now recognize the Syktyvkar symbol on:

And the gorgeous old church in Syktyvkar:

This is where my camera decided to die so I don’t have any more pictures from the night.  They also had me try “cavass”.  I’m not sure if that’s how you spell it but it sounds like “cah-vass”.  It’s a drink that they couldn’t quite describe to me except that it’s like bread water.  It looked kind of like Coke but it tasted like a cross between cider and yeast.  It was sold by a street vendor and I actually found it very yummy.  We walked along the river and then through a park before we started to head home.  I have to mention the vast number of vendors in the park which started to make our small business presentation from earlier this morning make more sense.  Our presenter kept mentioning how they lease the land but own the structure and thus the government could terminate the lease at any time.  During the presentation this didn’t make much sense to me but now it does.  These aren’t traditionally constructed structures but ones that could be moved relatively easily.  Walking through the park I had one of those “ah-ha” moments where I felt like a genius.  Oh well.

So that concludes my day.  Tomorrow, as mentioned, were off to Yb (pronounced “eeeeb”).  Until tomorrow….Russian traveler signing out.  Phew…that was a long one!

The second I stepped off the bus it was love at first sight with my host family, which consisted of my host mother Elena and her daughter Marry.  They made a sign for me!  How cute, right?  It said “Angie welcome to Syktyvkar”.  And I must say that I’ve experienced nothing but the best hospitality with them.  I’m so amazed at the warmth they greeted me with.  The picture above is with Mary.  Professor Mahon is supposed to send me the picture he took of all three of us at the train station but he’s yet to do that….slacker…just kidding…kind of!

From the train station they took me to their flat where they showed me around, gave me a pair of pink slippers to use to walk around the house with (I REALLY love them…I LOVE pink!), and fed me ALOT!  Elena is your typical mother and loves to feed her daughter Mary and I.  I was so full after eating at their house.  I was received with Russian champaign, caviar with bread (and I did indeed try it…I was pretty proud of myself for that one), beef stew with potatoes, pea soup, ham & pea salad, and chocolate cake.  I was stuffed!  And everything was so yummy!  It was really nice to have a home cooked meal after eating very little/poorly on the train.

After we ate, they took me on a walking tour of their city and showed me many of the war memorials.  Here is Elena and I at one of the fountains:

And Mary and I at the same fountain:

I like Mary’s expression in this photo…it’s so cute!  Shortly after we took these pictures we were of to visit Elena’s mother who lives just around the corner.  This was my favorite experience from my first day in Syktyvkar.  She’s such a cute old lady who reminds me of my grandmother.  She speaks no english, hugged me immediately upon meeting me, and served us traditional tea.  She made a strong tea in the teapot then brought in a pot of boiling water to have us mix it with.  We had learned about this during a museum visit in Moscow so it was really neat experiencing it.  I also got to meet her dog Laska, who was a stray that she brought in from the street.

Afterwards, we made our way to a cafe in town where some of my colleagues were just leaving.  The cafe was on the top of a very tall building so when we arrived, Mary took some time to show me around and point things our to me.  It was a gorgeous view and I wish I had taken pictures.  But here’s a picture of my dessert instead:

Mmmmmm….dessert!  I was soooo full but I still had to finish it.  It was some sort of cherry filled cheesecake with chocolate sauce.  Very delicious.

After the cafe we made our way home and settled in for the night.  We showed each other many pictures, learned about each others family, and bonded before packing it in to bed.  It was a light, relaxing day and I enjoyed it very much.  I also enjoyed meeting my host family and I am very thankful for their kindness, warmth and generosity.  I can’t deny that I was nervous about meeting them and living with strangers for a few days, but I can already tell this is going to be one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  It’s a short post, but a tired post.  My apologies.  Until we meet again…Russian traveler signing out.

Our first stop was the Gallery.  On our way we walked past this:

Which turned out to be the city’s gift to the gallery celebrating it’s 150th birthday.  It’s an old gallery that started off as Pavel Tretyakov’s personal gallery that he gave to the city.  Do you see the picture frames in the fountain?  Pretty neat, huh?

We got to the gallery a little prior to its opening so we took a quick detour to the bridge of locks.  Here’s the bridge:

What makes this bridge interesting is that this is where young couples come to get engaged.  See the trees in the background?  Couples come to this bridge to profess their love.  They lock it up by taking a lock, attaching it to one of the lock trees, and throwing the key into the water.  This is so cute it made me want to cry…but no fear…I held back.  Colby…we may need to come to Moscow later!  Just saying!

Here’s a close up of one of the trees:

This tree was very sparse in locks.  They get absolutely full.  Once the tree is packed with locks, it is taken down the river to be kept on display and a new tree replaces it on the bridge.

This is one of my favorite locks, it’s huge:

And another favorite, it’s pink and blingy, my two faves:

Our next stop was to the gallery.  Here is the building from the outside:

We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the gallery inside, but I just wanted to mention how impressed I was with the art held inside these walls.  I never thought of Russian art to include any great pieces but I was pleasantly surprised.  I just want to mention one painting that I found exceptionally amazing.  I can’t remember it’s title, painter, or year (seriously…how awful is that…I’m pathetiс I know) so I tried to Google it but Russian Google isn’t really working for me right now, so let me describe it.  When you approached it, the painting appeared to be pitch black.  Then you got closer and you could see a glowing moon and a river running through the canvas, then you got even closer and you could see the lights on in the village surrounding the river, then you started imagining creatures lurking in the shadows.  It was breathtaking.

I also want to again compliment Svetlana on our guided tour of the gallery.  Her knowledge astounds me and I found her tour very interesting and valuable.

Our next stop was at a cafe around the corner for lunch.  It was an adorable cafe.  Here is a little photo safari of our lunch starting with the buffet:

And some sort of stone kitchen:

The “adult” table:

My lunch which consisted of crepes stuffed with mushrooms with a cheese sauce (YUM):

And Gary with his chocolate cake which apparently was to die for:

My dad would be soooo proud of Gary since he ate his dessert first becaus, as Rastus McQueen (a big ol’ coal miner who worked with my grandfather) always said, “you have to eat your dessert first because you never know when the mine might cave in”.

After our delicious cafe lunch, the bus took us over to the train station where Svetlana guided us to our platform.  We said our goodbyes as we began boarding the train for a 26 hour ride to Syktyvkar.  I was personally excited about the train ride because I could really use some chill time.  I wanted to use the time to sleep, read, sleep some more, and make dent in that book of mine, Gone With The Wind.  We had been so busy up until now that I welcomed the down time.  Here we are on the train platform:

Here are the tickets (I’m really not certain why I thought this photo was important/blog worthy but here it is anyway):

And here we go down the tiny hallway:

To get to our tiny room:

Which is shared by four people:

I got the top bunk, score:

Let’s just hope that I don’t repeat the freshman year incident.  For those of you that don’t recall, my freshman year of college I was sleeping in the top bunk in my dorm and fell out of it.  Yes, that’s right, I fell out of my bunk.  I ended up with a GIANT bruise covering must of my left shin/calf for the first six months of college.  But so far the train is pretty cool.  There are neat views of the countryside:

And logging cars that really make me feel like I’m at home:

There really are alot of similarities between the Russian countryside between Moscow and Syktyvkar and with Maine.  For a while it felt like I was on a ride home to the county with similar foliage, fields, and climate.  The train really isn’t that bad and I’m really enjoying it.  There is a dining car that our group spends most of our time in so we don’t end up holed up in our tiny rooms.  But to get to the dining car you have to go through about 18 billion doors (I’m really not exagerating…I swear) and cross the danger zone twice.  What’s the danger zone you ask?  This:

It’s the area where the cars link together and you can see the ground/tracks screaming by below you.  It’s scary and I never could get used to it.

So back to the dining car.  Apparently, the train staff love it when we come because we spend so much time/money in there.  Many Russians don’t use the space because it can get expensive and those using the train are generally poorer.  John was telling us that the last time he brought students on the train that the dining care made more revenue in those 26 hours than they normally do in a month!  That’s a big difference.  Here’s a picture from the dining car:

See the guy in the uniform?  He’s a Russian who came and joined in conversation with our group.  He knows no English, we know no Russian, we honed in on our pictionary/charades skills from childhood.  Turns out he is a 19 year old marine who was stationed in the Baltic.  He was on leave to go home and visit his wife and 5 month old son who he had yet to meet.  Heartbreaking!  But he was vivacious and loved to tell us stories by acting/drawing them out.  I really commend him for joining our group as I could never do that.  We were a large group with a huge language barrier, but that didn’t stop him.  He started turning my idea that Russians aren’t terrible friendly around.

So now we’re off to Syktyvkar and about to meet our hosts.  I’m so excited!  I’m anticipating our host family stays to truly be the highlight of this trip!  ‘Til next time…keep it classy Maine!