Russia Day 6 (Kizhi, Russia): Another Small Village, A Party and A Cocktail Reception

We made quick stop on the island of Kizhi today. This island is a rural island in the center of Lake Onega.

Kizhi is a pretty small island. Around here a large village would consist of 10 houses, a medium village would have 3 and a village of 1 house would be considered a small village. Imagine that… A single house village! Most of the male workers would find work in St. Petersburg and leave for work all summer. Each house would house about 20 family members and have 2 sections, a section they would use in the winter and a guest section. During the summer the whole house is utilized. Only a portion of the house was used in the winter because heating a whole house in the winter was not economical.

Each of the structures here are made of wood and each wood piece was cut entirely by axe. The craftsmen here believed that cutting the wood with an axe would close the pores of the wood insuring the wood would be stronger and last longer. They used very little metal in their buildings because metal was very expensive. Even the nails were made of wood. Just to put things into perspective, 60 nails would cost 1 cow. Because most of the craftsman worked in St. Petersburg they brought some of the design elements back to the village. Some of the stone work that was done in St. Petersburg was recreated in wood and used on the village’s homes.

The most important building on this island is the Transfiguration Church. This church is one of a few in the Kizhi Pogost. The Transfiguration Church is also the biggest building on the island, with an impressive 22 domes, it was used at a summer church because it would be extremely hard to heat in the winter. They used a more modest 9 domed church, the Intercession Church in the winter. Both of these churches were built without using a single nail. These were not the original churches on the island. The original churches were struck down by lightning and they were rebuilt in the traditional way. Image that… A church destroyed by lightning!

After our tour of the island we had some time to do some shopping before we headed back to our ship.

When we got back we relaxed for a bit, then went to the sail off party. Afterwards, my mom and grandma attended a Russian language class and a lecture on the Romanov family. Before dinner we attended a special, invite only, cocktail reception for people that have traveled with their travel company before. It sounds more elaborate than it really is… They do this on every trip that we take. The staff and crew personally welcome you, the captain gave a speech, then we toast. There’s a running joke for events like this… If the captain is here, who’s driving the ship?!

Then we had dinner while our ship made its way through a few river locks. River locks are large gates used to control the water.  Afterwards it was up to our rooms to lounge around before bed

We did a lot during our short day!