Today was interesting. We got off our ship in one city, went
to a monastery, visited a local school and got back on our ship in another city.
Our day started later than normal. We basically had the
morning to ourselves. There was a presentation about Russia in the
20th century and the second part of the Russian language lesson. I took
the morning off and didn’t attend either lecture.
We have an excursion booked for the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery
today. When we arrived at our dock we
were immediately greeted by street vendors. Most of the shops had the same merchandise.
Brass pendants, hats and wooden Christmas figurines seem to be really popular
around here.
The Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery was founded by St. Cyril
and is located near Severskoye Lake. This is Russia’s largest monastery. The
lake here is sacred and is used as a water source. To keep the lake
clean and pure motorboats aren’t allowed to travel through it. The monks bless
the lake and still drink the water from it. This monastery is built like a
fortress and is defended by thick walls, guard towers and a large community of monks
and peasants. The Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery houses a vast library that holds
very important knowledge and documents. There’s also a lot of the items on
display, mostly donated by Ivan The Terrible.
After we visited the monastery we went to a local school. The
tour of the school was led by one of the students who was fluent in English and
very well spoken. She is currently 15 and has been studying English since the
second grade. Even though school was out for the summer some of the students come
back to lead tours and practice English with tourists. Our student guide was
very knowledgeable and showed us projects that some other students completed during
the school year. She took us to one of the classrooms and led a question and
answer session with the help of our guide. Our guide is also a former graduate
and was a teacher at this school. Interesting enough our student guide wants to be a professional tour guide after she completes her studies. Since there are no major universities in the
city the children have to go else ware to continue their education. This causes
issues because a lot of the students don’t come back after they complete university
and the population dwindles. They find jobs and never come back. It also doesn’t
help that the jobs here aren’t very high paying jobs. This has been one of my
favorite excursions of the trip so far.
When we got back we learned how to make Pelmeni. These little
morsels of deliciousness are very similar to wonton and are eaten with a side
of sour cream. I absolutely love that stuff!
After the cooking demonstration we lounged around until dinner
and hung out while our ship sailed through another river lock.
Today has been a good day!
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