take me to the water

I got out of Moscow this weekend. And this was a very very good idea, since some of you know how close I was to losing it this week!

My Russian friend Zhenya invited me to go home with her to Pereslavl'-Zalesskii, a town of about 45,000 some 70 miles or so NE of Moscow. Her parents still live there and she spend the later part of her childhood there before coming to school in Moscow.

We actually drove up there with her dad because Pereslavl' isn't on a train line, and so is not as easily accesible as some places.

Despite the fact that it is the same size as Charlottesville proper, Pereslavl' is almost like a big village - there are two main roads and one stoplight. The town is bordered on the west by Lake Pleshchevo, and has 5 monasteries. Yes, one stoplight, five monateries. Zhenya's parents were wonderfully sweet and hospitable. I was fed until I burst and I got the whirlwind tour of the area over 2 days.

Pereslavl' is 852 years old, five years younger than Moscow, and the famous prince, Aleksandr Nevskii was born there and baptized in this church, the Spaso-Preobrazhenskii sobor:



There are just churches everywhere, some of which have been rebuilt from scratch and have gleaming new domes, and others are quite old but falling into disrepair.

On Saturday we drove around the lake, looking for a place to have a picnic. Unfortunately all the beaches were packed with Muscovites, fleeing the city. Curses! At one point in time we ended up on this road, hoping to get to a secluded spot, and the road was just dreadful, and we were in a 14 year old Zhiguli! A tank would have difficulties clearing some of the holes we drove over! We never quite made it to the shore though, but we did stop at this pagan/holy spring, called the Varvara spring. People come and get fresh water and also to bathe in it. There's a bath house with a deep hole where the water comes up. People take turns going in and bathing. Rumor has it that people who are baptised there never get sick. Zhenya and I went in, and the water was SOOOOOOOO cold that I only went up to my thighs (hence the crazy picture) but my knees felt great.



But the next day we went to a different spring and I decided to go all the way. Wow. Cold. But amazing too. My body felt really invigorated afterwards. (And hence the lack of picture for the second time as I was stark naked).

We did eventually find a hill overlooking the lake and the crowds of people, and had a picnic that included a gallon of fresh-picked wild blueberries. They are so tasty. Not nearly as big as the ones you find in stores at home, but so much more flavorful and colorful (we had them for breakfast the next morning with sugar and sour cream).

On Sunday, after a huge breakfast, that in addition to the blueberries and sour cream included sausages, cheese and peas (? but who am I to complain?), and cream of wheat style kasha made with milk and butter, tvorog with raisins and sour cream and toast. Can we say full?

Then we went to the Nikitskii monastery (featured in one of the pictures below), and to the Nikitskii spring, where my second bathing occured. Then we went back into town and parked by the river and walked down to where it meets the lake (where we went wading). The town itself, is of course very old, and all the houses in the center are old wooden houses, with typical Russian style decoration. It was really hot this weekend, so everyone was either in the river or in the lake or headed there. The roads are dusty and beat up, and so are the houses. Its a totally different world from Moscow, slower and very rough around the edges.

But the countryside was amazing - wild flowers are in bloom everywhere, the air is fresh, the sun was out. This was really good for my soul. Clearly I need stuff like this around in order to stay sane.

Here are some more random pics: [and by the way, if you click on any of the photos, it takes you to the larger, more detailed image]












And P.S. - driving on the Russian highway is a terrifying and death-defying experience. Holy crap.