The Oldest City in the Russian Federation

Yesterday we visited Novgorod, the oldest city in Russia, founded in 859. It was incredible.

That's the short story. The long is, strangely, longer. It took about three hours to get there both ways, which was a little unfortunate but since pretty much everyone slept on the bus it was mainly just a little uncomfortable. When we got there it was even colder than in St. Petersburg, meaning that even with a long-sleeved shirt, sweater and jacket plus gloves I was not exactly toasty. Oh, and its only September. But its farther south, and the sea breezes keep Petersburg both cold and warmer than a lot of Russia. Anyway, after a short break we entered the Kremlin, or core of the old city surrounded by talk brick walls and towers. Its other name, before they adopted Kremlin from the name of the Mockow fortress was something like 'detani' and meant -approximately- 'womb'.

Besides being the oldest city, Novgorod was also the first capitol of Russia and the site for many fascinating occurences. The oldest cathedral in Russia stands in Novgorod, St. Catherine's, where during a recent excavation they found graffiti on the walls that included one that went something like "man, service was boring today!"- the guide said that the inscription was very popular during Soviet times. And it had the first school as well, founded around 1074. The most remarkable thing about this school is that since its founding ALL children were sent to it, resulting in a 90% literacy rate for Novgorod in the middle ages. Yes, the middle ages. For women as well. That is ridiculous. In addition to St. Catherine's it has about 30 or 40 other churches, the only ones that remain of more than 100 before WWII, during which it suffered greatly, also losing something like 80,000 of its population. Now alot of the churches are museums, some with incredible frescoes from, you know, the middle ages again.

Yes, I know I'm a history nerd but it was all very exciting. They also have a beach at Novgorod on the river that flows past, and when it got sunny later in the day I could almost imagine going to the beach in Russia. Apparently its quite popular in summer. And I mean, at that point it was so warm that I was only wearing my sweater instead of the sweater and jacket, so it had possibilities.
If you like frostbite.

The day before this excursion was my birthday, which was also exciting. Yay, birthday in Russia! It started fantastically, since my friend Ashley came in slightly after midnight to give me roses- I felt very Russian. The next day I had all three of my elective classes (they unfortunately all fall on friday, which is pure evil), so I got off about four. We then attempted to find a second hand shop that did not exist, before coming home to eat before going out. I recieved more roses upon my return, which made the day even better since my friend Josh thought that my bouquet of 5 (not 6- you don't give bouquets of even numbers in Russia) looked sad. I had to take one out to make 9 since 5 +5 equals an even number, and they are all still beautiful. Russians certainly get the flower thing right, its awesome.
In the evening we went out to a club called 'dasha' (country/summer cabin) and danced to really really good, sort of old-school music. I tried out my Russian on a poor unsuspecting Russian lad that we forced into dancing since he was standing by himself- it was hard to hear but I think he might have said 'your Russian isn't very good'. Or maybe 'your Russian is good'? Probably the former, but I wouldn't want to have to deal with me either. Especially after a very large beer.

Then we came back to the dorms and ate cake. And in the morning, Novgorod! A very successful birthday.

Today I went with some people to exciting, cheap Russian markets. Mmmm, cheap. I think I will go buy Russian shoes there- black, with heels. And then I might actually fit in.

St. Petersburg continues to astonish and impress, although I currently have a head cold. Everyone's getting sick, so this week looks to be quiet. Probably a good thing. Oh, Russia!