Pictures from these days:
07.13.2013
We do so
many things every day and get so much information that we feel like being
already for a week here, though it has been only one day. For the second day we
agreed to wake up early, contact each other (as me and Nastya were in the other
hotel) and to go to spa complex all together. Me and Nastya woke up really
early (at 7 am) and had breakfast at our hotel (as it was included in price).
It was “Transit-Hotel”, so breakfast was corresponding to it: coffee tasted
like dishwater and if you want cream with it you should pay. Though the food was
ok, so we ate something at least. After breakfast we called our parents but
they didn’t answer. We were surprised and impressed how early they woke up and
went to swimming pool. When we got to their hotel by taxi we came directly to
spa. However there weren’t our parents there. Confused we went up to their room
and found them all … sleeping! My sister and me were pretty vexed because we
might have slept one additional hour if we knew.
Our parents
didn’t want to hurry so they sent to swimming pool us with Max again. After our
parents and Max had breakfast, we all went to a city tour with a wonderful
woman, professor of history in local college, who showed us tons of interesting
things. We saw peculiarities of Pskov architectural school (special ornaments,
bell gable etc.) and a prototype of a Cross of St. George (Russian decoration).
Our guide showed us a place where Olga, future famous princess, take across the
river on the boat her future husband prince Igor (she was a daughter of
boatman) and a “hallway of death” between two wall circles around Kremlin,
where enemies were caught in a trap because in this narrow hallway they
couldn’t avoided stones and pitch thrown on their heads by inhabitants. We also
visited a place, where Russian Democracy was born (actually even at that time
it wasn’t really democracy because poor people and peasants didn’t have
voices): in Boyar Democratic Pskov Republic on this place a popular assembly
took place. We heard about ancient history: broken by Ivan the Terrible assembly
bell (how the republic ended up) and “God’s fool” Nicolai who frightened Ivan
the Terrible when showed him a piece of raw meat and said that tsar is going to
“drink blood” in Pskov. This “God’s fool” saved Pskov because Ivan was pious
and decided not destroying the city. After it an image of Nicolai was placed
between images of saints in the sanctuary of Troitskii Temple in Kremlin. We
heard also about later history of Pskov sky forces (famous Chernigovskaja
division) and how people danced in a big hall of the Temple of Alexander
Nevskii at Soviet times.
After such
informative trip we decided to refresh ourselves so we went to “Refectory
Chamber” to have lunch where everything was just delicious. The funny thing is
that names of all dishes were created by philologists in the ancient style so
they were incredibly long and absolutely useless when you try to order (it was
impossible to pronounce this set of complicated words). That’s why while
ordering we were just saying key words like “your salad with venison” or “your pikeperch
with cheese”. After some rest in our room we had a massage in spa. I had a Thai
massage and it was pretty tangible (sometimes even painful) when you are
pressed with feet, elbows and other strong parts of the body. However the relaxation
was so deep that I seemed to fall asleep at some moment. In the evening we had
dinner with my dad’s friend (who organized everything for us in Pskov) and his
wife.
07.14.2013
Today we
finally got our final destination – Pushkin Mountains where we rented the first
floor of a wonderful house. It’s terrific, it’s absolutely terrific. First of
all it looks outside and inside exactly like old wooden museum houses of Pushkin’s
family estates Mikhailovskoe and Trigorskoye. Outside it has wooden carved
window frames decorated with traditional figures and ornaments. Inside it has
three huge rooms with walls covered with beautiful fabric instead of
wallpapers, with flax and cotton curtains and bedspreads, with knitted pillowcases
and “old” furniture. Plus there are all necessary facilities for comfortable life:
dishwashing and washing machines, heated floor in the bathroom etc. In short words, heavens. Everyone was happy
and we had lunch right on the terrace.
After lunch
we left mom to relax at home and went to explore new roads. We live on the
territory of Pushkin National Park, in the village Savkino, which includes only
4 houses. During the tour in Mikhailovskoye a guide told us that this village
nearly became Pushkin’s property: he wanted to buy it, but its owner demanded such
a crazy big price that Pushkin didn’t buy it. So our house is places near a
site of ancient settlement Savkino Mountain where till 16th century
was a small town. At 16th century Polish king Stephen Báthory destroyed everything here
with fire and sword. Now there is a small chapel there on the place of old
temple which was burned by Stephen troops, couple of old stone crosses and a
famous stone where you can see the inscription that this temple was found by a
priest Sabas was. Also from this hill you can enjoy one of the tremendous
Pushkin Mountains views that create so much inspiration.
We went down to the river Sorotj, where we found a great place to swim
and a tiny spring with icy water. After that we explores a road through the forest
that leads to Mikhailovkoye, Pushkin’s family patrimony. Alexander Pushkin used
this road around the lake Malenets and through a beautiful, fragrant forest
tons of times when he was walking to his friend’s estate Trigorskoye. Tender
whistling of forest birds, shy tiny flowers, seas of fern and warm bushy aspen
brunches. A small picturesque lake Malenets where live ducks with big families,
old wind mill and sometimes a long-necked swam.
As it was Monday, most museums were closed so we just walked around park
Mikhailovskoye, found oats, potato and wheat in the garden, sat on the “flower
stairs”, touched a toy cannon (“pushka” in Russian – connected with an etymology
of last name Pushkin) and were caught in the rain. Overall, our walk passed perfectly,
as the whole day actually. A wonderful dinner with delicious port wine was a
great final of our day.
P.S. I forgot to say that we also have our own black and white cat: we feed
her and she sleeps on my mom’s shoes.
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