russia: veliky novgorod

While reading my guidebook I saw that Veliky Novgorod is sometimes referred to as the 'birthplace of Russia,' so I thought it would be a good place to go for a weekend, Claire and Angela agreed. (Though to be honest, the three of us are keen to go just about anywhere, especially if we haven't been there previously.) 
The first mentions of the city are from the year 860 or so, and are tied in with the founders of the Kyiv Rus empire. 

Like most cities that were really important in the beginning of a country/empire, it is no longer relevant, and in many ways, doesn't look as if it ever was.

After having an experience where we almost missed a train last year due to arriving late at the station, we didn't make that mistake again. Claire, Angela, and I arranged to meet 35 minutes early, so we had plenty of time to find and board our train.

This was Angela's first experience on a night train in Russia, which was another reason to make sure we were on time. I didn't want her to be stressed out and running to board a train. After boarding (for which we only needed our passports, not our printed out paper tickets,) we showed her how to make her bed, which didn't take long.

The train departed on time, at 2205. It also arrived on time the next morning, in Veliky Novgorod.

The train station in Veliky Novgorod wasn't very grand, or even all that big. I used my smartphone to figure out where we needed to walk to get to our accomodation, it was an easy walk.

My phone told me the walk should be 37 minutes, but of course it took us far longer. I always wonder what speed google maps thinks I walk. It didn't help our speed that we stopped for photos numerous times.

Among my first photos were a few of a big government building, I assume it was the local Duma. Just across the way was a large circular platz, I imagine it is good for large gatherings. On the edge of this circle was a big Lenin statue. Since it was still early morning, there was no one else around, so we took the opportunity for a team photo by the old man. (The three of us could do an entire photo album of us with Lenin.)

Continuing our walk took us to an entrance to the kremlin. My guidebook, trip advisor, and wikipedia all told me it is called the Destinets locally. I'm not sure where the name came from, but I assume there is a story, should I care to look it up.

The Destinets is surrounded by a moat, which is now dry. I have no idea if it ever had water (or alligators?) Since there is a moat, of course there was a bridge; surprisingly, (at least to me,) the bridge is not fancy. 

Just before the bridge is a sign in Russian and English showing that this is a UNESCO designated sight.

The sign to the side of the entrance gate says the kremlin is open from 0600 to midnight. We figured out toward the end of the trip that the area is a major way of getting from one side of the city to another, so it would be horrible if it were open or closed only according to museum hours. It is also free to enter the kremlin area, presumably for the same reason.

As we walked into the Destinets, I noticed two things immediately: the eternal flame and a monument along the wall, as well as a giant monument called the Millenium monument near the center.

This grand monument was erected in 1862 to commemorate 1000 years since the arrival of Prince Rurik in the area. This arrival is usually considered the modern marker of the beginning of Russia as we know it today.

The monument is big, 15 meters high. There is a cross on top, which is supposed to represent the power of the tsar. (Obviously, this is no longer applicable.) Around the rest of the monument are figures from Russian history, cultural leaders as well as rulers. At the bottom are others who were/are important to the history of an empire, including poets and princesses, historians and generals, translators and painters.

I wanted a team photo by the monument, and knew it was going to be the best chance we had to do it without anyone else around at that time of day. I also wanted a photo of the eternal flame, also without people. I took my photos, and since the weather was nice we wandered a little more around the area.

We found 'sculptures' made of straw, a peacock, a fish, and a dragon. There appeared to have been rain recently, as they weren't holding up very well. 

Needless to say, we took photos anywho. I have no idea why there were there, but it was fun.

Eventually we exited out the other side of the kremlin, onto another bridge going over a moat. Not only did the bridge cross the moat, it continued across the Volkhov River. We saw a beach on one side, just under the walls of the Destinets, which seemed rather odd, but maybe that's because we weren't expecting to see a beach. 

In better/warmer weather, I bet the place is packed.

Crossing the bridge (which we ended up calling the windy bridge because the wind was so strong every time we crossed,) took us to an area called Yaroslavl's court. There are a number of old churches in a small area, I think most of them are now museums. We didn't stop into any of them just then, we kept going to our accomodation.

At our accomodation we wanted to check in, but it wasn't possible that early. They wanted all of our passports, to register us, but I balked at that request. Due to the recent change in law in Russia, foreigners are now supposed to be registered at the actual place they live, it's no longer allowed for the employing company to do the registration. Many landlords don't want to do this, forcing foreigners to find another way to get it done. 
I had to pay to be registered in Moscow, and I didn't want to have to pay again just because I spent one night in another place. I tried to explain this to the front desk clerk, though I'm not sure if she understood. (Even at the end of the trip I'm not sure whether the hotel registered us or not.)

After sitting around for a bit, we left our bags behind the front desk and went out walking again. Our first stop was the church closest to the accomodation, literally across the street. 
It was closed, even though we arrived a few minutes after opening time. Across another street was another museum church, which was open.

This was our first negative experience with the so-called 'tourist tax.' There is a separate entrance fee for foreigners, much to our grand annoyance. Russians (and Belorussians,) pay the local price, everyone else pays nearly double. 
The kicker is that all the information inside was in Russian, so who knows where the extra money goes. I HATE being looked at as a human ATM. If you can't read Russian at all, you have no idea there is a difference, but we can read, and we did notice. To top it off, the church we were entering was really small, not at all worth the entrance fee. Even so, I took as many pictures as I could think of, trying to make something of our money.

From there we walked back across the windy bridge, right back into the kremlin. This time in we had a couple specific sights to see. As with other kremlins across the country, the area is filled with museums and churches. I've never figured out why so many churches are gathered in such a small area. How did they all survive when the population was so much smaller? How do they survive now?

The Cathedral of St Sophia is notable because it is the oldest building/church in Russia. Completed in 1052, it's been around a while. The outside of the church doesn't look old, and there is no real giveaway that it is important, and old. There is one golden dome on top, among several silver domes.

The current entrance to the cathedral is likely different from the original entrance, at least that's my guess. 
There is a big, fancy set of doors on one side, I'm guessing that was the original entrance. Those doors are now fenced, so you can see them easily. After donning our headscarves we entered and started wandering.

Wikipedia tells me the original frescoes were done in the 12^th century, and they've been repainted a few times over the years. The current frescoes are mostly from the late 19^th century. 
Apparently there have been enough fires (and burned incense,) in the church that some of the frescoes are really hard to see. I appreciated what I could see, making sure to look up as I always do inside a house of worship.

We exited the kremlin on the Lenin side, and headed toward our next destination: food. Since we'd arrived early in the morning, we hadn't had anything real to eat. 
A quick check of a travel app led us to a cafe we ended up liking so much we had three meals there over the weekend! I might or might not have ordered two breakfasts during this first visit.

After eating, we walked to our next sight: an old church. I'm pretty sure that every post I write in Russia could be filled with this sentence on repeat: I/we walked to another church. 
This one was listed as a monastery, but we couldn't find an open door, so who knows. At that point it was really really windy, kicking up the fallen yellow leaves, which was neat to watch. (Not so neat was our hair going every which way pretty much constantly.)

More walking took us to another monastery. Not suprisingly, we saw another church on the way to this monastery. 
This first church was small, in an otherwise empty field. It was super cute, and we could see a wedding being set up. As windy as it was at that point, the setup must've been a challenge.

We arrived at the monastery to find a nice church (open to visitors, free!) with a fantastic cupola. I'm always a sucker for a well done cupola. There was another church on the property of this monastery, but it had an entrance fee. 
Not only did it have an entrance fee, the foreigner fee was nearly double the fee for locals. So we decided not to enter. Sigh.

We walked back in the direction of the city center, passing some of what remains of the original city walls. These 'walls' are now under grass, a fun place to play.

As we walked we saw an eye catching building, so we decided to check it out. It turned out to be one of the best buildings I've ever seen. 
It looked different from each angle, and was a dream to photograph. We looked at the map to find out it was a drama theatre. As the clouds were gray and rolling through, they fit perfectly with the idea of drama.

The theatre was close to the river, so we walked along the river for a bit, spying some very decrepit looking boats tied to the banks. I'm normally a fan of exploring abandoned places and things, but these looked pretty sketchy.

We then climbed back up a little to get to a bridge to cross back over the river. Walking on the other side of the river took us past a pair of pensioners sitting on a bench and watching the world go by. Coolest pensioners ever.

This part of our walk took us to (surprise,) another church. This one was really small, and was under renovation/repair.

At this point we felt as if we'd done enough exploring for the day. We opted to walk all the way back to the cafe we'd visited earlier in the day, and had dinner there. As in the morning, everything was plated beautifully, and tasted great.

After dinner we finally checked into the hostel, then ended up crashing pretty fast in our room.

The next morning when we woke up we ended up planning our travel schedule for the next few months, which was fun. There are so many places to visit in Russia!

Our first team photo of the second day was next to another Lenin statue, this one much smaller than the one from the day before. We never turn down a chance for a photo with the man.

Our next sight was back inside the walls of the kremlin. We went to what used to be the archbishops palace, but is now a museum, called the Chamber of Facets. It is basically a museum of shiny things: religious treasure and jewelry. We saw crosses and icons, chalices and books. Religious power was clearly visible in every display.

Like the other museums we'd already seen in town, this one had a different (higher) entrance fee for foreigners. ARGH.

Since we had to pay more, we did petty things like putting every information screen into English. When docents switched them back to Russian, we did it again.

After the museum we went to buy tickets to walk on top of the walls of the kremlin. Again, there was a foreigner fee; this time we decided to fight back. We said we lived in Russia, and had the documents to prove it. This allowed us to pay the local price, yay! Walking the walls was nice (and very windy,) but nice. We weren't able to go all the way around, (not even halfway,) which was a disappointment.

We had a lot of walking to do to get to our next sight. Along the way we passed a graveyard with collapsing churches in the middle. We also passed a building surrounded by walls topped with barbed wire, eeek. (It turned out to be a water treatment plant.) We also passed some people fishing in a lake, it was gorgeous.

We finally arrived at St. George's monastery, which is surrounded by tall white walls. We entered the grounds by walking through the bell tower, and were thrilled that there was no entrance fee. The most eye catching building inside was a church, though it was closed. The onion domes were blue with stars, beautiful! We entered another church which was partially being restored inside. Despite the scaffolding and such, we were still able to see beautiful painting all over the ceiling/walls.

Since I'm ultra graceful, I managed to roll my ankle as we were walking back out of the monastery. We tried to order a taxi to get back to the city center, but no taxis accepted my order. Thankfully we saw a bus stop closeby, and didn't have to wait long for the bus to come. Obviously, the ride back into the city went a lot faster than our walk in the other direction.

The bus dropped us off near an information office, which conveniently sold postcards and magnets, yay. From there we walked back to the hostel to pick up our bags, then back through the kremlin, and back to the cafe from the day before. Yay for eating three meals at the same cafe over a weekend.

After dinner we walked back to the train station, and thanks to good timing were able to board our train straightaway.

The next morning we arrived back in Moscow, on time. Woo hoo for another successful weekend :)