russia: petrozavodsk and kizhi island

 

When my train arrived in Petrozavodsk in January it was a cold, rainy/snowy/windy day. Walking from the train station to the hostel I'd booked was miserable, as the sidewalks were covered in snow, slush, and puddles of icy water. By the time I got to the hostel that day I was not in a great mood, simply because of the weather.

This time my train arrived in the middle of the night, just after 0300. Since Petrozavodsk is quite far north, the sky was already changing colours, though my phone was telling me official sunrise wasn't until 0337. I hung out in the train station until around 0730, so I wouldn't arrive at the hostel before anyone was awake. 

The walk this time (compared to January,) was sooooo much nicer.

Just like in Vologda, Petrozavodsk was completely different 6 months after my first visit. Instead of gray and cold with some white and lots of rain, I got to see all the colours of the rainbow. Green grass and blue skies, it was glorious. It was hot and sunny, I was happy to wear shorts and a t-shirt.

After checking in and resting up for a while, I walked to see Lenin, even though I'd seen this statue in my first visit. 

He hadn't changed (of course,) but the atmosphere of seeing him did. (Sunny and hot vs windy and snowy. He stands in the middle of a small traffic circle.

Off one side of the traffic circle is a park. The edge of the park right there had an 'exhibit' called Victory. There were large letters spelling out POBEDA, and a whole bunch of red flowers. Well done.

From there I walked back to Kirov square, where I'd seen the small Christmas festival previously.

There was nothing set up this time, as it was summer, at a time when it was not a holiday. What I did notice though was the big construction fence around the monument I saw last time that was a 'tree' with 'leaves' showing each sister city of Petrozavodsk.

I kept heading 'down' the hill, ending up at the lake. When I got to this point in winter it was already feeling dark, even though it was only around 3 in the afternoon. 3 in the afternoon in Petrozavodsk in summer is a world of difference. Walking along the lake was absolutely lovely, even though there were a lot more people out and about.

I walked further than I had in winter, just enjoying the atmosphere. During this walk I noticed there are actually a couple small beach areas, real beaches! Not only do the beach areas exist, there were people laying out, and other were swimming. I stepped in the water for a minute, but it was quite chilly, I had no desire to swim properly.

At one end of my walk I realized I was standing by an office where I could book tickets to take a boat to Kizhi Island, which had been on my Russia bucket list ever since I got my first Russia guidebook from Lonely Planet. (A church from the island was on the cover of that particular edition.)

I paid for my ticket, and was thrilled to know I'd get to see a UNESCO sight the next day.

From there I walked through a small amusement park, which was pretty busy. I don't know if it had just opened for the summer, and people were there because they hadn't been able to be there since the previous summer, but it seemed quite crowded to me for a Tuesday afternoon.

Dinner that night was from the supermarket: yogurt and ramen noodles. (Not mixed together, of course.) I went to bed early to make sure it would be easy to get up the next morning in plenty of time to get to the boat dock on time.

The next morning I decided to stop at a bakery on the way to the boat dock, yum. Worth it even though I had to walk pretty fast to get to the dock on time. We all queued up and boarded one by one, there were no Covid safety measures other than a request to wear a mask the whole time.

I dozed off during the 90 minute hydrofoil ride, hee hee.

Arriving at Kizhi Island was easy, though busy. The people who know what they're doing try to get off the boat first, because you immediately have to queue again, to buy tickets to enter the island.

The whole island is an open air museum, so if you don't buy this ticket, you'll have just been on a boat for no reason at all. (Why the tickets aren't combined I don't know.)

Like most people, I headed south just after buying my ticket. This is in the general direction of the most famous spot on the island, a beautiful church with a zillion onion domes. All made of wood, all quite intricate. You can easily identify which church was recently renovated, as the wood all looks very new. Very very new. 

There are two churches in this particular area, surrounded by a large wall. I chose to look at everything from the outside first, then circle around again, after the crowds had lessened a bit. The main church has recently been renovated, and as far as I could tell, is still not open for visitors. So you can go inside the walls, but not inside that church. You can enter the smaller of the two. Further south I found some hay fields, farm houses (open for visiting,) a windmill, a smaller church with a fantastic bell tower, and more. Some of the areas had little docks, where the owners can take out small rowboats/canoes on the water. 

Each time I entered a building I had to put on my mask and use some of the antibacterial/disinfectant stuff on my hands. Nearly all the employees fell into the 'old' category, so I was fine with taking these precautions. It was neat seeing how some people used to live, in terms of furniture, activities that had to be done regularly, and supplies kept on hand all the time.

Other than trying to avoid people, it was a lovely day wandering all over. There is a small village on another side of the island where people still live, and a few cottages you can rent for holidays. 

All in all it is quite picturesque, and very relaxing. There is a small graveyard in the middle of the island, some of the gravemarkers were quite old, and many pictures had faded to almost nothing.

When you buy a boat ticket it has a specific time to board the boat, you can't just rock up for any of the boats going to and from during the day. I got back to the main dock area in time to buy postcards and a magnet, then board the boat. Just like on the way to the island, I fell asleep/dozed on and off on the way back to Petrozavodsk.

After getting off the boat I walked along the lake for a while and made my way to a memorial in a small park, this memorial was for the victims of the NKVD/KGB/FSB. Nothing exciting, and based on the number of families just hanging out in the park, I doubt most of them were even 'aware' the memorial was there. (When you walk past something so many times you don't even remember it is there at all.)

I went to bed early that night because I had to get up early in order to catch a train at 0535. Now that I've seen Petrozavodsk in both winter and summer, I don't think I need to go back. On the other hand, the city does have the chain of bakeries I really like, and I've been known to travel for crazier reasons, soooooo......