russia: veliky novgorod again

My second year in Russia, when I did most of my traveling with Claire and Angela, one of the cities we visited was Veliky Novgorod. We had a good weekend, and I remembered thinking at the time that I wouldn't mind returning at some random point in the future. I knew there were a few more things I wanted to see, and there was a cafe I really liked. (We liked it so much that we ate three meals there during that visit. Why mess with something that isn't broken.)

That random point in the future ended up being this summer. When we visited before, we came from Moscow, taking a night train. This time around I came from Saint Petersburg, taking an elektrichka. As always in Russia, my train arrived exactly when it was supposed to arrive.

I booked a different place to stay this time around, but it was just as easy to walk there as it was to the first place, partly because I knew the first 20 minutes of walking were along the same streets. As with Vologda and Petrozavodsk, the difference in Veliky Novgorod in various seasons is quite stark.

After checking in, I rested up for a while, longer than I should have, which unfortunately is my pattern. This is even easier to let happen during summer, when the days are long, and in the back of my head I know I have plenty of daylight to play with. Whoops.

I started walking, heading down the street in a new direction. At one point I walked along what I thought must've been older city fortifications, which now just look like horizontal hills covered in grass. Since the sky was all gray, it made for a great contrast. I followed the 'hill' to a church we'd glimpsed during the previous visit, when renovation was happening. 

Despite this visit being 18 months later, it looked just the same. A fence around the whole church, scaffolding in a couple places, etc...

I got back to the road, and followed it until I passed a park which had a war memorial. I've lost count of how many of these I've seen, but I still take a look every time I pass one. Russia always remembers its soldiers from wars going back centuries.

Eventually I got to the first sight I'd intended to see that day, a huge city sign. This one was at the edge of the city, where cars officially enter the city. A giant city sign, written in Russian, woo hoo!!

Not too far past the city sign was a bridge, which wasn't interesting in the slightest. What was interesting was the old bridge, which was right next to the new bridge. The old bridge had holes in a few places, with rust on some of the metal on the side. I could see grass growing in cracks in the cement, which always strikes me as photogenic. I wonder how long the old bridge has been out of service. I saw a guy standing near the other end, I think he was fishing; I wanted to walk on the bridge, but since there were a few huge holes near my side, I didn't have the confidence to do so. I love old abandoned stuff, but I also have a healthy fear of something collapsing while I'm looking around.

As the walk out to this area had taken quite a while, walking back took just as long. Actually, it took even longer, because it started raining at some point, so I took shelter. I hate walking in rain, and this wasn't rain I could ignore, it was quite heavy for a good 30 minutes. Argh.

On the way back I walked a couple new streets, enjoying some really huge grafitti along the way. Even though it was still relatively early in the evening, I decided to go eat. I went back to the cafe I'd enjoyed so much during the first visit, and was just as happy this time around.

Walking from the cafe back to my hostel happened at the early stages of sunset, I was thrilled to see the sky changing colours. After the rain had stopped earlier in the afternoon, it seemed like most of the clouds had left the sky. Those that were left perfectly accented the colours of sunset.

The next morning I took my sweet time getting moving, oh well. My first objective for the day was to go to the bus station to buy a ticket for the following morning. I was pretty sure I didn't need to buy the ticket ahead of time, but I didn't know what time a bus would be going to my next destination, and buying a ticket answered that question.

After the bus ticket I took a photo next to a big statue of Rachmaninoff, a well known Russian composer in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. He was so musically talented that he was able to start playing piano at the age of 4, and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892, after composing several orchestral and piano pieces. After reading his Wikipedia entry, I also learned he was born near Veliky Novgorod in March of 1873.

His statue was 'leaning' against the back of a giant park bench. The ratio of the size of the statue to the park bench look normal, so you don't realize quite how big both of them are until you try to pose with them. 

I ended up climbing onto the front bench side, then sitting on top of the bench, next to the statue. I still looked quite small. Since the bench wasn't made of wood, it was quite slippery, and I had some fear of falling off before the shutter clicked.

After this I had one more major sight on my list for the day, an open air museum of wooden architecture. It was pretty close to the monastery I'd visited with the girls, and getting there required a fairly long walk. This time around, I walked a little faster, partly because I knew where I was going.

When I got to the museum I discovered around half of it was closed for renovations, darnit. I got to the ticket desk and discovered this was yet another attraction in Veliky Novgorod that charges a higher price for foreign visitors than it does for locals. I paid the local price. I don't know if she didn't question me because I paid with exact change, or because no one expects foreign visitors during a pandemic, but she didn't even question me. Or maybe it was because I was by myself? Who knows. 

I enjoyed the museum. You have to wear a mask each time you walk into one of the buildings, and they made sure there weren't too many people inside anywhere at any given time. The buildings were all quite small, so this basically translated to one family at a time, or just me. Each building had an information sign out front, giving a few details of what was inside, and there was English on these signs. Yippee!

I got to take a peek inside homes they way they were in more rural areas back in the day, and in a church from a while back. There was also an example of an old well, and a farmhouse. All in all, a good place to visit. 

I imagine schoolkids are dragged here on field trips quite regularly for history lessons.

It started raining at one point while I was walking around, I ended up taking 'shelter' by standing on the steps of a church that were covered by an overhang. Thank goodness the rain didn't last long, and the clouds blew out just as quickly as they blew in. I hate rain. 

I took the bus back to the city center, I just wasn't in the mood for the long walk back. As I got off the bus I noticed a large mural on one side of an apartment building, but I could only see the top. 

After weaving through a couple streets I got close enough to see the whole thing, it was impressive. From there I noticed another such mural a little over a block away, also impressive.

While looking for the first mural I noticed an old bell tower/monastery gate. I rarely walk away from those without taking at least a little peek, so I ended up getting to see the grounds of a monastery. From what I saw, it seemed to be quite old, as there were ruins in the middle of the grounds, and newer buildings on the edges. Really really pretty, at least in a photogenic sense.

At that point I felt as if I'd seen everything I wanted to see, so I went back to the cafe for another dinner, then back to the hostel for another night of sleep.

Now that I've seen Veliky Novgorod in two different seasons, and seen the sights of interest, I don't think I need to return. But I know I should never say never.