Spankings in Petrozavodsk

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  Petrozavodsk, Russia
Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Our first overnight train ride was interesting. We slept in "kupe" - a second class accommodation with four beds per compartment (we were lucky enough to share with relatively quiet and non-stinky people). We were pretty shocked when we saw the train for the first time. It was old! And powder blue. And hot. The train ride itself was quite slow and rickety, and we woke several times in the night, but we arrived safe and sound in Petrozavodsk. The city is 400 km north of St. Petersburg and was founded by Peter the Great himself as a place to manufacture weaponry (the name means Peter's Factory). We got in touch with a Hospitality Club member while we were in St. Petersburg, and he offered to host us, even on such short notice. Our host, Maxim, met us on the train platform at the ungodly hour of 6:50 AM and took us back to his apartment, which he shares with his mom and brother. He showed us to our room fed us breakfast while we talked and got to know each other. Maxim is 25 (turning 26 in a couple of days) and doesn't work. He goes to Finland for a few months a year to work because people make next to nothing in Russia. His few months in Finland are almost equivalent to working a year in Russia.

He then took us for some sightseeing in his city. Petrozavodsk is actually quite large with 275,000 inhabitants. He brought us down the main drag pointing out the important buildings (including where the KGB is - don't wanna end up there!) and down to the embankment. The city is on the shores of Europe's second biggest lake, Lake Onega. It is so big that it looks like the ocean - there is no visible other side. We walked along the embankment which is full of monuments given to Petrozavodsk by its partner cities. He also took us to the train station and helped us buy our train tickets to Moscow the next day. The main reason we came to this city was to visit Kizhi Island on Lake Onega. It is a small island, home to an open-air museum of centuries-old wooden buildings and churches. Luckily for us, Maxim has a friend in the hotel where we bought our ferry tickets, so we got 20% off. Afterwards, we bought some beer and had a sit in a park while we talked and he regaled us of stories and hard facts about life in Russia - namely the rife corruption in the police force and government and the huge gap between rich and poor, with no middle class. We were pretty shocked at some of the things he had to say. Russia still has a very long way to go and he is pretty pessimistic that things will improve anytime soon.

Maxim planned a little something very special and Russian for us that night. His friend, Cuba (pronounced Kooba), a young female writer who recently won a Best Young Writer award (which was presented to her by President Putin himself), bought a little wooden house with a "banya" in the backyard. We'd read about these banyas in St. Petersburg and thought about going to a public one, but here was a chance to experience it in private. They are basically saunas cranked up a couple of notches. The typical way to take a banya is to sit in intense heat and hit yourself or, better yet, have someone hit you with a besom - a bushel of birch branches and leaves. The ideal situation is to then jump in a really cold lake or into a snow bank. Repeat as necessary! We arrived early to start heating up the banya as it takes about an hour to get going properly. It is heated by a wood-burning fireplace with rocks on top to make steam. While we waited we went into Cuba's house and had a shot of vodka - Russians don't mix vodka, it is drank in one gulp and chased down with some food or another drink (that night we used tomato juice, which was quite good). A few more of their friends arrived and everyone spoke at least a little English so we were able to chit chat quite a bit. The time came for the banya so Maxim, Yvonne and I went out to the little wooden hut in the weedy garden, stripped down to towels and entered the hellish room. It is common for Russians to sit in these things at 120 degrees Celsius (sometimes even 140!), but we only had it at 80 degrees Celsius and it was almost unbearable. When Maxim poured water on the rocks the steam made it feel like the temperature shot up to 1000 degrees. I thought my skin was going to blister and peel off and was scared to breathe for fear my lungs would explode. But you did get used to it (somewhat) after a short time. Then the interesting part - we each lay down on the bench and took turns beating each other with the besom. There is something definitely inherently wrong with watching another man hit your wife's bare ass with twigs, but, when in Russia... The only thing missing was a cold lake or snow to jump in after, but we experienced it enough for our taste! Afterwards, feeling beat (pun intended) we retired inside and drank more vodka, ate more food, and talked until the wee hours of the morning.

The next morning we got up a bit late and had to rush to store our luggage at the train station for the day and to the ferry port to get our boat to Kizhi. We took "marshrutkas" around - mini buses made from transit vans which Maxim nicknamed "coffin on wheels" - and in the end, in our mad panic to make the ferry, missed saying goodbye to him. We were all supposed to get into a marshrutka, but there were only two seats left, so he put us in and closed the door. We hoped he would come to the train station later that night, but we never did see him again (thank god for email). We made the ferry with a few minutes to spare and enjoyed the hour and fifteen minute high-speed boat ride. For many of Russia's tourist attractions, there is a two-tiered pricing system. Russians pay less - and sometimes MUCH less - than foreigners. This was very true of Kizhi Island. We were told the day before that we would have to pay 500 rubles ($20) while locals only pay 100 ($4)! This is outrageous...so we decided to try something. We'd read about others doing similar things, so Yvonne worked up her nerves on the ride there, and at the ticket booth, in her best Russian accent, said "dva" (Russian for two) and handed her 200 rubles. It worked like a charm and we got our tickets! I was standing a bit away since I don't really look Russian, and thought Yvonne might have blown it when she said in a cool tone "pazhalsta" (please) after receiving the tickets, instead of "spaseeba" (thank you). But we made it through and high-fived each other when we were safe and secure inside the grounds.

Being out of season, we were almost by ourselves on the beautiful and peaceful island. We were also extremely lucky with the weather; it was blue sky, the sun was shining and we were wearing t-shirts in 20+ degree heat. The main attraction on Kizhi is the Church of the Transfiguration, built in traditional Russian wooden architectural style. The main building is made of logs topped with twenty-two domes, each covered in patterned aspen shingles. The result is an amazing church that pictures don't do justice. Another church (Church of the Intercession) is nearby it, and similar looking, and sandwiched in between is a belfry. Scattered throughout the rest of the island are gorgeous wooden barns, houses, windmills and other little churches that have been brought to the island from a short distance away. Aside from the buildings, the island itself is breathtaking. With the sunny skies, autumn colours, absolute silence, and glassy lake surrounding it - and the fact that we felt like we were the only souls on the island at times - it was the most relaxing and peaceful moments we've experienced in a long time on our travels. The downfall was that we only had three hours on the island so not much time was spent just sitting there and enjoying it. When we walked back to the dock to catch our ferry back, the sun had just disappeared behind darkening clouds and two cruise ships (from Moscow or St. Petersburg) were pulling in. Hordes of old people (lots of Americans) piled off the boats and formed snake-like lines into the grounds. We were so lucky to see it sunny and peaceful! By the time we got back to the mainland, it had started to rain and we had only an hour to make it to our train. We walked very briskly for thirty minutes, stopped to pick up food for our ride, and huffed and puffed onto the train for our fourteen hour overnight train ride to Moscow!

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06.Peter the Great	07.Lovely bridge	08.Wedding lock	09.Bomb (not working, phew!)
10.Mushrooms for sale	11.Cranberries	12.Banya hut in Cuba's backyard	13.Wood stove
14.The gang	15.Church   Comments!	16.Transfiguration Church silhouette	17.Thru the window
18.Framed shot	19.Transfiguration Church	20.Domes of Transfiguration Church	21.Church complex
22.Yvonne inside a house	23.Baby sleeper	24.Wooden house	25.Dock
26.Besom	27.	28.	29.Windmill
30.	31.Another church	32.Shoreline	33.
34.Worker	35.	36.Lonely tree	37.Grave marker
38.	39.Our ferry	40.

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