Russia: Part 2

My last post was about the first half of fall break in Moscow, Russia. This one will be about our time Saint Petersburg. Let's locate both cities on the map and then see what Larry discovered.

Saint Petersburg is the cultural capital of Russia and is called "The Venice of the North". The city is full of bridges and canals. Here's Larry looking at the view of the Neva River, the main river the city is built on. 

Chilling out with one of our interns, Edvardas.

Saint Petersburg collects statues of lions and lion-like animals. People also send them as gifts to the city, like this sphinx. 

Larry found some new friends.

We visited a museum dedicated to the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, who lived and wrote under the regime of Stalin. The museum was located in her former apartments and we got to see how she and her family lived.  Anna and her family were persecuted by the Soviet regime. Her husband and son were imprisoned and she was accused of spying for the British. At one point she was required to stand at her bedroom window every morning and show herself to the KGB agents sitting outside. Here's Larry looking at the benches were they sat and watched for her.

It was sad but good to get a glimpse of how the Russian people suffered under the Soviet Union. Anna Akhmatova wrote a long poem about it called Requiem, which you can read here.  In order to smuggle the poem out of her apartment, one of her friends would come over to visit. They would talk very loudly about trivial things (in case someone overheard them and reported them to the government) while her friend memorized passages of the poem. Then they burned the papers in this jar. When complete, it was published outside the Soviet Union.

"The most beautiful thing about my apartment is the maple tree outside my window." -Anna Akhmatova

No trip to Russia would be complete without a visit to the palaces of the Tsars. Next time, I'll show you some pictures of Larry hanging out with the Romanovs!

Russia: Part 1

This is my long overdue post from fall break in Russia. We spent nine days in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Larry had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of his adventures.

We started the trip with an overnight train ride to Moscow. Here's Larry super excited for his first train ride.

One of the places we visited in Moscow was the famous Red Square. The Red Square is located next to the Kremlin, a walled fortress which contains the government's headquarters, museums full of artifacts from the Russian Tsars (emperors) and other sights. Once inside the Kremlin we got to see a lot of beautiful Orthodox cathedrals. However, Larry's favorite was St. Basil's Cathedral in the Red Square itself.  In his excitement to see St. Basil's up close, Larry jumped out of my pocket and nearly got himself lost. Fortunately, we were quickly reunited and proceeded to explore this stunning building. You can learn more about St. Basil's  and get a glimpse inside here and here, but one cool fact we discovered is that it took over 300 years to finish painting all the murals inside the church. 

Naturally, Larry couldn't pass up the chance to take a selfie with this beautiful church. (kindly photobombed by our friend Spencer who was also super excited to be there)

Next to St. Basil's is Moscow's posh shopping mall, GUM (pronounced goom). It was beautiful and SO big!

Here's Larry taking in a second floor view of one part of the mall. 

One of the highlights of Moscow was getting to visit the Tretyakov State Gallery. There was so much beautiful art, but the highlight was their collection of Orthodox church art and icons. We got to see the world famous icon of the Holy Trinity by Andrei Rublev.  

It's bad manners for llamas to take selfies with church art, so Larry posed with a postcard of the icon instead.  

After a fun time at the circus we walked around the city for a bit. This photo is kind of dark but you can see a ring of flags in the background.  These are the flags of member countries of the European Union and they were placed here as a symbol of friendship from Russia to their neighbors in the EU.

Moscow is an exciting, fast paced city and we enjoyed our time there. But the best part of the trip was yet to come. Stay tuned for Saint Petersburg! Until then, enjoy these photos of the Red Square and the city at night.

Kaunas

A couple of weeks ago, Larry and I joined some other LCC students for  a day trip to Kaunas. We saw and learned some really cool things! Here's where Kaunas is in relation to Klaipeda.

Kaunas is Lithuania's second largest city, with a population of about 300,000. Our first stop in exploring was this castle. 

Once inside, Larry met Duke Vaidotas who helped protect the castle against invading Crusaders.

Larry takes in a scenic view of the city

After the castle, it was off to the 9th Fort, where we learned about the Nazi and Soviet occupations of this part of Lithuania. The fort was used to hold political prisoners throughout several regimes. We also learned that during the War of 1812, Napoleon came through Kaunas on his way to invade Russia. Everyone's favorite part of the tour was getting to walk through a completely dark underground tunnel. Our guide wanted us to see what it was like for the soldiers who often had to navigate the tunnels with no electricity. Everyone screamed so loudly while walking through!

Part of the 9th Fort

This wax guard in the window also made everyone scream.

Next, we went for a walking tour of the city.

I enjoyed the fall leaves in the city square

and the view of the river.

While Larry enjoyed the flowers.

We loved Kaunas and would like to go back and explore some more. Next up: Larry goes on fall break to Russia!