Sally found a fantastic Russian hat! She did not purchase it, but did get a lovely watch that is disguised as a bracelet.
Sally bought a little bottle of vodka hidden in a Russian doll for her brother. As she was thinking about it, the saleswoman offered vodka shots. It was hilarious to watch Todd's mom and Sally have a morning sip of vodka just as Todd walked into the room and asked what was happening.
Next we headed to the Church of Spilled Blood. Inside they called it the Cathedral of the Resurrection, I think. Apparently there are a variety of translations.
If it looks tall to you, imagine a space feeling twice as high and that's more like how it felt.
Those are mosaics. Completely incredible.
The alter
See - so tall!
The best part about the mosaics for me were their size and clarity. Churches often mention how the art was used to tell Bible stories to an illiterate congregation, but I cannot tell what they are depicting. I could identify the passage being shown in at least half of the scenes on the walls of the church. Here is Lazurus being raised from the dead.
Nearby, the Samaritan woman by the well
"Let the little children come to me"
I barely noticed the chandeliers until Annie looked up at one and commented that they looked a lot like snowflakes. It's amazing that the church has so much ornamentation that something this detailed could get lost in the space.
'A model of the church
Across from the church was a "flea market" where we did more souvenir shopping. We were all surprised that the poor number and quality of postcards. Single ones were often unattractive and I simply did not want to buy 15 postcards. Thanks to the extreme generosity of Todd's mom in buying almost all of my food and entertainment for the weekend I had quite a few Rubles that I did not want to turn back into Euros. I found an egg charm to wear on a necklace - my own simple version of a Faberge Egg and a turquoise bracelet that I really liked for myself.
After the church we went back to the hotel where Annie and Tom finished packing their bags. We got in the van and headed towards the Finland railway station. For some reason, all of the Russians must have really wanted to get us out of the country because by leaving a half hour after they advised we were an hour and a half early for our train. This is a good thing at an airport, but the security at the train station involved walking through a metal detector which beeped to indicate we did have metal on our person or in our bags, looking awkwardly at a few guards, and being through security. Our train hadn't arrived in the station yet.
Todd looked for a cafe and thought he saw one near the trains. We tried to scan our tickets and failed to spoke to a woman who took tickets. She spoke no english and we couldn't form a Russian word, let alone sentence, so she got a little flustered and just waved us through. In the cafe a couple next to us asked Sally and I "where are you from". I replied "America" and got a look that was comical and told "we know that, where in America". These true were of Russian descent, moved to America and lived there for 20 years. Now they are in Russia often for business and the wife said "it is so good to hear english again". It was a little strange, but very interesting. They were traveling on our train and we actually saw them again in the dining car.
We boarded the train and started towards Helsinki. I had briefly used the wireless internet in the hotel to download the third (and thankfully for my schoolwork, final) book in the Hunger Games series so I read almost the entire train ride. Even with this entertainment, it was a little unnerving how long we were stopped on the Russian side of the border. Perhaps it was because I dosed a little the first time, but I think the train was parked for well over an hour.
Once we reached the Finnish side of the border, Tom came to Sally and my seats to invite us to a table they had reserved in the dining car. Sally had been writing her paper and wanted to listen to music and nap a little, but I followed him to the table. It turned out to be a little awkward because there were already four people there (Annie, Tom, and the 2 Russians we met earlier) so one of us always had to sit on the trash can. It was really interesting, though to hear their perspective on the government in Russia.
The wife was an eighth generation in St. Petersburg. She left Russia as it was becoming the Soviet Union. That essentially marked her as a traitor and they forced her to pay $750 in order to maintain her citizenship. She could not explain to me what happens if you are not the citizen of any nation, but it seemed that for her (and perhaps anyone?) that is not an option. Her husband is technically from the Ukraine. Both because US Citizens. She described American in 1988 when they arrived as "heaven on earth". Now they are in the fur trading business and fly quite a lot. They can only get a visa for Russia for 3 months at a time so usually spend 3 months in America, 3 in Russia, repeat. The husband travels to Turkey and China often to acquire furs to sell. One of their sons about 22 and plays soccer professionally in Russia. She is concerned that "America is going Socialist. I have seen it before. I do not like Obama's health plan". It was interesting to hear how much she still loves America but is concerned about it's future.
After taking pictures of the two couples on their camera phones I returned to my seat and finished my book. Once we arrived in Helsinki, Sally and I made the trek back to our apartment. It was strange how getting back to the train station honestly felt like returning home. I am certain it will be much more true getting to the states, but it still felt familiar and much more safe on this side of the border.
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