Above, you see the Millennium of Russia Monument, erected in 1859, celebrating a thousand years of Russian history. It's a massive bronze sculpture, adorned with hundreds of brazen figures from Russian history. Here's a couple of the major ones:
Tsar Mikhail Romanov, founder of the Romanov Dynasty
Orthodox monks at the court of Prince Yaroslav the Wise
For someone as insanely into Russian history as I am, you can imagine how cool it was to see this thing up close and scrutinize the various little details. I was particularly interested to see Mikhail Romanov's statue; for the progenitor of such an illustrious family, historians tend to pay him very little attention, and I'm not entirely sure why that is.
After dinner back at the hotel restaurant, I was somehow talked into going to the Banya (a kind of Russian steam bath) by my friend Nastia, who is a Russian university student assisting our program directors with excursions like this one. About five guys and twelve to thirteen girls went on the banya trip, which would ordinarily sound promising, until one realizes that the Banya has separate facilities for males and females. Going to the Banya is kind of like going to a sauna, only a lot more so...you alternate your time between a steam room and a cold room, where you rapidly cool down with buckets of ice-cold water (or, for the more adventurous, you can plunge into the Volkhov River across the street). Oh, and did I mention that you do all of this stark naked?
Let's just say that my visit to the Banya has been one of the more awkward experiences of my semester in Russia, and leave it at that. I tried my best to keep my neck craned far enough back to avoid viewing any unpleasant "scenery", as it were, but I still ended up seeing MUCH more of Russia than I am comfortable with seeing. Also, the "steam room" is a bit of a misnomer; "scalding oven of death" would be a more appropriate name. No sauna I've ever been in can hope to rival the Banya in overall heat intensity. You know how our bodies are supposed to be 75% water, or something like that? Well, by the time I exited the steam room for the fourth and final time, my body was down to 35%, and that's a HIGHLY optimistic figure. I'm all for keeping an open mind culturally, but the Banya is one aspect of Russia that I can't quite see myself embracing anytime soon.
I'll finish up my Novgorod tales tomorrow; for now, enjoy a few more pictures:
Cathedral of Saint Sophia
Volkhov River
Many of our Russian customers complain that American saunas do not get hot enough. (The United States Government regulates how hot a sauna is allowed to get for safety reasons)
ReplyDeleteThe Russian banya is simply not for everyone. It sounds like you enjoyed the rest of your trip though!