September 28, 2011 by Sarah
Those of you who enjoyed the pics in my last entry will be happy to see that I am putting a few more in this one. Last weekend we decided to take the plunge: we were going to:
– walk to the metro station. Check! We know how to do that!
– buy our tickets. We will figure it out!
– figure out which line and in which direction and on which platform to stand. We really hoped we would succeed.
– walk to the honey festival, not knowing how to read the signs. Actually we didn’t know if there would be signs.
– buy honey. Maybe someone will speak some English? Maybe we can just point and hand over money?
– get home again. Please let us get home again!
I am proud to say we were successful on all counts. We didn’t even get lost! We armed ourselves with 2 metro maps- the one in Russian and the one with the English pronunciations. That way we could look at one map to see how the destinations looked and the other to see how to pronounce the names. Tricky business, that!
The metro stations are famous for being beautiful, and they are. The thing that is interesting is the common style- Stalin-era militaristic, propaganda-ish beauty. One day I’ll give you some photos.
The honey festival was across from the grounds of a summer palacial resort that Catherine the Great commissioned to have built. It was in complete ruin at one time, and apparently some pieces of it still are, but it has a magical air to it. The wooded areas are really stunning- the trees are all ablaze in fall glory and the air was crisp and cold. Look at that sky! The light here is dramatic and ever-changing.
There are ponds and bridges and on the day we were there, there were dozens of bridal parties. And why not? You’d have a hard time getting a bad picture there. Look at what good ones I got, and you all know I do not have those kind of skills.
I think it must be a tradition here for the groom to carry the bride across the bridges. We saw that happening lots, followed by all their friends who followed them cheering on a lengthy kiss. We saw a dad carry his two little girls who were probably flower girls over the bridge them set them down with a peck. How sweet!
We did make it to the Honey Festival. There were hundreds of beekeepers there. Travis says they come from all over Russia. We sampled and bought, sampled and bought.
YUM!