Russian Icon Tour, Part 16 Tallin

Ok, here we go exploring Tallin. I know little about the city other than 200,000 residents and 900 years old. Or so. 

A cat loving house:

Estonian "Baskin Robbins"

Fancy buildings

Pub Lunch in an Irish-Estonian pub

Icons for sale in the Russian Icon Gallery. 

I came out with this - a rare "printed" icon from Paris in 1905 - the first "mass production" icons. 

Three Big Black Mercs outside the bank. About 1/2 million € worth. 

Conversing with the local population. 

Me neither...

Arvo Pärt music exhibition and concert. 

Venison and Bordeaux, courtesy of an Estonian Watch Collector

Steak platter. 

Dessert. 

On the walk back to our flat. 

Zzzzzzzzzz...

Russian Icon Tour Part 15 Tallin, Estonia

Wow! We've arrived at our "little" AirBnB flat. 

Scandinavian design? Lots of IKEA anyway. 

I guess we have to learn more as our host said only that the Estonians have been under Danish, Swedish, German, Russian and now independent rule. 

Wow this place is big compared to our rooms in Russia. 

We went to the market. It's big too. 

We walked around a bit. This is their Parliament building. 

And then we just fell asleep. 

Russian Icon Tour Part 14 Leaving Russia

We were up at 6. Half of our troops had already gone to the airport. We grabbed some hard boiled eggs, slurped a tea and hopped into the 6000000 Taxi (company name and phone #) which hauled us to the bus station. 

A massive grey Irizar coach rolled up and picked us up (and only us). Short-lived joy gave way to reality as we picked up 25 more passengers 15 minutes later. 

But still, this thing is beautiful. Everything except a rock 'n roll star is in this bus! Toilet better than any aircraft. 

(No head scarf required for women, and no photos allowed inside.)

Two hours later we reached the border. Our motley crew spent 75 minutes shuffling through 4 sets of checkpoints, all under the foreboding eyes of two stone fortresses. And lots of guards. 

I suppose it's time to be philosophical. Russia shoved our minds into new directions - it amazes and surprises and intrigues and irritates. Especially we who grew up being told how bad things were on the other side of "the red curtain" and little more than that. 

So how can I summarize this trip? What do words really mean? 

Is:

 "West" a direction? or a place?

 "Freedom" a reality? Who has it?

 "Border" an invitation? or a refusal?

 "World" is it home? or a battleground?

 "Old lady" irrelevant or truly reverent?

 "Tradition" a handicap or a teacher?

 "God" an illusion? opiate of the masses?

Do icons serve as a doorway into a real world, with real people and reality itself inside, transcending the centuries?

That's part of what I've been pondering while here in Russia.

If this reality is in fact real, it is worth hanging onto, and the Orthodox here have been holding firm for 1000 years; through peace and war, feudalism, monarchy and comrade-ism; Mongol Tartars and Nazis; summer heat and winter snowdrifts. Their life has been hard. 

 

But worth living because Paradise awaits.

 

I see that we are approaching Tallin. Time to stop talking. 

Stay tuned for the next icon adventure. 

Russian Icon Tour, Part 13 Novgorod-St. Pete

It's our Last Day in Russia - and we're feeling excitement, sadness and stress!

Why? It's the commingling of packing, sightseeing, souvenir shopping, traffic jams and cancelled flights!

We are all wound up and stressed-out. 

We started with a group sharing and worship time, then hopped on the bus to Yuryev Monastery. This medieval compound contains one of the oldest churches in Russia. Along with 4 other churches but only 7 monks ...

We admired the Church of St George's relatively new frescos. 

And then walked down to see the Volkhov River and Ilmen Lake. 

Our last sightseeing stop was another wooden building preservation site. We wandered around in a drizzling rain, wondering what it would be like to live in a log house in December with a foot of snow on the ground. 

Our lunch was across the street at a motel/restaurant with sympathetic decor to match the wooden structures. 

Then it was back on the yellow bus once more, and a 4-hour slog north to St. Pete. We had rain, construction delays and traffic, but arrived intact. 

Once back in our (not very!) Grand Hotel, we dumped our bags and rushed to dinner at a local Italian place. 

Sadly, three of our group had cancelled flights, so our mighty tour leader Kent spent his whole dinner time on the phone with Lufthansa. The rest of us drove the wait staff crazy with our jumble of food and wine orders!

Within hours, the 18 of us on the official tour will be spreading out around the globe, laden down with memories, thoughts, photos and odd coins. And heavy icon books. 

The two of us are heading via Lux Express bus to Tallin, Estonia for more icon sightseeing, while others of our group are facing cancelled flights on Lufthansa. Sigh. 

So this blog will continue for a few more days!

Thanks for reading and check in tomorrow for more. 

Russian Icon Tour, Part 12 Novgorod

We were on the bus again at 9 am, and we stayed on the bus for a mighty long time. 

It took us over 4 hours to go 180 miles. Windy roads, rough roads, construction, you name it, we had it. Through forests and villages, straights and curves, we wound northeast to Novgorod. 

We arrived and ate another nice meal. 

Then we hit the Kremlin and toured the monastery church. (No photos inside)

We walked in a light rain through the Kremlin (it means "city center") before entering the Novgorod Museum. Arkady, our local Novgorodian guide, was very informative and energetic. 

NOTE: if you love icons and go to Russia, I would say this is the Ultimate site to visit. 

Take oxygen - you will need it!

After 2 hours of bliss, we left the museum by way of the gift shop. I bought this little brass icon of the XIXth century. 

The rain had stopped. We went back to the church for the first 35-40 minutes of evening Vespers, then slipped away to make sure we arrived in time for our dinner reservations. 

We walked across the river on an arched bridge to our pseudo-ship restaurant and a lovely dinner. 

Thus we didn't get to our nice, clean, modern, spacious hotel until 9 pm. 

Now it's time to sleep. 

Russian Icon Tour, Part 11 Pskov

Tonight I am reporting from our (small) hotel room in Pskov. 

It features a unique plumbing arrangement that saves faucets and pipe. 

Sink:

Bath:

They must have saved elsewhere on the plumbing too, because the water is quite brown. 

But I've gotten ahead of myself. 

We started today by leaving a very busy hotel buffet in St. Petersburg that ran out of food, plates and cups. 

We jumped onto a magic yellow bus and headed southward on a 4-hour journey. 

Those of us in the front seats engaged in brave "If I were driving this thing" advice, confident that our driver(s) wouldn't understand us and we wouldn't have to take the wheel of the bus. 

When we finally reached Pskov at 1:40 we had a great luncheon, including the first Borsht I've ever tasted - onion-free. 

Then we headed to the 12th Century Mirozhsky Monastery chapel with 80% of its original frescos surviving all these centuries!

And we peeked into the monks' church nearby. 

Later we went to the Kremlin (town center). And took a few artsy photos. 

In the midst of a rainstorm, we checked into our Soviet-era hotel. 

But crammed 11 into a room anyway, for a quick round of drinks before dinner, 

which was held in an underground "lair".

Which brings us back to me in room 513, writing up our day. 

Thanks for reading!