Back From Nizhni...

Well, we're back from Nizhni today and we had a great time. I really enjoyed the city. It is quite a bit bigger than Vladimir and kind of a bustling city. There is a lot going on, but it is not so huge and overwhelming as Moscow.

We left on Saturday morning and took the three-hour train ride from Vladimir. When we got there, Joanna's friend, Joanna met us. She lives there and works as an assistant director of the study abroad program at one of the local universities, which Joanna studied in a couple of years ago. She was very gracious to show us around the city and to let us stay the night at her place. Saturday morning the weather turned from cool and cloudy to warm and sunny. We were treated to very nice weather Saturday afternoon and took advantage of it by walking around the city a little. One of the main streets that leads away from the 16th century Kremlin has been converted into a pedestrian street and is lined with shops, stores, cafes, and lots of other interesting stuff.

There are several monuments around the city, most of them to two guys named Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky. In the early 17th century, the gathered their forces in Nizhni and marched to Moscow to expel an invading army from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and then they set Mikhail Romanov on the throne, beginning the three hundred years of the Romanovs' rule. Nizhni was also a major trading center for tsarist Russia, being a center for the fur and grain trades that propped up the economy. The Stroganov family that dominated the Siberian trade and became fabulously wealthy based themselves in the city. (Not to mention lending their names to a tasty dish.) In the 19th century, it was supposedly said that Petersburg was the country's head: Moscow, its heart; and Nizhni, its wallet.

Saturday evening we made some dinner ourselves and then went out in search of a cafe or bar, which we eventually found after several unsuccessful trips. On Sunday it was rainy and cool in the morning so we stayed in. After noon we went out and took in a little more of the city, including a really cool cafe with book shelves everywhere and all kinds of eclectic furniture and stuff. I might also add that it had some really excellent blinni. After that it was pretty much time to head for the train station, but not before we stopped at the McDonald’s that is across the street. All in all, it was a really fun trip and I am glad that we went and had a great time.

This week begins with a couple of days to spend preparing for classes, which begin on Thursday. I think we are all a little bit nervous, but I'm sure that it will work out fine.

"Kak Oka?" "Kak shiroka nasha reka."