Kizhi

30 August 2016

Will attempt to write a short blog today…lol!

We finally had another late afternoon arrival so we got to sleep in and relax on the ship.  After breakfast, I went on the wheelhouse tour – as you can see in the photo, I got to drive the ship…  Actually the wheelhouse was very interesting – gps, satellite navigation, lots of red, green & black buttons that were very tempting-lol!-and a fantastic view…

After lunch, we again skipped all the lectures and got up a rousing game of LCR, except we played with 100 rubles notes instead of dollars…lol  100 rubles=$1.35 approximately…  We actually had to invest 900 rubles as we kept putting all the money into the pot.  I had a chance to win but could not roll a dot – a nice British chap, Brad, won the whole pot of 3200 rubles!

The late afternoon found us in Kizhi .  It is an isolated island on Lake Onega and is 300 miles south of the Arctic!  It is situated on Lake Onega and the island’s settlement dates back to the 15^th century.  Today the entire island is a national open-air museum – a bit like Williamsburg, VA but Russian…  All the buildings are entirely handmade of ash and were originally made without nails – only pegs.  The Transfiguration Church had 22 domes and the whole village was so cute and reminded me of Bavaria, without the  geranium flower boxes on the railings…lol!

  Oh did I mention how cold it was?  I had 3 shirts on, a fleece jacket, my corduroy pants and Ugh boots, plus my fur headband I had bought in Yaroslavl.  B says it was probably 50*!  We were told in winter the whole island is covered in snow and the lake can freeze – supplies have to be helicoptered in.  Oh and there were Pokestops all over Kizhi because it is an historical monument.  I did not catch any Pokemon today but I did hatch an egg with all my walking which turned out to be a Shelldur…  Sorry for all the Pokemon Go updates to those of you that don’t play…lol!

Returned to the ship for a rest, supper and a talent show by the crew – which was quite entertaining…  We have another early day tomorrow so I am off to bed…good night my friends