Best Eastern Prionezhsky Petrozavodsk

... We saw men fishing in dinghies far from land. We will bypass Kizhi Island and its traditional wooden buildings built without nails because we are now delayed with the fog, but we have had a very restful day on board getting to know other passengers. There are 5 American teachers from Texas, 4 Australians and a couple of American and Canadian people who somehow seem to be in the Kremlin bar when we are!!!!!

... to go and he is pretty pessimistic that things will improve anytime soon. Maxim planned a little something very special and Russian for us that night. His friend, Cuba (pronounced Kooba), a young female writer who recently won a Best Young Writer award (which was presented to her by President Putin himself), bought a little wooden house with a "banya" in the backyard. We'd read about these banyas in St. Petersburg and thought about going to a public one, but here was a chance to ...

... most of the tourists stay and walked up a bit to the middle, where there is a village called Yamka. It seemed to be a mix of an actual village where people live along with some other old wooden buildings transported from other places in the region. I saw a lady washing her dishes, etc. in the lake (which definitely is not nearly as clear as Baikal). Oh, there are also supposedly poisonous snakes on the island, which they warn you about after you buy your ...

... you could actually watch people making silly hats, didn't see any bears or yaks in there though, I imagine they slaughter those out the back. Went to the Hermitage and spent the best part of day there, I know nothing about art, but they were selling beer in the cafe so I had one of those and it made my wanderings through the building that little bit more entertaining, except when I had to find a bathroom. Also went to the Musuem of Anthropolgy and Ethnograpy, or as I like to call ...

... at locals - find the the shortest route across, and run when the next car is a Lada! Walk across one of the main bridges and immediately - wow at the size of the river and the buildings facing it. The city has amazing rive facing facade all along. Walk pass what find out later is the local 'Big House' (whatever we are called today KGB) and find hotel (hooray). Having the basics of the Russian alphabet really helps as even Hotel itself has main sign in Cyrillic ...

Less pukey today. Went walking with Ian and saw much better things and i even bought a hairbrush. Got back to hostel and had nap and then went to the pub. Had one pint and felt ill so had to go back. When got back there were some lads playing chess so i stayed up a little and watched them. Saw St Basils Cathedral and it was really cool. Looked a bit like the one in Moscow.

Got up late again!Walked around but not in the main tourist areas and i found it aa bit scabby. Sorry all. Negotiaited our way to a coffee and then discovered the nice part of St p. Went to an English bar to watch England v Paraguay and then to Jimmy Hendrix bar. Vey nice but must sleep. Ian - yesterday ...

The past two days have been EXTREMELY cold!!! It is about -30 degrees and with the windchill they factor it at -41. It just HURTS to go outside!! Finally the apartment is not too hot though! Usually it is pretty warm in here, too warm, but since it is soooo cold outside I can feel the cool air coming in from the tiny gap in the window.

... to have my hair cut again (too beautiful to be a man!). After the dinner, it's the FAREWELL SHOW! What the interesting part is, most of the programs were performed by our fellow passengers, sort of like what we did in summer camp back in high school and college. What surprised me is that these passengers in their 60's and 70's were willing to act like clowns to please us. I guess they had a lot of summer camp experience back to their youth too..... But I wasn't invited to perform.

... did watch a nice folklore performance in the local theater. Which they sang the song Kalinka again.... Back to the boat, they showed the movie "Hunting Red October" to conclude this busy day. I didn't finish this movie since I've seen it about 7 years ago. Another American movie made in the cold war era. Anyway, at that time, Russia is a big evil empire. Some Russians are bad, and the good Russians want to become Americans......whatever.