Zarechny Hotel Nizhniy Novgorod

Petit passage a Nijni-Novgorod, ville historique de Russie (3e capitale apres Moscow et St petersbourg). A notre sortie du train notre hote Evgeny (=Genia, tout les russes ont un surnom pour racourcir leur prenom) nous attendait. Arrivé chez eux sa femme Macha (de Maria) avait preparé un delicieux diner. Ce couple est tres interessant et tres chaleureux, ils nous expliquent tout ce qu'il faut ...

... de la place, le sul que j'avais trouve proposait des chambres a 5000 roubles (140 Euros), j'ai senti une pointe de lassitude poindre, avant de finalement trouver un hotel tout pourris, pour seulement 2000 roubles, c'etait ca ou bien je tentais la gare (option non retenue). Le lendemain, visite du Kremlin de la ville, le temps ne s'ameliore pas et j'ai gagne un etat grippal.

... the monastery, or if it was open to the public so we headed back to the hotel. The next day, we were planning on going to another monastery some 60km down the river Volga but no boats were running on the Saturday. So we wondered around the city some more and found this small church up one of the many hills. There we met a lovely girl who spoke good English and she offered us tea and bread. She explained that the 2nd ...

... http://wikitravel.org/en/Nizhniy_Novgor od http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nizhniy_No vgorod http://www.waytorussia.net/TalkLounge/

Nizny Novgorod was not stop we planned in the beginning, but was recommended by people we met and Tim wanted to see the Volga of the Boatmen. It was a very nice town with lots of nice looking churches and a kremlin on top of the hill. A girl in Mcdonalds seemed surprised that tourists would come to Nizny Novgorod but its a nice spot. We arrived in the morning and booked the train to go that night (saves accomodation!) so had a day to wander.

... During the communism era, the city has lost a touch with the outside world as it hosted some of the Russian key industries (engineering, R&D, automobile and airplane industries). This is somehow visible in the overall industrial ambience.

... We're all pretty stressed, but at least it will be over soon. Most of us, like normal students I suppose, are reading to be done with these classes. BUT, even when we're in Moscow, we'll have a final quiz over Moscow stuff right before we leave! ARGH! Anyway, This might be the last entry from Nizhni. I don't know for sure. I will try to get online at least a couple of times in Moscow, but no guarantees! :O) We have our Thanksgiving party on Thursday...I'm ...

... as a "museum"....hm. Anyway, other than that, we saw the neighboring church inside the Kremlin and everything else inside the walls of the Russian fortress. On Sunday we went to see a monastery about 40 minutes outside of Kazan. It was very beautiful...It's called Raifa Monastery...and like all monasteries and churches in Russia, it has an interesting and somewhat sad history. Eight monks/priests were killed there during the Soviet Era because they would not tell where they ...

... it on Monday....so I have to finish ASAP and get that done! On Friday, we (myself and the other two in my group) taught our first "lesson" at the Lyceum (high school). We were to inform them of the U.S. political/government system. We did this by way of a "mock government" that we constructed with the class. This was interesting, trying to get through the language barrier and talk about something as complex as our system of ...

... also had a long walk that took us over a part of the Trans-Siberian railway...which was cool. On Sunday the weather wasn't so nice, but we spent time in the beautiful town of Suzdal. It was a very pretty place, with many more churches and monasteries. It was a very refreshing weekend....for sure. We got back to NN last night. We have today off...to "recuperate". So we're all taking advantage of the free time to sleep, do homework, go shopping, whatever. We start our second ...