-31 degrees and Sergiyev Posad
I hope that this message finds everyone well and enjoying the winter. The weather has certainly turned colder. I heard that on Sunday morning, it was -31 degrees Celsius. It was pretty cold when I left the apartment to meet up with the other teachers for our trip to Sergiyev Posad. This town is located about 46 miles north of Moscow. We were given some money as a gift from the guy in America who founded the American Home. We decided to use the money to hire a minibus to take a trip. It took us about 3 hours to get there. This is one of the most popular cities in the Golden Ring of Russia. The Golden Ring is this set of cities that used to be really rich and prominent cities around this area in Russian history. Vladimir is also one of the Golden Ring cities, as is Pereslavl-Zalessky. The main attraction in Sergieyv Posad is the Trinity Monastery of St. Sergius. This monastery is the oldest and one of the most important monasteries in Russia. Sergievy Posad is considered by many to be the Center of Russian Orthodoxy.
We got a guided tour of the monastery. The tour guide was an older woman who didn't seem to like us very much. She kept chastising us and making jokes at our expense. Then, when the tour was over, she left us very quickly and didn't even wait to see if we had more questions to ask. However, I am glad that we took the tour, because she did tell us some very interesting facts. There was also one of the cathedrals on the grounds that we wouldn't have been able to go into without the guide, and it was worth the money we paid to see this cathedral. I think one of the most interesting things that she told us was about the bells in the bell towers. During the Soviet period, the bells were all thrown down and destroyed. It is amazing that the whole monastery wasn't destroyed as well. One of the cathedrals was turned into a disco and after the Soviet Union fell, there was a lot of restoration needed. The bells have been reconstructed, but our guide said that they do not sound as beautiful as they used to. Also during the Soviet Period, all the monks in the monastery were either killed or sentenced to exile and most of them died there. When the monastery was reopened, only 3 of the original 400(I think this is the correct number) monks were still alive.
On the grounds of the monastery there is also a natural spring. The water is considered holy, and people bring bottles and wait in line to fill their bottles with water.
This monastery was also one of Ivan the Terrible's favorite places. He gave a lot of money and a lot of gold, silver and jewels for the decoration of the monastery.
For lunch, I have to sadly say that I went to McDonalds. This town happens to have one, and one of the other people we were with said that he wanted a Big Mac, so I ended up going with him and another teacher for lunch. I have to admit that the french fries did taste pretty good. So, I got a little taste of American culture.
After lunch, we walked around the city a little bit to see what else was around. There wasn't much else of real excitement to talk about. Then at 4pm, we got back onto our minibus and came back to Vladimir.
So, that was my trip to Sergiyev Posad.
We got a guided tour of the monastery. The tour guide was an older woman who didn't seem to like us very much. She kept chastising us and making jokes at our expense. Then, when the tour was over, she left us very quickly and didn't even wait to see if we had more questions to ask. However, I am glad that we took the tour, because she did tell us some very interesting facts. There was also one of the cathedrals on the grounds that we wouldn't have been able to go into without the guide, and it was worth the money we paid to see this cathedral. I think one of the most interesting things that she told us was about the bells in the bell towers. During the Soviet period, the bells were all thrown down and destroyed. It is amazing that the whole monastery wasn't destroyed as well. One of the cathedrals was turned into a disco and after the Soviet Union fell, there was a lot of restoration needed. The bells have been reconstructed, but our guide said that they do not sound as beautiful as they used to. Also during the Soviet Period, all the monks in the monastery were either killed or sentenced to exile and most of them died there. When the monastery was reopened, only 3 of the original 400(I think this is the correct number) monks were still alive.
On the grounds of the monastery there is also a natural spring. The water is considered holy, and people bring bottles and wait in line to fill their bottles with water.
This monastery was also one of Ivan the Terrible's favorite places. He gave a lot of money and a lot of gold, silver and jewels for the decoration of the monastery.
For lunch, I have to sadly say that I went to McDonalds. This town happens to have one, and one of the other people we were with said that he wanted a Big Mac, so I ended up going with him and another teacher for lunch. I have to admit that the french fries did taste pretty good. So, I got a little taste of American culture.
After lunch, we walked around the city a little bit to see what else was around. There wasn't much else of real excitement to talk about. Then at 4pm, we got back onto our minibus and came back to Vladimir.
So, that was my trip to Sergiyev Posad.