In which you're probably quite glad I'm not posting all my photos

Saturday, 7 pm. The best weather we’ve seen so far in this country came on the best sightseeing day! :D Thirty-five or so photos later, I return, cold and footsore but happy, from the winter wonderland that is Pavlovsk in February.

We took a different form of public transportation this time, called electrichki, sort of longer-distance trains (very much like Amtrak, but with benches instead of individual seats). The ride was a little over half an hour, at least for half the Area Studies group. We pulled into Pavlovsk Station, but our dear Jarlath was apparently very distracted by the conversation he was having. After a good thirty seconds of confused silence, somebody ventured, “Hey, Jarlath, aren’t we getting off here?”, and our coordinator sprung up as though hit with a cattle prod. He shepherded us off as fast as we could run, but only eleven out of about twenty-five made it off the train. Apparently electrichki doors don’t open automatically like Metro doors back home do if there’s something in them, so in the process of trying to force the door open for a couple more of us, Jarlath got his fingers caught in the door. Thankfully, he wasn’t hurt, but it was hilarious for those of us on the platform, watching the train pass out of sight with those fingers sticking out like, well, sore fingers! The eleven of us camped out in the station itself for a while until the rest of the group caught a bus back, and eventually, we began what was actually supposed to be the day’s adventure.

Pavlovsk itself was an estate given by Catherine the Great (Catherine II) to her son Paul upon the birth of Paul’s son, Alexander. Quite a present…just “here, son, have a few gorgeous acres in the middle of nowhere, go build yourself a palace!” The palace itself is a lovely little place, but in my (and most of the group’s) opinion, the buildings absolutely pale in comparison with the grounds themselves. Photos of the interior of the palace itself were only allowed for a rather exorbitant fee, which I don’t think any of us paid. We can find photos of the shiny objects inside the palace on postcards; we can’t find gorgeous shots of trees in snow nearly as easily.

After the tour of the palace itself, some of the group wanted to try the assorted winter sports available – skiing, tubing, and skating among them. It was three-thirty by the time we got out, though, so most of us were content with wandering the grounds for a while (and couldn’t find the main winter sports area, anyway. When you don’t know enough of the language to read the map, navigating an area the size of the grounds of Pavlovsk becomes quite the challenge). Mike, Ella, Alec and I set off on a campaign to take artistic photographs of trees in snow, got separated, and all ended up with some gorgeous photos once we met up again. I got completely lost in the middle of the forest, ended up asking directions a couple of times from rather standoffish but helpful Russian tourists, and found my way to a giant hill traversed almost exclusively by skiers. Thankfully, I could see the bridge in the distance; the only way to it, though, was down the hill, so down I went. I managed to fall flat on my squishy parts crossing the bloody icy street from Pavlovsk Station to the park entrance, so I have NO idea how I managed to get down this hill without falling, but I guess I’d used up my bad gravity karma for the day. :) Fortuitously, as soon as I reached the bottom of the hill, I ran smack into four of the Area Studies group – almost literally! Kyle, Nick, Eve, and Brenna led me out, and about thirty of us took the train home together.

I’m writing this from home, after a hot bowl of soup, some sort of cherry dumplings (odd, but very tasty), and three cups of very hot English Breakfast tea. This makes for a very happy Amanda. :D There are several sets of Saturday night plans in the air, but I think most of us are too tired from wandering through the forest to do much of anything. The most viable one sounds like a trip to the giant bookstore on Nevsky; I can think of no better way to pass the evening. :)