Doing Very Russian Things in Russia

My Opera Experience:
I arrived at the Admiraltaskaya metro to meet up with my conversation partner, Ilya, to go to the opera. He was very late and I was surprisingly on time, at 6:15 like we agreed. While I waited for him I walked over to the McDonald's to use the bathroom. Some girl was standing by the door and suddenly collapsed onto the ground. I happened to be watching her as she dropped. But she got up really quick and just commented that she "felt a bit warm" while nobody said anything or even panicked. All the women in the bathroom just looked at her as she brushed herself off and then went into the bathroom stall….only in Russia. Then as I walked out of the bathroom still stunned by the little show I just witnessed, some random lady appeared right in front of my face and asked me intensely "do you have a lighter." I just shook my head no as a reaction and kept on walking. I swear she had a beard but I surprised by her face appearing close to my face to really tell. 

Anyway, turns out Ilya was very very late and he didn't even explain why he was so late. But we just power walked to the opera the best we could with my heels. When we arrived, we checked in our coats and headed up the carpeted staircase. The building itself was gorgeous that it makes one feel grand and elegant just walking through it. As we got to the top of the stairs, some two old grumpy ladies grumbled at us because we were late (only 10 minutes!) and one of them was really dramatic that she was going to make us sit in the lobby until intermission. The other one, however, pitied us so she suggested we at least sit on chairs in the aisle at least (she had to face the wrath of the first lady, brave soul.) Anyway, the important thing was that we made it. The opera was called “letuchaya misha” or “Bat”. A beautiful opera. It was a theatrical opera which included acting along with singing. The show was set in the 20’s because the women wore sparkly sexy dresses and had short hairstyles. The set was gorgeous and the actors were very very talented. During intermission, Ilya and I were actually able to claim our original seats abandoning the aisles. 

The view from our seat

My "собеседник" a.k.a Conversation partner

The Swan Lake Ballet:

I got a free ticket to watch the ballet "Swan Lake" at the Mikhailovsky Theater. It was an adventure to just get there. I got out of class late that day, at 5pm. Therefore, I had to eat really quick: potatoes and meat with cabbage and eggplant ikra. Before I knew it it was 6:30 already! Half an hour till the ballet started! As luck would have it, I ended up waiting for the bus near my house for about 20 minutes because it got delayed for some reason. I was really frustrated but when we got onto Nevsky Prospekt, I immediately understood why: traffic was clogged up as far as the eye can see. I heard Russians grumble that maybe it would be faster to get off and walk. However, it would take me 40 minutes to walk to the theater from where we were so I decided to stay on the trolleybus. But if I wasn't wearing heels and if it wasn't pouring down rain, I would have gotten off and jogged. I asked people on the bus where the Mikhailovsky Theater was and some lady told me where my stop was. Turns out the theater was more hidden than I expected because it took three people to tell me before finally a man closing down his kiosk directed me the right way. I thought it'd be simpler since it's off Nevsky Prospekt so I didn't bother looking it up on a map. Anyway, I ran into the theater out of breath and wet from running around in the rain. I started telling the lady at the door that I had trouble finding this place and that there was horrible traffic, blah blah blah. She just looked and me and said "ticket." Then she sent me all the way up the stairs. The ladies there were sweeter but they didn't forget to remind me that I was 30 minutes late. Also, they complained to me that the group I was with (the American students) messed up all the seating and weren't sitting in the right spots. I just laughed about it and apologized to them. She told me strictly "make sure to sit in your seat." She unlocked the door for me with a big key and since my seat was in the middle somewhere, I had to kneel by the railing for about 15 min until intermission so that I don't have to go through everyone.
Swan Lake was so so beautiful to watch. I was ecstatic because years of watching the ballet on youtube and only dreaming that I would one day be able to see this in real life. The ballerina’s in this theater looked much younger and a bit more inexperienced compared to the one I watch on Youtube of the Marinsky Theater. But is was wonderful anyway. I snuck some pictures in every time the lady at the door would look away. 

Dacha for the Weekend:
I have had the pleasure to experience my first Dacha. It is basically like a cabin in the woods that is used for summer retreats, gardening, etc. They are typically in the outskirts of town and surrounded by woods. I pretty much came with no expectations, an open mind, a sense of adventure and lots of fur and knit clothes.  I met up with Vika and Nadezhda, Vika's host mom at the metro and we took an "elektrichka" or an electric train together to a small town called Vyborg. Throughout history this town alternated between the Finns, Swedes, and Russians so it has a lot of influence from them all. The Finnish language was spoken around us as we walked through the market (The Finnish border is only about an hour away.) Even some the saleswomen knew both Russian and Finnish. One of the chocolate saleswomen in particular was really nice so were sucked into buying a lot of her chocolates and sweets. Mostly because she gave us some to sample so we couldn't resist buying them (A cruel cruel trick). Russian chocolate is something to die for, in my opinion. Then I stopped by to take a look at the honey kiosk and got to talking with the sweet lady there. I told her about my dad's bees back in the states, about his honey, and how I miss it so much. I was just browsing and was about to leave but turned around suddenly and decided I wanted to buy some. She laughed and sold me a delicious batch that definitely reminded me of my father's honey back home. I bought a few more souvenirs for loved ones (you know who you are) and then we went to tour the town's museum. This museum had artifacts from WWII and the Great Northern War which are both wars that directly affected Vyborg. Also the museum had a collection of local plants and animals which was really cool to see because it made me more aware of the life surrounding the village.

The elektrichka that we arrived on to Vyborg

The Vyborg Castle from across the river

The Vyborg Castle up close

The castle wall

The courtyard of the Castle

We climbed a lot of stairs to get to the top

The view from above

So Nadegda, Vika, and I basically spent the day in this small town and then we caught the bus just in time to head out to the Dacha which is another 11/2 ride out to the countryside. When we arrived at the dacha, we were welcomed warmly by Nadegda's friends, Seroghya and Tanya. Turns out this is their dacha that we were staying at and like I said, I was not aware of the plans and did not question them. I was just invited along for the ride. It was a very pleasant surprise, though, for Serogya and Tanya are lovely people. Immediately it was nice and toasty in the cabin thanks to the woodstove. We got served hot wine mixed with fresh orange and cinnamon (like a hot Sangria) which immediately warmed us up.
The land was beautiful. I was just surprised that the property right next to theirs was a no-mans land. It was literally nobody's to claim and the government was doing nothing with it. So it was wild land. That was really really exciting for me. The bathroom to the dacha is a port a potty outside. What was even more fascinating to me is that the house we were staying at is where Tanya grew up, along with her parents, and their parents before them. So it has a lot of sentimental memories and significance to Tanya. In the attic they kept all their antique things like rusty tools, an old fashioned iron, ссср posters, etc.

The Dacha

Wood pile

"туалет" or toilet 

It even has a welcome sign: "добро пожаловать"

We ate delicious BBQ chicken wings with potatoes, and fresh vegetables for dinner. Afterwards, we were so full that we decided to go for a walk in the forest before it got too dark. They weren't joking either! We bundled up and power walked through the forest. They are such energetic people! We walked over to the lake and just looked at it. Me and Serogya climbed down to the water to look at it up close while the ladies chatted and then we hiked back up to join them. We all returned a bit after it got dark and had tea with all kinds of sweets and chocolates. We each were made our own beds but I ended up falling asleep on Vika's bed with her as her host mommy read us a story by Chekhov. It was the best sleep I have gotten in a long long time. Lots of fresh air that day! It is good to get out of the city for the weekend.

Barbecuing chicken wings

Chopping fresh veggies

The dinner table

A walk through the woods

The Lake 

There were three beds: the bed by the window (which is the one Vika and I slept on)

The bed in the corner

The bed by the wood stove

The next day, we ate a delicious meal of kasha, bread, and lots of butter (butter both on the bread and in the kasha). Then we went for another walk through the forest but this time we took our time. Nadya got excited when she found some mushrooms and started looking for more. She also discovered some berries which resemble blueberries. Vika and Nadya ate so many of them that their entire mouth and lips were so blue! Meanwhile, I wandered off in the forest for a bit and just sat and enjoyed the complete silence and stillness. After a while, we continued on. We came across some WWII army trench and when Vika insisted of jumping down into it, Serogya stopped us with "100 times this place would've been walked on, but the 101st could be the time you step on an old undiscovered bomb or mine"....that was enough for us to slowly back away from the trench. Of course there is nobody to come out and secure this place.
Next, we came upon a small hill and I got really excited so I started sprinting/flying down the hill and into clearing at the bottom. Then I hear Tanya yell out to me "вообще то болота" or "Actually that happens to be a swamp." I noticed my boots were slowly sinking into the ground. I yelped, jumped up and immediately scrambled for the "shore".

Nadya and Vika proud of their mushrooms

The berries

The WWII trench 

The disguised "болота" or swamp (you can sort of see my footprints)

Some USSR container in the middle of the forest

Tanya's grandfather's WWII Soviet uniform she found in the house

Overall, the trip to the dacha was the most inspiring and relaxing time I've had since I've been in Russia. Unfortunately there was no banya in this dacha but there was plenty of mushroom picking, berry picking, tea, chocolates, and kasha to make this feel like a legitimate Russian experience.

The beautiful countryside