Novgorod

Novgorod was definitely an interesting excursion, to say the least. This town is old, guys, like 12^th century old. So old that basically the only things there are churches. TONS of them. On our tour, we stopped in a field with seven beautiful old churches in it - apparently the story goes, that field was once a huge market with 2,000 different vendors, and it ended up getting so serious that some vendors wanted to build warehouses in the field. But, the archbishop wouldn’t let them build warehouses because only churches were allowed to be built there, so the vendors built warehouses that looked just like churches! To relieve their sins a little, the vendors would go to the tops of them to pray, making them pretty functioning, in reality.

Novgorod also has its own Kremlin, which is a big fortress that houses the oldest church in Russia, the Church of St. Sofia. I thought St. Petersburg was old and full of history, but Novgorod is filled with even more. Our tour took us to a monastery and an outdoor museum of old wooden structures, and the snow was up to our knees! When not on our bus, my friends and I enjoyed the all-you-can-eat goodness at the hotel and had a lot of fun just talking, joking, and laughing. I even made a new friend, Sasha. I wish we all lived closer together in St. Petersburg. And in America, for that matter.