Okay okay okay so below are pictures from the last week or so. FINALLY. A quick rundown of each place:
Valaam: a monastery located on an island in the middle of Lake Lagoda, the largest lake in Europe. We took an overnight booze cruis.... uhh.. I mean.. holy pilgrimage to this island, and toured the island in one full day. Lots of walking, but very peaceful. The serenity of Valaam was surreal, I could definitely sense the history and serenity walking around the grounds. While the exact date of the creation of Valaam is not determined- inhabitants of the island told me it was around the 14th century that this monastery was first formed.
Pavlovsk: All you need to know is that it is an over the top palace built by Russian tsars. Big. Beautiful. Russian.
Artillery Museum: Located to the north of the city, I took a 30 minute metro ride to this building which used to be the old armory up until the fall of the Soviet Union. There was a Mikhail Kalashnikov exhibit going on- commemorating the creator of the most famous weapon in the world- the AK-47. I had the chance to take apart and put back together a functioning AK. Pretty cool. Call me skeptical or paranoid, but the entire place wreaked of gunpowder. It was also creepy walking around and seeing these huge ICBMs (didn't get any good pictures- they were simply too big to get a decent angle on while indoors!) and tanks that were manufactured for the sole purpose of taking down the Western Alliance if the Cold War came to be a legitimate and conventional war.
Enjoy.
VALAAM
PAVLOVSK
ARTILLERY MUSEUM
Valaam: a monastery located on an island in the middle of Lake Lagoda, the largest lake in Europe. We took an overnight booze cruis.... uhh.. I mean.. holy pilgrimage to this island, and toured the island in one full day. Lots of walking, but very peaceful. The serenity of Valaam was surreal, I could definitely sense the history and serenity walking around the grounds. While the exact date of the creation of Valaam is not determined- inhabitants of the island told me it was around the 14th century that this monastery was first formed.
Pavlovsk: All you need to know is that it is an over the top palace built by Russian tsars. Big. Beautiful. Russian.
Artillery Museum: Located to the north of the city, I took a 30 minute metro ride to this building which used to be the old armory up until the fall of the Soviet Union. There was a Mikhail Kalashnikov exhibit going on- commemorating the creator of the most famous weapon in the world- the AK-47. I had the chance to take apart and put back together a functioning AK. Pretty cool. Call me skeptical or paranoid, but the entire place wreaked of gunpowder. It was also creepy walking around and seeing these huge ICBMs (didn't get any good pictures- they were simply too big to get a decent angle on while indoors!) and tanks that were manufactured for the sole purpose of taking down the Western Alliance if the Cold War came to be a legitimate and conventional war.
Enjoy.
VALAAM
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| Inside the "winter" chapel. In a basement to keep warm during the ridiculously cold Russian winters. |
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| The first chapel erected on the island. |
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| Unfortunately the large tower was being refurbished. The others are still purdy! |
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| Another of the winter chapel. |
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| The importance of icons in the Eastern Orthodox Church deserves a much bigger explanation than I am willing to give... |
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| Same pose in every picture? Of course. |
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| There are over 200 miles of walking trails on the island just like this. |
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| A small and gorgeous lake somewhere in the middle of the island. |
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| A small chapel under construction. (Different from the first one.) |
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| State Park |
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| Palace 1 |
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| Palace 2- With some friends mean-muggin of course. |
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| Peter and Paul fortress in the background. I'm no soviet artillery officer, but isn't this gun aimed in the wrong direction? |
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| Soviet Military Law #1: You can never have too big of a gun, or too many. |
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| Russian T-80 tanks. I've driven one before! On Xbox... |
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| Big Big Guns. |
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| A Katusha rocket launcher. These are those trucks with tons of fiery rockets. If you have watched the history channel- ever- you know what this is. Basically if this thing were functioning, one would NOT stand where I am standing. |
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| Kalashnikov Exhibit. Soviet Military Law #2: The more variations of the AK-47, the better. |
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| I can return to the USA a happy man. |
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| For all you Call of Duty nerds- recognize this? |
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| A piece of the U2 spy plane the Russians shot down in the 1960's. Bastards. |
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