Greetings from Россия!

So after traveling back from my amazing semester abroad in New Zealand, I had maybe 9 days to recover before heading off to a new country! This time, Russia. I was given this amazing opportunity to travel for six weeks to this country under the supervision of my Professor Dr. Jack Holt and his wife Dr. Natasha Holt. Here we would stay in Yaroslavl and explore the ecology and culture of the country.

I Wrote This! It says I Love Yaroslavl

We departed from JFK airport on the 7^th of July and landed on the 8^th in Moscow international airport. After a quick jaunt through immigration and customs we were off to the ancient city of Yaroslavl. It took about 5 and a half hours (because of traffic) by a mini bus. We were quickly dropped off at our apartment (we weren’t staying with the Holts). Our land lady showed us our rooms and the took us to her mothers’ house for a shower. In Yaroslavl, the hot water is communal. It’s actually ‘waste’ hot water, like water used to cool industry stuff or what not. So once a year, they send a machine to clean the hot water pipes. So one at a time, each district is without water while they clean the pipes. Our landladies name is Lucy and she lives by herself with a little old female pug named Muscia. Lucy’s pretty nice, and even with the language barrier she’s able to make fun of us! Incredible, I can be in any country with any language and I still get made fun of.

Outside My Window

The next few days were pretty overwhelming. Usually we learned Russian in the morning and in the afternoon we walked with Dr. Holt exploring the city. Yaroslavl like I said is very old. Its 1000 year anniversary is this year! I don’t know of very much that his is this old, yet alone been near it. So the entire city is being renovated. Dr. Holt said that the city is called the city of 1000 churches and its easy to see why. There are so many of them! And they’re beautiful with the colours and the traditional onion domes. Most of the domes here are a nice deep emerald colour and they all just barely stick up above the tree lines with their gold crosses. One of the famous ones we saw was called ‘The Temple of Elijah the Prophet’. I wish I knew the names of all of them, but there are so many of them that is almost impossible.

Us in Front of the Church of Elijah the Prophet

The city was founded by Yaroslavl the Wise, and legend has it that when he came here to found the city he was stopped by a female bear. So of course he did what any sensible hearty Russian man would do, he killed her with a pole ax. If you thought there was a lot of bears that were tied to Russian culture before, come to this city where the bear is basically everywhere. I’m not kidding, so many bear.

Bear on a Rock!

Me Imitating a Bear!

Dr. Holt got in on the fun!

The ACTUAL Rock Where he Killed the Bear

My impressions of Russians was so off by the way. I know that I pictured them as very hearty, rough, to the point, always working people. And I mean, they are that, but they are super friendly. Not at first though, if you’re a stranger you may as well not exist. But once you talk with them and form any sort of bond you are either family or close friends it seems.

Taking a quick break to set up an example, a tradition of weddings in Russia is to before the ceremony, travel around the city with the flowers visiting important places and putting flowers as a sort of homage. We were at the eternal flame of Yaroslavl that was a memorial to the men and women of WWII when a wedding party came up to place flowers.

Now back to the example.

We were admiring them, how they were taking pictures with beautiful doves, when the groom noticed us. He offered to take a picture with them! So we talked to them for a few moments then took a picture with the groom and bride! Natasha said that if we talked to them much longer we wouldn’t be surprised if they invited us to the wedding! Nothing like that would ever happen in the states.

The Wedding Party

Through the university, we were able to meet some students who had either already gone to the states or were planning on going this upcoming semester. Among them were Dasha and Xenia who went to SU all last year. We also met the girls who were going next year and two other guys, Dima and Leo. Dima is a bio major who went to UVM last year. They all offered to take us places and show us around! And it’s been great.

The first weekend, we went to a nearby lake with Dasha and a friend of hers named Masha. The lake was an old sand pit that filled with water, but it wasn’t as... gross? as it would sound. The water was really cool which felt amazing on that super hot day. Many people think of Russia as cold, but it’s really hot. Granted, it’s a heat wave and they’re in a drought right now, but still 100 degree weather every day has been hard. It was really funny, a really popular thing to do is to take an inflatable mattress. You sit on it on the beach area, then take in the water as a raft! Oh those crazy Russian!

Imitating Yaroslavl's Lenin Statue

Another day, Xenia took us glow bowling! Hilarious. It was really fancy though. There were four lanes and some really nice pool tables along with a bar with a variety of expensive liquors. Here in Russia you pay for bowling by the hour, not by game! We only played two games, but the cool air conditioning was welcomed and it was fun to something super American in a foreign country. We then met Dasha for pizza! Pizza and bowling, in one day?! The pizza was pretty good, but to all my NZ friends, it could not compare to our beloved Yellow Cross! So fear not, my heart still lies there, with all of you.

The Fountain

The Ladies

So money, what’s the deal here with that? Well the currency is the ruble which is made up of kopecks. And right now, the exchange rate is pretty awesome. 30 rubles to a dollar. And to give you an idea of what that gets.

One bus ride = 10 rubles = $.30

Hour of bowling = 100 rubles = $3

1.5 litres of 7up = 50 rubles = $1.50

Cigarettes (not that I smoke, but everyone knows the price) = 28 rubles = $3

I'm Rich! (It's barely 60 usd)

That brings me to food. Russia is run on potatoes, soup, bread and the herbs dill and celery. Lucy makes us breakfast and dinner. Usually breakfast is muesli with yogurt, tea and something else that is different every day. Dinner almost every night has had soup to start, then she literally stuffs us with food that ranges from meatballs, to fish, sausage, and always cucumbers and tomatoes just sliced on a plate. Nan and I desperately try to finish dinner because she looks mad if we don’t, but it is so hard after a hot day. We joke that she’s going to eat us because she’s fattening us up.

Lunch is on the town and is tasty! We’ve been getting these things called пирожки (pronounced piroshkies) that are really sweet bread, like a croissant that is either filled with mashed potatoes or cooked cabbage with eggs. The one with cabbage is actually awesome. It’s like Chinese food. Then we get a drink called BACT (pronounced Kavast) that is a fermented bread drink. They literally take Russian black bread (which is amazing! It’s basically 100% rye bread) and ferment it. The drink is barely 1% alcohol, and is amazingly refreshing on a hot day. But all of this bread, holy mackerel.

The other weekend our friend Xenia invited us to her boyfriend’s dacha for the weekend. A dacha is a Russian summer house, a concept that I believe is really neat. Almost all Russians that live in the city have a dacha and go there on the weekends during the summer to escape the heat and stresses of city life during the week. The dachas are in tiny villages that dot the country outside of the cities. So we piled into a bus and drove for an hour until we came to the end of the line. His cousin, who we called Cowboy Sasha (because his name was Sasha as well) drove us the 3 miles from the bus stop to a pond. There was a group of people our age playing cards and drinking beer. After a quick dip to cool off we joined them. Russian cards don’t have the cards 2 through 5! That really threw us off because we kept looking for them, but they weren’t showing up. It was hard to learn the card game because Xenia was the only one who spoke Russian, but we still had a lot of fun and were actually able to sorta communicate with the little Russian that we knew!

Playing Cards

Sasha's Dacha

Around 8:30 (it felt like 4:30 because of the light) we quit and went into the village. When I say village I mean two rows of about 15-20 houses with a grass lane in the middle. The houses are amazing, they’re like gingerbread houses out of a fairy tale. Log cabins with beautiful windows and each has a good sized garden in the back. Outside there are people sitting, kids playing, dogs roaming. Everyone is so laid back and just enjoying themselves. Thanks to Stalin, every house in Russia has electricity, including these tiny dacha! But no plumbing or running water. We had to use a well for water, awesome!

Cowboy Sasha at the Well! Yay Sash!

The 'Road'

Families Chilling and the Dog

In Front of a Dacha

When it got dark, we went back to the pond where everyone had started a bonfire. I won’t go into detail about the night, but I will say that as soon as we sat down a drink was immediately given to us. That night we experienced Russian hospitality (ie never ending drinks). It was a lot of fun though, even with the mile high language barrier.

Group Shot! Wow, literally...

The next day, the mothers joked with us while we ate sunflower that if we had a bad day today, then we had a great night last night. They seemed like they had been there done that and it was totally Russian. Love.

Traditional Dacha Kitchen

Well, looking back on what I've written thus far, you'd think that I haven't done any research! Only play! But I promise I have. We've been collecting water samples and looking at what lives in the major bodies of water around Yaroslavl. So that includes the Volga River, Kotoros'l River and some lakes and ponds. Its pretty neat, the plankton that we're finding is the same as what we'd find back in the states! Plus some nasty poisonous ones, yuck.

Our Temporary Room

Whats Under the Scope!

So , Russia thus far has been filled with a million and one surprises. They range from the people, cities, food, language, everything. It’s been amazing and I feel so lucky to be here with my experienced guides teaching me the language, the history and of course the culture.

Stay tuned for more craziness! Until then, satisfy yourself with the pictures that didn’t make the cut!

TWalk

The week prior, while I was busy leading crazy kids up to Mueller Hut, I was talked into doing some sort of thing called TWalk. All Colorado Chris would tell me is that I had to drink and be able to hike at the same time while wearing a costume and looking for clues... hazing anyone? But yea, I signed up for his team. What else was I going to do?

Turns out TWalk stands for a 24 hour orienteering competition and Canterbury has one of the longest running annual TWalks in the country (this year was year 44). It’s open to anyone, student or not. Costumes and team themes are strongly encouraged. We sat around for a while, what would 13 people dress up as? After much though, Jesus and the 12 disciples of course! All we needed were bed sheets, simple as pie and funny as ... yea.

Group Shot

The night before rolls around and it’s our good friend Nicole’s 20th birthday. What was I thinking?! The next morning I was throwing stuff in a bag and completely forgot a lunch, or food of any sort. But to be honest I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.

Trudging

To make it as fair as possible, they don’t disclose the location. You just all pile on a bus and they take you and drop you off with a map. I wish I had known this before, but I learned it all on the go. Here’s the deal. The TWalk in its entirety is made up of multiple legs. The first leg is mandatory for the entire team. Every subsequent leg is optional except for the team captain. The legs vary from 15 to 25 kilometres but you don’t know how long the first one is until you get the map. Turns out it was only 18 kilometres... as the crow flies. On a topographic map there are circles that are 10 meters in diameter that mark where the clue is. You get a point for every clue you find. Whoever has the most points wins of course. By the way, we were in Arthur’s Pass in the Castles Hill area (where Damon and I tried to explore a few weeks prior).

Determined Disciple

It was hilarious how it started off. We all gathered for brief formal rules. Then they shouted go and the hillside came alive with Jesus and the 12 disciples, Santa Clauses, Blues Brothers, Convicts, Miners, Presidents, Army Men, Flowers, Smurfettes, Skiers (complete with ski boots from the 70’s) Roman soldiers and many others. Complete mayhem and complete awesomeness.

Clue Found!

We moved quickly and were in the middle of the pack. For some times we walked down the highway and the looks we got were incredible. Quickly the groups spread out and we were by ourselves. It was a bit tedious hunting for clues that were only the size of my hand and usually well hidden. This was different from anything I had ever done also. There was no trail of course, no suggestion of where to walk. So you would just pick what looked easiest and quickest. We were traversing down steep cliffs, through thick fields of gores (bushes with nasty 3 inch long sharp as spines), up hills that led to more hills and all manners of marshes. The best was when Colorado Chris (who was our team leader and Jesus) lead us up over and through a pine mountain just to go down a ¼ mile long skree slope. We were literally surfing/snowboarding on our feet down it. When you have something that long, you jsut kind of run, skip and slide down while dodging larger rocks rolling down, branches and other people. Just like a game. We ended up at the bottom and were emptying out our soggy sneakers of rocks when we were informed we were going straight up the other side. I honestly don’t know if Chris every really knew where we were or where we were going. But somehow we went up the sharp spine of a spur and ended up right where we needed to be!

'Jesus' at the End of the Skree Slope

The rest of the leg wasn’t bad because we now had picked up a trail and there was a service road. But I was really worse for wear. Like I said I forgot a lunch, only had a small breakfast and it was 9pm when we were barely at the end. I thought I would pass out. But I learned an important lesson. NEVER EVER FORGET FOOD. How stupid was I?!

BEFORE! Clean and Happy

AFTER: Dirty still happy?

9 hours later we had finally stumbled in with all of the clues. We certainly weren’t the first, or the last which was awesome. But we definitely needed to work on our orienteering. Shame on us. Between each leg you have to take a 30 minute break where you could go eat all the hot food you wanted. And they had chicken! I had chicken and pumpkin soup and it was amazingly delicious. After that we talked about the other legs. We had run into other people who had given up on latter legs because they were near impossible in the dark and a the topo map was really outdated for one leg. Half of our team (sadly including myself) threw in the towel and opted for cards and sleep in the sheep barn instead.

By the way, sleeping in a shearing shed (where the sheep are sheared) is an awful idea. And unless it was raining and I wasn’t exhausted I would have slept outside because of the smell which stayed in my sleeping bag for 2 washes.

Mmm Sheep Shearing Shed

I woke up the next morning and went for some breakfast. I ran into a French guy who I had hiked with before, he had been hiking for 22 hours and his team had abandoned him. Holy hiking batman. My team had finished their second leg at 5 in the morning and had braved rain, lakes and chest high brush. Good for them, they’re better than I am.

Of course we didn’t win. The winners were the team ‘age is no substitute for experience’ which was SO true considering they were both in their late 60’s early 70’s. I’m not making this up either. They had been doing TWalk since it started and only missed 1 when they were visiting relatives. Dedication? I think so. Fitness? Holy crap yes.

Outside Where We Slept.

TWalk was something that I liked HEAPS more after I was finished. But I’m very glad I did it, and if I did it again, I would be more prepared with sleep, preparation and of course food.

Beautiful Landscape on the Way Home

Avalanches, Keas and Skree Slopes

Mount Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand and is conveniently located on the South Island. This is the mountain that James Cook practiced for his climb to the summit of Mount Everest which he was the first person to do! Yet another accomplishment for the Kiwi’s! Nearby, in the park, is Mt. Olivier. Not quite to the summit of Mt. Oliver is the famous and historical Mueller hut. Some of my friends climbed to Mueller Hut the day before my birthday and hearing their stories only made me want to go even more. But every time I tried to plan a trip, something came up (specifically weather). So when I heard the Tramping club would be leading a trip, I was excited. Going with them would be heaps cheaper.

So the day of the meeting came. A bunch of my friends came because we had all wanted to do Mueller for some time as I had said. But when it came to sign up, it was revealed that no one had yet stepped up to lead this trip. Megan being the darling she is remembered that I was there president of my ‘outdoors’ club at school and had lead a bunch of trips and thus thought it a good idea to volunteer me! So here I am, half day dreaming about some other thing when I get a piece of paper shoved in my hand with words of praise, ‘thank you so much for helping!’

Here I am, hardly familiar with tramping club policy (I had only done one tramp with the club) yet alone tramping in New Zealand well enough to lead 15 odd people. Get phone numbers, check cards, get supplies, get maps, first aid kits, gear list, weather, medications, rent the van and trailer, meeting time and place... the list went on. What did I get myself into? Ugh. But somehow I managed to do it all and even rent a car that was a good 15 minute drive away without a car. I have to point out at this point that I did have help and this would never ever have happened without them.

The weather for the weekend though was not looking good. Snow, lots of it. People started dropping out and soon it was just my group of friends with Fridriec the German fellow from across the lawn. But we were holding out! To come this far and not go through with it!? INSANITY!

That morning went well, a short 4 hour drive in a 12 passenger van with trailer, no biggie. When we got to the park, I’ll admit that I was nervous. The peak wasn’t visible and it looked much more intimidating than I imagined. But luckily we got to leave the tents and stoves behind because we got a coveted spot in the Mueller Hut! Now we could use their long drop toilet, sleep inside AND there were stoves and gas available. Awesome.

And thus began the hike. Or should I say stair-a-thon 2010?

Group shot!

There were a lot of stairs. And when I say a lot of stairs I don’t think you understand exactly how many stairs there were. There were about 2 ½ hours of stairs. And they were nasty uneven stairs that ranged from a few awkward inches to a bit taller than my waist. But after a while you kind of forgot that there were stairs and you didn’t think about how many you had climbed or how many left there were. I did well though. Not like Fyffe where I thought that these may be my last days of life, but there were times I pulled out my inner gazelle and skipped up a bunch in rapid succession. Overall, the hut was at 1800 meters elevation. Here's the description.

Mt. Cook with typical Cloud Formation

The views were incredible. Like any summit in New Zealand and any sort of wine they only get better with time. Mueller was out of the tree line rather quickly and the valley opened out before you. Mt. Cook was in the near distance with its distinctive clouds peeling over with the glaciers beside the great mountain. The glaciers were amazing. Until now, Crow Glacier was the only one I had seen. But now I was literally surrounded. And they are beautiful. Ribbons of blues, whites and greys marking thousands of years piled on top of one another. The discarded rubble of the nearby behemoth littering the top and water pouring out from under that settled into the most amazing turquoise blue you can imagine. Then the valley was amazingly flat in comparison to the cragged new mountains all around. The little river that came from the glacier snaked its way past the tiny circle of buildings that made up the DOC and hotel eventually meeting up with Lake Tekapo. And as we climbed higher and higher, everything seemed to spread out more and more like when thick caramel spills on the table. It literally felt like the land was moving away.

One of the Glaciers

After a few hours of hiking we reached Sealy’s Tarn. A tarn is just a little lake that is fed by rain and runoff. It was very dark and reflected the mountains well with the dark snow filled clouds slowly moving in. Then, after a very brief pause, we continued on. Once past the tarn the stairs quickly dissolved into an eroded part littered with rocks of all sizes that seemed to shift instantly under your feet. Then all of a sudden the brush and scruffy grass disappeared and rocks took their place. Some of the boulders were the size of small houses, easily larger than my room for sure. Hopping from boulder to boulder we looked up and saw that the trail disappeared and dissolved into a skree slope; a huge skree slope at that. I was towards the end to make sure we didn’t leave anyone behind, and I watched nervously as people scrambled up on all fours to a ridge. For every step we took, we slid down the equivalent to two if we were lucky. Our packs did not make it easier either. It was as tough as it sounds, but it was a lot of fun and you had a real sense of accomplishment when you looked back down and saw what you just did. The camera did not capture this at all either unfortunately.

Sealy's Tarn

Looking up the Skree Slope

At the ridge we stopped to admire the beauty because now the trail wrapped around a mountain. As I said, it was just as amazing but we were just a little higher now. Then we heard KAAAAAHHHHH and a large shape swooped past us and landed on a rock. It was a Kea! One of the mountain parrots. He wasn’t alone either. There were about 4 or 5. Three were sitting on a boulder chewing on a trail marker. These birds are trouble makers and will chew on anything plastic and steal your sneakers! It was great fun watching them fly, bicker and jump. Alexis got in on the fun and started mimicking them. I must say she did a really good job at the squawking sound.

Kea

I was feeling great at this point, it really was amazing all the things you feel; energized after the climb, the cooling from your shirts drying, the sweet smell of snow, keas soaring over head, the roughness of the rocks as you scramble up, connection of someone grabbing your wrist to pull you up an especially steep part and the whistle of wind from a closing storm. That is why I hike, why I put up with the winded feeling, the burning of my legs, pull of my pack and burn from the sun. Because these are feelings, these are the views you only get from hiking and all the work makes them so much sweeter.

Hut Halfway up the Summit

Then the barn red hut peaked into view and this gave us the extra push to go a bit quicker. Soon enough we were in the large hut dropping off packs, claiming bunks and meeting the other trampers. I wanted to finish it and summit Oliver, but no one else wanted to. I saw some others had started off only a few minutes prior, so I went off myself.

It was fun jumping up the rocks and the summit wasn’t much higher than Mueller. I ran into a couple enjoying a moment accidentally, but it turns out that the guy was a Butler student as well! The three of us started talking and I found out they were going to school in Dunedin and lived on the East Coast of the US as well. We talked more on the way down and when we got back into the hut we realized that our two groups had met and were all handing out.

Valley from the Summit

WE all sat and played cards while dinner cooked and snow started to fall rather quickly. It was a really enjoyable evening and it went by quickly. Later in the evening, Mikalea and I decided to take a walk in the snow out to the edge of the plateau area the hut was situated on. With the hut’s lights too far to see, and no light from stars or buildings, it was beautifully eerie. So quite. We talked a bit and enjoyed the quite. The only time the silence was broken was when the valley right beside us had an avalanche. There were quite a few avalanches while we were there, what a cool sound. Like a train.

Sound of Music Pose in Front of Mt. Cook at Sunrise

The next morning we woke up to a good foot of snow! We were the first out of the hut, so we were the trail blazers with Damon leading in his normal khaki shorts with an AE button down shirt as if he were doing a model shoot! Gah, I swear. The going was slow because it was hard to see where the gaps in the many rocks were with the thick blanket of snow. I sure didn’t want to deal with the medical copter taking hours to get here to take someone off with a broken leg! But it was hard, I know there were a few times I almost snapped my leg. What a story that would have been. When we got to the skree slope, we were a bit nervous. But after slipping a few times the phrase, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! Came to mind. So we just sat down and slide down! If it would have been near impossible to get back up I think I would have done it a few times just because it was thrilling to fly down on the snow.

Damon in the Snow! Oh So Fashionable!

Glacier in the Background of the Snowy Descent!

Other than that, pretty standard descent. The stairs kicked my butt going down, your legs just get so tired and your knees so strained going down stairs for 1 ½. One girl put it very well ‘I feel like new born Bambi’.

Hut at Sunrise

Mueller Hut overall was one of my favorite tramps. The views of Mt. Cook, the valley and the glaciers were amazing. I feel like I hardly struggled with the trail, I lead the group well and nothing happened plus the snow was incredible! Hiking in the snow is so much fun, plus it was like hiking two totally different trails. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

PICTURES! :D