After a few kilometres of Saint Petersburg the roads are getting worse. The Real Russia begins. The road ‘till Vologda is full of pot holes and the low temperatures and the ice doesn’t help.
Road full of dancing ice
After 9 or 10 hours we arrived to Vologda, small and nice city. This type of city looks nicer than the big ones. You can find everything in an easier way, there’s not important traffic jams.
Vologda
It was 22nd of February, the day before the celebration day for Red Army, so everybody is preparing for celebrating it next day. Everybody is happy. We found Russlan home quite fast, he comes out to help us with the bags. His home is nice and warm. One living room one sofa, one TV, and the kitchen hasn’t have any separation wall, and one toilet. No more rooms. Living room, in Russian homes means LIVING room. We will sleep in the worst sofa/bed ever, but that’s OK, we are so tired because of the long way.
Russlan called his friends, we meet Sergei, who was, like all the people that we have meet, very open and friendly. Some jokes and beers and then, Sergei told us he is part of the family of the most famous Russian Cosmonaut, Uri Gagarin.
Then, a little walk on the night to visit the city. We walked on the river, because it’s frozen. When the winter comes, a new big flat road comes to the city. This river is used for the kids to play, to ski, and to make the baptism.
Baptism “pile”
Russlan explained us he was baptised some years ago. The process consists on wait in the long queue, because there are a lot of people who want to be baptised. They are waiting only with a swim cloth, and when the turn is arrived, they go to the water by the stairs and they submerge three times. Then all their sins are over. Where is the problem? It is done in winter at -35º C. Russlan wait for 3 hours till his turn, only with a swim cloth. After that, he was several weeks with problems in his fingers.
One other thing that may be surprising is that all are already married and already divorced. They are 27 years old, and were married at ~20s. They live fast, don’t hesitate on taking decisions, it’s the usual way.
After one short and surreal night, hearing several ring tones, we were wake up by one girl, who gets in the house, and begin to clean and prepare the breakfast. Later we were told that the girl was the wife of one of Russlan friends, and she will prepare the food for the 23rd celebration day. It’s the way it works. She entered to the house, saw two strangers sleeping in the couch, introduce herself and begin to work. Fast and easy going!
We visited the town with Russlan as a tour guide, and we say good bye to him and his friends. They were really nice.
On the way to Kotlas
