The majority of city-dwelling Russians live in small apartments – small enough to compare with Parisian standards. As a result, they take advantage of the weekend to escape to the countryside. When one of our colleagues, Artëm (pronounced Ar-ti-um), invited us to visit the Vologda region where he is from, we jumped at the chance. A fishing museum would be opened in one of the neighbouring towns that weekend, which was the deciding factor for the timing of this trip.
The adventure actually started straight from work: from the office we headed to Artëm’s so he could get a few things, we then went to pick-up some food for our overnight ride on the train (and the mini-bus actually broke down on our way there – WTR!!) and then it was off to the train station. The station (Ladozhsky Vokzal) is new and modern, very different from our fist trip out of the city from Ploshad Lenina. Artëm, Nataly, Matvei and I had a 4-person sleeper cabin, so we had a great time on the 9+ hour ride. We shared a cooked chicken, some raw veggies, and washed it all down with a mix of cognac and cherry juice, which is apparently quite popular in Russia.
We arrive at the train station in Шексна (sh-ek-sna) at 7am. From this point onward, the only English-speaking Russians are our two travel companions. We wanted an “authentic” experience, and this was certainly it! We were greeted by Artëm’s parents: Alexander and Irma. Alexander was the one who took us around town – a hilarious man (even if all his jokes had to be translated for us). Irna is a doctor whose passion is music – so there would be much singing and dancing on this trip!
That day was spent exploring the country fairs. Neither city has more than 30 000 inhabitants, and were not used to getting visitors from as far away as Canada! First stop: Сизьма (siz-ma), where we spent most of the day. The fishing museum was opening here. Sadly, we couldn’t gain access to the museum since the official unveiling was being held up as they waited for the mayor of St-Petersburg and other public officials to arrive. It was a wonderful place: lots of small stands with traditional Russian food and artisans practicing their different crafts, from metal forging and wood carving, to pottery and hand embroidery. There were also singers and folk dancers. The Russians love to dance (in restaurants, in bars, in house parties, etc.), so it did not surprise me to be taken by the hand to dance to a traditional folk song (the song was actually about a beautiful girl named Nadiehzda, which is Nadia in the short form). It was only appropriate. We wandered around for a bit and finally sampled some of the local fair. This is where we would be introduced to the first of many “Russian traditions”. There was supposed to be a traditional (Russian tradition #1) fish soup, Уха (pronounced uk-ha), but they had run out of bowls to serve it in so we couldn’t have any. (Irma would right this wrong the next night at supper). In France it’s common to drink wine with meals, here is it vodka. The “traditional” way is to have 100g, which is close to 2 oz (Russian tradition #2). A member of the group will offer a toast, and the whole 100g are drunk in one shot. This is fine if you are only having one drink, but the Russians seem to have a lot to toast to!
The second stop was a relatively brief visit to the Шексна fair. There was techno music that could be heard pounding as we walked towards the site. We were all disappointed once we got to the first area to find the DJ spinning for a handful of kids that were jumping around to the music. We made our way to the main stage, where there was a group performing. The highlights came from the crowd: Artëm who decided that he would go on a horseback ride around the site and the female police officers walking around in the “standard” uniform. How can you tell if the uniform is for a Russian female police officer? Because the navy blue skirt is worn with calf-high boots that have 3-4” heels. Stylish? Yes. Practical? C’mon! How are they supposed to run after people if they have to??? (this certainly has to count as Russian tradition #3, because I haven't heard of female police officers incorporating anything other than sensible shoes into their uniform anywhere else.)
We stayed in for supper that night. We were staying at a place that roughly translates to the Hunter’s Lodge. There was wood paneling everywhere and actual bear and lynx hides decorating the walls of the central dining area, which was also graced with a brick fireplace. We had smoked duck, bread and red caviar (I did mention that I like this place, right?) and some colbassa (Russian dried meets) in front of the fireplace. That’s where a few more of the “Russian traditions” were revealed. #4 - You never leave an empty bottle on the table – it’s bad luck. Once the bottle of wine or vodka is finished, the empty bottle is placed on the floor.
#5 - Only the man of the house, who in our case was Alexander, can pour the drinks. It is the man’s responsibility to ensure that everyone is looked after. Pouring in his place is almost an insult.
#6 - The ritual of the toast speech before each drink is taken quite seriously. I have to say that I enjoyed this one the most. It is a time to give thanks for the good things in one’s life, to welcome guests around the table and to be able to tell stories of the past. It can go on for some time or it can be a few well thoughout words. (say it together please: kak jahrkim!)
We had a long supper that night, sprinkled with an occasional song by Artëm and Irma, and it was wonderful. I was already fond of the Russian people beforehand, but meeting this family certainly sealed the deal. They are very down-to-earth, caring and friendly people. We spoke a mish-mash of Russian and English that night, naturally being helped by Nataly and Artëm for
translation more often than not.
We drove to Vologda on the Sunday morning and would spend the day visiting Artëm’s hometown. We started with a tour of the Vologda Monastery. The majority of Russians are Orthodox and they have maintained strong traditions around religion. Because this is a working monastery, the women must wear skirts and cover their heads when entering. In order to ensure that the dress code is followed, there are 2 bins at the entrance, one with wrap skirts (one size fits all) and the other with head scarves. The boys laughed at us so much! They called us the cute grandmothers for the rest of the visit. The grounds are quite beautiful. One of the buildings was mage entirely of wood – no nails. Get 4 engineers together looking at this - you that were were fascinated by this construction method!
The next stop was Vologda’s main square. The principle attractions are the Belfry Cathedral (which has stairs all the way up to the top, offering 360 deg. views of the city) and St-Sophia’s Cathedral, which has some rather impressive frescoes in its interior. The Vologda River, which runs through the town bearing its name, is home to over a dozen cathedrals and monasteries, several of which are being reconstructed. The climb up the constantly narrowing wooden staircase of the Belfry Cathedral was daunting at times, but certainly worth the effort. Strangely enough some of us weren’t entirely comfortable with the idea of leaning against the wrought iron balcony…
A visit of old was followed by a little bit of modern: there was a travelling carnival in town, so we spent some time playing on the bumper cars and going on the rides (even if the flying boat got the best of me and I was a bit green afterwards…). It was funny to see our companions try their hand at the firing range. Many of the men here have served in the military, so we had to encourage the father-son rivalry between Alexander and Artëm to prove who was the better shot. It was Nataly who surprised me when she walked away with a teddy bear. We named him “y a rien là”, which was only appropriate since she was the one that taught us the equivalent Russian expression (не за что, pronounced nyé-ze-shta).
In the meantime, Irma had decided that we could not possibly go back to St-Petersburg without having tried this famous fish soup (Уха) that we had been promised, so she prepared a lovely supper for us. Alexander and Irma live in a very modest one-bedroom flat, and I was asking myself how 8 of us were supposed to fit around the small kitchen table for supper. I was even more surprised to see how easy it seemed for Irma to prepare a lovely supper for the 10 people that finally sat around her beautiful table – as a lot of Artëm friends hadn’t seen him in a while and stopped in to say hello. It’s easy to say, but one has to have such a supper to understand how important family life is in the Russian culture. It reminded me of a supper around my nonni’s table, where 4 people could stop in at the last minute and my grandmother had some magical way of making sure that we would still have enough (if not too much) food for everyone (Russian tradition #7). The non-city Russians are some of the most down to earth people I've met. It was so touched that everyone did their best to try to talk to us in what little English they knew – and they were patient enough to let us stumble with our “survival” level Russian. Ivan, who is the husband of one of Artëm’s long time friends (Anna), was really fun. Once he got comfortable enough with us he had us in stitches laughing! He kept saying how he couldn’t wait to tell everyone that he’d been out drinking with a couple of Canadians – apparently there aren’t many that make their way through Vologda. Such a shame because we certainly had a great time there!
What could have been a never-ending evening around the table was brought to a close when it was time to go to the station to catch our train. I was getting ready to say goodbye to everyone, but they kept telling me that they were coming to the station with us. Ok… So the 10 of us piled into a few cars and off we went. Artëm, Matvei and I hopped into a cab – even that was an adventure! The cabbie was this young guy who was doing 100 km/h on the residential streets and had some heavy techno music blaring so loud that we couldn’t hear each other speak. No problem – why swim against the stream? We made sure that our seatbelts were securely fasted and rocked out to the music on our ride to the train station.
I guess that the security officials at the Vologda train station are used to seeing families come to say goodbye to their children as they head back to the bigger cities for school or work, because they didn’t bat an eyelid when everyone got ONTO the train with us. They came into our 4-person sleeper cabin for one final toast before me left. It was great! We apparently were adopted: we now having a standing invitation to return to see Alexander and Irma anytime, with or without Artëm!
Our trip to Vologda was our first weekend outside of St-Petersburg and it was wonderful up until the very last minute. Some wise advice from a friend back home comes to mind often: “never turn down an invitation”. This little weekend off the beaten path was a perfect example of why you should say yes to such invitations – it has certainly been one of my favourite Russian moments so far.
Спасибо за всë, Артëм и Наталию!! 
