Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Svir Strio - June 8th

We had splendid weather while in Saint Petersburg. The temperature was in the mid-60s to low 70s every day, and the weather was, at worst, partly cloudy. June is “White Nights” time in Saint Petersburg, which is only about 6 degrees, 30 minutes south of the Arctic Circle. Sunset was after 11 PM, and Sunrise was just after 4 AM, but it never really got dark at night. There was always a white glow in the sky. Just as June weddings are popular here, June weddings, and especially “White Night” weddings are popular in Russia. Whereas we almost always have weddings on weekends, the Russians will marry on any day of the week. Everywhere we went in Saint Petersburg we were apt to run into a bride and groom running around to be photographed at the same cathedrals and palaces that we were visiting. Many of the couples hired limousines to take them about. I even spotted a recent model stretched Lincoln among them. Gasoline is graded differently in Russia than here. Their lowest grade is “80”, which I presume means 80 octane, whereas our lowest grade is 87 octane. Just like here the price varies from one gas station to the next, but typically was on the order of 25 rubles per liter which is the equivalent of around $4 a gallon – for 80 octane fuel.

Sunday morning we awoke in the middle of Lake Ladoga, but soon entered the Svir River. We were sailing upstream all the way to Moscow, and would eventually go through 18 or 19 locks, being elevated at all but one of them. Shortly after the first lock we docked at the town of Svir Stroi. It’s not a city – more like a village. It was much cooler here than in Saint Petersburg – perhaps not even 60 degrees, and rain threatened. The weather did not appeal to me, so I stayed on the ship. Those who went ashore were treated to a home visit – well, actually several homes since there were so many people, and visits were in two shifts to each home. The visitors enjoyed tea and piroshki, quintessential Russian pastries. Here’s a picture of Adrianne with her hostess.



One of the local crafts is articles made from birch bark. Adrianne bought two small birch bark boxes, which are somewhat reminiscent of shaker boxes.

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