Псков: The Return

"Almost exactly the same, just with different actors playing the supporting roles." -- The Very Old and Therefore Very Wise Emma Dorst.

Once again we met at 7:40 in the morning in front of the statue of Lenin at the Moskovskaya metro stop. But this time it was as dark as it was coming home the night before at 9pm after film class. It was also different as Bryan and Elena came with us this time and they are more about actually leaving on time than tour guide Olga was this summer -- so Vicky and Lauren had a little issue finding the right meeting place (not Mayakovskaya, not Moskovsky Vorod, Moskovskaya) and they literally had to jump on the bus as it was driving away. That was a little stressful.

The ride there though wasn't any different. Reading, sleeping, looking out the window. We even stopped at the same rest stop though since we were there in July they built a whole other building (???). As Eric pointed out, "They didn't build it. They probably just rolled it in on a trailer." Yup.

We even picked up the same tour guide -- though Emma, Amanda and I suffered some confusion about whether she was the lady we had in Novgorod or if she was the one from Pskov, but either way, we definitely had her before. We stayed in a different hotel though -- much swankier than last time. Marianna and I (also, roommates were assigned this time but I lucked out and was with Marianna, one of the tutors this summer who was invited back on the trip as a guest) had a two room suite with a whole couch living room area. Lunch was also different.... we didn't eat in the hotel but in a strange little restaurant-by-day-club-by-night place called "Mon Paris." Odd as we were in.... Pskov, Russia....

Not to worry though, our walking tour of the Kremlin and such was identical. I even tried to take a lot of the same pictures as last time so I can do side-by-side season comparisons (Emma and I are even talking about going back after it snows so we can see Pskov in all the seasons). The nice thing about doing the same exact tour again was that this summer I really understood maybe 10% of what our guide told us about the city, and now I can see the difference in my comprehension skillzzz at least because I understood much more (maybe 12%?? no, just kidding). Though, as Emma said, "This was boring when I didn't understand it and it's boring when I do." So Emma, Amanda and I (Ilana wasn't with us this weekend -- her dad is visiting) plus all of the Russian tutors/students (for many this was their 3rd to 100th time to Pskov) may or may not have chatted through a lot of the tour and wandered off and photographed things instead.

One big difference I did notice on our walking tour though was that they removed almost all of those cool locks on the fence by the little chapel that I took so many photographs of last time. I guess they have to or the fence would get so heavy it would fall into the river, and I had noticed before that all of the locks were from weddings in 2007 or 2008, but still it was kind of sad. Also funny though to picture one of the babushkii who sweep the streets in the morning with their straw brooms wielding a giant metal-breaking lock cutter and cursing about all the stupid young people who had to go and get married this year.

The weather was also worse than this summer, but actually, if I remember correctly, it was kind of rainy on Saturday and then beautiful on Sunday last time, which is how the weather worked this weekend.

I didn't nap at the hotel like last time during our free time after the tour -- I actually saw the city center of Pskov and walked along the old city walls and through some parks with Lauren, Maneka, Eric, Amanda and Emma. We also fooled around in this children's amusement park (I think I saw pictures of Carly and Katie on the same teeter-totter on Facebook) that looked like something out of a horror movie and had tea and chocolate at a cafe.

Thank god though that dinner was at the same, yes, fishbowl of a restaurant in a mall -- EUROPARK CAFÉ. YES. Sasha!! Adams!! Grace!! Jonah!! I went back to Pskov before our 2013 reunion in Christmas sweaters if we're still all single (long story). It was so funny being back there, but oddly sad without all of you guys. What a shame.

Our plans for the evening even ended up being identical though, I guess there isn't that much to do in Pskov so that's not really a surprise. The hanging out in the hotel was much more of a party this time than just "tell us about your favorite worst moment" talking, followed by a brief outing to good ol' R-16 (once again, we did not stay that long and there was a significantly more expensive cover charge this time which was lame), and even (SASHA!!!) a late night trip to the produkti with Lauren where we bought pretzel sticks and cheese, just like last time (I was very insistant on this point and Lauren was puzzled but went along with it).

Then, get this, we got to have a second meal at weird Europark Café. I know, jealous, right? Followed by the same route of sightseeing as last time -- abandoned in a field, walking along the view and the springs, fortress thingy, monastery. I really liked walking through all those fields again and seeing that beautiful view now all yellow and orange; I even tried to get Lauren to take the same photo of me as Sasha took last time (the one that's my profile picture on here).

When we went back to the monastery I didn't actually go back in, but instead hung around outside it with Liza, Emma and Maneka. We were all kind of in a strange mood though and happened to be standing next to this man (same guy as last time, I remember because I noticed he has the same Nikon D80 as I do) who sells framed photographs of the monastery. The thing was though that among all these photos of flowers and gates and towers and gardens was one framed photo of a black cat face. There was something so ridiculous about it that we couldn't stop laughing over it -- the cat looks so pissed and vaguely crosseyed and the image is of a shitty quality and kind of soft focus and it is so unnecessarily large (11" x 14" or so) and it was just so random in the middle of all this that we couldn't stop laughing over it and Maneka decided to buy it for her sister who "has a history of weird cat presents." But we were laughing so hard over it that it took us a half an hour for one of us to calm down enough (I was elected) to ask how much it was (150 rubles, a total steal in our minds) and then actually buy it. I then began a photo project which Eric accurately named "When the Cat's Let out of the Bag...." where I photographed everyone's reactions to Maneka showing them her purchase. Here's a preview of coming attractions:


This was all followed by the same exact lunch at Café Lilia -- no, really, we even did the same stupid thing where we all got on the bus to drive exactly two minutes down the street to all get off again. The waiters were the same guys, of course, serving the same food on the same dishes with little cartoon pictures of fruit on them and, also, lunch dissolved into the same hysterics as last time (Emma and I were recalling Sasha's outburst of laughter after Jonah's reply to my inquery regarding the number of vegetables in the world: "Individuals or species?"). I think we were all still wound up over the cat picture, but everyone just lost it. As Emma says, we were "corpsing." (POLL: has anyone else actually heard or used the "scientific" term that Emma "supposedly heard on NPR" which is when someone is laughing so hard that they can't control it and it is called "corpsing".... no? Thought so.)

And then we all got back on the bus and somehow got stuck in the same traffic and got back at the same late hour even though fewer people, supposedly, are going to their dachas now.

And then I fell asleep.

And now I am getting ready to go to class.

So. That was my weekend. I took 471 photos or something like that, so I'll be sorting through those sometime this week.