Day 8: Kuzino/Berillov/Goritzky in Russia Travel Log

Today we docked at Kuzino, got bussed to Berillov, and then got bussed to Goritzky to re-join the ship. This all happened in the morning, within 3 hours.

There is nothing at the port of Kuzino, except a log cabin and some carvings that look like Vikings (and a Viking long ship model); I wonder if that is just for us. There were some vendors around Kuzino for cruisers who don’t want to visit Berillov.

At Berillov, we first visited a local school, and met several local guides, of various ages, all from Berillov. The main guide is retired, the middle one is in college, the youngest one still in school, all studied/s at the school. The main guide gave descriptions of various average-looking buildings as we drove by on the way there. The youngest gave an overview of the school (no. of students, no. of grades, on this wall you can see our academic trophies, etc.), and we were led to a classroom and sat down to ask her questions (what’s the most popular foreign language? what do you want to study in university?). There was a school performance by the students (accompanied by boom boxes), and some crafts we could buy. It was a nice way to support the local economy.

Then we went to the Berillov monastery. There was a local guide also, who was knowledgeable and shepherded us through the museum. There was a large collection of icons and decorations at the monastery… It’s still in use: 8 monks lives there, but the wing we went to was mostly for tourists. I had wanted to explore the ground more, but we only had 15 minutes and we were missing souvenirs, so I went to the stores instead.

In Berillov I felt like the guides gave very detailed, but wooden presentations - like they were reading from a script. (Except the middle one; she didn’t give prepared presentations). It reminded me a lot of my secondary school in our presentations.

By the time we to Goritzy it was only noon; we spent some more time at the souvenir shops at the dock, but was back to the boat by 12:30. Compared to our honey moon, this trip is much less demanding - we only spend 3 or 4 hours at each city (except Moscow or Petersburg), so I can feel the weight piling on.

I am also disappointed that the only piano is in the Sky bar, where lectures take place, so I can’t just walk up to a piano whenever I please (like in our honeymoon). But at least the piano is an acoustic one, unlike the one in France.

Tonight, we crossed Lake Onega towards Kizhi. La Professeure and I played scrabble (a very long game of it, which she led ) in the bar till midnight. But by the time we left it was still night out - we are so close to the arctic circle that sunset was 11:30 and sunrise was 3, and it never got completely dark.

Last updated April 06, 2020