Saturday, June 4
Mandrogi

After waking during the night and seeing nothing but water, I was really happy to see some vegetation alongside the ship when I woke up around 5:00. We had made it across the southern end of Lake Ladoga completely overnight and were now in the Svir River. That meant we were getting closer to seeing a new part of Russia. And a new part of Russia we did see. The river was broad and for the most part bordered by forests. It was also used as much for commercial shipping as much as for cruise ships, and that was no doubt the reason the entire river system we were traveling had been developed. From the time of the Czars through the Soviet era, river transportation had been an important part of the Russian economy. Foreign tourists were just the latest development along these waterways, to be sure, but our first stop made it perfectly clear that tourism was indeed important in the Russian economy today.

To use Judy’s comparison, Mandrogi is a lot like Gatlinburg. It’s more spread out, it doesn’t look the same, but its goals are similar. Imagine a spaciously laid out village or small town where all the traditional crafts you could imagine are practiced in a somewhat public way. A place where you can perhaps catch a glass-blower at work when you visit a shop stuffed with blown glass items. Or find someone doing a truly fabulous job of meticulously painting those Russian nesting dolls, lacquer boxes, and other small items. Several such people, in fact, in a building with shelf after shelf of those items for sale. Furthermore, imagine that each and every establishment in this model village offers a similar opportunity.

There were exceptions, of course. There were clothing stores where people were neither spinning, weaving, nor sewing. And more fun than that, food was for sale in several places. I really enjoyed a cloudberry pie, and my only regret is that I had enjoyed the Uniworld shashlik picnic in a large pavilion first. That was a really good meal, enjoyed in a festive atmosphere, and I ate much more than I would have under other circumstances. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the cloudberry pie even more in other circumstances 🙂

I’ve probably given the impression that we didn’t enjoy this stop, and that’s not fair. It was fun to walk from one place to another. The woodworker and blacksmith shops were interesting and fun to visit, and I was truly fascinated watching some of the detailed painting being done. Not only that, we were in a climate that was completely foreign, and just looking at what was actually growing in the undeveloped areas was interesting. Don’t laugh, but I actually took a photo of leaves on a birch tree; I’d never been that close to one before. However, it seems the overt commercialism is the only reason that place exists. Not a bad thing necessarily, and not unexpected to find in almost any tourist venue, but concentration level was a bit high for our comfort.

Now that I’ve vented a little, let me tell you about two fun parts of this stop.

First of all, lunch in the pavilion was fun. ‘Shashlik’ is the Russian version of a shish-kabob, and that was the featured dish on a nice buffet set up by the ship’s kitchen staff. we sat at typical rustic picnic tables, with table service that was anything but picnic-like. Unless you think about having very attentive servers at your picnics. And there was entertainment! Admittedly, folk music is often not something I enjoy, especially if it’s performed to the accompaniment of a recorded bass and percussion track. And when I noticed the accordion player was completely faking his part playing for a singer, I really almost switched off entirely. Then the singers left the stage and the two instrumentalists (balalaika and button accordion) took over. And my opinion changed. What fun! Those two guys had chops to burn and put on a real show!

The other fun part of our Mandrogi visit was checking out the Vodka Museum. Again, this is a commercial Shtick that we would soon discover was pretty common in tourist areas. This particular place had a nice tongue-in-cheek attitude that made it more fun than it might have been. And yes, we paid for our tickets and enjoyed tasting six vodkas each. Only a small sample of the labels there, of course. The sign said they have over 3500 different bottles, and I believe it. Judy found vodka bottles made to fit in real Faberge eggs, built for that purpose, of course, and bottles shaped like swords, bells, and just about anything you could think of. A chess set of vodka bottles made me think of all sorts of drinking game possibilities we would never actually play. And I have to admit, a perfectly normal looking bottle with a label we’d never heard of made it into out shopping bag.

When in Rome, …

In the afternoon, we enjoyed another presentation by Dr. Gritsenko, followed by a really fun demonstration: How to drink vodka like a Russian. We laughed, talked, watched with chin-dropping attention as our Cruise Manager demonstrated three different methods of holding a shot glass and tossing back a shot of vodka. That might sound like a strange thing to say, but believe me, her demonstration was a show. I didn’t volunteer to try those methods in front of everyone, but I did find it intriguing.

At our Russian Dinner that evening, I gave the third method a try, egged on by our dinner companions. Somewhere there’s a video of my trying to hold two shot glasses in one hand, pour vodka from one glass to the other, and simultaneously drink from the second glass. I will make sure that one never hits the internet. The menu was interesting. Beef stroganoff wasn’t a surprise, but having it served with mashed potatoes was. Having sliced beets and pickles on the plate wasn’t expected, but it was tasty. Finally, I chose a slice of honey-cake as my dessert. I read about honey cakes in all sorts of contexts, but I’d never tasted one. I really like it, and started looking for it to show up again.

Around 10:00 I saw a beautiful sunset and had to snap a couple of photos. It just seemed the thing to do. The fun thing was seeing that the sky never really got dark that night. We were headed north once we entered lake Onega during the night, and though we weren’t quite far enough north to be in the land of the midnight sun, we were as close as Judy and I had ever been.

Photos