Awesome Day!!!

A map of our route downtown today: the big yellow circle is The Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, and the other circle is the Kazan Church and Cathedral. There are a few X's where the main bus stop is and where we went for coffee.

So yesterday Steve left with the team to go to Ekaterinburg for the clash of the Canadians - tomorrow night they are playing against the only other team in the league with Canadian players... and both teams are fighting to stay in the top division. I woke up this morning with the idea of finally braving the public transit system and take the bus downtown. The morning was lousy - slushy rain/snow, but by around noon the weather had cleared up and I decided to make my move. Down to the bus stop I went... and as luck would have it, the first person I talked to was SUPER friendly and spoke English almost fluently. Daria explained to me how the system worked, what bus to take etc. - she was also on her way downtown, so we took the bus together. The system is a bit different than at home, but really, how different can taking the bus be? It was just the initial language barrier and figuring out how to pay (a woman works on the bus all day, collecting money and issuing tickets... yikes), how much to pay (eight roubles - about 30 cents), where to get off (there's a central bus station and the #5 is on a loop... passes right in front of our house!) and how (it stops at every stop regardless...) SO! It was pretty easy. Anyways, Daria and I talked the whole way downtown, and she invited me to go for coffee with her and her friend. She lived and worked in the United States for a couple of summers through a travel and work abroad program, and has also travelled extensively in Europe - Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. So anyways, we went for a super delish coffee in a very small, very dark cafe.

On the bus I had told her that I was interested in visiting some monasteries, so after we had coffee and she reviewed a project with her friend, we went a'visiting! Most monasteries and churches are only open in the summer when there is a huge influx of tourists... but we were able to see two, one of which was under construction/renovations. (I'll talk about the first one in a second...) The second one we visited is the Spaso-Preobrazensky Monastery (Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour) and has an impressive history. It's surrounded by thick (10 feet!) white walls, and contains several churches; according to our guide book, it dates to the 13th century and was Northern Russia's first school of higher education. Ivan the Terrible apparently took refuge within the walls in 1571, when the Mongols were threatening Moscow. Cool. During the summer there is also a bear that lives within some walls within the walls... the bear is a symbol of the town, as a result of the story of how it was founded - more on that later.
Inside the walls of the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour
After monastery number two (phew) we were both hungry, so hit up the Van Gogh cafe for some delicious food. I had borscht which was SO good... and this sort of pork roll - thin pork stuffed with feta and ham (calorie explosion) and potato croquettes with a white mushroom sauce. It was SO good... yum yum. We then caught the bus back home - she lives very close to us - and we went our separate ways. I'm so glad that I finally made the public transit trip downtown... and that I met Daria... she's awesome.


Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral

Okay, now about our trip to monastery number one - the Kazan Convent Cathedral. It's a small cathedral, but functions throughout the year; it's currently undergoing renovations but a small, very friendly woman (who I assumed to be a nun, even though she was habit-less... or er, wasn't wearing her habit), showed us around and gave Daria all of the details on the church, the grounds, and the famous icon of Our Lady of Kazan. She was very talkative and informative. The ceilings of the church are adorned with beautiful, colourful frescoes... and the main entrance is home to several different icons and statues - while she was telling us about the grounds, several people came in, lit candles and said prayers... and finished by kissing the different icons. She told us that several sets of bones were found beneath a main cross in the courtyard, and are presumed to be the remains of people who were persecuted during the Revolution. She also gave us a brief lesson on the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, who is apparently very popular for all sorts of complaints, needs, requests, and prayers. Apparently, when someone has prayed to the icon and/or Our Lady of Kazan (forgive my ignorance, I don't know how this works exactly) and she has answered their prayers, the person returns to the icon and places a piece of jewellery on it... so we bought candles and went across the courtyard to pay a visit to the icon ourselves. Before we left, the woman said something about how the proof of the power of God was in our having met each other, and in the meeting and unification of Christians everywhere... and blessed us and our lives and families.

Upon entering the sanctuary of the famous icon, I was told to cover my head, and in rough translation the reason given was so that God could visit me through an angel who might rest on my head... I'll look into that for a better or more thorough translation/understanding. Anyways, the icon was covered in small hoop earrings, necklaces, and rings - it was quite, I don't know, impressive (not the right word...) and moving to see that so many prayers had been answered. We lit our candles in front of the icon, stayed for a moment or two... and then made our way outside.

The visit was more interesting and meaningful than it might have otherwise been because I'm currently reading Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion." I have a lot of thoughts, ideas and reactions to the content AND the writing (I've been wanting to blog about it since I started the book a few days ago) but for now I'll stick to what's relevant. Basically, Dawkins is trying to prove that God doesn't exist (he even goes so far as to state that the goal of the book is to make an atheist of the reader), and scientifically disprove religion. While I agree with many points that he makes (and disagree with more), there is something to be said for faith and religion, (and God, whatever God that may be), regardless of whether there is proof or probability of the existence of God. This is a topic that overwhelms me, and in trying to construct an argument to counter Dawkins' many (unorganized) arguments against the probable existence of God and the purpose and point of religion, I have a hard time explaining that there isn't something bigger than us, whether it's God or Brahma or Allah or Zeus or one or all or none of these Gods.

Anyways, it was just very interesting to have had his arguments and thoughts in mind when I visited this church and convent. To hear our host speak with such deep belief and knowledge in her faith, her church, the Lady of Kazan and the power of the icon, I can't help but think that even if the existence of God isn't scientifically probable or "real", the existence, proof and power of faith is.
Our Lady of Kazan: a picture of a small card of the icon.