Mayle Karely Museum

While we were in Arkhangelsk, Brian and I went to the largest open air museum of wooden architecture in Russia with a group of friends. It was a great museum with many awesome buildings. It wasn't too cold out, the snow was wonderful and we were able to go sledding after viewing the buildings.

This museum was founded in 1964 and reflects the building style of the 16th-19th century Russian North village, churches and homes.

Above is a church.

From what I could tell, these windmills were created to grind grain or corn. the whole upper building is created to be turned into the wind so it can be used at any time.

A typical house might be a home for a few families and their animals during the winter.

Most of the doorways were very small. Not many of the buildings were open for viewing and there wasn't a lot of English for me to really get a lot of history from this place, but it was fun anyway.

 

Now to go sledding!!!

What a crazy experience this was! There was no order or rhythm to the sledding hill. People were going up and down all over and I was afraid of a disaster or a collision. I watched a lot of people go down before I actually went down myself. The hill was steep and very slick and I watched some people wipe out. I found the safest place to go down at and went down with Brian. It was fun, but fast!

Here is Brian, about to head down with one of the kids we were with. It was a fun day trip!

 

 

 

 

Our New Home

We moved. Well, actually we moved about a month ago. But I decided to put a few pictures of our new place up now. Through a friend, we met an American couple who lives here in Russia, and needed someone to stay at their place for five months. Brian and I thought and prayed about it and decided it was a good idea. One catch, there are three cats to take care of. 

Our new kitchen, with much more counter space than before! And more cupboards! The oven only heats up to about 300 degrees F. No warmer than that. It keeps me from burning things I guess. Things just take longer to cook. 

Our bedroom, the cats usually slept with their owners, but we lock them out of the room now. Too  much cat hair floating around while I sleep! 

The cats do have character. This one is Jasper, he is the youngest and was really enjoying whatever Brian was doing on the iPad at this moment in time. 

Living at this new place has been a blessing. We are saving money, we don't have to ride the bus to work anymore and can just walk a quick 20 minutes to work. Excellent! 

Cat hair is irritating and I don't really enjoy emptying the kitty box. But, I can do anything for five months. :)

This last picture is a little random, I know. But I wanted to show people in American that Russians do have Christmas tree "lots" Here are a few trees for sale for anyone to buy to put up for Christmas and the New Year. Cute trees huh? Just a little different than our own tree lots. 

Arkangelsk (the best city in Russia?)

We finally got our first chance to go to a place that could possibly the biggest hidden secret of Russia. This city is located in the far north of Russia, it is level with Fairbanks, Alaska. Arkangelesk is my (Brian) favorite city here for multiple reasons. I absolutely love the people in this city, they remind me of people in Juneau quite a bit. It is only 250,000 people which for Russia is just a "normal" sized city. Wendy and I were there for 7 days and it was so much fun, that we had to split it into two different blogs so stay tuned.

Nothing says northern Russia like a camel wearing a carpet. This is a two humped camel, which they say is the best for packing. You know in case you need to get a load across northern Russia and you don't have access to Train, Plane, Car, Truck or any other more convenient method of transport.  

Our best buds from Arkangelsk Clockwise from top left : Me(Brian), Vitya, Alyona, Lena, Kirill, Nadiya, Emille, Pavel, Lera, Vova, Nastya, Kostya, Wife... oh I mean Wendy. 

 Wendy and I took a fun opportunity to walk across the frozen Северная Двина(Sevrnaya Dvina) river. There is an island on the other side that people live on. When the river freezes over, taxi's will drive you across for a small fee, we just chose to walk.

 This was a main new year festival going on downtown. This was the coolest ice slide ever. There were so many kids and I had to remind Wendy that she is an adult because she was almost pushing kids out of the way to try it. (kidding... in reality it was the other way around)

 We went ice skating at the main Каток (ice rink) called Stadium Dynamo. The line to rent skates was too long so Wendy didn't get to skate. She had fun watching people come out of the locker room and slip and wipe out on the un-expected ice. She said one time this gal fell down and lay there like a lifeless corpse and her husband had to come collect her off the ice.

How often do you see a ice log cabin? That is real art folks. 

There is hardcore fisherman, and then there are those who camp out in -30 in a tent on a frozen lake to drop a hook down hole and hope something bites. I bet you this guy is thinking about his warm sleeping bag right now. There were a surprising amount of ice fishermen. 

And a Happy New Year

We finally got to experience our first Russian new year celebration. We weren't really sure what to expect. Some people had given Wendy (not me) some really bad news that Russians like to stay up ALL NIGHT and eat and party until the early morning (like 7 a.m.). We went over to our good friend Olga's house for the actual up to new year celebration. We ate a lot of food, but we had to take it slow in order to have some room for the next house we were going to visit. 

Top Left going Clockwise: Tomatoes with Shredded Cheese, Salmon Slices, ???, Fruit, Fudge, Fruit (again), Greek Salad, Bread and Cheese, Potato Salad, Fish Eggs on Bread Slices. 

 Going down to the Kremlin at 3:00 a.m. One would think that by this time everything would be just about wrapping up and people would be heading for home.

However, the Russians were just getting started by 3:00 a.m. The Kremlin is on the right and main square straight ahead. 

 Many many random colors. That is one way to explain how people decorate for the new year. If it's loud, it can be used. This was close to the main square. We weren't really sure if it had a purpose or if it was just beautiful.

There were government funded fireworks, but after those were all done, the Russians took it upon themselves to continue the show. 

Also this type of floating lantern was very very popular. There is a little lantern and the heat from the lantern causes the whole thing to float and it goes so far that the light begins to disappear.