Weekend 06.27-28.10

I don't know if you know this but Voronezh is ridiculously hot- upper 90s everyday. Where's the cold, snowy, freezing Russia I was hoping for?! But lucky enough I was in Dvinigorie for the weekend which is a small village two hours away from Voronezh. It's still absurdly hot, but we were staying a ten minute walk from a river.

The first day, I didn't get out of the water until I pruned and when my first swimming session was over, my family took me to another part of the river where there was a rope swing called Tarzanka, yes, like Tarzan. (And fun fact- this is my first time swimming this summer.)

After we all dried off, we headed over to a monestary located deep in a valley of chalk mountains. It was neat, but I wasn't dressed appropraitely, which made me feel like a giant flooz and totally disrespectful.


One part of the monestary was located in the mountain, like carved into it, but getting to it was treacherous. One slip on the eroding terrain meant that you were going on the most painful slide of your life. Entering the church was amazing, I mean it wasn't much to see, but it was about 20 degrees cooler inside.


While our tour guide was talking, my favorite mentor Natalia and two other people beside me decided to wander off.

AND NO LIE THE SCARIEST AND MOST RIDICULOUS ADVENTURE PURSUED.

Well there are no lights inside this place, so we were equipped with skinny little candles to light the way. So as we travelled deeper into the catacombs, the dark quickly enclosed us and all we could see were etchings on the walls from travellers past. Me, being afraid of getting in trouble, was a nervous wreck. Natalia, who was leading the way, would ask at every turn, "Should we keep on going?", and everyone whispered "Yes". With each turn, the temperature dropped and the sound of someone singing was growing louder and louder. I was afraid that we were going to run into monks who took turns praying and that they would get angry and lock us up to freeze to death inside this scary place and curse us to hell. So I kept pestering them to turn around, but they kept going, so finally as the singing didn't stop I bolted back towards the lit chamber like the scardey cat I was. And finally when I got back to the safety of the light, no one was there except for some kids from the group. They told me the group went down another catacomb, so I followed with only half a candle left. So slowly I walked, taking each turn cautiously, watching my breath take form in the freezing temperature. I thought, what if everyone leaves without me and they lock me in this church overnight. But then that fear was overshadowed by the one before because again as I kept getting deeper, I heard the singing grow louder. As I was about to turn around, I heard a female voice and then I thought-- there aren't female monks-- and then I realized that I've been through this part of the catacomb before and then I began to run toward the voices. Before I knew it I was with the group in the same lit up chamber as before. And I came to find out, that it was the tour guide who was chanting the whole time. Obviously, I have an overactive immagination and am quite paranoid.


The next day, I just slept, slept, slept.

I left my camera at home, so I borrowed the photos from this guy, so if you want to see more photos from this place. Go for it.