Valaam

This is going to be a big entry, so prepare yourself. There are going to be lots of pictures, though, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get through.

Valaam is a small archipelago of islands, located here. I read about Valaam a couple months before leaving for Russia and determined that this was one place I was definitely going to visit. The archipelago has about 50 islands, and since the 14th century (some claim the 10th century) has been the home to a monastery. There is a central monastery complex, around which there is a small village where the non-monastic inhabitants of Valaam (about 300) live. Scattered around the rest of the islands are small chapels, hermitages, and sketes (a small monastic settlement). Judging by the varying sizes of the different sketes, I would guess that they hold between 3 and 20 monks, while the main complex could hold many more. There are currently about 200 monks living on the islands around Valaam.

I tried to figure out the best way to get up there, and in the end it seemed like it might not be feasible for me to do without going on an organized trip. I had a hard time discovering any information about boats that went to the islands that were not run by a private cruise company, so in the end I booked a trip with Русские Круизы (Russian Cruises). As it turned out, this is not a common thing for foreigners to do. I was the only non-Russian on the boat, and when I talked to one of the employees she said she had never had another American, and rarely any foreigners. I guess they have longer trips that most foreigners do that stop at Valaam on the way somewhere else. There are week long trips that go from St. Petersburg all the way to Moscow, stopping at various towns and sites along the way. Those trips looked pretty awesome.

We left Friday night at 9:00 pm from the St. Petersburg River Terminal on the Святая Русь.

Me, at the beginning of the trip

I had decided I couldn't afford to splurge for a nicer cabin, so I was down in the very bottom of the boat, sharing a small space with three other people. When I got there there was a lone middle-aged woman in the compartment. She was from Khabarovsk, which is a city way over on the eastern edge or Russia, right on the border with China. She was very nice, so I thought maybe our room wouldn't be so bad. Pretty soon after me our other two roommates arrived, Pavel and Roman, two 22 year-olds who had just finished college and brought a huge case of beer. They were on the trip with a bunch of their friends. It's still not clear why they decided to go to Valaam, as they hardly got off the boat at all on the islands and didn't go on any excursions. It seemed like they had a fantastic time anyway. For me and my other roommate they alternated between being hilarious and infuriating. Ultimately they became exhausting, but contributed a lot to my fame on the boat. By the time we got back to St. Petersburg everyone seemed to know that there was an American on the boat called Tomas (everyone here really struggles with my first name). I was stopped by a lot of people, especially 22 year-old guys, that wanted to hang out and speak English. "Hey, Tomas, you from America, right?" I heard that a lot. It was actually pretty fun.

One of the things that I thought was especially great, was that when we pulled out of port, both leaving St. Petersburg for Valaam and leaving Valaam for St. Petersburg, they played very cheesy, sentimental orchestral music over the intercom. There was something kind of awesome (funny) about standing on the deck, listening to the sentimental music, and watching the scenery go by. It definitely felt like they were working hard to create a mood.

On Friday night, about a half hour after leaving the port, we entered a thunderstorm. The sky was so black! It was kind of cool to watch it roll up and to see the line where the storm began.

This did put a damper on my deck-sitting, though, so I went inside to the "reading room" and spent the evening with my book. Pavel managed to get exceptionally drunk that night, and didn't sleep at all, but came into the cabin talking loudly every thirty minutes or so. "Tomas, you go walk with me?" It didn't matter how many times I told him I wanted to sleep and that I didn't drink, he kept coming back to ask. Also, at some point Pavel managed to disappear with the stash of water I had brought for the trip. I managed to feel very well rested in the morning, though, and about the time I was getting up (8:00), Pavel came in and went to bed.

Another quick side-note. I'm amazed at how comfortable Russians are scantily clad around other people. Roman had no problem stripping down to his tighty-whities and hanging around the cabin talking to a 50 year-old woman. She, on the other hand, had no problem sleeping NAKED(!!!) in a tiny cabin with three 20-something year-old males. While she took pains not to expose herself, it was still weird. She always asked us to turn around so she could take her bra and underwear off, or put them back on in the morning.

When I went out in the morning it was foggy, so I wasn't able to get a good look at the lake, but Lake Ladoga is about 200 km long and 80 km wide, so probably all I would have seen is water.

There was actually something kind of cool about the fog. About the time I was finishing my breakfast of some kind of porridge with butter in it, we were able to begin seeing the islands.

We pulled into port and began our activities. My first excursion was to the main monastery complex. To get there, those of us heading that direction boarded a pontoon boat that took us from where our ship was docked. The view around the islands was beautiful. Every once in a while a steeple would stick up above the trees or I would catch site of a stone cross erected on the shore.

The view as we were getting close to the main monastery

The main monastery complex, with the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral, is the large grouping in the background. The smaller building in the foreground is actually a small skete, located on a small island.

Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral (Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior)

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the walls of the monastery, but the cathedral was beautiful inside. It was divided into two churches, the lower one being for regular worship, and with low ceilings and arches. The upper church is for special occasions and holidays (and warm weather), and has more traditional high ceilings, domes, and decoration. One of the highlights of this excursion was attending a short 20-minute concert in a chapel in a different part of the monastery. Five male Valaam residents sang some traditional Russian religious music, much of it either written at or about Valaam. They were really good singers, and the music, combined with the setting, made for a really amazing experience. If you want a little mood music for the rest of the time you're reading, here's one of my favorite pieces they sang. This recording obviously isn't great, but it's the best I can do.

After visiting the monastery I wandered a bit around the village and the areas around the main monastery.

Somebody's flowers

A road heading away from the monastery

A small chapel, close to the monastery walls

This is what I wish I had been able to do - take a row boat and visit some of the tiny, otherwise inaccessible islands with their chapels.


After riding the pontoon boat back to our ship it was time for lunch, at which point Pavel and Roman put in their first appearance of the day. "Tomas, you come swim in Ladoga Lake with us?" I had to carefully explain, that while I would love to go swimming, priority number 1 was exploring the islands. Also, it was maybe fifty degrees and I'm pretty sure that water was freezing. After all their big talk they didn't end up swimming anyway. I ate a lot of borsch at lunch. Yum.

After lunch I had some time before the excursion around the island, so I went for a walk by myself. This may have been my favorite part of the day. Once I got up the dirt road from the boats, where there were people selling souvenirs, etc., it got very quiet very quickly. It was raining a little bit, but it was the kind of rain that was nice to walk in. The drops on the leaves were very percussive, and added nicely to the drumming of my own feet. The woods were full of pine trees, ferns, and wildflowers. It was very peaceful and I felt very happy.

My path through the woods

The Skete of Gethsemane, which I happened upon during my walk.

A stone cross that I caught a glimpse of through an opening in the trees. I would have liked to figure out how to get down there, but I didn't really have the time and didn't want to tramp around off the paths. A fair number of tourists go to Valaam during the summer, and I know the monks try to protect the islands by asking people to stick to the paths.

When I got back from my walk one of the employees of the cruise company was very concerned about the fact that I was wet. "We don't want to have a sick American on our ship! It would be a medical emergency!" I tried to reassure her that I would not get sick and that I would put on a sweatshirt and take an umbrella next time I went out.

I spent the rest of the day on the island on an excursion with about ten other people and a guide, who took us along trails to some of the other chapels and sketes that are scattered around.

My group, walking down a road.

A really pretty view

Again (and improved by my face)

A small chapel by a pond in the middle of the island

The monastery on Valaam is a working one, and one of the things they have is a dairy farm. Visiting the farm was one of my favorite parts because there was a little milk stand where we were able to stop and get cups of milk and some homemade bread from a monk. I'm not sure exactly what kind of bread it was, but it was a little like sourdough and tasted really good. I wanted to take a picture, because I enjoyed sitting here eating my bread and drinking my milk so much, but I also didn't want the monk to feel like he was some kind of spectacle, so I didn't take one. Here are some cows, though.

And another pretty view

And another skete, up on a hill

Inside the above skete's church

At the end of the excursion I talked to the guide for a while. She was curious to know where I was from and I was curious to know how she had gotten started giving tours at Valaam. She went there for the first time as part of a group that volunteered on the island - they went and worked with the monks doing whatever needed to be done, whether construction, farm work, etc. She enjoyed being there so much that she applied to become a guide. She had to study, pass some kind of test, and now she is there for the summer. All the people working as guides leave at the end of the summer, because at the end of September boat service to the islands stops because Lake Ladoga is apparently subject to really bad storms. After that, of course, it's freezing cold. I think it would probably be a beautiful place to see in the snow, though. She told me that there are a couple small guest houses on the island, around the main monastery, so it seems like it would be possible to go there on your own schedule, if you can just figure out how to get a boat to take you there. I'm sure they exist. I think if I were to go again it would be nice to have several days and some good books. There would be enough hiking to last for a while. When I saw some maps of the islands, I saw just how little we had been able to cover. While we saw many of the larger sketes and some chapels, there are others scattered all over, together with ruins of chapels and sketes that are no longer active. It seems like it could be a really cool place to get lost for a while.

After talking to her I still had about a half-hour to wander before heading back to the boat. I enjoyed sitting up on one of the cliffs and looking out at the view, and then went back.

A monk and his dog walking out to the boat landing. This dog was huge!

The view from the boat deck as we're preparing to leave

As we left the harbor and the islands we reentered the fog, so I was never able to get a really good view of the lake. Oh well. This was the view before I went to bed, exhausted, at about 10:30.

Fortunately Pavel and Roman kept things a little more under control the second night. While I think they were up and drinking until 4 or 5, Pavel managed to not barge into the room over and over, and they were both there asleep when I got up at 7:30. I slept REALLY well that night.

Out boat pulled back up to the river terminal at St. Petersburg at about 8:00 Sunday morning. I was very happy to head home and take a shower before church.

Me at the end of the trip

The last thing I heard as I left the boat - "Hey Tomas, see you later. Good luck, man!"

Pretty awesome, all in all.