Both my trips to Novgorod were made up of lots of shitty excursions that involved standing around monasteries and other religious buildings and listening to entirely too long histories about religion and Russia's farming past and other topics, delivered in boring-fact-packed, mechanic manners by Soviet-era guides.

Adding to my love of visits to the city, the second time around it fucking poured. It was February in Russia, and my down coat and I were under the impression that temperatures much above 0 C were unheard of. Therefore, I was unprepared for rain. Freezing temperatures are one thing, but (as Oregon taught me well) the outfitting needed to be waterproof is a whole new level of expensive. So I got to stand in the rain and soak up freezing rainwater with my down while I prayed for the guides to wrap it the fuck up already.






The first time around.