Пирог!

Ruins of a fortress, built in the...14th century, maybe? The whole region is incredibly ancient. This is Old Izborsk, a beautiful little town and museum not far from Pskov and only 30km from Estonia and Latvia. People from the area sell crafts, baked goods, and souvenirs at stalls scattered around the place. I bought a bottle of homemade kvas from a local woman, and it's really quite good and very fresh! There's a spring nearby that gives delicious, good water, renowned for its healthy properties.
More on Izborsk - in English, with history
More on Izborsk - Wikipedia (in Russian, but nice pictures)
More on Izborsk (official site, in Russian, but even more nicer pictures)

(The title means "Pie!" -- it's a line from Chekhov's "Three Sisters," the play we're doing for the theatre project here. It was also featured in the cuisine of this weekend. More about the play (and Russian music) later.)


This is going to be a really quick post because I have a ton of homework tonight and I'm exhausted already, but I wanted to give a quick update.

Friday evening was really fun, and the trip to Pskov (and region) this weekend was overall really good. The food was great! Saturday night was a really fantastic time at a bar (you could say more of a live music club than a bar) in Pskov, and I'll talk about that more next post. The weather was afwul on Saturday though, and the bus trip was tedious. It was also very aggravating to hear the guides--they are generally difficult to understand when we go on excursions because we just don't know Russian well enough yet, making it difficult to have a really meaningful experience.

I just want to say, lastly, that it has been up and down here for me, but last night I got a great bit of advice from one of my fellow students in the program that helped to put everything in perspective--why I'm here, why I've gone so far away, what I'm working toward, and what the end result of all this traveling will be. It's a lot to think about, but it was certainly a calming thought. For once, the future doesn't seem so frightening in its uncertainty.

Unfortunately, that's all I have time for now.