Planning for a Russia trip!

Wednesday, January 26 -

This evening I went to Uplands Nation for the Russian Night.  It began with generous helpings of borsch (борщ), prepared by Uplands students who had gone to Russia the previous semester - or at least my Russian training tells me it was борщ, they just identified it as Russian soup.  I quite liked it, although as the Uplanders said they had just got the recipe off the Internet and had never made it before, it may not have been the most authentic борщ ever.  Afterwards, they gave a presentation on their trip to Russia the previous semester.  Not the most professional presentation ever, but it still had some useful information.  The trips involve taking a boat to Finland, and then a bus into Russia.  There are three trip options, all involving St. Petersburg, two involving Moscow as well, and the last adding Helsinki.  Not surprisingly, the St. Petersburg-only option is the least expensive.  I've yet to decide which I will take.  Considering that Moscow will add travel time, I'm not sure the 7-day Moscow + St. Petersburg trip is really worth it over the 6-day St. Petersburg trip, given the noticeable added expense (480 euros vs. 325 euros, not including visa application fees).  The trip with Helsinki is 9 days, and we'd probably be going by Helsinki on bus anyway, so it may make more sense  than the Moscow + St. Petersburg one (560 euros, also without visa fees).  Regardless, it's less expensive than the flight alone would be if I were traveling from the States, so I might as well visit Russia while I'm this close.

In addition to борщ-identifying skills, my Russian came in handy yesterday after the reception with the vice chancellor.  Inside the entrance to the main building, several students and I noticed there were tourist maps, highlighting main sites in Uppsala as well as providing another map, which is always a good thing.  But it was entirely in Russian!  We didn't know why it was in Russian until one of the professors came by and explained that the main university building received approximately 300 Russian visitors per day (presumably when the weather is better, I haven't seen many tourists at all this time of year), and many of them didn't speak English or Swedish.  My Russian isn't good enough to read the entire map, but I can read part of it, and knowing how Cyrillic is pronounced further helps identify landmarks whose Swedish name I recognize.  The list contains 14 locations:

• The Cathedral of Uppsala
  
• Uppsala University
  
• The University's Museum Gustavianum
  
• Uplands Museum
  
• The Carolina Rediviva Library
  
• Uppsala Castle
  
• The Botanical Gardens (best to see when it's warmer)
  
• The House of Bror Hjorth (a Swedish artist)
  
• The Museum of Evolution
  
• The Museum of Linnaeus
  
• The Concert and Conference House of Uppsala
  
• The Biotope?  Not really sure about this one
  
• The Sports Complex "Fyrishov"
  
• Old Uppsala
  

So the next time I wonder what to see around Uppsala, I have a list!  I've already made a start on the list, but there's certainly more to see, which is good since I've been here less than a fortnight.  Old Uppsala is one item that deserves a greater description.  Originally, Uppsala was located north of here.  However, over time, the river shifted and the ships got bigger, and it's long not been feasible for ships to reach the location of the original settlement.  Thus the settlement moved downstream, which is to the south as it worked out.  Old Uppsala is where the original settlement, from Viking times, is.  Many people have highly recommended that I visit it, so at some point I will be. After the Russian Night, I went to the Kalmar Nation pub, where I socialized with some other internationals (two Americans and a German, and for awhile a Finn), and we came to talking with some very friendly Swedes at the same table.  I have now met a Swede named Bjorn, which is thus far the coolest name for a Swede I have met, besting Magnus.  I have also met someone with a "Viva la Revolucion" tattoo - not to be alarmed, she isn't anarchist or anything else likely to land me in a Swedish prison.  It's interesting to hear the Swedish perspective on the world (America being world police isn't the most popular thing ever), and the Swedes seemed genuinely interested in the conversation as well.  I also have a new item to add to my very-quickly-growing list of things to do at some point in my life - take the Trans-Siberian Railroad all the way across Russia to Beijing or Vladivostok.  That one might have to wait until next year, though - I'd certainly miss too much class if I did that during this term! On the way back to Flogsta, I barely missed the bus at Skolgaten, so I walked on to Götgaten so as to not be waiting for 10 minutes in one place.  Along the way I realized that the building at the corner that I went by on the bus so often was the police station, and quite possibly also the jail.  Now I know where I'll go if I do get arrested for anarchist activity or something of that sort!  Not that that's likely, but it's always good to know where a police station is if you need one.  While I was there I took some pictures of the big blue/green/red/yellow picture things they have out front (cell phone quality - my camera was recharging after being in the cold).  I'm not really sure what they are or what their purpose is - maybe just to look pretty - but here's a picture of the green one:

In the short time I was there, I didn't see the image change.  Maybe someday I'll learn what these images mean.