Kizihi

Friday Kizhi Island




Today we woke up to Kizhi Island. We actually arrived before midnight last night and docked here. So we had an early day visiting the island. We ate breakfast and went on the walking tour at 8:30 but we got off earlier and looked at the couple of souvenir stalls that were open. We were one of the first boats to arrive this year so they were putting stuff out and getting ready. Natasha told us that unless you wanted something that said Kizhi on it, that the souvenirs were priced pretty high and she was correct. It was fun to look but we didn’t buy anything. The walking tour was very interesting. We had a local guide who did not speak English so Natasha translated for her. We went to the wooden church with 26 domes on it and it is very unique for sure. We could not go in because it is being reconstructed as it has been for years. We went in the smaller church that they use in winter as it is easier to heat. We then went in a typical house that the people have lived in. Everything is wooden and we walked around the big circle path that led by a church with belfry that a guy was playing the bells, a windmill and lots of smaller houses or buildings. We were only stopped for 2 ½ hours. You could go fishing with the crew if you wanted and many did that and enjoyed it.



The rest of the day was actually pretty boring until about 4:30 when we finally saw the ice that we had been hearing about! Before then, we were in a big lake that was like being on the ocean as we could not see the sides and it was just hours of that. But just about the time we were saying that, we realized that we saw ice off in the distance and we had to go through it. There was a Viking boat ahead of us and as soon as he could, the captain got in his wake and let that ship do the breaking up. It was really beautiful to see the ice breaking up as it was like big crystals and looked like chandalier pieces. We were about 30 minutes or more going through it until we got to the mouth of the river and just like that, no more ice. Pretty amazing stuff.



Tonight was a Russian buffet which was not my favorite meal. We did not go to the things that were offered on board today. We took a long nap after lunch as it felt good to be warm and relax. We went through several locks today and are getting to the point in the trip where we will be going through a lot of them.