Narva: Even if just for 4 hours

After 3 hours in the bus, we arrived in Narva, Estonia's third largest city. We'd checked it out and discovered only a few tourist attractions. That coupled with the standard college student desire to never spend money, we'd only planned on staying for a few hours. It did mean we were pretty focused when it came to getting things done. Once again, we went with a bit of a plan (but not really) and mapless. It's definitely been interesting traveling this way. Completely opposite from what I'm used to, but I find it works. For the most part, things are well labelled and these towns have been fairly small, so I haven't really needed a map. Certainly helps that the attractions around here are tall.
The first stop on our list was Narva's claim to fame, Hermann Castle (pictured on the left, with the white tower). It was founded in 1256 by the Danes, but for most of it's history has been a German Teutonic castle. For more information, see the Wikipedia page I borrowed that from. The other castle (in the picture on the right with all the trees), is also interesting, and part of the draw of the castle for us, but we'll get there in a minute.

There are several exhibit halls around the castle that are interactive (we ended up following a school group for a couple rooms), and then a few more on the way up the tower. In one of the rooms there's a giant map puzzle of Estonia. So, of course, we put that sucker together! It's got major industries and wildlife in different areas of the country mapped out in pictures.
 There were some interesting pieces in the exhibits, but not all of them were translated into English, so I can only get so much out of them.

I love a good Russian Pretzel flag. Described in Estonian & Russian,
so your guess is as good as mine!

The Narva River, circa way-back-when (17th century, from
the look of the ships). Hermann Castle on the right side...

 BEHOLD! Ivangorod Fortress! That there, right across the river from Hermann Castle, is Russia. The bridge on the left is a pedestrian/vehicle border bridge, sparking a conversation of whether the fish are Russian or Estonian. Narva is definitely more Russian than Tartu; signs are in Russian, more people speak Russian as you pass them on the street, etc. Influence is definitely there. There were lots of people going back & forth across the bridge shopping. We paused thinking, "Does Russia not have shopping?" before moving on. We did spend a good two hours wandering the grounds of the castle before heading to...

Our merry band of international students

Alexander's Church! The church was closed, but it was still interesting from the outside. It was built between 1881-1884 to commemorate Alexander II. It was damaged during both world wars, destroying the bell tower and latter organ. In 1962 it was turned into a storehouse, to be returned to its congregation in 1990. It had a surprising number of doors around the outside of the building, all of which were locked (not that we checked). For whatever reason, I find most churches/cathedrals of this type more interesting from the back. One fantastic example is Notre Dame; yes, the front is impressive, but that's also the side everybody's interested in so of course there's lots of time and energy put into it. But the back of Notre Dame is absolutely gorgeous. There's another cathedral up the hill from my dorm that's similar. Alexander's church, however, isn't necessarily prettier from the back. Not sure what it is, but this one's impressiveness (for lack of a better word) didn't increase or decrease depending on how you looked at it.

That way to Russia!

I meant to eat some pels before I left home, but it just didn't happen. But when I knew we were coming to this particularly Russian portion of Estonia, real Russian pels rose up to the top of the "Eat that before you get back on the bus" list. So even though I'd learned from the last trip and brought lunch with me, when the cafe we'd stopped at had pels, I was in. While they were good, it didn't have the toppings I'm used to seeing on pels; there was no butter, no curry, not even the half slice of bread (Sorry, Marissa). Just pels + sour cream. Good, but different.

To go along with this Russian lunch was the particularly drunk Russian patron of the same establishment. After asking where we were each from, he decided to make sure I knew his opinion of the U.S. government. He repeatedly assured me that this had nothing to do with me, Americans or America in general, just that he's really not a fan of the U.S. government (though, his words were a bit stronger; whether this was the intoxication or the use of standard American slang, the world may never know). He then proceeded to repeat his opinions during the duration of our lunch.

 A certain Russian sub, years ago, alerted me to the fact that Russian has no articles (fun fact: neither does Estonian). This meant that, during a particular phrase repeated by this Russian fellow, the simple addition of "the" transformed his dislike for Presidents Obama and Bush into praise. I found the amusing, considering how long and vehemently he went on. 

     Eventually, however, having finished our meal and left the cafe, we found our way back to the Orthodox Church of the Resurrection near the bus station. During the meeting of Alexander III and Wilhelm II on August 5th, 1890, the foundation stone of this church was laid. The inauguration took place November 17th, 1986. Does this mean the church took nearly 100 years to build? Probably. Though much smaller than the Orthodox church I visited in Tallinn, the interior was much the same, and felt about the same size. It's places like these that certainly help me understand other religions. Between the clergymen conducting prayers and church-goers lighting candles and doing other church-like things in this beautiful space, it shows their devotion and commitment. Religion is a huge part of European history, and their churches definitely display that. 

    On our way out, we tried some apples (which were delicious), and headed back toward the bus station, Tartu bound. Turns out, the last bus back for the night is very popular.