Mandrogi; Kizhi Island

The photo with the horses is Mandrogi. The amazing wooden church is on Kizhi Island.
Sept 24
We had a language lesson on the Cyrillic alphabet and elementary Russian this morning and then docked at Mandrogi. Mandrogi was a small town that was destroyed during WWII and has been being restored since the 1990’s into a craft village for the primary purpose of tourists on the river. Apparently, it’s also a tourist destination for Russians year round and Putin has a dacha here. We had a shashlyk (shish kabob) lunch during another deluge then were able to take a walk afterwards during a brief period of somewhat sunny sky. Back on the ship after lunch to continue down the river. We went through our 1st lock and had a cocktail party featuring Franzia box wine
Sept 25.
Arrived in Kizhi early AM. Kizhi is an island in Lake Onega and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The island has been inhabited for almost 2000 years. Traditional homes have been maintained or restored as an open air museum with people making traditional crafts and the dwellings being maintained as they would have appeared in the 18th century. There is a 22 domed church that was built in 1714. It’s all wood and very beautiful with the colors of the domes changing according to the light (Church of the Transfiguration.) A second smaller church is the Church of the Intercession which is a functioning church. There are granaries, windmills, a blacksmith shop, etc on the island and it was incredibly picturesque especially with the fall foliage as a backdrop. We were lucky to have a mostly clear day with no rain but temperatures in the 40’s so we were wearing basically everything in our suitcases. We spent a couple hours there then back on the ship to finish traversing Lake Onega to enter the Volga-Baltic Canal. Our afternoon entertainment was a blini making lesson followed by a vodka tasting. We had 4 vodkas, the first 1 was flavored with something sweet like liqueuers. They told us there were four different things in it. Result: UGH. Vodka #2 also contaminated with something that made it taste like grain alcohol. #3 was lemon flavored and pretty good. #4 was the good stuff and they offered a thimble full.
Today I got a cryptic text from AT&T telling my international data usage was very high (despite that I was checking frequently to make sure I didn’t exceed the allotment I bought.) I called and found to my horror that my plan doesn’t apply to Russia! HUH???? There was no indication on their website spot where I bought this. In addition, the texting plan doesn’t apply here either and I have been texting my brains out. Whining at AT&T was effective in getting them to take off the charges. Both plans are good in Italy so I’ll be back to my usual Words with Friends, etc there plus in Moscow I have free internet. YAY!!