New city - Novgorod

I'll be in Petersburg for only two weekends, so I've got to use them wisely. Turns out going to Novgorod doesn't exactly qualify as wisely, but who could have known beforehand?

My school organized a trip to the city of Novgorod, which is supposedly one of Russia's oldest, on Saturday for about 40€. It's only about a 180 km from St Petersburg, but given that we were travelling with a big bus and that Russian highways aren't exactly … well constructed plus a driver who had obvioulsy never done the trip before and a lot of people who just don't manage to be on time after breaks, it took us four hours to get there. Our guide was rather displeased and rushed through her programme, hardly giving us any time to get at least a snack of пирошек (stuffed bread and quite tasty) at the parking lot. We visited the old market place with six or seven churches (each of the also served as a warehouse and assembly hall for the different groups of merchants) and the Novgorodian kremlin, the supposedly historical heart of the city. It wasn't stunning (except for the monks' chorals, which were really impressive), but I could have definitely enjoyed it, hadn't been for our guide squeezing in every little detail about Russian history at every other corner. I had almost forgotten, but I just hate guided tours and this was certainly the last time I try. Sure, it's more hassle to organize a trip yourself and my Russian is stil very very poor, but I'm definitely going to Peterhof on my own.
Well, back in Novgorod, we also visited a monastery and the museum of wooden architecture, which was actually pretty nice. After that and before we left again for Petersburg, we had some time to „explore the city centre“, but since most of it was destroyed by the Nazis and not exactly restored, it's a rather ugly place, with lots of weird touristic attractions and divertissements like petting of poor exotic animals and very kitchy souvenir stalls. Not to mention all the wedding parties!! Either Novgorod it THE place to go to get married or there must be zillions of weddings at any given day at any given place in Russia, because they were just everywhere, starting in the kremlin and ending in the museum of wooden architecture (it's an interesting place to visit, but I probably wouldn't stage my wedding reception there). But then again, I've seen newly-weds standing in the middle of four-laned Nevskiy Prospekt in broad daylight (Russian drivers aren't as crazy as Chinese ones, but I would still put my life and good health over a photo shooting ...), so the main thing about Russian weddings seem to be that they have to be ... special?

Photos!