dyen goroda

Exactly two weeks after our arrival, Voronezh celebrated it's birthday, or it's День Города (City day). Many of the main streets including Проспект Революции and all around Плошадь Ленина were pedestrianised, making room for food stalls, sports activities and street performances further than the eye could see. Most of the girls (excluding me as I was still sick) had had a rather late night the night before, so only Grace and I were up and ready to watch the parade by Lenin Square. We managed to squeeze our way to the front and spent about an hour trying to work out what the hell most of the people making speeches were on about. Shortly after, the parade got going in full force and Grace and I tried to join in and 'урах' (hurrah) along with everyone else, although our out-of-time attempts caused surrounding Russians to look at us and tut. 

Festivities in Плошадъ Ленина

Мила :)

Giant Колбаса (sausage) in the parade! 

The parade was pretty crazy and Grace and I decided it was time to leave when a giant inflatable sausage came floating down past Lenin Square. We instead decided to pop into one of our favourite little tea shops in Спартак to warm up. Unfortunately I hadn't (and still haven't!) quite recovered from my freshers flu so I popped home for a nap whilst the others went to explore the food stalls and street performances. Grace later told me how she won an umbrella in a contest because she couldn't understand the Russian and they couldn't understand her English - madness! 

Then, at around 9pm Grace and I met up again and headed down to the bank of the river Дон to watch the fireworks display. By this point it was pretty nippy so both Grace and I were sporting our wooly hats - we looked rather fetching if you ask me! We were actually quite surprised by how many people showed up to see the display. There was a stage with performers, people with their own fireworks (health and safety does not seem to exist here!) and groups of people chanting 'Воронеж, Воронеж!' (Voronezh, Voronezh). Now I must say, I've seen a fair few firework displays in my time (the Chinese love a good firework!) and the show put on for День Города were pretty damn impressive - especially for the middle of Russia. Anyway, after about 15-20 minutes of fireworks and 'урах' (hurrahs) the place emptied out and Grace and I managed to find Charlotte, Maria and Kiara. Before we knew it, we were at a 24 hour cafe drinking one of the sweetest and most disgusting Mai Tais I've ever tried - not to mention being chatted to by a drunk Russian guy, who at one point muttered the words 'karma sutra' - much to our amusement!

The streets of Voronezh

The park and stage by the river bank.

Grace and I in our fetching hats!

Fireworks! (Courtesy of Grace)

Our new friend at the bar/cafe

Overall, it was a brilliant way to mark out two week-aversary in Russia. I was honestly taken aback by how full of pride many of the people were and it was nice to learn a bit more about the city that I will be living in for the next few months. 

Until next time,

Isobel

xx