16 and 17 March

On Sunday morning I have visited the Kraeugolny Kamen Church (the Corner stone), a charismatic church, where I have met the pastor and a translator before the meeting. The meeting lasted about 2.5 hours (one hour praise and worship, one hour preaching, followed by prayer for whoever needed.) At the end of the meeting, the pastor told why I was visited them and prayed for me. As the translator had another appointment, I had to try and understand the Russian. All I could pick up was that the preach was about Genesis 14:14-25. One of the brothers brought me back to the hotel. As a result of linguistic problems, we initially went the wrong direction. It was another route than my chauffeur in the morning had taken, but there are more routes leading to Rome, so I thought he was just taking another route. At a certain moment, when we drove past the airport, he said ‘Aeroport’. I answered ‘Da, aeroport’. We drove on, left the city and drove up the mountain. Something was going wrong, but how to explain to him that we were going the wrong direction. I pointed at the road and said ‘Njet’. He looked at me. ‘Njet?’ ‘Njet.’ I pulled out my map and pointed at the location of my hotel, which I had punt a circle around. We turned and drove all the way back (approx 15 km), past the church again and then to my hotel.

Today I visited the museum of the history of Yakutsk. I gave my coat to a very friendly lady, who began telling something in Russian. I didn’t understand a word of what she was saying. The cash desk was empty, so I just continued my way into the museum, assuming you don’t have to pay for a museum here. All rooms were empty, but there were boxes and packages everywhere. I was a bit confused and thought this was a great moment for practising my Russian. ‘Ette musee Yakutski?’ It sounded like a real Russian sentence. ‘Da.’ Okay, so I was where I wanted to be. But what about the museum? After some more asking I met somebody who took the time to explain that the museum was closed. He took me back to my coat, where the friendly lady explained in German that the museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. She also said that before she had asked me if I spoke German. Well, I didn’t pick up that bit. I promised to come back on Wednesday.

I continued my way to the Yakutski folklore museum. Same situation. No one at the cash desk. I gave up on musea and went to have a closer look at the old town. It is beautiful!

In the afternoon I had an appointment with Pastor Alexej and his translator Nariyana. We combined our chat with a sightseeing tour of Yakutsk. It was great fun! We went to the places where tourists normally don’t come. We drove into the mountains, from where you have a wonderful panorama of the city. If there were other things I’d like to see? Well, I had read somewhere that in winter the river Lena is used as a motorway. Really? Apparently a bit a strange question. Of course they use river Lena as a motorway. We drove down the mountain, first to a winterpark on the sidelakes of the river and then went onto the ice. I was in a car on one of the sidelakes of the river Lena!!!! We continued through some other parts of Yakutsk. I had a wonderful afternoon and have seen bits of Yakutsk that I otherwise not would have seen. Thanks Nariyana and pastor Alexej!

After I had been dropped of at the hotel, I went fors ome shopping. When I arrived at the cash till, a staff member with a can of caviar in her hands said something to me. She didn’t sound too friendly, but I had no idea what she was talking about. In sign language she made clear that I had picked up the can and that it was not in my basked any more. Indeed. I had picked it up, and put it back later. Apparently she had not seen me putting it back. She indicated that I had to empty my pockets (my coat has very many very large pockets). No caviar, of course. She kept talking to me, but allowed me to pay for my shoppings. She then started again. I had to open may coat to show that I was not hiding a can underneath. Pfew. I felt cold sweat running down my back. And I was sweating already in my very warm wintercoat. In my mind I already saw myself sitting in a police cell, with no way of contacting anybody as I had left my phone in the hotel. But no, she let me go, no pollice involved. Well, a nice experience anyway.