What sodruzhestvo taught me about culture and friends

July, August, September, October, November, December.

At this moment of writing, these have been the months of my life filled with more new experiences than I've collectively experienced in my life (just an estimate though).

But to be exact, three specific weeks in the Russian summer of July this year is known as the best trip of my life.

So, let’s quickly clarify to all those who are still confused about what this trip is, every time I bring it up.

Sodruzhestvo of Orthodox Youths is a 3-week trip, all sponsored (except for the plane tickets), in which a group of about 70 young adults from Russian speaking countries (plus Australia and America) visit several Russian cities with strong religious and cultural roots. Essentially, we were young pilgrims, and faithful to all the rumours about it, it's truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It was also a trip of wearing skirts for almost 21 days in a row. For a person that very rarely wears anything other than shorts and jeans, wearing midi skirts each day was a fashion awakening in itself as well.

So spiritual, cultural and fashion awakening all in one. Phew.

[BTW girls wear skirts to church, as opposed to pants. As well as scarves to cover their hair. It’s an orthodox tradition, and is a non-negotiable one at that.]

This post has been a long time coming. I've made so many new memories that I need to sift through, so too many times I’ve spent reminiscing the good old days with my nostalgic disposition.

But finally, let me illustrate some happenings of this trip that made it unforgettable and some things that I’ve learnt from such a wonderful adventure that took us across half of Russia.

So, a crucial starting point: the first day. I don’t think I've ever been more nervous in my life. I had no clue what to expect, what kind of people would be on this trip, and whether it would be the longest three weeks of my life. So all in all, pretty much scared to absolute death.

We all congregated at a church building, hidden off a main street in Moscow. I had just arrived from St Petersburg by plane and found the place after hopping out of a taxi. I was trembling. I stood outside the building for about 10 minutes because 1) I was so unsure that I was at the correct place (and at the beginning of my trip abroad, I was too scared to ask strangers things) and 2) my suitcase was (and still is) unimaginably heavy and I didn’t want to leave it outside (ahem, what if it'd be stolen?) or drag it inside up and down stairs. So I stood until I saw familiar faces approach, and we headed inside together.

I ended up having to lug my stuff up and down stairs in the end anyway.

So what then ensued was waiting for more people to arrive, recognising and greeting fellow aussies (while staying away to the side from the Russians), and then changing into skirts.

What ensued after a short introduction to the trip, was a 5-minute snack break (if piroshki and tea isn't the most russian snack you can think of, who are you) before starting our bus ride to the train station. We had to carry our luggage from the second floor, all the way down the street to two buses. Long story short, there was so much stuff all together that the guys had to lug luggage into the actual sitting area of the buses and all of us were either sitting on top of or hugging boxes of provisions.

Then, after dragging the food, luggage, water bottles, boxes and more boxes to the train platform, the dreaded 34-hour train ride began. It wasn't so bad until there was no walking space in the tiny corridor and 30 kg suitcases had to be hauled to sit atop of shelves. The lack of air-conditioning and oxygen, and well as some much needed personal space also contributed. All of us were dripping with sweat by the end of the shuffling and settling ordeal.

Eventually, everyone quietly fell asleep in the cosy 30 person open wagon. Oh and did I mention this was all happening at 12am?

The next day, towards lunchtime, when most people started to wake up, we were very slowly and tentatively getting to know each other. This was also helped by playing dyurak (a Russian card game), and the confined quarters of this cosy, cosy cabin.

There also was a point in the day when I was so dehydrated, and with no clue as to where to buy water, I was almost dead.

Then we went to sleep and awoke the next morning in Ekaterinburg.

Got settled into our first lodging, which was a pilgrim centre, and by then everyone was psyching themselves up for the biggest pilgrimage ever that lay ahead in the next few days.

In Ekaterinburg, we participated in a 20km walk from 2am in the morning to 7am after a beautiful and very POPULATED mass during the night. This was all for the memory of the Romanovs and their trials during the Russian Revolution. If you didn't know, Romanovs became Saints in the Russian Orthodox Church. The churches at the Romanov memorial are absolutely majestic, and the Ganina Yama is breathtaking, both beautiful and sad.

The friends, spending late, hazy and hilarious nights together then getting yelled at by Russian grannies. It was a lot of fun.

Travelling in summer is actually heaven. As a family, we always happen to travel when Europe is cold and dark, during Australia's summer holidays. Only in 2007 did we visit in July, so of course I didn’t remember the fact that Europe also experiences summer sun and 30 degrees during the day.

Sharing trapeza food, which was more often than not porridge for breakfast, and for lunch and dinner: more buckwheat than ever imaginable.

The night we left from Ekaterinburg back to Moscow, we were having way too much fun before the train, enjoying the shashlik and dance party, which really made the trip to the train and having to lug our huge suitcases and then waiting for our delayed train much more bearable, to be honest. By then, we were all so close and enjoying our time, maybe even a bit too much.

The train ride back to Moscow was at first very calm and relaxed, we were already so comfortable with each other. Then towards evening when we got super bored, was when the cards, including UNO, were whipped out and we went a little crazy when we stopped for a short break at a town, and about ten of us ran to get more fuel for our adventure and almost missed the train.

The next morning, I personally was just a tad dazed and a whole lot tired. We all slept on the bus at 5am, on the way to Sergiev Posad for the next chapter of our journey.

Seeing the beautiful churches in this historic monastery was unbelievable. I felt so lucky, so privileged to get to see where our faith has come from and even being in the presence of holy Saints. It was unreal and majestic.

The next day we had a little field trip to Moscow! We first were invited to a panel in the Civil Chamber of the Russian Federation, and got free morning tea and had heaps of fun taking photos. Then we got a few hours of free time to sightsee unsupervised, which was hectic. A few friends and I were running around Nikolskaya Street trying to find a nail salon but to no avail. Then we had a delicious lunch (without any trace of buckwheat or soup), with drinks at Vokrug Sveta (highly recommend!).

One day when we were staying at Sergiev Posad, the aussies had a huge lunch/dinner (with avocadoooo) and then some of us ended up roaming around late at night and somehow finding our way back to the centre (the rooms were huge had 12 other girls in it!).

There was, however, one sinister moment of our trip when three of us saw a man lying unconscious in front of the monastery, not breathing. This moment brought us back to a harsh reality, and for a while, our high of discovering new places and having fun everywhere was dialled down.

Moving on to happier days, after we spent a few days in Sergiev Posad, we embarked on the final leg of the tour, which was Kursk! The bus ride was a rough 11 hours long, but we managed with music, snacking, chatting and napping.

To welcome us to Kursk, a local church had the most beautiful reception for us was an amazing (and such a cute) welcome for us. There was a stunning service, and then the funniest dinner that ended in crying tears of laughter and joy.

One day, we did quite a bit of gardening work, and all of us girls looked very much like villagers, gardening in skirts and headscarves. We helped out a beautiful local monastery in harvesting fruits and veggies. What was also super intriguing on this trip was the fact that Russian speaking youths from Ukraine were there. With all the history and rifts that have occurred so recently, they were open to conversation and comparison between when Ukraine governed Crimea and Russia's control, and the economic and educational conditions that Ukraine is in at the moment. In these conversations, I was all ears. It really was a respectful and informative debate between the Ukrainians and Russians, and I was really blown away.

Another day we spent visiting a stunning monument for WWII. Funny story: it was super windy as it was a high monument in the middle of a huge field, and my skirt blew up from the wind (very thankfully I was wearing bike shorts underneath, sorry for the TMI), but I got the creepiest stare from the creepy guy on our trip and it was hilarious to make jokes about it afterwards.

The pilgrim centre we stayed at in Kursk was a few minutes' walk to the monastery that houses the beautiful Kurskaya Korennaya icon.

Walking up and down the stairs to the church, and to the beautiful lake there from memory, is about 180 stairs. By the end of sodruzhestvo, we were all so toned since we walked up and down them several times a day.

While we were in the stunning village on the outskirts of Kursk, we dived into ice cold water in the kupel', walked through a magical field of purple flowers and tall grass to a swim in a lake, and got sock tans and sunburns from all the vitamin D.

On one of the last days, at dusk everyone headed out to a huge field, through the monastery and then through a forest that was home to more holy springs and beautiful boardwalks. We had a huge koster and had potatoes, sausages, tomatoes and fruits. It was delicious. We sang songs, played games and danced.

In the darkness when everything was dying down, a group of us decided it was time to head back up. Fuelled by fear, we giggled and ran through the pitch-black forest, back to the monastery, the only light from our phone flashlights.

The next night a group of us had a more intimate koster. We walked through another dark forest at the other edge of the monastery to find a cosy campfire spot where, although there was some difficulty in starting the fire, drinks were shared, sausages were grilled and more good times were had.

Finally, the last day came along, and we had a prom-like farewell on the last night. Ballroom dancing (which we were totally unprepared for) and large group dances that no one really knew how to do were the activities of the night.

Tears spilled from everyone. We finally and very reluctantly realised that this is the end, and there would never be another trip that could rival this one.

Embraces were made, and promises to visit and stay in contact with newly made, but lifetime friends.

Then at 1am, the Aussies loaded all our prepacked things onto a minibus, and headed back to Moscow.

After spending a day together in the city, and finally trying Meatless, we sadly parted ways. Everyone off home, and me, staying in Russia for the rest of the year.

What a drastically different finish to such a dreaded trip.

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Lessons learnt: never packing so much again, doesn’t matter how long the trip is. I will only ever pack a tiny suitcase at most.

I had the most memorable and irreplaceable experiences and had the craziest times with newfound friends. I highly doubt that any experience will ever top this three week trip of a lifetime around Russia, because I really experienced everything. And I finally found what makes me truly happy.

It's a cheesy ending and I love it! All the love, N x