(clockwise from top left) The Church of the Transfi guration at Kizhi Island; the Viking Kirov passes near Kizhi Island; traditional dancers perform to Russian folk music in Red Square, Moscow; a fountain in Alexander Garden, Moscow.
hen I wake on the fi rst morning of my
Russian river cruise, I fi nd myself looking at concrete. Our boat is in a lock. Gradually we rise up and golden birches appear through the autumn mist, as does the lock itself – a stately Soviet structure complete with a statue of young Russians and a hammer and sickle. We sail on, past ornately trimmed wooden houses, some in surprising turquoise and pink pastels. A lone fi sherman casts his rod in front of a blue, onion-domed church.
22 WESTWORLD >> NOVEMBER 2011
I dress quickly and rush to the panoramic café at the front of the boat to get a better view. For years, I've nurtured a fantasy of rural Russia that is embarrassingly similar to the images on those black lacquer boxes that are the staple Russian souvenir – images of a country beyond the Kremlin, Red Square and the Hermitage. I want wooden dachas and birch woods shimmering in the sunlight. (I'd also secretly like a sleigh, a snow queen and a couple of fi rebirds.)
(church) Robert Harding Picture Library Ltd./All Canada Photos, (fountain) Steven Brydesen
