St. PETERSBURG,RUSSIA

                          A Lovely City Full of History

            The city, and Russia’s largest seaport, sprawls over 600 square kilometers and 101 separate islands. St. Petersburg, with its 70 canals and 300 bridges, is Russia’s loveliest city. Even though the city is the same latitude as Alaska, the Gulf Stream moderates its winter climate, which tends to be milder than that of Moscow.

            The population of 2 million enjoys 50 museums, 20 theaters and concert halls, 60 stadiums, and 4500 libraries. With 200 monuments and stunning palaces, typically of baroque and neoclassical styles, the city is a museum of architectural beauty. Nicholas I once remarked that St. Petersburg is Russian but is not Russia. Soft northern light twenty-four hours a day in summer contrasts with long foreboding winter nights. Our guide told us, “Once known as Leningrad  its citizens possess a peculiar kind of arrogance and Muscovites consider them snobbish.”

            Described as a city of water bridges and wrought iron railings, the city’s bridges range from a single foot bridge to the high elaborate decorative Palace Draw-Bridge. The bridges have a high degree of ornamentation with statues, towers, obelisks chains and grille rails everywhere. It is said that there are 90 miles of wrought iron railings in the city, often works of art in their own right. In 1932 the first permanent bridge replacing a pontoon bridge was built over the Neva River.

           In 1703 Peter the Great hiked the marshy-mosquito infected island in the Neva River delta. He decided the area was perfect for his future navy and cut two strips of soil, laid them in the shape of a cross declaring here would be his city. He forced Swedish prisoners and Russian destitutes to dredge the area, dig out a system of canals, and lay foundations for the initial structures. Then the czar compelled his subjects to inhabit the place.

            In his European metropolis his first concern was building a fortress. He also wanted to consolidate a major trade route from the Baltic Sea to Russia’s inland waterways. Despite the laborers carrying dirt in their shirts and dropping dead of malaria, scurvy, and starvation the first wooden structures of the new city were erected just five months after the ground breaking. The first structures of fortifications and a church formed the basis for the Peter and Paul Fortress.

In 1710 the imperial family moved to St. Petersburg. Two years later Peter declared St. Petersburg the capital of Russia. The aristocracy and merchant class were more horrified of moving to the uncivilized northern swamp than they were of the loss of power. However, given the choice of losing their heads or relocating, they reluctantly moved to the young city only to learn they were obliged to build large structures at their own expense. In addition 40,000 masons flocked to the city because stone buildings were forbidden to be built anywhere else.

Floods routinely plagued the island and wolves roamed free at night. In 1725 when Peter died, 100,000 people inhabited the city, and 90 percent of Russia’s trade moved through it. Except for Peter’s grandson, Peter II, who moved the imperial court to Moscow for a couple of years before his death from smallpox in 1730; future monarchs remained faithful to Peter’s dream.

SOME DUTCH FOODS

                                        Rijsttafel  and Cheese

Rijsttafel is a Dutch word that literally translates to rice table. It is an elaboration from Indonesia and typically consists of many (forty is common) side dishes served in small portions, accompanied by rice prepared in several different ways.  A rijsttafel also features an array of flavors, colors, degrees of spiciness as well as textures including crispy, chewy, slippery, soft, hard, velvety, gelatinous, and runny.

I ate my first rijsttafel in Amsterdam, Holland on my first trip to the city. Generally today these meals are served buffet style where one can help himself to whatever foods he desires. They are great fun with a group of people vs dining alone.

The Dutch have been producing cheese since 400 AD. In the Middle Ages official dairy markets and weigh houses were introduced that controlled both the quality and weight of cheese.

I have visited many cheese factories or enterprises over the years, but at one a docent gave us an interesting insight on an old custom.

She told us, “Today most cheese production has been taken over by factories, but there are still over 600 cheese producing farms left. Dutch cheeses include Gouda, Edam and Leiden, with Gouda accounting for 50 percent of all cheese production.  Edam is the only cheese in the world that is perfectly round and is the second cheese product. Leiden cheese is distinguished by the addition of cumin seeds.

“Soft cheese (jonge kaas) is ripened for three weeks, sharp cheese (belegen kaas) ripens two to seven months, and very sharp varieties (oude kaas) ripen at least twelve months.”

She continued, “Years ago the farmer would take his cheese to market once a week where he would partake in a sort of game. A buyer would make a bid the farmer refused, and the bidder walked away. The bidder returned, the farmer would raise the price, and the buyer would walk away again. The third time a price was agreed upon and the cheese officially weighed. Meanwhile the bidder would bang the palm of his hand on the cheese to see if the holes in it were the right size. That was called cheese bashing. With each slap either the farmer had reduced his price or the bidder had increased his offer.

“When this ended the buyer sampled the cheese. Then the cheese porters, dressed in white uniforms and lacquered straw hats, carried the cheese to the weight house on barrows painted the color of their section. The weigh master called out the weight marking it on a blackboard. There were 80 cheeses to a barrow weighing about 353 pounds. Finally the cheese was loaded onto a lorry or taken to a warehouse.”

Today larger production and more efficiency endure but lost is the fun, color and custom.

KUNA INDIANS of PANAMA

Kuna Culture

            The Kuna live in large extended family groups in thatched huts with dirt floors. They sleep in hammocks and hang their clothes from the rafters of their huts. They are a well organized people who are commercially aggressive, but not pesky.

            When a boy marries he moves in with the girl and her family. The woman owns the house, property, and wealth which makes it desirable for the hard working men to maintain it. They transit daily via cayuca (small boat) to tend their crops. Men weave large utilitarian baskets.  Women do not go into the jungle or work in the fields; they are strictly domestic and dominate their men.           

            The Kuna are physically small. Women usually stand shy of 5 foot.  Men dress European style in shorts or long pants and tee shirts. The women always wear a blouse decorated front and back with a mola. They also wear either a short or long sarong. Their short hair is always covered with a red and gold head scarf. Multi strands of seed necklaces are worn around their neck as well as rows of beads on their arms and legs. Women also wear a gold band through their nose.

            The women are creative and artistic. They spend many hours doing very fine needlework on the reverse cut appliqué called mola. Mola means cloth. The molas are colorful, unique and are used as clothing decoration, accessories, as well as wall hangings. Coconut is a large barter crop which pays for the material and thread from either China or Columbia. They use fine quality goods to make their molas.

            All cooking is done in a separate cook house and is done in large quantities in 5 gallon pots over large fires. Fires are generally made of seven-foot long mangrove logs in the shape of wheel spokes. Mangrove is the wood of choice because it is smokeless. Rice, rum, and sugar are also imported. The men fish and fish is a stable in their diet. Fresh fruit is plentiful, especially bananas, papaya, and coconut. Fresh water comes from the rivers.

            The immediate Kuna family unit is small, usually two or three children. The infant mortality rate is high, but if a child survives the first couple years of life he has a good chance of  living to be 70.  Eye problems are common at a fairly young age. It also was interesting to learn that the Kuna have a 1:25 chance of being albino compared to a 1:28,000 for whites. Society accepts the different—homosexual, albino, or whatever. If a male, he most often will work with the women.

Kuna cemeteries are on the mainland and always near a river. The dead are buried in their hammock, with all their personal possessions. The funeral is the day after death but no later  than the second day.

Kuna use a witch doctor and pay him if they are satisfied with his treatment. They practice monogamy; in fact adultery is a felony. The Sahila is the leader and has authority over the community. The national government provides schooling through junior high. The Kuna have adapted but continue to keep their beliefs, myths, legends and traditions.

The Kuna do a complicated dance which really is a sport and in which they have regular competitions. The language is Spanish as well as a local dialect.

Because these people are commercial it is customary to pay a dollar to take their picture. General pictures of the village are ok, but if you take a picture of individuals or of  children you must pay.

SAN BLAS ISLANDS

                  Relaxing in the San Blas Islands of Panama

The morning after we had transited the Panama Canal I walked out on deck with a cup of coffee and saw incredibly beautiful small islands everywhere.

I was to learn that San Blas is one of Panama’s provinces and is also an archipelago of 365 small islands that are home to the Kuna (also spelled Cuna) Indians. Only a few of the larger islands are inhabited. The small islands have lovely sand beaches and a few palm trees for shade.

A gently arched barrier reef extends 110 miles to the Colombian border on the south. The reef is one of the oldest in the world and is the focus of a study by Smithsonian scientists. Try to visualize the reef as a rainbow with three colors. The outside is blue, ten miles wide with 250 uninhabited islands with coconut palms and deserted white sand beaches. This is what I had seen. There is no tillable land on these islands as they are all sand. There is no fresh water, but it is said that the fishing is great as is the swimming and snorkeling.

In the center of the rainbow is a yellow strip, only a mile wide with a cluster of slightly larger islands that are inhabited by large families/clans of Kuna Indians. This area is population dense with 50,000 Kuna Indians living in 50 villages.

The inside 3-5 -mile -wide strip is green and represents the jungle. The Kuna men tend fields here with a slash and burn agricultural style. However, they clear only small areas, 3-5 acres, at a time and are not involved in commercial farming, have no animals, do not irrigate, and use no pesticides or chain saws. Their farming is strictly survival and when they move the jungle takes over their fields again.

That afternoon the captain ran the ship up on the sandy beach at Acuatupu and tossed a line around a coconut tree. Tupu means island.  Our small ship had a very shallow draft and its unique design allowed us to leave the ship via a ladder in the bow. The water was warm and we all stayed in it for some time. The snorkeling wasn’t worth putting a mask on for. The island was small and it was easy to walk around it. We chose to do so in shallow water rather than on the sand. There was not a speck of litter.

The next day we made another bow landing at Quin Quin in the morning. The crew put the glass bottom boat in the water so we snorkeled dry. The coral was numerous and the water fairly shallow so better viewed from the boat than trying to swim over it and not touch it.

That afternoon we ran the boat up on the beach again, at Wayshalatupu. We spent all afternoon in the clear warm water. Late in the afternoon the crew brought buckets of pina coladas onto the beach and we had a regular beach party. It was a wonderful fun restful day.      

We remained here all night. The next morning the captain delayed getting under way until 10:00 AM so we could swim after breakfast. When we did get underway he laid off a reef at Tupu Tupu for the diehards to snorkel the reef.

Late that afternoon we stopped at Carti Village on a bigger island. The market place had hundreds of little stands and there were reverse appliqué molas everywhere in all designs and colors.

I hated to leave the peaceful San Blas Islands, but all good things do eventually come to an end. The Kuna culture is an interesting one and will be the next post.

BREATHTAKING NORWAY

                                              Talk About Photo Ops!

            Norway is a country of tunnels, the longest being 24 kilometers long. They know how to build tunnels; they were clean, odor free and dry. Maybe Boston should have consulted the country’s engineers before they started on the Big Dig! And beside tunnels the country also has speed cameras on most roads.

            The country’s scenery is spectacular! Even in late summer we saw snow on the mountain tops. Of course the climate is conducive to creating waterfalls and we saw them everywhere in all sizes, from narrow streams cascading down mountainsides to huge thundering waterfalls. We stopped to view the spectacular Kjosfossen waterfall with its 590-foot drop. It reminded me of a couple such falls I’d seen in the Swiss Alps. Absolutely breathtaking scenery around every curve of the road!

            On a fabulous leisurely day traversing the countryside we stopped in Borgund to view and admire an original stave church, built in 1129. Stave churches were a blend and bridge of Viking paganism and Christianity. In 1066 it was declared overnight that everyone would be Lutheran. At one time there were over 1000 stave churches, but today only 25 remain. Except for one stave church in Sweden, the few remaining churches are in Norway.

            A guide briefly explained, “Stav in Norwegian means load-bearing post, thus giving the church construction its name. They are very similar to the more commonly known post church. Walls are formed by vertical wooden boards, known as staves. Four corner posts are connected to ground sills, resting on a stone foundation. The rest of the staves rise from the ground sills. Each stave is notched and grooved to lock into one another, thus forming a sturdy wall. Scissor beams support the ceiling, in other words two steeply angled supports cross each other to form an X shape with a narrow top span and a broader bottom span. Think of a pair of scissors that are opened only half way. I believe there are a couple of replica churches in the United States.”

            I commented to my friend, “It would be fun to research that.”

            “They no doubt are in Norwegian communities, so let’s put that on our ‘to do’ list.”