BRYANSK: Statue atop a theater, celebrating the city's status as a c enter of partisan opposition to the Nazis in WWII
The group with our Bryansk hosts (left to right): Igor, Dave, Romie, Carol (with flowers from Lyudmila), Oleg, Jill, Galya, Arline, Lyudmila
The group outside the poet-diplomat Tyutchev's estate (left to right): Mark, Shosh, Romie, Dave, and Arline
Pretty purple flowers at the Tyutchev estate
The group on the bridge spanning a 200-year-old pond
Statue of the man himself: the great Tyutchev!
A bridal wedding car parked outside the estate
Another shot of the bridal car. It's traditional for Russian wedding parties to go to a beautiful place outdoors after the ceremony.
Romie checks out a traditional folk costume at the local history museum.
Dave watches the museum guide demonstrate how the locals used to dry their clothes.
Shosh 'n' the Gang in front of Russian blue spruces
Flowers outside the Svensky Monastery
Lupine in front of the old monastery
Cow grazing outside the monastery wall
The old monastery, destroyed by the Soviets and never rebuilt. The bell tower is still used, though.
The new monastery's towers
Shosh in front of the river Desna
The legendary oak tree where the builder of the monastery was miraculously cured of his blindness by praying to an icon that had appeared in the hole in the oak
Statues in the old Bryansk city center celebrating the city's founding (foreground) and its Soviet-era achievements (background)
"The City of Workers' Glory"
Another shot of the statue. Note the hammer and sickle in hand and the plane trail overhead.