The Kronshtadt Krepost (Fortress)

Enjoying the beautiful day in the park, in front of a statue of Peter the Great.

If you're like me, you've never heard of Kronshtadt before -- and you certainly never thought about actually going there! But Kronshtadt has a rich history, played an important role in resisting the Soviet Union, and is a very pretty island not far from St. Petersburg. For that reason, we were excited when our boss from Jerusalem, Rabbi Jonathan Porath, invited us to go there with him as part of a field trip / business meeting. There should be a word in English for "field trip/business meeting"; that would make the US a much more fun place to live and work!

We headed out there around noon, making our way from the northern end to the western tip, then heading out to the Eastern tip, then walking around the city, its church, and fortress itself. If you grew up playing with GI Joes like I did, you had to enjoy the museum: its models of battleships, dioramas portraying Kronshtadt under attack, and opportunity to touch military hardware made the trip a lot of fun! You can see all the pictures here.

Since Jonathan was the person who interviewed us when we were first considering the Jewish Service Corps program, and was responsible in large part for our placement in SPB, we enjoyed the chance to discuss our experience with him. With just 5 weeks left in Russia (we're counting down till July 23rd!), we now have some perspective and insight, and we were eager to share that with him. So it was an incredibly productive trip, set against an interesting and intriguing background -- sort of sums up the whole year, doesn't it?