• Sochi

  posted by Felicia Mullaney
  posted on 05.14.2012

  Our final big excursion was a trip to Sochi. Sochi is located on the Black Sea in Southern Russia. It took us 30 hours to get to Sochi from Vladimir by train. The train ride was really long and miserable, but was well worth it once we arrived to Sochi. Sochi has beautiful mountain and sea scenery. We spent a lot of time enjoying the beautiful mountains in Sochi.
  
  The first day in Sochi we went on a short hike to a beautiful waterfall. It was really nice to have a chance to move around and stretch our legs after sitting for so long in the train. A few of us decided to swim once we reached the waterfall, the water was freezing, but refreshing. The following day we hiked to a different waterfall which was also freezing cold. After all of our hikes we were rewarded with a mountain-top view and delicious Georgian food.
  
  There are a lot of Georgian restaurants in Sochi. Most of our meals were Georgian cuisine. Some of our favorite dishes were khachapuri, lobio, khinkali, and of course the sweet red wine. Khachapuri is a oval-shaped Georgian bread that comes several ways. Adjarian khachapuri was my favorite, it is oval bread which is filled with cheese, then topped with an egg and butter. Lobio was a delicious bread dish that has cilantro in it, and khinkali are meat filled dumplings.
  
  We also went on an excursion to a tea plantation. There we learned about the different types of tea, the history of tea, and the process of making tea drinkable. After our lecture we were given tea, bread, and nuts to enjoy while the staff sang and played music for us. The accordion player was fascinating. He was very passionate when he played. He also put on a great show. He played smaller and smaller accordions, we were continually surprised at how small the next accordion was. Also the staff put on a fake peasant marriage and married one of our students to a teacher. After the show we bought tea to take back to our host parents and teachers.
  
  Our last excursion in Sochi was to Adler, the village where the Winter Olympics are going to be held. We took a ski lift to the top of the mountain. It took us 40 minutes to get from the bottom to the top, and we had to transfer ski lifts twice. The view on the way up was absolutely amazing, and from the top was even better than I had expected. The top of the mountain was covered in snow and there were plenty of skiers, and snowboarders going down. I was amazed at how warm the top of the mountain was despite the snow. A few of us decided to eat lunch at the top and enjoy the view for a bit.
  
  We were all very sad to have to leave Sochi and return to our cities. We were especially dreading the 36 hour train ride back. We found that once we returned back to Vladimir, Spring was in full effect, and we were far more relaxed. It was really nice to have such a relaxing excursion before we get ready for our final exams and returning home.

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About the Author

Felicia Mullaney University of Maryland (College Park), Vladimir, Spring 2012