Kozmodemyansk or That Time I Almost Missed the Boat.

Next stop on our river adventure was the little town of Kozmodemyansk, which is located in the Republic of Mari El.  As our boat pulled into port and everyone woke up from their post-lunch naps, it was quickly realized that the weather was less than opportune for an excursion: rain and lots of it.  Everyone gathered in the lobby, but as the prospect of treading through rainy weather to see a little town that is not really known for anything special was realized, one by one people turned back to their rooms and their (somewhat) cozy (bunk) beds, everyone except me and one other brave soul, Andrew, that is.  Since I have an affinity for rainstorms/could care less about getting wet/was already somewhat stir-crazy, I was ready to get out and do anything but sit on the boat until the next morning when we docked in Nizhny.  Andrew and I donned our rain-gear, grabbed our cameras, and set out on our little adventure.  Not really knowing anything about Kozmodemyansk at all, I asked one of the staff on the boat what we could see in Kozmodemyansk as we disembarked, to which she replied, "Um...not really sure if there is anything to see here."  At this point I knew we were off to a good start.  Our afternoon turned into us wading ankle-deep through rivers of water in soaking wet Sperry's while trying not to get hit by cars or too lost to find our way back to the boat, but all the same this little walk through a very small but quaint town was one of my favorite parts of our time on the Volga.  We didn't see much more than some chickens, a Lenin statue, and the Museum of Satire and Humor, but for a little while I found some unexpected peace walking through that made the whole trip worth it.

The few, the proud, the сумасшедшие.

Raining on our parade.

Rivers and (on) roads.

Bread.

60 years.

Market no more.

Foxy gloves.

Dacha+satellite.

Please, take a seat.

Uncle Lenin.

Museum Satire and Humor.

Victory.

(MУ)ССР/МУСОР

I♥Kozmodemyansk.

Bon voyage.

I'd love to end this post on the sweet note of finding inner peace (blah, blah, blah), however, the story of Kozmodemyansk does not end there.  As Andrew and I walked back to the ship, the rain stopped and three other friends came out wanting to take advantage of our last hour at port while the weather was a little more friendly.  I agreed to go with them back out to 'show them around' the village.  As we walked along the shore, I asked the others if they confirmed what time we were leaving.  They assured me that, yes, they had checked and that the boat would leave at 7 o'clock.  It was only a little after 6 o'clock.  We had plenty of time left to explore and get back to the boat.  We kept walking along the shore when Connor turned around and said, "Wait, guys, is that our boat leaving?" We all quickly turned around to see that not our boat but the other boat docked alongside us was leaving.  After a breath of relief, we all gave Connor a hard time for being so paranoid, again reminding ourselves that the boat will not leave until 7.  That's what Sofya, the cruise receptionist said.  Down the shore we continued to stroll, laughing and joking.  I turned around to take a look out across the Volga and at our boat parked neatly along the dock.  But as I looked longer and closer, I realized that maybe it wasn't parked as neatly as I thought.  "Uh, is our boat moving?" I asked my friends hesitantly.  As I was being ridiculed for being paranoid like Connor, Eric, our resident sailor and student at the Naval Academy stopped us all to say, "Oh man, she's right.  Yeah, that boat's leaving!"  We all began running along the riverbank, cursing Sofya and exclaiming, "But it's only 6:15!"  Sara whips out her phone and starts calling Natasha, the director of our program, exclaiming to her in Russian that we weren't on the boat.  After a few minutes of confusion, the addition of this statement in English, and a dropped call, Natasha finally says to Sara in the first (and only) English words we've heard her use, "Don't worry! Don't worry! We come back. Five, ten minutes, maximum."  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.  We weren't stranded in Kozmodemyansk after all but instead were fooled by the ridiculous and illogical parking system for the boats that required our boat to make a loop in the water to allow another boat to leave (Why they couldn't have coordinated their departures is beyond me.).  The whole time that this panic among us was occurring, I was dying laughing because I figured that if our boat was leaving us then it was too late to do anything about it.  In retrospect we all agreed that it would have been pretty entertaining to get left behind in Kozmodemyansk (except for the fact that we would have to explain it to the State Department, which wouldn't have been too fun).  We could have easily made it to Nizhny Novgorod to meet the rest of the group the next day.  All the same, it was definitely for the better that we didn't actually miss the boat.  As we finally boarded the boat again, Natasha and Margarita, our professors (as predicted) were waiting for us in the lobby to make sure that their zaichiki (little bunnies) were okay, showering us with hugs and kisses.  What a happy ending!  And that, my friends, is how we almost missed the boat and why Kozmodemyansk will be one of the most memorable places I've visited in Russia.

Stranded...almost.