Trip to Vyborg

VYBORG, Russia -- The Smolny-Bard group went on a trip to this nearby city in late March. It's a small town two hours northwest of St. Petersburg by bus on the Gulf of Finland.

As we rode along the streets, our gray-haired Russian tour guide told us the highlights of the city, proudly boasting about its sea ports, that it was once a home of Lenin and that they had hosted the annual Russian film festival. He gave us a thorough, detailed account of every landmark, and with every street we turned, he accounted a story about each one. Our heads kept up with the constantly alternating requests to look "cprava" and "cleva" (right and left). Even when we stopped for lunch at a cafe, our guide knew the history of the restaurant, mentioning that the 13th century building used to be a basement cellar.

The word "Vyborg" is actually a Finnish word meaning "holy port." The city was once an important trading and industrial center, and it become geographically important after the building of the current country's capital, St. Petersburg.

Thus, the founder and Tsar Peter the Great conquered the city in the beginning of the 18th century. However, imprints of the Finnish culture remain firmly ingrained into the streets, people and architecture of Vyborg (the city was recaptured in 1941 before Russian gained it back in 1944).

One drawback to these excursions is that all of the tours are always entirely in Russian. Even with a solid two and half years studying the language, my ears always tire out midway through the three-hour stream of Russian history that rushes out of the guide's mouth. So that's why my explanations are rather simple and minimal.

Eunice Kim is a junior undergraduate studying abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, during the spring 2009 semester.