Sunday in the park with Tula

Sunday, June 10, 2007

I feel like I’ve been away a very long time. But finally, time to ourselves. I know I came to Tula to report on how the Albany-Tula Alliance has affected health care and trust me I’ve shot plenty of video and interviews with incredible people. (so far 13 tapes and each is an hour long) But I also wanted time to get a feel for the city and the people.
So, off we went to the Kremlin. Yes, there’s a Kremlin in Tula dating back to the 16th Century. In fact most Russian cities have one. Kremlin means walled city. Within its boundaries was the town… The wall was meant to provide protection..often from the Tartars (btw the Vikings spent time in Tula. There's not much left within the Kremlin walls as during the Soviet era a large church and bell tower were torn down and another church was turned into a museum. But there are two, unique tourist attractions. In the base of one of 9 towers in the Kremlin, a guy with a glint in his eye and a very dry sense of humor shows how Ivan the Terrible tortured people: very nasty stuff. Then as you climb one of the steepest staircases I’ve every climbed to the top of the tower, an impressive display of sword play; worth the climb. Back down on the ground we trekked over to the oldest church in Tula. It’s a beautiful white washed structure with green turrets. But that stop also started our day of being questioned. Seems a quartet of women, one hauling a video camera, garners attention. (Sony the photographer, Svetlana our tour guide and official interpreter, Nina Reich a Tula Alliance board member and retired linguistics professor whose family hails from Russia and she’s a fluent speaker). We were stopped at the open market ( yup .. they’ve got one too and it’s great especially if you like to bargain) .. and we were stopped at the enclosed mall adjacent to the market. I’m not sure the passes we got in Moscow mattered as much as Nina dropping the name of the Tula mayor who we visited with last week. Even in Russia, it’s not always what you know, but who you know.
Oh, we also spent time in Tula’s central park – amusement rides, bandstand monuments to celebrated Russians and we toured it all in a wagon ..check this out.
On tap for tomorrow – a stop at a health club to see how our Tula sisters and brothers stay in shape. It’s time for me to ‘pashlee’ ( get moving).