Reflections from Our Baltic Cruise 1

We are back from the cruise of a lifetime, from Amsterdam, around Denmark, and up the Baltic Sea to Estonia and St. Petersburg, Russia. 

Being in Estonia and Russia was an eye-opening lesson.  We are blessed here in the USA, but often take it for granted.  Seeing the "Breshnev Era" apartments in Russia--all gray and bleak, looking like the"projects" in Chicago...and hearing of the Soviet restrictions on housing--only one bedroom and bathroom allowed, small house, small yard (if any), no bright colors... I realized how bleak their lives were back then, before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

No wonder the Estonians invite tourists to tour their new homes, gardens, and farms!  Things we take for granted are newly-found luxuries to them.

St. Petersburg, with all its beautiful gardens, churches, and palaces, is like a phoenix risen from the ashes of 2 World Wars and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.  The change from Leningrad back to its original glory as St. Petersburg, (Czar Peter the Great's city) is amazing.  More beautiful than Moscow, I hear.  It's amazing they've spent so much money on the restorations.  But I understand.  The Russians are an ancient people reconnecting with their heritage, which was almost lost.  It reminded me of what we saw in China, as it moved from the early 1980's to 2006, the two times we visited.  (As it recovered from its own Cultural Revolution).

Our guides told how churches and palaces had become storage barns and museums, during the Revolution.  In Estonia, our guide mentioned one church turned into a roller-skating rink.

Now, here we are 100 years after the 1917 Revolution, and churches are restored.  But I wonder if attendance is up at all, or low like it is in neighboring Scandinavia--state religions and crosses on their flags, but maybe not too many practicing Christians.  Our guide in Estonia even said that in her opinion, It does 't matter what you believe as long as you believe in something.

Sad.  Many in our Western World would agree, I'm afraid.  Still, people in the former Soviet Union have more freedom to choose.  I pray for them, like I do for my own people (especially my children) to make 'good choices.'  That's a phrase my daughter uses a lot with her kindergarten students.  It applies to all of us, though.