Our time in Murmansk was wonderful. After arriving, we drove about 40 minutes into town to Hotel Arctica. Despite all the hubbub about going north of the Arctic Circle, it was not unbearably cold. The temperature stayed in the +/- 2 degrees Celsius range, which, while not balmy, was better than we expected.

The next day was rather slow. It started of interesting, however, with a meeting with the mayor of Murmansk. He was nice enough, and spoke some nice (translated) words about tolerance and acceptance of people of all faiths in his city. Following our meeting with the mayor, we were intended to visit a museum on the fishing industry in Murmansk, but it was closed for the day. So, after lunch, we were taken to the apartment that serves as the home of the community so that we could prepare for the seder. We could have used about half an hour to prepare. We had 3 hours. Needless to say, we were somewhat bored by the time things got started.

My entertainment for a good portion of the time was Luba, a cute 10-year old girl who was at our seder with her grandmother. Zina was chatting with her and told us she was learning English. She pulled out one of her English books, and we went back and forth for the next hour teaching each other various words in our respective languages. She quickly became one of our favorite parts of Murmansk.

The seder itself was very successful. For the most part, people participated. Some members of the community prepared a little skit about Moses and Pharaoh and the Exodus, and we generally had a good time. The food was fantastic, and everything we did went smoothly.

After the seder, the real excitement began. First, a group of the women sat down near the rickety old piano in the room and began playing and singing. At the beginning, everyone in the room was singing, and even once it died down, there was still a dedicated group of at least 10 who sang for over an hour. During that time, while we were packing up, a young land approached me and began speaking with me in English. She was roughly our age, and she said she had many questions for us. So, we invited her to go out with us that night.

Eventually, our new friend Liana took us to a bar called Red Pub. It was decorated all in red, and featured Soviet-era propaganda all over the walls. We all had a drink under the watchful eye of a larger than life bust of Lenin. It was incredible. There was a band playing Russian favorites, with a couple of British covers through in for good measure (not sure if they could get away playing any American rock in the Red Pub). After some time, we befriended some very drunk Russians who were sitting at the table behind us. We had a fascinating “conversation” about politics, much of which we agreed on, which they were none to thrilled about. When the band stopped playing sometime after midnight, we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

One of the most disconcerting things about Murmansk was the fact that it stayed light out past 11pm. We discovered this upon landing at the airport in broad daylight…at 10:30pm. I never did quite get used to it, though I assume the extra-long days are a bit easier to deal with than the extra-long nights of winter (despite yesterday’s high of 2 degrees Celsius, this is not winter. Go figure).

The next day we were able to sleep in a bit before meeting some of the community at the Murmansk Regional Museum. The museum was lovely, albeit in Russian, as was the guide’s talk. What was intended to be a one and a half hour tour became a two and a half hour tour, almost all of which had to be translated by Zina. After leaving the museum, we pilled into a van for a driving tour of the area. In truth, after seeing the giant statue, a la Rio de Janeiro, that serves as a monument to unknown soldiers, there wasn’t much else to see. Nonetheless, they were proud of their city, and wanted to make sure we saw it all.

The tour finally ended about 3pm, at which point we were more than ready for lunch. Liana, who had joined us for the driving portion of the day, suggested a restaurant that, once we made it through the 45 minute wait for a table, was delicious. We agreed that, having eaten so late, we would meet up for appetizers and dessert about 8:30 that night. That gave us about two hours to lay down, pack, and generally relax.

For our late meal, Liana scored again, taking us to a very cute restaurant called Las Galletas. It was the only place we went that I remember the name of because it was actually written in Spanish, as opposed to Russian transliteration of Spanish. We had a lovely meal, but it was the conversation that was unforgettable. I reminded Liana that she had said she had a lot of questions. She had told us earlier that she had a boyfriend in Arad, Israel, and that she was planning on moving there to be with him come Fall. So, she started by asking what Israel meant to each of us. Once we had answered, she moved on to ask about the conversion process, both in the Reform and Orthodox movements. It turns out she wants to convert, but isn’t sure where to begin that process. For the most part, I tried to defer to Josh and Julia for this question, but I was honored to be a part of the conversation.

After swapping e-mail addresses, we left Liana so that we could make it back to the hotel in time to watch the famous Russian gameshow, “Who? What? Where?” One of Zina’s friends was playing this week, so we opened a bottle of wine, had some fruit, and gained some insight into true Russian culture.