This world is a wonderful prose essay

1

On the day of the winter vacation, I was looking for strategies everywhere, and unexpectedly met a Russian special offer group. With the yearning for the "suburbs of Moscow" when I was a teenager, the three best friends went to Without hesitation, I signed the order for the "Two Cities Tour of Russia" on February 16th.

On the day we arrived in Moscow, the temperature was minus 8-17 degrees. The cold wind blew against my face, stinging a little, but not as terrible as I imagined. In the next two days, the lowest temperature was minus 29 degrees Celsius, and the clothes we wore were the daily thickness in the deep winter of Huaihua.

Moscow is so big that it has no direction. Because the place is large, the population is small, and the buildings are sparse, the city is built like the Russian character, unstructured and cold. In addition, the thick snow on the streets has been cleared and piled up on both sides of the road, or in some corners, as well as sludge, turbid snow, parking equipment, and various other piles. Moscow in winter looks irregular and unattractive.

The first attraction, Sergiyev Town. There is the Holy Trinity Monastery of Sergius there, which is one of the oldest churches of the Orthodox Church and one of the four cathedrals in the world. It houses countless exquisite ancient Russian paintings, precious metals and gems, and is also a holy place of the Orthodox Church.

The next day, at seven o'clock, it was dawn. On the way to the town of Sergiyev, I screamed for the first time at the beauty of Moscow. Before leaving, I was immediately comforted by the disappointment I felt about this "Two Cities Tour" car tour. Rows of larch and spruce trees outside the window are covered with white snow, standing quietly in the cold. There is no green in the winter in Russia. There is a vast expanse of white everywhere. The desolate poplar branches, not a single leaf left, point blackly towards the blue sky. It is rare to see these pine needle trees along the way. The sun emerged from the horizon, and because there were no mountains to block it, a golden light spread across the sparse forests in the wilderness, making it extremely gorgeous. Sunny days are rare in Russia. We were lucky on this trip and saw the sun for several days. Passing by a pool, probably because the sun shines on the ice on the water, light smoke immediately fills the ice, making it feel like a fairyland.

The car continued to drive towards the countryside. Among the woods on both sides of the road, the wilderness in the distance, and the "pigeon" houses covered in snow - a resort for the rich in Moscow, they were as small as pigeon houses, but very beautiful. ——Everything, against the backdrop of white snow and in the gray sky, is as beautiful as a freehand painting. In the open area, large areas of thick snow are spread in velvet, like pure white quilts, covering the earth freshly. In the next few days, we passed through many such suburbs. The sun in Russia disappears at any time, and the snowflakes come at any time. When there is no sunshine, deep in the snowfield, the sparse branches of poplar trees are densely hazy among the snowflakes. So, the clouds, trees and willows, the wooden houses and cottages, the density is moderate, coupled with the large snow-white wasteland nearby, the shallow brushwork, the rich artistic conception, the sky blue and other misty and rain-like scenery, it makes people feel intoxicated. Speechless.

The sky in Russia is always blue as far as the eye can see, pure blue, azure, light blue, or navy blue. It's shockingly blue. Blue and white are always the best combination, and in Russia, the vast white snow always sets off the blue sky so pure and clear. If it's a clear evening, the sky is like a palette, with different colors and different shades. Every touch of it is like an oil painting. No wonder Russia is famous for its famous paintings. The sky and earth of Russia are all made up of famous painters.

Along the way, the tour guide always looked at us with surprise and surprise, taking pictures through the window glass.

2

The most important attractions in Moscow are the Kremlin and the palace of Catherine II. From the familiar name of the Kremlin in familiar history books and the military parade scene in Red Square I have seen online, I always imagined that it was as solemn and majestic as the Forbidden City, but I did not expect that the palace is no different from our ordinary administrative buildings. Red Square So small that I couldn't believe my eyes. What's even more surprising is that standing in front of Putin's office building, I can't imagine that two guards can guard the presidential palace? The presidential office building allows tourists to enter and leave within a hundred meters of each other, while the restricted area is only a pedestrian road? Incredible!

Standing opposite "Putin", one cannot help but lament: Although the tough guys in this world have been working hard to move forward with Russia's "caravan", in the face of deep sanctions from Western countries, After 18 years of encirclement and suppression, Russia’s GDP was still lower than that of Guangdong Province by 2017. Although this lonely "polar bear" has become one of the controllers of the Middle East, it is still burdened with tremendous pressure and moves forward powerfully and tragically.

Around the Kremlin, there are 19 minarets. On the top of the five tallest towers, each is equipped with a red crystal five-star with a diameter of 6 meters, which is said to weigh three tons. No matter day or night, the red star always shines goldenly over Moscow. Looking up, I saw a gem the size of a palm and weighing three tons? Still incredible!

The Kremlin, with a history of more than 800 years, is the soul of Russia. A Russian proverb describes the majestic Kremlin like this: "On the land of Moscow, only the Kremlin can be seen towering; from the Kremlin, only the sky can be seen in the distance."

It was very touching and inexplicable. There are no overly tall buildings in the Kremlin, only three or four floors. Apart from a group of churches and a group of towers, there are very few administrative buildings. In the whole of Moscow, there are no high-rise buildings with more than ten floors.

However, they have souls, but we, such a vast Forbidden City, are not our souls.

The tour guide said that Russia’s main attractions can be summarized in a few words: Palace Chicken. There are many palaces, castles and churches. Russia mainly believes in Orthodox Christianity and Christianity. The churches all have spires, which are very similar to Muslim mosques, and they are all built in a Byzantine-like architectural style. "spire" is pronounced as "chicken". Whether it is St. Basil's Church in the Kremlin or the Cathedral on Spilled Blood that I saw later, they are both exquisite and beautiful, like castles in fairy tales, and are magnificent and extremely luxurious. Behind many churches, there is a legendary or tragic story.

I don’t know much about foreign history, and I can’t remember much of what the tour guide said, so I don’t have much interest in palaces and churches—until Catherine II’s palace.

Catherine II was the emperor of the Russian Empire in the 18th century, and later generations called her Catherine the Great. She is also the only empress in Russian history to be named "The Great". The palace is not open, so it takes an hour and a half to walk around and take photos. While Longlong and Caiyun were busy setting up POS in front of the palace, I saw a wide forest in the distance, which was probably the original back garden of the palace.

There was a deep ditch in the middle. I walked around a small stone bridge and walked along the snowy road probably made by a carriage to the opposite side of the palace. In Russia in winter, there are very few pedestrians. There was a vast forest with knee-deep snow. Except for a path left by a carriage, almost no one had set foot in the forest. Several tall old poplar trees still don't have a single leaf. The dark branches are like countless fine brushes dancing, or like countless fine bird claws stretching out, chilling on a piece of fluffy snow. Solemnly. There are a few small bunches of brown dead leaves hanging on the densely packed unknown small trees - such dead leaves are rare here. There are many aspen trees in Moscow, and some small white birch trees. Several crows started up and flew out of the forest with a "quacking" sound, reflecting against the boundless blue sky. Above the head, or behind the woods, is the endless blue sky, still so clear, so bright, so free of desires, so heart-stirring, and it makes the woods even more desolate. I really don't understand, how can it be so beautiful? The whole picture is a perfect combination of purity and vicissitudes of life, which is too beautiful to be described. I always thought that only Baidu could see such beautiful pictures. Nowadays, whatever you take in front of you is comparable to the SLR photography on the Internet. I was so shocked that I didn’t want to speak, so I trudged through the deep snow one step at a time. I want to find an old poplar tree to lean against, close my eyes, and let my thoughts travel through thousands of years; or sit in the snow, leaning against the old trunk of the poplar tree, and let the remaining snow on the trunk fall lightly on my shoulders. Thoughts stopped, and only the breath pierced the cold air and echoed on the snow. At this time, I was the only one left in the world, and a poem by Hunan poet Ma Xiaoxiao suddenly came to my mind, "Like a dream, it is elusive and out of reach. Thousands of birds come to visit, thousands of clouds come to confuse us, and the world is only a part of our body and mind." Foreigner. "Wonderful!

The thick and soft snow fell into the shoes, and the feet began to feel slightly cold. After trekking out of the snowfield, I sat down on a chair beside the path, shook out the remaining snow from my shoes, and looked at the line of footwells left in the fresh snow. It was as if I was seeing the trajectory of my own life. It was so exciting. In a corner of the forest, a European-style log cabin has become the best foil for the snowy field. I imagine the owner of the log cabin sipping dew and drinking snow in such an environment, reading in front of the fireplace and warming himself by the fire - or washing his hands with white snow and lighting the fire with fallen leaves. He doesn't eat the fireworks of the world at all - he is so celestial that he feels infinite envy.

Caiyun and Longlong both came over and were amazed by the deep snowy cold forest. They took a bunch of photos, sat on a chair for a "One Hundred Years of Solitude", and reluctantly left the forest.

Three

On the third day, we took the train from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

Entering the platform, a huge army of luggage and luggage was hurried along the platform, from the front of the train to the 14th carriage. The trailer was pulled across the slightly frozen ground, and the sound of the "gurgling, rumbling" wheels, with varying decibels, penetrated the cold morning, like the roar of a train or the roar of the Yellow River, resounding over Moscow. These yellow-skinned, black-haired descendants of the Yellow River are heading to every corner of the world, dragging their suitcases and bags. The sound of their footsteps was simply deafening. When Chinese people go abroad, unlike foreigners, one or a few of them study abroad or go on a business trip, just for fun, that is, they are just three or five friends. There are a large number of Chinese people, and their culture, occupation, habits, education, experience, etc. are all uneven. In Southeast Asian countries, in Japan, and in South Korea, there are yellow-skinned Chinese everywhere, noisy and overwhelming, sweeping away like locusts. Facing pairs of blank eyes, leaving behind piles of garbage. Once upon a time, in Thailand, there were so many people that it was hard to breathe. Especially when I go to the bathroom, the wastebasket in the bathroom is stuck on top, toilet paper is all over the floor, and there are sewage mud marks on it, making it impossible to get down. Although tourism in Russia has just started and the journey is far away, this trip felt like there were only four or five groups, and there were not too many people. However, an Airbus 330 charter flight was full of Hunanese. The sound of bags mopping the floor on the platform still makes people feel scared, uneasy, and even ashamed of being a member of the "Locusts".

St. Petersburg is a beautiful city. The houses are all made of stone, which is warm in winter and cool in summer. The appearance is solid, neat, honest, compact, and particularly grand. Even though the building is a century old, there is no sense of dilapidation or disharmony at all. Unlike Huaihua, the houses that are more than ten years old are as dilapidated as rags. A bridge needs to be demolished every ten years, so Huaihua has been demolishing and constructing it for decades. The streets of Petersburg are clean and refreshing, with no dirty snow accumulated everywhere. People feel like walking in a castle when walking among them. The room is warm, but when I stay in a hotel, I sweat every time I move. It is often so hot that I put on a sweater and go to the balcony to blow some air. It gets cold after a while, and gets hot again as soon as you enter the house. We just went in and out with a temperature difference of more than 50 degrees between indoors and outdoors.

There is also a large open space downstairs in the Petersburg Hotel. Opposite, there is probably a large lake, and there is a small highway between Kongping and the lake. When we returned to the hotel in the evening, we went downstairs and continued playing in the snow. In this season, the moon can be seen in Russia all day long, often with the sun and moon shining together on the blue sky. Sitting in the car, the moon goes with the car. Or in front, or above the head. Because the territory is vast and the houses are sparse, the moon cannot be blocked. The snow is deep and the moon is missing, and the cold branches of the poplar trees are sparse. It’s so poetic. That night, the white moon was very bright, hanging incompletely in the huge blue dome. On the snow-covered land, it looks even more clear, cold and lonely. Longlong put on the crimson cotton down coat, white woolen scarf, and white beret, with long black hair hanging down his shoulders, and then looked at the moon "madly". Caiyun is an amateur photographer, and his random shots are full of charm. That back view is beautiful, artistic, and extremely "lonely". Everyone wasted a lot of time laughing and joking because they had to find the best styling angle and "hold" the moon in their hands. The night wind stung my face, so I had to go back to the room to rest. That night was also the biggest regret of the trip. I was not able to sit quietly on the snow, or lean against the retractable door railing next to the hotel, facing the moonlight, and let Longlong sing a sad and beautiful "Evening in the Suburbs of Moscow." Yes, "The night is so beautiful and fascinating..."

When we arrived at the hotel lobby, the tour guide asked with a Northeastern accent:

Have you gone to Qianha?

Playing in the snow.

Haven’t had enough?

Can’t get enough!

You should marry in the Northeast!

For a boy from the Northeast, he really couldn't understand that he was still so obsessed with snow after so many days. Yes, we had been planning for several years before coming to Russia. We wanted to go to the snowy countryside in Northeast China and the deep forests of the Changbai Mountains, but we were never able to make the trip because we were afraid of the cold or for many other reasons. This year, there has been a lot of negative news in Xuexiang. It has a bad reputation and a bad mood. It hasn’t snowed in the south for many years, and this year’s freeze only sprinkled a thin layer of snow particles. How can such a thick snowfield be enough to play in just a few days?

I like Petersburg very much. She looks dignified, walking on the street is quiet, leisurely and comfortable, and she doesn't dislike the cold at all. The sky here is bluer than in Moscow, the clouds are purer, and the snow is more abundant and deeper. There are not as many factories as in Moscow, but more like a luxurious village, as if the entire city was created just for living.

After dinner in front of a Chinese restaurant in St. Petersburg, I went for a walk. From one end to the other, from one end to the other, facing the wind and the snow, letting the light snowflakes fly like feathers, flying on my eyebrows and hats. Occasionally, a couple walks by, or an old couple, or a handsome boy or girl - Russia really has no shortage of beauties and handsome guys - God is so blessed by them - their facial features are all carefully carved and extremely exquisite. Sculpturally three-dimensional. There were not many pedestrians, and there were some private cars parked on both sides of the road. A thin layer of snow fell on the windshield at the front of the car. I couldn't help but reach out my hand and draw a smiley face with my index finger.

The tour guide said that perhaps because of the cold, Russians are lazy and unwilling to work, and a construction project can take twenty years. Often one person works while three people watch. However, they are calm on the outside and peaceful on the inside. Whether it's a restaurant or a shopping mall, we never make loud noises or laugh. At the MAXIMA restaurant, one day while having breakfast, there was a Shandong group at the next table. After eating, several adults stood and sat, chatting and talking as if they were quarreling. Until hotel security came to stop it. The same goes for crossing the road. They are never in a hurry in front of the zebra crossing. As long as someone wants to cross the road, they will stop and wait quietly for you to pass. You let him, he still lets you. Although domestic drivers have improved a lot after being fined, they still often see scenes of racing against time at zebra crossings: when a buffering green arrow appears under the red light in front of them, the traffic will ignore pedestrians and drive across the zebra crossing one after another, sliding towards the motorcycle waiting. Bit of a bend. I often wonder, how many seconds can they gain like this?

Russia has a long winter and a short summer. Trees sprout in May, lose their leaves in October, and it already snows in November. In winter, the lowest temperature reaches minus 30 degrees. In just a few months, trees grow slowly and crops find it difficult to survive. It takes hundreds of years for a big tree to grow to maturity. Therefore, large tracts of land are deserted, with no crops, no vegetables and fruits, and no production. I am always worrying about what Russians do for a living.

Baidu learned that Russia has no other crops, but is rich in rye.

The territory is vast and the territory is boundless. In the Far East, under the large land, there are unlimited mineral deposits. The "Amber Palace" in Catherine's Palace was a huge palace in the early 18th century that Frederick I spent more than 10 years consuming 100,000 pieces of amber, gold and gemstones with a total weight of more than 6 tons. project. It was looted by the Germans during World War II, and the murals were shipped away in their original packaging, and then disappeared mysteriously. In 2002, the Russians re-mined the original map and used the same materials to create an exact replica of the amber palace.

Yes, Russia is rich in mineral deposits. Even so, I am still worried that it will take 400 trillion years for these ambers to form, and the minerals will eventually be developed. Such vast land cannot be cultivated, which is always a waste. Then I thought of my hometown and the declining countryside in China. Some of those natural villages were in ruins, and some were ruined by the sudden appearance of brick buildings in the rice fields. Those unplanned buildings, one on the east and one on the west, stand in the fields. To the village, they are like clutter in the frame of the photographer, making people very uncomfortable. The abandoned rice fields, occupied by highways and brick buildings, and fragmented by tourism development, are more like sliced ??cakes. So I deeply sympathized with the Russians. They have no land to plant, but we have little land and no one to plant. When resources are exhausted, will China's leaders be as difficult and lonely as Putin?

Went into another group with a Changsha accent. Except for the Shandong group I met yesterday, almost all of them were from Hunan. This is really a high-speed era. Maybe, yesterday, you were eating breakfast at the southern end of the earth. Today, you are at the Arctic Circle of the earth, sipping coffee or opening a bottle of vodka. Thinking of the army of luggage, I began to sigh again: The earth is not really big, but it hosts billions of species, and perhaps the most unbearable one is human beings.

Four

During the six-day trip, I went to the water several times. In Swan Lake, it is the place where Tchaikovsky composed the dance music "Swan Lake". In the Neva River and the Baltic Sea, we danced, jumped, took pictures and rolled on the "water" surface. All yearnings and imaginations for Miyuki at home were greatly satisfied.

On the Baltic Sea, we walked farther and farther towards the center of the water. There were some tourists and Russians in twos and threes. The old people seemed to be taking a shortcut, the young lovers seemed to be coming for a walk, and some of them went further. Someone drew several layers of circles on the snow. I shouted "Crop Circle", and Longlong hurriedly walked into the circle to take pictures. As soon as he took a few steps, he stepped back in fear. "Danger!" I laughed at her timidity and walked over in her footsteps. Sure enough, one watermark at a time. ah? Is the ice going to crack? Unwilling to give in, he cautiously took two steps forward. Mud-colored snow water flowed out of a deep snow nest. I used my hand to explore and found that it was a finger deep and warm. I was so scared that I backed away.

Longlong was always worried, so we asked the tour guide. If there is really a danger, why hasn’t the government erected warning signs at the beach? Why do Russians also walk there? The general meaning of the tour guide is that there is definitely danger, but the Russian government will not be so vigilant and careful. In China, if you sneak away to swim in someone else's pond and drown, the owner of the pond will inexplicably lose money; if you drink too much and get drunk to death, as long as you sit at the same table, even your relatives and friends who have not served the cup will lose money - this is unique to China national conditions. But Russia doesn’t have one, so their warning signs aren’t used so frequently?

On the day I returned to Moscow, I watched a spectacular sunset over Petersburg. At about four or five o'clock, on the "horizon" of the clouds, a dark cloud belt about the width of a road surged up. Above the cloud belt, there was a gorgeous rays of light that stretched at both ends and could not be seen at the edge. Like a giant abstract woodblock print. Golden light burst into the sky, dyeing the wings and portholes red. The sky is blue, the clouds are ink, the rays are brilliant, the sky is under your feet, not in this world!

After a while, the golden sunset, like a huge egg yolk, gradually disappeared into the glow and into the ink-colored sea. There is no intense light, it is just so thick, so red, so round, sinking thrillingly, gradually becoming a semicircle, and the last ray of golden light has disappeared.

It took a while before he calmed down.

To be honest, in the first few years of my travels, whether in a group or alone, I, like many people, regarded boarding as an exit from the ordinary life, and regarded travel as self-salvation. a way. The moment I saw the sunset in the sky, I realized more and more deeply: This universe is so wonderful, so magical, so wonderful! In the vast starry sky, there is only one earth, which is beautiful and colorful. Human beings are no more than a speck of dust in the vast starry sky. We actually don’t need to get rid of it or redeem it. For me, traveling is no longer about finding the password to spiritual dilemmas, but more about experiencing the splendor of life and exploring the truth of life.