russia: perm

Getting from Ekaterinburg to Perm was really easy, though not completely convenient. I was able to take a night train, but the ride wasn't that long, so I arrived at 0430 or so at Perm II train station. I wasn't about to go walking around at that hour, so I dozed on and off in the uncomfortable station chairs for the new few hours.

When I felt as if it was finally late enough in the morning (around 0900) to start walking, that's what I did. 

Perm II train station is on one end of a city that is stretched out along the Kama River.

During my walk I passed what I thought was a quirky monument, at least the reason for the monument was rather quirky: celebrating 250 years of the city of Perm. The monument itself was rather typically Soviet, it was a big obelisk in the middle of a traffice circle. One of the three sides had a profile of Lenin, another had the years showing 250 years of existence, and a third side had the city name.

I stopped for hot chocolate at a small shop, it cost me a lot more than I expected, and wasn't all that hot. Such a disappointment.

When I finally reached my hostel I was able to check in straightaway, yay. It was nice to warm up, and charge my electronics. Not surprisingly, I ended up staying inside longer than I'd originally intended, but oh well. It seems I do this on almost every one of my trips. I'd probably see so much more if I kept myself from wasting so much time. 

At some point while looking at things on my phone I discovered a hotel and spa named Eva. Of course I walked there to take a photo. I was tempted to splurge on a treatment or two, (because how awesome would that be?!) but I didn't have the money to do so. Sigh.

I enjoyed the street art/grafitti I saw in various places while walking around. Some was on construction barriers, and some was on the side of buildings.

I made my way to a small, central park, I wanted to see the Lenin statue. Have you been to a Russian city if you haven't seen its Lenin statue? Across the street from the park was a small marker on a building, denoting the 0km spot. This is the spot from which distances are measured, you can see this marker in some cities. This marker was pretty small, I walked past it twice, even though I was looking for it.

On the other side of the park was the opera theatre, I wish I'd been able to step inside. I kept walking, stepping into a few of the churches I passed. None of them were well lit inside and all were quite chilly. At this point I just wasn't in the mood to keep going much longer.

My last stop for the evening was during and after sunset, it was a small platz overlooking a bridge and the river. I think I could've taken a set of steps all the way down to the river, but the path down there was dark by then and I didn't feel like walking. 

The bridge was lit up, and looked nice.

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I had fast food for dinner that night. I just couldn't be fussed to find anything 'real.'

The next morning I did a much better job of not wasting as much time, I got moving a lot earlier in the day. My first sight wasn't that far from the hostel, it was another Lenin monument. I have no idea what the reason was for having two different monuments to the man. 

Instead of the typical statue/bust, this one was a big stone with a relief of his face carved into the stone.

On a street corner I spied a mosque, which was really eye catching. I wasn't sure if it was open to visitors at the time, so I didn't go inside. It surprised me to find a mosque in the middle of European Russia, but at the same time it made sense. A block or two away from the mosque was a house that caught my eye for all the wrong reasons: its porch was leaning, a LOT.

I kept going to the next sight on my list, a monastery. Painted sea green and surrounded by tall walls, the Holy Trinity Monastery has a tall bell tower over the entrance gate. I bet the view from the top of there is quite nice. The inside of the main church was pretty, but not particularly memorable.

Soon enough I found another war memorial, this one called the monument to the heroes of the front and homefront.

It was in the city esplanade park, and was huge. I imagine this is a nice place for families and couples to go walking in warmer weather. When I saw it, no one else was around.

Further down the main street on either side of the city park was a regional library. The library itself wasn't anything worth writing home about, but I did like the wooden apple sculpture on the front lawn.

I didn't know it was made of wood until I scrambled onto it after setting the timer on my camera to take a time delayed photo. Lets just say it was not a soft landing.

I ended up walking all the way to the train station, just because I could. I did not buy more hot chocolate when I passed the cafe. In a large open area next to the train station was a HUGE sculpture that made me think of a game of Jenga. The pieces were glued in place, I couldn't move any of them.

To get back to the city center I circled around a bit, and took a different road. I ended up passing a skatepark, I watched the skaters go for a few minutes. I was cold, I imagine they were as well.

My next sight was a church, I'd seen a few photos online that looked good. When I found it I wasn't nearly as impressed as I'd expected to be. I started thinking the photos I'd seen had been somewhat edited. 

Or maybe the dark, cloudy skies were hiding the beauty of the church exterior. The inside of the church wasn't any better, much to my disappointment.

From there I walked back to the platz where I'd ended my day the day before. I looked for and finally found the entrance to the Perm State Art Gallery. It's an art museum, located in what used to be a church. Part of the exhibit is actually the old iconostasis, and as you go through the different levels of the museum you get to be quite up close and personal with the different levels of the iconostasis. 

The only drawback is that you never get the full view of the whole thing. Overall, it was a great museum, well worth a visit.After that it was dark, so I picked up snacks at the grocery store and went back to my room.

The next day I did a day trip, read another post for that.

My last day in Perm I was a bit more organized than the first two days. I made a list of the things I still wanted to see, some of them I should've seen in those first two days but moved too slowly.

The first sight was something called the Permyak Salty Ears monument. Someone from Perm is called a Permyak, and one of the former industries in the area is salt mining. Carrying sacks of salt on one's shoulder rubs salt against ears, making them bigger and red. This monument is a pair of big ears with a hole in the middle. You're supposed to put your face in the hole and have someone take a photo.

My next sight was a gondola in the middle of the city park. Very picturesque, even in the crappy weather. The park was also home to a mini amusement park, which looked kinda sad at this time of year.

I kept going, out the other side of the park. I assume it would be a nice place to wander in summer, but nothing else caught my attention during this visit. I ended up walking by Lenin again, and past him to another church. 

This church wasn't open that I could see, argh. My guidebook told me part of this church is a school, but I didn't see that either.

A block from that was the local FSB building. I followed all rules while walking past there.

My next stop was the Perm History Museum, located in the old house of Mezhkov. He used to be the owner of a steamship, and was quite wealthy, the house is big, and really nice.

Inside the museum I got to see the different areas of Perm's history. There were displays of what the home looked like when it was a residence, as well as items from daily life of the city. I got to see jewelry, and a diorama of a home during the Soviet period. There was a hallway filled with medals from the Communist period, and clothing from citizens throughout the years. Every time I see clothing from centuries ago I'm thankful for what I get to wear now, as stuff from back then looks so very uncomfortable. 

Walking down the hill brought me to the riverside station, which was across the street from Perm I train station. The riverside station looked new and modern, Perm I did not.

On the banks of the water was a big sign spelling out (in Russian of course, but I've translated to English,) 'happiness is coming.' I have no idea who it is supposed to be speaking to, or when it was put up.

I took the stairs that went over Perm I train station (as I was crossing I tried to figure out if the station is still used or not, but I couldn't tell,) and went up a hill on the other side. On the way I passed a church, and ducked inside. This one wasn't amazing, but it was warm.

I walked toward the edge of town, heading to I don't know where. I passed another war memorial, one that included cannons. I think it said something about 70 years of heroes in the city.

Eventually I looked at a map and realized I wasn't too far from a cemetery. Am I crazy for thinking that cemeteries are fascinating? One section of the cemetery was definitely memorializing something military, as everything was standardized, and looked the same. The rest of the area was a bit hodge podge, with a variety of styles of tombs and markers. There were some fake flowers, some photos, and more. 

In the middle of it all was an eye catching church. Well, it caught my eye because the outside of the church made me think of a yellow candy cane.

From there I walked back to my hostel, grabbed my bag and warmed up for an hour. Then I went back outside, and walked all the way to the train station. I arrived at the perfect time to board my train, and off I went. 

About 21.5 hours later I arrived back in Moscow.

I would definitely come back to this part of Russia, there is still so much for me to see/explore.