russia: suzdal

When cousin Tyra planned her Russian trip, she also planned around weekends, and the chance to see more than Moscow. She actually read her guidebook ahead of time (something I really ought to do more often,) and figured out an itinerary that was both relaxing and ambitious. (I hope that makes sense.) Claire and I convinced her that we could all travel together, and go to a town called Suzdal.

Around Moscow is a series of towns sometimes referred to as the Golden Circle. Most of them are cute, and at one point were geopolitically strong, or important in the history of Russia in some way. 

Most of them have at least a little of the architectural styles from when they came into existance, or from their heyday in importance.

Suzdal is one of these Golden Circle towns, and is probably one of the most visited of the entire circle. Quite often Suzdal is visited over the same weekend as nearby Vladimir, but we opted to make it a full weekend.

Suzdal is one of the oldest Russian towns, it's history dates back to at least 1024. Wikipedia tells me Suzdal functioned as a capital city when Moscow was 'a cluster of cowsheds.' As things go with history at that time, alliances changed, Mongols came through and overran everyone, Moscow grew in power, etc...

The reason Suzdal is so popular to visitors is because it is cute. It was a religious center at one point in history, so there were heaps of churches, many of which still stand. There is no direct connection by public transport from Moscow, so you have to make an effort to get there.

The lack of a direct connection has also 'saved' the city from modern urbanization. The current population is just 10,000 people, it looks and feels like a small town. 

I'd be willing to guess than many of the current citizens are involved in tourism in some way, as there doesn't seem to be much else going on there.

To get to Suzdal we had to get up early, and catch a train to Vladimir. Then we walked across the street, and caught a bus for another hour. The bus station in Suzdal is on the edge of town, so the bus that brings you there then asks for another 17 rubles to bring you to the city center. We paid because we didn't know any better, but if we'd known, we would've gotten out and walked. Oh well.

We hopped off the bus near the Lenin statue, thereby making us feel as if we'd already checked one sight off the list. While standing there I called the contact number of our accomodation to say we had arrived in town, and would soon be ready to check in.

I typed the address into Google maps, and we started walking. When we got to the address there was nothing there that looked remotely like accomodation. I called the lady again, she asked me to describe where we were. I tried, but all we could see were houses, there was absolutely nothing unique.

The lady on the phone sent a taxi to pick us up and bring us to the right place. It turned out Google maps doesn't recognize the address as the right place. Obviously this has happened before, so I'm not sure why the problem hasn't been fixed. She originally asked if we had the right address, of course I said yes because it was listed on the booking. She didn't ever send any other way for us to know the right place to go. Argh.

That being said, the flat itself was lovely, all three of us would've been happy to live in such a flat. As has become our habit, we relaxed for a bit too long, but oh well.

We left the flat and started walking. We could see the kremlin in the distance, across a field and river. Really photogenic, especially with the gray clouds rolling through. The first sight we entered was a convent, though in Russian the name is monastery for women. The walls around the property (white,) were impressive, but the interior of the main church was not.

Our next sight was also a monastery, one dedicated to St Euthymius. (This would not be a popular name, then or now.) The monastery was much more impressive than the name. 

To get there we crossed a wooden pedestrian bridge over a small river, then went up a small hill. The walls of this monastery were red brick, and had a few towers.

Entering the monastery was easy, though we had to pay an entrance fee. Argh. We were able to go up to the second level of the walls, which is something I always love to do. We chose not to get too close to the beehives in the middle of the area, hee hee.

We walked past a beautiful clock tower, taking a few moments to appreciate the shape of the tower. It wasn't just a 'single' tower, it was kindof long, if that makes sense. 

When we walked out of the church we were treated to a 'concert' of sorts by the bells. Awesome.

The interior of this church was nice, but a good portion of it was under renovation. I loved the frescoes on the walls and ceiling we could see. While in the church there was a mini concert by some of the monks, their voices were beautiful, and the harmonies were lovely.

At the back side of the monastery one of the buildings had been turned into a small museum. There were pictures of Stalin and Lenin in what used to be the hospital of the monastery! There were also other pictures of life back in the day.

After the museum we left the monastery, just in time for the rain to start. Rain is my least appreciated type of weather, it is sooo annoying. Even if you have a good umbrella, rain coat, and hat, you're going to get wet. Plus rain makes puddles on sidewalks, and creates mud.

We next went inside the walls of another monastery, though there wasn't much inside. We could've paid to go up the bell tower of this one, but we didn't think the skyline of Suzdal would be worth seeing from up high.

This monastery was really close to the statue of Lenin, so we went back there to take photos. 

There was also a supermarket nearby, which provided us with snacks we really wanted at that point.

More walking brought us all the way to the kremlin. This one was surrounded by white walls, and didn't seem very big. The entry fee into the kremlin was cheaper than that of the monastery we'd seen earlier.

Inside the kremlin we visited a church, and a museum. Some of the frescoes in the church had been redone recently, others looked centuries old. I think I preferred the older scenes. 

The museum had exhibits of the history of the area, and was the perfect size; not too big, not too small. There were also displays including religious artifacts like crosses and icons.

In the fields surrounding the kremlin was a small wooden church. It wasn't open, but was still really really photogenic. We weren't the only people wanting to take photos, and for once I was able to be patient. Not only was the church photogenic, the fields were filled with blooming flowers, which made it even better. While tromping around the field I stepped on stinging nettle, which was not fun. 

Claire found some leaves of a nearby plant that took away almost all of the sting. How have I never known about this plant before? Despite getting a lot of tourists throughout the year, Suzdal does not have a huge restaurant scene. The three of us found a place, but didn't love it.

The next morning we took our time getting moving, another bad habit we've developed. When we left the flat we went to the same viewpoint of the kremlin behind the fields. Even though the view was the same as the day before, it was still pretty.

We walked in a different direction, part of the route was through a residential section of town. The houses were old, and made of wood.

Our first sight of the day was a museum dedicated to wooden architecture, this was the cheapest entry fee of the entire visit, though I liked it better than the other places we visited. The museum was an open air reserve, so we were able to wander all over. We saw another wooden church, a couple windmills, a couple homes, and more. All of them very picturesque, and we learned a bit about life in previous centuries.

After leaving this museum, we started walking in the general direction of the bus station. This walk took us over a bridge, and through another residential section of town. All three of us loved the windows on the wooden houses, they were really pretty.

We caught the next bus back to Vladimir. Once we got there, we had a couple hours to kill before our train to Moscow was scheduled to leave, so we decided to explore just a little. We ended up walking up the hill and seeing a church inside white walls. Very pretty, and made us interested in spending a full weekend in Vladimir at some time in the future.

Our train back to Moscow departed on time, and arrived on time, yay. I might return to Suzdal another time, but if I do, it will be in another season, maybe in winter?