russia: moscow: the canal, a mosaic, and a trolley depot

Several times I've ridden one of the trains (metro and aeroexpress,) that goes over one section of the Moscow Canal. When that ride has been in daylight my eye has been caught by that part of the ride more than any other.

Social distancing was already starting, though nothing officially changed in my life for more than another week. As I rode the metro to get to this area, I wasn't within 2 meters of anyone the entire time.

After I got off the train I walked to the water, which wasn't as impressive up close as it was from the train. There is one area that serves as a marina, but I wasn't able to get close, as there was a fence around everything, argh.

I was able to walk along another section of the canal, which was super quiet. I don't know what the canal is used for, if anything. It was a beautiful day, but the wind was super strong.

After walking all over for a while, I got back on the next train, hopping off at Belorusskaya station. This stop also happened because of previous train rides. On a number of daytime aeroexpress and metro trains that went past Belorusskaya station I noticed a large mosaic with Lenin that I wanted to get close to. Looking at both Yandex and Google maps, I didn't think I needed to leave the station to see the mosaic.

I walked all the way to the end of the platform for one of the tracks, it took me right to the mosaic, yay!A bit further down the way was a steam locomotive on display. I've seen such locomotives before, and I don't know specific trains well enough to appreciate differences, so it was just another train for me.Even further along I found an old brick water tower. Very tall, of course.

The last stop on my walk to the end of Belorusskaya station property was the trolley depot. I don't know how to describe it other than to say it was like a garage with 10 different doors, all in the same building around a semi circle. In the center of what would be the circle was a platform that circles around, so a trolley could drive on, spin a little, then drive off into a specific garage.

Sortof interesting, in terms of photography.

russia: kostroma

When I first put Kostroma on my list of places to go it was because I saw a pretty picture on social media. I was thrilled when I realized it was also listed in my guidebook.

Kostroma is one of the so-called Golden Ring towns around Moscow. The 2010 census said there were almost 270,000 residents in a city a little over 330 kilometers northeast of Moscow. Fun fact: Kostroma is the name of the East Slavic goddess of fertility. Why this name was chosen for a town name, I don't know. 

The first official mention of Kostroma in written history was in 1213, but there are a few arguments that the city was older, even arguments saying several centuries older. There is the thought that Kostroma was founded in 1152, and there are thoughts that the history of the town could go as far back as 400-600 CE.

Like pretty much every town in Russia, Kostroma was taken by the Mongols when they were creating the largest empire the world has ever known. When Mongol warriors moved on, they left locals (Russians) in charge, as they did in most places they conquered during that time.

Kostroma finally received official town status in 1719, despite being around for several hundred years at that point. In 1773 a massive fire destroyed much of the city. The rebuild included streets radiating from a single point near the banks of the Kostroma River. Legend has it that Catherine the Great dropped her fan on a map of the city, and told architects in charge of rebuilding to follow her lead.

When I booked my train tickets to Kostroma I thought it was a small town, so I booked tickets for two night trains in a row. I also booked the dates by accident. 

When I made the booking, I thought it was in February, but I actually clicked on the dates in March, whoops! Thankfully the dates in March were still on a weekend. Also thankfully, when I double checked the train departure time in February I did so before arriving at the train station, so I noticed the mistaken dates before getting to the train station and getting frustrated with myself.

My train arrived on time in Kostroma, as expected. Since it was still dark when I arrived, I stayed in the station for a couple hours, sitting on a chair near a plug. The station was not exciting, but they can't all be.

The train station in Kostroma is nowhere near the city center, but I had all day, so not long after daylight I started walking. Not too far from the train station I saw a mosque, which is not something you see a lot of in Russia. It wasn't particularly good looking, but the recent weather had left lots of puddles, so the reflection in water was quite nice.

I kept walking along the main street, enjoying the random buildings along the way. Since it was still before 0900, there weren't many other people around. 

Eventually I got to the place where I took my favourite photo during this trip.

The Church of the Saviour in the Ranks is a typical Orthodox church, originally built for merchants. What made it special for me is the location, on one end of an arcaded central market. As a puddle had helped me make a nice photo of a mosque an hour earlier, another puddle helped me make a photo of this market and church. I love reflection photos.

I wanted to see the inside of the church, and take photos, but there was a service taking place when I opened the door so I only stayed inside for a few minutes, and took no photos.

This church and market were close to the main square (the 'center of the fan, if you will,) from which some of the streets of the city radiate. Named after the town hero, Susanin Square is quite pretty from a couple perspectives.

Standing in the middle of the square (which is a landscaped area in warmer months,) I had the perfect viewpoint of the former fire station. It has a gorgeous fire tower, (used to watch out for fires back in the day,) but is now used as a history/art museum. Really photogenic, if you have the patience to wait for a moment when no one is walking in front of the whole thing.

Since I love to find Lenin statues, that was my next goal. I'd found two of them listed on a map, so I headed up Lenin street toward one of them. The walk was rather long, and not through a pretty part of town, to say the least. I finally got to the statue, it was less than impressive. He was pretty small, compared to other statues, and in a very small park/square off an intersection.

If I hadn't been looking for this Lenin statue, I never would've noticed this one, (partly because it is in such a random part of the city,) mostly because it would've been super easy to walk right past the area. Anywho, I took my normal photo with the statue, then found the closest bus stop. 

Even though I love walking, I didn't want to spend another hour and some getting to my next sight.

After hopping off the marshrutka, I stumbled upon two churches on my way to another church. The first church wasn't amazing, but I did like the cemetery that surrounded the church. The second church was wooden, and surrounded by a fence, and the gate was locked. I wish I had been able to enter that one.

My next sight is probably the most visited sight in Kostroma. 

Ipatiev Monastery is like the city in that it has multiple founding dates. The Wikipedia article says the monastery was founded in 1330 by Prince Chet, an Orthodox convert, a Tatar. The article goes on to say that some historians think it was actually founded by Yaroslavich, in 1275, but then declined as the whole region declined. Looking at the history this way, Prince Chet only revived the place. I don't really care which is the correct founding date, as it doesn't impact the experience of a visitor.

The Romanov family was a big fan of this monastery, several of them visited or lived in the monastery. The house in which Tsar Mikhail Romanov lived in has been preserved, near one of the walls of the area. It wasn't difficult to find the entry gate, as there is a lovely mural painted above the gate, with a cross on top of the whole thing.

There is an entrance fee to visit the monastery, there is also a photo fee. Argh. Put the fees together, it's not terribly cheap. Women have to wear headscarves and skirts, both are available to borrow, and they do make sure you're wearing them. 

I'm not sure wearing a wraparound skirt over a pair of pants and a winter coat is particularly respectful (because my opinion is that it looks ridiculous,) but it isn't my choice.

I think there are typically two churches to visit in this monastery, but one of them was closed for renovation. Argh. The main church was plain white on the outside, which didn't prepare me for the riot of colour inside. The interior wasn't big, but it was tall, and every square centimeter was painted. I might've gotten whiplash from the way I was trying to look in every direction at the same time.

Even the hallway outside the church was fully covered with frescoes. Neither the inside nor the hallway were bright, but there was just so much colour that I loved it all. There was a gold iconostasis up front, but it didn't stand out because of all the colour everywhere.

As the moastery is on the western bank of the Kostroma River, not close to the city center, I chose to walk back toward the city center. The bridge I crossed probably has a great view of the monastery on the river, but that side of the was being redone, so I didn't get that view. Argh.

On my way back into the city center I passed a big rock monument. Since rocks are generally quite boring, I read the accompanying sign, which said that this was where the city had been founded.

I walked through the arcaded market this time, but on the other side from what I'd seen previously. Vendors were selling the same things I've seen in every Russian market: produce, dairy, second hand goods, etc...

I kept going, and eventually got to the central park. In one area of the park was a huge Lenin statue. Not only was the statue quite big, it was on a big and fancy pedestal. Definitely one of the most grand Lenin statues I've seen.

I attempted to go to the teapot museum next. I love tea, how awesome did this museum sound? I was gutted when I got to the entrance gate and discovered you have to call ahead of time to arrange a tour, and you have to have a group of at least six people. Needless to say, its not likely I'll ever get to see this museum, darnit.

I did get to see the cheese museum, which also requires a tour. The tour is in Russian, so I didn't understand much, but it was fun to look around in each room and try to figure out what the guide was saying. 

Russian cheese isn't all that exciting, but it was nice to try to learn a bit about the history and industry in Russia.

After that I had one more museum to visit, this one dedicated to the Romanovs. Go figure, when I got to the ticket desk I had to try to sort out a bunch of different ticket options. They had an English menu as well, but the options didn't seem to be the same as the Russian menu, which made it even worse to sort it out. I finally chose two areas to visit, after which they tried to get me to buy a three area ticket. Argh. I had to repeat several times that I just wanted these two areas. 

Then when visiting the first room I discovered it had a separate photo fee, but the second area didn't.

The museum exhibits were nice, but I was so annoyed by the ticket process that I didn't enjoy it as much as I should've. I did appreciate the grand staircase with pieces of art displayed on the walls along the stairs. Very nice.

After leaving this museum I decided I had seen enough for the day. It snowed briefly while I walked to a cafe, thankfully not for long. I killed a few hours in the cafe, then walked back to the train station where I killed a few more hours before boarding my train and departing for Moscow.

I'd like to go back to Kostroma, to see a couple more museums and views, and experience the town in warmer weather :)

russia: irkutsk and angarsk

My bus from Khuzhir to Irkutsk dropped me off near the bus station in Irkutsk around 1530. My train didn't leave for 4 hours, so I figured I might as well see something.

I checked the map and discovered a Lenin statue I hadn't yet seen, so that was first up. It was just a 10 minute walk from the station, so it was perfect.

Across the street from the man was a yellow church. The inside was about as exciting as the inside, I didn't even take photos inside.

Around the other side of the church was the property of the Volkonsky Decembrist museum.

The Decembrists were a group of military officers and minor nobles who wanted to make some changes in the governance of what is now Russia. The attempted coup failed, in December of 1825. Within a year, around 100 of them were sent into Siberian exile.

From what I've seen in various museums, they brought their entire lives with me. Wives often moved to be with their husbands, bringing what seems like all their household goods.

This museum was over two floors, and showed the house and lives of some very wealthy Decembrists in exile. 

I saw fancy dresses and furniture, tea sets and toys, even a big piano. Princess Marie (of Siberia?) wasn't allowed to go to public places of amusement, so she made her home a cultural center of the city. The piano was used for concerts back then, and it's still used for that reason, though I suspect the concerts are less often.

Great museum, and I didn't have to pay extra to take photos. I also noticed that docents didn't follow me around, and I was the only tourist there at the time. Quite nice.

From there it was a bit of walking to get to a quirky monument: one to a tourist. It's a statue of a skinny guy wearing a backpack looking up at nothing in particular. Cute.

Across the street from Mr Tourist was a supermarket, so I loaded up on non perishable food, mostly carbs.

When looking for places to eat online I found a listing for a place serving New Zealand pies. I couldn't resist, since New Zealand was the first country I ever fell in love with, and I miss their pies. I had two meat pies, which weren't completely authentic, but they weren't awful either. I couldn't say exactly why, but that's how they tasted to me.

I intended my fruit pie to go, but I ended up eating it before leaving the cafe.

From there it was a quick tram ride to the train station, in plenty of time to board my train.

I left Irkutsk on the evening of 3 March, and returned the morning of the 8^th.

Like many Russian cities, Irkutsk has plenty of public transport, including trams. I adore trams, I almost always choose them over buses, if given the choice. The tram I took from the train station brought me within a few city blocks of my hostel. Very convenient.

I was able to check in straightaway, also very convenient. I should have dropped my stuff, then gone right back out the door to explore, but I didn't. Sometimes it is hard to walk away from wifi and plugs.

I finally got out the door a bit after noon, having charged everything, as well as organized some photos and such. First on my list was a church, the Kazan Cathedral. To get there I got to ride another tram part of the way :)

The outside of the church was red brick, with blue domes. Nice, I guess, but I don't love brick.

The inside of the church was beautiful, especially with the light being very visible as it streamed through the windows. The entire interior was painted with brightly coloured frescoes. I could've stayed in there for a while, just enjoying the colour and light.

As I left the church I couldn't miss the signs on the insides of the interior doors, the signs were written in Chinese. Because of the coronavirus pandemic having started in China, I was expecting something more along the lines of instructions of behaviour for Chinese visitors.

I used a translation app to read the signs, which actually reminded Chinese visitors to buy items from the small shop in the church. Hmmm.

When I used my phone to check how long it would take to get to my next sight, it said 12 minutes by public transport, or 15 minutes by foot. Since the weather was amazing, I chose to walk.

Trubetskoy Decembrist museum was similar to the one I'd seen a few days earlier, but smaller. There is a combined discount ticket for the two, but you have to see them on the same day to use it, darnit. This one was smaller than the first one, but the building in which it was located was just as nice.

Sergei Petrovich Trubetskoy was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1790. He was a minor nobleman, from both sides of his family. Then he married a woman who was the daughter of a man who was also a nobleman, at least that's how I understand it. He chose a military career, which eventually sent him to St Petersburg, which is where the Decembrist rebellion failed.

This museum was also on two floors, the basement and the first floor. I assume there are offices or something on the second floor? Everything was displayed well, though there were fewer exhibits overall.

I walked to my next sight as well, since it was quite close. Even though the sign on the door said it should be open, the City History Museum was closed. Maybe it was because this was Sunday, 8 March, which was International Women's Day. Booo.

I kept going, to the main (only?) synagogue of the city. There was an information sign out front, in three languages: Russian, English, and Chinese. A good summary of the history of the synagogue itself, as well as of Jewish life in the area. As I was reading the sign a couple locals went into the synagogue and told me it was okay to come inside and look around.

This was the first time in a long while that I've entered a Jewish facility without having to go through a metal detector, or someone looking through my bags. This is a good thing, I think.

The 'sanctuary' was nice, two floors. Since I was in there by myself I was able to look around a little more than I normally would. I noticed some items on display, such as a prayer shawl that was a couple centuries old. There were other prayer shawls tucked into bookcases/shelves at the back of the room. Do people leave these shawls there during the week? I need to learn a lot more about how a synagogue works. 

After leaving the synagogue I walked back to a nearby main street, Marx street. This is the same street on which I'd seen the monument to a tourist a few days earlier. I ended up stopping somewhere for dinner, before a quick check into a supermarket.

The next morning my alarm went off as planned at 0630. I'd had a pipe dream of getting out the door by 0700, in order to get to the train station, buy a ticket, and get on a train to Angarsk. I did all that, but it actually happened 3.5 hours later. I was awake at 0630, and stayed awake, but couldn't get moving.

Buying the ticket was easy and cheap, less than $1USD. The lady selling tickets tried to tell me which train to take, but realized I didn't understand her. She wrote the number on a piece of paper instead, which made it obvious. She didn't have to do that, but I really appreciated her effort.

The train departed and arrived exactly on time, of course.

Angarsk feels like a smaller city, but Wikipedia tells me it has more than 230,000 people. It's a new city, having only been founded in 1948, and granted official city status in 1951.

It is 50 kilometers from Irkutsk, about an hour on the elektrichka.

When I got off the train in Angarsk I wanted to take a photo using my tripod at the train station. (So I could be in the photo, with the city name on the back side of the train station.) For the first time ever for me in Russia, a security guard/police officer came along and told me it wasn't allowed unless I had permission from the chief of station.

That didn't stop me from taking photos inside the station, as I walked through. The first floor was not very interesting, but the second floor was quite nice. 

Surprisingly, (to me,) there were quite a few people out front of the train station. I don't know if they were just hanging out, waiting for someone, or something else. I'm used to movement in front of a train station, going in or out, but not so much standing around.

It was an easy walk toward the center of town, Lenin street went straight there from the train station. My first sight in town was Lenin, the man himself. The statue wasn't memorable, he wore a coat and had his hands in his pockets.

Behind Lenin was a theatre, and behind that, a park. The park didn't have much, just a fountain and a small children's play area, with plenty of trees.

Across the street from the park, a block down from Lenin was a mini Eiffel Tower. I have no idea why such a thing would be here, it looked really out of place.

I kept going, eventually getting to the Park of Culture and Leisure. It was also smaller than I'm used to seeing, but did have a big ferris wheel, which was running! One of these days I'm going to have to ride one of these in a random Russian city.

From there it was a longer walk to get to my last sight in the city: the Trinity Cathedral. The outside was a boring white, with green towers and gold domes. The inside was fantastic though, and well worth the walk. Gold and colour everywhere, really bright and beautiful. I was happy to stay in there a bit longer, it was lovely.

From there it took me a little over an hour to walk back to the train station. It was easy to buy a ticket, and hop on the next train back to Irkutsk. This one was a LOT busier, with every seat taken. I had to stand for more than half the ride. The standing was easy, but moving out of the way for everyone who wanted to go up and down the aisles was annoying.

After returning to Irkutsk I went straight to dinner, at a place whose name translates to cheese and oil. Or is it cheese and butter? I didn't need to go out to dinner, but I wanted to splurge a little on my last night of holiday. It was good food, both in taste and look.

The next morning it didn't take long to get to the airport, where everything went smoothly.

I wouldn't mind going back to Irkutsk, there are still plenty of things to see, and I haven't (yet) been there in warm weather.

russia: riding the train in platzkart

The next part of my trip was long: 38 hours on the train, in 3^rd class. Irkutsk to Severobaikalsk. One long trip often listed on people's bucket lists for travel is to go the length of the Trans Siberian railway. This particular route isn't part of that trip, but it's the same experience.

The entire route from Moscow to St Petersburg takes a week to cover, if you don't get off the train at all. I think many people take a month to cover the distance, getting off the train at various cities along the way.

3^rd class is the class of train you see when a movie shows a Russian train. It's an open car, with a series of mini pies. It's usually two lower and two upper around a small table, with a lower and an upper across the aisle.

For what you get, I find the trains to be a cheap way to get around the country. A night train means I don't have to pay for accomodation that night, think of them as a hotel on wheels. If you're in platzkart it's like being in a hostel on wheels.

I haven't traveled on the trains in the summer, I imagine it wouldn't be quite as comfortable. Many of the trains have air conditioning, but I doubt it is kept as cool as most people would like. Spending days in a warm train with people who haven't been able to shower properly doesn't sound all that fun.

There are definitely etiquette rules for the train, and cultural traditions. If you're on for a long time, you're probably going to bring slippers. Don't put shoes on the beds. There is a samovar in every car to make your ramen noodles or oatmeal. Some people bring pajamas to change into to sleep. 

If women indicate they want to change clothes before or after sleeping, men should leave the area to let the women change. (Though this is more applicable to 2^nd class, or kupe. There is a specific way to make your bed, I've had quite a few Russians offer to help me.

The best part was definitely people watching. It was fun to see how others passed the time, though there is a limit to how much sleeping and eating one can do. There weren't many of us on at the beginning of the train who were still on at the end.

One of the reasons I chose to take this train is because of the timing. It departed from Irkutsk in the evening, and arrived two mornings later in Severobaikalsk. In other words, I got a full day of exploring the city on either side of the train ride. I like arriving somewhere in the morning. If the train had departed in the morning and arrived in the evening, I wouldn't have been as likely to travel that way.

We arrived 2 minutes late in Severobaikalsk. Compared to the rest of the world, that's nothing. Especially when you think that it was 38 hours. But for Russia, conductors only have 5 minutes of leeway, and probably 95% of the time they're exactly on time, so 2 minutes is worth mentioning.

For whateva reason, the train from Severobaikalsk back to Irkutsk is 'only' 31.5 hours. 

People did the same things to entertain themselves: eat, sleep, read, watch tv episodes and movies, talk. There was a very young child who walked up and down the aisle with her mom several times. They'd walk the length of the car back and forth about 10 times, then do it again a few hours later. I was happy the kid wanted to walk, instead of cry, which I've heard more than a few times.

I'll ride the trains again. Over and over and over.