russia: walking in Moscow

 

At the beginning of June the city of Moscow created an official schedule, allowing residents outside to go for walks and/or exercise on specific days for the first half of the month. Until then, all of us (except essential workers, of course,) were supposed to stay home.

From mid March until the end of May, we were allowed out only to walk to our nearest grocery store or pharmacy, to take out rubbish, or to walk a dog within 100 meters of home. For most people, this meant very little walking, as there are grocery stores and pharmacies in every neighborhood, on many blocks.

I was thrilled to have official permission to go outside for walking and exercising. Each building was given specific days for walking, I walked as much as I could. At that point, I didn't care if Google maps said it would take me two hours to get somewhere, I was all in.

And usually when Google maps says it will take me two hours to walk somewhere, I'll take three hours, because I stop so often for photos.)I went from taking 500-1000 steps a day for more than two months to taking 20,000-25,000 steps a day, which wore me out at first but also felt really really good.

I walked to a few historical train stations around the city. I walked to churches. I walked to parks. I walked to a building decorated in 'Chinese' style. I walked along Moscow River in both daytime and after dark. I walked to several monasteries. I walked to a couple Lenin statues. I walked to various buildings with grafitti murals.

I walked to Red Square, which is even more impressive than normal when it isn't chock full of tourists. I was able to take a photo of St. Basil's Cathedral without anyone else in the photo. I walked in the central neighbourhood of Arbat. I found heaps of supermarkets I hadn't known about previously. I walked to a number of war memorials.

I walked to a fancy bridge, one that has a restaurant hanging under the peak of the arch, over the roads below. I walked to apartment blocks with huge faces/people painted on them. I walked to the victory arch in Park Pobedy.

I suppose I could've summed up the first half of June by saying this: I walked.

Once the digital pass system was stopped, I started riding the metro again. (Wearing a mask, of course.) I worked all the way through the end of the month, but my work from home schedule gave me more free time, so I went further around the city. (Always wearing a mask in public indoor places.)

One day I was heading for an Orthodox Church when I spotted Buddhist prayer flags. I ended up skipping the church and visiting a stupa instead. Much more interesting, and much more unique. Curiously, there was a mosque not too far away. Most of Russia is Orthodox, but other religions are represented all over the country.

One day I rode the metro to VDNKh, walking all over the area. City workers had been kept busy during this time, everything was super CLEAN. I went back to the ecowalk I'd first seen in October, and took more photos. (It looks much better without other people ;)

Another day I went to 'new' metro stations, they'd been officially opened the first week I worked from home. As usual, each station was decorated differently, all of them interesting. If I remember correctly, Moscow now has more than 250 metro stations, and the system is still being expanded.

A few days I went to a beach. Definitely not a pretty beach, but being outside and in the warm sun felt good. Like so many others, I was probably lacking in vitamin D during months of staying home/indoors.

Near the end of June, I learned about a war memorial event about to take place along the banks of the Moscow River not far from Gorky Park. During the event a small flag was hung along the banks of the river for each day of WW2. (According to the official count by Russia.) There were 1418 flags, each accompanied by a candle. The candles were lit just before sunset, making the whole thing really photogenic. I don't know for sure if this memorial takes place every year, but I imagine it does. I just need to figure out if the June day is normal, or whether it is also a normal May event. 

Due to the pandemic, this year's Victory Day tank parade was postponed from 9 May to 24 June. It turns out that 24 June was the anniversary of the first ever Victory Parade in Moscow, so the specific date made sense. Even though the pandemic was still very much happening, and there were supposed to be restrictions about big gatherings, all that seemed to go out the window for the parade.

There were several dress rehearsals in the days before the parade, I was able to see them from my balcony and the streets nearby. Very cool, though I didn't love all the people standing around to watch. At that point I was normally wearing a mask only when indoors in a public space, but when I was on the street for parade rehearsals I wore the mask then too.

June was certainly an interesting month this year. Though I was happy to walk all over Moscow, I'd much rather have a 'normal' June next year and foreva after.

russia: ivanovo

 

I don't really why I decided to visit Ivanovo, or how it ended up on my list of places to go in Russia. I'm sure that at least part of it is because I was able to do it as a day trip from Moscow. Since hotels and cafes still weren't open properly, nor are many stores and such, I wouldn't have been able to stay overnight even if I had wanted to, so I had to choose a close town or city to visit.

Ivanovo is about 250 kilometers/160 miles from Moscow, with a population of a little over 400,000. The population is slowly shrinking, this started at the beginning of the century. It was first known as Ivanovo-Voznesensk, the latter part of the name was dropped in 1932.

Ivanovo is almost 500 years old, it was first mentioned in historical documents in 1561. The modern city boundaries were created when the flax processing village of Ivanovo merged with Voznesensy Posad in 1871. This merger mixed an agricultural village with an industrial town, which became the textile capital of Russia. In fact, Ivanovo competed with Lodz to be the textile manufacturing capital of Europe for quite a while. Traditionally, it is still the textile capital of Russia, though the actual industry has mostly left the city. 

Ivanovo has interesting WW2 history, as the city played host to a group of French pilots; the training they had created the so-called Normandy-Niemen legendary air squadron. Wikipedia tells me they were given decent housing (whateva that means,) and training on Yak 1 fighter planes.

Getting to Ivanovo was easy, though it wasn't fast. I rode the 'fast' elektrichka, called a lastochka. Even so, it was still nearly four hours. It was the first time I've worn a mask for that long, not particularly fun. That being said, if wearing a mask when I'm indoors is the price to pay for being able to travel a little right now, I'm all for it.

Upon arrival I discovered the entire train station was under renovation, I wasn't able to go inside at all. It looked as if the city had moved the ticket desk into a side building for the time being, I wonder how long it will take before the train station is open again.

As I exited into the platz/parkplatz in front of the station I noticed that the apartment buildings on either side of the station had something in common: they both had mosaic murals covering the entire side. Awesome.

On the other side of the platz was a monument, it looked like a giant female head with wings, if that makes sense. From what I can find online, the monument was put up to honour the 70^th anniversary of the October Revolution.

I started my exploration of the city by heading for the first of three Lenin statues I hoped to see during the day. I was surprised when I found him, as the statue was clearly old, and had seen little to no maintenance in quite a while. 

Paint layers cracking and chipping off, wildgrass growing really tall around the whole thing. Usually Lenin statues are given at least basic care and cleaning.

I'd hoped to see a monastery next, but when I got to the gates I found a sign saying it was closed for quarantine. I imagine monasteries around the country will keep their gates closed a bit longer while they can, to help protect their typically more elderly populations.

Not too far from this monastery was a former cinema, abandoned as far as I could tell. It had a "Soviet" look about it, I love this kind of stuff. Weeks later while looking at something online I found out the cinema closed about 10 years ago, and has just been sitting there.

I kept going down the street and found a war memorial, complete with wreaths, an eternal flame, plaques with names, and a statue on top of a really big pedestal. This one was specifically dedicated to the heroes of the front.

After seeing the monument I headed toward the next spot I'd marked on my map, an apartment building. I know that sounds rather lame, but it was designed in the shape of a half circle, so I was keen to see what that looked like from the 'inside' of the circle. Interesting, but not photogenic.

Next up was the 'main' Lenin of the city. This time he was located in the middle of Leninplatz, and there were actually other people around the statue. I'm used to seeing Lenins in mostly empty areas. This time I watched kids taking a break from practicing tricks on their scooters.

The next 'sight' I saw wasn't mentioned anywhere, I just found it eye catching. It looked like a watchtower on top of an office building? It looked abandoned, so who knows what it used to be.

Before arriving in town I'd searched my name on Yandex maps, and found a place named after me in Ivanovo. Eva shaping class, whateva that is. After seeing 'my' class, I wanted to visit three different museums, but they didn't look open to me. They might've been, but if so, it wasn't obvious. 

The descriptions of the museums were interesting, so maybe I'll go back to Ivanovo at another time, when things are a bit more 'normal.'

Not too far from the museums was the third Lenin of the city. As I got closer to the statue I could see that he was behind a barrier, which was guarded by a soldier. It looked as if the building behind the statue was a military/official building. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand right next to the statue, but I took the chance to ask the soldier if I could take a picture of just Lenin. He said yes, so I made the photo and moved on. This is Russia, anything military makes me a bit nervous.

Since the museums weren't open, I went to a park. It was nice to be in the shade for a while, as the heat was getting to me by that point. At one end of the park was a ferris wheel, though it wasn't running. In the middle of the park was a monument to Frunze, and near the other side of the park was a 'tunnel' of hearts with letters spelling out LOVE at one end.

Not too far from this park I found the 0km marker that exists in a surprising number of Russian cities. They're not always marked on maps, so you don't always see them, but they do exist. This one was in front of the main post office of Ivanovo.

From there I stopped at a supermarket on my way to Revolution Square, which had another large, Soviet realism styled monument. Nothing unique. I turned a corner and headed toward one of the last sights I wanted to see. A church, one that was actually open, yay!

It was surrounded by white walls, and the onion domes were painted blue. Simple decoration outside, plenty of good frescoes on the walls and ceiling inside. The iconostasis up front was gold, there were a few people praying to the various icons around the 'sanctuary.'

My last sight in Ivanovo was another park, called art square. It was pretty small, and had no shade. I was interested because there were a few sculptures to see; a dog, a musician, and a really big guitar which was covered in flowers.

As soon as I'd made all the photos I wanted to, I walked back to the train station, an easy walk. My timing worked out really well, I didn't have to wait long for my train back to Moscow.

I'd definitely return to Ivanovo, probably at another time of year. I'd like to see the museums, and I wonder what the city looks like under a cover of snow.

russia: covid 19 times

 

Just like the rest of the world, the Covid 19 pandemic hit Russia. Just like the rest of the world, much of the country was closed down.As I heard about what was happening in the States each day, I heard about decisions made by the Russian government as well.

Russia closed its border with China fairly early on, which is a pretty big deal. As far as I know, Chinese citizens do not need a visa to travel in Russia, and there are normally a LOT of Chinese tourists nearly everywhere.

Not long after I heard news of schools and cities shutting down in the States, we got news that Russia would be doing the same thing. Though the decisions were always officially left up to the regional governors, I think they all followed Moscow.

Mid-March we got news that we would have one more week of in class school, then there would be a three week closing of all schools. This was about the same time that many school systems in the States decided they would be closed for months, if not the rest of the school year.

The first week was just the closing of schools. As far as I know, not much else was closed. Toward the end of the first week, it was announced that the next week would be a 'holiday' week for everyone. Everyone was supposed to stay home, and the workdays would be considered official holidays, meaning people should be paid. (Whether payments actually happened was a different matter, as some businesses simply could not afford to pay their employees while they stayed home.)

The weather was particularly good that weekend, so almost no one stayed home. The mayor of Moscow allegedly saw videos and photos of people in huge gatherings all over the city, and apparently got really mad. The stay at home suggestion suddenly became an order, and the time was lengthened.

I think the first self isolation regime (as the Russian government called it,) was supposed to last a month, through 30 April. It quickly became apparent that it would be extended, and it was. I can't remember if the extension was all at once, or in several steps, but the long and short was that the majority of residents in Moscow had to stay home through the end of May.

Those weeks of self-isolation had some rules. We were allowed out to walk to our nearest supermarket or pharmacy. We were allowed out to take out rubbish. If you had a dog, you were allowed out to take the dog for a walk, within 100 meters of your residence.

Sometime in mid-April, the city government decided residents weren't staying home as much as they should, so they introduced a regime of digital passes. There were rumors about this system as soon as the lockdown began, so there was no real surprise when it finally happened.

The rules said that everyone needed one of these digital passes if they used a form of transport other than their own feet. Riding a scooter, taking a bus, driving a car, etc... All forms of transport. (I want to point out that the public transport systems of Moscow never stopped running during the entire time.)

To get a digital pass, you had to put your information into one of several online systems. I never got one of the passes, so I never learned much about how it all worked. Something about putting in passport numbers, address where you live and address where you're going, and phone number?

I think once you put in your information, the system kept it, so when you needed another pass you just had to apply again. Regular residents were allowed two of these passes each week, essential workers were allowed to have as many as needed. If you rode public transport, you had to connect your public transport card.

My flat sits on a big intersection, so I got to see more of how the city was affected by the closure of so many things. There was definitely less traffic for a few weeks, but starting in May, there were a lot more people and cars on the road.

At the beginning of June, the city created a schedule to allow people to go for walks, based on your address. The schedule gave everyone two specific weekday walks, and one weekend walk. The schedule was meant for the hours of 0900-2100, anyone and everyone could exercise/walk as much as they wanted from 0500-0900.

As soon as we were allowed out to walk, I took advantage. Not being allowed out to exercise, or just walk for over two months was tough. My closest supermarket and pharmacy are in my building, so I had very little distance to go when I needed supplies. That being said, sometimes I went to a supermarket about 300 meters down the road, just for a little variety.

I taught from home for 13 weeks I think. Schools were finally allowed to reopen the last full week of June, with staff and teachers expected to wear masks or face shields. (As well as a lot of deep cleaning and less moving around.)