russia: nizhny novgorod and bor again

During my first year in Moscow, Claire and I went to Nizhny Novgorod for a weekend, for two reasons. First, it was home to another branch of the school we work for in Moscow. Second, it was going to be one of the host cities for the 2018 World Cup.

That trip was at the very end of March, beginning of April, and when we left, we were not big fans of the city. We knew that part of it was because we visited at an ugly time of year. Winter was over, but the city hadn't yet been cleaned up, and all the beauty of spring hadn't yet arrived.

I couldn't help but wonder if the reason we didn't like the city was because of circumstances that could change, so I decided to go back this fall.

My train arrived on time, of course, at the ridiculously annoying hour of 0430. That's too early to wake up, but too late to stay awake all night, argh. Anywho, I sat in the train station for around three hours, because walking at that hour did not sound fun.

I don't know if any renovations had been done on the train station in the past two years, but it didn't feel like the interior of the station was the same as when Claire and I visited. There was a giant Lenin mosaic on one wall in a large hall, which seems like something I would've noticed last time. 

Maybe we just missed that hall last time, I've been known to be really close to something and completely miss it.

The view upon leaving the train station was the same, just at a warmer time of year. When I turned my head around, the outside of the train station looked the same as I remembered, not very interesting.

Since I was traveling by myself in a place I remembered not liking very much, I'd made a tentative itinerary for the day. I decided to start my trip by returning to Bor, the town on the other side of the river. Claire and I had gone to Bor out of curiosity about riding on the cable car, more than a desire to see the town. 

I wanted to find out if there was anything we'd missed seeing.

The walk to get to the cable car station from the train station was long, especially because I stopped regularly to take photos. The weather in Nizhny had already started to change, so there were plenty of orange and yellow trees, everything was beautiful. Walking over the main bridge was still really windy, but it was worth stopping to take a few photos.

I got off course even before getting to the bridge, I went to see a church Claire and I had skipped. The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral sits on the right bank of the river, not too far from the new football stadium. The outside was yellow and had a typical orthodox 'look' to it. The inside was awesome, I'm glad I went inside. The entire interior was painted with frescoes, and the iconostasis up front was wood with colourful icons. The side iconostases were also wood, and also awesome. There were quite a few people inside the church, so I didn't get to take all the photos I wanted, but I definitely appreciated what I was seeing.

After crossing the river I walked partway on the boardwalk, which had been finished since Claire and I were there. Just about anything looks better than a construction zone, but the finished product really does look nice. That being said, it's still pretty windy, that wasn't any different.

I also stepped off the walking route to see another tree, this one had also been under renovation when Claire and I had seen it. The inside of this church was really boring, and not worth seeing, but the onion domes outside were really colourful. Almost like a baker had been able to play with ganache to create different patterns.

When I finally got to the cable car station I'd already walked well over seven kilometers, in a bit over two hours. The ride still cost just 100 rubles each way, which is a great price for a 15 minute ride.

Lenin was still where I remembered him being in Bor, as was the WW2 memorial. Instead of going straight back to the cable car, I walked a bit further in town, just to see what was there. I found a small monastery with bright gold domes on the main church, and back roads that looked like they'd been paved a loooong time ago with no upkeep since.

I also found the main intersection in the middle of town. There was a local market on one side, with plenty of produce, dairy, shoes, plants, etc... available. Anything I might've wanted, but I didn't need anything.

Except some of the baked goods I found in a small bakery. I definitely needed those. ;)

There was also a church on that intersection, and a big supermarket. Overall, it was a great place to stand around and just watch people.

After that intersection I found my way back to the cable car and headed back over the river. From there I walked to my hostel and checked in, another long-ish walk. 

I guess I hadn't paid enough attention to the map when I made the booking, but oh well.

After resting up for a while I walked back out to see at least one more museum. I headed to one of several Gorky related museums in town, only to discover that it was under renovation, argh. There was a sign on the door pointing me to another museum, one that I ended up liking probably better than what I'd intended to see in the first place.

The museum I did see was an apartment in which Russian writer Maxim Gorky had lived with his family for a while. 

It was neat to see the different rooms, their furniture and interior decoration. Again with the awful wallpaper, yuck. Women did not get to wear comfortable clothing. There were also informational signs all around, which were conveniently in several languages.

After leaving the apartment museum, I realized I had time for yet another museum, this one a history museum. Officially called the Nizhny Novgorod State Museum of History and Architecture, this one was in a renovated mansion.

I wouldn't say mansion, I'd say former palace, but I'm not the one who decides the specific wording used.

This museum required visitors to wear shoe covers, something I find incredibly wasteful. The weather was good, so no one was going to track in dirt, and these plastic shoe covers don't prevent the damage done by women wearing heels on a wooden floor.

The museum had a fair number of grand rooms with amazing ceilings and chandeliers, as well as intricate wooden floors. 

I liked the rooms with old school furniture, I did not like the old school wallpaper. I loved the old school pajamas, I did not love the fake fruit on one of the tables.

After leaving the museum I made my way to the main pedestrian street in the city. I went back to a burger restaurant I remembered from my last visit, which was good, and so much cheaper than it would've been in Moscow. I also went back to the cafe I remembered from our last visit, because of my memory of a really good chocolate cheesecake. 

Why mess with something that wasn't broken?

The next morning I woke up to rain. Argh. I packed up and waited around for it to get better, but it didn't. Because of the lousy weather (hard rain, cold wind, dark clouds,) I didn't do much during the second day of this visit. I kept finding ways to take cover: in supermarkets, churches, archways into courtyards, etc... The rain finally let up after dark, go figure.

Instead of wandering around the city like I'd wanted to do, I killed a lot of time in the burger place from the night before, then more time in the coffee place. 

Is there such a thing as too much chocolate cheesecake? I don't think so ;)

I finally left the cafe, and made my way to the metro, riding the entire length of one of the two lines Nizhny Novgorod has. Just like Moscow, all of the stations were clean. Just like Moscow, a few of the stations were really well decorated and designed, and the others were boring but still nice. The biggest difference I noticed was in the time of how often trains came through each station, as it wasn't nearly as often in Nizhny Novgorod as it was in the other three cities I'd seen. 

Since I've seen the metro systems in St Petersburg and Moscow and Novosibirsk, so it was neat to have another comparison to add to the list. Russia does metro systems really really well.

My train back to Moscow went as expected. Will I return to Nizhny? Probably not. Even so, the dream of a full weekend with good weather is going to stick in my mind for a while, hahaha.

russia: I'm back in Moscow

My motivation to explore Moscow during my first full week back in the city was fantastic, so I took advantage. Ever since I'd known I would be returning for another school year I'd been keeping a list of random things and places to see around the city. 

This year is going to have a bunch of posts combining random places and things I've seen in Moscow. In September the days were still fairly long, which also helped, as I had time after work each day to go see something. 

My new flat is close to the purple metro line, so it seemed like a good idea to see the northern half of the stations on that line. (I visited the southern half last year.)

Metro trains in Moscow run every few minutes, and even more often during rush hour, so it doesn't take as long as you'd think to visit every station on a line.

Another day I took a few hours to visit the new section of the pink line, way over on the east/southeast side of the city.

It had just opened, and I was keen to see what kind of design had been chosen for each of the stations.

Each station had a different colour scheme, but none of them were outstanding. At the same time, they were all nice, and clean. Anyone living near these stations is probably thrilled they've finally opened, as transport by metro is really convenient around the city.

It's definitely a lot more convenient than going by buses, which often get stuck in traffic. And I don't like buses as much because they sometimes give me motion sickness. Ugh.

From time to time I wonder if native born Muscovites appreciate the metro system as much as foreigners do. Do they see how beautiful the stations are? Do they appreciate how clean they are? Do they appreciate how cheap the system is for riders?

On Tuesday afternoon the weather was amazing, and I had the afternoon off, so I went to see a couple places I'd seen on social media, a small park with sculptures of the zodiac symbols, and a so-called gymnastics palace.

Finding the zodiac park on the map was harder than getting there. Once I knew where to go it was just a matter of finding the closest metro station, then walking a little bit. 

Each sculpture was quite bit, and easily identifiable. I walked around and took photos of most of the sculptures, but everyone else in the park was just hanging out. Talking to each other, sitting on benches and relaxing, that sort of thing. 

I figured the building itself wouldn't be open, but that didn't matter because it was the outside of the building that interested me.The roof of this 'palace' could be described as a gold wave. If you're standing in the right place, the 'wave' reflects on the front windows, which is a pretty cool photo.

Getting to and from this palace involved riding on the red metro line, and since I hadn't seen the stations on the southern half of that line, this seemed like a perfectly good time to do so.

As expected, each station was different, some with more colour than others. One of the stations (the one closest to the gymnastics palace,) was actually over the middle of a river!

When you exit the station you decide which side of the river you'll walk to.

Thursday evening I left school and rode the metro to an area not far from where I lived last year. I'd seen a sculpture on social media, the sculpture was in an apartment complex. I had hopes of seeing it for myself, but after trying to see a crying Lady Liberty last year and being rebuffed because it was inside a courtyard of a closed apartment complex, I didn't let my hopes get too high.

This time I got lucky. The sculpture is of giant red hands making symbols. I have no idea if the symbols actually mean anything, or if they're just what the sculptor wanted to do.

Moscow has soooo many quirky things and places to see. The rest of this year is going to be fun!

russia: shlisselburg and st petersburg

Back in December, the ladies and I spent one weekend in Shlisselburg and St Petersburg. The main reason we went to Shlisselburg was to visit a fortress there. We didn't figure out until after we got to town that the place wasn't open half the year, during the colder months. Needless to say, we were disappointed.

The ladies left Moscow during the third weekend of June, when I still had two more days of meetings for the end of work. Even after my remaining days of work, I had more time until my booked flights to the States, so I planned a series of trips in and around Russia.

One of these trips was back up to St Petersburg and Shlisselburg. I knew that a summer trip would have much longer days, much warmer weather, and a fortress open to visitors.

After coming back to Moscow from Transnistria, I spent the day doing various household chores and changing out the clothes in my backpack. That evening, I made my way to one of the train stations in Moscow, and hopped on a night train to St Petersburg.

Aas expected, my train arrived on time. I knew my hostel wouldn't be willing to check me in quite so early, but I didn't mind. I walked to the hostel, they let me drop my bag so I didn't have to carry it around all day. 

I also spent a couple hours in the common room, charging my phone and figuring out how to get to various places I wanted to see on this trip.

My first sight was a wooden church just outside the city limits of St Petersburg. I had seen pictures of the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on social media, and wanted to see it for myself. Getting there wasn't very difficult, though it took a little longer than I wanted it to.

I rode the metro a few stops, transferred lines, rode a few more stops, then found a marshrutka to take me the rest of the way.

The bus stop nearest the church was only 30 meters from the church, so it was perfect. The church was actually inside wooden walls, there was also a bell tower inside the walls. The roof of the church was the best part of being there. The onion domes were made of wooden pieces, it was all very intricate and beautiful.

The inside of the church was painted, but not as much as other churches I've seen. My visit happened during a service, so I didn't stay in there for long, and didn't take many photos.

After seeing the church, I walked to the bus stop on the other side of the street; I got lucky that I didn't have to wait long for the next bus to come along. 

When that bus dropped me off at a metro station, I rode more trains, to get to the end of another metro line.

During our visit to Shlisselburg we discovered a public bus that went between Shlisselburg and St Petersburg, the trip was only 40-50 minutes or so. Instead of taking a taxi like we'd done last time, I chose to take this bus again. It left quite regularly from the end of this metro line, yay.

Forty minutes later, I arrived in Shlisselburg. I knew exactly where I was, and where I wanted to go, I knew I wasn't going to be spending too much time in the city. 

I walked straight to the marina, marveling at how different the city looks in summer versus winter.

The next boat to the island on which the fortress sits left in just fifteen minutes. Even though it was quite windy, I stayed on deck during the ride. There was another fee to enter the fortress, and I could've rented an audioguide too if I'd wanted. (I didn't.)

The fortress was originally called Oreshek when it was built by the men of Grand Prince Yury in 1323. The fortress was originally built because of the regular fighting between Sweden (which then included Finland,) and Russia (which was then the Novgorod Republic.) 

The fortress continued to be involved in fighting between the countries for a few more centuries, before the border was completed solidified in 1702.

Peter renamed the fortress Shlisselburg in the early 18^th century.

In later years the fortress was used as a prison, holding political prisoners. I didn't recognize the names of any of the prisoners, but I assume students of Russian history would recognize names. The fortress was used as a museum in the 1920s, with exhibits about the October Revolution. 

During WW2 the fortress was under seige for around 500 days by German soldiers. Somehow a garrison of Red Army soldiers held out, and the siege was lifted in 1943.

Overall, the war was not good for the fortress. Not many of the original towers remain, and the interior was almost completely destroyed. Renovations have rebuilt some of the walkway along the top of one section of wall. What remains of the church has been transformed into a war memorial, though you're only allowed to look at it, not step into the ruined area. I don't think there are any plans to rebuild the church. 

The area that was a museum before is now a museum again, only this time it is about the political prisoners who were held there. I went through the museum, but it wasn't all that interesting.

I also went through one of the former towers, as well as through a gate that let me out onto a small beach area. Everyone and their mother was out there, but I could understand why. It was pretty, and the weather was good.

After enjoying the scene for a while, I made my way back to the dock and took the next boat back to the mainland. 

After looking at the map I realized there was a Lenin statue in town, we'd missed that last time. Not very big, but I'm always happy to see a Lenin statue.

After Lenin, I spedwalked to the supermarket we'd loved so much back in December. I was gutted to find out it wasn't currently carrying any of the Finnish chocolate I'd found last time. Booo. From there it was a quick walk back to the bus station, and a short wait for the next bus back to St Petersburg.

My day of exploring didn't end when I got back to St Petersburg. 

The bus brought me to the same metro station from which it had departed, then I rode a couple more trains before walking for at least thirty minutes to a church.

Smolny Cathedral was pretty. Much prettier from the outside, the inside was relatively boring. The outside is blue, rather eye catching. The inside was nearly all white, with the exception of various icons, and gold iconostases. That probably sounds jaded, but I've seen plenty of gold iconostases previously, this one wasn't memorable.

After the church I walked back to the metro, and I have to admit that by this point my feet were quite sore. I rode the metro to the stop closest to Namaste, a restaurant I will never get tired of visiting.

The next morning it took me a while to get going, but it didn't matter to me. I started with more walking, quite a long walk. I walked from my hostel all the way to Park Pobedy, a bit over seven kilometers. The weather was still nice, so I was quite happy with myself. I was also quite happy when I stopped in a bakery along the way and found brownies and cheesecake.

The park wasn't all that amazing, but I did enjoy watching other people in the park. Plus there were some good photos with reflections from the ponds.

There is a metro station on one side of the park, I went there to catch the trains again. I rode to a stop near a museum, called Museum Erarta. It's a contemporary art museum, in a modern-ish building.

As expected, I liked some of the pieces more than others. I suppose this is how I feel about any museum I visit. Walking around this museum was completely different from what I'd been doing just 24 hours earlier, I love that about Russia.

After leaving the museum, I made my way back to the hostel and picked up my backpack. Then I went back to the metro, for what felt like the 89^th time during this visit. 

Eventually I want to see all the metro stations of St Petersburg, so this time I was on the trains for a bit longer, riding all the way to the southern end of the purple line. I was disappointed that only the very end station was interesting (to me,) aesthetically.

When I felt like I'd seen enough, I rode to the station closest to the train station, arriving about an hour before my night train back to Moscow. I love St Petersburg, I know I'll be back soon.

russia: moscow but not the way we planned

When we planned our year of traveling, we left a few weekends for exploring Moscow. This weekend we planned to see a couple major sights in the city, but it didn't turn out the way we expected.

Claire, Angela, and I met up at a metro station then made our way up to ground level. 

Our first planned sight was St Basil's Cathedral. This might be the most recognized sight in the entire city, and of the city around the world. Legend says the man who designed it was later blinded so he could never create anything so amazing again. This probably isn't true, since he is credited with other architectural work around the country.

We got to the edge of Red Square to discover it was completely blocked off, and empty. We weren't the only people surprised by the closing, argh. We had no way of figuring out why it was closed, or when it might open again.

Hoping that St Basil's might be open by another entry, we made our way through GUM, the former state department store. Unfortunately, as we walked out the other side, we found Red Square blocked off on that side as well. The other side of St Basil's was also fenced off. None of us know enough Russian to ask why it was all closed, or when it might open again.

Even though we wanted to be on the square and in the church, we took advantage of the empty square to take a couple photos, since it is quite rare that it is totally empty.

To get back to where we wanted to go, we went through the mall again, and decided to take part in an old Russian tradition: eating ice cream. We're pretty sure the cones had been scooped out while a while ago, but the taste wasn't too bad. It was another example of the Russian disregard for queues, we saw people coming to the window of the ice cream stall from several different directions.

After our ice cream we tried to get to our next destination, but were foiled again. The entrance to the state history museum is just inside the gates to Red Square, and they were closed. Argh.

After some discussion, we decided to walk to Lubyanka Square. The name Lubyanka struck fear into the hearts of Soviets for decades, because the building was the home of the NKVD/KBG, and now the FSB. All were secret police organizations, with no public transparency. There was a lot of fear that if your loved one disappeared, they had been taken to the basement of Lubyanka, which meant you weren't going to see them again.

In the middle of a small park on one side of the square is a large stone. This stone came from the Solevetsky Islands, it is a memorial to those who died in the Gulag system; the first such camp was in the Solevetsky Islands. It's a small memorial, put there in the 90s. (Side note, there is another such memorial in St Petersburg, which is a lot closer to the islands.)

While we were taking our photos Claire was google-ing and wikipedia-ing, and found out that one of the world's worst serial killers used to live in a building on this square. When you start clicking on links you never know what you'll find!

Darya Saltykova was responsible for the death of more than 70 people! This is definitely not widely known Russian history, for obvious reasons.

Since our original plans for the day had already completely changed, we came up with something new to do for the next few hours: seeing more of the city's metro system. I convinced the girls to ride the southern half of the dark green line, getting off at each stop just to see what the station looked like.

The most interesting station turned out to be the very last station, Alma Atinskaya. The station is pretty new, it was opened in 2012. 

The original name of the station was Brateyevo, the neighborhood in which it is located. The name was changed for reasons of international relations: Kazakstan had renamed one of it's stations in the old capital of Almaty, to Moskva, to honour relations between the two countries. Russia decided to do the same.

I liked the decoration of the station, just because it was different from other stations. The sculptures spaced along the station made me think of giant ice scrapers, like those used to scrape off the windscreen of a car.

From there, we made our way back into the city center and found a new (to us,) restaurant to try, a place with Korean BBQ. Yum.

Another successful day with friends, yahoo!!