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Ivanovo is almost 500 years old, it was first mentioned in historical documents in 1561.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.

austria: a layover in vienna

I've been to Vienna before, this wasn't an intended trip, nor was it very long.

When I booked my flights to and from Sarajevo, the cheapest option gave me a long layover in Vienna. I basically had the entire day to explore the city. I wasn't as organized as I could've been, but oh well. Maybe next time?

My flight from Moscow landed in Vienna early in the morning, almost on time. Passport control went rather quickly, yay. I sat around for a little while, then asked the information desk how to get into the city by public transport. I also stepped into the grocery store in the arrivals hall, I'm a sucker for grocery stores.

It turned out to be very easy, and relatively cheap to get into the city center of Vienna. There is more than one S-bahn that goes from the airport into the city.

While back in Moscow I'd made sure to download offline maps to use, as I knew I'd get lost without this. My S-bahn took me into the city centre, into one of the main transport hubs. Just figuring how to get up to street level was 'fun,' as was figuring out which street I was on and in which direction I wanted to walk. I have a terrible sense of direction.

I walked through a couple parks, one of which had statues of various composers. I liked Mozart, and the way the flowers had been landscaped into the shape of a G clef. Needless to say, I was among many who wanted to take photos there.

When Bo and I were in Vienna a few years ago we visited a church with a great ceiling, I wanted to see it again. It took a bit of searching the map, then more walking, but I finally got there. When Bo and I had first seen the church it was early April, and still quite chilly inside the church. This visit was at the beginning of July, so temperatures were very different. I was hot, and the church didn't feel nearly as peaceful.

Throughout the day I kept stepping into bakeries, because I love them. I especially like Viennese bakeries, because they have heaps and heaps of pastries, not just bread. It's probably a good thing I don't have regular access to these kinds of bakeries. Even though I stepped into all these bakeries, I didn't get something to eat from most of them because of the heat. When it's hot I eat far less.

I realize this post is quite short, but that's pretty much all I did during this visit. Like I said, I wasn't nearly as organized as I should've been. It was easy enough to get the train back to the airport and continue my trip.

I'm totally okay with going back to Vienna sometime in the future, though it isn't on my must see list at the moment.

austria: vienna

Vienna was only part of my original plan for this 5 day trip. Originally I wanted to go to Vienna and Paris, but that didn't happen. I was able to find cheap flights to and from each city, but I wasn't able to find a cheap way to one city, transit to the other, then a cheap way home. No matter which way I looked, one of those bits was much more than I wanted to pay. Argh. As I searched around, it occured to me to use Flixbus, and that it would take me to Brno, a city not far from Vienna that seemed worth exploring a bit.

I think I've already posted about getting to Vienna, lets just say I was completely jet lagged, and very tired of airplanes and airports. I was completely confused about when to eat, and when to sleep.

The first morning I woke up super early, and rationally knew I hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep. I dozed on and off for a few hours before getting dressed and race walking to the train station. Bo's train arrived a few minutes late, much to my surprise. This is Austria after all, where trains and such usually run on time, to the minute. Fortunately, it didn't take long for us to find each other and we immediately started walking back toward the hotel. On the way back we stopped in a mini market to get drinks, as it was much warmer than either of us had expected.

We dropped Bo's bags in the hotel, and started to figure out where we wanted to go for the day. I'd been to Vienna once before, but it was so long ago that I didn't remember anything useful for this trip. We picked out a couple sights and figured we'd take it from there.

Vienna is a grand city. It used to be one of the capital cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and still feels like a capital city, if that makes sense. It's full of big, grand buildings, statues, parks, etc... It felt like every other building was worth a photo, but I quickly realized I couldn't take every single photo I wanted.

Our first stop was a church. (This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me.) Votivkirche isn't high on tourist lists, but I loved it. As we walked in, we could hear and see a philharmonic orchestra practicing in the middle for what I presume was an upcoming concert. The accoustics were fantastic, it was fun to listen. This church has a lot of stained glass, and while we were in there the light from outside was pouring in, through the windows, creating visible light, if that makes sense. Absolutely beautiful.

The ceiling itself was very 'arch-y' and very tall. I think we might've stayed inside longer, but since it was a stone church, it was rather chilly.

The front of the church outside was covered with a large banner, which I presume was covering up renovation work. I think I'd rather have seen the renovations, as the banner was an advert. Argh.

Across the street from the church was a park, but it was nothing to get excited about, so we didn't take any time to wander around it, we just walked through.

From there we walked our way through the pedestrian area of the city center. I'm not exactly sure of everything we saw, as I got completely turned around while we walked. I loved watching all the other people out walking, and taking in the general atmosphere. We saw more grand buildings, and when we saw apartment buildings I kept wondering how much it would cost to live in those places. (Definitely not a number I can afford.)

One of the grand buildings we passed had a fountain in front, it seemed a gathering point for people. This building was grand in terms of architecture and size.

We walked around the corner and I realized we were looking at another section of the same building. Somewhere in this area I saw a poster with a photo of an old library, and after reading the poster I realized it was something we could see!

It was a picture of the State Hall in the Austrian National Library. We figured out the door we'd need to get to this place, and at the ticket office I asked Bo to ask the lady if we would be allowed to take photos inside the library. (The previous two libraries I've seen like this did not allow photos, much to my disappointment.)

The lady said yes, I was really happy to hear her answer. I immediately told Bo we would be coming back the next morning to visit. At that point both of us were starting to get hungry and tired, so visiting right then wasn't going to happen.

We continued walking along more pedestrian streets. I finally broke down and stepped into one of the many chocolate shops we passed while walking. While everything looked really good, I ended up buying just two pieces of chocolate. Tasty, but it was hot and I just didn't crave chocolate.

We continued walking on another pedestrian street, a main street for tourists. This one was lined with international brand stores, there was nothing to distinguish this street from any other street in any other city in the world.

We ended up in front of St Stephen's basilica, which is on the top of the tourist lists. The tiles on the roof of the church are colourful, and beautiful. The way the buildings around the church were built, there was no way to back up enough to get a photo of the full church. Argh.

We stepped inside, and were very underwhelmed. Due to the late afternoon hour, the light wasn't super strong anymore, so parts of the interior had been lit with spotlights. Howeva, instead of the lighting being consistent across the entire church, it was spotty, and only hit certain areas. Neither one of us liked the look this created. The main aisle of the sanctuary was blocked off, so we couldn't get close to very much. Plus there was a sheet or curtain hung in the front, blocking the view of the normal altar area. We decided to come back the next day, earlier in the day and hope it looked better inside.

Walking back to our hotel was supposed to take us through the Botanical Gardens, but by that point they were closed. We had to walk around the long way. Thankfully, that didn't add that much time to our walk, as both of us were getting hangry.

We picked a restaurant in our neighborhood, but passed several others along the way. When we got to the restaurant we'd chosen, we decided the menu didn't look all that great. Instead, we walked back to one of the others we'd seen. It was heaps cheaper, and the food was more than decent.

After dinner we walked a bit along another major street, just to walk off some of what we'd eaten. I like walking at night when I have someone with me. When I'm by myself, I'm not a fan of being outside after dark.

The next morning our first sight was a church across the street from our hotel. This church wasn't a stand alone building, it was smushed between the other buidings on the street. As it turned out, the front door was open, but the inner door wasn't. In other words, we were able to look into the sanctuary area, but not actually go in that area. Argh.

From there we walked to the train station and stowed Bo's second pack in a storage locker. We knew we'd be back to Vienna, and Bo didn't want to carry everything he had around on his back. (He had more than I did because he was going on an extended trip after Vienna and Brno.)

We walked until we got to Mozartplatz, which was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. A statue and a small fountain, with benches around for people to hang out.

We didn't hang out, we kept walking. We walked past a building which I only noticed because it had a GIANT gold crab climbing up the side.

We walked past the world renowned opera house on our way to the national library. It looks like an opera house, as if it knows it's own importance. Maybe, if I come back to Vienna, I'll take a tour of the place. Opera houses like this one are majestic.

When we got back to the library we paid for our tickets and walked up a flight of stairs. The stairs were pretty grand themselves, which made me even more excited about what I was going to see inside.

The library was take your breath away beautiful. The walls were covered in shelves and books, and numerous really big globes. The shelves were wood, and everything was gorgeous. In the middle was a statue, it was pretty big. The ceilings were painted, there were wooden arches in the ceiling, etc... The only downside was that visitors couldn't touch anything. There were cases displaying various books, we weren't really supposed to touch those either. There were a couple security folks walking around, keeping an eye on people to make sure we all followed the rules. It was amazing in there.

I'd like to go back and see it again, even though I wouldn't be seeing anything new.

After leaving the library we walked through interior gates, which led us to other areas of the building. Remember how I mentioned how this building was really really big yesterday? I loved the decoration of these gates. Eventually we ended up in a big platz, with a huge memorial in the middle. There were several statues on this memorial, it was big enough for bunches of people to sit on it and hang out. The photo I took of young folks hanging out on the statues seemed perfect to me, though I don't know why.

We made our way back to St Stephen's basilica, and it was much better this time around. Since we were there in the middle of the day there was no extra lighting in the church, everything looked a lot better. The organ in the back was pretty too.

At that point we decided to walk to the bus station. We didn't know how long it would take us to get there, and we weren't sure exactly where it was, and (obviously,) we didn't want to miss our bus.

We found the station and the exact bus stop. We had time to go inside the nearby mall to grab food, which turned out to be not so good. Our bus left on time, and 2 hours later we arrived in Brno, Czech Republic.

We arrived back in Vienna nearly 48 hours later. We arrived two hours later than we wanted, but at least we'd arrived. We never figured out why the delay happened. While on the bus we made a list of the places we wanted to walk to on the way to our accomodation. 

First up was a place called Hundertwasserhaus. In English that name is 100 Water House. It's a block of apartments, decorated in a very modern fashion. I've never seen anything like it. The building has been painted a variety of colours, without straight lines. There are mosaic tiles in various places too. It's such a unique building that tourist infrastructure has developed all around. Souvenir shops, cafes, etc...

From there we walked all the way back to the train station to pick up Bo's bag from the storage locker.

Then we walked to the place Bo had booked for the end of this trip. While we were in the train station we picked up dinner food, and carried it with us to the hotel. The walk ended up being longer than we expected, and both of us were rather hangry at the end. It felt sooooo good to take off our backpacks and eat.

After eating we went for a 20 minute walk, which felt like flying since we weren't carrying backpacks at that point!

The next morning we had a continental breakfast buffet at the hotel, which was nice.

When we walked outside we realized it was even warmer than it had been in the days previously, which was both good and bad. It felt good, but neither one of us were ready for the heat and sun. Oh well.

We walked all the way to Schloss Belvedere, which is actually two palaces, not one. The entry gate is near the ticket office, in which we paid our entry fees of 20 euros each. That's a pretty expensive entrance fee, especially for people traveling on a backpacker budget. When I asked, the ticket lady said we could take photos in places that weren't full of art.

The first palace we visited was the so-called Upper Palace, which is the bigger and fancier of the two. The entry room had art, which didn't really interest either one of us much. The next set of rooms had more art, which also didn't interest us much.

I wanted to see the rooms where we were allowed to take photos, which were amazing. One had frescoes everywhere, including a beautiful ceiling. Another had a fantastic ceiling, and beautiful mirrors. The windows in both rooms both looked out over the grounds in between the two palaces which were very landscaped.

After walking through all the open rooms in the upper palace, we walked down the hill, through the gardens, to the lower palace. This one was a lot smaller, with only a few rooms open to visitors. I'm not sure if the same photo restrictions applied in this palace, but I had no interest in taking photos of the art on display. There were two stunning rooms here, I felt underdressed by their fanciness.

Back out on the street we started searching for a supermarket, as the sun had dehydrated both of us.

Unfortunately, it was Sunday, which meant nearly everything was closed. Argh. The place we finally found was packed with tourists, all of whom were in the same situation we were: hungry and thirsty. It's amazing how much worse hunger and thirst feel when you keep walking by closed markets. You can see the food and drink but not have it. 

From that supermarket we walked back to our hotel, where I finished packing up my bag. After a few minutes, we walked again, this time to another train station.

I bought bakery goods to take with me, as I love Austrian baked goods, and I didn't know when I'd have the chance to have them again. With my baked goods I boarded the train to the airport, it was on time and fast.

My flights back to Kyiv were easy and on time. I'd love to explore more of Austria, and I hope I get the chance!

swaziland: mbabane

It was not easy to get from Pretoria to Mbabane, Swaziland, even though they're close to each other, or relatively so. It was cheap, but not fast.) I will admit that the main reason I visited Swaziland was to get another stamp in my passport. I knew I wouldn't have enough time in the country to really explore, but I wanted the basic stamp.

My day started by taking the Gautrain from Pretoria back into Johannesburg, and then to the airport. I figured out where to check in and all that, then took the short flight to Swaziland. When I booked the flight, it said it landed in Mbabane, but that wasn't true.

The only international airport (and for all I know the only airport,) in Swaziland is fairly new. It is named for the current king, King Mswati III, it's small, and I think the only flights come from Johannesburg. Perhaps there are plans to expand? The airport is sortof in the middle of nowhere.

Getting through passport control and customs took no time at all. I found an ATM in the arrivals hall, and made a withdrawal, which ended up being South African rand, (it wasn't my choice, it was simply what the ATM gave me,) not Swazi Lilangeni which was what I was hoping for. This was the first time I was really aware that you can use Rand or Lilangeni all over Swaziland.

I hopped on a shuttle, and told the driver I needed to go to Mbabane. He asked exactly where, and when I gave the name of my accomodation, he didn't know where it was. Hmmmm...

It turned out that the airport is semi close to Manzini, which is the biggest city in the country, but is not the capital. The shuttle drove through Manzini, and somewhere on the other side of the city the highway goes into a valley. This valley is a cultural center of the country, which also means there are resorts, some of which are very expensive. Some of the shuttle passengers were dropped off at these resorts.

I was the last one to get off the shuttle. I got off the shuttle when they told me the ride was over. It was at a gas station, somewhere in Mbabane. By this point it was dark, and I had no idea where I needed to go or how to get there. I discovered my South African SIM card got no service at all in Swaziland, so I wasn't able to make a call, or find out where to go. It was very disconcerting to find out that I had no idea what to do, and didn't know where to go to find out.

I must've looked as lost as I felt, because a guy in a transport truck asked me if he could help.

I explained my situation, and he said he knew a guy who would know. This random stranger guy ended up being my savior, I was so thankful.

He called his friend, who knew the name of my accommodation, and even more important, where it was located. I didn't know it ahead of time, but the place had moved, and had NOT updated their web page. ARGH. Thank goodness for the stranger. His friend directed him to my accommodation, which lowered my stress level by a lot.

I checked in, figured out that wifi in the hotel (and all over the country apparently,) was terrible. Slow and spotty. Ugh. When I turned on the TV I found programs in English, Afrikaans, and a few others. Due to the stress of finding the place I crashed early.

Breakfast was included in the price of this room as well. (Surprisingly expensive, considering how poor Swaziland is, and how cheap everything else is.) It was another buffet-ish spread, yahoo. I got to order hot breakfast food (bacon, eggs, and tomatoes,) exactly as I wanted them, and have cold breakfast food as well. Juice, tea, yogurt, cereal, etc... It was a bit strange for me when I asked for milk for my cereal, and the waiter asked me if I wanted cold or hot milk. Really? How many people pour hot milk over cornflakes? Strange. (Strange to me at least.) I ended up asking for hot milk for my tea, and cold milk for the cereal.

I stood out on the balcony of my room for a few minutes, enjoying the quiet, and view over the whole city. Absolutely lovely.
Eventually I started walking into the city center. Mbabane is the capital city, but it isn't all that big, and certainly doesn't feel very big. I didn't feel any sense of nationalism, or culture. I think it's a relatively new city, it definitely isn't where the traditions and culture of Swaziland are found.
My travel apps didn't really list much in the way to see, but I figured there would be something, as I've always found something.

It turns out the travel apps were right. Well, sortof. One of them listed a church, but it wasn't marked on the map in the right place, so I didn't find it until my second day of wandering around. There was also a park, though it wasn't listed as a sight on any travel app or in the guidebook.
I took a few photos in the park, which I think is called Coronation Park. I didn't find the church the first day, even though I walked every street in that area. Maybe it was closed, or had moved? It seems internet isn't a big thing in all areas of the country, so who knows.

I found a mall, which wasn't very interesting. At all. I found a place to eat fish and chips.
I walked the length of one street just to keep moving, and have a higher step count for the day. Yes, that's how bored I was in Mbabane.
The highlight of this visit was probably the lady who sold me popcorn every day. She remembered me the second and third days, which was awesome. To point out how cheap things are, the price of the popcorn (fresh popped with oil and salt, yum!!) was 3 lilangi/rand. At the time, that was around 20 cents US.

When I came back the next day she laughed and added extra popcorn to the bag.

I walked through another park, just because it was a green place.

I walked through numerous supermarkets, just because I love them. I figured out which one had the cheapest yogurt, and which one had the cheapest granola bars.

I can't say anything additional happened over the next couple days. I walked a fair amount each day, not seeing anything in particular. I saw a few fast food places, but I didn't really notice much in the way of restaurants. Did I miss something?

I stayed an extra day because I had to. Internet/wifi wasn't working well enough for me to book a flight (and those I found ended up being really expensive,) so I had to wait until the day a bus would take me out of the country. Shuttle buses leaving the country don't run every day.

My shuttle to leave the country ended up being a 7 hour road trip. The driver took us east, across most of the country, which was not the direction I expected. We exited Swaziland through it's southern border, taking me back into South Africa.

As we were going through passport control to exit Swaziland I noticed a box of condoms. Visitors and locals were encouraged to take some. Swaziland has a huge problem with HIV/AIDS, this is one of the ways they are trying to fight the problem. Definitely not something I've seen in Europe.