russia: vologda

Vologda was the last place I visited during the second part of my New Year's holidays. It is listed in my guidebook, and is conveniently located a night train's distance from St Petersburg. Wikipedia tells me the 2010 census shows more than 300,000 people live in Vologda.

Surprise surprise, Vologda is another Russian city with multiple founding dates in the city history. The oldest date is 1147, which would make the city as old as Moscow. This date comes from a guy in 1780 who was writing a book called 'Stories and Miracles of Gerasimus of Vologda.' 

According to this book that is when the Trinity Monastery was founded, so official city documents use that date as when the city was founded.

Even though this is the official city date, Wikipedia goes on to tell me that this is the wrong date. There is no scientific evidence to back up a founding year of 1147. Scientific evidence does back up a founding date in the 13^th century; the city was mentioned as a possession of the Novgorod Republic in 1264.

When Ivan IV (usually known as Ivan the Terrible,) was in power Vologda became a center of trade, via the White Sea. 

At the time, most of the trade with foreign countries was with England, Holland, and other western countries. In 1566 Ivan traveled to Vologda to supervise the founding of a new fortress, on the Vologda River.

One of the churches inside this new fortress was Saint Sophia Cathedral, which was the first stone building in the city. Until then, everything had been made of wood. In 1571, before construction was finished, Ivan left the city, and never returned. 

Legend says he wanted the church demolished, as he had received a head injury when a small rock had fallen on his head, and therefore he considered the whole thing unlucky.  The church wasn't demolished, but wasn't consecrated until after he died.

In 1612 Lithuania took control of the city, and burned it down. Not long after, the city was able to rebuild itself pretty quickly, and use its location as a center of trade as an advantage to bring in money. Vologda continued as a center of trade for a while, and when Peter the Great became tsar he made the city host to a main military base.

Vologda lost much of its trade importance after St Petersburg was founded in the 18^th century. The city began to decline, but when Catherine the Great became empress it started to grow again. When railways connected the city to Moscow, St Petersburg, Yaroslavl, etc..., businesses and trade started to grow.

Though Vologda is not considered to be part of Siberia, it was also a center of exile. Wikipedia tells me famous people like Stalin and Molotov were sent to Vologda for a time.

Near the end of WW1 Vologda became the 'diplomatic capital' of Russia, when some countries were worried about the safety of their embassies in St Petersburg and moved them temporarily to Vologda. This lasted only a few months, until the Bolsheviks kicked everyone out of Vologda and the whole country if I understand correctly.

WW2 wasn't good to Vologda, as it became one of many fronts after the Finnish military crossed the border. Residents dug trenches, built bomb proof shelters, and industrial organizations switched to military production.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, it took Vologda a few years to sort itself out. The political change happened in 1991, but the first elections in Vologda didn't take place until 1994. That being said, the city has sorted itself out, and is now the capital of the oblast.

I arrived in Vologda before sunrise, so I sat in the train station for a little while, staying warm and figuring out what I wanted to see/do during the day. As soon as I left the station I saw a city sign, so I made my first photo of the city straightaway.

From there I walked all the way to the accomodation I'd booked. 

I found the address easily enough, but figuring out how to get in was a different matter. There were two doorbells, and I rang them both several times, but no one answered the door. I called the number on the booking, which turned out to be a family member of the guy managing the place, then they called the guy, then he opened the door.

I got settled in, then relaxed for a couple more hours. Eventually I went back out, and headed toward my first sight, the kremlin. The kremlin is the fortress I mentioned above, built in the mid 16^th century. It is still the main sight in the city, and based on the crowd, is popular with locals, not just tourists. When I got to the platz just outside the kremlin I found holiday decorations, as well as a holiday fest taking place, complete with music, games, and food.

I went into the kremlin area, noticing that one of the churches was closed for renovation. (This probably means I'll never see the church, as these sorts of renovations tend to take years.) 

I was cold and tired, and as it was Christmas Eve (6 January,) I didn't see much open. The area inside the walls was actually pretty small, but I think there are normally several museums in there.

After leaving the kremlin, I walked toward the first of three Lenin statues in the city. This one was the biggest Lenin.

Not only were there three Lenins, they were all pretty close to each other. At this point the weather was super windy almost nonstop, with clouds rolling through really fast. 

In the sun, it felt great, when the clouds came, not so much. I got to Lenin number two just a few minutes later, this one had his name spelled out, which I've found is not terribly common.

Lenin number two was on one side of Revolution Square. On another side of the square was the 0km mark, showing the spot in Vologda from which distances are measured. I like these kinds of monuments.

In the platz itself was a war memorial, with an eternal flame.

Lenin number two also wasn't far from the Church of John the Baptist, which is where I went next. It was warm inside, the interior was quite small. 

The iconostasis wasn't exciting, but I liked the carpets spread around the floor.

When I walked out of the church I headed toward one of the bridges over the river. Along the way I walked through a small park with another war memorial in the middle, this one had names and the dates of the war.

Next to one side of the bridge was a quirky monument. A dog lifting his leg next to a pole is supposed to memorialize the first lamp post. Kinda cute, kinda not. 

At this point the light was starting to change to the blue light that comes before sunset. Even though I hadn't been out and about for very long, I decided to get dinner.

Vologda doesn't have a huge number of restaurants, so I settled on pizza. After pizza I found a branch of a coffee shop I'd visited in Nizhny Novgorod, I remembered it as having really good chocolate cheesecake. Needless to say, I was more than happy to have it again.

When I'd left the hostel earlier in the day, the manager showed me which doorbell to use when I came home in the evening. 

I used that doorbell, but it didn't make any sound. I called him directly, and said I was home, and he came out to open the door. I told him neither doorbell worked, but I don't think he understood me. Argh.

The next morning I packed up and checked out, then walked back to the train station to drop my bag for the day. It was a long-ish way to go, but I didn't want to have to deal with the lack of working doorbells and leave my pack in the hostel all day.

From the train station I had another long walk, all the way to a big monastery. The walk from the train station to Spaso-Prilutsky monastery was over eight kilometers, and took me a couple hours at least. I don't walk all that slowly, but I do stop regularly for photos, and on this day I had to walk through snow a few times.

A few mini snowstorms as well. The kind where everything is lovely, then ten minutes of not seeing where I'm going, then back to clear-ish.

Not far from the monastery I saw a double train bridge, which was just neat to see. 

I assume trains going one way went on one bridge, then trains coming the other way go on the other bridge, but I don't know. I like bridges, it was neat to see two of them so close to each other.

Spaso-Prilutsky Monastery looks like someone played with different sets of Legos to put it together. A couple of the exterior walls are red brick, two others are white. The various towers around the whole thing are of different styles too. Nothing matches. Weird.

The monastery was first established in 1371. Like most religious facilities, the Soviet period was not good for the monastery. It was abolished in 1924, and the buildings were used for private residences, a prison, a depot, and a museum. Thankfully, all the buildings were preserved, just not used as they were originally intended. The monastery reopened in 1991, and still functions as it was meant to.

I wandered through the areas I was able to see, there weren't many. I also walked along the tops of the walls, which were open for this. I love walking on monastery and fortress walls.

Even though the walk to the monastery took a while, in then end I was there for just 30-45 minutes. The walk back wasn't quite as long, since I only walked to the city center. After getting back to the city center I went to see Lenin number three, and made a photo with him. He stood in front of the main university in the city.

After visiting with Lenin, I felt as if I'd seen what I wanted to see in Vologda. I went back to the coffee shop from the day before, eating a full meal before having another piece of chocolate cheesecake. 

I was in a seat near a plug, so I took the chance to charge my phone for a couple hours before walking back to the train station.

I guess I was in a cheapskate mood when I booked my ticket back to Moscow, as I booked a seat, not a bunk. Trying to sleep while sitting up is hard enough, it was even harder because the lights came on every couple hours when there were bigger stops. Argh. I was knackered when I finally got back to Moscow.

I would go back to Vologda, though I'd prefer to do it in warmer weather. Since this visit, I've looked at the city map, and found a few more things to see :)

russia: novosibirsk

Getting from Tomsk to Novosibirsk didn't take long. The trip was just 4.5 hours. The train station in Novosibirsk is one of the biggest in the city, at least from the outside. There were a bunch of rooms inside, but it didn't feel very grand until I saw it from the outside.

Novosibirsk is the third largest city in Russia, after Moscow and St Petersburg, with more than a million and a half people. It was founded in 1893, as Novonikolayevsk, and almost immediately grew into a big transport, commercial, and industrial hub. (So says Wikipedia.) The original city name was for St Nicholas and the reigning tsar Nikolas II.

Novonikolayevsk became Novosibirsk in 1926, under Stalin.

Novosibirsk is one of several Russian cities with a metro system, I was thrilled. There are 5 stops on one line, 8 stops on the other. I knew straightaway that I wanted to ride the full length of at least one of the lines, just because it was there. Each ride was only 22 rubles, or about 30 cents USD.

There hadn't been a lot available when I booked my room in Novosibirsk, so I splurged a bit. My room was a 'normal' hotel room, which felt rather extravagant compared to the places I had been staying. A proper bed, my own bathroom, a tv, etc... Total luxury ;)

The only downside was the location. It wasn't close to much of anything, but like I said, Novosibirsk has public transit.

Not that I rode any of the public transit while getting around the city, except to see it as a sight. I love walking if at all possible, I just get to see so much more. Getting into the city center involved walking along tram tracks, as I couldn't find a sidewalk. Ooops.

My first official sight was a quirky monument: it honoured the first traffic light in the city. I'm not sure why it was made, but it was fun to see.

The monument was just a couple blocks from my second sight: the Alexander Nevsky cathedral. I don't know if I'm making things up, but it seems like a lot of Nevsky cathedrals have brick exteriors. I'm not a huge fan of brick, I don't know why. The interior of the church was lovely. High ceilings with a painted rotunda, plenty of frescoes, etc...

At this point I was on a main street of the city. More walking took me past a statue of Tsar Alexander III. Apparently Siberia is still a fan of the guy. He wasn't far from a WW2 memorial obelisk in the parkway in the middle of the street.

I wound through a couple streets until I got to an art museum, named for Roerich. Roerich was raised in St Petersburg, where he got degrees in art and law. Much of his legacy comes from his extensive travels, most often with his family.

The museum was quite big, with all of the exhibits on the second floor. Some of the works on display were copies, I don't know where the originals were, or if they still exist. Roerich did a lot of traveling, so a couple sections were devoted entirely to paintings from his central and high asian trips. Beautiful landscapes that made me want to see more of those areas.

From there I walked up the main street until I got to a huge statue of Lenin. I took my photo from the front, on the other side were kids skateboarding and generally hanging out. I was pretty cold at that point, otherwise I would've stayed and watched them for a while.

I'd found an Indian place listed online for dinner, but when I got there the doors were closed. The sign on the doors said it should be open, but it wasn't so that's that. I turned around and was happy I'd noticed another branch of the Asian place I'd visited in Tomsk while walking. The food was just as good, and I was just as full when I walked out.

Walking home wasn't fun, as it was dark and cold, but I got there and slept soundly.

It turned out that not only was my room feeling pretty fabulous, the price included breakfast delivered to my room. It wasn't amazing, but I couldn't remember the last time I'd had breakfast in bed, so I enjoyed it anywho. Mainly I wished the croissant hadn't been drowned in chocolate sauce.

Eventually I packed up and checked out, taking my pack with me. My first sight was at the furthest distance I'd walked yesterday, the Church of the Intercession. 

It didn't look all that amazing from the outside, but I loved the inside. Tall ceilings with frescoes everywhere, lots of candles, etc... There were people all over praying, I enjoyed the atmosphere for a few minutes. There were lot of windows letting in plenty of natural light, which always sucks me in.

At that point I had one more sight to see, and I was running later than I wanted to be. I hopped on the metro taking it to Karl Marx square. Nice clean trains and stations, as expected.

I walked from the station to Heroes of the Revolution Park, which was basically a park of giant war memorials. 

I found soldiers guarding an eternal flame, an old military plane, plaques with names, a tank or two, etc... And kids playing with their parents, of course.

Across the street from the park I saw another Lenin statue. This one was painted gold, I think he was in front of a government building. Ugly, but I still took the photo.

Instead of taking public transport to the airport, I used an app to call a taxi. It was a lot faster, and only $5USD, so I was thrilled. The flight back to Moscow had food, which made it feel like a luxury flight to me. Plus it departed and landed on time :)

Novosibirsk is like the other cities I visited during this trip, I'm not sure I need to see them again, but maybe there is something else to be seen in summer? Or fall?