russia: ulyanovsk

Everyone who has been to Russia has heard of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Everyone who traveled to the former Soviet Union has heard of the guy. He is such a part of the history of this country that his body was embalmed and is on display in a mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow. (Though I've read that this is exactly what he didn't want.) I've certainly taken pictures of and with statues and busts and profiles of him in many cities.
Since moving to Moscow I figured one of my weekend trips should be to the city in which Lenin grew up, which is now called Ulyanovsk.
He was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, in 1870, in Simbirsk. (The city was renamed for him after he died in 1924.) 

He was born into a big family, with a bunch of siblings. His social and political activism started early, as his older brother was executed for views the government of the time didn't appreciate.
The train from Moscow to Ulyanovsk covered nearly 900 km and took 14 hours. Ulyanovsk is one time zone to the east, so in a way it took 15 hours. I left Moscow at 1900 local time and arrived at 10 the next morning, local time. The only benefit to such a long train ride is that I didn't have to wake up early.
I arrived in Ulyanovsk (population a little over 600,000,) at Central train station. The station wasn't big, but did have cheap hot chocolate in the little coffee machine I've come to expect in every Russian train station. I'd like to point out that Central train station was on the edge of town, not central in any way. 

Stations 1 and 2 were far more central. Sigh.
As the weather was good (-1C, with a blue sky,) I decided to walk the entire way to the accommodation I'd booked. It was a long walk, but hey, why not.
There was a steam engine on display not far from the station. I don't think it gets many visitors, simply because it is basically in the middle of nowhere.
I found a statue of Lenin's father, Ilya Nikolayevich Ulyanov. The statue has a little boy as part of the design. I decided to treat the weekend as a sort of 'meet the family' trip, so I took my photo with the statue.
There was also a church called All Saints Temple, or something along those lines. (Translating church names can be just as difficult as menu translation.) 

Bright blue on the outside, with another shade of blue (and gold,) on the inside.
I also took my photo with the first quirky monument of the weekend: a monument to the ruble, the currency of Russia.
I finally arrived at my accommodation and checked in. After relaxing for a bit, I walked out and started toward the main tourist section of the city.
My first sight was Simbirsk classical gymnasium. It is now a museum, but was one of the schools attended by Lenin back in the day. Entry fee was 100 rubles, and though I didn't have to join a tour I couldn't exactly wander on my own. The lady who took the entry money opened up each room as we walked, then let me look around until I was ready for the next room. 

The first floor was boring, the second floor was much better. The second floor had two big classrooms (with maps of the time,) and a science lab. Some parts of education back then would seem like another world to us now.
After leaving the school museum I noticed the statue of Marx on one side of the school. I don't know how long the statue has been there, but I imagine part of the placement is because the political system Lenin designed was a form of Marxism.
From there I followed my phone map to my second quirky monument of the weekend: a monument to the letter ë. Pronounced 'yo' it was invented in Simbirsk, somehow separate to the rest of the alphabet. I was expecting something small, but it was as tall as I am!

From there I just wandered, as the sun was going down. Late fall and early winter in Russia is tough in terms of length of day. Photos don't look as good when your camera starts showing more of a blue light.
I found the giant statue of Lenin, on one side of a platz with a big government building on the other side. Since he is from the city, I expected something more spectacular.
I found a small park, but the fountain was covered and protected for the winter. Booo. Sometimes I wonder why Russia has fountains at all, since most of them are covered and empty for so much of the year.
Walking in the other direction took me past a few more monuments. The one that sticks with me the most is that of one of the soldiers who died in the siege of the school at Beslan. 

It was dedicated to all who have died in such situations, but had his name in particular.
Next up was the building of the state pedagogical university, which I think was named for Lenin's father. Big building, same pattern of architecture on all four sides.
On the edge of the platz in front of the university was a statue of a guy on a horse. Boghdan Lhitrov was a founding father of the city, I suppose it is fair that he gets a monument.
Not too far from there I saw the Lenin Memorial building. The entire exterior is being renovated, there is scaffolding everywhere. Just seeing all the construction taking place was disappointing. I didn't go in, I put it on the list for the next day. I imagine it'll be several years before the renovation is finished.

At that point it was almost dark (the sun officially went down a bit after 1600,) so I found a place to eat dinner, visited a supermarket, and went back to my accommodation.
The next day I finally got myself packed up and checked out about an hour later than originally intended. Oh well.
I went back to the statue of Lenin, and set up my tripod for a photo. I also used the tripod for a photo with a nearby (very faded,) city sign. This city sign had both city names, Simbirsk and Ulyanovsk.
My first museum of the day was a house where Lenin lived with his family for four years. The house was part of a three museum ticket, total price 150 rubles. It was cheap, but each museum also charged 100 rubles to take photos, argh.

The first floor of this house had photos and information about the entire family. I loved it, since you don't normally see this information when when learning about Lenin. The second floor had furniture from the family. There wasn't a lot of privacy, and the beds didn't look very comfortable.
Apparently the family liked to play chess, four people at a time. That was a nifty looking board to see.
Not far from this house was the giant Lenin Memorial. It's a really big building, built around the house in which Lenin was born. That house should've been open, but wasn't because of the massive renovation being done on the memorial building. I have no idea if any renovation is being done to the house, but I hope not.

The memorial was the second part of the three museum ticket. Due to the renovation, it was totally lame. There were a few models of places I've already seen, and a couple big paintings. Then a second floor had a lot of paintings of people important in Russian history and the politics of the area. There were no items really connected to Lenin, nor any photos of him, or more information. I was disappointed to say the least.
I walked out of there, and made my way to a cafe. One omelette and a big tea later, I started walking again. I found another quirky monument, a sofa dedicated to Goncharov. Really close to the sofa monument was a statue of the Goncharov. The statue looked across the street at the art museum named after Goncharov. 

He was a writer in the early 19th century, still revered around the city.
I kept going, it didn't take too long to get to the eternal glory obelisk. Very tall, with a star on top. It turned out to be a part of a big war memorial. There was a monument dedicated to those who fought in WW2, an eternal flame, and another monument to those who fought in Afghanistan.
Really close by was another small museum. This one was dedicated to a secret group of insurgents from the Simbirsky Social Democrats Group, formed in 1904-1906. The museum is actually a small house with secret spaces all over. The house was originally owned by the dad of one of the group members, who deliberately built in the hiding places. It was neat to see, and didn't take long.

From there I headed toward the 3rd museum of the multi museum ticket. On the way I found another Lenin monument in a park. I always wonder how someone decides to put one of these in a particular place.
The next museum was in an older quarter of the city, filled with wooden houses. They are pretty, especially the windows. Nearly all of them could use a good amount of updating.
The third museum was another house in which the Ulyanov family had lived for a few years. The entry was actually through the house next door, with a tunnel built underneath.
The basement and first floor weren't interesting. There were photos and information from Lenin's life, as well as more models of places I've already seen. 
The second floor, which again had furniture and other real life items was interesting. 

Back in those days the family didn't have electricity, and this hasn't changed. I got there at sunset, so it was pretty dark as I walked through the whole thing. There were candles and such, but it was still pretty dark.
After that I was feeling 'done' with the city. I found a place to have dinner, then took public transport back to the train station.
On the way back to Moscow I was again in 3rd class, platzkart. Again my bed was already made up, and had two usb ports :)
I'd love to see the Lenin Memorial when renovation is finished, (when will that be?) But I doubt it's a big enough reason to return to Ulyanovsk.

russia: moscow: touring Tuesday

It seems Moscow has a never ending 'supply' of Lenin statues. I hope to see all of them, but I don't know if such a goal is reachable. I don't even know if they're all marked on the map. On this Tuesday afternoon I decided to knock one of them off the list.

It wasn't exciting, as Lenin statues are almost never 'exciting' but I saw it, and took the photo to prove it. Maybe one day I'll write a blog post with nothing but Lenin photos. 

As I walked back to the metro station I noticed a church, so I ducked inside there to see what the inside looked like, just because I could. Why walk past a church if I don't have to?

Once I got back on the metro, I rode to the station closest to Pokrovsky Monastery. My last visit to the monastery ended up being 'foiled' by long queues of people waiting to go inside the churches, I was hoping this visit would be different.

Unfortunately, it wasn't any different this time. There were more queues, argh. I have no idea why. Is it a Tuesday thing? Or did I just get unlucky and choose two Tuesdays that were holidays/celebrations I didn't know about?

On the way back I noticed a sign on the gates of the retro transportation museum that said the museum was still closed for renovation. I didn't even see a date on the sign, so who knows when that will open again.Mostly a failure day in terms of seeing anything, argh.

russia: moscow: random places around the city

Since I'd been traveling every weekend for about a month I decided I needed a weekend in Moscow. It was nice to get a full night of sleep on Friday, I'm not used to that.

I'd made arrangements to meet up with my friend Svetlana near an exit of one of Moscow's metro stations. She has a car, so she drove for the rest of the day, woo hoo! Driving is definitely convenient, though Moscow traffic is annoying most of the time.

Our first stop of the day took about an hour to get to. After going around one traffic circle more than once, we finally pulled up to a church. The Church of the Sign of the Most Holy Mother of God is more than 300 years old! This small church, in a small town outside Moscow is older than my home country, whoa.

This church is built in a completely different style than was normal at the time in Russia. It is baroque, which you can see as soon as you see the church. It is small, with basically just one spire reaching up toward the sky.

As we approached we could see a statue near the base of the church, the poor guy was missing his head. Clearly he was having a rough day.

We went into the church (after I covered my hair with the scarf I always have in my purse, and Svetlana pulled her hood over her head,) and found a service taking place. I really really wanted to take more photos inside, but that wasn't going to happen while the service was taking place.

We were able to move to a spot where I was able to look up into the spire, I loved it. Typically the 'ceiling' of this area is painted with a fresco of something religious. This one was different in that there were no paintings; instead there were statues on the walls of the spire. I loved it.

We didn't stay inside for long, since the church was quite small, and I didn't want to interrupt the service. Walking back outside I opted to circle all the way around the church, just to see it all. We found more statues, one of which had his head, but was missing his arms. Another one was missing a head and an arm.

We went to the top of a nearby small (really small hill,) crossing a bridge with locks of love to get there. It was a nice view of the area, but chilly with the wind blowing. I was wearing a skirt, with chacos, and my toes were definitely feeling the chilly weather.

We followed paths to get down closer to the river. While walking I saw one guy standing out in the middle of the river, fishing. I imagine he was cold too, even though I assume he was wearing waders and whateva else he needed to keep from getting totally soaked. I wonder how long he stayed out there.

Eventually we walked back to the car, and started driving. Svetlana's car has heated seats, which I dearly love. Who needs vented air when your back and backside are heated?

Another hour and some on the road took us to the mid northern side of the city, we parked close to the entrance of Yekaterinsky Park. This is another spot in the city I learned about by seeing a pretty photo on social media.

The photo of the park I'd seen had shown fall trees in all their glory. Let's just say that November is no longer that beautiful time of year in Moscow. Trees are empty, skies are gray, it's a lot closer to yuck.

That being said, it was nice to walk around the (small) park. There were familes and couples out walking around, even though there wasn't really anything to see or do. I assume it is better in late spring, summer, and early fall.

After hopping back in the car we drove about 20 minutes to a cafe I'd first visited earlier this school year, Cafe Soup. Finding parking wasn't easy, as the places on the streets right by the cafe cost nearly $6/hr. We weren't planning to stay in the restaurant all night, but that's still pretty pricey. Fortunately we found cheaper spots a few steets away.

I was thrilled to choose three different soups, the pumpkin option turned out to be the best. While eating I picked up the seasonal menu and noticed they had another pumpkin soup option, as well as pumpkin tea and pumpkin cheesecake. It was too late to have the pumpkin tea, (I'd already made my order,) but I realized I could have cheesecake for dessert.

It was good, and well worth the calories. Side note: the cheesecake was pumpkin flavoured, not pumpkin spice flavoured.

After dinner we drove to another area of the city, Svetlana had gotten us tickets to a recently released movie, Joker. I was excited because it was being shown in the original language (English,) with subtitles.

Joker was....intense, to say the least. I don't know if I liked it or not, I have mixed feelings.

After the movie, I took the subway home. It was a good day. :)

The next day I slept in, then putzed around for a whole bunch of hours. I putzed and putzed and putzed, not getting out of the door to my flat until nearly 1500. Whoops. I can't remember the last time it took me that long to get going.

I took the metro back to the area where I'd met up with Svetlana yesterday. When she first picked me up I noticed a WW2 monument, a small park, and a fortress/monastery looking wall with old towers. I wanted to walk around see what there was in an area of Moscow that is completely new to me.

I took my photo of the war memorial/monument, and part of the park, and kept walking. As I got closer to the wall with towers, I pulled out my phone to check what it was, only to have my phone tell me I was out at one of the Moscow airports. Clearly, the GPS system was a bit wonky.

I could see three towers along one side of the wall, each of the towers was in a slightly different style, and all of them were slowly falling apart. I followed the wall around, and found a church and maybe a monastery?

Each building I could see looked totally different. Even the church itself looked like construction had been directed by three different people at three different times.

The inside of the church wasn't very interesting, I didn't stay inside for long, nor did I even attempt to take any photos.

From there I walked back to the metro, then went home.

A nice relaxing weekend in Moscow :)

russia: chechnya: grozny and argun

My first weekend in November was a holiday weekend, so I got an extra day to go somewhere. I chose to visit Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. And before you ask, no, I wasn't scared to go to Chechnya.

The Chechen Republic is old. Very very very old. Wikipedia tells me there is evidence of habitation in the area that dates back to 40,000BC. Chechnya is one of several regions where locals call themselves Caucasian because of the nearby Caucasus Mountains. In the west the word caucasian has come to mean white, but in Russia it means something completely different. 

This area of the world has a long and complicated history.

Russia started getting involved in Chechnya in the 16^th century when a local leader sent emissaries to Moscow to ask Ivan the Terrible for help against another local leader. Ivan the Terrible then married the daughter of the first guy, and from then on, Russia was involved, if not completely ruling the area.

The Caucasian War lasted about 50 years, in the 19^th century, when Russian forces invaded the Caucasus, and annexed the northern region.

Obviously, locals weren't a big fan of all this, resulting in fighting that went on for years and years.

Grozny is a growing city of around 275,000 residents, though just before the fall of the Soviet Union there were almost 400,000.

The modern city of Grozny is relatively young in terms of Russian history, as it was originally founded as a fortress for the Russian military on the Sunzha River in 1818. The fort of Groznaya became obselete after a while, and the city of Grozny was granted official town status in 1870.

Just after the end of the October Revolution, a group of Bolsheviks took control of Grozny. Then the White Army came back and took over, until the Caucasus front of the Red Army arrived and pushed back the White Army. From this point on, Russia is the official ruler, though locals didn't always acknowledge or accept that fact.

Toward the end of WW2 the entire population of Chechens were deported or killed on the spot, the death toll was at least 170,000. All the traces of them having lived were destroyed by the NKVD, including books and graveyards. 

After the deportation the USSR moved Russians into the city, making it completely ethnically Russian.

Chechens were allowed to return in 1957, which of course caused massive disruptions in economic, social, and political systems. The returnees didn't think the Russians should be there, and the Russians didn't think the Chechens should be there. Fighting ensued, to the surprise of no one. It went on and on, even when there wasn't anything official happening. 

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Chechnya wanted to be completely independent. At the time, heaps of Russians left the area, as they did many other areas of the former Soviet Union, heading to Russia itself.

The first Chechen War took place from 1994-1996, at the end of which the Russian Army captured Grozny. Though they were officially in charge at that point, there wasn't much of a city to be in charge of. The Russian Air Force had basically bombed the city into smithereens.

Also, even though the Russian Army had officially claimed victory, the Chechens continued fighting, and everything ended in a cease fire. At this point the city was renamed Djohar, and nearly all remaining Russians fled.

There were a couple years of 'normal life' before the second Chechen War broke out, with a Russian seige of the city. In 1999 the Russian military sent missiles into a city market and a maternity ward, killing at least 140 people and officially starting more fighting. 

After a while, Russia closed in, and offered safe passage to the 'militants,' who saw no other option so they accepted.

The Russian military mined the 'safe passage' out of the city, leading to the death of the mayor of Grozny and the local military commander, as well as other 'militants.' At that point, Russia basically snuck in and raised the Russian flag in the city, then continued destroying what little was left. Wikipedia tells me the UN said that Grozny was the most destroyed city on earth in 2003.

Since 2003, pretty much the entire city of Grozny has been rebuilt, with none of the destroyed buildings remaining. The rebuild included the infrastructures of utilities and roads, as well as commercial and residential buildings.

This new city is what I saw, and as a result, I didn't feel like I got to see much of the 'real' Chechnya.

Getting to Grozny didn't go as I expected, I think it was because of weather. Not too long before we were supposed to land in Grozny the pilot on the airplane made an announcement, and I heard the name Mahachkala. 

There was no announcement in English, but as soon as we landed I looked at the map on my phone and it said we were in Mahachkala, not Grozny. Sigh.

Everyone deplaned, then hung out at the gate in the airport, I don't think we were allowed to leave. From what I could tell, the airline was trying to figure out how to get everyone to Grozny, since that was the whole point of the flight. I heard talk about buses, but after a little while they got us queued up again and got back on the plane.

All this to say we landed in Grozny several hours later than planned. Since the original flight was supposed to land at 0500 or so, the delay wasn't a big deal to me. The weather I saw as soon as I walked out of the airport was a huge surprise, it was dumping snow, and quite windy.

I was not wearing waterproof shoes, which I immediately regretted, but oh well, lesson learned for next time. (Later on people told me this snowstorm was NOT typical early November weather, but that didn't make me feel any better.) 

Finding the spot to hop on the bus into the city meant walking through some snow and slush, not fun.

I got off the bus and started walking, feeling pretty comfortable with where I was going. That comfort didn't last long, as my feet got wet and cold pretty quickly. I tried to follow pavements, but they weren't always clear, since the snow covered everything. The map on my phone didn't always have me on streets with pavements, making it even more fun.

The adventure continued when my phone died because it was cold. I tried connecting my external battery, but moisture somehow got into the connection, so that didn't work. I was able to turn the phone on for a few seconds at a time, and eventually got to my accomodation. At that point I was grateful I had spent some time looking at the map ahead of time, so when the phone died I knew I didn't have too much further to go.

I checked in, took off my socks and shoes, put them on the radiator to dry out, and took a nap.

I don't normally do that straightaway, but I needed it. (I also charged my phone and external battery, of course.)

After a while I went back out into the city. Even though I'd dried everything, that didn't last for long after I stepped outside. Instead of walking into the city center I took a marshrutka, which thankfully stopped about a block away from my room. The ride into the city center went as expected, which was a comfort at that point.

My first and only main sight for the day was a huge mosque. 

The Akhmat Kadyrov Mosque (officially known as the Heart of Chechnya,) opened in October of 2008, after four years of construction. It is named for the first president of the Republic of Chechnya, who commissioned the building.

Big mosque. Big big mosque. According to 'them,' it is one of the biggest mosques in Europe.

The Heart of Chechnya architecture was based on classic Ottoman style. The central hall of the mosque is covered by a 32 meter high, 16 meter diameter dome. The minarets are 62 meters tall.

The mosque is supposed to be able to hold 10,000 people, though I always wonder how that number is calculated.

To go in this particular mosque, women have to have a head scarf, and a full body dress. There are headscarves and these coverings to borrow, they even fit over coats. Every woman wearing one basically looked like a female version of the Michelin man. Since you're there to see a religious building, not to have glamour photos, I didn't care. (That being said, some women inside were definitely trying for glamour shots, sigh.)

The inside of the mosque is beautiful, but women don't get to have all the views. Women have to go up to the women's section, which should be a balcony stretching around three sides of the main hall. When I was there, half of this space was blocked off, so women had even less space.

As I was going down the stairs to leave, a group of three men were going up the stairs, which irritated me to no end. It should've been obvious to them that they were the only men on the stairs, but they missed it. I don't speak much Russian, but I stopped in front of them, and told them the area they were going to was the women's area, not for them. It took them a while to understand what I was saying, but eventually they turned around.

There are a number of chandeliers in the main hall, really plush carpet, marble walls and columns with inlays, etc... There were multiple smaller cupolas in addition to the main rotunda. It is designed to be stunning, and it is. 

I just wish I could've seen the entire thing, like men are able to do.

By the time I walked out of the mosque, it was the beginning of dusk. The night lights on the mosque were coming on, and the nearby business district of Grozny City was starting to light up as well. I watched those for a while, then walked along one of the main streets, looking for a place to find dinner food. 

I ended up eating at Makovskiy, a direct copy of McDonald's in everything but name. The decoration was the same, the menu was the same – except for the item names, etc... The slogan was "I need it," which also sounded pretty familiar.

The next morning I took a looong time to get going, whoops. Despite the crazy snow of the day before, much of the sidewalk and street was already dry, which made me feel a lot better. I hopped off the marshrutka at what I thought was the closest point to Lenin park, as it was labeled on the map on my phone.

I walked the rest of the way, which wasn't as short as I wanted it to be, but oh well. At least I thought I walked all the way to the park, but when I got to the boundaries I did not see anything related to a park. Maybe I didn't go far enough, but I didn't see a park. Argh.

I walked up another main street to what was called Journalists Square, which I think was supposed to honour those who had given their lives in honour of that profession. There was a statue in the middle of the area, but not much else. On one corner was a place called Star Cafe, another copyright infringement in a city full of them.

Star Cafe was a copy of Starbucks, down to the same colours of everything. I'm not going to lie, my hot chocolate was cheaper and tastier from Star Cafe than I've ever had from Starbucks, hee hee.

My next stop was labeled as Heroe's Alley on the map. It wasn't an alley, but there were a number of monuments in the area. The middle of the area is a museum dedicated to Kadyrov, they take the man REALLY seriously in Grozny. There is a straight line of smooth stones in front of the entrance to the museum, I found out the hard way that you're not supposed to step on this part of the pavement. 

Its essentially a permanent red carpet for the guy.

On top of the museum is a tall gold obelisk. I wanted to get closer, but the walkway around the rotunda was blocked off. I imagine that was because of the weather, as walking around there would've been super slippery and dangerous as such.

In another area were busts of various military heroes, (both Chechen and Russian I think,) as well as a couple tanks and a statue of a guy on a horse. This section wasn't particularly interesting, I didn't stay long.

Heading back into the city center, I passed a souvenir shop and stepped in. Grozny doesn't get a lot of tourists, I knew I wouldn't have many chances for things like postcards or magnets. While I was in the shop one of the 5 times daily prayer times started, and an employee rolled out a prayer rug in the direction of Mecca and started his prayers.

My next official sight was the National Museum of the Republic of Chechnya. I think the building was purposely built, and it's unique to say the least. After I walked in I had to sit and wait for a few minutes before buying tickets, I never did learn why. 

For all I know, they wanted a woman to deal with me instead of a man, who knows. I wish I spoke enough Russian to ask why, and understand the answer.

The museum was pretty good, though somewhat confusing in how to go through. You start in the basement, and end up on the 2^nd floor, but in the meanwhile there are side halls and a main atrium. I liked each section, it just didn't flow together very well.

I splurged on dinner that night, eating steak because I didn't want more fast food.

The next day I packed up and checked out, and took the now familiar marshrutka into the city center. This was November 4^th, the official observation of Unity Day. After getting off the marshrutka I followed the streams of people walking to the big platz across from the big mosque. Heaps and heaps of people were walking, some were carrying flags (both Chechnya and Russia,) others placards with photos of the current Chechen president, the first Chechen president, or Vladimir Putin. There were so many people walking, I've never seen anything like it.

I didn't follow the crowds though, as my destination for the day was a totally different place. I walked to the central bus station and caught the next marshrutka to a nearby city called Argun.

Along the way I stopped in Flower Park, which didn't really have any flowers at the time. It seemed like the entire park was designed to create a whole bunch of Instagram backgrounds, I imagined they all looked better in late spring, summer, and early fall. 

There was even a section with 'safari animals' covered in fake green grass or something along those lines.

I went to Argun because I wanted to see another huge mosque. The Aimani Kadyrova Heart of Mother Mosque is named for the wife of the first president of the Chechen Republic.

This mosque is quite new, it only opened in 2014, after 3 years of construction. The dome is bigger than the one in Grozny, at 23 meters, but the minarets are 'only' 55 meters. This mosque is supposed to be able to hold 15,000 people, so I guess that makes it bigger than the one in Grozny. 

The city of Argun has just ~30,000 people, so I don't know where all those people would come from.

To go inside the mosque I had to borrow another full body covering robe, but this time I was the only visitor, which was nice. It was completely quiet inside, which I loved. More plush carpet, more chandeliers, and more delicate decoration everywhere.

The women's section was again a balcony overlooking the main floor, but it was quite big, and felt closer to being equal than the area in Grozny. All in all, another mosque designed to impress, and it succeeded.

The mosque is the only thing to see in Argun and I couldn't find a bus stop nearby, so I ended up calling a taxi to get back to Grozny. I got out not too far from the bus station and started walking back in the direction of the city center.

I'd found a park and mosque on the map, but when I got to that spot I discovered they were behind security gates, and seemed to be part of the property of the President's House. Darnit.

At that point I was getting tired of wandering around. Grozny isn't a picturesque city, I didn't feel like I was seeing much of anything worth remembering. 

I walked back to the big platz that had been filled with people in the morning, there were none of them left by the time I got there.

I noticed a very familiar monument on the side of the platz, a stelae designating Grozny as a city of military glory. Given all the fighting that has taken place here, that seemed only right. There was also another war memorial nearby, but I didn't figure out which war that one was dedicated to, if just one war in particular.

From there I went to my third copyright infringement meal, at a place called Crispy. Dead on copy of KFC, with everything identical except the names of the menu items. 

I stayed there for a while, then walked back to Star Cafe for another hot chocolate.

After that I made my way back to the airport, catching bus #111 to get there. Thankfully my flight back to Moscow went as planned, and I only had to wait an hour for the next train back into Moscow to get home.

I would love to return to Chechnya and explore the countryside. There are plenty of villages in the mountains, beautiful lakes, visible culture, etc... The city of Grozny though, I think I've seen all of it that I want to see.