russia: a moscow monastery and old house

I'm not sure how I got motivated on a Monday morning to go see something, but I did. Not surprisingly, I got started later than I should have, but oh well, life goes on. The place I wanted to see was just a small house, called Pogodinskaya Izba. 

The name doesn't really translate, other than izba meaning the word hut.

It's a cute, wooden house, painted blue. I suppose what makes it aesthetically interesting is that it's quite small, and is in the middle of a huge, international city.

There are two reasons people want to see this house, based on the google reviews. One, the house dates all the way back to 1856, which is pretty impressive in a city like Moscow. And two, famous writers like Tolstoy and Gogol have visited the house.

Pogodinskaya izba used to be a museum, but from what I can tell, it isn't much of anything anymore, just a blue, wooden house.

Even though I was running late in getting to school, I couldn't help but stop to take a photo of a random war memorial as I ran to the metro station.

The next day was Tuesday, which meant I had the afternoon off. I spent a couple hours at school doing random stuff, but then went to the metro and rode to a stop near Donskoy Monastery.

Donskoy Monastery dates back to the end of the 16^th century, when the first cathedral was consecrated.

Fun fact, years later another cathedral was built; designed by Ukrainian masons and artisans. Another fun fact: the frescoes in the 'new' cathdral were the first in Moscow to be painted by a foreigner, Antonio Claudio.

There are a couple other churches within the walls, I think. One of them seems to be mostly to house the mausoleum of someone, though it does have a small gold iconostasis in its lower level. I will admit to being really cold when I stepped into this church, so some of my time inside was simply to get feeling back in my fingers. 

The whole monastery is surrounded by brick walls, they're really impressive. To get into the property you walk through the base of the bell tower, which is plenty impressive all by itself.

The 20^th century was not a happy one for the monastery. The complex was closed after the October Revolution, in 1917. From 1922 - 1925 Patriarch Tikhon was held in the cloister after his arrest, and he chose to stay there after his release. He was later made a saint by the church, and his relics were found after his canonization, in 1989.

Wikipedia tells me some of the buildings in the monastery served as a penal colony for children. During the Communist years of 1930-1946 the church was closed for services and instead housed a factory. I haven't found a date when the monastery started functioning as a religious organization again, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was sometime in the '90s.

There is a large cemetery area inside the walls of the monastery, some of the grave markers were quite large. I would've walked through a bit more, but everything was still covered in snow. 

Some of those buried here include former noble families like Zubov and Galitzine. (No, I don't know those names, but maybe someone reading this does.) There are no communists buried within the walls, so the families of some Russian Whites decided to have their remains repatriated from other countries and reburied here. Apparently Solzhenitsyn wanted to be buried in this cemetery for the same reason, rather than Novodevichy cemetery, which is associated with Communism.

On my way back home I was 'happy' to see the police officers keeping everyone 'safe' in the metro. 

russia: saransk

Saransk is not on most people's list of places to go in Russia. I'm pretty sure the only reason anyone outside of Russia has heard of the city is because it was one of the host cities for the World Cup in 2018. That's the reason I wanted to visit :)

Saransk is about 650 kilometers southeast of Moscow, with more than 300,000 residents. The city was first founded as a fortress, called Atemar, in 1641. At the time, this fortress represented the southeast border of the Russian Empire. It took all the way until 1780 for the town to be granted official status.

During WW2, Saransk was the furthest battle line of the Battle of Moscow, but the German Wehrmakt never got that far. That being said, a lot of the city was destroyed during the Great Patriotic War, so the city centre was rebuilt by Soviet planners during the 1960s and 1970s.

The rebuild was in Soviet style, meaning wide boulevards and big residential areas were added to the original city plan.

The train station in Saransk feels quite new, though the architecture reminded me of a grand train station like I've been lucky enough to see all over Russia. 

This particular station was painted red, which was a first for me.

My train arrived after daylight, so other than getting hot chocolate inside the station, I didn't stay inside. I wasn't able to walk out the front of the station, even though there was a door there. To get out of the property you walk out the back, then off to a gate on the side. Is it always like that? Why do you have to exit this way? I noticed an x-ray machine in a small shack of sorts, which made sense for security when entering, but why have everyone exit this way as well?

From there I followed the main street as I walked into the city center. Since this was Saturday morning it was pretty quiet. Only half the bakeries I walked past were open, those that opened at 0700. Those opening at 0900 nearly all looked better (as much as I could see through the windows,) but I had to go with what was open :)

I finally got to the end of the street, (Lenin street, this time,) where it meets up with a big square, and Lenin on the other side of the square. This particular Lenin was painted gold, which just looked odd. 

I've seen him painted gold before, and silver too, and I never think it looks right. Just leave the man alone.

I was there early enough that no one else was around, which was kinda awesome. I love it when cities are still asleep when I arrive.

Lenin was on one side of this square (actually a rectangle, but names of these are never rectangle, they're always square,) while the main government buildings were on the other sides. (I think they were the local parliament and the House of Soviets.) 

Even though the World Cup tournament took place in June of 2018, and it was now October of 2019, some of the decorations for that event were still on display around this square.

My favourite was a city sign that said I love Saransk, with the mascot reaching out for a high five. Hard to describe, but I'm better with a camera than I am with words.

More walking brought me to the war memorial area. There was a war memorial museum, not open yet, as well as several large memorials, each dedicated to specific aspects of the Great Patriotic War. 

The biggest memorial had an eternal flame, which is a pretty standard part of a WW2 memorial in Russia. Off one side of this area was a small statue of a guy, dedicated to WW1, a memorial that doesn't happen nearly as often in Russia.

Not too far from the memorials was a big cathedral. You can't miss the cathedral, as it is huge, with gold domes on top. It looked new to me, partly because the colours outside were so bright and clean. After going inside I was almost positive that it was new, as the gold iconostasis was bright and clean, but there weren't any frescoes on the walls or ceilings.

After the cathedral I wanted to find a coffee shop, but there weren't any nearby, so I gave up that idea pretty quickly. Argh. Instead, I headed down a hill, and made my way toward a big park. I'm not sure what the park was called, as the map wasn't very clear.

There was a pond on one side of the park, which gave me a fantastic reflection as I approached. A trout's belly sky, autumn trees, and a ferris wheel all combined for one of my favourite photos of the whole weekend.

Just inside the entry of the park was another Lenin statue, this one looked 'normal,' and tucked into a small area. At that point, instead of going further into the park, I cross the street, and headed toward some interesting looking buildings over there.

None of these buildings ended up being amazing, but it was fun to explore. I found an ice rink, a swimming pool, and another memorial of some kind. Clearly sports are a big thing in this city. 

After that I made my way back up to the cathedral, then walked on the other side of the church. It didn't take long to get to Saransk Arena, a big football arena and the platz around it. On one side of the arena was another city sign, in the same style as those I've seen in other World Cup host cities. Fun fun fun. I wonder who made the decisions for these sorts of decorations for that tournament.

I walked up another street, passing a nice looking theatre on one side. (Also painted red, it somehow reminded me of the train station.)

Eventually I got to a walkway in the middle of a street, it made me think of an alley of heroes. There were posters of different people all the way up the walkway, I think they were people involved in WW2.

From there I walked. And walked and walked and walked. Then walked some more. I walked all the way until I got to a church. The walk from the arena all the way to the church ended up being around 7 kilometers. Considering how far I'd already walked that day, I was starting to feel it.

Anywho, the Church of Our Lady of the Kazan Icon (or something like that, the names always confuse me,) was light blue and white outside, with dark blue and gold domes. There was a tall bell tower on the front side. The inside of the church wasn't nearly as big as I thought it would be, it was quite narrow. The iconostasis up front was a light wood colour, not as eye catching as I was expecting.

From there I walked another two kilometers, in the same direction from which I'd come. I wanted a photo with a really big city sign I'd seen along the way, just because I could. 

Who doesn't love a big city sign in the middle of a traffic circle? I'm pretty sure every driver going past gave me a funny look as I set up my tripod, oh well.

At that point I was done with walking, well, almost. I walked to the nearest bus station, then hopped on the bus that would get me the closest to the accomodation I'd booked. It took me a bit to find my hostel, so I was a bit grumpy, but once I checked in and was able to drop my bag I was a happy camper again.

After hanging out for an hour (mostly to charge my phone,) I started walking again, heading toward the park I'd barely entered earlier that day. When I entered from the back side I saw a sign labeling it as Pushkin Park, which was enough for me to use that name. There were some fun wooden sculptures throughout the park, I admired the artistry it took to create them.

Next up was a museum. The entry fee to the Museum of Mordovian Culture was only 100 rubles, woo hoo. 

There were no other visitors at the time, and the employees looked at me as if they were thinking 'why is she here?' It didn't take long to go through the museum, but I enjoyed what I saw.

The traditional clothing was what caught my eye the most, I wonder if those are ever worn these days. Do most people in the Republic of Mordovia (of which Saransk is the capital,) own traditional clothing anymore?

After the museum I went to a steak restaurant for dinner. This was one of the few times I did any advance research about where I was going to eat during a weekend trip. 

Called the Big Pig, they had an English menu, and the food was plated beautifully. I really liked the dessert, and decided I would go back the next night :)

Considering how far I'd walked that day, I was impressed when I left the hostel by 1040 the next day. The easiest way to get back to the city center was to walk through Pushkin Park again, this time I took a photo with the Lenin I'd barely seen the day before.

I walked up the hill from there, through the war memorial area, past the cathedral, and up another street. 

My first sight of the day was an art museum, named for a guy called Enzi. The entry fee was 200 rubles, and there was no foreigner fee.

The museum ended up being much bigger than I expected. The different sections seemed to be divided by type of art, rather than artist or chronology. There was a sculpture room, which included a wooden sculpture of Lenin's head. There was an area with paintings, I like those depicting traditional Mordovian life. There was also a Russian classical section, much more of the typical art museum exhibits I'm used to seeing. 

The last section of the museum was the biggest section, with contemporary art. I would've been happy to pay my entry fee just for this area. For some reason, I really liked a lot of the exhibits in the part of the museum. (That being said, by the time I left, I was completed arted out.)

From there I walked back to the war memorial area, so I could go to the museum. The architecture is quirky, to say the least. There was no entry fee, which was awesome. That told me they were keen to educate people who visit, and that money wasn't the focus of the museum.

Awesome. This museum wasn't big, and the focus is a sculpture and stained glass window you see as soon as you walk in.

The second floor is filled with momentos from the Great Patriotic War. Medals and photos and pipes and shoes and uniforms and permits and just about anything else you can think of that soldiers had during the war. One of the docents tried to give me a mini tour, but I admit I didn't pay as much attention as I should have.

After leaving the memorial museum, I kept walking. Eventually I got to theatre square, basically just a small platz in front of a theatre, with a fountain in the middle. 

The fountain was across the street from a plane that had been mounted as a memorial; this was the other end of the alley of heroes I'd seen the day before.

I kept going, crossing a bridge to get to another church. The church was sea green outside, and the inside was quite boring because it was under renovation. I like that people were still coming to pray, even though the main area was being redone.

At that point I felt like I'd seen most of the city, and I was ready to eat. 

I'd really enjoyed my dinner the night before, and had been dreaming of my next dinner all day; I felt as if I'd seen enough to justify calling it a day and going to dinner.

I ordered different food, and while it wasn't as good as the first night, it was still really good. I also got myself a dessert to go, just because I could. Hee hee. I ate too much, but since I had a long-ish walk to get back to the train station, I didn't care.

Getting back to the train station was easy, and the rest of the night went as expected. 

I doubt I'll come back to Saransk, as I don't think it would be noticeably different in another season, but I've learned never say never. Maybe there are other areas of Mordovia that I should explore. That being said, I was happily surprised with how much I'd been able to see, how much there was to see, and how much I'd enjoyed the weekend. 

russia: moscow: moscow city stairs and moscow central circle

A touring Tuesday afternoon knocking a couple random places in Moscow off my list. The first was a church I've walked past heaps of times, near one entrance of Ploshchad Revolutsii metro station. 

After the church, I walked to Red Square, which was hosting a fall festival. It was quite lame compared to other festivals I've seen in this city. Basically a few spots with cute Instagram type backgrounds for people to take photos, and a few stalls selling 'traditional' food. 

Moscow City is a business district of Moscow, there are plenty of skyline photos of the area. I'd seen a photo on social media of a small amphitheatre in this area, I wanted to see it for myself. 

The weather was good, it was early fall so the few trees I saw were starting to change colour, and were beautiful.I know I've written this in previous posts, but one of my goals while living in Moscow is to see every metro station.

There are two circle metro lines, I'd already seen the inner one, the brown line. This time I rode the entire way around the Moscow Central Circle (MCC) but wasn't as impressed as I usually am when touring metro stations.

Nearly all the stations on this line were outdoors, and quite similar to commuter train stations I've seen in other countries. Definitely not the excellence I'm used to seeing in Moscow.

russia: moscow: park dubky on a fall weekend

I came back to Moscow at the end of August, and immediately went back to my habit of traveling and exploring every weekend. After several weekends of going out of town, I decided to stay in Moscow for a weekend.

Go figure, the weather was not good most of the weekend, so I didn't get out to see very much at all. In fact, I only left my flat for a little over three hours during the entire weekend. Whoops!

In previous posts I think I've mentioned the beauty of fall in Russia. There are heaps of trees and forested areas, so the rainbow of colours in fall is awesome. The season came a little earlier than last year, many of the trees have already changed colours, and some have even dropped their leaves.

I saw a post on social media not too long ago talking about places in Moscow to take pretty fall pictures, and one of the places mentioned was Park Dubky. I hadn't been to this park previously, so it seemed like as good a choice as any for somewhere new to go.

It was easy to take the metro to a nearby station, then walk to the park. On the way to the park I passed a wooden church, which looked pretty new. The wood was still very clean, and just looked new. There was no place for me to step back a bit and take a photo of the entire church, oh well.

I'm glad I decided to go to Park Dubky when I did. When I got there I realized nearly all the trees were all yellowish/orange. Waiting another week would've meant fall colours were gone.

I noticed an outdoor gym in one area, there were a few people working out in the chilly weather. Nearby I saw a small hill, with stairs going up to the top. I'm not sure why such a small hill exists in the city, but oh well.

Further into the park I came to two small ponds. They weren't particularly beautiful by themselves, but they both had nice reflections of the nearby fall trees. I was thrilled, even more so when I saw that there weren't other people in the frames of the photos I wanted to take.

After enjoying the ponds a bit, I walked out the other side of the park. There were a couple sets of tram tracks with fall coloured trees on either side of the tracks. It turns out the social media post I'd seen had been right about this being a good place to take photos.

It was a short outing, but a nice one.

russia: moscow with a visitor

I like having visitors, particularly those who are already independent travelers in their own right. This is important because visitors need to be able to entertain themselves during the day while I'm at work.

Sometime in early summer my friend Rachel messaged me asking about potentially coming to Russia. She'd found dates with cheap flights, and was keen to come. I was thrilled, as Rachel has lived in numerous countries as well, as well as having done lots of other international traveler.

It wasn't hard to get the paperwork she needed for her visa, and we got the dates set, and life was good. Rachel's flight arrived Monday evening, it was easy for me to meet her at the airport after school finished for the day.

The next morning Rachel slept in a bit while I worked, then met met at lunch. We had lunch with a couple other teachers, everyone got along well. After lunch we walked to Red Square. I've been there plenty of times, but I'm always willing to go back.

Every visitor to Moscow should see Red Square, it's one of the iconic spots in the city. It seems to me that many international media broadcasts about Russia are done from in or near Red Square. The photos of St Basil's cathedral at one end are well known, everyone takes one.

We also checked out GUM, the state department store on one side of the square. The mall is always decorated for the season or holiday, I like seeing what the current decorations look like.

After GUM we walked to Zaryadye Park, one of the newest parks in the city. Fun to wander around, partly to people watch and partly just to walk. Much of the park is carefully landscaped, and there are regular decorations put in, so it's always interesting to see.

After leaving the park we walked toward Christ the Saviour Cathedral, which is big and has gold domes on top. It's a fairly new church, though there is a long religious history in the actual location. I don't know why, but the doors were locked when we got there, argh. Oh well.

The next day Rachel did a bike tour around the city while I worked all day. Thursday night we had drinks at a bar near work, then went to a diner for dinner. Yum.

That weekend we took the train up to St Petersburg, arriving back in Moscow Monday morning. Dinner Monday night was at Cafe Soup. This place does have 'real' food on the menu, but the focus is the 44 different types of soup. They even have the option of a 'soup flight' like you can get a beer flight at a brewery.

I'm happy to admit I liked my dessert soup even more than my main course soup, which was already pretty good.Tuesday I did my normal teaching in the morning, then met Rachel again for lunch. We went to an Asian restaurant I like, enjoying huge bowls of pho.

From there we hopped back on the metro, going out to Izmailovo. I've been there enough times that I'm not a huge fan anymore, but I do think it's a neat place for visitors to explore. Izmailovo has a great market for souvenirs, though since the weather wasn't great while we were there, and it was low season, there weren't as many vendors as usual.

Far better than the market area is the park, which is basically across the road. (Thought you have to go a long way around to get into the property.) It was still raining, but I Rachel was okay with walking in the rain if I was, and I didn't want to hold her back on her last day in Russia.

We walked around the island in the middle of Izmailovo park, and ended up with a decent sunset looking back over Izmailovo market.

From there we went to another great dinner at a place called Lepim i Varim. Rachel loves researching places to eat when she travels, while I don't give it as much thought. Since the soup place had been so awesome I had no trouble following her to what she'd picked out for this last dinner.

Lepim i Varim specializes in pelmeni, basically Russian dumplings. I'm not a huge fan, because most of those I've had in Russia have been from a place where the smell is always slightly off. Going to this restaurant totally changed my mind.

Both of us ordered two main course bowls of pelmeni, and a dessert bowl of pelmeni. YUM. (And Instagram worthy, hee hee.)

The next morning I was sad to put Rachel in a taxi to the airport. Since her visa is good for three years, I hope to see her again in Russia before I move out of the country.