russia: astrakhan

I'm not sure if there was a specific reason we chose to go to Astrakhan. Maybe we liked the name, I really don't know. It was a holiday weekend because of a Russian holiday, (defender of the fatherland day, which generally honours men, especially veterans,) so we wanted to go a bit further than a normal weekend trip.

Astrakhan is nearly 1400 kilometers southeast of Moscow, of course we flew. Our flight landed in the middle of the night, so we found some seats in the airport and tried to sleep, or at least rest a little.

The first mention of Astrakhan was way back in the 13^th century, when it was known by another name I can't pronounce. 

Like so many other parts of western and southern Russia, Astrakhan has a lot of fighting in its history. Tamerlane burnt the city to the ground when the Golden Horde tried to take over the world.

(What is now) Russia first took control of Astrakhan when Ivan the Terrible was in charge, in the mid 16^th century. Soon after he took over he ordered a kremlin to be built on top of the hill; Wikipedia tells me this is considered the founding date of the modern city. There was no interruption in habitation in the area, so I don't know why the founding date isn't earlier. 

Peter the Great had shipyards built in the city, because the location of the city on the Volga made it quite important to shipping and transportation in the area. Catherine the Great increased the industrial aspects of the city as well. In other words, the leaders of Russia recognized the geopolitical importantance of Astrakhan from the very beginning.

When morning rolled around and we decided to find public transport into the city we were thrilled to find a giant city sign right outside the airport. We never turn down a team photo at a city sign.

It was easy to find the bus stop, then take a marshrutka right into the city. We hopped off next to one side of the kremlin, then started walking in the direction of our accomodation. The kremlin of Astrakhan is probably the most identifiable place in the city, and its appearance hasn't changed much throughout history. Long white stone walls.

We passed a Lenin statue, next to another side of the kremlin. Even though Lenin statues around the country (even around the world,) generally look the same, we're still fascinated and still usually take a photo.

We found the hotel we booked easily enough, though our request/insistence that we not be registered wasn't so easy for the hotel to deal with. Since all three of us are foreigners, we are supposed to be registered everywhere we go, and we're supposed to be registered where each of us lives in Moscow.

My landlady in Moscow won't register me, I have to pay someone else to register me somewhere in the city. If I am registered in another city, it means I have to re-register when I get back to Moscow, meaning I have to pay again. As much as I'm traveling this year, I can't afford to get registered each time I come back to Moscow.

Howeva, I could also see where the hotel was coming from, as the law says they are supposed to register everyone who comes through, especially foreigners. A little creativity and the problem was solved with money, and we were able to check in.

After relaxing for a bit, we started walking again, following one of the canals running through the city. Most of it was frozen, which was awesome. It was even more awesome when we came across a group playing ice hockey. Very fun to watch for a few minutes. As Angela is from Canada, and is a hockey fan in general, she loved it even more than Claire and I did.

From the canal we walked up the hill, to the entrance gate of the kremlin. Entrance to the property was free, woo hoo. The interior of the kremlin was somewhat standard, with a couple churches and other buildings that are now museums.

We wanted to go in one of the churches, but discovered the main level was closed. Only the lower level was open, but it was still pretty nice. We could see that the upper level had a lot of windows, which means it is probably beautiful inside, but who knows.

We wanted to see a few of the museums, but when we tried to buy tickets we discovered that not all of them were open, argh. We ended up buying tickets for what was open, only two museums.

One of the open museums was called the guardhouse museum, which had some dioramas of daily life at various points in the history of the area. We got to see some of the uniforms worn by soldiers who had fought for different groups, and items they used.

The other museum was in the cellar of a building, I'm not all that sure what it was supposed to be about. Oh well.

Our next sight ended up on our list because I saw it on a magnet and asked the lady selling the magnet where it was located. Russia is full of victory arches, commemorating the many battles in the history of the country.

A minute after we arrived at the arch, a wedding party arrived as well. We were able to take a team photo before they took over the area. (They recognized what we wanted to do, and that it wouldn't take long.) There was a fountain on one side of the arch, but since it was the end of February the fountain wasn't running.

Behind the arch was a heroes alley, with busts of local heroes lined up on pedestals. As always, I didn't recognize the names, and told myself I'd look them up later, but (as always,) that didn't happen.

At the other end of the 'alley' was a statue of Peter the 1^st. I think the statue generally marks the beginning of the riverfront esplanade along the Volga River. The boardwalk has been developed quite nicely, with quirky statues at various points, and nice views of the river.

At the other end of the riverwalk was a sushi place where we opted to have dinner. 

Even though it was only 1800 or so, we were exhausted, and struggled not to fall asleep at dinner.

The room rate we'd paid included breakfast, but it wasn't much. I only had oatmeal, sigh.

We started our day by walking to Victory Square, though part of the Muslim Quarter. We walked past a couple markets, and over a couple canals too.

Our arrival at Victory Square was not at all impressive. A thick level of dirt covered everything, it was not pretty at all. I'm hoping that's just because it was the end of February and the city hadn't done any spring cleaning yet.

From the square (which wasn't a square, it was just an area in the middle of the road,) we could see onion domes, so that's where we went next. St John the Baptist monastery had a red brick exterior with gold and maroon domes. I thought it was super ugly outside, but the inside was absolutely lovely. A dark wood iconostasis, with walls and ceilings of sea green. One part of the ceiling was covered by a painting of a double headed eagle.

Quite a bit more walking brought us to another 'park.' I put that in quotes because it was basically a small square with some benches and trees, and a big memorial. 

The memorial honours those who fought from 1919-1921.

Not far from this 'park' we saw more walls that made us think of a kremlin or monastery. We finally found an open entrance, but weren't able to go very far in. I couldn't tell if it was abandoned, or protected, as looked empty, but there was a security gate too. Weird.

We kept going to get to our last sight: the frog and toad museum. Add this one to the quirky museums of Russia list you didn't know you had. (Like the fairytale museum in Rostov Veliky.) 

It wasn't much of anything, basically just a collection of all things frog and toad. Heaps and heaps of figurines, and some games in the last room.

This museum wasn't far from the sushi place at which we'd eaten dinner the night before, and the food had been decent, so we decided to go back for another dinner. The food was fine, and we didn't have to wait too long.

The bus stop for a bus to take us back to the airport wasn't too far from the restaurant, we were already at the bus stop when I realized I'd left my backpack at the restaurant. Eeeek. Thankfully the bus to the airport came every 15 minutes or so, so I had time to run back and get my backpack, and still be able to catch the next bus. Phew.

Our flight back to Moscow was easy, as was getting back home for each of us. I don't think I need to come back to Astrakhan, but it was a nice weekend.