transnistria: tiraspol and bendery

I've been fascinated with geopolitics for a long time. I love learning about how people view themselves, and when those views become strong enough to want to be separate. I think there are 195 official countries (as defined by the UN,) in the world, though there are a number of territories and areas that function as separate entities, but are not internationally recognized as separate. There are two more countries that are recognized by some others, but not enough of the rest of the world to be considered officially recognized countries: Taiwan and Kosovo.

It's the separate areas that fascinate me the most, those that function by themselves, but have little to no official recognition. I took a few days to visit one of them, which calls itself the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. The short name used more often is Transnistria, which is a whole lot easier to say.

Transnistria is basically the easternmost sliver of Moldova. Most of the republic is on the eastern side of the Dniester River, between the river and the Ukrainian border. Moldovan law actually defines the area, and designates it as an autonomous part of Moldova. In reality, Transnistria functions as a completely separate country.

The history of Transnistria is complicated, as are the histories of many countries in this part of the world. The area has been part of Ukraine, Moldova, and more. The capital city of Tiraspol was probably founded all the way back in 600BC, so there has been habitation here for a very very long time.

I reckon most people don't really know where Transnistria is, and have only a vague recollection of the name. This vague recognition probably comes from the early 90s, when the collapse of the Soviet Union caused total chaos in this part of the world. 

Former Soviet republics were struggling to figure out independence, and areas like Transnistria wanted to separate from Moldova, which was basically a new country anywho.

My journey started with a flight from Moscow to Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. The flight was in the middle of the night, which wasn't as bad as it sounds. After hanging out in the airport for a few hours it was easy to catch a marshrutka to the city center, getting off at a stop near the central bus station. From there it was easy to get on a marshrutka to Tiraspol. The hardest part was figuring out how much I was supposed to pay, as I don't understand Moldovan.

The drive from Chisinau to Tiraspol is easy, though a bit nervewracking when you get to the official border. Since Transnistria is not officially recognized, there is no stamping of passports when you 'leave' Moldova. Moldova doesn't even have border control officers at the border. Transnistrian soldiers investigate your passport, and print out a paper visa for your visit.

The soldiers at the border asked me where I was staying, so I'm glad I had booked a place ahead of time. It seemed like there was a list of some sort, because the name of the place I had booked was familiar to the guy. 

He also asked how many days I planned to stay, that information went into a computer as well. The paper visa goes in your passport, then you give it back when you leave Transnistria. Passport stamp geeks like me wish there was a stamp, but I understand why there isn't. Maybe sometime in the future.

I stayed on the marshrutka as it went through the city of Tiraspol, only getting off at the last stop, which happened to be the train station. As I'm a sucker for train stations, I walked through the train station before turning around and walking in the general direction of my accomodation.

Since I'd known I wouldn't have service for my phone, I'd dowloaded maps to my phone ahead of time, which made it easy to figure out where to go. Thank goodness for modern technology. Not far from the train station I noticed a sign (in Russian, English, and Moldovan,) pointing to a tourist information center. I had a general idea of what I wanted to see in the city, but I figured it would be a good idea to see what the info center had.

It was a great idea to walk into the tourist information center. They gave me a paper map of the city, as well as information about specific buses to go to other cities, and where some things were located. 

They spoke good English, I had no troubles with communication.

I checked into my accomodation and ended up taking a short nap. This is when I point out that the local temperature was over 30C in Tiraspol, significantly warmer and more humid than Moscow. I don't like taking naps, but my body needed the rest after the lack of sleep, and increased temperatures and humidity.

Eventually I started walking and exploring, I didn't end up spending that much time walking that day. Definitely not as long as I should've explored. Oh well. I started by walking toward Pobeda Park. 

Heaps of Russian cities have this kind of a park. More often than not there is a WW2 memorial in this park, but that wasn't the case in Tiraspol. There wasn't much of anything in the park, though I did appreciate the entrance gate. There weren't many people in the park either, but that was probably because of the heat.

I exchanged money not far from the park. Since Transnistria isn't officially recognized, they don't have an internationally recognized bank. I saw a couple ATMs, but I think they dispensed Moldovan lei, which wouldn't have been very useful. 

Transnistria does have their own currency, called the ruble. It's value is pegged to the Moldovan lei, the ruble is slightly stronger than the lei. I exchanged Russian rubles for Transnistrian rubles, hoping that I guessed right about how much I would need for three days.

Leaving the park I made my way to one of the main streets of the city: 25 October street. The date is from Russian history, as it is the date in 1917 when the Bolsheviks captured the Winter Palace in St Petersburg and therefore took control of the country.

Walking the length of 25 October street takes you past nearly everything there is to see in Tiraspol. I saw the front of the theatre, which was quite grand. I walked past the House of Soviets, stopping to take a photo because there was a bust of Lenin in front. Another grand building, typical of every house of Soviets I've seen.

I walked into a bookstore, most of the books were in Russian. I found a city sign, and took a photo even though I'm pretty sure I had sweat rolling off me by that point. 25 October street doesn't have shady places to walk, the direct sun was soooo hot.

A block off this street, not far from the city sign I found a supermarket. I was absolutely thrilled to see a few products from Ukraine, as those don't exist in Russia these days. It was air conditioned, which felt absolutely fantastic at that point. I was disappointed in the yogurt selection, there weren't many options. 

I love visiting supermarkets in general, and the chance to buy liquid was sorely needed by this point.

After gulping down a lot of water, I kept going. I found the city house of culture, small but grand. It was right next to another park area, this one with no shade whatsoeva. At one end of the mark was a monument with a guy on a horse, as well as flags of all the regions in Transnistria. There was also a series of flags with Russian colours right next to an identical series of flags with Transnistrian colours. There were giant flags of the countries of Transnistria as well as Russia, flying at the same height.

I kept going down the street, coming to the parliament building for Transnistria. In front of the building is a big statue of Lenin, of course I took a few photos. He stands on a tall pedestal, you have to back up quite a bit to get all of him in a photo, with parliament in the background.

Across the street from parliament was the war memorial I knew had to be somewhere in the city. I found a tank, an eternal flame, names carved in stone, etc... One part of the area was a separate memorial for soldiers who died during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.  Transnistria was under Soviet control when that war happened (I think,) so this memorial makes sense.

On the other side of the war memorial area was the river. I could see some man made beach areas, I kinda wished I had brought a bikini to lay out and actually enjoy the sun. I have no idea whether it is a good idea to go in the water or not.

Even though I'd only been outside for around 3 hours by then, I was exhausted. My lower legs were showing the rash I get from heat exhaustion, so I knew it was time to head back home. I stopped at a restaurant for dinner, enjoying the air conditioning more than anything. I crashed hard that night, which is typical for the first night of any trip for me.

The next morning I made it a point to get going earlier in the morning than I usually do, to make up for lost time the day before. I walked back to the supermarket, loading up on more liquid and snacks for the day. From there I walked to a stop to catch a marshrutka to a town called Bender (or Bendery, depending on who you ask.)

I got off the marshrutka near the center of Bender, hoping it wouldn't be hard to find where to catch one going back to Tiraspol later in the day.

First up for me was walking along Lenin Street, to the Lenin statue. He hadn't been cleaned in a while, I could see a lot of yellow pollen dust all over the statue. Ick. I kept going, all the way to the end of the street, where I found a train station.

This train station was much better than the one I'd seen in Tiraspol, though I think it gets far less traffic. 

There was no one inside while I was there, but the doors were unlocked, and I could see signs designating a ticket office, so there had to be someone I couldn't see. The stairs and ceiling were quite grand, I was thrilled.

On one side of the train station was a train monument, as well as a war memorial. Very similar to what I've seen in various Russian cities. On the way back to the city center of Bender I looked at some of the street signs on the buildings. More than one of them listed names in Russian and Moldovan, as well as historical names of the street. I love that kind of stuff.

I walked to a big traffic circle, in the middle of which was a stelae showing that Bender is a city of military glory. I didn't know that designation happened outside of Russia, but it obviously does. On one side of the traffic circle was an older tank, with another war memorial. Again, typical of a Russian city.

From there it was a looooong walk to my next sight, in very little shade. I was really glad I'd brought water with me, and even happier when I saw another supermarket just as I got to where I wanted to go next.

I love big monuments, this one definitely qualified. It was a victory arch, like those I've seen in Moscow and St Petersburg and Irkutsk and Astrakhan, etc... Just past the arch was another big gate of sorts, the gate marked the entry of a military cemetery. I would've walked through more of the cemetery, but it was now the middle of the day, and the sun was strong. Instead I headed for the supermarket across the road.

Inside the supermarket I walked around until I found a vent from which cold air streamed out. I stood under that for a good five minutes, it felt incredible. 

Ice cream and more water were the perfect purchases. I noticed chocolate for sale, how does anyone eat that in this weather?

Then I got to suffer through more sun to walk to the last place I wanted to see in Bender: a fortress. There was a much higher entry fee for foreigners, something that never fails to irritate me. This fortress is the first thing to visit on tourism lists, but I wasn't as impressed as I wanted to be. It had been renovated not too long ago, and I felt like it looked new.

This fortress goes all the way back to when this area was part of the Ottoman Empire. 

The outer walls have been rebuilt, as have the towers in various places. You can climb stairs to a walkway along the top of half the walls. There isn't much in the middle of the grounds, it is mostly green grass with a couple walkways. Honestly, I didn't think it was worth the entry fee.

There was a church near the fortress, but it wasn't open, argh.

As I walked back into the center of Bender, I followed a couple buses/marshrutkas and found the main starting point for city buses, and from there it was easy to get back to Tiraspol. 

Since I'd enjoyed my dinner the night before, I went back to the same place :)

Before going to sleep that night I made a specific list of what I wanted to see the next day, my last day in Transnistria.

The next morning I was up early again, and actually managed to get myself out the door by mid morning. First on the list was a photo at the city sign for Bender, then a stop at another, much bigger city sign for Tiraspol. Those two signs weren't all that far from each other, the cities aren't far from each other.

My first sight back in the city of Tiraspol was a history museum. I was disappointed again to find another foreigner entry fee, sigh. Nothing was in English, so my extra money went I don't know where. The foreigner price was three times the local price, so I feel like I have a legitimate complaint there.

The museum was decent. There were several rooms with different parts of Transnistrian history. I saw traditional Ukrainian clothing and culture, uniforms of soldiers from various wars, products produced in Transnistria, etc... Looking out the window in one of the back rooms I was thrilled to see another statue of Lenin.

After leaving the museum I tried to figure out how to get to Lenin. It turned out that the statue was in an area behind a locked gate, sigh. As I walked by that gate, it opened, and a truck drove through. I took the chance to walk through at the same time, and eventually found an open door. Employees were standing just outside the door, taking a smoke break. In my very broken Russian I asked them if I could get closer to Lenin and take a photo. Yay!!

The history museum was really close to the war memorial area I'd seen a couple days before, and that area was close to a bridge over the river. 

I walked across the bridge, to a marshrutka stop on the other side of the river. It was easy to catch a ride to my next and last stop for this trip: a monastery.

Noul Neamt monastery was founded in 1861, and has somehow survived, even though the area was under decidedly non religious Soviet control for a long time. During those years, from around 1960 to 1991, the monastery served as a hospital. The entire monastery is surrounded by brick walls. I found the entry gate and walked into a nice garden area. 

The inside of one wall was covered in a religious mosaic mural. 

The property isn't big, but manages to hold at least two churches, a bell tower with lovely painting, and what I assume are accomodations for the monks. I didn't see anyone else the entire time I walked around, but I'm sure someone had to be there. One of the churches was open, the other was not. The interior of the open church was totally covered in frescoes, and light streamed in, so I was a happy camper.

I left the monastery and went back to the main street to find a stop to catch the next marshrutka back to Tiraspol. The ride wasn't long, but it was longer than I would've wanted to walk, if I"d had the time to do so.

My timing ended up being on point, as I only had to wait a couple minutes for the next marshrutka to come along. 

I got back to Tiraspol in time to have one more meal at the same restaurant I'd already visited twice, then grab my backpack from the hostel, and walk to the train station.

I didn't have to wait long for the next ride to Chisinau, and from the central bus station there it was easy (and cheap!) to get back to the airport.

I wonder if other cities in Transnistria are worth exploring?

russia: moscow: kuskovo, goodbye, and an afternoon walk

This weekend was the end of a great two years of exploring Russia with Claire, and one year of exploring with Angela. The three of us had been living together for almost two weeks, so in that sense we were ready to split up, but it was a bit weird knowing that this was my last time with them for the forseeable future.

After the failed attempt at going to a museum estate last weekend, Claire and I wanted to try again. This time we chose to ride the metro to the closest stop, then walk for a while. The metro doesn't randomly skip stations unless the information has been made public for quite a while.

Kuskovo was the summer country house estate of the Sheremetev family. I can't help but wonder if they referred to it as their dacha, or cottage. I don't know where the 'regular' house was for the family.

The property came into Sheremetev family possession in the 17^th century, under Field Marshal Boris Petrovich Sheremetev. At the time, there was already a church, several ponds, and a house on the property. I assume that house was impressive for the time, but wouldn't be now. Just having your own property back in the 17th century meant quite a bit. 

The current palace was built by the son, Petr Borisovich Sheremetev. He was one of the richest people in the entire country, and wanted to make sure everyone knew it when looking at his palace. According to Wikipedia, when he ordered the palace to be built, he ordered that it be bigger and more beautiful than the estates of other nobles, and equal to the residences of the tsars.

Building everything on the estate took around 60 years, as the estate itself is over 740 acres; the palace work was begun in 1754.

After a long walk (during which we saw at least one church, several supermarkets, and a sign to an entrance of a specific regions of the city,) from the metro to the entrance gates of the property, we found ourselves with the standard multiple ticket options for visiting a state like this. It's annoying, but I guess Russians are used to it. There is a ticket that just allows entrance to the property, which is good if you want to have a family picnic, or something like that. Russians like to have picnics with family and friends, as most Russian homes aren't that big, and being social means getting out of the house.

We bought the ticket that gave us access to the property, and the main palace. There are a couple other buildings on the property with ticketed entrance, but we weren't in the mood. To me, it looked like the buildings are mostly arranged around a rectangular, landscaped garden in the middle.

Almost as soon as we entered the property Claire and I found ourselves trying to avoid getting in the frame of photographers taking wedding photos. During the first 30 minutes alone we counted at least 5 couples having photos taken, and that was just outside. 

It seemed all of them were shooting daggers with their eyes at the regular folks wandering around, which was annoying. We paid our entrance fee, just like they did. If you want the area to be free of people, you need to show up at a completely different time. This was early afternoon on a Saturday, with fantastic weather.

As we wandered through the palace we found ourselves avoiding another couple having their wedding photos taken. How annoying.

Like other palaces we've seen, this one had a bunch of great ceilings and chandeliers, as well as overdone wallpaper and furniture. I know it's a matter of taste and style, but I am definitely not someone who wants all that crap in the place I live. 

None of the furniture looked very comfortable, neither did any of the beds.

Even with all that, Claire and I were glad we'd seen the place. I wouldn't mind going back to see the gardens and property in general in winter, when everything is covered in snow.

On our way back to Moscow, we texted Angela so all three of us could have a last dinner together at a Korean restaurant in the city. Yum. This restaurant was the first place we shared a meal as a trio, so it seemed perfect as the last place we shared a meal. As we seem to do quite regularly, we ate too much, and walked out feeling more than full. 

The next morning all three of us were up early, then I sent the ladies away in a taxi. They headed to the airport, to start their journeys home in other countries. I was pretty surprised at how gutted I felt after they left. I'd definitely gotten used to being around them during most of my explorations, especially during weekends.

A little after noon I went out for a walk, as the weather was good. I started by walking to Petropavlovsky Hotel, which is impressive. It was originally built as a palace where nobles and royals could stay and freshen up after their journeys from St Petersburg.

I wasn't able to go in the hotel, as the whole thing is surrounded by a fence, which has security gates in a couple places. I didn't try, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't get in without a hotel reservation.

The hotel was across the street from a park, and on the other side of the park was a small church with pretty gardens. Earlier in the walk I had seen a Lenin memorial, I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to see all there is of that man around Moscow.

After wandering around outside for a while, I decided to keep exploring something that is definitely on my checklist: the metro system of Moscow. Petropavlovsky hotel was pretty close to Dinamo metro station, which is on the northern half of the dark green line. 

I hadn't seen most of the stations on the northern half of the line, so this seemed like as good a time as any. As usual, some of them were more aesthetically pleasing than others. That being said, all the stations were clean, and smelled normal. That is, they didn't smell bad. 

The metro system in Moscow really is a museum all by itself. Incredible. 

This is the way I like to explore: start out with one or two specific places to see, then wander around the area, and see whateva strikes my fancy, or seems at all interesting. Moscow has soooo many areas to visit and explore!

russia: moscow knick knacks

After the two trips of Murmansk and St Petersburg, we decided to stay in Moscow for the last full weekend for the ladies in Moscow. All three of us had a hard time believing the year was already over, as time had flown by. (Weekends had flown by, the workdays in between not so much.) This year was full of fantastic traveling around Russia, I'm so glad we did all of it.

We started our weekend by going back to the Ritz-Carlton for high tea. The tea itself wasn't nearly as good as we remembered from October, but the cakes and other food were yummy. I don't think I'll want to go back by myself next year. 

On the way back to Claire's flat, (where we were all now staying,) we stopped at three different supermarkets to make sure we had enough food and snacks for the next week and some.

After relaxing for a little while, all three of us got gussied up and went to a performance at the Bolshoi Theatre. This is one of the iconic activities of being in Russia, I can't believe it took us so long to do it. When the Bolshoi has a performance of the Nutcracker on New Year's Eve, it is THE thing to do that evening, and tickets sell out within minutes of going on sale.

We had wanted to go all year long, but finding a performance where we could buy tickets online, and had affordable tickets still available, and working around all our weekend trips made it more difficult to sort out. We went to see a performance of the opera Don Quixote.

The girls didn't read the synopsis ahead of time, so they were pretty clueless during much of the performance. The opera is sung in French, which doesn't mean much. Even if you speak/understand the language in which an opera is sung, you're not likely to hear the lyrics clearly enough to sort out what is happening. As with many operas, this one had supertitles, but they were in Russian, which didn't help the three of us at all.

The Bolshoi Theatre is one of the grand, classical theatres of Europe. Very plush, very gold, great ceiling. We were glad we went, though all three of us had sore feet from wearing somewhat fancy shoes, something we're not used to doing, at all.

The next day, Sunday, we attempted to go to one of the many museum estates around Moscow, this one called Kuskovo. I thought I had it sorted out as to how to get there, but I didn't get it right. The train we were on didn't stop at the stop I was expecting, so we got off at the next stop.

Unfortunately, we had a hard time figuring out where to go from the next stop, so we changed our minds and just walked around that random area of a suburb of Moscow. It wasn't particularly memorable, that's for sure, but the weather was good so we didn't mind.

At that point Claire had finished her school year, and since she wasn't coming back for the next school year, she didn't have to go to any of the end of year meetings. Angela had finished her school year a full two weeks earlier, and wasn't coming back, so she didn't have meetings either.

I had one more week of school, so the girls took the week to go to Volgograd for 3 days. They got to see the world's largest Lenin statue, I have to admit I was jealous. This was graduation week for school, so it was a week of concerts and such. Fun to watch my kids, and realize how much they'd progressed over the course of the year.

On Wednesday afternoon, I took the metro out to Aviamotornaya station, and walked from there to a specific building. I'm not sure why I wanted to see it, but I did.

Gosplan Garage was listed on a russiabeyond post of random buildings to see around Moscow. I don't remember the history of the building at all, but it stuck with me as an art deco car garage. I guess that's a bit strange sounding, but hey, most of what I see is a bit on the strange side.

Along the way to the garage I walked past a small park with a WW2 memorial. Even though I've seen more than my fair share of these by traveling around Russia, I'll never stop taking a few moments to honour those who gave everything. Never forget. 

russia: st petersburg

Even though we'd spent the last weekend in Murmansk, the ladies and I couldn't resist using a midweek holiday to make a quick visit up to St Petersburg.

Normally at this point in a blog post I give some quick stats about where I've gone, like how many people live there and a bit of the history. I'm pretty sure I've already done that with St Petersburg, since I've been there a few times previously.

Our train arrived on time in the early morning, of course it was already daylight. In mid June the sun comes up just after 0330, and to be honest, I don't think it gets completely dark. 

Since it was already light when we arrived, we didn't hang out in the train station for very long.

We walked to our accomodation and while we weren't able to check in so early, we were able to leave our bags there for the day. Next up was breakfast at a random cafe across the street.

After eating and killing about an hour, we walked to Yusupov Palace, one of a gazillion former royal residences in and around St Petersburg.

Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov was born into a noble family in St Petersburg, when it was the capital of Russia. Both his father and paternal grandfather were counts, but they came from another family. 

The Yusupov family name actually came from his mother, as his father took that name in order to officially continue the Yusupov family line.

The Yusupov family wealth came from generations back, and oh boy were they wealthy. They had more wealth than the Romanov family that ruled the country. Yusupov family palaces were in St Petersburg and Moscow, and 37 other estates near Kursk, Voronezh, and Poltava. (Poltava is in modern day Ukraine.) I don't know how many of these palaces and properties are now open to the public, or if they're privately owned, or if they even exist anymore.

Prince Yusupov gained the title when he married the only niece of the tsar, Princess Irina. The war didn't go well for the family, but because they were well connected, they were able to get out of Prussia, which is where they had been at the time. They went back to Russia through Denmark and Finland.

Since they had noble titles the Yusupovs had to leave Russia not long after the February Revolution in 1917 because the tsar had abdicated. Before leaving they went back to their 'main' home in St Petersburg to gather some possessions, including jewels and art. Wikipedia says this is how they funded some of their years of exile.

In later years they lived in France, where they passed away in Paris after a number of years.

The Yusupov palace we visited had an entry fee of 700 rubles, which was quite a lot. Argh. The palace was pretty big, and each room was quite different. As with so many other royal residences we've seen this year and last, there were some amazing stairs, some beautiful windows, as well as gorgeous ceilings and floors.

There was also a theatre with seating on a 'main floor' and a second level of balconies! We were all a bit dumbfounded by the Arabian styled bathroom. It had beautiful tiling on the walls, and a sauna like atmosphere. Wow. 

Not something I would ever like in my own home, but definitely one of those times when you see how the uber rich live and think what else they could've done with that money.

After leaving the palace we went on a long walk, which brought us to the Peter and Paul fortress on the other side of the water. We'd seen the fortress before, but we wanted to go in the church, as it is where many of the Romanov family are officially interred. Claire and I remembered the entry fee as being 450 rubles, but I guess the summer season has a higher entry fee, it was 550 rubles.

The church interior was nice, but not as fantastic as I would've expected for that fee. The iconostasis up front was gold, and bright, especially because the light was streaming in from the outside, making everything light and lovely. Due to the rather high entrance fee, I was expecting the family tombs to be in a separate area, or to be big and impressive, but they weren't.

After leaving the fortress, we walked to the nearest metro and rode the trains to get to our favourite place to eat in St Petersburg: Namaste, an Indian restaurant. 

Even though we didn't have room left in our bellies, we walked to our favourite gelato place for dessert, then took a tram back to our hotel.

This was around 1900, so pretty early in the day, especially since it was still very light outside. The reason for this early return was to take a nap, then go back out again. While we'd walked from the palace to the fortress, we'd bought tickets for boat rides in the canals and under the bridges, the boat ride started at 2300.

Walking from the hotel to the marina to catch the boat we got to see a beautiful sunset. The colours were intense, and never seemed to end. We've all seen beautiful sunsets, but this one was particularly memorable for me, partly because it seemed to go on and on and on.

The boat ride was fun. Windy and chilly, but fun. The main reason we'd bought tickets is because we wanted to go under the main bridges, which raise up at 1 in the morning during the season. The bridges being raised allows bigger ships to go through the waterway.

The first part of the boat tour went through some of the canals of the city, with a pretty much constant spiel of information, both architectural and historical. The spiel was in Russian, so it didn't mean anything to us. When we got to the bridges as they rose, we felt as if the entire city was on the water with us, but I was still pretty excited to see it happen.

The tour finally finished at 0215, and sunrise was already well on its way. Even at the darkest point of the night, it didn't feel all that dark. We took a taxi back to the hotel and crashed hard. All three of us had the same thought: we're old, staying up this late is rough.

The next morning we slept in a bit, I woke up earlier than the girls and killed time looking at my phone. This was 12 June, which is the official holiday of Russia Day.

Eventually we got moving, and headed to one of the iconic sights of the city: the Hermitage. It's one of the biggets art museums in the world. A couple years earlier I'd seen a photo of a specific hallway in the museum, and I wanted to see it for myself. 

Normally Wednesday wouldn't be quite so crowded in a museum, even in high season, but this was a holiday, so the place was packed. Angela did the best job of guiding us through the museum, even though she hadn't been there before. The hall was just as impressive as I'd hoped. The whole museum is impressive, and even though we only stayed around 2.5 hours, we were arted out when we left.

We love seeing Lenin statues, and as St Petersburg is such a main city (and was in fact once named for the man,) there are a number of statues of the man to see. This time we took the metro to Finlandsky train station, there is a statue of him in front of the station.

At that point, we were exhausted, and ready to stop walking around. We went back to Namaste for another fantastic meal, then back to the gelato cafe. From there it was an easy walk back to the train station. As always, the train departed on time, and arrived on time in Moscow the next morning.

As always, I loved this trip to St Petersburg, and I know I'll be back a few times next year.