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.