russia: dubosekovo and volokolamsk

I'd been back in Moscow just a bit over a week before taking off for my first day trip of the year. I met Angela the first weekend in town, then this second weekend she joined Claire and I in the day trip. If you haven't figured it out by now, traveling is really important to me, I needed to know if she would fit in well with the travel style Claire and I had developed the year before.

The three of us met up early Saturday morning, it was easy enough to catch a local train (called elektrichka,) to our first destination.

I'd first heard about a giant war memorial in a small village called Dubosekovo last year when a friend posted a photo on social media. I looked up the location and was excited to see that public transport would get me there easily enough.

The train 'station' at Dubosekovo wasn't really a station, it was more of a platform. It wasn't difficult to figure out where to go, as there was just one street. The war memorial I wanted to see consisted of several HUGE statues, memorializing the officers who were part of a group often called Panfilov's Men.

Panfilov's men were a group of soldiers from a rifle division in the Soviet Army that were involved with the defense of Moscow in WW2. According to official Soviet history, (which is sometimes debated, though I don't know enough to get involved in the debate,) this group was killed in action on 16 November 1941, after destroying 18 German tanks, and stopping the enemy advance with those tanks.

Apparently there was an investigation by Soviet authorities was carried out in 1948, the results of which showed that the 'official' story was a lie. 

The German casualties weren't confirmed by either side, and not all 28 soldiers in the group died; in fact six of them survived. Why a provably false narrative is part of official history is beyond me.

History gets even better after the war: one of the survivors was arrested and charged with treason for voluntarily surrendering to German troops, then later becoming a German police officer!! This second bit was kept secret for a long time as well. I'm not sure how much of the truth is known by the general Russian public. 

There is a movie about the events and people of that day, it was released in 2016; I haven't watched it. I don't know what version of events it follows, though I am curious.

We looked at the huge statues and wreaths laid at their feet, but skipped the museum. Then we started walking.

When I read the information board, it said the distance to Volokolamsk was not so far away. I can't remember the exact number, but I do remember thinking it wouldn't take long at all.

I was wrong. It took us at least two hours to walk to Volokolamsk, whoops. Much of the walk was along a highway, in the bright sun. I didn't mind getting more sun, but Claire and Angela were both very fair skinned and not prepared for that much time in direct sun.

Volokolamsk is a city of approximately 23,000 people, on the Gorodenka River. It has a long history, it was first mentioned in history in 1135. Like other Russian cities it was later burned down and rebuilt, and was part of several different principalities over time.

The Soviet government set up authority in Volokolamsk in 1917, and the city was under seige by Germany for a little over a month during late 1941. This was part of the battle in which the 'heroes' were trying to destroy German tanks.

We found the kremlin, which turned out to be one of the smallest we'd ever seen. As kremlins often do, it sits on a hill, visible from different areas of the city. We found several churches inside the brick walls, as well as a museum, and a bell tower. 

I'm not exaggerating when I say it took us about 10 minutes to explore the entire area.

When we came back down the hill we found a bust of Lenin, of course we took a photo.

Not too far away we found a WW2 memorial, it was quite large for a small town. On the other hand, this is Russia, and you're not a real town/city if you don't have a big WW2 memorial.

We tried to find a couple other things in the city, but they weren't marked correctly on the map so it didn't happen. Not surprisingly, one of the things we tried to find was another smaller war memorial. (Every Russian town has a big one, and many have a smaller one as well.)

When I looked to see how far we had to walk to get to the train station, it said one hour. At that point we felt as if we'd already walked enough for the day, so we opted to take a taxi instead. Go figure, yandex (the uber of Russia,) didn't have any taxis in Volokolamsk. We had to flag down a taxi, which I haven't done in quite a while.

We got to the train station just in time, as we were able to buy tickets without waiting in a queue. We hopped on the train straightaway, it departed just a few minutes later.

Yay for starting off another year with excellent travel adventures :)

kazakhstan: almaty

As soon as Anaya and her family moved to almaty, Kazakhstan, I knew I wanted to visit...
note: each time i refer to mom or dad in this post, i'm refering to anaya's mom or anaya's dad...
I was able to get flights that gave me five full days in almaty...it turns out to be a town not worth that much time, but it was great to catch up with friends...
My flight arrived at 0500 Thursday morning...not a great time, but it was a direct flight, and I got a full row of seats to myself, so I wasn't complaining...when I went to the airport ATM to take out money I realized I was able to withdraw US dollars as well as Kazakh tenge...($1~185tenge)...I withdrew some of both and decided to clean out my bank accounts when I left...(US dollars are quite difficult to get in Ukraine)...
I took a taxi to the Anaya's flat, her dad came out to greet me and help out with change, since the taxi driver didn't have any...

It was great to see friends again...I miss them in kyiv, and it turns out they miss life in kyiv too...Anaya woke up at some point, and I think it was a nice surprise for her to find me there 😀...
We chatted in the kitchen for hours, pausing only when the driver took dad and Anaya to drop Anaya off at school...
Sometime around noon mom and I went with dad to a mall to pick out gift baskets for all the women in his office...women's day was on Sunday, (8 march,) so gifts were handed out on Friday, and Monday is a day off work...it turns out there are a fair number of big malls in almaty, filled with expensive and foreign brands...I don't know what (if any) industry there is in Kazakhstan...

After buying gifts we went to lunch at a sushi place...they'd already described Kazakh food to me, it didn't sound good...(boiled horse and sheep meat anyone?!?)...the description made me think of Mongolian food...no thank you, especially when there are other, far better options available...
After lunch the driver took dad to work, and me home with mom...I got out of the car just before we got to their apartment complex, I wanted to go for a walk...
So I walked...I walked to a nearby Islamic center, at which I didn't stay long after a security guard asked why I was taking photos...(the buildings were pretty)...I told him I'm a tourist, I don't think he understood why someone would want to take photos of a non touristy place...further down the road was a mall, not as big as where we'd been earlier, but fancier...prada and the like, but the food court was not so high class: Burger King anyone?

I kept walking, and followed a dry waterway to its end, then went around the other side and walked back up the slight hill...back to the mall and back to the flat...I arrived not long before mom went with the driver to pick up Anaya from school...(I would've gone along, but I'd already felt motion sickness in the car at lunch and didn't want more of that)...
Dinner that night was yummy indian food at home...(have I mentioned this is an Indian family?)
The next morning I slept till 10, which is a lot later than normal for me...on the other hand, 10 in Kazakhstan is 6 in kyiv, which is when I normally wake up, so maybe I just didn't adjust...but I did sleep ten hours, almost solid, and that's rare...if only i could have long sleep nights like that more often on weekends instead of waking up at 6 or 7 saturday and sunday mornings...

Anywho, I had chai (YUM!!) for breakfast, I didn't need any food...around noon the driver picked up me and mom, and took us into the city center...we started at the post office, where mom had found out was a good place for me to buy sets of postcards of the city...it was a good place for that...
The next stop was the green market, or ziliony bazaar...it's a big market, with a lot of different sections: dairy, meat, (with various types of meat listed: horse, sheep, cow, etc,) as well as pickled food (I found kimchi!!!) and clothes and dry goods and more...it's easy to think you've seen everything, then find a whole different section...I ended up buying some kimchi, yogurt, and dried apricots...I didn't really want the dried apricots, but when I was taking photos of the market from a second floor the vendor at a particular stall kept saying I should come to his spot...why not? He gave us lots of tasting portions of different things he sold, some I liked, some not so much...

The next stop was 28 Panfilov heroes memorial park...(longest name ever for a park)...there was an Orthodox Church not far from one of the entrances...as we got close, the exterior decoration of the church made me think of candy land...the interior was very nice...frescoes on the ceilings, chandeliers, iconostasis...as always (to me anywho,) the interior didn't seem as big as it should be compared to how big it looked from the outside...
From the church we walked toward the memorial area...there are monuments to several wars in which Kazakh soldiers have fought...Afghanistan (remember the Soviet Union fought there for years and years) and what I know as WW2 and what I know as WW1, and more Im pretty sure...there were blocks of marble (I think) with names of cities in which big battles had taken place...many of those cities have different names now...

We played with the panoramic photo function on my iPhone for a while, and managed to get a photo with three of me in it...(can there ever be enough of me? 😃)
We exited the park through a different entrance and crossed the street to a cafe, to have drinks...but this place was out of tea, and my second choice as well...ARGH...so we found a different cafe...
After that, the driver picked up mom, she had to pick Anaya up from school...I decided to walk home, as the weather was nice, and I'd figured out it wasn't a complicated walk...I walked straight up Dostuk avenue, looking at a few different looking buildings along the way...as I was on the main street back to the flat, I heard someone yelling so I looked...whaddya know, it was mom and dad and Anaya, being driven by the driver...I could've walked the rest of the way home, but I hopped in the car instead...they told me later the driver had seen me and pointed me out...wow...

Dinner that night was more indian food...I don't think I can ever get enough...
The next morning (Saturday) I woke up feeling not so good, a feeling that didn't go away until that evening...so much for getting out and walking around more...
Sunday I still didn't feel great, but did feel better...more chai (I ended up having chai every few hours when I was in the flat😃) helped...
Sometime mid afternoon we all walked outside, then flagged down a local car to take us to a mall...(different from the two I've mentioned earlier in this post)...it turns out that flagging down a car is a normal way to get around...think of it as a mix of hitchhiking and unofficial taxi...

Since it was women's day, and Anaya is a girl, she basically got to have a day of celebration...she got to play in happylon (play area with games, climbing, jumping, etc) for 30 minutes, while us adults walked around...after that we went to a cafe for food and drinks...yum...the mall was packed, there were a lot of families out doing the same thing we were...the mall had a marching band (very small) walking around playing music, it was fun to listen...one little place handed out mini cupcakes to every woman who walked past...dad felt left out, as mom, Anaya, and I all got one😀...
We didn't eat dinner that night, we didn't need any food...i know i could've eaten, especially if it was homemade yummy indian food, but i wasn't anywhere close to hungry...

The next day the driver picked us up, I guess it wasn't a day off for him...our first stop was the central mosque, just because I wanted to see it...we ended up being there as people were arriving for midday prayers, so we didn't go in...nice building...it looks different than the photo on the postcards; now it has gold domes, the postcards show it with blue domes...
The next stop was Arbat street, a pedestrian area...not a long street, and not very busy, since it was not warm...art vendors had a number of paintings for sale, and there was a guy walking along selling balloons...Anaya got to have one...
The next stop was an indian restaurant...I guess it was mid afternoon by that point, it wasn't a busy time of day...great food, and I ate waaay too much...
We spent the rest of the day at home, not doing much of anything...I got my stuff ready, and relaxed...

The next morning I was up at 0330, the taxi came at 0400...I was sad to leave...I didn't get much sleep at all, and my flight was delayed 45 minutes...before checking in I emptied my bank accounts and exchanged leftover currency into dollars...:)
I got another row of seats to myself on the way back to kyiv, yay!!
I want to go back to Kazakhstan, I want to explore the natural beauty of the country...if only work didn't get in the way of traveling...