Blogs from Suzdal, Centre, Russia, Europe
April 7th 2012
Suzdal (of many churches) We’d decided on Suzdal to get away from the hustle and bustle of Moscow. The suburban train from Moscow was an interesting experience – 3 1/2 hour journey with no toilets. Fortunately Vitali – an ex army local explained that we could use the gap between the carriages. We declined, but struck up a friendly conversation with him and he shared with us a strange alcoholic grape juice as well as a pocket full of roasted sunflower seeds. He was also determined to leave us his address, phone number and children’s details and so did. Meanwhile another local, Elza, had been roped in to translate. Her English was very good and we spent the rest of the journey chatting with her. Elza is a director of HR in Moscow and going to ... read more
July 12th 2011
After three days, we had departed the train... the only problem now being that we needed to find our way out of the train station!! We clearly must have went the wrong way as we exited the train station half an hour later, having walked the entire length of the trans- siberian train to find we were lost. Eventually coming out through the turnstyle we met a young Russian guy who we expected would be our guide of Vladimir then Suzdal where we were to be dropped off to stay for 2 days. But the guy seemed to be mute, and we hopped in his car not knowing where we were off to or what we were doing... It seemed our itinerary was wrong?! We ended up in Suzdal in front of someones house craving a ... read more
December 10th 2009
The last time I wrote, I was just about to leave Vilnius, the current European capital of culture, in Lithuania. I had a slight feeling of anticipation about the next leg of my journey, as I’d read on numerous occasions that entering the Russian Federation can sometimes be a torturous, time-consuming affair. Luckily I was able to escape these feelings on the short walk to the train station. A couple of policemen flicked inattentively through a soft core porn magazine in their car. They gave me a look that wreaked of masculinity when they caught me peering through the car window as I walked past. Further on a group of tone deaf teenagers grunted to two friends who were walking in the wrong direction. Strangely enough they were oblivious to the calls and rapid hand movements. ... read more
August 29th 2009
Any time that you arrive in a town at 5.35am you know that it is going to be a long day. When the day ends with 10 shots of vodka, you can be pretty sure that the next day will be even longer. We took an overnight train (third class once again) from St Pete, through Moscow to Vladimir. We got in to Vladimir at 4.55am and took a van to Suzdal, one of the towns in the Golden Ring. Suzdal was the first capital of Russia, before Moscow was even founded. In fact, a prince of Suzdal was the founder of Moscow. While tiny at 9000 residents and almost completely undeveloped and focused on farming and tourism, it is filled with churches and monasteries. All of this is quite fascinating, but when you haven’t slept ... read more
Trans-siberian stage 1 : Moscow - Vladimir (& on to Suzdal)
Published: June 13th 2009Europe » Russia » Centre » Suzdal
June 13th 2009
Before I start, I'd just like to say: I LOVE MY RUCKSACK! I think that one of the last things that some of you heard me say in London was along the lines of "I hate this f-ing bag" but now I'm used to it and have got rid of the extra "day bag" as well as ditching a few things before we left London I am liking my new home very much. Train #1: the 120 from Moscow to Vladimir So, our first trans-siberian train journey was a miniscule 2.5 hours on train number 120 and very pleasant it was too! It was so short that we didn't take any photos but we were sat in a nice clean airy 6 seat compartment and to our surprise (for we had not requested this with our ... read more
April 19th 2009
Day 15 -16 (April 19-20) Vladimir is an old capital, but we move on from here by local bus to the nearby town of Suzdal (also an old capital). Because it is that bit further from the Trans-Siberian train line it hasn’t been developed as much and retains it’s old charm. Suzdal is a town of so many churches (over 50) for a population of only 12,000. Most of the churches are actually two buildings, a smaller one for winter to save on heating, and a larger one for summer (to impress). It is a Unesco World Heritage area and not surprising. It’s Kremlin is very impressive. There is a market in the square selling quilts, wooden crafts and pottery, as well as the local drink (honey mead). We go to a tasting area and try ... read more
Россия два: More Moscow, Vladimir and Suzdal, Baclanitsa
Published: March 3rd 2009Europe » Russia » Centre » Suzdal
March 3rd 2009
February 22nd, 2009 - 1300 hrs I know I told myself that a break from the writing would be taken (lasting 2 days in length). However, I just wanted to mention a couple or few things that to date I have failed to comment on. These I like to call frustrations. First, and obviously, the weather. It’s not the slippery sidewalks, packed with snow and slush that will last until May. Its not the fact that you don’t need a forecast to tell you that everyday is “fucking cold” (I wanted to scream “da!” at a group of teenagers on the street complaining about “zimoi”). Nor is it the…actually, that’s about it. What really bugs me is the TIME you have to spend in it. Moscow is such a large city that even with all the ... read more
August 10th 2008
If you can imagine the perfect setting for a fairytale then you can imagine what Suzdal is like. It is a beautiful small town, with a winding river, impressive ramparts, white trading arches, meadows dotted with wild flowers and onion dome spires of every size and colour imaginable, gold, silver, emerald green and even a deep blue one dotted with golden stars. It was completely different to the other places we had visited in Russia and although our hotel room, in the grounds of a monastery, was expensive we decided to spend three days there. We were dazed by the town's perfection. The train journeys across Siberia had been fun but it was great to be eating proper food again and to have the luxury of our own bathroom. Having these things in such a wonderful ... read more
September 25th 2007
An hour's drive from Vladimir is Suzdal an old town which is part of the golden ring. We are staying in a hostel dorm type accomodation.The babushka owner is very friendly unfortunately hardly speaks a thing of English, it is quite funny when she had us sign our registration forms, since everything is written in Cyrillic I haven't a clue which is mine, Bruce thought he found his then I looked and saw the birthdate, it was mine, so I signed it and everyone else I think recognized theirs with the birthdate, the only thing you could make out, yet still I heard some people just randomly signed not caring if it's theirs, honetly I did not think it matters. We had dinner at the restaurent around the corner, they served us delicious meal in this ... read more
