Moscow to Yekateringburg

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Day 42

Today we arrived to a cold, rainy and dreary looking Moscow. Temparture had plummeted and we arrived in rush hour for the metro. My night on the train was not a particulary good one, we shared with 2 older russians, one who smoked non stop and other was a big snorer!
The train itself was a bit shabby, carridges were ok though with matresses and bedding supplied. Girls listen, the bathrooms on these trains are not good though! Will post pictures of these trains in the next blog hopefully.

After risking the metro, people running everywhere it reminded us a lot of london also people not so helpful here. We then walked in the pouring rain to our accommodation, called the Nova Hostel. From ourside it looked terriable, run down building with so signs of life. We got in only to find there was nobody either there or awake at this time of the morning. It was like 8:30am by now probably. Eventually we got in and I was pleasently surprised, we booked a dorm room (normally 6 people), but got a 3 bed room to ourselves. Nice and clean and had a nice lounge area with everything you need. Satelite TV (with french open tennis!), travel books, DVDs and best of all comfy couches. Met some french and dutch travellers and the guy in charge Alex was brilliant. Basically we only booked one night but had the room from 08:30 until 20:00 the next night, so pretty good value. After a bit of a kip we headed out and we really had a great location with only 10 minutes walk to the Red Square.

Unfortunately the rain was not going anywhere, and in the Red Square was freezing cold and windy as well. I can't imagine how place it gets in like January, apparently -30 is not uncommon. Walked around the Kremlin then went back to the hostel to relax as was really tired.

Later in the evening we got in touch with Anastasia as she was in Mocow coincidentally for a few days. (our hosts in ST Petes) We went for great Chinese and chatted about Moscow. Restaurant was called the Friendship, (well in english at least) Back to the hostel to sleep!

Day 43

For our final day in Moscow we wanted to see the Kremlin and perhaps the Lenin Tomb (when Lenin now lies embalmed), unforunately again it was raining and still cold. Managed to miss the Lenin thing as it closed at 1pm, further more the Kremlin we found was not open today. Apparently they have thursdays as a day off? Really disappointed but on the other hand was pretty steep entrance fee, plus if your camera lens is bigger than 70mm you can not take it with you. Mine happened to be 77mm. What is that all about?

Wandered Moscow for the rest of the day the highlight being the St Christ the Saviour Church on the banks of the river. There is a story behind this is as back in the 1800s following Russia's victory over Napolean an incredible church of the same name was built here. However when Stalin was in charge he decided he wanted this exact site (opposite the Kremlim) to build the 315 metre high Palace of the Soviets. Of course it would have a 100 metre high statue of Lenin also. Funny thing is due to the weight of the structure the riverside location was unlikely to hold its weight. This was eventually canned after Stalin's death and instead was converted into the worlds largest Swuimming pool! Finally some sense and a replica of the original Church was built in it's place and is well worth seeing.

Also in the Red Square is St Basil's, the cathedral that is pretty much on every postcard or travel book on Russia. Gave the inside a miss but the out oustide is spectacular. According to legend Ivan the Terriable was so pleased with the end result he had the architect's eyes put out so he could never create anything to surpass it, lovely!!

After a russian dinner consisting of more piroski, dumplings and other strangely good fried russian food we headed back to organise ourselves for our next train. Our next stop was Kazan some 800ms away. Headed to Kazansky station and boarded the 22:00 train. We should be arriving around 09:23 the next morning.

For this leg I got slightly better tickets and it showed immediately. The trains were spotless, carpeted, clean windows and the bathrooms clean and actually had hot water! The carriages also had longer bunks, were modern and cleaner. However it did cost like 20% more. These types of trains are Firmeny and are private run trains and even have their own special name. Ours was the number 2 called the Rossiva. This is the train that usually goes to Vladivostock in China. (just a 9 day journey!) This time we were sharing with a rather large russian lady and older russian guy, neither of which spoke any english, another lovely evening of limited converstaion then!

Day 44 - Kazan

Arrived this morning to Kazan, restless sleep again but managed to have a shower in the bathroom which was a nice change (with a cup of course, good kiwi ingenuity!). After getting off we thought as we had around 12 hours here so thought we might fit in a boat trip on the Volga river as there was an island called Sviyazhsk with an old fortress from Ivan the Terriable's time. Unforutunately as we were on our way there the weather deteriorated and rained very heavily so decided against it and headed to the tourist office. Kazzan was one of the first russian cities to actually have a tourist office so we were particulary excited to check it out. Russian lady said the island was out, too far away and we should just concentrate on the Kremlin and centre of city.
We went to the Kazan mueseum to try to learn a bit about the place, unfortunately none of the signs or anything were really in english. We got a free tour guide to compensate but guide had some feeble excuses and had to run off after 10 minutes, pretty sure we got done here!

Kazan is as much a tatar city as it is russian (tartars are Turkick muslims). It is also the capital of the Republic of Tatarastan and we found it has a bit of a foreign feel to it. Not a small city either, home to about 1.1 million.

The look of it is not good right outside the station and impending areas it is really shabby, dirty and was not a good first impression and not quite the beautiful city as described in our LP guide! Having said that once the rain stopped and we got to the Kremlin it was a pretty impressive white walled structure. Actually most of the walls and buildings were white making them really stand out. There is a bit of a viewpoint at the entrance to the Kremlin as you are quite high up which is nice and once in you are almost immediately hit by the super structure of the Kul Sharif Mosque all in white and blue. You would not know it was razed to the gound by Ivan the Terriable some 450 years ago then rebuilt.
Next to this is the Syuyumbike Tower which Ivan built in a week and is not quite straight and leaning over! Legend has it a Tartar princess refused refused to marry Ivan unless he built the tallest building in the city in a week. Unfortunately for her he managed it and hence why it is leaning over. She was so upset she jumped off the top of it rather than marry him!

In the evening we decided to try some authentic Tartar food at a restaurant recommended to us. In the end neither of us could bring ourselves to eat the grilled Horseflesh which is their most traditional dish. We we like really, you eat horse? The waitress could not believe we did not want it. Anyway moving on we headed to the train station to catch our 9pm train to Yekaterinburg. This was to be about a 15 hour journey and would cross the first timezone of 8.

Day 45 Yekaterinburg

So we awoke in the early morning, much better rested and ready to go. Clocks had gone now two hours forward so we were Moscow +2. Funny thing in Russia is all clocks in the cities refer to time as 'MOSCOW' time. This goes for train times as well so you have to be especially careful booking trains to work out what the actual LOCAL time is. Not much of a problem here as just two hours but something to be weary of. Just a few hours before we arrived some Russians guys in the next carriage were drinking beer and while I said no once, I couldn't a second time so joined them. None of them really spoke any english and pretty sure they did not know where NZ was but we had some monosymbolic conversations. Also they drink beer at any temperature which just is not right. I tried to explain that as Kiwis's we do not drink warm beer..deaf ears..l.

Anyway arrived in Yekaterinburg about 12:30 and it was absolutely freezing. Weather here was down to about 12 degrees and it is almost June. Got to our hostel which in fact was more of a students flat who were letting our rooms. Not the best and the guys there were no tcompletely helpful either.

Did not do much for rest of the day, just too cold, cooked some dinner and early night. Tomorrow we would check out the City and the Romanov death site before heading to Krasnoyarsk.

Day 46

Got up early and we contemplated going to the Europe / Asia border where Europe offially ends and Asia begins. In the end it was too much of a hassle besides we passed the marker on the train 😊 Offically though so you know Asia or more specifically Sibera begins at 2102Kms. This is the distance from Moscow and from the train you can see these markers constantly, I think this is a great idea and gives you some orientation on where you are as the train makes few stops.

We headed to the bus station and got a tour bus to Ganina Yama which is about 16kms from Yek. This is where the Romanaov family were poisened, gassed, blown up before being tossed down a mine shaft. Pretty horrific and this was only in 1918. The final body was only identified in 2008. There is now a Monastery of the Holy Martyrs built in memory of this. This is pretty moving as you enter this holy place. You then walk along the observation platform overlooking the shaft where there are many pictures and stories of the Romanovs.

After this we got back to Yek to have a quick look around the City as we were heading to Krasnoyarsk in the evening. The City itself more industrial than anything else so not overly pretty. However there is a pond and river in the Centre which is beautiful (when sunny) and it has potential. Also some skyrisers are being built to make it look a little more modern and Manhattan like. Transport here though is a nightmare, trying to find a bus or tram was impossible as there was a complete lack of information at bus stops and around the City. Even the locals we asked could not tell us which but to get to the train station!

Sorted our tickets at the station for our 8pm train. To Krasnoyarsk it was 35 hours so we would be spending 2 nights on the train. As with the other trains (except the firmeny one) we had the less luxorious train and was stinking hot and dirty. Think they look much better in the evening 😊 To our amazement we found we had a compartment to ourselves for the first time which was a bonus so cracked open some beer and watched the scenery go by. (birch trees and little else) It was likely though that the other 2 spots in the carriage would be filled at some stops in the middle of night so we were looking forward to that!

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Photos

St Christ the Saviour Church
No longer a swimming pool!

Firrmeny compartments, nice!
On our way to Kazan, better compartments.

Kul Sharif Mosque - Kazan
Impressive sight.

Kazan Kremlin
Outside the white walled Kremlin.