Rostov

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I made a failed attempt at visiting Rostov several weeks ago and this time got up quite early to be able to catch the train in good time. The only bad thing about this was impossibility to have breakfast at the hotel (I departed at 6.30, the meal began at 7 in the morning). Nevertheless, I felt quite good in the train and enjoyed its fast ride without any stops, the train did not even seem to decelerate anywhere. Its final destination was Yaroslavl, and the duration of stop at Rostov was one minute. The majority of people went to Yaroslavl. During the train journey, I read Gerald Durrell’s “The Whispering Land” – an inspiring story of author’s adventures in Argentina in quest of animals, containing colourful, witty descriptions of nature, animal behaviour, and the locals. It’s like a travel blog, in the essence, but of high literary quality. It is my first introduction to Durrell’s writing, and I think I have to buy his whole output.

Rostov is one of Russia’s oldest towns, officially existing since 862. Since the X-th century, it was one of the centres of Rostov-Suzdal Land, in XI-XIII centuries – part of Vladimir & Suzdal Principality. It was also named the Grand Rostov. My friends showed their lack of geographical knowledge by thinking that the Rostov I went to was Rostov-on-Don, but these are two completely different localities, and located very far from each other. In the Russian train system, the name is ‘Rostov Yaroslavsky’, to avoid confusion. Of course, Rostov is part of Russian Golden Ring.

I had consulted a map in advance and immediately walked straight to the Kremlin (there seemed to be no other sights), and the street had nothing to attract one’s eye, but the weather was sunny and fine, with instances of chilly wind. I even wondered where the town’s population lived, because there seemed to be so few houses and I later saw not many of them from the tower’s height.

Soon, out of the blue, I saw the Kremlin walls and church domes and began sightseeing and taking photos according to the standard procedure. The domes looked like things from a fairy tale, evoking the image of Disney’s Aladdin cartoon. I have counted 14 Russian Kremlins which I’ve seen, and several are yet to be visited. Rostov’s Kremlin was built in 1670—1683, upon order of Metropolitan Iona Sysoyevitch. Initially, the idea was to reproduce the Paradise on Earth in compliance with the biblical description: a paradise garden, enclosed in walls, with a pond. Of course the place is much simpler than a paradise, but we mustn’t be too hard on its creators. In 1787, the Metropolitan moved to Yaroslavl and the Kremlin gradually lost its significance, but the good-natured merchants kept the complex in proper condition.

What adds charm to the place is the neighbouring lake, called Nero. The name might be associated with the CD-burning software, but actually the word is a very old lake & river term. The lake is supposed to be about 500 thousand years old, which makes it one of the few pre-Ice Age lakes in Central Russia; people came here about six thousand years ago. EasternSlavscametotheplaceinIXcentury.

Generally, Rostov did not look to me as neat as the other towns, but Kremlin was perfect. There were many nice cathedrals with multiple onion domes and bells, white towers and walls. I paid 50 roubles for the ticket to enter the territory. A lot of people, mostly youth, were participating in some contest, and wore some items of folk clothes. I supposed it was a sort of historical quest. A part of Kremlin was the apple-tree orchard, its branches bent under the profuse fruit. There was a box with free apples (not the best specimens, though) and a notice where to buy the apples. The views were somewhat spoilt by the appearance of walls, a church, and a tower under renovation – scaffolds are never a good decoration.

I decided to see a museum exhibition, namely the History of Rostov in X-XV centuries, and ascend the viewing platform in a tower. The tower provided the best panorama of the whole town, the latter being quite small, on the bank of a large lake, no high-rise buildings and several churches far away, where I decided to go and that would be enough of sightseeing. I felt comfortable because I managed to see much, walk a lot, and still did not have to hurry for the train or wait for it too long at the station.

I glanced through the historical exhibition; it was not large and contained mainly old archaeological items, such as old instruments, axes, decorations etc, belonging to the region. Then I went to the lake, and walked on an uncomfortable gravel road along the lake bank to the monastery, located far away. I saw a peculiar view of the Kremlin with wooden houses and private gardens in the foreground, and many fishers’ boats waiting by the bank, either single or in numbers.

The Spaso-Yakovlev monastery, also situated by the lake, turned out much better than I expected and I was glad I came. Its walls and towers were imposing, so were the two cathedrals inside it. The monastery embraces various architectural styles: pseudo-Gothic finishing elements on towers, baroque and classical elements of churches. In the monastery shop, I bought a bottle of water, a rice pie and tried a cup of excellent ‘Ivan-tea’ (hand-made herbal tea).

Finally, I retraced my steps to the train station waited there for about 40 minutes. The train, though an express one, arrived in Moscow half an hour late.

My work at the aviation plant is all right, though there are annoying delays both in payments and preparation of source texts for translation. I am feeling sort of disappointed, but at least I can provide an excellent curriculum vitae for any future job. I am hoping to finish the project in about a month, then I go to St. Petersburg and will try to spend each weekend in Finland, booking organized one-day tours to several cities.

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