Blogs from Centre, Russia, Europe - page 4

Living in Moscow is not easy, but extremely interesting and adds a new touch to my life. Today, I went to Kolomna, a town 100 km from Moscow, by commuter train (about 2 and a half hours). I have read about Kolomna in advance – I better not do it because I was perplexed by the name “Golutvin” (the directions were something like – take the commuter train to Golutvin station), but the nearest station is called Kolomna. Both stations are within the same town, but Kolomna seems nearer to the sights: I saw several high bell towers and church domes from the elektrichka window, and wanted to get off. However, I got off at the terminus, called Golutvin. I had to take a tram from Golutvin station to the centre. I got out of the ... read more

Russia, or rather, the old Soviet Union was our mortal enemy through most of our youth, up until the fall of the Union in 1991. But what do we really know about this often misunderstood and huge country? First, Russia is the largest country in the world, with 17 million square kilometers. With 142 million people, it is the ninth largest country by population. Most of us know that Moscow is the current capital, though it was moved to St. Petersburg during the reign of the Peter the Great. Making communication more difficult, as if the Russian language is not difficult enough, are over fifty indigenous peoples and languages, both written and spoken). Talk about a failure to communicate, Luke! Also surprising are the two main religions, Christianity and Islam. Yet, rather surprisingly, the life expectancy ... read more

Tula is an important Russian city not too far from Moscow. It was first mentioned in the chronicles in 1146, though more veritable records refer to the XIII century. My interest in Tula is obvious because I usually select cities to be visited mainly according to the amount of antiques it contains. I arrived in Tula by train at 7.50 in the morning; right outside the railway station there are booths selling the famous Tulsky pryanik (gingerbread) of various shapes and sizes; it was cool and sunny, I at once walked the Krasnoarmeisky Prospekt to the Kremlin, because the museums would open only at 10 o’clock. Tula looked good at once, pleasing to the eye. I saw a café built in the form of two parallel trams, an unusual structure, with the Russian word “кафе” wrongly ... read more

Our train journey was a brief one today,only an hour and a quarter,from Nizhny Novgorod to Vladimir and our visit to the Golden Ring.This is the area Northeast of Moscow that contains some of the countries oldest towns,Kremlins and an amazing array of spectacular onion domes. We were met by a lovely driver who drove us straight to Suzdal,35km away, which really is a beautiful town. The railway goes through Vladimir and not Suzdal so the town remains largely untouched.At one time there was a church for every 12 of it's citizens and there are still over 40 old religious buildings left in this small town. It was a royal capital and became infamous in the times of Ivan The Terrible. It was like stepping back in time visiting here and our 3 night break was ... read more

These stories generally end with me weeping internally and praying that the person leaves on their own accord. People tend to come up and start talking to me and I'm not entirely sure why. It might be because I normally smile at people, regardless of whether I know them or not. Many of the people who come up and start talking to me are genuinely lovely people who are just curious or fancy a chat. Eccentricity doesn't bother me. Pasha and the Pervy Babooshka were not eccentrics, they were really, really creepy. I met Pasha in a bar when I was living in Tver, not far from Moscow. The bar was on the main street, not far from our lodgings, and the group that went consisted mainly of the Scots, French and Finns that were studying ... read more