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Published: September 20th 2008
So here we go again! For those who don’t know (and assuming you really care), we have just taken off for a 4 week visit to Russia and Eastern Europe, and internet facilities permitting (which at the moment look decidedly uncertain), we plan to record details of our travels. The first stage of the trip, and the only part that is organised in advance, is a cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg. This comprises around 3 days in Moscow, 5 days cruising the Volga, Svir and Neva Rivers, then 3 days in St P. As well as Joan and myself, we are being accompanied on this trip by some long time friends, Joy and Peter.
So first, the bad news! To date, we have had no major hassles, no rip-offs, no muggings, and no apprehensions from the KGB, in fact so far it has been all pretty routine, but most interesting. I’m fortunate enough to have visited Moscow twice previously, first in the ‘70s (with a pack on my back, and with all movements scrutinized by Intourist) and again about 7 years ago, on a brief business trip, so it is interesting to see the development. In the ‘70s,
everything in Russia was grey - grey buildings, grey skies and grey people. Obviously, things have changed dramatically over the last 17 years since Perestroika, and the city is now a fascinating mix of modern and colourful on the one hand, but run down and ineffective on the other. Sadly, it is still likely to take them a full generation to get to where they want to be.
The flight across from Sydney was very long (28 hours total, with stops in Singapore and Dubai), but relatively uneventful. We were fortunate enough to get exit aisle seats in economy the whole way, but how I miss my business class travel! The first pleasant surprise was the speed with which we progressed through Russian immigration, compared with my last visit where it took well over an hour. We had most of the day to reach the Northern River Station where our cruise boat was berthed, so instead of the easy, but expensive (and very slow) taxi trip (Moscow’s traffic jams are legendary), we took the train from the airport into the city, then switched to the metro, taking in all a couple of hours to reach the boat.
On
board our boat, the Viking Kirov, we have about 200 passengers, and being an English speaking boat, they are principally Americans, Brits and Aussies. We are not traditionally ‘organised tour’ people, due the potential that some fellow passengers will get up your nose and you can’t get away from them, but to date we appear to be lucky in that respect. Most of the people are similar age to us (not a kid on board!), and so far no nauseating personalities, but I may tell a different story by next week. Two of our three days in Moscow were organised (following the guide with the coloured flag!) and we had one day to ourselves. But we got lucky with our guide, Tatiana, as she has lived abroad and is very broad-thinking and with a great sense of humour, unlike many of her soviet comrades, who are pretty dour.
Our initial visits were, naturally enough, to the Red Square (incl. St Basil’s Cathedral, History Museum, GUM and Lenin’s Mausoleum) and the Kremlin, with the girls drooling over the vast riches (Faberge eggs, and collection of Russian arms, thrones and crown jewels) contained in the Armoury, the Museum of the Kremlin.
The Kremlin also contains a number of cathedrals, including the Annunciation, the Assumption, the Archangel Michael and the Deposition of the Robe, each with the very characteristic Russian gold onion-shaped domes. We spent some time exploring the former, with its magnificent frescoes, statues and chandeliers.
Other key sites visited were the Moscow metro, with its famed marble walls, statues and fancy chandeliers (supposedly built so grand so that even the proleteriat could share in the wealth of the time); Old Arbat Street, an attractive pedestrian Mall; the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, containing the second largest collection of Western European art in Russia, including many of the Renaissance painters like Rembrandt and Rubens; and the recently rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, with its walls decorated with lists of awards and battles from Napoleon’s times. We also did an extensive city tour that took in a number of the buildings that are being tastefully restored, and also passed by most of the ‘wedding cake’ buildings, that have been christened as ‘Stalin’s seven sisters’.
So initial impressions of Moscow were very favourable. They have clearly gone through massive change in recent years, and all the secrecy has basically disappeared, and
they are trying to duplicate all the positive aspects of the western world, without being caught up in the negative aspects. While the older folk still appear very dour and won’t engage you in any way, we found that the younger ones often have at least a smattering of English, and try to help out with directions etc. This is necessary, as many streets, all the metros, and many other signs are only in the Cyryliic alphabet, and maps often contain inaccuracies, so independent travel required many checks and balances to avoid getting lost.
Incidentally, there is some history behind the title of this blog. When I was in Russia in the ‘70s, we exchanged US dollars on the black market for about treble official value, and sold our jeans (hugely in demand) for exorbitant prices, but then found we couldn’t exchange all our excess roubles nor take them out of the country. So on our last day in the country, to get rid of all our cash, we hogged out on expensive caviar and champagne (as you do), and I purchased around 50 postcards to send to friends, on which I wrote nothing but the words that are
the title of this blog, bearing in mind there was a hit record called “Midnight in Moscow” at that time. So to this day, there are probably over half of these postcard recipients wondering what dickhead sent them this unsigned postcard!
So we are off now up the Volga, and will hopefully find internet facilities in St Petersburg to post our next blog.
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Damon
non-member comment
Eagle
Glad you made it safely and are enjoying yourselves. Just finished a round of golf and got my first (and possibly last) eagle. It was a short par 4 (240 yards) and I drove to about 2m from the pin then knocked it in.