Advertisement
Published: September 20th 2007
Edit Blog Post
...for 26 hours. Well, that's what it felt like.
But first Moscow. We did the big sites, well, most of them - Red Square was shut both times we went due to some event that had been going on. Luckily we could get round the side and see most of it from a distance but it also meant that Lenin's Tomb was closed (though I have a feeling I'd read somewhere that he was away being rewaxed anyway!). Not a big deal as we've both seen Mao and one waxwork is pretty much like another....
Still, we did get into the Kremlin and St Basil's, neither of which I really remember going into last time. St Basil's is rather beautiful inside, with much more muted colours than the psychedelic swirls on its onion domes outside. We also saw some rather good Russian modern art in a huge gallery with almost nobody else there.....until we had our first 'small world' moment when an old couple who were on our boat trip in Spitsbergen last year appeared around the corner!
And then there was Gum, which I remember very vividly from my last visit as a dingy, dirty string of arcades with endless shabby market stalls selling very little you would want for almost nothing but were, we understood, one of the few places that things could be bought. 20 years has seen an unbelievable transformation into a shiny, expensive shopping arcade with designer clothes, fancy cafes and guards on all the doors - the most obvious example of how for me of how things have changed.
Moscow is large and fast and getting around takes time despite very efficient, cheap and in some places very striking metro system, so it was quite tiring. It was also rather cold and grey so we probably didn't see it at its best but I was quite glad to get away. That was after our rather lengthy trek to find our last train tickets that the lovely Natasha had finally managed to get for the last leg of our trip. These were in a tiny office out in the Moscow suburbs somewhere but we're very pleased to have these in our sweaty money belts!
And so to the train, which turned out not to be that busy but we had a full compartment (or kupe) sharing with Marina and Tolya, both returning to Yekaterinburg from holidays. Marina spoke a few words of english from school, Tolya almost none, and so far our Russian is at the 'please', 'thank you' and 'toilet' stage so it was clearly going to be a long trip. However, within an hour of leaving Moscow, Tolya produced enough food to feed all of us and spread it out on the table insisting that we tuck in to a whole roast chicken, tomatoes, cucumber, bread, salami and fruit. We added some of our meagre rations but it was a little embarassing. He also produced a flask of vodka to kick off the meal, a Russian tradition apparently!
So, over the next 24 hours we learnt quite a lot and some we might have made up. Marina is a computer programmer for the railways and, we think, that Tolya is a soldier or at least was. They both have 2 children, one of each and Tolya has a 2 year old grandson.
They were astonished by the fact that we were on holiday for a year and seemed fascinated by what we were doing. And we learnt a few new words of Russian, including 'lyes', the word for forest, which I think may be useful for many of our train trips! The train itself was very clean (hoovered at least 3 times while we were on it) and very warm (too warm I think) but I think 26 hours is probably my limit before cabin fever really sets in. There were 3 or 4 stops of 10-20 mins. One was in a town with a large glass factory and we were mobbed by people selling glasses, huge vases and chandeliers. Tolya bought 3 sets of glasses for $1 which he said were crystal.....for $1 who cares - it's cheaper than Ikea!
Relieved to arrive here in Yekaterinburg which is where the Csar and his family were murdered after the revolution. We're in a rather shabby hotel but it's clean and has plenty of room. There seems to be an inability for Russians to put up a proper holder for a shower head - such a simple thing which would make so much difference, but apart from that we have had plenty of hot water and can't complain.
Just off to find dinner somewhere now - we've had pretty good food most of the way (rather to our surprise!) although there is a tendency for much of it to taste of sour cream and dill. I could get tired of cucumber quite soon too. The most difficult food so far was this morning's breakfast - a selection of rice, bright pink sausage, cucumber, tomato, tasteless cheese and salty bread with instant coffee. There was also something I thought was pieces of omelette but turned out to be like eating a very sweet bath sponge - we might not bother tomorrow! (Frankfurters and rice was fine by me (even for breakfast) - at least it wasn't cheese! H.)
At the moment Sarah is chief blogger, and we're not adding photos at the moment as it's a challenge just to get an internet connection we can use!
Das Vadanya! (Or something like that!)
S + H xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.166s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 14; qc: 72; dbt: 0.1157s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jonathan
non-member comment
Omsk
I haven't forgotten! Is it your next stop? Don't forget the t-shirt. Isn't it funny, you've been to Moscow and seen all these incedible sights and yet the interesting stuff is the people you met on the train. And yet you can meet people on a train in this country. But we don't. And we don't talk to them even though (sometimes) we speak the same language. Of course you're unlikley to find anyone with a whole cooked chicken about their person in the UK but you never know. If we just talked (and asked) perhaps we'd find hundreds of people with cooked chickens. I don't suppose you happened to buy a chandelier did you? Its just that I'm looking for one and they're awfully expensive over here (a message to fellow commenters - if you know anywhere to pick up a decent chandelier (classic and not too big but big enough) then please include the details in your comment. Thanks). Good to hear from you and to hear that everything is going OK. J x