Sudzal the real Russian countryside

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Today I was up and out at 7.45 to catch a bus to Suzdal, a small town of 15,000 people. After city life for the past 9 days I was ready for a small town and lots of open spaces. After getting to the bus station (the usual chaos) I bought my ticket and settled down for the 4 hour trip. The bus was quite comfy and while waiting for it to start I got chatting to a family from Mexico who spoke brilliant English, there was mum, dad and two teenagers, one boy one girl. It made me smile when I saw that teenagers no matter where they come from (England or Mexico) have that same "I'm bored blank looking expression !!)

Sure enough after 4 hours and two rest stops and numerous bus stops we stopped again. No one says where you are so you have to guess, but as we were at a hut in the middle of nowhere I presumed that it was just another stop along the route. WRONG !!! it was my stop and luckily the Mexican guy asked someone who said yes it was Suzdal. Lots of shouting and panic followed by the Mexicans and me, anyway we managed to get him to stop so we could all pile out of the bus. Then we all went quiet and looked at one another as we were literally in a dirt track with a wooden run down hut. Luckily and I mean really luckily a woman at the hut spoke some English, and we said we were expecting to be dropped off at the town centre. She said we should wait and a minibus should be here soon and take us to town, PHEW !!!!

So after a short ride I arrived and immediately knew I was going to love it here. Its a quaint town with only one story buildings, little old ladies selling veg by the side of the road, one main road and churches everywhere, and sooooo peacefull. The sun was beating down and it was perfect. I found my hostel called Godzilla's very easily down a track next to the river.

The hostel is a big wooden house that is decorated with big brightly coloured murals everywhere, spotlessly clean and very spacious. The owner (English guy with a Russian wife and children) is here at the moment with his family for the summer, so its very noisy with children and grandparents too, a proper Russian family atmosphere.

First stop was to go out exploring this small town, I walked past lots of churches, apparently there are 50 churches in a town for 15,000 people, so no excuse to a fall of the religious wagon here. The churches are cosy and heavily decorated, and they have a lovely atmosphere. I carried on walking in the sunshine and bought a punnet of fresh raspberries off one of the old ladies selling their fruit and veg by the road side, they were delicious. The funny thing is that there is a line of ladies all selling fruit and veg, all sitting behind a small wall, but each one only sells one type of fruit or veg. So one lady sells cucumber, the next will sell onions and the next may be a big shot and sell carrots AND blueberries. They look like the stereotypical Russian old lady, long dress thats seen better days, headscarf and very little teeth !!!!

I went to see a monistary that was like a museum and art gallery, but the biggest surprise was a building filled with modern art, and very good I may add (not that I know anything about art!) but not what you would expect in a 12th century monistary. Also there was a room full of handmade quilts, toys and tablecloths AND bags, yes ........ you know me ....... I bought a bag !!! Its gorgeous and the old lady told me she made everything herself.

more strolling around with horse drawn elaborate coaches trotting by. Then back to my hostel for a late afternoon snooze ........... I woke to find two girls in my dorm who had just arrived, one born and brought up in Germany and the other who is Dutch, they are friends who live in Amsterdam. We went out for something to eat and they introduced me to honey wine ......... mmmmmm yum yum and you know me, I'm not a wine drinker normally but this is beautiful and went down a treat. We had a mixture of food to share including , dumplings, deep fried cheese balls, and blini.

There were the usual drunk Russian men on the next table, Russian men are notorious for being big drinkers, in fact according to the Lonely Planet, men in Russia have a life expectancy of 64 and women of 78 !!! but I can see why, I've seen lots of drunk men in the street, it seems funny to see people walking around drinking with bottles in their hands. Its been a few years since we were able to do that.

Home to my very comfy bunk, I really do love this town 😊

night night xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Comments

[Joanne]

I like the sound of this!
Wooow I like the sound of Suzal- right up my street!! Can't wait to see your pics. Sounds a nice way to chill out and wind down after all your travels. Say Gutentag to your German friend- Ich liebe deutschland, es ist super!!! love ya xxxx