From Russia with Love

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On 15 September Alison, Julie and I arrived in the famously pretty city of St Petersburg to meet with our On the Go tour group, led by the beautiful Nataliya (Russian women are generally gorgeous, although they seem to be stuck in the 80s in their fashion sense. The men are less fortunate, and favour mullets).
With palaces and cathedrals designed by Dutch, Italian and French architects in the 1700s-1800s, the grey concrete blocks we had expected were a rarity - instead we saw hundreds of ornamental bridges and ornate facades in bright blues, yellows, pinks and gold (hence its nickname, "the Venice of the North"). Not a lot of money has been spent on preserving St Petersburg- giving rise to a general impression of faded glory, but with Putin being a Petersburger, more funds are now coming in to the city for restoration works. We spent hours marvelling at the art collections and Winter Palace in the Hermitage, gasped at the impossibly colourful Church of the Spilled Blood, and drank vodka like it was water.
Travelling overnight by train we then arrived in Vladimir, a medieval town in the Golden Ring and headed off to nearby Suzdal for a particularly Russian experience - the banya. After steaming ourselves in a 100 degree sauna, being beaten with birch branches (I still have red welts across my back) and jumping in the ice cold river three times, we were declared sufficiently revitalised and returned to our hotel where that night we witnessed some of the seedier side of Russian culture in the hotel's "entertainment complex."
We then took the painfully slow journey to Moscow by bus - Russia has a constant rush hour, and on one trip it took us over an hour and a half to travel 30km. Travel by train is much more pleasant, as not only is it quicker but the metro stations are beautiful - decorated with chandeliers and marble statues so that the workers would feel happy and important as they travelled to and from work.
Moscow was so much more beautiful than I'd expected, and standing in Red Square surrounded by the candy-striped St Basil, the imposing walls of the Kremlin, and the sombre tomb housing Lenin's embalmed corpse, was breathtaking.
We saw in the buildings the different phases of Russia's political history - from the decadent palaces of the tsars, to the mass apartments, communal shower blocks and workers' food halls built during the communist regime, up to the lavish shopping centres and luxury car dealerships catering to the current upper class. Our local guides also taught us, not without some nostalgia, about the changes to their lives since the end of communism in 1990 and we took some time to wander through the statue park on the outskirts of town, where statues of the former leaders have been tucked away (some have been attacked with paint and hammers, Stalin has lost his nose). The very visible presence of police, riot police, the military and the navy throughout Moscow, as well as the imposing KGB headquarters, were also a constant reminder of Russia's political past and present.
Russian food (borsch, herring, stroganoff and mash potatoes) was not a highlight of the trip, but Alison and I had a delicious meal at the swanky Cafe Pushkin (the chicken kiev even beat Yarrawonga's) - I definitely recommend a visit.
Russia is a really interesting, and surprisingly beautiful country - but my liver was grateful to see the end of vodka for lunch!

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