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Published: November 27th 2009
Moscow Muling
So lets start from the beginning... Moscow was a blast! Arrived and felt a bit strange being in a country I've only read about in books and which still has a mixed reputation internationally in the West. But after a day or two the strange feeling wore off and everything became easier.
First thing that hit me when I arived into Moscow Domodedevo was not being able to read the signs and notices. So scrambling into my bag for the directions to my hostel, at the same time as being harrassed by the black taxi drivers, I booked a legit taxi to central Moscow. Got there safe and sound! In total I was 5 days in Moscow and the weather was surprsingly milder than I had expected (4C to 8C). Some of the sights in the city are spectacular; St Basils Cathedral, The Kremlin and the hundreds of gold-domed churches all worth seeing. The most unusual thing I went to with a couple of people was the Cold War Museum. It was intriguing as we had to book an appointment to visit this Museum which is based beneath Moscow and was formerly a nuclear bunker from the
Cold War era. This was brilliant and although the tour was in Russian, it was a really interesting experience being 18 floors beneath Moscow where the political elite would have based themselves in the event of nuclear war.
On the social side of things I met the people who would be on my tour to Beijing along with a couple of tag alongs and the first night of the tour our 'Honcho' (tour guide), Marsha, took us out to a Rock 'n' Roll party which was hilarious. Getting there took a while and being in the suburbs of Moscow in what felt like the middle of nowhere was more exhilirating then scary. After the first round of straight vodka, of what would be many along this trip to Beijing, the night really kicked in with the weirdest mix of music from the Beatles, "Rock around the Clock" to "Take On Me" (heavy rock mix) and Offspring. It was a great night and being the only foreigners out of 30 people in total at this club, it was definitely an experience.
Eeeeeekaterinburg! Brrrr!
So my stay in Moscow had come to an end but it was just the
start of my total 23 day journey to Beijing. The first stop after Moscow would be Ekaterinburg (never heard of it either). Luckily along the trip we would have a Honcho, a local student or guide who would meet and pick us up at the train station at each town, so there was no need to worry about getting around or struggling for things to do. After a 30 hour train ride we arrived in Ekaterinburg at about 11pm, with Yevgeny at the platform waiting to meet us in temperatures of -4C to -10C. I was FREEZING!!! Our first glimpse of snow had us worried about how cold it was going to be when we got to Siberia. Oh dear!
Anyway the town is famous for being the place where the last Royal Family of Russia, the Romanovs, were murdered and buried by the Bolsheviks (Lenin). We went to the monastery that has been built on the site the family were buried and has been built in memory of the Romanovs who are now considered matrys by the Orthodox Church. A beautiful setting on the outside of town among the forests, which was really atmospheric, although slightly depressing at
the same time. A huge long wall of the last photos of the family was on display and in all the little churches on the site the depictions of the family members were on the walls along side, obviously, depictions of Jesus. The site where the family were murdered also had a large church again with the depictions of the family. Maybe not a particularly happy story for a town to be famous for but nevertheless a really interesting story.
On a happier note we did go to the Europe-Asia border which is the geographical border between the two continents a few kilometers out of town. A few pictures of the group hopping the border and realising that we were now heading towards Asia and leaving Europe behind it was an important milestone in the journey. Before leaving the city we managed to fit in a short visit to the Ekaterinburg History Museum with an exhibition of Soviet Children's Fashion and Toys. These will be tagged on Facebook so look out for them!
Before taking the train again we got some supplies to keep us going on the 72 hour journey to Irkutsk; instant noodles and bread and
of course VODKA. We said bye to Ekaterinburg and Yevgeny and prepared ourselves for 3 nights on the train to Siberia. Our short visit to Ekaterinburg had come to an end.
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Adrianne
non-member comment
Your Russian-english transliteration is funny but....
Glad you're having a good time and drank plenty of vodka. That Peter guy really couldn't look any happier to be therecould he?!?!