The Train Journey Stops Here

May 2, 2012

St. Petersburg

A short overnight train journey takes you from Moscow to St. Petersburg. We arrived to typical St. Petersburg weather—cloudy and cold. We were told we would want to take an umbrella with us wherever we went because you never know when the rain will fall. We toured the city with an engaging local guide who showed us where Dostoyevsky lived while writing Crime and Punishment and told us about his gambling problem which resulted in his living in over 20 apartments in the city as he would never pay his rent and only ended when his second wife threatened to leave him. We also saw many of the beautiful buildings scattered throughout the city.

Crime and Punishment inspiration

One of Dostoyevsky's many (over 20!) apartments in the city.

We arrived on our tour leader, Bob’s, birthday and so we celebrated that night with dinner and dancing. I will say that going out in other countries makes me appreciate the non-smoking policies in the States. I’m a lightweight and went to bed early but even still woke up smelling like an ashtray. Yuck. Anyway…

The birthday boy

In addition to seeing the striking architecture in St. Petersburg, I was able to enjoy several concerts and dances. I went to a performance of “Verdi’s Requiem”, which was amazing. (Don’t know when I started enjoying classical music so much?)I attended a ballet performance of “Carmen” and then a selection of other non-related dances as well as a folk show. The performing in the folk show was fantastic, but it did feel like a bit of a tourist trap—alas. The Aussie girls and I also attend a performance at the Mariinsky Theater. The performance was called a “Gala for Young Theater Goers.” While I know I’m no longer “young,” in a theater-goers sense, I didn’t realize until we got to the theater that the young theater goers ranged from five to eleven years old. Despite (or maybe because of?) the young audience, the selected opera, symphony, and ballet numbers were wonderful, and we got a taste of each genre. To top it off, we watched the performance from the Tsar’s Box—which we had to ourselves!

Folk show

Folk show performance

Just a little younger than we are...

Mariinsky Theater

Yes, this is the Tsar's box

The Intrepid tour ended in St. Petersburg on the 29, and we had a dinner at a traditional Georgian restaurant the night before to say goodbye. Our guide finally played the piano for us (It turns out he used to play keyboard in one the biggest bands in Russia!), and Alicia was a good sport for dancing with a very energetic (and talented!) Georgian waiter.

Bob accompanying the Georgian singer

Go Alicia!

I stayed a couple extra days to explore the city after the tour ended. My plans to see a few of the out-of-city sights were foiled each day (by totally acceptable things), but I did make it to the Hermitage Museum (“I’m not saying it’s the best museum in the world… But it’s certainly not second” one curator said of the place--or something to that effect.) It was fantastic. With over three million exhibits, it’s not really something you can absorb in one day, but now I have an excuse to go back. J

Cathedral of the Spilled Blood

Inside the cathedral

Mosaic on the ceiling

Another mosaic inside

May Day parade

May Day (Labor Day) parade

The Hermitage (a very little part of it)

Red Means Beautiful

April 26, 2012

Our good luck with the weather continued in Moscow.  I don’t really know what I was expecting of the city, but I was surprised by how beautiful it was. We had a free day the first afternoon, and it was pleasant to just walk around and enjoy the city and its architecture and monuments.

Arrival in Moscow. I'm a bit of a bag lady.

Cathedral of Christ the Savior

Street cleaning--we almost got hosed!

Choreographed Street Brass Band

Our second day in Moscow began with an optional visit to Lenin’s mausoleum. I don’t know what it is with dictators and bodies on display, but to date, I’ve seen good old “Uncle” Mao, Ho Chi Minh, and now, Lenin, and I can say with authority that the preserved body is not the most flattering look. (For the record, as there will probably be a large contingent of people who would like to preserve my body and keep me in a mausoleum when I die, my wish is to donate whatever anyone will take of my body and burn the rest.)

Lenin is in there.

After seeing Lenin we met a tour guide who took us through the Kremlin and Red Square. Before entering Red Square, however, we learned a little trivia about one of the buildings outside. The building has two different facades.  The story goes that Stalin was given two sets of plans for the building to okay. He signed off on them without specifying which he wanted followed. The architect/builder was too nervous to go back and ask which Stalin wanted, so the builder compromised by building one set of sides according to each plan. There you go.

Another opportunity to make a wish--
this one just requires throwing a coin from this spot outside of Red Square.

Red Square was originally built as a marketplace. The Russian word for red is the same as the word for beautiful. Red Square was actually named for its beauty, not its color, and the square has been white several times over the years. Red Square is home to St. Basil’s Cathedral, and I felt a little like I was standing in front of a candy church when I saw it in person. In fact, several of the buildings in the square give the impression of visiting a Candyland world. All are amazingly beautiful; it’s just that they are very colorful and intricate in a lollypop-type of way.

The country is getting ready for the May 9 Parade.

The churches around are beautiful while reminding me a bit of Candyland.

St. Basil's Cathedral

St. Basil's Cathedral without me.

The Kremlin was interesting. It’s home to the president, four cathedrals, and four palaces. The cathedrals were quite interesting, but unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos inside. We also visited the Armory Museum which houses all sorts of art, jewelry, clothing, and pottery.

Inside the Kremlin--I don't know why I found these
facades for construction so amusing. 

Tzar  Bell commissioned by Empress Ana Ivanovna.
It's the largest bell in the world that weights over
445,000 pounds and is over 20 feet tall!

The bell was cracked when water was thrown on  it to put out a fire.
In addition to heating the bell, the fire burned its wooden
support causing it to fall into its casting pit.

One of the churches in the Kremlin

Another one

Getting arsty--or just trying to get the top spire in the frame

These school kids visiting the place fell in love with Ken.

More Kremlin views

We went on to visit the famous GUM department store after the tour, and then several of us went to an Easter Concert that evening.

GUM Department Store that borders one side of Red Square

Easter Concert

Moscow’s metro system is the second most used subway system in the world. Its stations are also among the most beautiful, and the girls and I spent a couple hours riding around below ground visiting the different stations.  

Subway Art

The subways were designed to be fallout shelters if necessary.

More subway art

And another

And another

We had a free day again the following day, which I spent being lost in Moscow. Fortunately, it’s a beautiful city to be lost in.

The weather finally turned on us as two hours before we were to walk 20 minutes to the train station for our overnight trip to St. Petersburg, and we did the walk in the rain. The trip made me grateful that my first new suitcase broke as quickly as it did and I replaced it with a sturdier one—it would have been quite a pain to carry my broken-handled suitcase through the rainy streets of Moscow. 

And a final note:

In the sushi restaurant. I was a little surprised
when I opened the door--which to use?

Three Wishes in Kungur

April 23, 2012

Kungur is a small Siberian town of 60,000 people in the Ural Mountains. We were delighted to exit the train after our three day journey and find sunshine and no need for our coats. After a humongous breakfast at our hotel, a nap, a run, and a shower, I met my group and our local guide for a tour of the city. The quaint city was a significant spot in the Russian tea trade in the 19^th century. (A merchant brought tea to the masses by offering small packets of tea as an alternative to the 20 or 30-kilo packages costing as much as a small house—previously the only tea-buying option.)

Tea merchant

Teapot?

The Sylva, Iren, and Shakhva Rivers meet in the town and their joining is marked by a half-spherical monument—the “Navel of the World.” (Tradition is that you can make a wish while touching the navel, which I did. I also put my navel to the World’s Navel—how old am I?)

In front of one of those rivers

World's navel and first wish

Navel to navel?

Families were out enjoying the sunshine along the river, as were plenty of drunken men, despite only being 2:00 in the afternoon. (“I am an alcoholic.” one shouted to us after hearing our tour guide address us in English, “and this is my friend. He is also an alcoholic.”)

Kungur is home to several beautiful churches as well as a hot air balloon festival that brings thousands of tourists each summer.  My second opportunity to make a wish came from the tradition of wishing while touching the foot of the flying boy statue.

Highest point in the city

View from the bell tower

Playing the bells (while being a teapot?)

Second wish!

Everyone enjoying a lemonade during the tour. 

Our local tour concluded at the bus stop where we boarded to have dinner at a local Russian family’s home. (The bus ride was uneventful, though I was surprised by the ticket system. Basically, you go up to the front of the bus and put your money on a tray and take a ticket. The money sits up uncovered on the tray by the driver so people can make their own change as necessary.)

Money and tickets are sitting on the tray next to the
driver for ready for self-service.

The apartment of our host-family was old an Soviet-era make. The outside was pretty typical for a lot of the buildings we saw in Kungur. Inside the apartment it was clean and bright.

Outside of the apartment complex

Stairwell

The dinner and the host family were delightful. We were met at the door by a six-year-old boy and his seven-year-old sister offering us bread and salt, as is the tradition in Russia. After being surprised by, and then stuffing ourselves with, a main course after we had filled up on the salads, bread, and soup on the table that we thought were our dinner, we played with the children. Katia sang for us and her little brother became a bit of a ham after taking a few minutes to warm up to the strangers. (When it came time for us to go, the little boy actually grabbed onto my hair in an effort to keep me to stay.)

Bread

Salt

No, no. What you see on the table is not actually our meal.

Right before he grabbed my hair!

Several of us went to see the Ice Cave for which Kungur is known after dinner. I have to give the marketing department props for the whole thing. While there was ice along the first 200 meters of the cave, which was beautiful, the rest of the 2.5 kilometer walk was just through a very cold, rocky cave. Our guide did her best to making it exciting by telling us stories about the place, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed by the lack of ice in the “ice cave.” On the bright side, I was able to make my third wish of the day at the cave while rubbing a particular rock. (I realize, of course, that I can make wishes whenever I want. These wishes all have Russian tradition/superstition behind them however, so the wishes I make seem more likely to come true. ;))

It's definitely called an ice cave.

If it all looked like this...

Or this...

Or this... I'd have been impressed.

Dante's Inferno

Third wish!

Okay, so even though it's rock, it's also pretty beautiful!

While waiting for our taxi cab after visiting the cave, we were surrounded by 30 or so nine to eleven-year olds who were visiting the cave on an overnight school trip. (I hope they weren’t disappointed!) Come to find out, we were the first foreigners they had ever seen. I was a bit surprised they could even tell we were foreigners, but our guide assured us that despite having the same color skin and similar facial features, we indeed stood out as foreigners. Maybe we smiled too much.