A Tour of Red Square

Well, I've been back for over a week and I think I'm finally over all the jet lag and disorientation. I've circled the globe and lived to tell about it. Adjusting to the idea that I have to get back to real life and don't have another trip on the horizon is another story, but I'm working on it.

I also tackled the task of going through all my pictures from the trip - almost 3,000 in total, more than 1,000 from Moscow. Figuring out how to group them has been somewhat daunting, but since I promised some follow-up posts on Moscow, here goes.

The most obvious place to start is Red Square. Not only is it the geographical heart of the city, but also the place most associated with Russia by people from other countries. What I've come to realize by talking to a lot of people, however, is that there are a lot of misconceptions about Red Square and what's actually there.

For starters, the Kremlin and Red Square are two different things. Many people think they are the same thing, or that the Kremlin is in Red Square. The Kremlin is a much larger complex, and one of its walls forms the southwest border of Red Square. Halfway along this wall is Lenin's Mausoleum, where you can still see the preserved Communist leader. I did not visit the mausoleum this time, but I assume he still looks pretty much the same as he did the last time I saw him.

Opposite the Kremlin wall and forming the northeast border of Red Square is GUM, the massive state department store. Long the site of trade in Moscow, the modern-day GUM is an ornate, three-story shopping center with fountains and glass ceilings, selling high-end luxury goods. Even if you can't afford anything more than a cup of coffee, it's worth going in just to gape at the opulence.

As Red Square is much longer than it is wide, the Kremlin wall and GUM take up most of the real estate. At the northwest end is Resurrection Gate, rebuilt in 1995, where most visitors make their first approach to Red Square. Resurrection Gate is flanked on either side by the impressive red brick State Historical Museum and the brightly-colored Kazan Cathedral.

Finally, at the southwest end of Red Square is St. Basil's Cathedral, the most famous feature of the square. I've already gone on at length about how much I love this building. I still stand by my statement that it is my favorite structure in the world.

A lot of people ask what the inside of the cathedral is like, since you really only ever see pictures of the outside. Being the only church that I was allowed to take pictures inside of (but also the only church I had to pay to get into), I can actually show you. Rather than being one large church, St. Basil's is made up of a number of smaller rooms and separate chapels spread out over two floors. The chapels are ornately decorated and the hallways are painted with brightly-colored floral patterns.

Last but not least, you of course have the exterior of St. Basil's, with its iconic onion domes. I really feel like I'm not actually in Moscow until I've seen St. Basil's. In fact, I might go so far as to say that you haven't truly been to Russia until you've set foot in Red Square. There really is no place in the world like it.

And even though I've already included far too many pictures in this post, I'm going to close with some more St. Basil's pictures since I love it so much.  Enjoy!

From Russia With Love

I had initially planned to do more posts from Moscow as I went along, but as it turns out I was either too busy or too tired to keep the blog updated. So, breaking the pattern I set on my other trips, I’ll do some more specific posts after I get back and keep my thoughts general for now, throwing in some pictures here and there. Because, honestly, there is way too much to say about this city to cram into one post.

Fall has set in here and you can tell that winter isn’t far behind. Most of my days here have been cold and wet. Ironically, rain is the one weather word I couldn’t remember when I got here. If it was going to be sunny, cloudy, hot, warm, cold, windy, even snowy, I was set. But not rainy. Now I’m quite familiar with the word. Yet, while it would have been nice to have blue skies in my pictures, the weather hasn’t bothered me much at all. Aside from one day of soaked feet and one instance of crawling on my knees in the mud to avoid plummeting down a hillside (long story), the rain really didn’t faze me. I think I was just too happy to be here to care.

I still love it here. I loved it 13 years ago and I probably always will. I forgot how much walking there is here. I thought I walked a lot in New York, but my routine there is nothing compared to here. My feet are sore, which might be the only reason I’m ready for things to come to an end. I’m pretty much exhausted. When I lived here, I made a point of trying to see one thing a day and that was tiring enough. Running around and fitting a bunch of sights into a day is completely draining (but worth it).

There is just too much to see in five and half days, but I gave it a good run. On the train ride through Siberia I made a plan of what I wanted to see on what days, and then promptly abandoned it due to weather, opening hours and other impediments. Yet I still managed to hit almost everything on my list. Anything I didn’t get to will just have to wait till next time.

A lot of this visit was a big trip down memory lane. Nostalgia hit me hardest when I visited the university and a few other haunts where I spent a lot of my time when I was here. Most things were exactly like I remember them. I can’t claim to have remembered the whole city, but plop me down either in Red Square or at the University metro stop and I can find my way around like no time has passed. I also quickly found myself unintentionally slipping back into student mode, often foregoing sit-down meals in favor of eating on the run by grabbing  delicious bread products from babushka stands whenever I spotted them.

It’s hard to explain why this is my favorite place. It’s certainly not perfect. For starters, it’s far too smoky – everyone smokes everywhere, all the time. It can also be a huge pain just to get across Moscow’s massive streets, often having to cross underground. But even with those things, and the rain on top of it, I still don’t want to go home.

A few things are perfect, however. The first is the Moscow metro. It is beautiful and clean and well-marked and utterly efficient. In essence, it is everything that the New York subway is not. Provided that you can read Russian (which is the obvious catch), it is the easiest thing in the world to use. The trains all go where they are supposed to go when they are supposed to go there. It is hands down the best subway system I have seen in the world, and it has been running this way for decades. The fact that many of the metro stations are architectural masterpieces is really just the icing on the cake.

The other thing that is perfect is Red Square, or more specifically St. Basil’s Cathedral. I can literally sit and stare at it for hours and never get tired of it. Every time I catch a glimpse of it I’m still transfixed. I will also take countless pictures of it, even if I’ve taken 100 already. I’m fairly certain it’s my favorite structure I’ve ever seen. Last night, under an unusually clear sky with the moon shining down, I think it looked the most beautiful I’ve seen it yet.

But alas, my time here has come to an end yet again. My visa runs out tomorrow so I pretty much have no choice but to leave. Once again, this city has gotten under my skin. I can’t help but think that this visit won’t be my last. Moscow and I have a future together, I can feel it.

But now, as I prepare to head to the airport at an ungodly hour to start the trip home, I bid you all farewell.

From Russia With Love,

Steph

Back in Moscow

I'm back in Moscow and my tour is officially over. I spent the last day and a half with the rest of my group doing the prearranged acitivies. Everyone else left this morning and I now get four glorious days to myself to roam around and explore on my own schedule.

I have to admit that the activities that they arranged for us as a group were quite good. Straight from the train we headed to Red Square to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. Walking into Red Square and seeing the onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral is what really made me feel like I was back in Russia, even though I'd been in the country for about 4 days already.

We spent about an hour wandering around Red Square, which was just as fantastic as I remember, although seeing as I was wearing yoga pants and was coming off of 5 days on the train without showering, I felt a bit grimy and out of place.  Still, the stop was totally worth it, since the weather has gone drastically downhill since Saturday.

Yesterday we took a day trip to the town of Sergiev Posad, about 75 kilometers outside of Moscow, to visit a stunning 14th century monastery.

After exploring the ornate churches and stocking up on lots of matrioshka dolls and other Russian souvenirs, we headed to a toy museum where we got to paint our own matrioshkas.  While it was really fun, I don't think I'll be giving up photography in favor of painting any time soon.  We ended the afternoon by having tea with a local family.

In the evening after our organized activities were done, I asked our guide to drop us off in town rather than taking us straight back out to our hotel so that we could find dinner and wander around a bit before everyone else had to leave.

We ended up on Arbat Street, a main pedestrianized shopping street in Moscow.  I was immediately struck by how many Western chains have taken over the city since I was here in 1998.  I can't remember exactly what used to line Arbat Street, but I know it wasn't Starbucks, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Cinnabon and the Hard Rock Cafe like it is now.  While it's not at all surprising, it is a little dissapointing.

The other notable change is a new "downtown" area that is going up, with shiny new skyscrapers that look really out of place.

Finally, my plans to visit the Izmailovo Market that should be right near my first hotel have been dashed.  Izmailovo Market used to be a massive flea market that offered a combination of traditional souvenirs, antiques and Soviet memorabilia and random stalls of clothing that appeared to have fallen off the back of a truck somewhere. While it was admittedly a little bit sketchy, it was fascinating and offered some things that you couldn't find anywhere else. Apparently the sketchiness won out, however, and a few years ago it was shut down. Now in its place is some tourist replica of a Kremlin of sorts that appears to be a cross between Disneyland and the Excalibur in Las Vegas (and is also the view from my current hotel room).

Those changes aside, Moscow still feels the same for the most part and I'm so excited to be back here. The Moscow metro is just as beautiful and clean and user-friendly as ever, and riding it last night made me feel like I was home again. I was even stopped for directions by a local, which always makes me laugh.

And now I'm off to begin my solo explorations of Moscow in the rain (alas, the weather can't be nice all the time)...

Train days

5 days and 4 nights on a train goes by much more quickly than you would expect. Somehow the hours just melt away as you stare out the window and take in the scenery. Actually, I can’t believe that 2 weeks of this trip are already over.

After leaving Mongolia, we skirted the south shore of Lake Baikal before entering the heart of Siberia.

Siberia is vast expanse of forest dotted with small villages full of traditional wooden houses, some beautifully painted in bright colors.

 Aside from these scattered towns, our route passed mostly through endless taiga forests of birch and pine trees. The trees were already barren in the depths of Siberia, but as we got closer to Asia the birches were still full of brilliant yellow leaves. I wasn’t expecting the array of colors that we got on our last full train day. I think I spent a few hours just staring out the train window and watching them fall in golden cascades.

We also passed countless Russian Orthodox churches, each one unique. Supposedly no two churches in Russia are identical.

 

It’s hard to convey just how big Siberia is. In the course of our trip we crossed through 5 time zones and covered 9001 kilometers in total between Moscow and Beijing. The temperature also fluctuated drastically as we were sweating in Beijing and freezing in Ulaanbaatar. Mongolia was definitely the coldest part of the trip (thank God for cheap Mongolian cashmere!).

A few times a day we stopped at larger towns where we were able to get off the train and stretch our legs. We also could buy provisions for the train, including in some cases fresh bread products like pirogis from babushkas set up on the platforms. My limited Russian has proved invaluable, since no one in these remote towns speaks a word of English.

Our train was surprisingly empty. When we first got on in Ulaanbaatar, the train was full of traders trying to bring goods across the border. The customs process at the border crossings took hours and hours in the middle of the night, with uniformed officials checking passports and inspecting train compartments for stowaways or contraband goods. They go easy on foreigners like us, so we had no problems. We just got to sit and listen as they tossed the compartments of the Mongolian traders and Russian passengers. Once we crossed the border, all the traders got off and the train became quiet. At highest capacity, our car had 4 other solo travelers in it. We met a couple of New Yorkers who were traveling in a first class cabin and they said they had the entire train car to themselves. Apparently this is not peak season for the train.

The train compartments are comfortable enough, although after 4 nights I was ready for a real bed. And more than ready for a shower. But aside from the lack of facilities, life on the train really isn’t bad. It would have been nice to meet and interact with more people, but unfortunately you can't control these things.

I would actually love to do this train trip in the dead of winter and see Siberia blanketed in snow (from the confines of my warm train cabin). I think it would be an absolutely stunning sight. I am also fascinated by the little towns and would love a chance to explore one of them and stay in one of the colorful little houses.

Mostly I am just really excited to be back in Russia. I can’t wait to see Moscow again. I’ve already made a long list of all the things I want to hit while I’m there. I can’t believe it’s been over thirteen years since my summer there. I’m curious to see what has changed and what hasn’t. And the small bits of food we’ve been buying on the train platforms has made me even more excited for Russian food.

We made a brief stop in Red Square on our way from the train to our hotel, and it immediately took me back to that magical summer. A week in Moscow will be the perfect end to what has already been an incredible trip.

Mongolia

Mongolia is a completely fascinating and amazing place. I don't have nearly enough time to do it justice here, since I have about 20 minutes before I have to head for the train.

Much of Mongolia is vast and largely barren steppe. Ulaanbaatar, the capital, is a notable exception. It is a very cosmopolitan city and the people who live here are extremely stylish and pulled together. One of the most impressive things we saw here was the Gandan Hiid monastery, where monks keep up their ancient prayers and rituals. The temples were decorated in a gorgeous array of colors and the whole place had an air of peace and calm about it.

Taking a break from the city, we spent two days in the Mongolian countryside, staying in a traditional Mongolian felt ger (yurt). This was probably the highlight of the trip. I don't think I've ever been so far away from the frenzy of every day life. The countryside was beautiful and made for some fantastic hiking. We also got to go horse back riding across the steppe, which was unbelievably cool.

The ger was much more comfortable than I expected. I can actually see how people live in them year round. Our final night was capped off with amazingly clear skies and millions of stars, including the Milky Way stretching in a band straight over our heads.

I will miss Mongolia. I've enjoyed it even more than I ever anticipated I would. But now I am off to start the real train journey. We will be traveling on the train for 5 days and 4 nights across Siberia to Moscow. I will be completely off the grid with virtually no access to the outside world, which sounds pretty appealing right now.

I'm looking forward to amazing scenery and relaxation. I do, however, realize that 5 days is a long time. I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories after this trip...