Russian Landscapes

2009 07 26 – Day 30 - Train to Aralsk

From the start of the day, the Russian landscape is not so dissimilar to much of the rest of Northern Europe – green and somewhere between flat and undulating.

As the train cuts further into the continent, the landscape gives way to larger and larger plains that become progressively more arid and the temperature spirals upward. Passengers covet the corridor positions beside an open window, often aiding the inflow of air with an arm or curtain.
When I get a chance to stick my hand out the window to achieve the same I'm surprised to feel that, despite the cooling factor of its movement, the air outside is hotter than the air inside! It must be unbearably hot out there because inside we're melting.


Every now and then an industrial monster grows out of the plains, looming over us as we roll on by.

Train to Aralsk

2009 07 25-26 – Days 29-30 - Train to Aralsk


I was glad to be the first to find my compartment and claim a space for my rucksack, especially 5 minutes later when I was joined by an entire family of six! Given that the compartment was only designed for four, I was somewhat relieved to realise that the four children and father were actually sending off their gran and she would be the only one of their group joining me. Granny Goldie, as I mentally knew her on account of her gold teeth, was a dumpy lady approximately late 60s carrying a permanently dour expression... she didn't seem to be too impressed with my existence. Shortly after the whirlwind that were her descendents deposited her on her berth, the two upper berths of our compartment were claimed by two rugged men of the earth in their late fourties – real characters who appeared to be returning home from work in Moscow, seemingly travelling independently but immediately bonding in anticipation of their shared travelling space. All three of my room-mates seemed nonplussed by my presence, particularly after the subtleties of their questions in Russian rebounded off my mirror of incomprehention. I smiled politely and tried my best to understand, but for the most part I was reduced to shrugging and looking blank. Clearly their English was as good as my Russian. Once that was sorted out, they felt satisfied enough accepting I was there, but otherwise ignoring me... and soon enough we all retired for the night.


My bed at night and shared seat in the day and corridor of our car.


The toilet – more old and worn than dirty, but dirtier than this picture communicates and dirtier than most of us used to modern facilities would like.
Washing in this space was interesting.


Dawn. There's definitely something special about the world rolling by as you fall asleep and that still being the case when you wake. Writing my diary and watching the world go by, I had a strong sense of contentment, of being in the right place at the right time, of everything being as it should be.


The train makes a stop every few hours, each between 5 and 25 minutes, providing opportunities for passengers to stretch their legs and purchase food and drink from locals on the platform. As the day heats up, a popular purchase is a frozen bottle of water which provides a steady supply of cold water as the iceblock within gradually melts. The day gets so hot that melting seems to be the most natural activity, and as my body dissolves in its own puddle of sweat, my brain melts with the banality of never-ending synth-orchestra instrumental reworkings of classic pop and rock tunes oozing from unseen speakers. The searing sun burns the Russian landscape onto my retina.

Leaving Moscow

2009 07 25 – Day 29 – Moscow

As good as Godzillas hostel was, I was a bit disappointed that they didn't help me remember to retreive the deposit for my dorm room key! Dammit! $20 wasted! Having maximised my time as usual, I had eaten into my safety margin time for getting across Moscow by metro and so had left in a hurry... though I'd checked out earlier in the day... and was served by a different person than who had dealt with my arrival... I didn't even realise I was due the money until the next day. Lesson learned I hope.

Getting across Moscow was fine as by now I was a Moscow Metro pro, but understanding where in Paveletsky station I should go and by when was complicated by my inability to read cyrillic characters. It was fortunate that I arrived in good time because I was able to ask around until I found someone who could communicate with me sufficiently that I had confidence that they both understood what I needed and what the answer was!

Book Review – China Road

2009 07 25

While in Moscow I finished my first book of the trip: China Road
(the image is the edition I had, but it seems like it has been relaunched recovered)

A highly readable and informative perspective on China as a British radio journalist concludes 20 years of living and working in China with a road trip along China's equivalent of Route 66 – road 312 - which runs from Shanghai in the South East to the Kazakhstan border in the North West. Along the way, Rob Gifford engages with the people whose lives are bound up with the road, be they truckers, commuters, street vendors, or just people who live near by, and discusses some of the recent and ancient history that brought their world to this point.
I found this book to be an excellent general introduction to the China of today. Gifford presents opinions on why it is the way it is, referencing and illuminating some of the significant moments and aspects of Chinas recent and ancient history.
I will read this book again after my travels I'm sure.

Russian Girls

2009 07 25 – Day 29 – Moscow

3 short stories on Russian girls:

1. Eating dinner in a Ukrainian restaurant the night before, I overheard a South African businessman, who had worked in Dubai for some time, explaining to a female local guide that she shouldn't try to go to Dubai without a partner. In Dubai, 'Russian Girl' is another word for prostitute. Apparently this came from an event a few years ago, where a business man was pushed from his hotel balcony by an angry Russian prostitute who he'd refused to pay, claiming he hadn't known that she was one. He died. Dubai's rulers decided the appropriate reaction was to expel all single Russian girls.

2. From my observation in St Petersburg and Moscow, Russian girls all seem to be amateur models. That is to say, modeling is one of their favourite things to do, not that they've all got classic 'model' looks. I've never before seen so many people who are theoretically 'sight-seeing', when in reality they're taking pictures for their (homebrew) modeling portfolio. Their collection of photos must be 'there's me in this dress and there's me in that top etc etc blah blah... oh, and they were taken outside the Kremlin by the way'. There was so much energy expended striking their chosen stereotypical modeling-type pouting poses – adjusting hair, hips, shoulders, lips etc and jostling for position or queue jumping other young girls with the same idea... The amateur photographers of these amateur models were most often mothers, who applied makeup like the quantity they applied was proportional to the years it knocked off, or it was friends holding the lens or occasionally younger brothers, but I don't remember seeing any 'photoshoot' really working a shot in a way that would get a great image. The strange thing for me was that they clearly saw historic locations such as the Kremlin or St Basil's as exciting photographic locations, but the location to them would just be different decoration to a photo of them! I'm just glad I didn't get asked to look through any of their albums, which I imagine would be extremely tedious.

3. Following on from story 2 above, they seem oblivious to other people taking photos and whether they are encroaching on someone else's shot or indeed the opposite – not seeming to care whether others are spoiling their own shot (other than if it blocks the line between the camera and subject/amateur model). As a result, when this young English gent (me) pauses to wait for them to take their photo(shoot), trying to not intrude or ruin their photo, they notice... as these three girls did, waving me on like it didn't matter that I would wandering aimlessly in the background of their photo when they could have had one without anyone (a real rarity).

Shortly after, as we were all independently ambling accross the (never used) road, a jobs-worthy Kremlin military guy blew his whistle at us and indicated that we should use the crossing provided... so we backtracked to cross near enough to the zebra crossing and as I reached the other side, they introduced themselves. They were three friends from Volgograd, two visiting one who lived & worked in Moscow. One had enough English to ask me all the questions she and her friends could think of and was clearly delighted that I understood her and that she understood my answers. They asked : where was I from; why am I in Moscow; what have I seen/done; how long am I in Moscow; why am I travelling alone; am I married; do I have a girlfriend; why I don't have a girlfriend; would I like to marry one of them - not a pick-and-mix or take your pick, but a particular one who didn't speak English and clearly saw herself as 'the pretty one'.... I tactfully replied that I was just beginning a big solo adventure and now would not be an appropriate time to get married, but thanks for the offer! We'd walked out of the Kremlin by this point and were clearly approaching the vocabularaic boundaries of the English speaking girl. Fortunately I needed to retreive my day bag from the cloakroom which was not the direction that they were going so it was easy enough to say friendly goodbyes and go our separate ways... each of us chuckling to ourselves for different reasons!

The Kremlin

2009 07 25 – Day 29 – Moscow

Surrounded by an imposing red wall with many towers, The Kremlin always used to conjure up such imagery of Cold War politics, that I wasn't expecting the array of 4 cathedrals and its history of use as a public space as well as a governmental one.
The one Cold War type administrative building I saw in there:


The rest were more classical like these:



3 of the 4 cathedrals


Interior of one – typical of them all.

The Tsar's Cannon... did they really use this?!? Or was it just for show? A Tsar's plaything.


The Kremlin wasn't just administration, religion and war though, it was also nature with a small well-tended park.

Moscow Metro

2009 07 24-25 – Days 28-29 – Moscow

The Moscow Metro is another example of Russia's love of the grandiose and extravagance – the place feels like it was made exclusively for royalty. Everything is bigger or more detailed than other metros I've been on – the tunnels are high and bright and some stations feel like they came straight out of the Hermitage, while others feel like they're from the future. If I knew my way to a destination and had used that line before, I'd deliberately invent a different route with different lines and transfers, just to explore other stations.

Military Moscow

2009 07 24-25 – Days 28-29 – Moscow

I didn't manage to get a photo that adequately illustrates the number of police on the streets of Moscow. There were plenty though. Even more around the Godzillas Hostel because a central headquarters was opposite... which would normally make you feel safer, but the Russian police's reputation is not entirely positive... for example, in the Tall Ship Races hand book issued in St Petersburg, a special phone number was provided specifically for dealing with cases of police corruption, harrassment, blackmail etc! At least someone recognises there's a problem which the beginnings of solving it... meanwhile, back in Moscow, there was a couple of times I crossed the road, regardless of whether I needed to, simply to avoid some bored looking policemen.


Some places in the metro, as above, there were groups of police just hanging around, I don't know if they were transport or standard police. At other stations, other isolated officers gave themselves something to do by telling me to stop taking photos. There was also a uniformed official in a little booth at the bottom of each escalator – I don't know if that was to stop crime or running – which I suppose is a crime – but it seemed to be employing someone... even if sometimes that someone was asleep.
In addition to the uniformed police and quasi-police, who knows how many plain clothes officers there might be? There were also plenty of military personel, seemingly off duty, but significantly more than I would expect to see around London – the next biggest European city. All in all Moscow has plenty of authority figures kicking about...

Moscow

2009 07 24-25 – Days 28-29 – Moscow


This is State Historical Museum at the North end of Red Square. Just around the corner is a big metal disc on the ground – about 3m diameter – marking the zero point of Russia i.e. all measurements are from there... A place of such national significance that at any given time, there must be at least a million Russian tourists competing for their shot on that disc and half as many Stalin/Lenin/Hitler look-a-likes and monkey/eagle handlers etc trying to be in the photos so they can demand money. I didn't have the patience, intellect or bank balance to develop a technique of bending light in such a way that would allow me to get the shot I wanted which is why there's no photo here.

A young proletarian moving his marxism to the max.

A variety of architectural styles were in evidence around the city, but onion domes and monumentalism seemed to be fairly common.



Words cannot add to the glory of this image!

St Basil's Cathedral

2009 07 24 – Day 28 – Moscow


St Basil's Cathedral is an icon of Russia and Russian architecture that sits at the south end of Red square. Although the outside has been given a lick of paint, inside you feel the age of the place... (built 1555-1561)

Red Square

2009 07 24 – Day 28 – Moscow

It's big, it's red, and it's not quite square... maybe accuracy wasn't such a big concern back when they named the place... it's certainly catchier than 'red rectangle' though they did miss out on a bit of alliteration... but then they speak/write Russian don't they... hmmm, I'll shut up now.
Red Square has a presence. It doesn't feel as big as Palace Square in St Petersburg, possibly because it's more rectangular so the buildings play a bigger part in defining the space and how you engage with it.

To the right are the imposing red walls and towers of The Kremlin, in the middle distance is Lenin's Mausoleum which I didn't feel like visiting and on the left Goom Department Store.
Seems a funny name for such a grand building, but then they speak Russian don't they...

I liked the look of Kazan Cathedral in the northeast corner of Red Square, maybe because it was one place on the square that was on a human scale. It was rebuilt in 1993, the original having been destroyed by Stalin in 1936.

A Local Perspective

2009 07 24 – Day 28 – Moscow

Exploring with no great agenda can leave you nicely open to chance events and encounters.
Innocently, and somewhat aimlessly, crossing the first of two major roads near the south west corner of the Kremlin, my focus on the traffic and the next few metres is broken:
“Mister... Mister!” I turn around to see a young besuited local hailing me. “You can't cross there.” Apparently the second road had no way to cross, so I let the man lead me in a 'U' of 3 crossings to get to the other side. Sergey, 23, was interested to hear that I was just exploring, with no particular target destination or activity, so he set about giving me some suggestions as to where to go and what to do, before deciding to join me as he'd finished his friday half day of work. Some art galleries are in the direction we're headed and I let him chose his favourite gallery, in preference to some of the better known general classical or modern ones, dedicated to Nicholas Roerich, a Russian artist who travelled extensively in the East, many of the places I was heading to in fact – serendipitous!? Many of his pictures were landscape and the colour palette, shapes and compositions had been simplified to great effect, with luminous, almost cartoony, effect. Most looked like they could have been picked out of a feature film colour key storyboard. The exhibition was great and I would never have gone were it not for my chance encounter with Sergey. Here he is outside the entrance to the gallery.


We then headed over to the nearby Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Apparently it was entirely reconstructed recently – completed in 2000, while the original, completed in 1860, was dynamited by one of Stalin's cronies. They were going to build a massive monument to socialism known as the Palace of the Soviets, but due to funding issues and flooding problems, Khrushchev instead turned it into the world's largest open air swimming pool! How's that for a change of plans!? Quite the enthusiastic and cultured local historian, Sergey also pointed out how the paintings inside were modern - you could tell by the nature of the faces – they were too sophisticated to have been painted at the time when the building was supposed to be from... I'm embarressed to say that I wouldn't have thought enough about what I was looking at to have noticed... Once he'd pointed it out though, it seemed very obvious.


The view from a nearby bridge up the Moskva River to the Kremlin.

Sergey generously continued to be my guide for the rest of the afternoon – giving me tips for the Kremlin & an art gallery tomorrow and showing me round Red Square and St Basils' Cathedral which was great. He also introduced me to the faintly alcoholic, 'not-quite-beer', Russian soft drink Kvass which is not bad.
After we've parted, I can't help grinning to myself at the randomness of it all. Hopefully I'll continue to have chance encounters and guidance of this kind throughout my travels.

Treasure Hunt!

2009 07 24 – Day 28 – Moscow

I like exploring new places. I like wandering the streets with no particular aim other than to get my bearings a bit and get a feel for a place. I like to not have an answer to the question 'where are you going?' However, it's also fun when you have an objective, a mission, an appointment with the unknown.
'What're you doing Terrance?' 'I'm searching for treasure!'
My treasure hunt wasn't quite Lara Croft or even Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci Code, but it was still exciting for me: I needed to find the wise woman of Moscow, who, if I satisfied her questions, would give me a mystical runic token granting me rapid passage to the east! OooooooOO! :)
Roughly translated I needed to find some obscure Russian travel agents who were in cahoots with Sundowners who were organising my Moscow-Beijing travel. At said obscure travel agent, the chain-smoking old lady, verified who I was and gave me my ticket for the following day from Moscow to Aralsk in Kazakhstan. After explaining my ticket in triplicate and warning me about every possible danger in Russia, she read me the travellers thesaurus of how to be cautious! I had to work a little to extricate myself from her doom-saying. One thing she had been justified in being worried about was that it was friday, they close earlier than other days and are closed on saturday... had I arrived a couple of hours later, getting my ticket would have got a whole lot more complicated.
To please thine eye with some colour to partner this text, here is a church at which I turned right to reach my treasure! (a prettier and more unique sight than the KFC that was an earlier landmark on the directions I had!)

Moscow Arrival

2009 07 24 – Day 28 – Moscow

Despite a fairly comfortable ride and hassle free border crossing, I didn't get enough sleep and so my core is drained but, like downing an octuple espresso, I'm charged by my situation, my first solo steps of adventure in the first truly unknown country on my journey East!
You know you've arrived in Russia when your station is called Leningradsky!
But that's a good name if the central feature of the station is this fine bust:

Now I really feel like I've arrived somewhere foreign. The cyrillic characters are close enough in form to latin ones as to make my eye scan them but my brain can't comprehend what my eyes are delivering – I'm a linguistic infant again.
I'm tired from the train journey and I only have a rough idea of where I am in Moscow, the largest city in Europe. My limited information, lack of language and physical state convince me that getting a taxi to my hostel would be a good idea.
I'm not sure exactly why, maybe the space and building styles in front of the station or maybe the language thing still, but I really felt alien and a bit disoriented walking out of the main entrance. Taxi drivers spy me a mile off (no, not literally a mile) and scurry to scam me. I, the sceptic, don't pay them too much attention and begin to walk away from them and the station down the road, but not too fast. It has the desired effect of thinning out the crowd and I'm left with one taxi driver who has passable English. I'm kidding myself that I can make it on foot, which helps me be more convincing in my negotiations on price. In the end I think I do ok, paying a bit more than I might expect to in London.


A pricey hotel not so far from the station.


The eight lane ring road.... note that it's eight in each direction!

Reaching Godzillas Hostel, I speculate that I could have walked... but I would have taken a lot longer and would be an exhausted sweaty mess! With only two days in Moscow, it was worth the taxi fare to save my energy for sight seeing.

Leaving St Petersburg

2009 07 14 – Day 18 – St Petersburg

As with leaving Gdynia, the Tall Ships' departure was a bit of an event. Crowds lined the banks of the Neva to see us off and each ship in turn made its exit stage west, often heralded by hooting, honking, squeeking and booming of nearby ships' horns. Even the submarines joined in, their horn sounding more like a space age whale cry – quite otherworldly and odd sounding above the waves.

This is a couple of moments after a near impact! Apparently this ships old engine needs to be turned off to change from reverse to forward before being turned on again. The current was strong and they drifted backwards across the river towards us, only managing to engage their engines fully 2 or 3 meters from our port side, hence the deployment of their balasts to cushion the impact many of us thought was inevitable.... just like in the movies!!! :)


Leaving a modern harbour is done under engine as I mentioned elsewhere and apparently leaving under full sail like this is dangerous... nice sails though don't you think?


Being tugged out gave us a better view of those subs.


St Petersburg receives a mixed review from the trainee jury.