Comrades in Russia

The train arrived in Helsinki and the crowd boarded.  We were on the train and heading east.  We traveled for a few hours before we got to the boarder.  When we crossed the Russian border the train stopped and the passport control boarded.  As a guy came to get out passports, several other uniformed people quickly surrounded him.  They had scanners out and were checking out our passports.  Then they left.  The train started up and we didn’t have our passports.  We were not super concerned but it was an odd feeling.  After about twenty minutes they returned our passports and we were all very happy that we got in after hearing some of the stories about people not being allowed in for no real reason.  We were in Russia!

A few hours later we were in St. Petersburg.  The alphabet is Cyrillic, and basically useless for any of us to try to decipher.  That and the lack of English speakers let us know that we were in for an adventure.  After working hard to find an ATM machine to get rubles we attempted to get a cab.  We got one and he took us to where our hotel was supposed to be.  We were on the correct street, but our hotel was nowhere to be seen, and the taxi driver demanded twice as much money as he first stated.  We ended up paying him ½ the amount he wanted, and found out later, his request was not that much money.  Our hotel was difficult to find.  Not too many Russians had enough English to help, and none knew where the hotel was.  After some work and walking we secured our lodging.   The whole scenario was a bit dodgy.  We found out that our hotel, Hotel Nevsky Contour, was a part of Hotel Anabel.  Right.  You can see how that is easy to figure out. We then got some food, a Pizza Hut was right by us and it was quick and easy, after we had been standing in the cold for 30 minutes.  The cold, and her new boots were getting to Jen, so she decided to stay nap in the hotel for a bit, and the rest of us went for a walk to get our orientation.

We walked down the main street of Nevsky Prospect  We saw some of the sights, some churches, bridges, and sculptures and suddenly we came across the Church of Spilled Blood.  This church was build on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated.  It is a very beautiful church with neat colors and onion domes.  The inside is decorated with icons of saints that are all mosaics.  It was quite striking.  From here we headed down to the see the Winter Palace/Hermitage.  The snow was falling and very movie like.  Big flakes that would not stop.  We walked around a bit and then headed back to get Jen.  It was a long walk, but St. Petersburg was just a bit warmer than Helsinki.  Jen and Elizabeth had done some work and researched another veg restaurant.  We took a cab and low and behold it was actually open and really cool.  We all ordered and had fantastic meals.  As we ate the snow continued to fall and we enjoyed a few drinks and our time in the cozy little restaurant.

The next day we hit the sights again and looked to see the whole city.  We started with the Hermitage.  Spending a few hours looking at the great works of art was a bit exhausting because the museum was so big. We were on the look out for a Hop on Hop off Bus service, which we caught by luck thanks to Elizabeth’s eagle eyes.  We were glad to catch this bus because it took us past all the main sights while keeping us warm as well.  We learned about the history of St. Petersburg, some of which we knew and some that we didn’t, such as Peter the Great had written his memoirs all in Dutch.  After some time on the bus we got out at St. Isaac’s Cathedral and took a walk to the top of it to get a view of the city.  It was a pretty sight but the wind was blowing hard and so we made a quick withdrawal from the top of the dome.  

We grabbed some lunch at a restaurant nearby and had a good conversation with an intoxicated Russian man who was upset that in the Olympics Russia had to play Canada in hockey.  He spoke a few words in English but the rest was in Russia so we were quite uncertain what he was talking about.  As we left, it continued to snow and snow.  We got picked up by the Hop on Hop off bus and got dropped off near our hotel. 

That night, Elizabeth stayed in since she was battling a cold.  Rick, Jen and I walked through the snowy streets to an indoor shopping area.  We looked to get Jen a Russian fur hat-a fake one.  However, we were unable to find out if the hats were made of faux fur, or fox fur. Jen, Rick and I went to a place for dinner called Liverpool.  It had a Beatles theme and live music was playing.  We sat in a booth that was once used by members from the band The Scorpions.  That was probably the high light of the memorabilia but it was a good place to relax and talk until it was time to go home for the night.

The next day was full of shopping and more sight seeing.  The girls stayed in during the morning but after lunch Rick and I got them out.  We went to an outdoor souvenir shop.  We bought some stacking dolls or Matryoshka dolls and some other Russian items.  As we walked around we came upon some very rare items.  One Iowa Hawkeye and one University of Virginia stacking doll.  There were stacking dolls of other sports teams but these were definitely a find.  These were purchased but we failed to find a fake fur hat for Jen.  This would be something we would try to do but unfortunately no one would meet our price. 

That night we went to a restaurant called The Idiot.  A good local Russian restaurant.  One staff member spoke great English so ordering was easy.  We grabbed a public bus home from there and since it was late we ended the festivities for the night.

St. Petersburg is a gorgeous city and is quite rich in history.  It was worth the time spent there, and now we were looking forward to the next city, Moscow.  We boarded a night train in St. Petersburg so that we would end up in Moscow the next morning.  The train from the design to the décor looked like it was straight out of the 1950s.  There were curtains with tassels and the color scheme was a deep red with mixture of olive green and gold coloring.  It was quite nice and clean but definitely not a trendy décor.  We got on board and we had a few hours before lights out so we attempted to order some drinks.  The restaurant car was 8 cars away but Rick and I walked it and made our orders.  We wanted to bring our purchases back but we were not allowed.  A worker, the poor woman, had to carry it for us.  We were getting A+ treatment and we were not to do any work for ourselves.  So this poor lady had to carry our stuff all the way back.  As we snacked, workers kept walking back and forth trying to sell us vodka and caviar.  It was a bit funny to us but I think they did pretty good business.

When we woke the next morning we were in Moscow.  We quickly secured a cab and got to our hotel.  It was a nice place that must have has the same interior decorator as the train.  Again, very nice but from a different time period.

Not everyone slept well on the train so we took a little time resting before we made our way to Red Square.  When we did finally motivate ourselves to get going we were a bit relieved that the cold was not as cold as it had been in the previous cities.  There was lots of snow on the ground and a few flakes in the air but most of it was beginning to melt leaving tremendous pools of water, slush, and ice to navigate through. 

We made our way to Red Square in 15 minutes and it was exciting.  We walked through the red buildings and arches which were the buildings that gave Red Square its name.  Red Square has nothing to do with communism, it means something in Russian similar to beautiful square.  At the far end was the sight I have wanted to see for a long time, St. Basil’s Cathedral with its huge onion domes and Wonderland like colors.  We had our cameras out and were taking tons of photos.  As we looked around we noticed that there was no line for Lenin’s Tombs.  All the tour books say you have to wait in line for hours to see Lenin because there are so many people.  Obviously the tour books didn’t expect people to visit in February.  It was a little uncertain where we were to enter so I in an uncharacteristic, let’s not follow the rules moment, walked up a snow pile and jumped over a little chain link fence by the entrance.  Immediately guards were blowing whistles and yelling at me.  Understanding no Russian I acted innocent of any wrongdoing but was able to determine that they wanted me to go back over the fence.  With the whole of Red Square staring at me, I went to the edge of the platform and jumped.  Being a little nervous and slipping a little on the ice, my trail leg got caught on the fence and I did a face plant in Red Square.  It was a good laugh for everyone, including the guard.  With that behind us we hurried to the entrance point about 100 meters away and went to see Lenin in his tomb.

After that we took a little tour of St. Basil’s Cathedral and took a couple of hundred more photos of it.  It is such a neat building. 

Next we went to GUM.  This was a government distribution center during the Soviet period but has now been turned into a very capitalistic mall that has it all.  I guess now that it is a mall, there are finally goods on the shelves to distribute, unfortunately now that Russia in not communist, you have to pay quite a bit for the goods.

After getting some lunch and warming up a bit we set out to walk the streets of Moscow.  We did this more because we got lost trying to read the Cyrillic map than because we wanted to see what was on the several side streets we ventured upon but it was fun.  The down town area is very pretty and vibrant.  It was not a bunch of grey cubes that I was told about when I was little.  The grey cubes were all in the suburbs.  I am not kidding.

We went out for dinner that night at a pretty classy restaurant, don’t know how we got let in.  I should have mentioned this earlier, but for the women in Russia, yes they have warm fur coats on, but they also wear mini skirts and high-heeled shoes just about everywhere.  The men are dressed up and are wearing dress shoes.  That being said, we were prepared for the weather but not the fashion scene.  Still we made it into the restaurant in our boots, jeans, and sweaters.  We finished the night at a Turkish place that served good drinks and had hourly belly dancing performances.

The next day was our visit to the Kremlin.  There were a few hiccups during the day but for the most part it went pretty well.  We saw Faberge eggs, the glorious carriages of the Tsars, some more churches and government buildings.  With all of that, we didn’t have the security blow whistles at us anymore than any of the other tourists who stepped off the sidewalk or didn’t cross a street using the crosswalk.

Next we visited another church and checked out some monuments like Peter the Great’s.  We headed next to Arbat Street.  From there we split up from Rick and Elizabeth.  Jen and I took the metro back to our hotel.  This was chaos at its best.  The Moscow metro was built to be a monument for the masses of common people.  And it was just that.  Marble floors in parts, bronze statues, lots of ornamentation and very affluent.  The stations are huge and we were there Friday at 5:00 PM so it was packed. 

According to our map it was a one-stop trip.  Map reading on this trip did not go well.  We got out at the wrong stop, asked some workers for help.  They did not speak English and were pretty much unable to help us.  We walked around trying to find our way when a guy out of the blue asked us if we needed help.  I pointed on the map were we needed to go.  He knew very little English but enough to tell us follow me.  He took us down stairs, up escalators, on different metros and basically gave us a walking tour of the metro system.  After about a half hour, he pointed to where we needed to be and then he left to go home.  We were very appreciative that this guy went out of his way to help us.  It was not at all what we expected.

So we got back to the apartment and got ready for our next big event, attending a Russian ballet at the Bolshoi Theater.  Again we made it past the fashion police and were able to enter even though we were not super dressed up.  It was easy to tell who was Russian and who was a tourist by looking at what people were wearing.  We didn’t care; this was a once in a lifetime experience.  We were there early enough to have a drink so Rick and Elizabeth ordered wine for themselves and it was a very reasonable price.  We were celebrating Jen’s birthday with the ballet so Jen and I ordered champagne.  The price was not as good and I had to leave the theater to go to an ATM machine to get enough money to pay.  Happy Birthday Jen!  The ballet was good as far as we were all concerned and we ended back up at the Turkish restaurant for a final meal.

The next morning we all went our separate ways again and Jen and I went back down to Red Square for one last look at St. Basil’s.  With that, we ended our trip to Russia.