Goryachie Kluchi Suzdal

... poker...mongolian barbeque...fancy train...cute Mongolian children...another border crossing...wlking around with our Mongolian friend...cold weather at Lake Baikal...boat excurrsion...lunch at the market...Nikolai's banya...nerpa seals...Decembrists museum...slow lunch service in Irkutsk...trans-siberian railway...platform food...art nouveau dining car...instant noodles...stolen bag...conversations with police...nice local couple sharing their food...sketchy drunk ...

After spending 4 days in the busy Moscow, it is nice to come out to the country side for a change. Suzdal is another one of the Russian UNESCO treasure. It is one of the former capital of the old Rus empire back inthe 1100's. The old capital of Rus empire is located in the southern part of the city called the Kremlin. This is a cluster of churches and cathedral on top of the hill and ...

... me off to Andrew, ignoring the fact that my dad insisted on speaking in very poor, loud Russian to a dog and waving at every babushka he saw, and finally realizing that Andrew's "classical" music was actually the string quartet tribute to Nirvana of all things, we arrived in Ivanovo.

Nous voila a Vladimir chez notre 2e hote, de nouveau tres accueillante. Irina est donc venu nous attendre a la gare puis nous a emmene faire un tour de Vladimir by night. C'etait tres sympatique. La ville est beaucoup plus petite que Moscou et St Petersbourg, et aussi beaucoup moins touristique ! Nous sommes partis sur la ...

Took a 9am bus to Suzdal. 45 minutes for 15 rubles. The bus system is as developed as Turkey's. Suzdal is a tiny town of 12,000 people. Most of the houses here are wooden. Their are meticulous carvings on many of their walls. The number of churches and monasteries in this town are disproportionate to the population. There are way too many of them. The 60 rubles that I paid for the Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life was worth it. I had never seen a ...

When I arrived at the Moscow train station at 7am, I learned that there was no train to Vladimir before 12.50pm. And so I waited... Vladimir is an average Russian city of about a twentieth the population size of Moscow. I bought a 3rd class ticket from Moscow to Vladimir for about $2. Initially, I thought that there would be no space for my 30-kilo backpack. When I got on the train, I noticed that there were both seats and beds in the ...

... Soviet statues....very interesting. Gorky Park - has seen better days, is very tired & somewhat deserted....but been there done that now. All Russian Exhibition Centre - Amazing!!!....was a Soviet Exhibition centre, absolutely massive showcasing all things Soviet. Now the buildings are still these colosal Soviet monsters but they are full of western/capitalist shops, markets, etc etc....amazing juxtapostion!!! Victory Park ...

... people drive on hard shoulder and then on the ground beside the hard shoulder - hey presto four lanes! See lots of crashes and Ladas breaking down. After quick lunch get tour of town (13,00 people so not very big) including 1. The Monastery where guy plays 17 bells with hands and feet with minutes and had prison for intellectual and religious 2. Convent where Czars put all the queens they did not need anymore. 3. Burial place of Russian Prince who ...

... deserted road, I saw the sun slowly disappearing on the horizon. Then, in the distance, I could see an elderly Russian babushka walking languidly with her cane, and she saw a non-Russian person like me holding a map. She came over and said something in a very provincial Russian accent. At first, her regional accent was so thick, it was incomprehensible. I asked her in Russian to politely repeat at a slower speed. After a few coughs, she held ...

... wide geography competition) and it being summer, which meant it wouldn't get dark for about another half hour - time enough to walk at least most of the way to the town. It was another stroke of luck that we found the first hotel I wanted to try- it was in a run-down monastry complex that looked practically deserted, and I was just going to try the building in which I could at least see a light on in (but no visible door at all!) when some lad leading a bike (seems like ...