Hotel Wolna Nizhniy Novgorod

... desormais pour notre premier long trajet en train couchette (20h seulement). We spent a really good time in this City with our delighfull hosts, and their friends. This city is the best we've seen so far, we can easily avoid the pollution and walk in parks, with a great view on the Rivers Volga and Oka. As usual there is plenty of beautiful churches. It's a shame that we have to leave so soon...

Premiere vraie galere, pourtant c'etait bien partis, j'avais pris mon billet pour Kazan (en Russie, les billets s'achetent a la gare de depart), mais apres avoir marche sous une pluie battante avec du vent et 6 petits degres (affiches a la sortie de la gare, les chiffres qui apparaissent ici, sont des chiffres veritables) a la recherche d'un hotel ni rase ni ferme et ayant ...

... was a holy holiday and their version of an archbishop for their region was there (big guy with long beard in traditional church robes), very impressive! After that we wondered some more and eventually wound up at the Gorky Museum (famous Russian writer from early 20th Century). His house was impressive, hadn't changed since the 1930's. We then headed back to the hotel to prepare for the long train we were getting on ...

Niznij Novgorod (Gorky). Km 461 of the Trans-Siberian-Railway. A big vibrant industrial center of Volga region. More ...

Nizny Novgorod was not stop we planned in the beginning, but was recommended by people we met and Tim wanted to see the Volga of the Boatmen. It was a very nice town with lots of nice looking churches and a kremlin on top of the hill. A girl in Mcdonalds seemed surprised that tourists would come to Nizny Novgorod but its a nice spot. We arrived in the morning and booked the train to go that night (saves accomodation!) so had a day to wander.

... During the communism era, the city has lost a touch with the outside world as it hosted some of the Russian key industries (engineering, R&D, automobile and airplane industries). This is somehow visible in the overall industrial ambience.

... in relation to other arts, and in and of itself, and yet its ability to move so powerfully, seems like something 'spiritual', beyond my limited comprehension. as for what it was like on a non-philosophical level, I really know nothing about music, so I can't describe it. I suppose it's traditional Russian orthodox chanting/singing (it had elements of both, ranging from deep deep melody to such clear, beautiful high notes that I couldn't comprehend that one of these very ...

The noise of the train and in particular the door that was broken and thus rattled continuously kept me awake for most of the night, also due to the window that wasn't properly sealed the temperature in the room had plummeted. It was so cold in fact that it hurt to breath, I put my fleece on and got out my sleeping bag. The water that I had bought the night before had frozen, so it was definitely bellow freezing in the room. The Russian provodnik (attendants) got out the ...

... hour to wash, rinse and ring out my clothes. But sitting there doing it makes you live more simply, I think. Because you can't really multitask, you just sit there and think about stuff. David, I just wanted to let you know that I'm listening to the Afters as I type ;) The international office is impressive. That's where we have our tea breaks. There are usually half a dozen Russian students there who greet us and keep us company. Gallina, an older woman ...

... counted gives the lie to where everyone's minds are. I had expectations and the odd doubt about this rail journey, but I suppose that expectation is a traveller's burden, as much as the back pack. Train number 3 will have borne us 7622km over a mere five and a half days. At times it's been as much as 8 hours behind schedule, but now it's bang on schedule, Moscow awaits, and it's been worth every second.