Pushkarskaya Sloboda 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 ...

... cathedral are also here. I had a dinner in a Russian restaurant, salad, borsch and head on back to my home stay. It is very interesting to see a lot of Russian military people marching and gather near the bus station, may be they there doing drills, I just stand far away. Russia in general still feels like a police state, plenty of military folks walking around, safe but yet quite scary.

Somewhere around Vladimir, Andrew stopped for gas at a LUCGAZ (I think that was the company's name) and then we later stopped at a random dirt road, that has since been described as "picturesque" by my friend, to stretch our legs. After five hours trying to divert my mother's attempts at ...

... a Souzdal, petit village de 12000 habitants a quelques kms de Vladimir. Cette bourgade regorge d'eglise et de cathedrales avec des coupoles dorees... Le temps etait magnifique, nous nous sommes promenes sous le soleil dans la neige. Quel plaisir ! Demain nous partons pour Nijni Novgorod ou notre 3e hote Evgeny nous attendra.

... Soviet leaders and other historical figures were prolific. A gang of guys gave me an aggressive stare as I was passing by. Once again, went to Sheshbesh for dinner. Their salad bar (260 rubles) was ok, but their veal kebab was really good (160). Marisa's colleagues joined us for dinner. There was also a complete stranger at the dinner table. The Stranger: mid-40s; American with an unidentifiable accent; was very drunk; difficult to say what percentage of the ...

... English that he was from Ukraine. I told him that I was from Turkey. Later, he put his 2 large suitcases right next to my chair and asked me to keep an eye on them. He was going outside for a smoke. As usual, I got paranoid, thinking that there was a bomb in one of the suitcases. I decided to call the police if the Ukrainian didn't show up in 15. At that moment, the Ukrainian returned. He turned out to be a really nice guy who ...

After Moscow we drove out to a small town called Suzdal for one night to stay in a wood lodge. The town was very quiet with one main street and about 30 cathedrals....and dont forget the museum of wooden architecture!! So not much to report, but it was nice to see parts of Russia away from the main cities. We also stopped in Vladimir for lunch at a soviet era packcake house (Yum).

Day 116. Religious center, Suzdal 8/8/08 Suzdal in the middle 12th century was larger than London. But like Vladimir it has struggled over the last 5 centuries. Now it only has 12,000 people and has probably not expanded due to isolation from the train system. Its skyline is dominated by spires and onion domes, while a river winds through the town center. It was interestingly a tourist attraction late on under the Soviet era. Wow this resort is swanky. I'm not sure the travel company I ...

... one stage and guy cleaning window due to dust but not too bothered on the getting traffic moving stuff. Good craic on bus taking the **** out of Otto and his knowledge of everything (good sport Otto). Get to Moscow-Yaroslavskaya Station and dump the bags. Off to Sbaro and a pizza and then off to supermarket to get food for the next four nights and 3 days by train on the Trans -Siberian. Lucky meet Bora in supermarket and dump at least a third of ...