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Day 5
We wake up in time for breakfast at 9.00 AM. The restaurant is in a small dining room, but very grand, with circular leather sofas around the tables. The main dining room next door is like a state banqueting hall, with huge chandeliers. To our delight the restaurant also has a bank of phones by the door that are exactly the ‘hotline’ style that we’ve been looking for. Unfortunately the hotel refuses to sell it to us on the grounds that they need it to talk to the kitchen.
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Day 4
This morning we met our driver, Dimitri. This guy was definitely what we would call a ‘real’ Russian – he spoke no English, chain smoked and looked every bit a KGB agent, not that I have any idea what a KGB agent looks like. Today was to be spent mostly on the road in another very un-Russian vehicle, a Mercedes mini bus.
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Day 3
We left the hotel at 10.10, heading for the space museum, which is located at the base of a big metallic monument to the Glory days of Soviet space exploration. The monument has fantastic images of heroic explorers etched into the side – ‘heroic’ people going about tasks like talking on the radio, fiddling with a radar display, hitting a satelite with a hammer – that sort of thing, along with dates celebrating the fabulous achievements of the Soviet space programme. The monument itself is supposed to resemble a massive, tapering jet blast rising into the sky, with a rocket at its tip.
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Day 2
It was a sunny morning on our first full day in Russia. I rose at 8:40 and when we went to breakfast at 9 we got our first introduction to Russian breakfasting, which seemed to be cheese, ham, and a potato and meat mush which was actually delightful although a little bit strange for breakfast.We bought water at the hotel shop, which also seemed to sell virtually every type of vodka imaginable for not much more than the water, and proceeded to meet the rest of our tour group. Except there weren’t any. Rob and myself were the only people on the tour until it got to St Petersburg, where apparently we would be joined by another six people. This was a slight disappointment, as Sasha is nice enough but only in small doses.
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Day 1
Russia means many things to many people, and most of them are, or at least were at some time, true. The largest country in the world, it crosses eleven time zones, and draws it’s 150 million inhabitants from hundreds of ethnic groups, yet the Russian character is a formidable thing. It prompted Churchill to remark “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”The history of Russia is as turbulent and bloody as it is facinating. It may have spent fourty years as America’s favourite foe, but it has been no stranger to conflict throughout it’s long history. Even now, with war in Chechnya still raging and economic changes coming at a furious pace, Russia has no time to relax.
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Russia 2003
DayLocationSummary1London/MoscowIn transit2MoscowTour by Elina, Metro, Lenin, Kremlin, Faberge eggs3MoscowSpace Museum, tacky souvenirs, statues, circus4Moscow/KostromaDimitri the ex-KGB driver, churches, pool tournament, ‘that vodka’5Kostroma – OxotinoWooden houses, birch forest, monestary, forest camp, banya6OxotinoBeach, reading, hailstorm7Oxotino – St PetersburgLong drive, knife throwing, speeding fines, exploring St Petersburg8St PetersburgTour of St Petersburg, Ballet9St PetersburgNew travellers, Hermitage, Naval history, Zoological museums, sunbathing standing up.10St PetersburgPeterhof, intersting lunch. St Issacs, pizza for dinner.11St Petersburg / NovgorodAlexander Palace, film set, exploring Novgorod, swimming the river12NovgorodMore monestaries, pancakes, boat tour, music improving.13Novgorod / Lake MetzExplore forest, boat on lake metz, thunderstorm, banya, russian pool.14Lake Metz / MoscowStopped by police (again), dodgy lifts, GUM15MoscowMuseum of modern history