My last train ride
Now it is the final leg of my trip. I am taking the train back to Moscow to celebrate New Years Eve before coming home. It has been an amazing adventure and while I’ve written as much as I could on the road, There’s obviously so much more. I have a 4 hour train ride now and I am just going to reflect a bit on all that I’ve seen.
Siberia
Traveling to Siberia was really the highlight of this trip. Honestly, before I left, I had given little thought to the ‘culture’ of Siberia. When I thought of traveling there, my imagination was of lakes and forests and snow. The people didn’t really enter into my thoughts. We are taught to envision it as a barren wasteland of nothing but snow and bears. But the city I stayed in, which is a resort town in the summer and a very small town of permanent residents in the winter, was just amazing. The people were so friendly and happy and relaxed. It was very homey, and I really enjoyed it. While I had scheduled the dog sledding and the banya, the unexpected friendliness of meeting people while walking down the street was more memorable. I cannot imagine ever agreeing to get in a stranger’s car and go to their house for tea. Certainly not in big city, California, but probably not even in my home town in Alabama. But somehow it felt ok, reasonable even. Visiting the Taltsy museum was also wonderful. Coming from a place where we don’t teach history past the last 200 years, it was super interesting to learn about the Russian hunters who settled in Siberia and the architecture and the way they lived with the Mongolian tribes of the area. The architecture was certainly unique and interesting and gave a great basis for understanding the remaining wooden buildings of Irkutsk.
Arts and Entertainment
Irkutsk seemed like a fun place, full of arts and theaters and colleges. It was a much larger city than I had envisioned and I would have loved to spend more time there. I would say the same of Yekaterinburg. The town looked like a great town. I was shocked in all cases to see the number of theaters and musical performances. Every city has a musical comedy theater, a ballet/opera theater, and a circus. Permanent structures where performances are happening all the time. I believe they are all state-run or sponsored, and it is really cool to see such an investment in arts. And the tickets are reasonably priced, accessible to average people. The guide said you can get tickets to see the ballet for $10 USD. Tickets to the ballet in SF are at least $100. This is an area where we severely lag behind at home.
Moscow
Then there is Moscow. Moscow is everything you imagine Russia to be. Beautiful, unique architecture, history, culture, constantly being watched and yelled at. This is also Big City. It could be New York for all the impatience and running down the escalator and honking and yelling. So much yelling. It’s hard to imagine this fast-moving, impatient city is comprised of the same people who waited in line for 3 hours for bread. My guide gets frustrated at the smallest inconvenience, like being second in line for the ticket machine to the metro. Every driver we had was complaining constantly. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but there was a lot of gesturing.
Europe and Asia
Crossing from Yekaterinburg to Moscow, passing the Ural mountains, crossing a country that straddles the line between Europe and Asia. It is interesting to see the cultural influences of each continent and how they play out in everyday life. My guide in Beijing actually told me one day, that while it looks like people are always arguing, they’re just talking to each other. She said it might seem like yelling to Westerners, but in this part of China, people are loud and direct. She said that the people in southern China have an easier life. They have rivers, water, green plants and flowers, fruits, rice. They are more ‘delicate’, she says. And the people in northern China have less water, had to build irrigation to grow wheat and grains, fought battles with the Mongolians. The people in northern China are more …. she searches for the word. I expect something slightly self-deprecating, like ‘coarse’ or ‘rugged’, but she says, ‘braver!’. They are braver. And I think this is a trait that has definitely influenced Russian culture. People are direct, and loud. Even my language classes online specifically lay out that saying “Give me the …whatever thing…” is perfectly ok. You don’t have to bother with “Will you please hand me…thing?” But for someone who isn’t used to it, it’s definitely stressful. I found it profoundly uncomfortable.
Being watched
In Moscow, every store has people who are there just watching you. Museums have a handler in every room. It seems to be a society where they have beautiful things but they know for certain that people in general are assholes and will do whatever they want and must be kept in line. But again, there is no ‘Please do this’ and ‘Will you…” No. You walk into a museum, the moment you open the door, someone is shouting at you to go to the coat check and motioning to the left. And then the coat check person is motioning to the boot covers and telling you to put them on and will continue telling you to put them on while you are putting them on. And it wasn’t just because I was a tourist who didn’t know what was going on. In all of the museums, I had a guide and the guide was treated the same way. She even argued with the police! It’s just getting people in and out as fast as possible. And ‘no photos’ and ‘let me see your ticket again’ and….it’s a lot. So it is beautiful and different and difficult to get used to. There is also the very visible police/military presence in this city that is a bit unsettling. Every mall, even the one far outside town by the circus, has security checks, metal detectors, bag x-rays, and uniformed police on every floor, near the escalators. I watched as one policeman had like… I dunno, a stick with a hoop on the end of it, twirling it as he hung out by the escalator. It feels like it would only take one of those guys getting bored to make your evening unpleasant. And I don’t know what the general populace relationship is with the police. So if there’s a guy standing at the top of the escalator, do I make eye contact? avoid eye contact? smile? How do I not look nervous and suspicious?? I feel like I am awkwardly drawing attention to myself. I would certainly not be comforted by entering a mall with metal detectors in the US.
Snow-vim Godim!
Other than that, it’s a pretty general big city. Metro stations and traffic and flashing advertisements and people everywhere. Oh, and snow and New Year decirations. Moscow is just as ready as I am to kick 2017 to the curb so we can promptly get to work being just as inept a society in 2018. I can’t possibly imagine visiting at another time of year. It’s snowing, which is everyone’s stereotype of Russia. But also it’s festive and there are families out enjoying the snow and playing hockey and there are lights on all the streets and decorated trees…and an ICE SLIDE! I’m so looking forward to going down the ice slide when I get there. This feels like the heart of Russia, like everything you expect it to be.
SPB
And finally there is Saint Petersburg. Saint Petersburg calls itself the ‘Venice of the North’, but I found it much more similar to Budapest. I really think that, with some time and investment, this is where Budapest will be in a few years. Everyone says Saint Petersburg is the most European city in Russia and it’s hard to disagree. The buildings are very European in style, and the general people and customs are much more European. Back to the ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘will you’ and ‘do you mind’, even “have a nice day” as you exit a shopt! Restaurants work like European restaurants. Everything is, from my perspective, comfortable. It’s actually a nice break from the rest of my trip where everything was so stressful and I was always wondering if I was in the right place doing the right things and spending so much time watching other people. However, if I had traveled across the world and gone through the visa process and just gone to Saint Petersburg, I would have been profoundly disappointed. It’s a beautiful city, but it does feel like Europe, not Russia. I would have a completely different sense of Russian culture. If you can travel to Europe easily, without visas, and visit several European cities, I can’t imagine why visit Saint Petersburg instead and go through all the hassle. It’s nice, but not exceptional, unless I suppose, you are Russian. Then it’s probably easier to visit Saint Petersburg than to visit Europe.
Tourists
There is also a Russian visa rule that says that, if you arrive by boat, you can stay in the country for 72 hours without a visa. So Saint Petersburg, a port town, is utterly inundated with tourists. French, German, Finnish. Cruise ships bring in hoards of people. And because of that, it is full of the typical European tourist shops. 1 after another after another, stores selling the same kitschy dolls and faberge egg replicas. Costumed characters congregate at all of the scenic spots and squares, hoping to get tourists to take a photo with them and make some money. They are mostly like Victorian costumes, though I did see 1 Jack Sparrow and 1 girl in the bunny police officer from Zootopia furry costume. It’s a nuisance and I’m actually kind of shocked the government tolerates it.
Repurposed architecture
Everything is beautiful and it’s so hard to imagine as the tour guide explains, ‘Oh that palace over there is no longer a palace. It’s just office buildings.” I’m not sure what life is like when you are so saturated by the beautiful architecture around you that a palace is just an office building. I also ponder what if you’re from Saint Petersburg, traveling to another European city. Like, you go to Paris and are like ‘meh’? And I really can’t imagine visiting the US if you’re from Saint Petersburg. Like we completely missed the the classical/rococco architecture and design eras. Our cities are tall gray/mirror buildings one after another.
The final train
I take the 4 hour train from Saint Petersburg to Moscow, and I am glad to have my DayQuil and a set of tissues with me. I try not to breathe near anyone. I spend some time writing (above) and then fall asleep. I’m trying so hard to just keep it together. My nose is running and I’m so miserable.
Arriving in Moscow
Well, I suppose I should have realized that Moscow and St Petersburg are really not that far away from one another. In the 4 days I have been gone, all of the snow has melted and Moscow is back to being a normal city, with drizzling rain and gray skies. I arrive at the train station and, since my hotel is right on Red Square, all of the roads approaching it are closed for the week. Taking a cab from the train station would mean walking a half a kilometer with my bags to get to the hotel anyway, so I just take the metro, which has an exit right next my hotel. Sadly the metro, while having a very close stop to my hotel, contains a lot of stairs. So there’s me, dragging my roller suitcase up and down the stairs. When I finally arrive at my hotel, covered in drizzling rain, disheveled, carrying my own bags (gasp!), I definitely don’t look like the appropriate clientele for this fancy hotel. I check in and go up to my room. It’s a very nice room and the hotel is very fancy.
Dinner
I have already purchased tickets to a show tonight. I decide to try to relax a bit and fill up my jacuzzi tub with hot, steamy water, hoping it will relieve my cold symptoms. I’m shivering, aching, definitely have a fever and chills. I take 2 dayquil, 4 advil, and a zyrtec to try to get through the night. I lounge in the hot water as long as I can before heading out to dinner. I found a cool Ukranian restaurant between here and the theater tonight, so I get dressed and start walking. I totally understand the fixation with saunas in cold places. After a hot bath, I am radiating heat, could walk around outside with no coat on. I order a pork and cheese entree with potato cakes and dumplings. This is way too much food, especially when I’m not feeling well. I also went for a cherry mors to drink, as I don’t think I could handle any alcohol right now either. The waiters and waitresses are dressed in traditional Ukranian dress, which is cool, and there’s a TV in the background playing the most fascinating Ukranian movie.
Theater
From there, I walk another 20 minutes to the musical theater. This is a real theater, not a tourist show. All of the people going into the theater are Russian, and none of the staff speak English. I go through the routine of dropping my coat at the coat check, then I find my seat. I’m quite perturbed that they have extended the rows of seats by adding folding chairs and my seat is a folding chair. :/ There was no info on this when I bought the ticket, and I bought it months ago, paying full price for front row seats. But I can’t even complain to anyone. The theater is completely sold out, so I just watch the show. The play is really fantastic. It’s like…. Russian folk-broadway. There are all kinds of costumes and singing. The singing is amazing. There’s some dancing, but not a lot. I thinK I followed the story line well enough. The story did end with a happy ending and the entire cast was on stage for a traditional wedding scene, which was fun and entertaining.
Breakfast in bed
I have a driver to take me back to the hotel, but all of the roads to the hotel are closed off. He has to drop me off about half a kilometer away, which is fine. I get back to my room and collapse. I’m so tired and so very sick. I’m aching and chills again. I decide that I’m just going to stay in tomorrow, not bother trying to push myself. I hang the order card outside my door and order roomservice breakfast tomorrow. I bundle up under the covers, take some nyquil, and shiver myself to sleep. I woke up at 8:30, certain that I was reading the clock wrong and it was actually 3:30 a.m. But no, I’m still so tired. I go back to sleep and wake up at 9:30, drenched in sweat. My fever has finally broken and I’m no longer aching and cold. My breakfast is delivered at 10, so I eat a wonderful breakfast in bed, then relax in the jacuzzi tub for a bit, then go back to sleep at noon. I hope that I can give up this day in Moscow, and then feel better enough to enjoy the rest of my days here.
