so i left last friday at 10 am and we took a bus to southern finland all day...and then hopped on the tolstoi overnight train to moscow. the train was really old and squeaky and on each car there is an old lady who watches over things and makes tea, strange. it was a long train ride, but i fell asleep easily in our sleeper car. we awoke early in moscow and straightaway started the city bus tour of the city.
immediately, leaving the train station i knew i was in russia.... with the cars, the building styles and the people with their fur hats. we toured around the city seeing the major sights of the kremlin, bolshoi theater, statue of peter the great (that was supposed to be christopher columbus and a gift to the usa but didn't happen so they replaced the head with peter's), the novodevichy convent, the cathedral of christ the savior, red square with lenin's masoleum and st. basil's cathedral... etc. etc. we also walked through the city to visit the art nouveau house of the writer gorkiy which reminded me a bit of casa batllo in barcelona...very sweet.
in moscow you can definitely feel the presence of the soviet past. the architecture of stalin's 7 towers and the terribly intimidating university of moscow made you feel about 2 inches tall. the pulse of the city was very alive, but at the same time the people felt sad. people didn't laugh or smile in the streets and all workers in restaurants and musuems spoke little to no english and often just barked out words in russian saying them louder when you shook your head not understanding. even at the tourist sights, the people were not terribly welcoming. it was also a little nerve racking walking in the streets because there was a police or military guard about every 50 m in the city center. the police have the right to check your passport and hostel papers at any time, and are also known for needing a monetary bribe to give your papers back, but luckily none stopped me in moscow. (in st. petersburg me and 2 friends were stopped by 3 police and they asked for our passports which we had in the safe at the hostel....they didn't speak much english, but when they asked where i was from i just said finland and then showed them my iowa driver's license... then we repeated students, tourism until they understood. they were polite to me, but did a very detailed strip search on the two friends i was with, luckily no problems, phew.)
so our first night in moscow, we had a guided tour of the subway with the same woman from the bus tour, she had a crazy russian/british english accent with a new york accent on top. so she would be speaking about something and then the new york accent "look over here at the red "squahr" would come out.., it was hilarious. the subway is really impressive with many of the stations elaborately decorated. it was meant to be a palace for everyday people and it really is amazing to see. it was funny because our group was about 3/4 design and architecture students and we all were really interested the whole time taking pictures everywhere. our guide was like, "wow, you are the most interested group i have ever had on this tour."
on sunday, we started the day with a great tour of the kremlin (where the russian president works). our guide was an excellent story teller who drew us all into the history of the site, making the stories actually come alive. he was a professor of russian history, and asked us questions to think about what we were seeing and to really understand the mindset of the leaders and history of his country. it was really captivating, and the curiousity i felt when listening reminded me of ms demoss one of my favorite teachers in highschool... he showed us the cannons that were captured from napoleon's army, the biggest bell in the world (that never rang) and the biggest cannon in the world (that never fired) as well as all of the beautiful buildings inside the kremlin.
one of my favorite buildings is the russian orthodox coronation chapel (where all of the tsars were coronated starting with ivan the terrible in 1547) it is completely covered (walls and ceiling) in intricate mosaics. the icons tell the story of mary, jesus, the last judgement (on the back wall to remind you when you are leaving) and saints that were the namesakes of the different tsars. it is interesting that when napoleon controlled the kremlin for 30 some days he used this beautiful building as a horse stable and ordered all the silver and metals to be stripped from the icons and melted down in order to be taken to france. when napoleon was later defeated on his way back, the silver was returned to the church and cast into an amazing silver chandelier.
after the tour of the kremlin we toured the tretyakov art gallery which houses the biggest collection of russian art. we traveled through time starting with icons (my favorite was an icon of jesus with untraceable eyes) and moved through to 1900s. we had the same guide as the morning and it was a very enjoyable tour.
russian history is so vast that it is really hard to have a mental time line of everything and to keep all the tsars straight...it is a lot of "he married her, had this illegitimate child and then murdered his son. and then the nephew of him comes to power, is a bad ruler, is murdered by his wife who takes over power...etc" one of my favorite paintings of the exhibit was of a noble woman getting taken off to the gulag concentration camp being pulled on the back of a sled. her black dress starkly contrasts with the white snow, and while the men are laughing, the women all look on with fear and sympathy in their eyes. i think it is all very fascinating and would love to learn more of the history! i also now really want to reread all the russian classics... i saw both of the famous portraits of tolstoi and dostoevsky at this museum...
after the art museum we went to the world famous moscow circus! it was really fantastic with crazy acrobats, tumbling, clowns, motorbikes in a cage, lions, tigers, horses, contortionists and daredevils! i was on the edge of my seat and very entertained.. after we went on a city tour of moscow at night. red square is really awesome all lit up!
monday we started the day with a tour all about the soviet past of moscow where we toured the novedichy cemetary where lots of famous people are buried and visited the fallen idols sculpture park. our guide pointed out that a lot is explained about soviet times in the famous cemetary where the graves of all the important people (writers, politicians, actors, ballet dancers, musicians, poets, etc.) are buried from the 1800s... in the most central area there is a plot that contains the body of stalin's second wife (who either commited "suicide" or was murdered) but this one grave takes up the space of 8 plots. who was buried there before and what happened to their graves when they were removed for her plot? there is no record of who was buried there before.... very interesting. in the fallen idols park there was one area with a really haunting sculpture depicting the innocent victims of the gulag, and in front of the sculpture was stalin with his face chipped off and next to him a sculpture of the man who invented the gulag system, terrible.
monday evening we went to the ballet at the bolshoi (unfortunately at the new theater because the original is being rennovated) the ballet consisted of parts of 3 famous ballets. the first and last were classical and the middle was very modern and a sad story. the dancers were incredibly graceful, beautiful, powerful and so controlled. it was an awesome performance and everytime i see ballet i want to see more!
we then took an overnight train to st. petersburg! we arrived early in the morning and immediately from the station you could feel the city felt much more european. the atmosphere reminded me a bit of milano with more color, plus canals... very beautiful!
phew. i will switch now to uploading some pictures and will continue with my st. petersburg adventures after my sauna.it is good to be back in finland, so safe, clean water, friendly people and of course the sauna!!
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