Russia – All aboard the Trans-Siberian! Or not…

June 22-24

Hello everyone!

As you may know, Russia is huge. Excluding the exclave of Kaliningrad, it spans 10 time zones and thousands of kilometres. Almost all of this can be done on a journey known as the Trans-Siberian train.

Ready to board at Yaroslavsky station, Moscow

This is actually the first train I took in this phase, from
St Petersburg back to Moscow

The famous train goes three times a week from Moscow all the way to Vladivostok, at the edge of Russia’s western frontier. The latter is much closer to Beijing, Seoul and other Asian capitals than its own. The journey takes seven days and is on the same track for a ludicrous 9289 km.

Many trains run across the country

The main building at Kirov station

Taking the Trans-Siberian train across the Russian landmass is something I’ve been curious about for a long time. From reading about it and seeing the occasional documentary, it has an almost romantic air of stunning scenery, loneliness and vodka. Being in Russia, this was my opportunity to take that nostalgic journey.

The layout of a cabin - you can't see my bunk from this view

I was in second class, called kupy

Well, I thought it was. There are many caveats to add. Firstly, the train I took wasn’t technically the ‘Trans-Siberian’ train – the Rossiya goes from Moscow to Vladivostok and this merely chugged along to Abakan, only 4380 km from the capital.

Not the Rossiya

The list of destinations - it's pretty long!

Additionally, the section of the journey I took wasn’t Trans-Siberian as I alighted in Ekaterinburg, which isn’t actually in Siberia. It’s near the Ural Mountains, seen as the border between Europe and Asia.

The trains on this route also take lots of cargo

Balezino station, viewed from the footbridge

Essentially, this was a long (28 and a half hours), friendly train ride through the forest. I only saw one other football fan, with everyone else being Russian and no one speaking English. The football supporter was Senegalese and only seemed to speak French, not understanding when I started asking him about football.

The green, green grass of...Russia

I imagine this is a very different sight - and experience - in winter

Having a basic knowledge of Russian can make a world of difference to an experience on this journey. It left at about 11pm Moscow time, meaning that everyone quickly settled down to sleep. The vodka-drinking party never happened – difficult when your compartment is filled with a babooshka and a mother with two children, one of whom was two years old.

I do love food which is presented in 'lumpy form'

Sunset from the train

I found out that nugget of information the following morning, when I got talking – at length it seemed – to the old lady, whose name was Nina. My attempts at Russian were warmly received and, with the aid of pictures on phones, an understanding quickly developed. This made the trip much more pleasurable for me.

I never got round to eating my industrial bun

We passed a few lakes and rivers on the way, which
made a nice change from pale green steppe

At certain stations, the train will stop long enough for you to disembark. 90% of the people who did used it as a chance to have a cigarette. I used it as a chance to take some ‘artistic’ photography, which got laughed at by a couple of Russians. One of them suggested that I was a bit of an idiot by taking a photo on the track. At least that’s what I hope the throat-slitting gesture meant…

My artistic photo which confused other travellers

A world away from the modernity of Moscow

Other stops had souvenirs and the ever-popular ice-cream stalls, which sell small, flat cones with ice-cream known as eskimos. The souvenirs were…interesting…

Stalls such as this lined the platform at Balezino,
a main stopping point for our train

A strange souvenir

One of the pleasures I was expecting was for some stunning scenery. Again, this probably happens further along the route. It’s very green and is somewhat varied, moving through forests and steppe. Nothing truly breathtaking, however, and countryside you can easily find on most train rides in Europe.

A beautiful church just after Balezino 

The Sun going down as the train moved east

I really enjoyed the train ride and was slightly sad to get off at 5:30am on the Sunday morning (all trains are on Moscow time so it said 3:30am – need to be alert!). The people I met were warm and welcoming and it was interesting to see a snippet of Russian life away from the World Cup. I was looking forward to a shower, though!

Ekaterinburg: my final stop

European Russia

All aboard!

Love you all,

Matt

Russia – The Art Revolution

June 21-22

Hello everyone!

I mentioned last time about St Petersburg’s most famous location and attraction needing its own blog. Here it is!

This place: the Hermitage.

Not these people.

I don’t know Donald Trump personally but I’m not sure that he would fully appreciate the Hermitage. For many reasons. One is that he, like most English speakers, would probably pronounce it incorrectly. It’s pronounced ‘erm-ih-TAZH’, so that it rhymes with mirage.

How Hermitage is written in Russian

It’s a very European design, both in exterior and interior. We know how he feels about Europeans at the moment…

The building was designed by an Italian called Rastrelli

Artwork from many European countries is exhibited -
this is by a German called Lucas Cranach the Elder

One thing the American president may like about it is what it screams: money. Both the inside and outside are extreme examples of extravagance and opulence.

Ornate statues line the top of the building

The Boudoir Room in the Hermitage

The Hermitage is one of the largest museums in the world. They sell two-day tickets for a reason. The entrance is at Palace Square, which itself is a striking sight and would have been more impressive were the city not constructing a temporary stand for university graduations.

From left to right: Winter Palace, Alexander Column,
General Staff Building

Palace Square in the evening glow

In the middle of the square is one the world’s tallest monolithic structures: Alexander Column. It is so heavy – 600 tons – that they decided not to bother with foundations for its base, correctly assuming it wouldn’t be blown over. it was built to commemorate the defeat of Napoleon in 1812 and has a general standing on the head of a snake. Some believe the snake was designed with Napoleon’s face, though it’s difficult to tell when you’re 47 metres below it.

The Russians had the column designed...by a Frenchman

Some Soviets wanted the angel replaced with
a statue of Stalin

According to its website, the Hermitage Museum has 5 buildings which are open to the public. The largest, most popular and most famous is the one you’ve seen in the pictures thus far. It has another name which evokes very different memories: the Winter Palace.

The Winter Palace

This was where the rulers would base themselves in winter -
they would escape the city in warmer, greener months

Being a history student, I know how important this building is. This was the seat of power for the Russian leaders which was spectacularly sacked by the Bolsheviks in October 1917. The Winter Palace was the final piece of the jigsaw for Lenin and his supporters, and was taken without much resistance on October 25th.

As with Moscow, signs and statues for Lenin
are prominent in St Petersburg

Nicholas II, who had been based in the Winter
Palace as leader until February 1917

The palace building is now where many of the exorbitant number of items (up to 3 million) can be seen. The museum actually used to be solely in a smaller building, the façade of which is fascinating and clearly lends itself to Greek mythology.

The old entrance, complete with 10 giant Atlas figures

Rubbing the big toe of an Atlas and making a wish is supposed
to bring good luck - it clearly didn't work for the Peruvian
football fans on our tour, though...

Its collection swelled under Catherine the Great, who obtained over 4,000 works of art. She used to look at them in her private chambers and could not be disturbed for state business whilst in there. Hence the name of the museum…

Catherine came to power by staging a coup
d'etat...against her own husband

Art from many centuries and styles can
be found in the Hermitage

Now it is an enormous and frantically busy complex. I read that if you saw each piece of art for one minute, it would take you 10 years. Without stopping for food or sleep. Aside from one or two pieces on the ground floor, I stuck to one floor in one building and was occupied for two-and-a-half hours. But in the eyes of an art lover (I must confess I’m not one), the Hermitage possesses quality as well as quantity.

This is the largest bowl made of the jasper mineral in the world

Crowds gather around a Rembrandt painting - cruise ships
often make a stop at the Hermitage

It has works from the big players in art history: Matisse, Rembrandt, Picasso et al. Arguably its most prized possession are two Madonnas painted by Leonardo Da Vinci.

This Rembrandt is called Danae and was damaged in an acid
attack by an anti-Soviet protester in 1985 - it took 12 years to fix

The Madonna in this painting is very young

Just a personal preference, but paintings don’t really do it for me. They are of course amazing and I couldn’t dream of doing anything like that; I just prefer other things.

The Rembrandt collection is very large

This Michelangelo sculpture is of a 14-year-old
boy - his muscles are impressive for that age!

I appreciate architecture more, in spite of knowing next to nothing about it. Luckily, the interior of the Winter Palace is also pretty spectacular.

The Malachite Room has most of its ornamentation
made from the precious rock

A rather fancy fireplace

What you do get is a sense of imperial majesty. Whether it’s seeing the thrones and chandeliers (one room has 23), or strolling down sunlit corridors adorned with careful craft, you can feel a sense of power and privilege with each step and glance taken.

The entrance to the art works means you have to scale the
beautiful Jordan Staircase

I really liked walking down this long corridor
with artwork bursting from every wall and pillar

These art pieces – and the building – have withstood the test of time and also more brutal attacks. I mentioned in my previous blog about the Nazis looting many of the art museums in Russia, and clearly the Hermitage would have been a key target for that. Over a million artworks were removed from the Hermitage collection for safekeeping before the German arrival, with many taken to Yekaterinburg by train.

This room has pictures of many Russian war heroes

A vase made from Lazurite

We should be thankful they did. A place steeped in history contains hundreds of years’ worth of artistic masterpieces, allowing us to gain a deeper understanding of the past and appreciating the aesthetics of different eras of humanity. If Putin ever lets go of his iron grip on power and they revert to Tsarist rule, I’ll happily apply so I can live in the Hermitage!

Da Vinci's other Madonna picture in the Hermitage

The gardens in the Winter Palace

#cultured

Love you all,

Matt