Hi All,
We slept well and woke to a beautiful clear day and prepared to explore. The waitress at breakfast spoke english and explained the menu and I asked for fun 'whether we could have everying on the menu' and she said yes. hmmmm. We decided not to have everything on the menu and limited ourselves to cloudberry and lime juice, cereal, pancakes and a bowl of mini sausages each. Oink.
The big breakfast turned out to be a blessing as it was really cold outside. Remember we had stored our large packs at the train stations and only had clothing suitable for about -10 deg C with us. The heavy packs with the clothing for the cold that we have been carrying all over the world just for today....doh.
Velinkiy Novgorod is one of the most ancient cities of Russia and was discovered in chronicles of 859 AD. It is a town of churches and also the millenium monument.
We walked to a bridge over the river and could see a digital display indicating that the temperature was -18deg C. Brrr. The air was nice and crisp. The river was partially frozen a large sheets of ice were floating with the current and splintering when they hit the bridge pylons sounding like breaking glass. We watched for a while before heading into the old town.
We were a little underwhelmed when we got inside the kremlin walls (citadel) as there was not much to see and I was a little concerned that I couldn't see anywhere for us to escape the cold and warm up if necessary. It was getting cold so we found the information place and got a cold reception but at least the room was warm. We then walked into an art museum and soon after a gentleman inside went to some pains to find the english to explain that it was closed. This left the Novgorod museum with a collection of over 1500 russian icons with 268 on display. There were a lot of staff who were probably excited to see some tourists and followed us around the rooms while we examined the painting.
It had warmed quite a bit while we in the gallery and was much more pleasant (minus 13 degrees)and more people were around outside. We then went for a walk over the bridge to the other old section of the town. There were so many different churches and one suburb is made up just of churches. It seemed to be fashionable for the rich in the middle ages to build their own church.
We went back to the kremlin and visited the St Sophia cathedral via some huges bells on display. The cathedral has magnificent frescos in byzentine style on the inside.
Still it was cold and starting to get a little dark so we went looking for a shopping centre and some food. This was simple and we looked around an waited for a few hours as our train was not until 930pm.
The game with very cold conditions is to fill yourself with warmth and to know your next warm place so that you can go out in the cold with confidence. Warm clothes allow you to keep your heat and stay out longer.
Our next warm place was the train station and we headed out to collect our packs and wait for about 3hrs.
So we sat and waited for the train and watched the board for the platform which never showed but when the an anouncement came over the loudspeaker and the only word that Vanessa understood was Moskva (moscow) and as the mass of locals starting to move towards the train it led us to conclude that it was time for us to also move.
The Provdnitska (carriage attendant) who rules to carriage met us at the train entrance to check our tickets then we moved onto the four birth sleeper cabin. Quite cosy. Next question was 'where the hell are our packs going to go?' We initially just dumped our small packs and food into an under seat locker and then put the larger packs on a bed so that one of our Russian companions could also get into the compartment. It took a few minutes to get up the energy to attempt to shove the backpacks onto an overdoor locker. Vanessa's pack went in fine but it looked as if there was no way that my pack would fit. I put a bit of angry energy into it and shoved really hard and it fit perfectly if a little squashed.
We were sharing the compartment with two Russian men. The first was a shy computer programmer called Pavel who spoke english and the second a businessman called Roman who imported italian furniture and also spoke a bit of english but during the evening needed Pavel to translate quite often.
We were talking with Pavel and Vanessa was asking how to politely decline an offer to drink. Pavel taught us to say 'Ya nye pew' which I hope translates as 'me not drink'. Soon after Roman pulled out a small bottle of Cognac and some coke cola and offered us a drink. Pavel did not drink and Vanessa declined leaving me. Russian hospitality! I kept a slow pace with Roman refilling his glass often and giving me a speed up. So we all talked away the bottle and the evening and didn't get to bed until about 1230am. Tick. Another item off the list.
We got the Provdnitska wakeup call at 445am that it was time to get ready for Moscow. It is a bit of a race for the toilets as there are only 2 per carriage and potentially 36 people competing for them. Not only do the Russians go to the toilet they also have a bit of a wash and brush their teeth. Too bad if you are busting to go!
We decided that rather than catch a taxi and potentially run the risk of getting ripped off or alternatively struggle with the metro system at 530am and run the risk of getting lost we pre arranged a transfer from the train directly to the hostel....so much for independent travel!
Bye,
David and Vanessa
