World Adventure

Hi All,
Snowing. Sometimes light and fluffy and other times small pieces but coming down quite heavily. Relaxed for the morning at the hostel before heading to the train station before heading onto the metro. Needed to change twice so were glad that it was Sunday and arrived at the train station but not exactly clear where to catch the train. The train system has been quite frustrating but we did manage to figure it out in time. Strangely the locals were anxiously waiting exposed to the weather out on the platform but we thought it was stupid and waited downstairs. The train turned up and we really didn't have enough room for our packs so I just threw them both on the overhead above and behind us which upset the people who turned up later and sat behind us. It seems that they are very possessive of their space. They ended up putting their bags on the other side of the carriage. We noticed that some people just left their luggage on the floor beside the seats and I think that we will do the same in the future. The Provodnitska let us know the time to get off the train and it didn't seem to take too long and we were waiting for the snow to be cleared from the door of the carriage and were at the Vladimir train station. At the same time we were trying to get out some idiots decided to come the other direction and try and get through which was not possible as the the Provodnitska sent them packing.

We were met on the platform by Vasily, who we later found out was the hostel manager at Suzdal, and bundled into a taxi for the 30km drive. Luxury. Vasily didn't speak much english but he was friendly and we his wife Larissa later who spoke a little more english. They were both from the Ukraine. The hostel was huge but unfinished and we were the only customers. The financial crisis had reduced the number of tourists visiting the area and so the cash flow had dried up. Still the room was nice and warm and the beds were comfortable so it was nice if a little strange. When we weren´t outside we  stayed in the room for most of the time that we were in the hostel.

Suzdal is a town of 12000 people and at one stage had 1 church for every 12 people!

The weather deteriorated overnight and the snow was getting a lot heavier. The wind also had picked up and the snow was drifting and it was a good day to stay inside but we didn't have time to waste so headed out and found the kremlin and visited the cathedral and museum.(Editor:Sometimes it feels like we are on a religious prilgrimage but alas we are not it is mainly the architecture and ´bling´  that we admire)  There was an old wooden church behind the cathedral and after viewing we went wandering back towards the town centre. We found a restuarant with a bar and sampled each one of the famous honey meads before purchasing a bottle of Suzdalskaya Myedovuzha. It was lunch time so we decided to stay and order but the catch was that that the staff only spoke russian and the menu was also in russian. We couldn't make any sense of the menu and I ended up drawing a chicken on a piece of paper and the waitress laughed and found us something on the menu. It turned out to be quite a nice dish of chicken breast with cheese, mushrooms and tomato topping and vegetables. Mmmm. Got lucky. We have found on many occasions that you actually don´t need to share a common language to be able to communicate with people or too find things jointly amusing.I had seen a large monastery in an image at the museum and asked where it was located so we headed off to find it at the other end of town and it was quite large. On the way we found some lovely old wooden houses with beautifully carved doors and windows. The monastery was closed so we walked around some of the enormous walls and found that it overlooked the river and another walled enclosure which was a nunnery. It was an amazing view so we stopped for a couple of panoramic images before wandering back to the hostel to warm up.

Next day. Woke to cold blue skies. Lovely day. Decided to go for a walk and find the wooden building museum. The river was clearly frozen enough to walk along and the snow had been cleared enough for a couple of ice skating areas. Later we found a couple of fishermen who had drilled holes and were well rugged up. That it commitment. It seemed they wouldn't be catching anything when 4 skidoos came flying down the river past them. Our toes were starting to get a little cold so after a few photos of an impressively ornate wooden building we looped back to the hostel in time to checkout and head to the bus stop.

We stopped at the wrong location and a kind old russian man pointed us in the right direction. we were looking for a Marshrutka which is a  minibus that travel
along a  fixed "marching route" from point A to point B. If you can read the Cyrillic alphabet, a sign in the front tells you the exact route the marshrutka follows. The sign also reveals that the ride costs just a few roubles, no matter where you get on and off. It wasn't long before the minibus  to the main bus station turned up and the locals piled in filling it up. The driver indicated to the door around the back so I went to the back, turned the handle and it broke off! The driver wasn't happy  but I couldn't stop laughing at the stupidity of the situation. A person stuck their head out and said maybe we should wait for the  next bus so I lay the handle on the bus  floor and we gladly closed the side door  and waited. It wasn't long before a larger bus turned up and ferried us to the bus station. I had just enough time to buy a ticket and get out to the bus to find that it was full but luckily our new friend from the previous stop who turned out to be  a Biomedical engineering student   from Yemen managed to convince the driver to let us onto the bus. Our packs were passed down to the back of the bus and it turned out that there was another english speaker near me. He was dutch and had just spent 3 months learning Russian which was handy as we were between a drunken Russian, with a gold capped smile, who had been drinking vodka and spent the rest of the trip asking us to come to his place and drink and play cards. The dutch person kept declining on both our behalves. It was quite amusing for the russians women on the bus. Plenty on 'nyets' and 'nyet spaseba' from me. He was persistent and a little unstable falling on top of some russian women after losing balance on bends which earned his feroceous verbal abuse from the squashed. It was quite funny and Vanessa even got a hug.(editor hug isn´t really an accurate account of what he was trying to do he was trying to kiss me but I blocked him by pulling up my hood repeatedly until an old a russian lady and a young russian man came to my aid and told him to go back to his seat and leave me alone.I didn´t actually understand what either of them said but  from their tone it wasn´t friendly banter) When the bus arrived at the train station we put our pack on, said goodbye to the Dutchman,  and headed in the opposite direction as the russian drunk and hid behind a red van figuring he would forget us in seconds....and he did.

Next was to find the hotel which Vanessa found quite easily. We were on the 4th floor and had impressive views overlooked a monastery. Out with the 400ml kettle and noodles for late lunch. We went for a look for a supermarket later but had walked in the wrong direction. It was very cold and we ended up just looping back to the hotel. Later I went out in the correct direction, found a large supermarket and returned with a large pizza that had a massive base. Maybe they should use plain flour next time? Amazingly it wasn't frozen by the time I got back to the hotel and we consumed it over the evening. Let me clarify. Vanessa had a quarter of it.(Editor:next day David is now pay the price for consuming more than his fair share of the super pizza.Gluttony really doesn´t pay and the pizza is seeking revenge)

The television in the room had not been working all afternoon. We rectified this problem in the evening when we bothered checking the back and found that the video cable had fallen out. Doh.

Bye,
David and Vanessa