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> APRIL 2006
MAY 2006
hotel ukraina - stalinist pomp
russian parliament by night
hannah and a splendid fountain
platform 3, yaroslavski station
our train arrives - #6 to ub
Departed Birmingham International 6.15am, changing at Amsterdam and on to Moscow, arriving at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon Moscow time. Beautiful sunny day. At Sheremetyevo airport you have to be wary of the unlicensed taxi drivers so we book a MosCab taxi from inside the terminal and head off through the Moscow traffic to the Ukraina Hotel. Try not to think like a driver when riding in a Moscow taxi, since they make some pretty unconventional maneuvers - it's best to concentrate on the passing scenery and block out the narrowly-avoided collisions!
Arrive at Hotel Ukraina, which is pretty awesome. This hotel is all Stalinist-era pomp: high ceilings, chandeliers, lush carpets and marble. It's the hotel in the film The Russia House, starring Sean Connery, apparently. Our room also has a high ceiling and is pretty luxurious for the money (although none of Moscow's hotel are what you'd describe as 'value for money') with a comfy bed, so we manage to get some well needed rest since we haven't slept since Sunday night!
Wed 26th April 2006
Hotel Ukraina is situated on the bank of the River Volga, overlooking the Russian Parliament (called The White House, which is pretty ironic!). We manage to get some reasonably good photos of the Parliament building from our room. It's incredible to be out and about in Moscow, walking beside the Volga in glorious sunshine - especially since we imagined it'd be pretty cold here during our stay!
The Russian underground, or Metro, is a sight to behold: ornate, expansive, decorated with murals and statues extolling the Soviet way of life, its people and its values. Actually getting onto it was a little intimidating, since the staff in the ticket boothes tend to be less than helpful! We finally manage to buy a single ticket (exceptional value at about 33p for an unlimited journey anywhere along the Metro - how much does it cost now to travel all zones on the London underground?). The stations are deep underground since they were originally built as shelters during WWII. All the signs and maps are written in Cyrillic script, but it's pretty easy to decipher as long as you learn the basics (P is R, C is S, H is N, X is H, and so on). The different lines are colour-coded too which helps.
Thoughts keep turning to the Trans-Siberian journey tomorrow, and ultimately, Mongolia. It's impossible to imagine what either of these will be like. I just hope for now that the train tickets that took so long to purchase are legit!! Will find out for definate tomorrow evening...
Thu 27th April 2006
Our last day in Moscow so time for some tourist-type activity. We take the Metro to Ploshchad Revolutsii (say 'odin billet' and point at your last single ticket and achieve success with the ticket officers!) and visit Red Square and The Kremlin. After a couple of pints of Newcastle Brown in a 'British Pub' (lots of Beatles pictures and Union Jacks as well as a Scot and a Londoner getting plastered at the bar) we take in the glorious sight of St Basil's. It's amazing to see Red Square and the balcony which I remember from BBC-TV pictues of Breshnev and chums impassively watching the May Day parade of Soviet military might back in the days of the USSR.
Our train leaves at 21:30 with or without all passengers so we decide to get to the Yaroslavski Station early and avoid any last-minute scrambling. After collecting our baggage from the Ukraina we face a difficult choice - we're quoted 1500 roubles (about £30) for a taxi to the station but that'll only leave us with bubblegum money for the whole train journey, so the sensible option seems to be to take the Metro (33p). But this of course means lugging our suitcases and other bags down the steep escalators, onto the busy rush-hour trains and through the messy rugby-scrum that is a Russian's idea of an orderly queue for the up-escalator out of the station at the other end! Well, we do take the Metro, but I'll just say I never ever want to take luggage onto it ever again!!! A real nightmare that leaves us pretty exhausted, but at least we're at the station and have some money to spend, which we promptly do spend a little of, on a couple of well-needed drinks...
20:30 and the platform for the train to Ulaanbaatar finally flashes up on the departure screen. We join the queue and before long, the green Trans-Siberian Train No. 6 appears. This is the vessel which will transport us to Mongolia, five days from now. I can't help but feel awed by the prospect of such a long journey, and to such an unknown country for a year of who-knows-what, but for now I'm just hoping about those tickets again and itching to get on board!
The tickets are solemnly inspected by the Provodnitsa (the female guard in charge of our carriage) and we triumphantly board the train! The relief is immense as we can finally relax and enjoy the journey. We find our cabin, load the luggage onto the train, get settled and within half an hour the train pulls away from Yaroslavski Station without fanfare or even a whistle. We're on our way...