Putting the red in Red Square, the State Historical Museum
The Mongol Rally:
The Long Drive Home Part 2 (Old Russia)
Russia as a nation was built on conquest. Taking land ever further east and incorporating it into the country proper. It could be said that this conquest originated, two steps forward followed by one back, from the area north-east of Moscow, now known as the Golden Ring. This is quintessential Russia: onion-domed churches, kremlins (Russian citadels) and intricately carved wooden cottages.
More onion-domes than you can shake a stick at
Kostroma gave us our first taste of Old Russia
We reached Kostroma, our base for the following two nights, late, and enjoyed a much needed lie in the following morning, to recover after the long drive from Siberia. Kostroma is an old trading town on the River Volga. The town radiates out from a grand central square, with adjacent arcaded markets stretching along the banks of the Volga.
Wandering the now mostly empty arcades it took a lot of imagination to picture the time, before the railways superseded Volga trade, when this would have been a heaving trading centre. What was left of the market stalls were piled high with an eclectic mix of forest berries, wild mushrooms and delicious pastries, perfect for a late breakfast.
Kostroma’s sleepy central square
Picking out the best mushrooms for dinner
Russia has the world’s only moose farm
Fortified by a good night’s sleep, a hot morning coffee and sweet-cheese pastries, we headed out of town to the world’s only moose farm. A Soviet-era experiment grappling with the realities of a market economy, the Kostroma Moose Farm now has a fraction of the animals it used to, when it supplied the local sanatorium with moose milk for peptic ulcer treatment.
We tried the milk (very thick and creamy) after an informative tour, with moose feeding and baby moose petting included! We got so into moose we even bought the ‘Moose through the seasons’ DVD before we left.
Moose apparently just love people
Nobody told Rico the carrots were for the Moose
The rest of our time in the Golden Ring was spent exploring walled monasteries in Kostroma, fantastical churches in Yaroslavl, and Rostov-Veliky’s serene kremlin. All very old and very beautiful, a peaceful two days in the countryside before the big city lights.
Some rare Russian sunshine in Kostroma’s Monastery of St Ipaty
Elaborate frescoes inside John the Baptist Church in Yaroslavl
Time for reflection in Rostov-Veliky
Visiting Russia’s capital
Eventually Moscow gradually muscled out the towns of the Rostov-Suzdal region to become the centre of Russian power around the 14th century. So it made sense that this would be our next stop.
Traffic was bad on the way into Moscow, the worst we’d experienced in over 3,000 miles, and so we turned up over an hour late to our couch surfing host’s apartment. Luckily they were understanding, and we had a very Russian night out; dinner around midnight, caviar, ‘Herring in fur coats’, chicken kiev, and beans wrapped in pig fat followed by horseradish shots and a night on the town.
We didn’t get up early the next morning. But eventually, nursing a slight hangover, we made our way into the city centre on Moscow’s famous metro. Stopping at a few of the grander stations, we admired the art deco marbled platforms and intricate ceiling mosaics, depicting life in a Soviet bliss, before starting our tour of the city.
First stop: Red Square and St. Basil’s Cathedral, next: the brand new (first day of opening) Zaryadye Park with great city views, followed by the Kremlin, home to Vladimir Putin and seat of Russian power.
Red Square
Trying to process the madness that is St Basil’s Cathedral
Moscow city skyline from Zaryadye Park
Putin’s local church inside the Kremlin
Russians love a sauna
After wandering the streets of Moscow all day we retired to Sanduny Baths to sweat out our hangovers and relax. Shuddering at the cost of Russia’s best known sauna (in a country obsessed with them) we paid up only for the cheapest section. Sauna only, still around £40 for two hours.
The Russian sauna differs from the usual, stepped, Finnish sauna in that the heat radiates from a glorified pizza oven in one corner. Much larger than the Finnish variety, the Russian sauna is a two story affair, with seating arranged on the upper floor. The lower floor is reserved for the oak leaves that drop through the slats as sauna-goers thrash themselves with branches to get the blood flowing.
We spent our allocated time hopping between the sauna, cold bath and the dry resting area, where we went to recover from the heat. We thrashed ourselves with very expensive oak twigs and sniffed the horseradish as we saw others doing. A cultural experience it was, worth the cost? Probably not.
St. Petersburg was the old Tsarist capital of Russia
St. Petersburg, our final destination before hitting the EU again, eventually took the reins as capital city and cultural centre of Russia under Tsar Peter I (Peter the Great). He built a city to rival Moscow out of the uninhabited swamp at the mouth of the Neva River. A beautiful city of Baroque architecture, imposing cathedrals and grand palaces ringed by canals and painted in an eclectic mix of colours. We had to see it.
So we did. Two nights in St. Petersburg allowed us a day to explore. And so, donning our rain jackets against the blanket of drizzle, we meandered our way from one grand edifice to the next. The Winter Palace, home of the last Tsar (before his untimely execution by Bolshevik forces), formed a stunning backdrop to Palace Square, St. Petersburg’s centrepiece. The Church on the Spilled Blood, so named after the assassination of another of Russia’s Tsars, also packed an architectural punch, with its distinctly Russian flair for the bizarre.
Just a fraction of the gargantuan Winter Palace, visible across Palace Square
The busy facade of the Church on the Spilled Blood
After nearly two weeks, and full to the brim with Russian culture, we were finally ready to leave. We slipped back into the political West through a border post seemingly squeezed into the middle of what looked to have once been one town. The breakdown of the Soviet Union leaving one side in Russia and the other in Estonia. We were back in the EU and, given the scale of the journey, almost home.
This Leg
Days: 6
Countries: 2
Distance: 912 miles
Time in car: 1 day
Total
Days: 62
Countries: 26
Distance: 15,101 miles
Time in car: 17 days 22 hours