Yearly Archives: 2013

Russian Haircut

Sounds scary doesn’t it? Maybe something like a Glaswegian Kiss? Well, thankfully it wasn’t that bad, but we were both a little nervous beforehand…

Andrew

Andrew was first. By the time we got to Petrozavodsk (where we spent 3 days between St Petersburg and Moscow), we’d been on the road for nearly six weeks and his hair was getting pretty long. We looked up the word for barber/hairdresser (parikmakerskaya) and soon spotted a sign in the centre of town. We went into the row of shops and walked to the end, getting funny looks all the way. At the end we asked the woman in the last shop ‘parikmakerskaya?’ and with a certain amount of sign language she told us that it was shut and then enterprisingly tried to sell us some socks! Next we tried the modern looking shopping centre where we found a fancier looking salon, when we asked the price we were told 700 roubles (about £15) Too much for 10 minutes with the clippers we thought.

So, defeated, we returned to our hotel. But on the bus on the way back we noticed a few more parikmakerskaya signs and with hope that there might be a local option, we asked the lady on our hotel reception. Yes, there was a barber just 100m away. Great, we had time the following day before our train. Our ‘mini hotel’ was on the ground floor of a fairly new apartment block along with a supermarket and several other businesses, one of which was a barber as it turned out. Unfortunately, this one was closed as well. The area around was very residential, consisting mostly of quite deprived looking apartment blocks, and as we walked through to the bus stop, we spotted a sign over a corrugated iron porch and decided to investigate. Despite the less than salubrious exterior, the shop inside was nice enough and the girl who greeted us was friendly. Andrew mimed clippers and asked her how much – 100 roubles (~£2) was the answer – much better!

She then tried to ask what size guard he wanted on the clippers, but we couldn’t manage to communicate to her and eventually she gave up, put on the largest guard that she had, shaved a small patch, and then went down through the guard sizes until Andrew was happy with the length…

Andrew under the clippers

And afterwards outside the entrance

Julie

I’ve been going to the same hairdresser, Vicky at Fine Cuts in Dunston, for about 7 years and was very worried about going somewhere else. I’ve found that it usually takes hairdressers a few appointments to get used to my curly hair. But after 10 weeks my hair was really starting to frizz, and I was even more worried about getting my hair cut in Asia where it is likely that the hairdresser will never have cut curls before, so I decided to bite the bullet…

I’d spotted ‘Salon Okay’ around the corner from our apartment in Yekaterinburg. It started well, the price was comparable to what I paid at home (~£13), we had a bit of a conversation about (I think!) whether my curls were natural and what product I used on them – fortunately, I’d read ‘muss’ from the bottle. She washed my hair, clipped up the sides, and started at the back, indicating the amount to take off, just like Vicky does. She cut away, and when she reached the front, she parted my hair, and indicated a much shorter cut than I usually have. I shook my head and made the parting with the hair to the sides as usual, to which she wrinkled her nose and shook her head. So, unable to communicate in more detail and not wishing to have an argument in a language I don’t speak, I shrugged and nodded. She seemed to take this as agreement for a complete restyle, and started chopping chunks away from all over… By the time she got out the hairdryer I was nearly having a panic attack. Using the hairdryer and a brush, she tried to style my new “fringe”, but it just frizzed up. My hair always needs a wash after it has been cut to put the curls back properly, but by the time she had finished I was desperate to get back to the apartment and have a shower so that I could check the damage. As we left, Andrew said that he really liked it, and it was nice to see me with a new hairstyle, but I wasn’t reassured.

That’s a lot of hair coming off…

After the hairdryer and brush treatment… I’m only smiling because we’re still in the salon!

Well, it’s not so bad after a wash. Much shorter than I would normally have agreed to, but I think I can live with it.

The Golden Ring

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The Golden Ring is the name given to Russia’s most famous historical region, a handful of towns around Moscow which have been centres of Russian culture and politics for centuries. We visited four of the towns.

Sergiev Posad

This small town is easy to reach as a day trip from Moscow. The trip itself was quite interesting – our first experience of a Russian local train, it’s a bit like a live version of the shopping channel with vendors walking through the carriage selling everything from ice creams to train timetables to suction hooks. Sergiev Posad is best known for its monastery which is still home to black robed, long bearded monks.

Unfortunately for us, some of the major buildings of the monastery are undergoing restoration work at the moment, so we didn’t see it at its most impressive.

Sergiev Posad when we visited (top) and without the scaffolding

Still the monastery contains some beautiful buildings and lots of visitors are there as pilgrims to visit the remains of St Sergius in the Trinity Cathedral and take home a bottle of holy water from the fountain in the courtyard. We queued up to see the silver sarcophagus and then felt a bit fraudulent not to be crossing ourselves and kissing the lid.

Exalted Trinity Monastery of St Sergius (clockwise from top left): monk walking through grounds, visitor at a shrine, church above the Holy Gates, ikon

It was a really hot day, so on the way back to the station we had a refreshing glass of Kvas, a local soft drink made from fermented rye bread which is much tastier than it sounds!

Vladimir

Vladimir was a nice change of pace after the bustle of Moscow. A medium sized town which is not just reliant on tourism, but does have some great historic buildings. We were lucky enough to find an excellent host for our stay here (also named Vladimir). He was not only generous enough to meet us at the train station and drive us to the house, but he and his wife entertained us for an evening of Russian banya, barbecue and conversation (aided by a Russian-English dictionary!).

Tonya and Vlad, yummy barbecued chicken, between Banya sessions!

The day that we visited the town’s museums happened to be an open day which meant that they were free but also very busy with locals. The Golden Gate in the centre of the main street is the last surviving remnant of the town’s medieval defences. It now contains a military exposition with an audio visual element which the administrator switched to English for us, much to the confusion of the locals! The town is also home to two cathedrals, the small Cathedral of St Demetrius of Salonica which although plain inside has hundreds of carvings outside, and the beautiful Assumption Cathedral where Russia’s earliest rulers were crowned.

Vladimir museums (clockwise from top left): The Golden Gate, carvings on the Cathedral of St Demetrius of Salonica, glasswork in the Crystal Museum, forge at the blacksmith’s workshop

The Assumption Cathedral at sunset

Suzdal

It feels as if every second building in Suzdal is a church – at one time there was a church for every 12 of its inhabitants along with 15 monasteries, and although not all of these survive, there are still a lot left! It’s quite a small sleepy town now, very pretty and easy to wander around. Many of the houses in the town are wooden and some have ornate carvings along the eaves and around the windows.

Churches at the Monastery of Our Saviour and St Euthimius, inside the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Savior, domes of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin

Suzdal also has a small museum of wooden architecture, similar to the one which we visited in Riga. The standout building here is the beautiful wooden Church of the Transfiguration and it was also interesting to see the reconstructions that they have of the building interiors.

Us outside a peasant’s house, windmill and weathervane, kitchen reconstruction

The Church of Transfiguration, wooden tiles on the dome, inside the Church of the Resurrection

Bogolyubovo

Bogolyubovo is mentioned in our guidebook as a side trip from Vladimir and it was recommended to us twice (by Eva who we met at our hostel in Moscow, and again by Vlad and Tonya). We decided to fit it into our spare afternoon before the train to Yekaterinburg, and we’re very glad that we did. The bus let us off near to the very active convent. The interior of the cathedral is beautifully painted and was further enhanced by the nuns’ choir practice. Outside we saw the remains of the original cathedral and another two nuns washing the windows – they definitely wouldn’t have passed a HSE assessment…

We then took the path past the railway station and over the somewhat flooded fields to the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl. This small single domed church dates from the 12th century and was commissioned by Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky who sited his royal palace here and developed Vladimir into the capital of Rus.

Here’s our Golden Ring round up:

What photo takes you right back to the Golden Ring?

Bogolyubovo wasn’t in our original plans but we both loved the simplicity and location of this church.

Summarise the Golden Ring in three words.

Churches
Cathedrals
Monasteries

You really know you’re in the Golden Ring when…

You find yourself lining up another shot of church domes.

What one item should you definitely pack when going to the Golden Ring?

Julie: a scarf to cover your hair in the churches.

Moscow Round Up

Here’s our Moscow round up:

What photo takes you right back to Moscow?

It’s an iconic image of Moscow – St Basil’s Cathedral seen from Red Square. For our first week here, Red Square (and the entry to St Basil’s) was fenced off due to preparations for the Victory Day parade, so we had to delay our visit into our second week. Although similar to St Petersburg’s Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood on the outside, St Basil’s Cathedral is quite different inside. Rather than the huge open space with vibrant wall mosaics that we’ve seen in many Orthodox churches, it is subdivided into 9 smaller churches (one under each dome, and one under the steeple), each with its own iconostasis and mostly subdued wall paintings.

Summarise Moscow in three words.

Uncompromising – Moscow doesn’t pander to tourists, it’s getting on with its own business and if you’re lost or struggling then tough. And if the Kremlin museums need to close for a day then they do so without notice either on their website or at the ticket offices. That said, we came across plenty of nice people, like the girl behind me in the coffee queue who murmured “inside or outside” as I was staring uncomprehendingly at the harried cashier who was barking at me in Russian.
Large scale – the city is huge and you definitely need to get to grips with the metro system (itself quite uncompromising) to get around. The ‘Seven Sisters’ skyscrapers are built on a monumental scale, and the Tsar cannon and bell in the Kremlin show that the Muscovites mean business.
Soviet – there are lots of reminders of Soviet times around the city from mosaics in the metro system to hammer and sickle carvings on buildings and lots of statues of Lenin (not to mention the man himself)

You really know you’re in Moscow when…

You’re in a very slow (maybe even unmoving) queue somewhere near the Kremlin.

What one item should you definitely pack when going to Moscow?

A Cyrillic to Roman alphabet conversion chart.

Bolshoi Theatre Tour

Getting in

While investigating tickets, we found out that the Bolshoi does tours three times a week on a first-come, first-served basis. The strictly limited 15 tickets go on sale at 12:00, for a Russian-only tour that starts at 14:30, lasting 90 minutes, and are sold as one ticket per person. We thought we’d get there early, and on arrival at 11:00, there was already a handful of people waiting. A nice Russian lady asked us some questions, and we think we heard some numbers in there, until a Dutch couple translated for us – the group was self-organising, and we had number’s 11 and 12. Excellent.

Queuing outside the Bolshoi for 2 of the 15 tour tickets. The couple to the right sitting down are the friendly Dutch translating organisers!

Our Dutch friends explained the situation to everyone else that turned up, and after there were 15 waiting, most decided to try again another day.. it all seemed quite efficient, that is, until 5 minutes before the ticket door opened. One old lady just walked right into the middle of us crowded around the door, and managed to get in just ahead of us – we’re now 12 and 13.. OK, we’re still good.

The door opened again and the next bunch were allowed in – then a slight and well dressed pensioner wearing too much lipstick at the back of the group shouted protestations at the guard and thrust an official-looking card at him. It transpires that war veterans can queue jump, she’d only been waiting 10 minutes! We got in just behind Mrs Veteran, as 13 and 14 – a definite case of Russian queuing.

The Tour

We bought our ticket in the foyer and the tour began immediately – contrary to the information we’d read. And what a first impression the foyer makes:

White walls, white marble staircases with gold relief and red carpets for the stairs. Elegant and sophisticated

I can’t tell you much about the tour itself, as it was in Russian. Instead, here are some more pictures..

Foyer for the belle-etage

The tour included several rooms off the wings of the main theatre, which contained photographs and costumes of past performances

From the first floor we took the lifts to the top floor and were asked to keep very quiet as rehearsals were on in the main theatre.. yay! we’re going into the Bolshoi theatre!

View from the 4th floor balcony, Main stage, Bolshoi Theatre

One of the women in our tour group started doing a little bit of translation into English for us and the Dutch couple. The main chandelier used to hold candles, and was lowered to the stalls before performances to be lit, but the dripping wax became a problem so they installed a net underneath, but that obscured the view from the 4th floor balcony!

Delighted at being able to see the main stage (as sometimes it’s not possible during the tour), we then went through one of the refreshments bars to a staircase on the western side of the building – wait! There’s an upstairs?

Directly above the main stage is an exact replica of the stage itself and the orchestra pit. There are only about 10 rows of seats, but all other dimensions, mechanics and materials are the same. We were allowed to wander briefly onto the stage, and when the tour guide led the group back downstairs Mrs Dutch and I quickly snuck behind the stage for a peek!

The main practice stage and orchestra pit, which is above the main Bolshoi performance stage

The tour continued downstairs, and we found the main 1st floor foyer filled with TV cameras for some sort of press conference:

Interview inside the Bolshoi. Do you know who this is?

The old banqueting hall, which was used to entertain VIPs. To the west of the main stage on the first floor. That’s our tour guide in the middle of the picture

Just before we thought the tour would end, our guide checked the main theatre again and said it was OK for us to sit in on the rehearsals for a few minutes – this time on the ground floor in the amphitheatre at the back of the stalls!

Bolshoi rehearsals. Wonderful organ music recital

Close-up of the organ rehearsals

The ceiling in the Bolshoi’s main stage – stunning

The tour is definitely worth your time if you can get to the Bolshoi on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday no later than 11am, and don’t mind a bit of Russian queuing (or “pushing in”, as we British call it) when the doors open for tickets at 12:00.

two year trip

Andrew and Julie's Travelling Adventures