Category Archives: Experiences

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.

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.

Victory Day in Moscow

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In Russia May 9th is a holiday, Victory Day commemorates the end of the Great Patriotic War (as the Russians call World War 2). In Moscow the day is marked by a big military parade in Red Square (we saw the end of some of the rehearsals for this earlier in the week), and celebrations throughout the day at Park Pobedi (Victory Park).

Soldiers after parade rehearsals with the Kremlin in the background

The day was sunny and we’d heard that there would be a concert in the park so we packed a picnic and headed off on the metro. As we arrived, we noticed lots of people carrying flowers (Russians seem to buy a lot of cut flowers generally and we have seen several 24 hour florists…). War veterans (presumably mostly from later conflicts than WW2) go to the park in their uniform and medals and members of the public give them a flower or two from their bunch, thank them and sometimes get their photos taken together. It seemed a really nice and touching way to remember what the veterans had gone through. Other flowers are placed on the various memorials around the park.

Veteran with a huge bunch of flowers

Flowers on war memorial

The park is pretty big, and as well as lots of grassy areas contains a small church, a large memorial obelisk, and a museum of the war. The military vehicles and fortifications part of the museum was open yesterday and we had a wander around with the crowds.

Park Pobedi on Victory Day

Us enjoying the sunshine

From 2pm there was live music on a stage in the park beginning with a concert by the orchestra from the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg with their conductor, Valery Gergiev, and solo pianist, Denis Matsuev. Afterwards there were performances by military choirs and patriotic songs by (presumably well known) Russian singers.

Obelisk and concert stage

The celebrations ended with a firework display at about 10pm and us wondering how to get back across the city to our hostel. The huge numbers of people in the crowd mean that the metro stations around the park are closed down for the evening which we hadn’t realised in advance. Not having braved the local bus system in Moscow and being a little afraid to do so in the dark without knowing at least which number bus might take us in the right direction, we opted to walk with the crowd towards the city centre in the hope of finding an open metro station. Having walked for about an hour and past 2 shut stations, we paused and reconsidered the buses (nope still no good, we didn’t even recognise the listed destinations), so were left with either a 2 hour walk home, or trying to find a taxi which wouldn’t rip us off… Still unsure, we noticed a stream of people seemed to be going down the subway steps to the nearby metro station, so we followed – yay the metro was being reopened at midnight!

We arrived back at our hostel intending to drop straight into our beds, but the owner had just returned from holiday and we were invited to join him and some friends in the kitchen. It would have been rude to refuse, so we stayed up for tea, chats and a trip to the apartment block roof for a view of nighttime Moscow before crawling into bed at 2.30am – phew, what a long day!

Moscow by night from our apartment block roof

two year trip

Andrew and Julie's Travelling Adventures