Places

A really weird and somewhat psychodelic video found on Live Journal. It lists all the famous people from Tatarstan, a republic within Russia, and then the chorus goes "Tatarstan Super Good!"



See Way to Russia Guide to Kazan

Our freelance writer Nick Gruzdev, who also happens to be a guide for Peter's Walking Tours in St. Petersburg has done a review of the best middle-priced hotels, bed & breakfast, and hostels in St. Petersburg. You can find it online at Way To Russia St Petersburg Accommodation Guide.

Russian Post Offices present a challenge for the foreigner like almost no other place here.

The first challenge is to find one. Unlike most other countries’ postal services, the “Pochta” logo is only easily spotted on the post boxes, which are usually located on the walls of buildings. Some maps give the locations of the offices, but in general it’s better to ask someone.

Tourist postcards have yet to make the en masse arrival in Russia that they have in even the most backward tourist spots in the West (you know the ones, “Hello from sunny Tierra del Fuego”), but if you do manage to find and purchase some, the fun is only just beginning.

All travellers to Moscow must have breathed a huge sigh of relief when the scaffolding was removed from this building. It means that the opening of the Moscow Ritz-Carlton is not too far away! And since Moscow suffers such a massive shortage of prohibitively expensive accommodation options this hotel will really fill a gaping hole in the market. Sarcasm aside, the new Ritz-Carlton does seem destined to become the hotel of choice for those to whom money is no object. It will be interesting to see the price per night there. My guess is around $800 for a standard room...

It's the people. Mainly that there's too many of them. Although the quality often leaves much to be desired as well. I remember once reading that the "far-sighted" metro planners made the platforms twice as long as the original trains because they knew that one day there would be many more people using the system. Well, it was a shame they weren't a little more far-sighted because the Moscow metro has reached capacity. As an example, centre bound trains on the south green line in the mornings are almost impossible to board from Kantemirovskaya onwards, even though they come as often as every 30 seconds. You literally have to put your shoulder into the people and push to force your way on. The 'people's palaces' are now no better than overcrowded farmyards running stinking, stuffy cattle trains.

And the question is, where do they go from here? The frequency definitely can't be increased. The only option would be to extend the platforms and who knows if that would even be possible with many of the existing stations or how long it would take to do it. How would the system have coped if Moscow had won the Olympics? This post might upset a few travelers who have marveled at the pretty decorations and been surprised by the efficiency of the system. But ride the metro every day and then see how wonderful you think the little statues at Ploshchad Revolutsii are.

Moscow is often unfairly overlooked by tourists. Time and time again I see itineraries that are heavily weighted in favour of St Petersburg, allowing only a couple of days for Moscow. After all, what is there to see besides Red Square and the Kremlin? The answer is that there's a hell of a lot. In fact, I doubt I'll ever have the chance to see everything I want to in this city. The problem is that Moscow's treasures aren't located in one area that is easily traversed by foot and aren't as well publicised. Here are some examples of what I mean.

It’s easy to fall in love with Kazan. It’s exotic, it’s friendly and the centre of the city is beautiful. The capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, one of the first things that strikes you in Kazan is that it’s a bilingual city. All signs are written both in Russian and Tatar and there are as many Tatar flags flying as there are Russian. An incredibly proud people, the Tatars love to show off their city and their cultural heritage, even if their ethnic group is the minority in the republic. I came to Kazan without any expectations and found it to be the nicest mid-sized Russian city I have been to.

The Way to Russia guide to Ekaterinburg is now online. Make sure you read it in detail here. It's the most comprehensive guide you'll find to Ekaterinburg in English anywhere, except for on the official Ekaterinburg tourism website (yes, there is one - I was shocked as well), but obviously their only intention is to glorify their city so their information can't be trusted. The Way to Russia guide features plenty of reviews and information about hotels, sights, clubs, bars, restaurants as well as all the practical information you need for a visit to the capital of the Urals. And now that the guide is online, it seems like a good time to write about my experiences in the city.

I took a trip down to Gorki Leninskie recently, the place where Lenin started taking retreats after the first assassination attempt on him, and where he spent the last eight months of his life. To be honest, it's not all that interesting unless you have a particular fascination with the man, and the estate isn't the most impressive you can find in Moscow. That said, you do get to see quite a few of his personal effects, the spot where he died and his death mask. You also get to see the personal "Biblioteka Lenina". But probably the highlight is Lenin's car. Tailor-made by Rolls Royce it features some cool snow tyres, reinforced steel for added security and was apparently converted to run on alcohol which was a lot more common than petrol during the Civil War. It seems a flouting of principles to have paid the huge sum of 350000 pounds (I think, the guide was talking rapid-fire Russian and I wasn't paying enough attention) to Rolls Royce for the car, especially when the British were aiding the opposing side in the Civil War.

The picture below is from a photo-essay on abandoned cities (towns that dried up after the fall of the Soviet Union) on www.englishrussia.com. Truth be told, you don't need to journey out to distant places to find cool, abandoned buildings like this one. Just head out into podmoskoviye and you can find plenty of abandoned factories and warehouses that you can explore and vandalise to your heart's content. Sure, it might not have the same eerie feeling, but all abandoned industrial buildings are fun to explore.