Woke up Sunday in the M Hotel, a place the girls chose right off of Nevsky Prospekt in the city center. lI'd bought passes to the Hermitage museum online earlier....you are advised to do this because the regular ticket queues get really oppressive otherwise. I took some pictures of this line that I will post at a later date. I brought the wrong cord for my camera and tablet on this little trip. Took a bunch of hermitage photos too. The place is impossible to imagine....for me, the 19th and20th century European art collection defies imagination. Monet, Cezanne, Matisse collections are amazing.Seems like they have most of Gauguin'sTahitian phase.The architecture is just over the top, marble and tile everywhere, ceilings, doors, floors are decorated lavishly....carving, painting, decorative detail everywhere. The Russian royalty collected, bought, impounded so many beautiful things..Czars collected, communists appropriated private collections, and there is of course some Nazi stuff, stolen by the Reich and then grabbed by the Russians. The place is so huge it would take weeks to see half of it. We are there for 5-6 hours. Laura went back on Tuesday for a few more hours.Pictures to follow.. We made arrangements to meet up with my friend Stepan's friend Dmitri on Monday for some sightseeing.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
April 9, Kazan
The little dog was remarkably well behaved. I like dogs, and I think she could tell. Soon I was scratching her ears and we were friends. The lady didn't speak any English but I now know enough to be fairly communicative. I even overheard her telling the Providnitza that I could speak a little Russian. She soon lay down and was asleep, along with the tiny dog. Someone hawking food poked their head in the door and the dog barked pretty fiercely but never at me....for the whole 26 hours. I should also say that the woman never took the dog for any bathroom breaks for 26 hours! I noticed after a couple of hours that police were getting on at every stop and industriously walking through the carriages. These guys never bother me and actually make me feel very safe. The providnitza did keep coming in the car and looking for something...I even got some blankets off a high shelf for her once to see if anythi g was there. Each time something like this happened, they would wake up my sleeping lady. Finally 3-4 police officers poked their heads in, asked about a black purse above my bunk....I had assumed this was my neighbor's, but she said it wasn't hers! They quickly removed it and about 10 minutes later, a cop actually stuck his head in again and apologized.
I'd prepared for this trip pretty well, buying bread, cheese, sausage, figs, apricots, cashews, candy bars, and a liitle bottle of cognac. I spent the next few hours gazing out the window and taking photos. These will be posted later because I am lacking in certain technical things so this will happen when I am back to Saratov. I must say that you can never prepare yourself for the vastness o Russia...at first there were miles upon miles of fields with towns and villages sprinkled along the tracks. The Russian countryside reminds me so much of my own New Mexico, little homesteads, fences made of numerous material...not much inthe way of large stock...more poultry and goats, tin/metal roofing, aging wooden structures, old vehicles and farm equipment laying about. People are walking everywhere. From time to time you go through a bunch of tiny houses...I think these are people's dachas....summer cottages in the country. Many of them are shabby, but they seem really cool to me. Almost every dwelling has a small greenhouse. People here rely on small gardens and greehouses for their actual food budget. I am envious. One thing I have not seen anywhere in Russia is the ubiquitous trailer scene.Not a doublewide in site....ever. I can't tell you how iterrible these things ruin the American panorama. Not in Russia.I hope it stays this way. The countryside is beautiful, little shabby, dilapidated wooden homes trimmed in bright blue, purple, green, and yellow. From time to time you see huge crumbling brick industrial areas of varying age. Even this has it's own beauty...there is not a lot of renovation here in some places...and the decay . As evening began to fall the train went through huge stands of birch trees, also very beautiful. For a while, it snowed heavily. Then huge tracts of pine forests, frozen ponds, rivers, marshes. Russians on trains like to hang out in the corridors...not a lot of room to squeeze by, nor is there much aversion to brushing up against your neighbors.It takes some getting used to.We stop at some random town with a statio every hour or two, people get out, smoke, buys snacks, chat. The providnitza kind of keeps her eye out for me and tries to get me to stretch my legs. ? She is one of many very kind people I'run into in this country. As darkness falls, I prolong sleep for a while, but soon settle in with my babushka snoring gently on the other side of the compartment She sleeps a lot.
I'd prepared for this trip pretty well, buying bread, cheese, sausage, figs, apricots, cashews, candy bars, and a liitle bottle of cognac. I spent the next few hours gazing out the window and taking photos. These will be posted later because I am lacking in certain technical things so this will happen when I am back to Saratov. I must say that you can never prepare yourself for the vastness o Russia...at first there were miles upon miles of fields with towns and villages sprinkled along the tracks. The Russian countryside reminds me so much of my own New Mexico, little homesteads, fences made of numerous material...not much inthe way of large stock...more poultry and goats, tin/metal roofing, aging wooden structures, old vehicles and farm equipment laying about. People are walking everywhere. From time to time you go through a bunch of tiny houses...I think these are people's dachas....summer cottages in the country. Many of them are shabby, but they seem really cool to me. Almost every dwelling has a small greenhouse. People here rely on small gardens and greehouses for their actual food budget. I am envious. One thing I have not seen anywhere in Russia is the ubiquitous trailer scene.Not a doublewide in site....ever. I can't tell you how iterrible these things ruin the American panorama. Not in Russia.I hope it stays this way. The countryside is beautiful, little shabby, dilapidated wooden homes trimmed in bright blue, purple, green, and yellow. From time to time you see huge crumbling brick industrial areas of varying age. Even this has it's own beauty...there is not a lot of renovation here in some places...and the decay . As evening began to fall the train went through huge stands of birch trees, also very beautiful. For a while, it snowed heavily. Then huge tracts of pine forests, frozen ponds, rivers, marshes. Russians on trains like to hang out in the corridors...not a lot of room to squeeze by, nor is there much aversion to brushing up against your neighbors.It takes some getting used to.We stop at some random town with a statio every hour or two, people get out, smoke, buys snacks, chat. The providnitza kind of keeps her eye out for me and tries to get me to stretch my legs. ? She is one of many very kind people I'run into in this country. As darkness falls, I prolong sleep for a while, but soon settle in with my babushka snoring gently on the other side of the compartment She sleeps a lot.
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