Krasnoyarsk, Nature City Of Siberia

The original Trans-Siberian engine is much cooler than the modern ones

After a number of weeks of large industrial cities without much more than a central park to remind you of the natural world, it was decided that a stop in Krasnoyarsk should be done due to it being beside a nature reserve which would give us the opportunity to experience the great outdoors that actually make up probably 99% of Siberia.

The Yenisei River flows along beside Krasnoyarsk

There is a small problem with Krasnoyarsk, which is that the city is another industrial monster, and the great outdoors are somewhat spoiled by the rising chimneys billowing out dark thick smoke. It must have been the thick polluted air, or maybe we just left out intellect back in the educated city of Tomsk, but we decided to march around town with all our heavy gear certain the first hotel we walked up to would have a cheap room available. The haze in our minds kept us from being wise and doing what we’d found good at Tomsk which was to leave one person at the train station with all the gear while the others found accommodation. So after walking the entire city up and down, going to about six different places, we finally found one that was cheap and available. The theme of Krasnoyarsk was started which was for us to be tired and some what miserable.

The train station of Krasnoyarsk, photos of things like this are illegal in Russia

There are bears in the forest that we walked in, good thing I had my gun

Hotel Sever was the cheapest place we’d actually found in the whole of Russia which was great, even though it came without a shower and with central heating turned onto ‘roast-‘em-alive’. After sitting around for a while, we went out to a café called Ciao. Surprising as it is, this place was actually really good. Served the most delicious Vienna coffee I’ve ever tried I was well impressed. It came as no surprise though that this place was actually owned by some Germans, there is no way a Russian café could have such good service, with actual smiles and polite conversation from the waitress. Arriving back to the hotel it wasn’t long before the heat sent us off to a nightmare inducing sweaty night's sleep.

The rock formations in Stolby Nature Reserve

The next morning we were hoping for a fantastic sunny day, we got cold miserable grey turning to cold miserable rain with grey. But this didn’t stop us from our goal (which was basically all my desire) to go to the nature reserve and get in some of the good old great outdoors. If you are ever going to Stolby Nature Park, and have a lonely planet or any other guide book, do not trust its directions on how to get there. 7, 50a are meant to be the bus numbers which take you there, neither of these actually exist. Instead we found by walking half way there then jumping on a bus which can’t possibly go in the wrong direction that it was the number 30 that goes right past it. Only about 10 km from town is this lovely preserved piece of nature. It contains a number of large rock formations that make for good goals for hikes through the forested hills. Without any map (bad idea number 23432) we took off up a hill. Fortunately it was a small hill and after reaching the top we realized we’d just missed the main track, a big road, that goes into the center of the park. Not to worry, we scrambled down the hill side onto the road and took off to the rock formation we’d spotted from the top of the hill. The next few hours were spent walking along this road with a rock formation in sight that didn’t seem to get larger the closer we got to it. And as mentioned before the weather was turning to rain. So by about 4pm we’d reached somewhat near the bottom of the rocks (which were way more impressive from the first hill we’d climbed) completely soaked and freezing cold. Spotting the rocks through some trees we turned around and heading back to the bus which was fortunately all downhill so didn’t take too long. Arriving back in the grey city we went straight to the greatest café in Russia once again to warm up and dry off our clothes.

I get lost in the nature reserve

That was about it for Krasnoyarsk. There place had potential, but weather and poor success at finding a hotel marred its rating. This was somewhat unfortunate as it was my pick to go there, but there is some other things about the place worth a mention. The city is probably a great place to visit in summer, the nature park is right there just out of town, and the place is build around the Yenisei River which is very commanding and nice to look at. Also there is music pumped out of every lamp post along the main streets, Karla Marxa, Lenina etc, trying to lift the atmosphere of the city. This is actually rather annoying but good on them for trying. Along with the music are fairy lights in lots of the trees along the main streets so if you are festive you might quite like the place. Lastly a few sights feature on the 10 rbl note, so if you are cool you could try and take a photo with the note and sight in the same photo, I’m not that cool though…

The thousands of people who made the Trans-Siberian rail lie under it these days

Tomsk, Smartest Town in Town

Relaxing in Tomsk, ahh perfect

In the days of old strong soviet Russia, when social engineering was in full flight, the leaders decided that there should be towns devoted to universities. These would spit out intellectuals and having them all gathered in the same place would let their minds combine to create new and wonderful technologies that would destroy the capitalists. One such creation was Tomsk, a small city a few hours drive from Novosirbirsk, its big ugly industrial sister.

Another great moment with the man Lenin

The streets were lined with autumn trees; leaves slowly falling to the ground, the hazy orange/brown glow contrasting the green fields of parks. The architecture is stylised wooden two storey cosy homes unfortunately not maintained and left to the moving muddy ground to slowly topple. Along the main street large classical roman styled university buildings are sided with cobble stone path ways, containing modern contemporary sculptures which seem to be meandering along the adjacent Tom River. Arriving into our cheap hotel (TGU Hotel) that we managed to intellectually find by only sending two of the team out while I looked after the bags in the train station, we were welcomed by a newly renovated room well superior to a lot of other places we’d stayed at, at a margin of the price. It felt like we were one with the university crowd, well looked after, deserving of prestige, and with a hope given to us to achieve great things.

The cabbage patch kids came from Tomsk

The two days we spent here were too short, and the time was well enjoyed. The weather for one day was a balmy 15 degrees which meant t-shirts, and sunglasses were a necessary accessory. After having a rather wild time on the train prior to Tomsk, a day of relaxing in the park and visiting local cafes and restaurants was a perfect way to wind down and re-energise. The favourite pick of all joints was the pop art café on the corner of the main park along Lenina Prospect. With its array of tooth decaying sugary cakes and cheap small portioned meals it made an excellent excursion from the comfort of our hotel.

The River Tom floats on by

Aside from the fantastic relaxing feel of the town, there were a few things that were found to be unexpected here. The night we tried to go out to have a drink at a bar was rather difficult. We found somewhere to go, but it was more a restaurant than a bar, and was somewhat spoiled by the terrible lounge singer who we were forced to pay 50 rubles each to hear. But upon leaving we realised where the actual partying of the youthful town took place. The main avenue was littered with people out in the dark drinking and hollering on the sidewalks many benches. This was quite interesting as you’d have thought that such a young vibrant population would be filling the typical trendy drinking holes found in any other city. But instead the intellectuals have realised that brews can be bought at all the street vendors along Lenina all night and at a fraction of the price compared to the same tipple in a bar. Unfortunately our flash hotel had a terribly policy of a midnight curfew (although it was probably just a rule the receptionist of the night made up so she didn’t have to man the door).

Autumn is a beautiful time to travel in Tomsk

Tomsk seems to be a city with a good future, as long as the youth stick around. It is managing quite well without being on the main trans-siberian line. So if they just bring in a strict building code so that all the buildings stop falling over, (it seemed our hotel was renovated by high school students, with door handles on backwards, and bathrooms that were as sealed as a punctured tyre) then there is no doubt that Tomsk will be one of the great Siberian cities.

The classic wooden architecture, example is not falling over

Yekaterinburg, A Real Industrial Town

Hostels are rarities in Russia, and if you come across a city with one it is a good idea to make the most of it. I’ve no idea why you’d actually want to stay in a cheap hotel over a hostel. For the same price as the cheapest of hotel rooms you get a place with a pretty comfy bed, a kitchen, bathroom with a shower, usually a laundry, and the chance to meet other travellers. This is the entire reason we chose to visit Yekaterinburg. The sites to visit here are limited and the city isn’t a hip and happening place. But seeing it had the hostel we went for it.

Look out woman, no sleeping outside the train station

The hostel was named Europe Asia hostel and was about 700 roubles a night, was located at somewhere quite out of town and was pretty small, but was totally worth it. Throwing in the bonus of free wifi and a free breakfast made it a well enjoyed break from all those unfriendly hotels.

Romanovs unite to your death

The rest of Yekaterinburg actually is sort of interesting, as has some history that is little known to most people. It is the city where the Romanov family was executed in 1918 due to the Bolshevik government fearing the power of the Tsar. Also the city is the birth place of former president Yeltsin, not that there is anything here to commemorate that.

The Afghan monument was quite an emotional, cool, but nothing on the keyboard

We spent our full day here looking at some pretty good sites, including a memorial to the failed Afghan invasion by Russia, the cathedral with it memorial to the Romanovs, and a giant keyboard monument. That’s right a monument to the qwerty keyboard. This was probably one of the highlights of my entire trip. A monument to the thing I’ve probably spent half my life at, is there anything better? Well the monument wasn’t that impressive, but it was the thought that counts. Also in the city was a great restaurant called McPeaks, which is totally ripping of McDonalds, so I was happy to spend my hard earned dollar here in a hope that by eating here will support them enough to become large enough to have McDonalds sue them and therefore cause a huge legal battle that bankrupts all chain fast food joints that prey on little children to make them fat, and results in an open market that allows for diversity in our eating choices and hopefully giving people the power to eat healthily...

Best monument ever, period

The next day we’d had to wake up at 5am to catch our early train, this was a chance for some sweet justice. Hostels are awesome, but there is a price to pay. The fact you are sharing a room with random people can mean that you might be in for a terrible nights sleep caused by the random's sleeping habits. It seems the hostel in Yekaterinburg only other visitors were a bunch of large men who would arrive back at the hostel at 4am and snore as loudly as possible until who knows when. Our 5am wake up call was not done in a polite fashion and we rummaged as loudly as possible to pack our bags and head out.

Another day, another train, platzkart is awesome

Costs:
Euro/asia hostel: 700 rbls a night for 2 nights
Food: typical supermarket shopping all the way through russia...
Hold on for running total at the end of russia posts...

Kazan, the Muslim Meets The Communist

Sticking it to the man, giving the middle finger to Maccas, and to Vegetarians

Typically you’d travel through Perm on the way over the Urals to Yekaterinburg if you’re doing the Trans-Siberian. We opted for the southern version of this rail because it goes through the city of Kazan. Kazan is a interesting city that has recently been redeveloped due to the 1000 year anniversary of its founding. That mixed in with a new wealth created through recent exploitation of near by resources makes it a great place to stop.

Another train station, Kazan Station, on the way to many more

We spent two nights here which were rather pleasant. The first day we had that fun battle of finding a place to stay. It happened to be a Saturday which meant that every hotel in Kazan was booked up except for expensive rooms that hotels keep for suckers, such as us, who don’t pre book anything. After walking around town for about 4 hours, getting in a good view of the city with the addition of a 20 kg pack on our backs we’d found a tourist information centre which got in touch with one of the hotels we’d previously tried and managed to find they had a room for 2500 rubles, 700 less than we’d be told at the hotel. So we headed back there, but unfortunately weren’t allowed to check-in till 7 pm. Waiting around we finally were allowed in, paid for one of the most expensive nights in Russia and blobbed out for the rest of the night. Waking up early, we continued the search of hotels for a reasonably priced one, and managed to find somewhere straight up, so by midday having spent about 24 hours already in Kazan were finally settled.

The Kremlin, at night!

The mix, cathedrals and mosques

Seeing we’d seen a lot of the sights already by scouring around for a hotel, we decided to go in for a deeper look at the best ones. The Kremlin in Kazan is amazing. The place is built up on a small hill overlooking the great rivers of the city and also giving views to other well developed parts of town. The kremlin hosts a mixture of Islamic temples and Russian Orthodox cathedrals. This makes for an interesting mix, but shows that religious harmony is possible. The mix represents the whole city which is getting close to the country of Kazakhstan which doesn’t share Russias orthodox views.

I ponder life as nature puts on an awe inspiring display

After seeing the cathedral we went for a long walk out to the port on the Volga River. Hopeful that we could get a ferry to go for a short cruise over the immensely big river we walked for ages to find out that there was nothing available. But all was not in total vien as the river was a really impressive view, it stretches about a kilometer wide and the overcast skies were breaking allowing a divine touch to be intervening with the rivers majestic flow.

A youthful Lenin strides into university

A walk back past a statue of Lenin when he was a university student studying at the local university was capped off with some drinks at a café with supposed free wifi and an expensive german styled bar. After staying the night in the cheaper hotel, Hotel Fatima, which had way better facilities than the previous nights Hotel Volga (eg a shower), we spent the day waiting around for our train out of town which was pretty non eventful. But we did visit the best supermarket found in the whole of Russia, which was near the Kremlin, with actual aisles of food instead of the typical aisles of vodka and no food.

Costs:
1 Night at Hotel Volga: 850 rbls, 1 at Fatima 550 rbls
Train ticket to Yekaterinburg: ~700 rbls
Food: eat at supermarket = cheapish...
Running total ~ $5400

The Golden Ring

The Women's Cathedral

Around Moscow there are a number of small towns together forming the Golden Ring. These places are basically little collections of how Russia might have been prior to the industrial and communist periods, with central cathedrals and monasteries surrounded by a small number of homes and little shops then quickly becoming farmland with the endless plains and forests beyond.

We went to Sergiev Posad, Suzdal and Vladimir. I’ve described Sergiev in the previous post and Suzdal was where we spent a night while Vladimir was the town that was the doorway to Suzdal so we spent an afternoon here.

The train from Moscow to Vladimir was technically the first section of Trans-Monglian rail that we were on. Although we did take a 4 hour suburban train, so not really a big long over land adventure like other sections of the rail. Upon reaching Vladimir we found a bus to take us on the hour journey out to Suzdal, supposedly the gem of the Golden Ring.

Another Cathedral

We arrived soon after and found the hotel we were to stay in. We’d been told by another traveller in Moscow that the hotels price had gone up significantly from what was described in the Lonely Planet which we have based on a year prior. So instead of being some really cheap stay was 2500 roubles for the night which is way over the top considering our room had no hot water, a shower that didn’t work and a terrible interior that hadn’t been updated from those terrible decades of the 60s or 70s. But on the plus side the hotel was based in a monastery so the extra price was kind of like paying for the novelty of staying with monks.

The Peasants Homes Outside The Nice Monastery

We had one day to spend in Suzdal, which was more than enough time as there is basically one thing to do here, which is look at cathedrals. The town has about one cathedral per thirteen people. So basically on every block of the town which is about 3 km by 3 km in size there is a small chapel. If you are the type of traveller who gets off on seeing old churches and stuff then go to Suzdal, it will honestly be enough church building visual stimulus to last you a life time. After going here I’ve pretty much had enough of domes/spires/archways etc etc to see me right through Russia, and am looking forward to getting out of the Russian Orthodox setting and into something else.

Riding In Style On The Suburban Train

After 4 hours and about 50 churches later we got the bus back to Vladimir. Here we bought a train ticket to Nizhny Novogrod. The train didn’t leave for a few hours so we got to walk around Vladimir with the aim of buying snacks for the train. The town again being a Golden Ring town was based around loads of cathedrals, which was not that impressive now. Although at 5pm there was a huge ensemble of bell ringing as all the cathedrals started competing with each other for the ringing of the 5 pm bell.

Another thing about cathedrals is that they make a good place for wedding photography, and Russians love getting married. So far we basically haven’t had a day where we haven’t seen a wedding party being photographed at some famous sight. I try not to take photos of all the brides in front of all the statues and churches that we see, but honestly they are everywhere, and especially in the golden ring towns. The day in Suzdal and Vladimir we must have seen approximately 20 wedding parties. Mostly we see the wedding party being photographed, which is basically the bride posing and looking ridiculous while the groomsman stands around looking bored. Russia is totally the place to go if you are a chick who has used her whole life to plan her big day.

Another Beautiful Wedding

Eventually the train came and we hoped on to possibly the best train I’ve ever been on. It was just a day train that runs the main line from Moscow to Nizhny Novogrod, the first and third biggest cities in Russia which takes about 10 hours (our section about 4). It was seriously awesome, the seats were similar to those out of an airplane, and the cabins had two tvs in them and we got served food and sparkling water on top of all that. It was far better than the third class overnighters we’ve been taking and beats the suburban trains hands down.

Unfortunately Nizhny Novogrod was not our final destination, but we were to go onto Kazan. We were hopeful that arriving at Nizhny around 10 pm would be early enough to get the night train to Kazan. But we were not so lucky and the next train wasn’t until 5.40 am the next morning. So we got to spend a surreal night in the train station. The train station seemed to attract all the typical rift raff of society that just need some government care. So basically we didn’t get any sleep due to constant pick pocketers, drunks, dogs, security guards and bright fluorescent lights keeping you well awake. Finally once we got on the train after a very long, long, long wait we managed to sleep well in the over heated carriage which had somewhat comfortable seats. Popping in about 6 hours of sleep before arriving in Kazan.

Price List:
Trains: ~$50 from Moscow to Kazan
Accommodation: 1 night ~800 rbls each
Food: I cant remember, but it wasn't that bad as we shopped at supermarkets
Total: $5150. This is becoming rather inaccurate at the moment...

Buying a Train Ticket, Russian Styles

Train Station in Kazan

As we are on the Trans-Mongolian train heading all the way across Russia, Mongolia and into China, and stopping frequently it is necessary for us to buy lots of train tickets. Seeing Russia is an awesome place, they’ve made it not possible to buy an open ended ticket that allows you to say have unlimited rides for a month or whatever. Instead you have to buy a ticket each time you want to take the train and buying up a stack of tickets isn’t possible as we don’t know our sleeping arrangements either. So basically we have to buy a train ticket each time we wish to ride a train. This would be no problem in any normal country. I did it in Germany last month without any problems; I’ve done it before in the USA without too many issues either. But the big difference is that these places are used to foreigners, Russia is not. It often feels as though we are the first foreign people to ever come on this type of adventure.

Example ticket request

We start out by writing down in Cyrillic the destination, date, time, class and number of tickets we’d like on a piece of paper. Luckily we’ve learnt enough Cyrillic to do this comfortably. Next we head to the Kacci (ticket office) with the information, phrasebook, money and passport in hand. After waiting in the poorly formed Russian queue for a while, we politely say ‘dobriy dyehn’ (good afternoon) to the ticket lady, then hold up the piece of paper with details on it to the window and say our destination. Next either one of the following two outcomes happens. The most likely thing to happen on the first attempt is for the old grumpy lady to say het (sounds like ‘nyeht’) which means no. Without having a load of other options we try again but usually get another ‘het’. If this happens we just have to give up and either wait in another line for a nicer lady or wait until she has gone off her break and been replaced with someone else. The other possible outcome is that the ticket lady is actually helpful, which seems rather unlikely and helps us. Usually they’ll speak loads of Russia which we’ve no idea what they are saying, then we’ll signal for the lady to write down the details of the train she seems to be booking in. Usually this process goes alright and we get a train that is within the time and price of what we’d like. Lately we’ve also been trying to ask for certain seat numbers, as we’re riding third class which means half the seats available are terrible. Unfortunately we rarely succeed at getting good seats. After this we wait for the word passport to be said by the lady. Then we hand them over for her to get our details which are helpfully written down in Cyrillic on our Russian visas. Finally she’ll write down the price and we hand over some ridiculous amount of roubles which usually works out very good in New Zealand dollars. (A typical 10 hour overnight train is about 500-800 roubles each which is about $25-$40, awesome value for the distance.) A quick double check at the printed out ticket results in a job complete and a new destination with grasp.

Moscow, The Heart Of Mother Russia

Wall of Freedom

The train departed St Petersburg at 2 am. It was our first Russian train experience, not authentic Trans-Siberian, but very similar. The journey was just 10 hours, and we were quickly lying on our 3rd class beds feeling like a true member of soviet society. The gentle tooing and froing of the train rocked us off to sleep. The next morning we woke up to the rising apartment blocks of Moscow, and spend the next hour chugging along through ever taller and taller ugly concrete blocks. The train arrives and we hop off and make our way across the second busiest metro system in the world to our hostel.

Cathedral number #200987439 in the Kremlin

The Sweet Moscow Hostel directions were to get off the metro, walk along a street 50 metres, take a left and walk another 100 metres. Then find a building opposite the hard rock café, and in a door next to a telephone booth enter a nine digit pin. Somehow we managed to complete that task only to be inside of a 20 storey building stairwell with no idea of the apartment which the hostel was in, and no indication of where it was on any walls. After walking up 10 storeys of the dead rat smelling stairwell Tom dropped his pack and ran ahead to see if he could find anything. The fourteenth storey had a door with a small sticker on it ‘Sweet Moscow Hostel’. We take the decrepit lift up and enter.

The worlds biggest bell

Before booking the hostel we read the reviews of other visitors, ‘the hostel was overbooked and we had to sleep on the couch in the hallway’ one read. As the giant babushka welcomed us in with a fire in her eyes, she pointed to the couch ‘2 beds, 1 couch’ was the limit of her English. Unfortunately we’d assumed that booking 3 beds meant that we’d all be sleeping in beds and not a couch. So after pointlessly trying to argue with the big babushka, she rings her manager or mafia partner to tell us in English that we can come to another hostel on the other side of town where there are some beds. But this was way too late, we were over being involved in some scam they were running where they over book the small ‘sweet’ little hostel and then send guests to the terrible one out in the middle of no where. So with a failed attempt to reclaim our deposit we manage to ask for the use of a phone to call some other hostels and just so happen to find a gem, Comrade Hostel.

Red square, it is sweet seriously

We spent 4 nights in Moscow, with the first day mostly gone to hostel dramas we managed to squeeze in a market visit, the second was spent at the Kremlin, the third at Red Square and a sculpture garden, the next at a little monastery town called Sergiev Posad, and the morning before leaving at the Cosmonauts Memorial and surrounding gardens.

Inside the Kremlin, it is well fortified

The highlights of our visit were definitely red square and the cosmonaut memorials. Red square was on the back of the kremlin which was mildly impressive, even after Arnika and I getting in for a bargain using our ISIC cards. The few cathedrals here all seemed to blend into one gold dome and the insides were beyond my knowledge of the Russian Orthodox church. But Red Square on the other hand was everything I’d hyped it up to be in my mind. For about a year I’ve had a cut out from The Press containing a picture of St Basils detached from a travel article for Russia. With the words ‘Russia is awesome’ inscribed by Arnika on it, trying to convince me to give up a career job, spend a fortune on travel, and changed the course of my life. Somehow she did convince me to do all this, and so standing at the bottom of the inspiration for this entire adventure felt quite overwhelming.

St Basils, it is so sweet

Also at Red Square are a number of other incredible sights along with St Basils. Firstly the square itself is perfectly set up for all the countless military parades that have been held here. Walking along the poorly paved square felt like I was matching in front of great and not so great leaders of the past. And that was exactly what it was. Alongside the square lies the tomb of Lenin. He is embalmed here, preserved in a glass case for all the public to see forever more. We felt incredibly lucky to be able to enter the tomb and proceed quickly past him for a glimpse of one of the most famous leaders of the previous century, with guards posted every five metres along the tombs walkway it was peculiarly real. The constant watchful eye of the military and the presence of a communist leader who is held in the peoples minds with demigod proportions made this the closest to soviet realism I’ll ever get to experience.

Wasn't allowed to take photos inside Lenins Tomb, so this will have to do

Behind the tomb sits statues of over communist leaders gone by, with a small representation of Stalin lined up with others behind the tomb of Lenin you feel as though Russia has done its best to forget its darkest days. A stark contrast to Germany where oppression was right there reminding every visitor of hard times to ensure it never happens again. I wonder if there will come a time when Russia has fully forgotten its horrific unspoken of years and does not stop it from seeing a similar situation coming around again.

My name is Lenin, my head is everywhere

Later that day we went scavenger hunting around the Sculpture Garden where old statues of the soviet days have been collected together and either revamped to be slightly ironic or just left for the grass to overwhelmed what was an indestructible representation of power. Many a good photo was had, and we exited the park to be presented by a real treat, being a way over the top statue to what I assumed was Peter the Great in a sweet pirate ship.

This is rediculous

Sergiev Posad is a little town an hour or so out of Moscow reached by a suburban train. The suburban train is a very different system to the long overland marvel that is the Trans-Siberia. The seats are hard and three people must share a small bench with little room to budge. This made the short journey rather interesting or at least made it seem like a very long trip. The small town was rather quaint and pretty, especially the monastery with its funny blue onion domes. This was the first of the golden ring towns we’d visit in Russia of three, and was well worth the $1.50 train ride.

Golden Ring means lots of Gold Domes

Cosmonauts Assemble!

The final really good sight in Moscow we went to was the memorial to the cosmonaut. This is basically a mentally big obelisk made of shiny steel with a rocket on the top of it. It was probably the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Being a bit interested in space travel and all that, I probably enjoyed this way more than most people would, but seriously it was sweet. Over the road we decided to walk around the gardens that happened to be there to kill our last hour available before the afternoon train out of Moscow. Somehow without anyone actually knowing it was there, we’d stumbled into the place where Soviet wealth was shown off, in all its falsehood. Numerous ancient greek styled buildings with impressive gold finishes and large Lenin memorials where placed around this 2 km long spectacle. It was a sight unexpected but was totally tops.

Gold, Gold, Gold means soviets are rich

Without getting carried away, we managed to make it back to the hostel on time to get our bags and head off on another suburban train which thankfully wasn’t completely packed to Vladimir, the next Golden Ring destination.

Costs:
Hostel: 700 rbls a night for four nights (total = $70)
Visa Registration: 300 rbls ($15)
Eating: ~300 rbls a day
Trains: ~100 rbls out to vladimir
Metro: 150 rbls for 10 rides
Total: about NZ$170
Running Total: $5050