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julietI have reached Moscow! Moscow is city-like, but I can't read anything due to lack of familiarity with Cyrillic; this (the not being able to read things) is quite odd. I am getting better, though - I can very slowly transliterate most things, & I can recognise some words that I see a lot of. (like restaurant, I know that one now!).
The train journey went fine - was on the Eurostar that meant I made my connection at Brussels (where I bought water from the ROBOSHOP), thence to Cologne (& dinner, due to a 2 hr wait), & then the Moscow train. I was sharing with some random chap for the first night (apparently they don't honour the gender segregation thing that is on the tickets), but got a compartment to myself for most of yesterday & then last night. Which was all v luxurious. The whole thing, in fact, is v comfortable - there are 3 berths per compartment, which fold up/down to turn into v comfy seats in the daytime, and a little sink/table in the corner. Also you get linen (the blankets are a bit scratchy but v warm). And since this counted as a Russian train, there's a samovar down in the end of the carriage where the attendants live, which you can get unlimited hot water from. So me & my tin mug & my big bag of teabags were happy.
I also discovered that an eyemask is a Good Thing: you can bring the window-cover down but then there's *no* light at all, which I dislike; but there are too many lights without it. Eyemask is a good compromise
Also yesterday I got to watch (albeit only from my window) the train having its bogies changed! (Russian rail system is wider than European). They disconnect all the carriages, winch them up on big screws, shove the old bogies out, & put the new ones in. As well as sitting in the carriage while this was being done, I got to watch the same thing happening to the train next door in the shed. Which was all most exciting. This was just after the border crossing to Belarus, which occasioned much scrutiny of passports & so on. I was a bit worried on waking up this morning to discover that we'd crossed the Russian border & no one had looked at my passport or anything, but on examination of my White Entry Form it transpires that it does for both Belarus & the Russian Federation.
Anyway, I got in this morning, & then spent 40 min bouncing around the Moscow metro system like a rather overladen ping-pong ball while I worked out how it functions. Happily, from Moscow Belarus station, of the 4 available directions, 3 of them have a change to the line I wanted after 3 stops. So I got off then, discovered where I was, & then worked out how to tell in future. (They only have the station name on the side of the wall next to the train, rather than next to the platform, & I couldn't read any Useful Signs.)
This afternoon I went & pottered round the Kremlin. Managed to leave both camera & guidebook in bag (which had to be left in the cloakroom), so was pottering mostly quite ignorantly, but no matter (& some stuff was available there in English). It's a gorgeous sunny day today, so all the golden domes of the cathedrals were in particularly shiny mode. I also saw many icons. Notes on icons:
* they are frequently quite shiny.
* they were a bit rub at persepective etc, but quite good at eyes.
* EITHER no one could draw babies, OR Baby Jesus is supposed to look like a grown up because not a proper baby etc etc.
* they are v impressive especially en masse, but about 2 cathedrals' worth appears to be my lot.
Also there was an icon in the museum of St Jonas Metropolitan, which I found an amusing epithet.
Right, shortly will run out of time; am in Moscow for another couple of days so will doubtless have more to report later.
The train journey went fine - was on the Eurostar that meant I made my connection at Brussels (where I bought water from the ROBOSHOP), thence to Cologne (& dinner, due to a 2 hr wait), & then the Moscow train. I was sharing with some random chap for the first night (apparently they don't honour the gender segregation thing that is on the tickets), but got a compartment to myself for most of yesterday & then last night. Which was all v luxurious. The whole thing, in fact, is v comfortable - there are 3 berths per compartment, which fold up/down to turn into v comfy seats in the daytime, and a little sink/table in the corner. Also you get linen (the blankets are a bit scratchy but v warm). And since this counted as a Russian train, there's a samovar down in the end of the carriage where the attendants live, which you can get unlimited hot water from. So me & my tin mug & my big bag of teabags were happy.
I also discovered that an eyemask is a Good Thing: you can bring the window-cover down but then there's *no* light at all, which I dislike; but there are too many lights without it. Eyemask is a good compromise
Also yesterday I got to watch (albeit only from my window) the train having its bogies changed! (Russian rail system is wider than European). They disconnect all the carriages, winch them up on big screws, shove the old bogies out, & put the new ones in. As well as sitting in the carriage while this was being done, I got to watch the same thing happening to the train next door in the shed. Which was all most exciting. This was just after the border crossing to Belarus, which occasioned much scrutiny of passports & so on. I was a bit worried on waking up this morning to discover that we'd crossed the Russian border & no one had looked at my passport or anything, but on examination of my White Entry Form it transpires that it does for both Belarus & the Russian Federation.
Anyway, I got in this morning, & then spent 40 min bouncing around the Moscow metro system like a rather overladen ping-pong ball while I worked out how it functions. Happily, from Moscow Belarus station, of the 4 available directions, 3 of them have a change to the line I wanted after 3 stops. So I got off then, discovered where I was, & then worked out how to tell in future. (They only have the station name on the side of the wall next to the train, rather than next to the platform, & I couldn't read any Useful Signs.)
This afternoon I went & pottered round the Kremlin. Managed to leave both camera & guidebook in bag (which had to be left in the cloakroom), so was pottering mostly quite ignorantly, but no matter (& some stuff was available there in English). It's a gorgeous sunny day today, so all the golden domes of the cathedrals were in particularly shiny mode. I also saw many icons. Notes on icons:
* they are frequently quite shiny.
* they were a bit rub at persepective etc, but quite good at eyes.
* EITHER no one could draw babies, OR Baby Jesus is supposed to look like a grown up because not a proper baby etc etc.
* they are v impressive especially en masse, but about 2 cathedrals' worth appears to be my lot.
Also there was an icon in the museum of St Jonas Metropolitan, which I found an amusing epithet.
Right, shortly will run out of time; am in Moscow for another couple of days so will doubtless have more to report later.
