An encounter with an inspiring woman

AB says:

Our itinerary for today from our travel agents, Flower Travel, Melbourne, listed a few options from which we could choose. I can’t remember what they all were, I think one of them had to do with the assassination of the Romanovs, and a couple of others weren’t available to us because it was the wrong season. So we chose “Siberian Countryside and Historic Village”, which sounded interesting enough.

Some of the beautiful Siberian countryside

The day proved to be inspiring, to say the least. We were taken by Constantin, the owner of a local travel agency out to the village of Aramashevo, about 120 km north-east of Ekaterinburg. Along the way, we were treated to wonderful views of the countryside, and a wide-ranging and fascinating conversation with Constantin, covering topics from current politics to Australian indigenous issues, to his passion for the countryside and way of life, to what it’s like to run a small business in Russia, oh, and 1970s pop group Smokey. Apparently they’re huge in Russia!

The church at Aramashevo

We arrived in Aramashevo and were honoured to be introduced to Vera Reymova. This amazing woman is a retired school teacher and former director of the museum in her village. We met Vera at the village church, a beautiful building which is still being renovated after it was damaged during Soviet times and had its bell hurled down a nearby cliff into the river below. Vera and her husband were the initiators and main organisers of this amazing work, which they began in 2005. They and the church have been the subject of a Russian television program, and they have received financial support from the local government and generous donors. Even more importantly, important icons which were hidden, at great risk, by villagers during the times of the persecution of the church in Russia, have slowly come to light and been returned to the church, which has been a source of a great deal of joy. The Orthodox Church celebrates Easter on this coming Sunday, and it was indeed inspiring to hear this story of resurrection during Holy Week.

The interior of the summer house, showing the characteristic paintwork

As if that wasn’t enough, Vera and her husband have also been pivotal in the renovation of two houses, and their development as a place for education about village life in the region in earlier times. We were shown the ‘summer house’ and the ‘winter house’, and told the story of how both of them were partially submerged in mud, and how Vera and her husband, along with volunteers who helped them, undertook the work of restoring them to their former glory. Of particular significance were the paintings of the walls. Vera told us that not all families could afford to have their homes painted by the travelling painters who would call, offering their services. Sometimes, they could only afford to have the door painted. However, Vera remembered that her home had been decorated in this way, including the ceilings, and remembers waking up every morning to see the paintings of flowers on the ceiling, and the joy that would bring her. Vera told us the significance of the design, which reflected the philosophy of the circle of life and the importance of family.

Outside the museum

Vera has been recognised for the work that she has done, and the museum created by the two houses has received a federal government award. She told us the story of how her usual religious newsletter was not delivered one week, and instead she received something else. On the back of it, there was a notice about applying for this particular award, and that there was only a week until the applications closed. Her granddaughter helped her with the application, and their project won the award, along with a grant to help complete the restoration of the houses. Without it, they would not have been able to employ the specialist painters who replicate the designs and styles of earlier times.

JB and AB with the amazing Vera

Vera served us afternoon tea in one of the houses, and showed us how they teach children who come to weave. Vera didn’t join us in the feast she had prepared for us, because she was fasting for Lent. She then dressed JB and I up in traditional costumes – 200 years old, she told us! – and we had our photos taken. I’m sure I look very authentic in my glasses! A special gift as we left was the blessing she gave us on our way. An amazing woman, whose passion for her church, her village, and a disappearing way of life has enriched the lives of many people. What an inspiration.

Many, many Russians have a ‘summer house’ that they escape to when the weather is warm. It is usually a short drive from the city, and they may move there for the whole summer, or just head there for weekends. It enables them to fully enjoy the brief period of time when the outdoors is actually hospitable, and many ‘dachnik’ have a garden which supplies them with fruit and vegetables, and the chance to connect with their ‘inner peasant’. In the village where we visited Vera, one third of the population is now dachniks.

And, finally, a half-way decent coffee! Actually, a very decent coffee, if a little on the cool side for me. We didn’t need much to eat after the feast in Aramashov, but stopped off at Traveler’s Coffee (thanks, Ellen, for sussing it out for me!) was much appreciated, even though I accidentally ordered an espresso first. Gotta watch exactly where you’re pointing on the menu!

COFFEEEEEE!!!!!

JB says:

Constantine, our driver who picked us up at the train, picks us up at9.30 am for a ‘countryside Siberian experience.’ This could be anything!

View of the dome from the belltower

It turns out that after a 1 hour drive north into the Urals, we meet a Russian woman who is the ‘lightning rod’ for initiating the rebuilding/resurrection of an old Russian Orthodox stone church from the 18th century that was partly destroyed by the Bolsheviks after 1917.

This is a story of commitment, faith, perseverance, and cannot be heard without being affected by it. I am.

Afternoon tea, with the samovar

She has also been responsible for initiating a small museum in her village. This example has provided the impetus for many other similar museums in ohter villages in the region.

We experience the food, the living quarters, and particularly revealing, some of the social milieu of the time.

JB weaves his magic

Home at around 5 pm. Annette wants a coffee, I want tea. We go and do both.

After this, we venture into a multi-storey shopping centre that is like several in Melbourne. Half of the shops have names in English. A supermarket is attached. It is huge, open 24 hours a day, with, to our eyes, lots of quirks. For example, liquor is on the same site. Beer of varying types is available on tap, and will be supplied into your own bottle.

Home to bed.

PS. Ekaterinburg is attempting to b e host city for World Expo 2020. Good luck!

May Day in Ekaterinburg

JB says:

We have 2 whole days in this city. It is May 1. Maria (a student in linguistics) takes us on a walking tour of the CBD.

There is a May Day parade, with many United Russia apparatchiks giving out balloons and the like. Its nice to be present to see this parade.

We travel past several notable and famous locations:
– the (ex) local KGB headquarters

Now hiding behind bourgeois capitalist advertising

– the Russian Orthodox Church built on the site of where the Romanovs were killed (which we didn’t get a good photograph of!)

– the statue of General Zhukov

Marshall Zhukov, hero of the seige of Leningrad

– The Afghanistan War memorial (called Black Tulip)

The very moving Black Tulip memorial to Russians who died in the war with Afghanistan

– the examples of Russian military hardware

Just think, if we’d tried to photograph these 30 years ago, we would’ve been in serious trouble.

Hmmm….he certainly looks intellectual.

Many less obvious observations can be made. There are a great number of statues celebrating men of great (or is it?) intellect in Russian history. Who are these men? We are yet to find out, but it is evident that this is ‘sort of ‘ what is being celebrated.

The street art, here and elsewhere, has been impressive. Annette has taken many photos of examples we have seen.

Wild and windy on the 52nd floor

In the afternoon, we go out walking and get caught in cold, rainy weather. We, amongst other things, go to the highest building, pay the obligatory charge, and view the city. At the time it seems it was also being used for wind tunnel testing. But I might be wrong.

In the evening we go to a restaurant suggested. It is a Uzbek style restaurant and cuisine. Similar to Turkish. I am probably being a bit of a philistine saying that, but I hope it gives the reader an idea.

That’s all for now.

AB says:

We arrived in Ekaterinburg/Yekaterinburg late last night, and we were taken to the Chekov Hotel. Not that Chekov has anything to do with Ekaterinburg, according to our hosts. The hotel is in a great location. The main attractions of the city are all within reasonable striking distance, and we are across the road from a park. The hotel itself is very nice. It is obviously aiming for ‘genteel’ (even though they let us in!), and there are lots of nice little things about it – lovely decor, a booking service for theatre/ballet/opera in town, very comfortable beds…a wonderful place to stop after 2 days on the train.

We were met by our guide, Maria, an about-to-graduate linguistics student, and we set off on a reasonably chilly day. One thing we hadn’t been aware of when we booked our holiday is that May 1st and 2nd are significant holidays, and many of the museums were, unfortunately, closed for the 2 days we were here. Never mind, there were other compensations..

The workers, united, etc…

..like the Labour Day parade! Groups of people marching down the street in honour of Workers of all kinds, all to the stirring strains of music playing from the loudspeakers along the route. I almost felt proud to be a Russian myself! Later we were told that these parades have become a bit of a propaganda exercise for Mr. Putin’s party, but what the heck. I still appreciated the bunch of blue and white balloons I was handed by a representative of the Untied Russia Party. They’ve got my vote!

It’s Puty-Put all the way for me!

Ekaterinburg is in a significant spot at the border of Europe and Asia and in the Ural Mountains, an area with an enormous mining economy, mining precious and semi-precious stones and any number of minerals. It is a city of about 2.2 million people, and it is aiming to host the World Expo in 2020. Apparently it has historically been a ‘liberal’ city in Russia, and it has a significant cultural life. Not that we saw any performances of anything, because of the holidays! Its other claim to ‘fame’ is as the place where the last Russian Tsar and his family were assassinated during the Russian Revolution in 1918. There is now an enormous cathedral, the Church of the Blood on the site of the murder, and the whole family are now recognised as saints in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Mr Putin’s pad, when he’s in town. He’s visited once.

Ekaterinburg also houses a military training academy, and used to have a closed community where KGB members lived, with a communal dining area and facilities for their families such as schools and a medical centre. These are now regular apartments and shops. Gold was discovered here in the early 19th century, and the gold rush (the first in history) provided the area with significant wealth. As a result, there are a number of fine buildings from that period, and newer buildings that copy the style of those times. One of the period homes is available for Mr. Putin when he’s in town, but he has only stayed there once.

After our walk with Maria, we headed for the skyscraper she had told us had a viewing platform, in the increasingly cold, wet, windy weather. Perhaps the un-roofed 52nd floor viewing area wasn’t the best place to be, but boy, did we know we were alive! Funnily enough, we found that the most fascinating things to see were all on the side of the building protected by the wind. Who would’ve thought?

We also returned to a couple of the places we’d been with Maria because our camera battery had died 5 minutes into our walk with her. The most moving and memorable was the Black Tulip monument, a memorial to the Russian soldiers who died in Afghanistan in the 10 years that they were involved there. In my opinion, this is how you do a war memorial.

Lest

we

forget

At the end of a cold, bleak day, dinner in the Uzbecki restaurant recommended to us by Constantin (more about him tomorrow) was perfect – warm and just spicy enough to send us out feeling toasty inside and out.

As an added bonus, the hotel has excellent wifi, so here, finally, is an opportunity to catch up with some blog entries. Hope you’re enjoying them!

The long haul pt 2

AB says:

Today is probably the least interesting day trainwise, so I thought I’d just offer up some odds and ends, especially as there are some things we might not have explained for anyone who doesn’t know. So here they are, in no particular order:

Times:
No matter where in Russia the train is, times of arrival and departure are always Moscow time. In our travels, we first needed to go back by two hours for Beijing and Mongolia, then forward an hour for Listvyanka, then back three hours for Yekatarinburg. We’ll then go back two hours for Moscow and St. Petersburg time, and back again (two hours? I’ve lost track!) for Leipzig.

Travelling on the train:
Life on the train has been much quieter for us than we imagined. We have only had someone else in the compartment, so far, for the trip between Ulaanbataar and Irkutsk, and Igor was not feeling very well so we didn’t talk very much at all. There are three options for travel; a double berth, a berth for 4 (which we’ve had) or platkartsky, a big carriage where everyone is pretty much in together. In our cabin there is plenty of room for storing our bags under the seat and above the door. A mattress, pillow, sheets and a handtowel are provided. The cabin has a little table attached to the window: some of them drop down, others are fixed. The carriages are kept very warm!

The samovar in our carriage between Ulaanbataar and Irkutsk

The trains are operated by private companies, and vary in the quality of their service, the speed at which they travel, and the number and lengths of stops they make. Each carriage in the train has its own provodnitsa, an attendant who keeps everything clean and tidy, makes sure no one is being disruptive, and sells a few odds and ends like chocolate, and keeps the samovar boiling. That’s right, in every Russian train there is an honest to goodness samovar with a real fire boiling underneath it to supply boiling water at all times. This means that many people bring dehydrated food that only needs the addition of boiling water for their meals.

One thing that I noticed at our first stop in Ulaanbataar was that I felt like I was swaying when I get off the train and stopped moving. A bit like when you go to the beach for the day and come home feeling a like you’re still in the waves.

Stuff we’ve found out:

The guidebooks and internet pages will tell you that the stations where the trains stop are full of babushkas selling their delicious home-make wares to satisfy the pangs of all hungry travellers. Now, maybe its because we’re not here in the busy season, but we have not seen this once. Neither have we found the dining car to be the ‘life and soul’ of the train. When we’ve been there, there have only been one or two others in there.

Egge was keen to tell us that often guidebooks will tell you that Ulaanbataar is full of drunks in the street. She said that there was a problem a few years ago, but the government has done a lot to fix things, and it is relatively unusual to see people drunk in the street.

So obvioiusly, there is more than one….

This might seem obvious, but here goes. I guess I expected monocultures wherever we’ve gone. I mean, it’s ok for Melbourne to have varieties of cuisines available in restaurants, right? We’re a multi-cultural city. What is surprising are the Irish pubs in Ulaanbataar, and the Uzbecki restaurants in Ekaterinburg, and the Italian restaurants in Beijing. No reason why they shouldn’t be there, but a wake-up for me nonetheless.

Pretentious Melbourne coffee drinkers (do you know any?) might be frustrated between Melbourne and Ekaterinburg. There is a very fancy coffee place in Ekaterinburg, which almost made me weep. They have pourovers! It’s called Travelers Coffee, in case you’re ever in town.

Pollution from garbage is everywhere – Mongolian plains, Lake Baikal, distant Siberian villages…we saw the flotsam and jetsam of 20th century human life everywhere, and not in small quantities.

So, any questions? We’re happy to answer anything you might be wondering about….

And here are some photos that I like, but haven’t found a place to put them:

Melting snow in Listvyanka

A leaf in its own little puddle of melting snow – Listvyanka

A set of gates in Listvyanka

Some fabulous street art in Irkutsk

JB says:

Probably the most dreary of train travel days.
Good news. We work out how to open the window in our cabin. We then appreciate smoke is coming in through the vents.

Annette’s trusty ‘all purpose solution’ – duct tape – to the rescue. We use this to block the vents. These 2 thiings make the rest of this very long stage of the journey manageable.

Duct tape – what can’t it do??

The weather is now changing. Some bands of rain (wind).

We’ve seen enough silver birch trees to last a lifetime.

Knock-knock loses its fun after a while – say 2 minutes – in this environment.

Still, monotony can be thereapeutic. It allows one to think about non-immediate matters readily.

By the end of today, we have been on a train for about 52 hours. A few breaks. We have travelled about 3300 km to Ekaterinburg.
This is a regional city, probably comparable to Brisbane in size.

We arrive at 11 pm local time and are taken by Constantine to our hotel. It is probably the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. The Hotel Chekov.

The foyer of the Chekhov Hotel, Ekaterinburg

Bed awaits. It’s funny, after over 2 days on the train, who needs sleep? We haven’t’ done anything. Yet I sleep very well.

Tourists in Tienanmin

JB says:

At the end of Day 2 we were exhausted, and agreed to sleep in a bit and not over do things today. We arose around 9.30, and wanted to see some tourist sights around the city: the usual suspects, Tienanmin Square, the Forbidden City, sort of thing. We had our map of the city. We had one known point on the map – Beijing Railway Station across the road from where we were staying. If you have only 1 known point on the map there is still plenty of room for going the wrong way. We found we could justify going to 3 of the 4 points of the compass in our process of wanting to get to Tienanmin Square. We walked there – 3 km, plus add ons (by us). We walked down a long esplanade reminiscent of somewhere like St. Kilda Rd in Melbourne with those sort of high profile companies’ buildings lining the street on both sides – like Hoddle St at its widest.

A bit lilke Hoddle St?

We didn’t notice any smog problems. We did notice the flexible understanding of road rules. Pedestrian crossings were a particular source of wonder. Lots of photos of Chairman Mao. Lots of army style caps with a red star. (Can buy them. 1 Yuan) A scale of magnificence akin to the great buildings of the British Empire in London.

Inside the Working People’s Cultural Palace – a former sacrificial temple of the imperial family.

A cold day with a cold wind. We took shelter for a while in a nearby building of grandeur I had noticed – the Chinese Museum. One hour there was a great relief. We saw a car with an Australian flag on it. Whilst we didn’t see anyone like a ‘Julia’ we recognised it was a magnet for any Aussies around. We met a couple from Bundaberg who were on their way to Alaska. I wouldn’t be starting from here. Had enough. Let’s go back to the hotel, but early tea first. Went into unfamiliar territory, Wangfujung street (apparently a food district). Had tea. Found the Apple Store. Found a ‘glasses place’ selling a Maybach brand frame for 600,000 Yuan (approx $100,000). What a place of contrast. Home to bed. When home (hotel room), mobile phone is missing. It seems our pre-occupation with being secure from scammers/pickpockets, etc. was not enough to save us from leaving it behind. 2 hours later we found it. Relief. Bed.

AB says:

Today was the day we decided to see what we could see in our own walking tour of Beijing. Tienanmin Square and the Forbidden City were within walking distance of our hotel, so that was handy. It was a fairly cold, bleak day, and we were glad we weren’t trying to climb up and down the Wall today.Armed with a map, we eventually headed of in the right direction, then at the first turn went the wrong way. A kind local woman who took pity on us trying to wrangle our map, which was trying to escape with every wind gust, pointed us in the right direction. It turned out she’d lived in Melbourne, and had studied at the old Chisholm Institute!

Just before we came to the Forbidden City, we turned into the Working People’s Cultural Palace. These enormous grounds and temples are the site of the former imperial family’s sacrificial temple. They are now a site for cultural and artistic groups to have their schools and training centres. These enormous gardens had hardly anyone in them, and it was lovely to walk around them after walking along a huge main road for so long. It seemed to be a popular spot for wedding photos too; not so much the garden, but the enormous old temples, which had four bridal parties there with photographers. I felt sorry for the poor brides in their beautiful strapless dresses in the balmy 6or 7 degree day.

Some of the beautiful blossom in garden

Inside the WPCP

On the way in to the WPCP, we’d been met by a very charming young man who struck up a conversation, asking if JB was an artist because of his long hair! Those of you who’ve every played Pictionary with JB will know that it’s certainly not his drawing style that will have people asking if he’s an artist. Now, it turned out that this man was a teacher of calligraphy, and that his school was having an exhibition in the building just 50 metres away, and he’d be more than happy to show us his students’ work. I’d read on the internet, just a couple of days before, that this kind of approach can be a scam. There were many people who related how they’d been approached by quite charming people who spoke quite good English and ended up in some situation handing over a lot of money. It was quite unnerving to be in a situation where it was impossible to tell if this many was just genuinely being nice, or whether he was a scam artist. We’d had similar niggly questions about Paul: the price he’d quoted originally was not what he said at the end of the day, the original price he quoted for the theatre tickets was less than what we ended up paying. Not by much, and we were too tired to argue at that point, but we were left with the impression that if people were being nice to you, you probably couldn’t trust them completely.

Because we found that people weren’t ‘nice’ in the way we’d expect them to be at home. No one having cheery conversations with each other walking down the street or in a cafe or restaurant, not many nods of acknowledgement or smiles. Except for the old man who pointed and laughed at JBs long hair, but he was just amused, not rude. Service was perfunctory if you bought anything. And a number of them seemed stressed. It didn’t seem to take much for people to raise their voices at each other, and the check in people in the hotel seemed to be in a flap with the paperwork which they surely have to do every time someone checks in. I wonder if they really are unhappy, or if they just have a different way of being happy.

Back on the streets of Beijing, we managed to go in to the Forbidden City through a side entrance, the downside of which was that we didn’t have a map. The scene here was totally different to the tranquility of the WPCP – it was a teeming mass of humanity. We headed towards the main entrance, but it seemed that we needed to go out and then come back in if we wanted a map. Given that Tienanmin Square was directly in front of us we were more or less swept along with the crowd, so we thought we’d come back after seeing the Square.

Where are your gloves, JB?

Now the middle of a huge place like Tienanmin Square is not the most convivial place to be on a bleak, windy day. By then we’d had enough of the cold, so we headed for the National Museum and spent a little while looking at some of the artefacts of ancient China and warming up at the same time. Hunger drove us out and we found our way to Wufujang Street, which has an amazing array of high-end international shops such as Versace. Oh, and an Apple Store. Do you think we went in? JB also couldn’t resist going into a couple of Optometrists to see how things compared, but the 600,000 Yuan ($100,000 AU) Maybach frame we saw is probably not going to make it onto his frame racks any time soon. It was only the most expensive of an array of similar brand label frames.

Did I mention we were hungry? We finally had dinner in a dumpling restaurant, which was very nice, but JB had to choose between Coke Zero and Pepsi. Oh, the difficulties of international travel! We thought we could find our way to the nearest subway station, but we turned down a street that wasn’t on the map, it seems. More walking, until we eventually found a station and headed for home. I don’t know how far we walked, but I said to JB the only other times I’d felt so tired I had either just produced a baby or an essay. We had to repack our bags so that we’d be ready for the train the next morning, and after wasting sometime fretting over the fact that I thought I’d lost my phone and getting on the internet to change some passwords, then finding it while packing, we hit the sack with the alarm set for 5.30 am. Sob.