Author: linaoz

After four days in Moscow we boarded the train, where we were to spend the next 78 hours, to Almaty, Kazakhstan. There are not many things we love more than traveling by train.

The first thing we noticed was that the luggage space was filled with vodka bottles. This made us a bit cautious since we remembered how insistent everyone was on the vodka shotting during our Transsiberian train journey (back in 2011), which ended badly for Joen. Luckily, this did not prove to be a problem on this trip.

Ruslan, the conductor and man in charge in our carriage, held a tight ship and did thankfully not care much for vodka fuelled nights. Here he is, pictured with our youngest passenger. Ruslan’s whole family work on the trains, so did his wife but she retired a couple of years ago. Women retire at 58 and men at 63 in Kazakhstan, Ruslan had two years left.

This was probably one of the nicest train journey we’ve ever experienced (and we have done many), mostly due to the wonderful people that we met. Above, you can see Kostya, he works at the oil platforms in northern Kazakhstan and was on his way home to his wife in the south. He works 15 days and then stays at home for 15 days, if we understood him correctly. Kostya was such a friendly gentleman and bought me a melon. When he got off the train, he’d put on a nice shirt and water combed his hair to look good for his wife, he was so handsome and our hearts just melted.

This is Lila and Sergeev. Lila knitted beautiful goat wool scarfs, which she sold on the train. After a couple of days pretty much all the women in our carriage was wearing one, including me.

We were very lucky to meet the lovely Inga (yes, everyone thought she was Swedish), who spoke perfect English, and could translate what people said. This meant that we could have more complex conversations and share more than our names and where we came from. She was originally from Almaty but now lived in France.

Our youngest passenger was thrilled to see her sisters when she arrived at her destination.

The train environment becomes like a traveling micro-society and we became very patriotic towards our specific carriage, preferring not to socialise too much with people from the other carriages… The only negative thing I can think about when traveling by train is the state of the toilets (not the worst I’ve seen but certainly not the best either) and we were deliberately dehydrated, so that we did not have to visit it so often.

 

Moscow is of course not only a kaleidoscopic heaven of colours, it is also filled with several shades of grey, which I find equally beautiful.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union many of the statues associated with USSR were collected and dumped in the Fallen Monument Park. It is an eerie feeling walking around surrounded by the likes of Stalin.

The city is also filled with beautiful Soviet mosaics; industrial and national achievements (astronauts, fighter planes, olympics etc) are mostly depicted.

Stalin isn’t exactly remembered for many good deeds, but I do love the seven Gothamesque skyscrapers that he erected, you can see them from all over the city. This is a good article about them. I am not romanticising what they stand for in any way, but I think while they’re there (very much in your face), one might as well admire them.

A close up of one of the skyscrapers, the Hotel Ukraine.

I forgot which one this is, but I think it’s The Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Further concrete loveliness. I think this picture embodies the USSR pretty well.

Moscow is famous for its underground, which is regal looking with chandeliers, stuccoes and mosaics, but I think the lamps in the escalators are equally pretty. It gives me that Gotham City, doomsday feeling. Probably art deco?

Russians might not have a reputation of being the friendliest of nationalities, which I think is unfair. Initially, they might not be exceedingly extrovert, but give them some time and you realize they’re the most friendly, helpful and loyal people. Very similar to the Swedes actually.

 

My first encounter with Moscow was my very first time abroad in 1986, during the jolly Soviet days. I remember it as very serious, gloomy and grey. My strongest memory is, however, feeling very ashamed of wearing jeans since all the Moscovian girls wore such nice identical skirts and gigantic bows in their hair, I felt like such a trashy little outsider.

This is my third time in Moscow (fourth in Russia) and I absolutely love it, there is nothing gloomy about it but rather colourful. This Filipp Malyavin painting in the Tretyakov gallery illustrates it very well, the photo is terrible and obviously does not do the painting justice, but have a look at my pinterest board “Rossiya Matushka” for a Russian colour explosion. Ok, there is some gloominess, but of the artsy kind.

Opposite the Tretyakov gallery there is one of the few vegetarian restaurants in Moscow, so here you can enjoy a guilt free (and colourful!) borscht. As you can see in the picture, and which you already know, food is serious matter to me.

Speaking of food, I love the Eliseevskiy food store, very pompous with chandeliers and lots of gold.

One of our favourite places in Moscow is Tolstoy’s house, it is such an oasis with an adjoining smaller park. The last time we were here they even played classical music in the park (unfortunately not this time) which was full of scilla, this time it had that wonderfully crispy but at the same time musty smell of autumn. We also went to the Bulgakov museum but that was boring as hell.

Riga is famous for, and packed with, art noveau buildings. It is like an astonishing open air museum and we spent most of our days gawping up the sky.

Eternally winding staircase in the art noveau museum.

Some building are festooned with happy kings (happy in the Joen way, that is).

Others are of a more shy athletic kind.

There are also less organic forms represented , like these sharp, expressionless art deco looking soldiers.

And we found a beautiful art deco cafe, V. Kuze. Just look at that wonderfully dynamic comet in the ceiling! The cafe originates from 1910 but the interior had been the same since the 30’s. It reminds me of Café Valand in Stockholm, although from a different era.

After two days of cultural adventures we boarded the night train and left the EU.

We waved Kaknästornet good bye in the distance and set our sails to Riga, Latvia. Joen, as always, looks thrilled to be going on a seven month adventure.

Admiring the shipping containers on our way out of Frihamnen’s harbour, aren’t containers the most romantic thing? One day we plan to travel on a container ship, we wanted to travel back home by one but they were booked out for the the next two years. Anyway, just on our way out to the open sea, we ran into….

…Martin! Martin is an old school mate of Joen’s and he even had the cabin opposite ours, creepy or coincidental? I kid, I kid, we had a lovely time with Martin, drinking beer and sharing our cultural obsession with Russia. Martin was on his way to Lithuania after reaching Riga but was planning a future trip to Russia.

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As you all know this is not our first long trip of several months, I think probably the seventh, but certainly the most important. We see it as a bit of a secular pilgrimage, to properly get away from everyday life and to heal from the last years of heartache. We’ll try to keep you posted on our whereabouts.