Where Is Ron?
Russia, Summer 2007
Ron in St. Petersburg, July 2007
Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan
Afton, Virginia, USA
25 August 2007Dear Family and Friends,
Here is the latest installment from Ron about his time in Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod. And he reports that he has finally learned how to pronounce Nizhny Novgorod. I must tell you that in Moscow, Bob and I joked that he might not get to the right city because he couldn't say it (couldn't even come close!), but he obviously managed just fine.
Like much of the southeastern U.S. we have been having very hot and humid weather, with rainfall far below normal. There have been a few very localized thunderstorms, but today I was lucky enough to finally have one that brought a much needed 1.1 inch (~2.75 cm) of rain to our garden. Ron says it is unusually hot and dry in Russia as well (at least in the area where he is) with daytime temperatures of 35C (95F). Not good weather in which to spend the day biking -- but he seems to have found adventures regardless. Why am I not surprised?!
Love to all,
Ellen
To see photos of Nizhny Novgorod, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of the Nizhny Novgorod pedestrian street, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Kazan, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Kazan, click on the thumbnail at the left.
To see photos of Kul Sharif Mosque in Kazan, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Adventures in Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod
To see photos of Annunciation Cathedral and of the Syuyumbike Tower in Kazan, click on the thumbnail at the left.
23 August 2007
Nizhny Novgorod, RussiaHello, my dear -
After spending a few days in Nizhny Novgorod, I took a break and put my bike on the train to Kazan.
My friend Ivan called the train station and was told that there was no elektrichka train to Kazan, but there was an express that I could take my bike on if I took the wheels off. Well, I didn't want to do that and still believed I could find a way, so I loaded up the bike and rode to the train station and waited in the ticket queue.
With a bit of discussion and some help from a guy in the line, they told me that was a elektrichka leaving at 4:30 and sold me a ticket and another ticket for my bike, total of 300 ru, about $12.00. Since I had some time, I decided to check out hotels on the train station side of the Oka River for my return in a few days. Someone had marked one on the map and I just wandered around, meeting another couple on bicycles who led me to the hotel. They could speak a little English and he had a backpack on his back full of their picnic.
The elektrichka was different from the others I have ridden. There was no place at the end of the car for parking the bike, but once I produced my bicycle ticket, there was no problem loading the bike and parking it next to a single seat at the end of the car. This was an express train to Kazan but it took about 6 hours, stopping at just a few major cities. I noticed on the wall behind me a schedule and noted that it returned to Nizhny Novgorod at 7:15 am and had the same train number. This made my return easier.
Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, founded in 1005, is, according to the Lonely Planet, home to the descendants of the nomadic Turkic tribe that wreaked particular havoc in ancient Russia, and in Soviet times, became the capital of the Tatar Autonomous Republic. There was a struggle over autonomy for a few years but with 43 percent of the population Russian, independence was unlikely.
I was intrigued with the population being about half Muslim. While I found several mosques, I saw very few women with their heads covered, and the ones I saw had their faces exposed. I was wondering how the provocatively dressed Russian women would interact in a predominantly Muslim population, but I saw no signs of conflict or any moderation in dress by the young Russian women.
Kazan sits on the intersection of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers with the kremlin, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2000, near the intersection but overlooking the Kazanka. I found the kremlin in Kazan to be much more impressive than that in Nizhny Novgorod, as you will see in my pictures. While I spend a lot of time walking and bicycling around Kazan, I didn't develop an active social life as I found in Nizhny Novgorod.
With the experience in other cities, I had no trouble finding accommodations, food, and getting around. I think I could now travel in Russia for an extended period using the bicycle and trains, now settling on hotels for around $35-50, including an icebox, toilet, and a shower either in the room or down the hall.
The people on the street don't make eye contact and have blank expressions on their faces, but once I break through and ask them for directions or information and they realize that I am a foreigner speaking English, they smile and become very friendly and helpful. I am often surprised by the number of people who speak and understand a little English, and they frequently go out of their way to lead me where I want to go. I have been giving out a lot of shiny new pennies and they have been a big hit here, with people often showing them to others with big smiles on their faces. Quite different from India where people would return them and ask for real money (theirs).
While I still find it expensive to travel in Russia, I now believe they have a two tier price system in hotels, one price for the foreigner and another for the local, and the difference may be as much as a couple hundred percent. This is compounded by the locals reserving the cheaper rooms in advance, then often the only rooms available are the more expensive. And reservations are not free, they want an additional 25%. Food is a different matter. Perhaps most people don't eat out. Grocery stores seems to have prices similar to ours. Buses, trams, and trolleys seem cheap, most between 7 and 9 ru $0.28-0.36.
In Kazan I saw a few more poor people on the street, and I noticed older ladies, (I am guessing from the rural areas) selling flowers and vegetables on the mall or in temporary markets near residential areas. But affluence is visible in the appearance of the buildings, people's dress, products available in busy stores. But yet when I talk to people they tell me housing is expensive, jobs are hard to get and don't pay much. But all-in-all I find Russian cities to be doing much better than I had expected. And I have felt safer walking and bicycling the streets during the day and late night than I felt in most cities, including cities of over a million people in the United States. (Safer from crime, not from speeding cars and dangers to pedestrians and cyclists from open man-holes, traffic, and poorly designed facilities for both pedestrians and bicyclists.)
I am now back in Nizhny Novgorod (which I have learned how to pronounce) staying at the hotel south of the train station that I found shortly before leaving for Kazan. However, when I checked in, the room at the price quoted didn't exist (I think I was quoted a local rate as compared to the tourist rate when I offered my passport for ID.)
There is a process where hotels register foreign guests with the police and then stamp the tourist card issued when you entered Russia and which stays with your passport. I have not been paying much attention, having accumulated several stamps along the way and having been told that if I had at least one there would be no problem when I leave Russia. However, this hotel would not let me check in because I had not had a stamp for 7 days, and was supposed to get one at least every three days. So the manager walked me down to the police station, several long blocks away, where there were many conversations, of which I could only guess the content. Finally I was taken into an office where a woman in uniform, higher ranking, could speak a bit of English. There was an explanation about the stamp every three days and 2000r written on a piece of paper, either as a fine or a bribe, I couldn't tell which.
When I explained that I had been in Kazan, there was a lot of conversation, and I am guessing they were talking about how lax they were in Kazan. And after the note about the 2000r I found it convenient to understand less and less of their conversation. Finally there was a note written on a tiny bit of paper for me to take back to the hotel, where they rented me a room and charged me an additional 50r for registration. All of this is still a mystery to me. And so far I have still not gotten another stamp on my tourist card.
Nizhny Novgorod, founded in 1221, (named Gorky in Soviet times, after the writer Maxim Gorky) used to be a closed city and it still feels more bureaucratic, with more police presence than other cities, as perhaps indicated by the stamp story above. This is a very big industrial center with automobile and aircraft plants, as well as submarine production and chemical plants.
The main pedestrian street, Bolshaya Pokrovskaya ul, is under reconstruction, getting new pipes and drainage underground as well as a new covering of brickwork in various designs and colors. I have seen a lot of progress while I have been here, but there is still a lot to be done before the normal street life returns to the stores and restaurants.
One day walking with my bike through some of the construction I met Ivan. He is a doctor, speaks 5 languages, spent some years in the US, and is a homeopathic doctor. It is hard to describe Ivan, but he had a beard, a hat, a jacket, two layers of shirts, and spoke English in a manner that I could sort of understand. But his topics ranged from history, family, churches, travel in the US, and often I missed the transition between topics. He spoke more than he listened, and I was not sure if he was being helpful of setting me up. Here I was, sweating in shorts and an ultra-light T-shirt, and he was wearing all those layers of clothes. He didn't seem to have much money but talked about all the multi-million deals he was working on.
To say the least, I was cautious. But as I got to know Ivan, I grew to trust him more. (I finally met his mother, who was in her 70's, a retired eye doctor who could also speak English.) His family history was most impressive, and he knew a lot of the history of the buildings and the city. He walked with me back to my hotel, showing me ways to access pedestrian bridges and walkways that avoided the traffic, and were quieter and more pleasant. As we walked he would tell me about the history of this or that building, the people who build them or lived in them, the history of the various churches. It was like a guided tour of the city. After parking my bicycle at the hotel overlooking the Oka River, we took a walk along the upper edge, again crossing pedestrian bridges and walkways. We sat near the Stoganov church and had a glass of wine (he had already learned that I didn't drink vodka but did drink wine.)
The next day I moved to a hostel type place and we met again and walked through the kremlin and down the side of the mountain to the river with him showing me many of the famous places, a couple of museums, churches, etc.
He proposed a trip with a friend of his. I finally agreed and moved my bicycle and gear to his house and took my backpack for a journey for a couple of days, not really knowing where I was going.
We went to the Hotel Exposition across the Oka River near the train station and after wandering around the Exposition for a while, we met his friend and took off in his vehicle, what I understand to be a $76,000 Volkswagen SUV.
So here I am with Nickolas, an actual multi-millionaire, and Ivan, who wants to become rich. We stop at an office where Ivan introduces Nickolas to a lady, whom I think is some kind of investment broker. I have no idea what the discussions were about, but after the first meeting, I was invited to join them in a conference room for tea, which was a nice spread of vegetables, cheese, sweets, and a choice of black, red, or green tea. Afterwards we drove for an hour or so, back towards Vladimir, until we crossed a bridge over a river (Volga?) and turned off the road through fields and sand towards the river. I was amazed at the terrain Nickolas could take the vehicle through. I expected to be stuck several times but it drove like a dune-buggy.
It turned out that a famous Russian director was filming a scene for a movie about Stalin using an old bridge over the river. There were hundreds of extras, dressed in military and civilian clothes appropriate for the time of World War II, along with old military trucks and other vehicles, as well as a bunch of horses and carts. There were scenes where they surged in panic back and forth across the bridge. ( A couple of days later at Ivan's home we saw pictures of the movie production on the TV news.) When we continued on our trip Nickolas asked what I would like for dinner. He was talking on his mobile phone and ordering dinner in advance. We pulled into a large motel which he owned, mid-way between Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir, and went into the swimming pool and sauna where we stripped and enjoyed the pool and sauna for a couple of hours and the dinner was served pool-side.
Nickolas didn't speak much English and Ivan didn't always communicate what the plans were, so often I was in the dark about what was going on. After the swim, sauna and dinner we met Nickolas's wife who joined us in the SUV but then we dropped her off at what may have been where they lived and drove back down the road for maybe another 20 miles where we went to another house and picked up this other large guy. Then we continued driving around in the rural area near this village until we stopped at a fantastic overlook, a burial ground for over 1000 years, overlooking the Volga River and the sunset. Afterwards we returned to the large guy's home and had a tour of his garden: organic, no chemicals, but no insect damage to his tomatoes, eggplant, corn, and many other vegetables and flowers. He loaded me up with apples and tomatoes which I enjoyed for the next couple of days.
There was an award in the back of the SUV recognizing Nickolas as the manager of the year for 2006. I think the region, but it could be a wider area. Ivan said that at some point Nickolas wanted to be the head of the region, a political position, but didn't get it. The motel was just one of 5 of his businesses, more of a hobby and place to treat friends. Of the people I have met, I liked Nickolas the most of all and would be honored if one day he visited us in Virginia. Maybe, who knows.
That night Ivan and I were provided free accommodations at Nickolas's motel and the next day returned by train to Nizhny Novgorod instead of going somewhere else that we had planned to go to because some friend called on his mobile who was coming to see him. This guy turned out to be a distant healer [Note from Ellen: "distant" is the word Ron uses, but I'm not sure what he means] who asked me a lot of questions, diagnosed my health and then cured all the problems. The procedure was very elaborate and interesting but I was not impressed.
Another place that Ivan and I visited on one of our walks was a health center where all the different people involved had different specialties: Thai massage, herbal teas from eastern Russia and Tibet, homeopathic medicine, etc.
When we returned to Nizhny Novgorod I stayed one night at Ivan's home, but it wasn't free, he wanted $30 for the bed and $20 for food. When we walked or traveled we always carefully split expenses. Ivan says that he is owed millions from a deal he brokered but was never paid for. He is contesting the government's sale of two laboratories his grandfather developed with his own money, not government money, he is trying to put a deal together involving 100,000 acres for tourism (including boar hunting and parachute jumping), another project is a rehabilitation center for wealthy families, and some other deals I don't understand.
Ivan has just now found me at the Internet Cafe and informed me that his unlimited Internet service was turned on today after waiting for months. He is proposing another trip, but I don't understand where and it might cost $100... but I have already booked my hotel for the next three nights...so we shall see what adventure comes.
Love and miss you,
Ron
30 August 2007
Afton, Virginia, USADear Family and Friends,
When last heard from, Ron was trying to decide whether to go on an unknown weekend adventure with his friend Ivan. He did go (of course!), and now here is his story.
A geographic note: in Soviet times Nizhny Novgorod was called Gorky (the writer Maxim Gorky was born there in 1868), and atlases, like our 1990 National Geographic atlas, may show the city as Gorky rather than as Nizhny Novgorod.
Here at home, I have actually gotten some tomatoes from our garden this year, and made a small amount of tomato sauce (hoping for more!) to freeze for next winter. This despite the fact that the deer have twice broken through my 7ft high (slightly over 2m) net fencing that surrounds the tomatoes, beans, and strawberry plants, and have eaten more than their fair share. I've reinforced the net fencing with wire fence barriers around the outside, and am hoping the barricade holds out until the rest of the tomatoes ripen. The rabbits squeeze under the fence, but they aren't a huge problem because they only nibble on the tomatoes and beans that are very close to the ground; thankfully they can't reach very high. Ron and I saw some very fine kremlin walls in Russia, and we are now pondering high walls and a moat around the garden!
Ron took the train from Nizhny Novgorod back to Vladimir (about half the distance back to Moscow) on Wednesday afternoon 29 August, and he returns to Moscow on Sunday 2 September. He flies home on Wednesday 5 September -- I will be happy to see him!
Love to all,
Ellen
To see photos of the trip to Lake Svetloyar and the Vetluga River resort, click on the thumbnail at the left.
My authentic Russian experience
To see photos of the Diveevo Monastery, click on the thumbnail at the left.
28 August 2007
Nizhny Novgorod, RussiaHello, my dear -
After giving up on trying to understand the plans that my friend Ivan was proposing, I finally just agreed to meet him Saturday morning for a weekend trip. I left my bike and backpack in my prepaid hotel room and took a few things in my waterproof stuff bag. Since it has been hot, I didn't think I would need much.
I met Ivan at a round building behind the train station on Saturday morning at 9. It was a good thing I kept after him to repeat and repeat the directions because I would have been in the wrong place if I had followed what I thought were the first directions.
We got on a bus with a group of about 30-35 people. Ivan had his girlfriend with him and his friend I will call Altalie, the distant healer, also met us. I had reported earlier about visiting a business that I thought was some kind of investment house where Nickolas, the owner of the motel, met with a lady who later invited us to have tea and cookies. This lady had organized the trip we were going on.
The company I believe is call Garant Investment Holding Company (or Credit Company) and the people on the bus were either clients or staff of the company, with the clients being mostly older rich women, some much richer than others. No one other than Ivan spoke enough English to have a conversation, and understanding Ivan's translations often lead to the wrong idea, so please be warned that I am not sure of any of the information in the report, but will make my best guess. Perhaps other readers can help explain from my text and looking at the pictures.
We went generally north and after a couple of hours stopped at Lake Svetloyar (Ivan's spelling). There was a large paved parking lot full of cars, but the bus pulled off along a field and we walked down a very nice path with lines of white birch trees on each side.
At the lake people disappeared into the woods' edge to change into bathing suits before going for a swim in the lake. This lake, I understand, is sacred, and people come on pilgrimage here to swim in the sacred water. There was a small church above the lake and people walked up to the church and kissed two of the large rocks outside the church.
After the lake we continued north to a resort owned and operated by a worldwide company that specialized in extreme sports retreats called Team Gorky (or Gorkiy). Perhaps someone can find them on Google?
The resort was on the Vetluga River, which is reported by Ivan to be the least polluted and most naturally pure river in Russia and perhaps Europe.
After checking into small cabins (I shared one with Altalie) we gathered in the main building for a buffet lunch. After lunch we attended a seminar about the investment company. Ivan tried to translate for me but I must admit I didn't understand a lot about the presentation. Perhaps a general sales pitch about why people should invest for the long run and be patient. At one point there was a lively debate between two of the women on how goals were important in investing.
Then we went down to the river for a swim, some boating and resting.
For dinner we had another buffet followed by a gathering in an open building with a high ceiling and a bonfire in the middle where potatoes were roasted under a metal bucket in the middle of the fire and coals. The entire event reminded me of my Boy Scout days at Camp Raven's Knob.
First people gathered around in a circle and played games, most of which were a mystery to me. One in which I participated was with everyone in a circle except two inside. People in the circle put their hands together and a person in the center had a coin in her hands and would either pretend or actually drop the coin into someone's hands as she went around the circle one time making contact with each person's hands. The other person in the circle tried to figure out who had the coin and could ask people to open their hands to expose the coin or any empty set of hands. The people in the circle would also pretend or actually pass the coin on to the person on their left or right, so it appeared as if a lot of coins were being passed around. This continued until the person in the center found the coin.
After the games people sat around the fire and told jokes until a young man with a guitar started singing folk songs. He was very good, on the staff of the resort, and must have sung for a couple of hours. Near the end the potatoes were uncovered and put on the edge around the fire for people to eat.
The next morning there was a buffet breakfast, some of the people took rafts down the river, other swam or used some of the boats at the dock to paddle in the river. In the afternoon we went back to Nizhny Novgorod and on the way stopped again for a swim in Lake Svetloyar.
All in all - quite an experience. While I couldn't speak Russian, there were some people who could speak a few words of English and some who could understand some English even if they couldn't speak. I got to know in a small way many of the people on the trip. And I can not compare the experience to anything in my adult American life other than church and school trips, boy scouts, and perhaps some early alternative community experiences.
The next day, Ivan and I made a full day excursion to see the Diveevo (Ivan's spelling) Monastery about 170k south of Nizhny Novgorod. We started with a van to one city, than got a free ride with a school administrator to another town where we caught a taxi for the last 12k. When we arrived we were met by a driver and a guide who were arranged by Ivan (or his mother) in advance. Ivan translated as the guide talked and I learned the history of the monastery and the local town of the same name.
The place was quite crowded and Ivan said it was one of the most sacred places in Russia and people made pilgrimages from all parts of Russia to visit. We first went to a well fed by underwater flow from glaciers where the water was 4C (39F). I submerged myself but could not stay in the water but a few seconds. We then walked on the walkway next to the trench and then visited the relics of the founder in the main church, which was packed for a service. I think my pictures will say more than my words about this place of wonder.
We took a taxi (60k) to AP3AMAC (Russian spelling from the sign at the Railway station) [Arzamas in Ellen's atlas] where we caught an elektrichka train back to Nizhny Novgorod.
The trip to Lake Svetloyar, the resort on the Vetluga River and the trip to the Diveevo Monastery have been truly authentic Russian experiences where I saw no tourists. Both trips would make good bicycle adventures if anyone would care to follow.
Tomorrow I take a train back to Vladimir.
Love and miss you and I am now on my way back home to join you in defending the garden against the deer and rabbits.
Ron
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Last updated: 1 September 2007
