Living the childhood dream
We started the Trans Siberian journey at Moscow or Moskva as the Muscovites call it. Now I have a special relationship with Russia, especially Moscow. As a kid, growing up in a Russia friendly India, I had heard so much about all things Russian. We had subscribed to a free Russian children’s magazine called Misha and read a lot of stories and culture. Growing up, I have read books by Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy, Dostoyevski, Nabokov. Heard about the Matryushka dolls and the onion domes of St. Basil’s cathedral. The Russian space program was one of the best in the world and as general knowledge we knew that the Russians Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshokova was the first man and woman respectively, to go to space. We also used to hear about the Sputnik satellite and Soyuz and Salyut space shuttles and Mir space station. Also, Raj Kapoor made Russia popular with Mera Naam Joker and the Russian circus artistes. And we had heard Russians loved Raj Kapoor and his songs. So to me being in Russia was something very special, actually seeing the places and things you had heard of and fantasised as a kid, imagined myself as characters in the stories, and now experiencing it for real, was like living a fairy tale.
Moskva
We saw the Kremlin and red square. There was music, street artistes, Lenin and Stalin look alikes, food, drinks and tons and tons of tourists at the square, it was like a carnival. The sound of the gongs of the cathedral were so soothing to the mind. The walls of St. Basil’s cathedral were all painted with icons, flowers and looked resplendent. There was gold everywhere and the tall spires and paintings gave a very royal feel. The cathedral was built by Ivan the terrible after winning a war with the Kazans. It has nine domes, one central and 8 surrounding, all in different colors and patterns – red, yellow, green, gold, it looks like a fairy tale castle. All churches in the country had onion domes and most were gilded and shone bright in the sunlight.
I have been to several metro and subway trains around the world (and I have travelled to 28 countries so far, so have seen quite a few), this was by far the most well maintained. Each metro station is designed differently with beautiful architecture, sculptures, frescoes, it looks stunning. One station had stained glass, one Greek carvings, one had sculptures, one mosaic and each station had different chandeliers and lights.
Had read so much about the Russian KGB and read dozens of books about Russian spies and espionage during the cold war. So when we actually got to see the KGB head quarters, it felt so spooky! The Moskva river flows through the city and the Kremlin office building stands majestic on it’s banks. We also visited the Artists park that had many beautiful sculptures. Near the park on the banks of Moskva river, stood a tall sculpture of Columbus but with Peter the Great’s head on it! The Moscow University was a huge imposing building with a beautiful lawn and fountain and water body in the front. It looks palatial with beautiful architecture and so many rooms. Would be wonderful to study there. We did some souvenir shopping on Arbat street that was like a bazaar with so many people, artists, someone playing music, someone singing songs and another person creating art on the road at the beat of music and drums! We chatted up with a painter who had some really beautiful paintings and we picked up a couple of his beautiful pieces of art. One was of a ballet artiste Giselle whom he had painted in a ballet motion. It’s so beautiful, I can imagine Giselle dancing to Tchaikovsky!
The Russian Ballet
We were fortunate to attend one of the oldest classical ballets “La Sylphide” at the 150 years old Bolshoi theatre and that too in the Historic stage! The lead lady artiste had such a slender waist, I wonder if she ate anything at all. She was on her toes most of the time and whenever she put her feet down, it was done so gracefully. She split her feet and ran across the stage landing on her toes so gently before leaping again. It looked like a butterfly flitting about, so gentle and beautiful in a white dress, she looked like an angel or a fairy. All the other artists also danced equally well and with colourful attire. The forest scene with clouds was recreated so beautifully, it was almost magical. Couldn’t believe this was artificially created on stage, it was that good. We had all dressed up for the show wearing short dresses and high heels even though it was cold that evening! This was one of the most memorable performances I’ve seen, and I’ve seen quite a few.
Interstellar
I’ve always been fascinated by space and keenly read all books and articles on space, watch movies and documentaries related to it. As a kid I have read about Russia’s Sputnik satellite and their Salyut space station. So when we got to see their space museum, I was delighted! In fact our lovely guide Lena told me that the first woman in space Valentina Tereshkova is still alive and lives in Moscow! I would love to meet her on my next visit to Moscow (Yes I do wanna go back there again!). We saw replicas of Salyut, Soyuz, Mir space station, Sputnik, the ejectable cubicle that cosmonauts use to come back on earth. We even took a ride simulating going to space and landing on another planet! It was all so surreal. I wish I can go to space some day. Even if I get just a one way ticket, I’d happily take it!
Siberia
Our next stop was the University town Irkutsk, a town in the heart of Siberia, bang in the middle of the continent. The highlight of this place was lake Baikal, which is 25 million years old, 636km long and 80km at its widest point. It has 3500 species of plants and animals and has 20% of the world’s surface fresh water! It is home to the silvery grey fresh water seals that are curious and funny and look so cute! Incidentally, the military aircraft making factory in Irkutsk, sells aircrafts to India. Siberia became a part of Russia in 1456. The local tribe in Siberia is Avanks but less than 50,000 Avanks remain today. The lake freezes in winter and people go iceskating on the lake and even drive cars on it! In October, people go scuba diving in the lake to enjoy the various species of life in water.
One day we stayed in a small town Listvyanka and our hotel there was beautiful, like a resort. It’s a quaint little town with lovely churches, cottages with backyards that had horses and dogs. The sky was a brilliant blue and we experienced the most dramatic sunset on the banks of the lake. In Irkutsk, there was pollen (from the poplar tree) everywhere and so much of it, that it looked like snow falling from the sky. It was white and cottony / woolly and there was so much of it, I’ve never seen so much pollen ever.
Our guide Yana was one of the best guides and she took us to her Orthodox Christian church. She said 90% of Russians are Christians. Yana, the driver Igor and we had lunch together and conversations started flowing. Igor had so many questions about India, spirituality, religion, saree, Bollywood. In fact Siberia has 2 Indian TV channels and Igor has seen so many Indian movies. As expected, he knew Raj Kapoor and his entire khandaan, but he also knew Mithun Chakraborty and Disco Dancer!
Culinary delight
Meena and I are vegetarian so our choices were limited. But we still explored and tried various local dishes. Borsch is a beetroot soup that is popular in Russia. We had a veg soup that had potatoes, carrot, cabbage and beetroot. We also tried the boiled potatoes with dil, buckwheat with mushrooms which was delicious. But what we enjoyed the most was Georgian food. The beetroot salad garnished with pomegranate seeds, pumpkin soup, Georgian cheese bread, a grilled eggplant dish, everything was yummilicious!
Dasvidanya
The thing that struck me the most about Moscow, was it has so much space. Very wide roads, lots of public spaces, and it was very neat and clean despite having a huge population. It was summer time and there were arches made of flowers on most streets, flower pots everywhere with flowers of every imaginable color. There were so many parks and gardens in the city and sculptures and memorials everywhere. I wish India, especially Bangalore had more public spaces and was neat and clean. Fat hopes I guess… sigh.
poorvismusings 
Впечатляет !! So true, India had so much to do with Russia, so much culture and literature flowed both ways, its incredible, Good writing, quite tempting! 🙂
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Feel like going back again… Like an action replay !!!
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