travelswithalice

August 27, 2018

Nizhniy Novgorod

I lit candles in the church of St Michael the Archangel inside Nizhniy Novgorod’s beautiful Kremlin.

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During the Soviet era, Stalin changed the city’s name to Gorky to entice the Pro-Communist novelist and political activist Maxim Gorky who was born there to come back from exile in Italy to permanently return to Russia.

This house was Gorky’s childhood home where he lived with his grandmother until he ran away at age 12. It’s now a museum.

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Obisov Chambers is a 17th century white-stone house, said to be the oldest house in Nizhniy Novgorod and one of very few such “white-stone” buildings existing in all of Russia. It was built by Afanasy Olisova, a member of the class of wealthy merchants called “guests” whom Tsar Peter the Great forcibly relocated to St Petersburg to boost trade in his newly created city.

In front of this house, Olisova also built a beautiful church. It’s one of a few churches not destroyed by the Soviets because they had been repurposed as administrative buildings or as warehouses. This one was used as a chemical laboratory.

It is said that this ugly block of flats was built as camouflage to hide the church from prying eyes. To this day, the church is practically obliterated from the landscape as viewed from the Volga River, the only way it could’ve been seen at the time because the Soviets had sealed off Nizhniy Novgorod as a “closed city.”

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There’s a restaurant in town called Expedition. It really does take you on an expedition - to Siberia.

You get to go in a chopper...

...stay in a chum swaddled in reindeer hides...

...dine on exotic game like reindeer liver paté, deer heart rolls, boiled reindeer tongue served with crisp rye bread and smoked cowberries...

...and sip a nastoyka (tincture), a spice and herb infusion with an alcohol content of anywhere from 25% to 60%.

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Irina, our very charming, very knowledgeable guide tells me the grand Chikalov Staircase that links the upper and lower embankments of the Volga River has 642 steps.

“I know because I counted them myself,” she says.

Wikipedia tells me there are 560 on both sides or 442 from bottom to top.

There are many interesting stories about this historic city; there are many secrets and myths too. Some stories can be fact-checked; others can’t. I guess I can do what Irina did: go up those steps and count them myself.

Below the staircase is the very point where the Volga and the Oka rivers converge. We take a riverboat cruise to watch the sunset and the moonrise.

On board the boat, a nice gentleman from Nizhniy and his son who was born in Kamchatka (“It’s near Japan,” the father offers) and now lives in Moscow want to know why Stuart and I would come on holiday all this way from Manila. The older man offers Stuart a drink from a bottle of cognac he’d brought along with him, tucked away nicely in his shoulder bag. To me he offers a Twix chocolate bar.

Who says Russians are unfriendly?

As we glide past the monumental staircase, he comes up to me, taps me on my arm, and says in his laboured English, “Do you know...that staircase was built by Germans?”

Now, that’s a story I’d like to pursue! But his grandson is tugging at his sleeve and he reluctantly moves away.

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At the point where two rivers meet, the sun sets between the old and the new: the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral founded in 1868 and the World Cup Stadium built in 2018.

Soon after, a near-full moon rises over the Volga river.

Labels: moon, restaurant, river cruise, Russia, Volga

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 27, 2018

August 26, 2018

Moscow, Second Impressions

The City and the People

When away on holiday, the last thing you want is to be in a place that feels like “you could be anywhere in the world.” Sometimes it’s hard to avoid those places; in big cities, it’s close to impossible. But in Moscow, you always know you’re definitely not in New York, or London, or anywhere else familiar. You know you’re somewhere different.

It’s the wide avenues, the vast public parks, the monumental architecture, the fabulous metro, the ubiquity of its national symbols.

It’s also the cleanliness. Streets and pavements, underpasses, the metro, buses, trams, and trains are exceptionally clean. I can only speak of the places I’ve been to. In a big city like this, there surely must be untidy places; I have yet to see them in Moscow. On the train to Nizhniy Novgorod, they mopped the floor at every stop, four times in just over three hours.

It’s the superb food always available at bargain prices. Their food culture reflects a strict work ethic. They do things well. There’s a lot of traditional cuisine, not to say staid or old fashioned, but based on classical food preparation. I noticed this even in small cafés and little takeout places. And they have exquisite pastries!

It’s the people. They’re reserved, very private; they speak softly to each other. They don’t always look approachable or friendly but they are helpful when asked.

They don’t smile much. Elina, Park Hyatt’s Front Office Manager explained this to us. Her people, she said, have had a complicated, difficult history and this has affected the way they behave. They don’t readily talk to strangers, smile at them, or casually ask them how they are as people in other countries, like the US for example, would. So when you do ask them how they are, they assume you really want to know. They’re likely to give you more than just “I’m good, thanks.”

I love how people here bring flowers rather than gift-wrapped presents to parties. I often see them all dressed up, carrying bunches of flowers, usually roses. And restaurants are always ready to accommodate with large flower vases.

The Restaurants

We eagerly went back to the restaurants we liked the first time around.

Grand Cafe Dr Zhivago wins hands down for atmosphere, food quality, service, and low low prices. Caviar, dumplings, vodka, and all things Russian, including a view of the Kremlin.

Bolshoi is my second, more elegant choice. Still Russian, but more European.

The thing I like most about these restaurants is you can dine elegantly without having to dress up for it. Perfect!

I wasn’t overly impressed with the Park Hyatt’s Conservatory this time around. Their prominently displayed fancy olive oil was the same one I got with my complimentary in-room breakfast. They do have great views but so did we in our room.

Lavka Lavka, last year’s favourite. At first we thought having the outside option was an improvement on last year when the cold wet weather didn’t allow it. But sitting on the summer deck somehow didn’t have the same country farm feel of the downstairs main hall. Maybe that influenced our impression that the food quality was not as good as we remembered. The service also was a disappointment. In fact, service was almost absent. Too bad. We were so looking forward to going back.

The Great Moscow Circus

Our hotel is close to the Bolshoi Theatre and constantly seeing it from our window made me regret not being there during the theatre season. Every year in August, the theatre closes down and the ballet company goes on tour.

There was, however, a fitting replacement for theatre, ballet, and opera: the ultimate “people’s art form,” the fabulous Russian Circus. It was a spectacle like we’d never seen before.

Produced for last month’s FIFA World Cup, this extravaganza pulled out all the stops, enlisting Russia’s foremost super talents. It was a spectacular three-ring mashup of Barnum & Bailey, Cirque du Soleil, and Folies Bergère...on steroids.

It of course featured lions and tigers jumping hoops and curtsying on command, a long-established circus tradition already redacted out of other circus repertoires and which I personally could have done without.

The horses though, and their riders, took my breath away.

Labels: circus, restaurants, Russia

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 26, 2018

August 20, 2018

St. Petersburg

We’re at Kempinsky Moika22, a short walk across a small bridge to the fabulous Hermitage’s General Staff Quarters.

This is really what I came back to St Petersburg for. This and the Mariinsky, which was closed when we came two years ago.

So, first stop: the State Academic Mariinsky Theatre for Le Corsaire. And perhaps more importantly, for the fabled theatre itself.

After the ballet, we caught bus #3 right outside the Mariinsky for dinner at cozy homey restaurant TEPLO.

After dinner, the same bus took us back to Kempinski via a walk through Palace Square. Brilliant!

And so, to the General Staff Building of the Hermitage for the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and all the rest of the incredible treasures that for too long had been hidden from view...

An excess of beauty, an overdose of favourites: always and ever, Mommy’s (and Monet’s) poppies. Matisse’s layered interior, Cezanne’s still life, and Degas’s Place de la Concorde which had been considered lost for four decades after WWII.

I loved this Ball Scene by Edmond Lempereur. But who is this Edmond Lempereur?

On the rooftop of the Kempinski is a lovely restaurant, Bellevue, with fabulous food and incredible views.

The Bellevue’s Konstantin told us about a little-known, seldom-visited museum in his neighbourhood: the fascinating, well-curated Museum of Political History of Russia.

A definite highlight of the week was a hastily planned meet up with STC best friend Marilou and her lovely family. After a longish snack and chitchat at the Hermitage cafe, we braved the hot, thick crowds barrelling through the length and breadth of the incredible museum’s five fabulous palaces.

On this, my second visit to the Hermitage, I am bowled over by the near-manic fascination engendered by this truly remarkable embarrassment of wealth. I appreciate the historical significance of it all but for me, this display of mind-numbing acquisitiveness still defies comprehension.

Labels: Hermitage, Russia, St Petersburg

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # August 20, 2018