Driving to Suzdal

Last weekend we visited Suzdal, a charming historic town about 220 kilometres east of Moscow. I’ll write about it next time. In this post I am going to tell you something about the journey from Moscow to Suzdal. 

We hired a car – my first experience of driving on Russian roads. I’ll preface this by saying that I am a very experienced driver. I have driven for weeks at a time in places like Italy, Greece, Morocco, Portugal, Namibia, the USA and Egypt. I’ve crossed some of the world’s great cities – Rome, Paris, Cairo without so much as getting a scratch on a car. During the past 10 years in outback Australia during the course of my work with national parks I estimate I covered about 250,000 kilometres driving in various terrains and conditions. I was also required to handle four wheel drive vehicles loaded with a fire unit full of water at bush fires in very rough terrain, for which I received proper training. 

So I think I know something about how to drive a motor vehicle.

I can tell you that most of the Russians I saw on the road do not. They were without doubt the most aggressively dangerous and negligent drivers I have ever seen – and that’s saying something, given the places in which I have driven. 

Most of the journey is along the M7. I don’t know what the M stands for but it sure can’t be motorway. It is a dual carriageway, though so beset with traffic lights in places that the vehicles crawl along.  

Bridge repairs and other occasional roadworks seem to be conducted in such a manner as to cause maximum inconvenience to motorists. On two occasions we were stuck in 3 or 4 kilometre long traffic jams as well as numerous smaller ones which could have been avoided by some reconfiguring of the road work site. 

Cars overtaking on the shoulder being overtaken by cars overtaking on the shoulder's shoulder.

As soon as they encounter a traffic jam, many Russians drive along the ragged road shoulder, some even drive on the dirt to overtake people driving along the shoulder, trying to turn 2 lanes into 4. On two occasions I saw cars that had collided with trucks where they had tried to get back in to the flow of traffic from the shoulder. 

The inevitable result of trying to overtake on the shoulder - a collision occurred between the red car and the truck as the car tried to get back on to the road. This causes more chaos as these vehicles cannot be moved until the police arrive, which will take ages in this traffic.

  

I had a near miss myself when trying to change lanes in slow traffic - a guy behind, who had just made exactly the same lane change himself, was aggressively refusing to let me in – I was shocked to see this lunatic threatening to ram our vehicle if I didn’t return to my lane. 

What about the traffic police you ask? The only thing I observed them doing  was checking drivers’ papers now and then on the side of the road. Otherwise they seemed blind to the mayhem. In fact, this random paper checking caused another 2  kilometre long traffic jam as they had managed to partially block a lane. Once again drivers started racing along the shoulder. Not only were the traffic police ignoring this hazardous behaviour, it was the traffic jam they had created that was causing it! 

For the final 25 kilometres from Vladimir to Suzdal the dual carriageway is replaced by a 2 lane road. Ridiculously dangerous overtaking on this stretch was so common as to be normal. 

In all, we saw about 12 accidents (more than I see in a year in Australia). The 220 kilometre ‘motorway’ trip took 6.5 hours, the return journey, 5. 

It was a nightmare. 

On a lighter note, a town along the way seemed specialise in the sale of large fluffy toys. There were about a dozen of these roadside stalls over about a kilometre. Now I know where to go if I need a giant fluffy rabbit.

Moscow's population

An article in the English language newspaper, The Moscow Times, dated 13 August, notes that Moscow’s federal budget claims 65% of Russia’s resources, leaving the other 83 regions to split the remaining 35% between them. A result of this is that many regional cities are indebted and impoverished. It’s little wonder, therefore, that relative wealth of Moscow is a magnet.

A census conducted in 2010 put Moscow’s population at around 11.5 million, making it easily the biggest city in Europe. However, uncharted and illegal immigration, mainly people drawn to the prosperity of Moscow in the hope of finding a better life, could put the real figure at anywhere between 13 and 17 million. 

Several posts ago I wrote an item about outdoor markets. Since then there have been a number of articles in the Moscow Times about a riot in one market resulting in an across the board clamp down on such places. The newspaper items noted that the markets are commonly frequented by illegal immigrants. The Federal Migration Service is responsible for managing this issue and currently oversees 21 institutions for detaining illegal immigrants. It has plans to greatly increase its detention capacity (I will note here that such detention is not dissimilar to how Australia handles illegal immigrants). Most of these illegal immigrants come from former USSR republics in Central Asia – places such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. 

One of the things I have noticed about Moscow is the homogeneity of the population. The vast majority of people are white and of Eastern European appearance. While I don’t stand out in a way that I would in, say, Japan, people here can generally pick that I am not Russian without me opening my mouth, despite my dressing as unobtrusively as possible. 

This May Day crowd provides an illustration of the character of the population of Moscow

The only other group one sees in any number are people of Central Asian appearance. I am by no means suggesting that these people are all illegal immigrants, no doubt most of them have a perfect right to be in Russia. I have observed though, that they do seem to carry a disproportionate load of unskilled and heavy-lifting jobs. 

Other groups, such as people with darker skin colours or from the Indian sub-continent, are uncommon enough to be notable. 

Painting the exterior of a building. Paint is contained in the buckets. While the pavement was roped off, there would still have been some unhappy passersby had any of the paint buckets come loose. These guys were all Central Asian - such people seem to do much of the outdoor maintenance work.

Inside St Basil's Cathedral

It is fairly common for people to mistake this place for the Kremlin. Perhaps because news reports, when discussing what 'The Kremlin' has been up to lately, typically show this photogenic building.

This is St Basil's Cathedral. It stands in Red Square, which is an impressively large and attractive open space next to the Kremlin. The Kremlin (which is a word meaning 'fortress') is a complex of buildings and cathedrals enclosed by long, high red walls. One of these walls defines the western edge of Red Square.

Ivan the Terrible had the main part of St Basil's (also known as the Cathedral of the Protection of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral, or the Cathedral of St. Vasily the Blessed) built between 1555-61.

I heard a guide telling a tourist that Ivan had the two architects of St Basil's blinded so that they could never design a more beautiful building. If you hear that story, its not true. One of the architects, Yakovlev, is known to have designed more buildings after St Basil's was completed. Apparently Ivan wasn't quite that terrible.

Stalin on the other hand, wanted to knock St Basil's down. Apparently he felt it was a bit of a nuisance, being in the path of his Red Square tank parades. Thankfully, he was talked out of it. Resurrection Gate, at the opposite end of Red Square, was not so fortunate and was only rebuilt in 1996.

I used to be curious what was inside St Basil's when I'd see it on those Cold War newsreels. For a mere 250 roubles (about $7) I found out. Its a bit of a maze. Anyway, that's enough text, I'm not all that fond of writing - you can have a look now for free.

An Inter-city train experience

Friends have asked whether we intend taking the Trans-Siberian railway while we are here.

No – absolutely not.

 

I started pacing the deck after one day into a 4 day ferry trip up the Patagonian coast of Chile. So I know that watching trees go past from a railway compartment is not going to keep me amused for more than half a day.

But if that wasn’t enough, I just saw a couple of friends off on their 4 day trip to Irkutsk, and that experience was enough to completely sour me on Russian railways. 

They had made their booking through a travel agent and a couple of days ago we picked up the tickets from an office in the suburbs. That took about half a day and if I hadn’t been there to help them I have no idea how they would have found the place.

Okay, so now they had these PDF printouts with all the travel details, bar coded etc. Looked like tickets to us. We then invested some further time visiting the station (there are a lot of railway stations in Moscow) – a bit of sensible prior reconnaissance.

This morning we turned up. Usual railway station chaos. Almost nothing in English – the railways here have yet to grasp that most international travelers rely on English as a lingua franca – and the departure platform of the train only came up on the board about 30 minutes before it was due to leave. 

Kievsky station (which is much nicer than the one my friends left from)

 So then we waited on the platform outside the designated carriage until the door was opened, then showed the ‘tickets’ and passports to the carriage attendant. She refused my friends entry and babbled away beyond the coping capacity of my basic Russian language skills. Fortunately a young English-speaking Russian was standing nearby who advised us that these ‘tickets’ needed to be exchanged for ‘real’ tickets back at the station ticket office (there was no advice about this requirement on the PDF printouts). 

With 20 minutes to go we sought assistance at the ticket office – again, no English was available – again, we were fortunately rescued by an English-speaking Russian who was passing by, a young woman, who showed us how to operate a ticketing machine (which had, of course, no English-language option) to extract glossy little ‘official’ tickets. How these tickets were in any way better than the computer printouts I have no idea – particularly as we had to use the printouts to obtain these new tickets . I mean, for heaven’s sake, I print boarding passes for aircraft from my home computer all the time.

With just 10 minutes to go, my two friends managed to board the train. I had a look at their compartment. They had purchased exclusive use of a four-berth cabin. Just as well. It was basic and would be cramped - even for two. Had it been a prison cell, the inmates would have been justified about complaining of inhumane treatment.

Afterwards I went shopping to de-stress. I never thought I would find dodging shopping trolleys in the chaotic aisles of an Ashan supermarket so relaxing. 

My advice for anyone thinking of travelling by train in Russia – fly. 

(I will make one exception - the fast train between St Petersburg and Moscow, the Sapsan, is worth the effort)

Not in hot water

On Tuesday night we came home after a few days away to find this coming out of the hot water tap.

It seems a hospital nearby is having some work done on its plumbing and this has affected the neighbouring apartments. We will not receive hot water again until July 18 - which means it will have been shut down for 10 days.

Muscovites are used to having their hot water interrupted every summer. In an exasperating vestige of Soviet centralisation, hot water is provided by a number of plants around the city. These are are shut down for up to 10 days in the warmer months for cleaning and maintenance. For many, the incentive to shower decreases with the water temperature and the Metro becomes the Sweatro - a transportion system for millions of unwashed armpits. 

There is often discussion about whether Moscow water is safe to drink. The city says that the water is clean. I'm not a chemist, so I can't offer an informed opinion. I suspect, judging by what has come out of our hot water tap the past few days, that some of the pipes may be in a sorry state. So while the water may leave the treatment plant potable, who knows what condition it is in by the time it arrives.

I have also noticed that all of the Russian employees where my wife works only drink bottled water - until I see them drink from the tap, I certainly won't.

Open air markets

Well, we are halfway through the posting now. Another year and a half to go.

The Rugby World Cup Sevens is being played in Moscow this weekend and I attended a reception for the Australian teams last night. Not that I have the slightest interest in Rugby Union, I'm strictly an Australian Rules guy. But one has to show the teams support.

Every Thursday afternoon temporary stalls are erected in a number of Moscow streets and parks. Over Friday and the weekend, stall holders do a lively business. Mostly they sell fruit and vegetables, but many other small grocery items can be found.

On Fridays I usually buy a kilo of cashews from a stall in Novoslobodskaya. At about 500 roubles (or $15), they are a bargain compared to the price I would pay in Australia. I am going to miss stuffing myself with cashews when we leave Moscow.

The sadly missed Prospect Mira street market

Unfortunately some of these markets have disappeared recently. The large one at Prospect Mira being a notable loss. I have been told the city administration has been closing some down as they interfere with traffic. My opinion is the traffic is interfering with the street markets. 

A gloomy day at at the Prospect Mira market

The Novoslobodskaya market - where I buy cashews

Some of the markets, such as this one at Bagrationovskaya, are off street and run 7 days a week. They appear to be semi-permanent

Ostrankino Tower

From our apartment we occasionally see accidents at the intersections along our street, such as the one below. I have been told that Russian road law requires the vehicles involved in an accident, however minor, not be moved until the scene is attended by the traffic police. The police, being very busy dealing with the mayhem on Moscow's roads, can take a while to arrive. This vehicle was in the middle of the intersection for 3 hours.

Notice the 'pedestrian crossings'. These are purely decorative and serve no practical purpose.

Something else we can see from our apartment is the 7th tallest freestanding structure in the world. Ostrankino Tower. At 540.1 metres it is also the tallest freestanding structure in Europe, and has been so for 46 years since construction was completed in 1967. Note that I say freestanding - there are taller masts guyed by wires and drilling rigs in the ocean.

If you are curious, the current list is:
1. Burj Khalifa - Dubai - 829.8 m
2. Tokyo Skytree - Tokyo - 634 m
3. Abraj Al Bait Tower - Mecca - 601 m
4. Canton Tower - Guangzhou - 600 m
5. CN Tower - Toronto - 553 m
6. One World Trade Centre (Freedom Tower) - New York - 541.3
7. Ostrankino Tower - Moscow - 540.1

I'm a little surprised the Moscow authorities haven't sent some chap up to the top of the mast to attach a broomstick - that should be just about long enough to get 6th place back from the Freedom Tower.

After I told him he was looking at the 7th highest structure, a visitor recently remarked that it didn't look tall enough to be in the top 10 and I have to agree, I was also surprised when I found out. Maybe its the lack of bulk.

The interior of the tower was burnt out in a fire on 27 August 2000, which killed 3 people. Fortunately the fire broke out above the observation deck and restaurant, so most people were safely evacuated. This occurred soon after the Kursk submarine tragedy on 12 August, with which non-Russians are probably more familiar. Not a good month for Russia.

The observation deck is now open for guided groups, though there is no sign of the restaurant reappearing.