Crazy, incredible Moscow

Hello!

Wooah my time here in Moscow (exactly 2 weeks already) have been full of program and tours and meeting up with new people etc. This city has so much to offer, you just have to know where to find the information (and know some Russian :D).

So, what have I been doing?

1. We went to a military concert on the red square.
It was rather expensive but definitively worth it! Russians are patriotic and the show was amazing!



 


2. We wen to Izmailovo market and the Kreml

  


3. We went to the Tsar's (reconctructured) summer palace Kolomenskoye

The wooden palace was reconstructed in 2010 according to the original plan.

  
 


4. We have been eating out a lot
The ruble is so weak that it is extremely cheap to eat out. Our kitchen in the dormitory is also very poorly equipped so we´ll probably lose weight here because we can't cook :D

 

5. I have walked around in the neighborhood of the university
The main building is close to the red square, the shopping center Gum and the rest of the old city center.
 
  

6. I went to the first lecture. 
More about the lecture later. Most of the courses will start next week or even later. I have some problems here with the courses since some courses that I was supposed to attend to aren't organized. At least most of the staff here is very friendly!

Lotta

Yaroslavl

Hello there!

The last few days have been busy and i don't think that writing about administrative stuff etc is fun to write/fun to read haha :D Well, we have not only taken care of registration and getting the paperwork done here, we have also had some time to do something fun. Like a trip to Yaroslavl!

Since we had 2 days off between the orientation week and the start of the courses (actually we might have more in the near future but more about that later) we decided to travel to Yaroslavl. It's about 250 km northeast from Moscow and it's reached within 4 hours by train. (Attention! The trains in Russia follow the Muscovite time so you need to be careful when travelling to destinations that are in the different time zone than Moscow. So when the train leaves at 2 pm it means 2 pm Muscovite time).

We left early in the morning and we had a lack of sleep due to the pub crawl on Saturday and the Military fest on Sunday) so we slept more or less all the way to Yaroslavl :D Well, some of us had stayed awake for a bit but apparently the views had not been very unique: forest, forest and more forest.

When we got to Yaroslavl we noticed that we had arrived in Russia*. It is a very stereotypical Russian city :D Some very pretty old houses that had seen their years of glory a while ago, old cars and bumpy roads. The city center is actually a Unesco World Heritage Site and there were some very pretty houses! Unfortunately most of the buildings had not been renovated for a while...

We decided to walk around the city on the first day since it was a nice weather but it would rain on the next. We actually walked a lot and eg climbed up to a church tower. From there you could see 10 (!) other churches standing at one point. Yup, Yaroslavl is full of pretty churches!

Volga river meets another river (can't remember the name :D)

After climbing up the stairs I could still smile :D

    

Earlier that day we had seen a bus full of Moscow Dynamo players so after our long walk around the city, climbing up hundreds of stairs and having a nice (and cheap!) lunch at a traditional Russian lunch place (warm meal, tea and salad only for 3,4e - and very delicious!) me and the other Finnish girl wanted to go and watch a game. The other two girls decided to go to a jazz concert. Well.. we ordered a taxi (with poor Russian skills but at least they understood us) but then we waited. And waited. And waited. We ended up waiting for a taxi to the stadium for almost an hour in the reception of our hotel so we decided to give up. The staff at our hotel (who ordered the taxi for us and called the taxi many times) said it is impossible to get a taxi now that the whole city goes crazy about the game. Well, we ended up going to the jazz club instead. Some of the artists were very young and a bit rusty but it was an interesting event anyway :)

The next day we decided to go to two museums, which were closed that day. Well, we went to a third one instead :D And a Volga cruise (less than 1e/person for 2 hours :D), visited many of the churches and had a great dinner at a Russian restaurant.

Samovar museum :)

The entrance to one of the churches

Tea and JAM for dessert

This huge portion with salmon and veggies for only 6e!

Since our train left at around midnight we had a drink in a bar before heading back to Moscow with the night train, which was a very interesting experience... We had the cheaper tickets so we slept in the part that was one big cabin: beds on both sides of the corridor :D The smell was horrible (later on we discovered that the train has left from southeast Siberia so some passengers had been travelling for DAYS without taking a shower...) but the beds were quite ok so at least I slept well! We arrived back "home" at 5 am and since we have been doing a lot of things here during this past week so tonight I'm going to take it easy and SLEEP!

More about the Military concert, that was quickly mentioned in this post, later.

Lotta

*before I left to Moscow I heard that Moscow does not equal to Russia. There is Moscow and there is Russia.

A big small city

Hey there,

finally my roommate arrived and I've met other exchange students as well :) Still not that many students here but the orientation week starts tomorrow so I guess everything will get started then.

Yesterday I took care of some boring things like getting a Russian number etc but then I finally got to go to the city center. The trip started with an interesting metro ride: the metro stations are actually pretty clean and nice and so are the metros as well. It would have been a quite pleasant way of moving from one place to another but was extremely loud. You can either try to scream something to the other person's ear and hope she/he hears 50% of it or just accept the fact that there's no point in trying to have a nice conversation while travelling with a metro.

When we finally got to the city center I was positively surprised of how small it felt like. It's a huge city (more than twice the size of the population of Finland) but it did not feel too big. We went to Gorky Park, a nice park where people go hanging out. I really liked it: it was calm but lively at the same time.

Pics from the park and its surroundings

 

    

Gorky Park is located right by the river and we took a nice walk along the river with Russian buddies as our guides. I have to say I really like the city! It has been too good for too long so I'm afraid the reality will hit me hard soon (like super crowded metros and pick pockets etc) but right now I'll enjoy every minute of this!

It was warm even late in the evening so no jackets or jeans are needed! And the sunset painted a beautiful red color over the city.
 

...and the best part is that we went to have dinner in the old city center and I paid 3,8e for a (small) portion of dumplings (and the same amount for Russian beer :D and I have to say I really liked it ;)).


Tonight we'll enjoy the "last day of the vacation" by going back to the city center in the evening and tomorrow we'll get the studies started!

Dormitory 5

As I already mentioned we got a taxi to the dormitory, nice and easy. We got the keys and info about the payment which should be done "approximately regularly", ok :D Btw the staff here speaks Russian, only Russian. I do understand smth about it but not all so it was good to have a buddy (the tutor) to translate things for me. Anyway, I got my keys (one key card for the gate by the door and a key to the room). I was happily surprised when I realized I would share a bathroom with my roommate (yup, literally a roommate since we'll share our bedroom). And two others who have the same entrance as we do, but their own shared room. The room itself.. Well, it's ok.

The kitchen was pretty clean and I we get to wash our clothes for free :) This time I don't have to collect coins like in the US or in Germany, nice!

I arrived pretty early so there are not many ppl here yet :D I think others will arrive tomorrow and the day after tomorrow but actually I think it was nice to get to wind down alone the first night and get to know the surroundings on a Sunday when the traffic isn't that bad. I live approximately 8 km from the city center, but I'll reach it easily with a metro. Today I was super tired so I just walked around in a huge park next to my dorm with my buddy and went to the grocery store, took a looong nap and walked a little more. Oh, and I met 3 other girls who live in this floor, all Russians with good English skills :) They were very nice and kind :) Btw 3/4 of the Russians I have talked to here have been to Helsinki.

So far so good!

 

 

Lotta

Panic at the disco (railway station) !

Hello there,

here I am again, abroad, in exchange, writing a blog to keep you updated of what's going on :)

At this point, when Russia is the 3rd place abroad where I'll live, one would think that the departure is a peace of cake. Not. So what happened is that I went to the train station early (like always) with my mom. We checked where the train was supposed to leave from and went to that platform. We still had 20 minutes until the train was gonna leave, everything was (supposed to be) fine and I was about to start my second exchange. Me leaving is already smth my friends and family are used to, nothing unusual. Calm before the storm...

Sorry about the quality, mom is not the best photographer (and I'm not the best model ;))

All the signs and even the speakers said that the train to Moscow was supposed to leave from platform 6 so we were waiting there, me my mom and two friends of mine who had stopped by to say bye. All of a sudden another train arrives to the platform and there was a text on that train saying it was going somewhere else. Now we got suspicious even if the sign above the platform still said Moscow. Then the text on the sign changed and told us that the train to Moscow left from another platform. I started running with my bags and my poor mom started running after me with half of my bags. The train had already started moving and I tried to scream to the Russian employee on the train that I have to get in but he just said "NO". I panicked because I thought that I had missed the train! But my friend, who was riding a bike caught the train and somehow managed to make the train stop (or then it was her and the other passengers who had also been on the wrong platform). So I got in, still in shock and gasping after running and carrying heavy bags. Not a very pleasant way of starting this trip!

Bye Helsinki!

I was happy to see the cabin was empty as I got in and there was food on the table. Nice surprise. I had time to cool myself down until Lahti where 3 Russian ladies got in. We spoke a little but due to my poor Russian skills and their even poorer (non-existing) English skills it was rather difficult :D I honestly don't know why I freeze when I am supposed to speak Russian!

The night went well and knowing me and my sleeping skills I slept pretty well in the train. As I arrived in Moscow the next morning my buddy (aka tutor for exchange students) was there waiting for me. We had decided to take a taxi because it was a cheap and an easy way of getting to the dormitory. More about that in the next post!

Lotta