Russkoe Podvorie - Rostov-Veliky

Yet another difficult to find hotel. It really didn't help that every map we found of this small town was garbage. The hotel does have a sign up on a side street, but someone broke off the end of the arrow, so it no longer points anywhere. If the arrow were still present, we never would have gotten lost. It is in the center of the city, which means that it should have been easy to find. We just had a little bad luck on our way there.

Other than that, the hotel is right next to the kreml, which is absolutely beautiful (see 5 Golden Rings). The lady at the reception desk spoke very good English, among the best we've encountered in Russia. That isn't really saying much, but it was nice. The rooms are small, but nicely decorated. They have a red, white, and black color scheme that gives a modern, boutique hotel vibe. There is a restaurant attached that serves good food. They also have a small selection of mead, including one made by the local monks.

The breakfast at the restaurant was one of the few good ones we have had. They give you a choice of eggs and sausage, porridge, or blini (Russian crepes). We both chose to have the blini with condensed milk, and they were very good. You get a choice of tea or coffee and a few pastries as well.

We would definitely stay at this hotel again.

Hotel Volga - Kostroma

The Hotel Volga was by far and away the easiest hotel to find. The inter-city bus goes right past it, and you can ask the bus driver to stop at the first bus stop near the hotel. It's a five minute walk back from there. The place is Soviet era through and through. You notice it as soon as you get in the elevator. It is small, ugly, and jerks all the way up. The rooms are also very Soviet, but they aren't bad. There is a sitting room with a balcony and a bedroom that also has a balcony. Our view of the Volga was about the only amazing thing we ran into in Kostroma.

The walls in the hotel are like paper though. If you don't close every door in the room, there are three (one outer, two inner), you can hear everything that goes on in the hallway. If the other guests were quiet, I don't think that would be much of a problem. We were saddled with a hallway full of rambunctious children. They yelled, screamed, and tackled each other in the hall. Until I closed every door, they kept us awake.

Breakfast was again included. I guess I shouldn't complain so much about free breakfasts, but so many of them are very half-assed. This one was better. Some of the stuff was at least lukewarm instead of stone cold. They had potatoes, scrambled eggs that came in block form, hard boiled eggs that were a day or two old, pancakes with no syrup, and an assortment of other things. The cranberry juice was good, and tea and coffee were self-service as usual.

The Volga Hotel was a nice little place, and if you absolutely have to stay in Kostroma (see our Golden Rings blog entry), it isn't a bad place.

Cherry Garden - Suzdal

The Cherry Garden Hotel is easy to find as long as you don't listen to Google Maps. If you try to use Google Maps, like we did, you will end up clear on the other side of the city nowhere near the hotel. We found a couple Russian men to help us; we bought some of their souvenirs later. What should have been a 20 minute walk turned into a 50 minute walk, but we ended up finding the hotel just fine.

The hotel is built in a log cabin style, and the rooms smell of cedar when you enter them. It's a wonderful smell. Our budget double was a good size for the price, 2000 rubles, and the bed was very comfortable. The wi-fi at the hotel was a little slow, but good enough for checking emails. Breakfast was included in the price, and was very good. They cooked it as you showed up, and brought out eggs, bread, and sausages after a few minutes. Coffee and tea were self-service.

The best part of the hotel is actually the backyard. They have a very nice garden that has a man-made stream and pond in the summer. There are two gazebos, one large and one small, where you can sit out and watch the sunrise or sunset. We both thought that it would be best to stay there during the late spring, but it was still mostly green even into late October. It is worth staying there if you ever make it to Suzdal.

The back yard.

Vladimir Hotel - Vladimir

The Vladimir Hotel is conveniently located up a short hill near the bus and train stations. All of the sites are quite close as well. Vladimir isn't a very big city, so you're never very far from the cathedrals and churches anyways, but being near the bus station is a huge plus.

The hotel is not too expensive, 1900 rubles (less than $60) for a standard twin. You can add breakfast, which we did, for another 600 rubles. The room is about the size of a standard dorm room. The beds are directly next to one another, thank god they weren't bunk beds given the size. There is a desk, a wardrobe, and the bathroom is en-suite. Given the location and the price, there isn't really much to complain about.

The breakfast wasn't worth it though. Everything is laid out buffet-style, but the food is all cold. Even the eggs. They did have apple juice, coffee, tea, and what looked like tomato juice. There was also a selection of cheese and meats, but really only one kind of cheese, and two kinds of standard store bought cold cuts. They also had bananas, which was a plus for Emily. The breakfast is worth about half of what we paid, and in reality, they would be better off switching to a continental breakfast with pastries, toast, and assorted jams and jellies.

Five Golden Rings!

This is the start of our Golden Ring tour; the Golden Ring is a series of small cities and towns that form a circle just north of Moscow.

Vladimir

Vladimir is one of the largest such cities, and serves as the base for many a tour group. We arrived in the morning, checked into our hotel, and walked around the town. It didn't take long, however, as Vladimir is small and the main street is right outside our hotel. Vladimir is set on top of a hill, so it made for some lovely views...including one of a factory, naturally.

Both of these would become normal sights over the next four days.

The main street was filled with cafes and shops, so we took it easy and enjoyed our walk around town. Apparently this is what the Golden Ring is for: relaxing, walking around, strolling down the main street, and taking your time. After a whirlwind trip through Mongolia and eastern Russia, it was nice to take things a little easier.

Suzdal

Suzdal is a little off the beaten path, and it isn't serviced by rail at all. The main buses really only run back and forth between Suzdal and Vladimir. It is worth the trip though. Suzdal is filled with churches. You can't walk more than few meters without seeing one. They are almost all extremely beautiful.

One of many churches.

Holy shopping Batman!

Our hotel had a map with a walking tour of Suzdal. We decided to split it over two days, because we were being extremely lazy. If we did the walking tour in one day, without stopping to go shopping, it would probably only take an hour and a half. However, Suzdal has a large number of outdoor souvenir stands and farmer's markets. They are mostly located in the square around the trading arcades, where they surround the square and run down a side street. There are also a few scattered around the churches. If you take time to browse a bit, it can take up a lot of time.

More churches.

Aside from its plethora of churches, Suzdal is known for mead. Mead is a honey-based alcohol. In all Suzdal meads you can taste the honey far more than the alcohol. The one night we spent in Suzdal, we decided to eat some heavy food and drink some mead. It made me wish we spent a couple extra days there.

Drinking mead.

Heavy food you should eat with your mead. Pike with fried potatoes and chicken in a cream sauce.

We saw these ducks before we moved on.

Because Suzdal is off the beaten path, Kostroma is extremely difficult to get to from there. Very few buses originate in Suzdal, and only three leave for Kostroma each day. They start in Vladimir though, so you won't know if seats are available until the bus pulls up. We got to the bus station, which is really just a shack that sells tickets, an hour before the bus was scheduled to show up. When the bus finally pulled up, it was very full. The ticket woman suggested that we get on a bus to Ivanovo and take a bus to Kostroma from there. We decided that sounded like a good idea, so we waited some more. The bus to Ivanovo pulled up, and there were only two seats available, but there were 6 people trying to get tickets. The woman gave us the tickets, which pissed off all the Russian women waiting too. We're guessing it was because we had been there for a long time, nearly two hours, and we were the least able to get out of Suzdal on our own. We took the bus to Ivanovo and then tried to figure out where we should buy tickets to Kostroma. There were four different ticket windows. Three of them were outside, and for Moscow only. The final one was inside. We got a ticket to Kostroma easy enough, and then waited only about ten minutes for the bus.

Kostroma

After the adventure of getting to Kostroma, it was a pretty disappointing city. When Lonely Planet lists the main government building as a sight, you know there isn't much there. The night we got there, we went to a nice cafe that had some great cocktails, but that was the best thing about the city.

That, and Lenin.

The next morning we walked to the city center and found out that we had seen everything that wasn't a house after about 20 minutes. There were some nice parks that overlook the Volga, so perhaps if the weather is nice you can spend some more time there. If you ever get to take a trip through the Golden Ring cities, here is my suggestion: go to Suzdal, leave early in the morning, stop in Kostroma for a couple hours, and move on by nightfall. It isn't worth spending the night unless you have no other choice.

In front of the Volga.

The city was so small even the market was completely shut down.

Yaroslavl

Yaroslavl is Suzdal's urban equivalent. It is dominated by churches, river views (the Volga and Kotorsl Rivers meet here), and beautiful, old merchant homes. The kreml here is very nice, but it is the first one we ran into that is not functional. It is strictly a museum, so you have to pay to enter.

Yes, that is another church.

There are three main squares in the city, and they are all connected by large, easily walkable roads. There is also a lovely river walk that is 1.5km long. The city center is quite nice and has a lot more to do and see than Kostroma. There is a small pedestrian street and a good selection of bars, cafes, and restaurants.

This is where the Volga and Kotorsl meet.

The monks put out some beautiful music on these bells.

Yaroslavl is a city that was founded by a man who killed a bear with an axe, thus the bear with the axe.

Yaroslavl is a nice city that we could have spent a couple days in. Unfortunately it rained while we were looking around the Kremlin and various churches. We decided to head to Rostov-Veliky instead of staying another night, because we read that Rostov-Veliky was one of the most beautiful cities in the Golden Ring.

This dish is named something Old Georgian. It was mutton, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and pickled cabbage.

And another church.

Rostov-Veliky

I'm sure that Rostov-Veliky is gorgeous in the spring and summer. Right now, however, it is late fall with winter coming on quickly. The city is overrun with construction. You would think they were re-building the entire city. Most things closed early, as in 5 PM early. The only two restaurants we could find were in the two main hotels, ours and another called the Lion. We decided to give the hotel restaurant at the Lion a shot. We should have just stayed at our own hotel, because their menu and staff ended up being infinitely better. We got dessert and a drink at our hotel restaurant after dinner.

Surprise kitty! We had just gotten into a cafe, Emily took off her coat, and this kitten jumped into her warm lap. Everyone say awwww...

For all of the construction going on, the kreml in Rostov-Veliky was still beautiful. For the first time, the onion shaped domes weren't gold, green, or blue; they were a very nice silvery gray that was highlighted by gold trim. If you have the time, it is worth making the trip just to see the kreml. It is unique, which is something I wouldn't say about most of the other Golden Ring cities and their kremls. Other than that, Rostov is situated on Lake Nero which apparently in the summer is a good place for boat rides. Around the Kremlin are various streets with shops and cafes. Unfortunately most of them were closed as it is not tourist season. If you come here, make sure it is in spring or summer!

Shots of the kreml. The third one is just a little bit of the construction we encountered.

Now, after 18 days, we're finally off to the main attraction of Russia: Moscow!