Silent Hill

Nizhny Novgorod was our next stop after Kazan. We took an overnight train, which was full. The train cars were an older model, so they weren't as comfortable, and they were an ugly red color. We had the standard 4 berth compartment, but for the first time, our cabin was full. A younger man and an older man, both from Nizhny Novgorod accompanied us. From what we gathered through sign language and a tiny bit of English, they were in Kazan for business, but weren't traveling together. We tried talking, but usually finished with nervous laughter when no one understood each other. At the end of our trip, the older man pulled out a bottle of vodka, shook my hand, said, “Richard. Vodka.” and handed me the bottle. Russian people are so nice.

The Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod is on top of a very large hill overlooking the Volga River. The view is beautiful, but marred by a factory spewing smoke from its stacks in the distance. The kreml in Nizhny Novgorod is not very touristy, despite the souvenir shops that line the outer wall. The majority of buildings are government buildings with only one small art museum, a cathedral, and an eternal flame monument to heroes of World War II open to tourists. For this reason, we are dubbing it Silent Hill.

My hair looks ridiculous. One of the guards couldn't stop laughing for some reason.

Nizhny Novgorod's train station is far from the city center which is also a Unesco World Heritage site. The tram lines run into the city, but in a completely different way than indicated in our old Lonely Planet guide. We got on the right tram, but got off about a mile and a half from our hotel. We wandered around for a couple minutes. Emily eventually flagged down a nice old lady after allowing a few younger people to pass by. Emily's reasoning was that all old women are helpful and sweet, just like grandma. She pointed us in the right direction and told us through sign language that we should take the tram, because it was too far to walk. We decided to walk anyways, and got there in about 20 minutes.

The hotel was the highlight of our stay. See our review for details. After we checked in, we relaxed for a little while then took off for the pedestrian street. It was a very nice street that was bigger than the one in Kazan. There were definitely more restaurants and bars than in Kazan. We did a little shopping, and Emily decided to buy a pair of more fashionable boots. She looks even more Russian now. We also ate dinner at the CCCP cafe and had dessert at a blini (basically crepes, but Russian) restaurant.

Stalin punching Hitler in the face. Lenin putting the moves on Greta Garbo.

Nizhny Novgorod is fine for a day, maybe two, but not much more than that unless you're staying in the Sergievskaya Hotel, in which case, you may want to just relax there for a week.

Crazy sculpture.