Russia -- 2004: Moscow to Vladimir (#3)

3 April 2004, Later the Same Day

     At the head of the road to Vladimir, with signs of construction for new airline terminals behind us, we passed a huge war memorial, one of many in the Russian Federation. I have no doubt that the modernizing construction has changed many aspects of life in many parts of Russia since 2004. But as we passed the war memorial I was eager to take in as much of the recent past as I could, to experience what remained of the Soviet mandate that had occupied what I knew of Russia up to that point.

    I had thought at the time that Vladimir, our destination, was south of Moscow, but a check of maps clearly shows that it lies east and slightly north of Moscow, a 3 - 4 hour drive. Once we left the immediate vicinity of Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO), as memory serves, we were on a two-lane cross country road-trip. 

    As I often do on such trips, I found a seat near the back with access to a window as I try to absorb as much of whatever is out there as humanly possible. It's an added bonus if I can move from one side of the bus to the other as scenery changes, thereby improving my chances of catching more.

    My notes are sketchy for this first leg of our time in Russia, but I remember considerable two way traffic early on which quickly thinned out. The highway, like many I have traveled in the US, was full of patches, heaves, and hole. It needed to be replaced.

    Evidence of the Soviet era was everywhere -- old blocky cement buildings (especially apartment buildings), military outposts along the highways, and so forth. A certain grayness dominates. Not all of the hammer and sickle emblems and not all the statues of Lenin had been removed by any means.

    Two hours or so into that first leg of the drive we stopped at a roadside restaurant for "shaklih," Russian BBQ, if I remember correctly. The restaurant was small -- two rooms -- with a huge guard dog outside near the entrance. I kept thinking it was a captive wolf. Even though it was chained and confined by a chain-link fence, that dog looked about as fierce as anything I had ever encountered.

    Consider it weakness if you like, but I did not make eye contact with that dog let alone position myself close enough to take a picture with my disposable camera. I had made the regrettable calculation that it would be better to leave my  real camera at home and purchase a couple of single-use cheap-o cameras just in case I somehow got separated from my better one.

 

    The wolf at the door notwithstanding, the food was delicious -- Russian salad, pork cubes (the shaklih, I believe), cole slaw, fried potatoes, and sprite. 

    I have tried hard to pay attention to the foods on our travels, especially to first meals, and especially when someone tells us this or that is "typical."

    As it grew dark during the last hour and a half of our bus ride to Vladimir, I kept nodding off until we slowed for the city itself. Vladimir presented a foreboding picture, entering, as we did, at night in late winter. A few people walked along the streets. Dim lights glowed in a few windows of old dreary apartment buildings.

    On arrival, I am surprised that our hotel is completely dark from the outside. We unloaded our bags and equipment from our bus, stood around in the lobby waiting to be registered, which involved surrendering our passports and getting our room assignments. We have been more or less awake for better that 40 hours. A description of the room can wait.

    I slept like a log.