19th November: Making Contacts

What I expected to be a boring weekend ended up turning into quite an interesting one. On Saturday afternoon, I met Julia and her friend Dasha outside the university and spent nearly four hours in local coffee shop just chatting to them. They spoke in English (most of the time, at least) and I in Russian, which was great practice for all of us. They’re really sweet girls and we agreed to do the same thing again the next week.

When I got back I got a call from Denis and agreed to meet up that night. After phoning round my English friends and discovering none of them would be ready soon enough, I conceded I’d have to go on my own and meet up with them a bit later. Denis is definitely an unusual character and he speaks impossibly fast, but I guess it’s all good practice. Like most of the young people here, he wants to leave Russia as soon as he can, loves everything about the idea of living abroad and has an absolutely idealised view of England. At the same time, he’s still got some of the typical Russian values, and I could only smile when I was told yet again that it was about time I was thinking about marriage.

At around 9.30 we went to meet Alexia, Ben and Ed outside Your Бар, where they were hoping to meet Akob and Yana (who didn’t actually turn up until after midnight in the end). I introduced them to Denis before he mysteriously disappeared, sending me a text asking me to call him later. In the meantime, Julia’s brother Vanya also decided to come and meet us, only to be refused entry by the bouncers, who were, by that time, imposing the girls-only rule, something which still seems incredibly unfair to me (despite the fact I gain from it).

By just past midnight I was already getting bored and was still tired from the night before, so decided to make my way home. Vanya, who’d been chatting to some friends in the foyer, offered to walk me home, and after some convincing, I agreed we could go the long way. Chatting to him is getting easier – whether he’s slowed down his speech for me or I’m just getting used to it, I don’t know. At any rate, we managed to have some really interesting conversations about the poor state of Russia (in particular, the state of its cities and its roads), and the corrupt political system. In Vanya’s opinion, Russia hasn't recovered since the rapid capitalisation under Yeltsin and needs radical reform for there to be any kind of significant improvements in the standard of life. He agrees that Putin made drastic improvements to Russia during his first term in office but that major action is still needed now to get Russia out of this spiral of decline.

It was getting late by the time we got to my road and I was beginning to feel the cold. It took a little while to convince Vanya that I really did have to go (yes, I really did have to get up early; no, I couldn't just go inside and get more layers) but we finally said our goodbyes, agreeing to meet up at Cocktail Bar and to watch the new season of Misfits (how do they know about this in Russia before I did?)

The next day I was meeting Jo and Katie at the station to get the train to Ростов (Rostov), a neighbouring town on the Золотое Кольцо (Golden Ring). I hadn't told Lyudmila I was going as it had been a last-minute decision the night before and I hadn't had chance to mention it as I’d got back late. So when it was approaching 10am and she still wasn't up, I decided to make myself some tea and eat my own cereal. It was then that she appeared and asked me what was going on; I explained I was going out and why I hadn't told her about it, and she made me some breakfast. Things had got better between us over the week (apart from one incident when I forgot it’s forbidden to put clothes on the radiator) and it seemed as if things were almost back to normal. When I left she even wished me a nice day, which, since she hadn't really spoken to me since the money incident, seemed like a huge step forward.

Anyway, I made my way to the station and after hurriedly buying our tickets at the station, Jo, Katie and I headed to Rostov. It’s situated on the banks of the river Неро (Nero) and is one of the oldest towns in Russia. First mentioned in 862, its official name is Ростов Великий (Great Rostov) in order to differentiate it from Ростова-на-Дону, but I find this slightly ironic since, as a tiny town in the middle of Russia, it’s anything but great.

There are, however, several reasons why Rostov gained the title of a Golden Ring town. Firstly, the lake itself is a beautiful landmark. As well as this, the wooden and stone architecture which dominates the town gives it a historical feel (although these days these buildings are largely dilapidated). The most notable features of the town are its attractive Kremlin and beautifully-kept monastery.

We arrived at just past midday and, after waiting for over an hour to buy return tickets, had only a few hours to see everything before our train home. First, we made our way to the Kremlin, which was only a short walk down one straight road. We hardly noticed when we hit the ‘main street’, which consisted of a few shops and cafes built into the city walls. With few cars on the road, a handful of pedestrians and a heavy sky threatening up above, it was like arriving in a ghost town.

The Kremlin, however, offers a welcome contrast to the rest of the town with its peach stone walls and colourful church domes reaching up into the sky. The name ‘Kremlin’ is disputable, since it was the residence of the metropolitan and never an official Kremlin. It was, however, built in the style of a Kremlin (between 1670 and 1683) and is therefore known by this name. After the metropolitan was transferred to Yaroslavl, the Kremlin gradually lost its significance and, since no religious services took place in its churches, it was nearly torn down. However, it was restored in the nineteenth century and has served as a museum since 1883. The exteriors have been preserved in their original form, but the majority of the interior walls have been whitewashed since the devastation caused by the hurricane in 1953. Some of the churches are currently undergoing extensive restoration, including one in which all the icons have been removed from the walls, covered in canvas and stacked on labelled shelves.

After visiting the Kremlin we passed the lake and walked another fifteen minutes to the Спасо-Яковлевский монастырь, which was constructed in 1389. This, in my opinion, is much more attractive than the Kremlin, consisting of a courtyard of buildings and churches built in an almost European style with grand white pillars and well-preserved green domes, some having been built later under the neoclassical influence in the early nineteenth century.

After visiting the monastery we had only an hour to spare before our train, so we walked back into the ‘town centre’ and ducked into a little café to warm ourselves up with some tea and pancakes before braving the rest of the walk to the station. The journey back itself, in a second-class carriage, was pleasant enough and only took only three quarters of an hour. By 6pm we were back in Yaroslavl and I needed to decide what to do with the rest of my evening.

On the trolleybus back from the station, I spontaneously decided to miss the last hour of choir and take up Ben Jovic on his offer to meet him, Lily and some Russians for drinks. By the time I met up with them I only had an hour, but I decided it was better than nothing, and always useful to make more Russian contacts. They were lovely people – two of them, Sasha and Olga, we had met at Lingua Café, the other, Dasha was another friend of theirs who taught English. I had time to stay for one drink before swapping numbers and agreeing to meet up again some other time.

As I was rushing back from the bar to make it to dinner on time, I almost missed Julia, who was walking back from choir with some of the others. She called me back and I stopped for a little chat with them before making my excuses and dashing off. When, breathless, I entered the flat and said my apologies, it turned out that Lyudmila had expected me late anyway and so I wasn't late after all. Whilst I was eating, I had another call from Dennis who I agreed to see at some point next week since, even though he talks really fast and is generally quite odd, it’s all good practice and his heart’s in the right place.

For the rest of the night I decided just to relax, especially since Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was being shown on the TV. It’s quite weird hearing all the characters with different voices and seeing how they translate the sometimes very English jokes. They've kept most of the spells in Latin, which is strange because with Russian being a Slavic rather than a Latin-based language, the sense behind the Latin must surely not come across.

Today everyone seemed in a good mood and we dragged out lunch into drinks until late afternoon. This evening is Strip Dance at the fitness centre, which I’m slightly dubious about but want to at least try nonetheless. After that the plan is to meet at Cocktail Bar as usual, but I've also arranged to meet Vanya there tonight so hopefully we can get some more language practice. Vanya’s interesting to chat to, and he’s definitely not afraid to correct my mistakes either, which is always helpful.