Not a Bad Place to Be a Dissident

Lenin from Afar

I still had not taken an overnight train on this portion of my trip when I arrived in Nizhny-Novgorod from Vladimir.  I didn’t know much about the city other than it was renamed during to Soviet period in honor of Maxim Gorky who was born there. It was also the location where the great Andrei Sakharov was sent into exile. And what can I say but, did he good a great deal on that whole prisoner of conscience thing! I was more than pleasantly surprised by the city. I only had about a day to really explore before I hopped on the train for the next portion of my ride. Other than not getting to the Sakharov Museum, that was quite far away and not taking the sky tram over the Volga River (I was just too exhausted!), I saw quite a bit of the city. 

             

When I alit from the train that morning, I was a bit disappointed with what I saw. Yes, this was beginning to resemble the Russia I last visited twenty-five years ago. Outside the train station I saw the very Soviet-looking square with grey, dingy buildings. I believe it was then I decided I was going to have a coffee at McDonalds and figure out where I was located. After heaving along my backpack, I found my hotel, which seemed to be a part of a large apartment complex. It was small, unexciting, but clean. For this reason, I was happy I was only staying the night. So, I quickly checked in and asked for directions to the highlight of the city, the Kremlin overlooking the confluence of the Oka and Volga Rivers. After snapping a few pictures of the Lenin Statue and gazing at the crappy Soviet hotel nearby, I hopped a marshrutka towards the kremlin. As we crossed the river and got closer, I could see that my hotel, while close to the train station, was not in the best part of town. Once the marshrutka reached the top of the hill and I exited, I could see why this place was so popular. The Kremlin is an enormous structure with the perfect view, in times of war and peace. I thought my time there would be short, but I decided to take the day and linger.

View from right of Kremlin to the Volga River

The kremlin saw its most important duty before the Mongol invasions. After the khans got into town, the place was not much use for the Russians. The place continued to fall apart even during the times of the czars and I believe the Soviets wanted to destroy the kremlin and replace it with some horrible administrative building. But over the years since the dissolution of the USSR, the kremlin has been made into a park with a few museums. Of course, as you walk around you see monuments to the Great Patriotic War (WWII), including a wall of names and some tanks, guns, and even an airplane. Many of the original structures, like the cathedral, were torn down either by the Mongols of the Soviets but the walls were still there. I paid my fee and began to walk around the ramparts. I didn’t realize you could walk all the way around the walls (1.2km) but I made good headway around the southern part. It was an incredible view of the rivers. I took some pictures but they cannot do the place justice.

A View from the Ramparts

I still had hopes of taking the (shaky) cable car over the Volga but I was somewhat overwhelmed with exhaustion and hunger. Instead, I thought I’d take a walk down the main street, Ulitsa Pokrovskaya. I thought it would be a quick, ten-minute walk, but there was so much to see that it took me over an hour to get to Gorky Park and I still hadn’t seen everything. Pokrovskaya was filled with restaurants, a few museums, and lots and lots of people. Young folks were handing out flyers to restaurants and shops and there were even some (creepy) clowns performing. I decided to try and find Gorky’s childhood home but the signs were not quite helpful. Instead, I opted for a picture of his statue. But his presence still seems to loom large after all these years. In addition to bookstores and libraries, I saw statues and murals that had a definite literature theme. There also seemed to be a feline literature theme as well; although I’m not sure why. (No murals of reading dogs as they seemed to be too busy rooting around in the trash) 

Smarty Cat

On the Prowl 

As sunset became dusk, I made my way down the hill on foot. I found a nice restaurant with a Belgian theme. I had seen fish on the menu and had hoped that it was a local catch. Unfortunately, the Volga fish, at least in the Nizhny region, don’t appear to be edible. In fact, I finally had local fish when I was at Lake Baikal, thousands of kilometers away. Regardless, I was happy with the food and pleased with my decision to come to Nizhny-Novgorod. When I do this trip again I will schedule more time in the city so I can better enjoy the attractions and the history. Oh, and I’m going to find a nicer hotel!

Getting Dorky with Gorky

Ridiculous Spoon Monument