WE WERE GIVEN ROYAL SERVICE
BY THE SHIP´S PERSONNEL
Up until May 2, our tour had been great all the way. Four days after our arrival in Russia our journey had been full of great things, pleasant surprises (including, but not limited to the great weather), great sceneries, and major art and history lessons and, of course, we have gotten a little bit acquainted with the country and its language, with the city of Moscow and with its people. Now it was time to leave, to continue with our programmed tour, it was time to say good bye to Moscow and start the navigating part of our trip. What we were leaving behind was captivating, surprising (in spite of being programmed) and was going to be part of our dearest and indelible memories, those we store not only in our minds, but in our hearts as well.
At 4 PM on May 2, and after crossing the City of Moscow from one side to the other, we arrived to the pier where the M/S Leo Tolstoy was docked and waiting to take us on a river cruise to St. Petersburg, the second largest city of Russia. St Petersburg, the beautiful city called “the Venice of the North”, is the city that was built from zero by the greatest Tsar in the history of Russia, Peter the Great after he returned from France, impressed by the French and Western culture, art and architecture. Peter personally managed the construction of the city and when it was finally built, and he saw it was so beautiful, he gave it his own name in a display of “royal modesty”.
WE WERE WELCOMED TO THE SHIP BY
THREE TALENTED RUSSIAN MUSICIANS
As we entered the vessel, three musicians dressed in Cossacks´ outfits welcomed us at the song of Russian music and with the flavor of Russian sparkling wine, accompanied by delicious pastries made in the vessel´s kitchen: It all was the prelude of a pleasant voyage through the mighty Volga and the huge water ways built in the Soviet era, making it possible to navigate from the Baltic Sea in the North, not very far from the North Pole, to the Caspian Sea in the South.
This was, indeed, in its own time (1930´s), a Pharaoh’s size project executed by the Soviet regime, geared to provide not only navigable waterways, but hydroelectric power generating stations and irrigation for the immense fields of Russia as well. The catastrophic effects caused to the environment by this huge project was never taken into account by the Soviet authorities in those days, as vast extensions of land, including densely populated areas were inundated by the new canals and waterways.
BELLFRIES WERE THE ONLY THING LEFT
ABOVE THE WATER IN MANY RUSSIAN TOWNS
This was the typical Machiavellian approach to the situation as frequently used by the communists: “The end justifies the means”. The environmental effects of these works are still clearly noticeable today.
At six O´clock the captain of the ship offered us, the passengers, a welcome cocktail and introduced his main officers and assistants, including the chef, a typical charming Russian lady who had a master degree in International Cuisine and who, I her own language gave us a welcome to our new “home”.
THE CAPTAIN´S WELCOMING TOAST
The Leo Tolstoy is a vessel that was built in 1985 for the highest ranking officers of the Soviet Government and their illustrious visitors who used it for their not so “proletarian” pleasure journeys. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, this vessel was sold to VODOHOD, a private company which refurbished it and put it to use as a touristic vessel navigating the Volga.
THE CHEF, A BEAUTIFUL PERSON
AND A GREAT PROFESSIONALThe M/S Tolstoy is 350 ft long and 50 ft wide and has a capacity for 160 passengers accommodated in 80 double bed cabins in its three decks. It has two spacious entertainment rooms and a large meeting room located in the third deck. It has a crew of 100 people, between marine officers, seamen, entertainers, musicians, waiters, waitresses, cooks, cleaning and other personnel; so as we set sail, we were a total of 260 people in the ship.
THE LEO TOLSTOY DOCKED IN ST PETERSBURG
AT THE END OF OUR GREAT RIVER JOURNEY
Most crewmen and women had more than one job to do while sailing, and all, without exception, was as nice and courteous as they could be to accomplish their mission, which was to have us enjoy our stay in their ship.
IN THE DINING ROOM, THE PERSONNEL
WAS YOUNG, EFFICIENT, ELEGANT AND
VERY GOOD LOOKING
At 7:30 Pm we had our first dinner in the ship. It was really impressive how the dining room had been decorated for the occasion- The room was full with the 156 Vantange passengers and our Vantage guides. It was shining, like ready for a first class banquet. The young age and the elegance of their outfits was the common denominator among the dining room personnel, all of them girls and boys between 20 and 23, college students of Tourism Services of various Russian universities. All of them were doing “on the job” training before obtaining their college degree in Tourism Services.
The eight Ecuadorians on the ship (our group) took over a table for eight which was right by the main entrance to the dining room. In that table we were “babied” rather than waited by, by two of the most efficient, friendliest and most likeable waiting young people on the boat; Dmitri and Vera. Both spoke excellent English and Vera even spoke Spanish, foreign languages that they were taking as part of their curriculum in the University.
Nutritious, colorful and exotic as well, was the food we were served every day, where the Russian caviar, the Northern salmon and other delicacies were frequently accompanied by great wine and other spirits which are part of the Russians´ dining table. The above, plus the great personal attention to every passenger on the ship, were invariable characteristics of the service we received every day while in our cruise. As a result, we all gained an average of four pounds in the seven day cruise.
CHERISHED AND EFFICIENT HOSTS
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NUTRITIOUS AND SUPERBLY PRESENTED
WAS OUR FOOD IN THE SHIP
The ship had set sail at about 6 PM and we navigated the whole night, having passed, while we were sleeping, one of the many locks we were set to pass in our route to St Petersburg. Breakfast was ready at 7:30 Am and about nine in the morning, we arrived and disembarked in the small but historical city of Uglish (about 80 miles from Moscow), founded in the year 937, by early Slavic settlers. This small city, which has survived many devastations caused by intermittent wars, flourished between the XIII and XIV centuries and reached its zenith in the XVI century when the Tsar Ivan the Terrible established it as its headquarters, while fighting the Mongols of the Golden Horde (which dominated Russia for almost three hundred years).
A few years later, the same Tsar returned to Uglish with his wife Maria Nagaya and his young son (10) the Tsarevich Dmitri, fleeing from his archenemy Boris Godunov who finally overthrew Ivan. In 1591, Godunov’s men found the young heir and brutally assassinated him, so ending with the Ryurik dynasty of the Russians Tsars. Two years after being murdered by Godunov´s soldiers, Dmitri was made a Saint by the Orthodox Church, and a big church was built in his memory (St. Dmitri on the Blood). This large church with its beautiful golden domes dominates the Uglish skyline, together with the green domed Cathedral of the Resurrection and the blue domed Transfiguration Cathedral. Dmitry is the only Child Saint in the Russian Church. We visited all three churches and admired their interior and exterior architecture and the many works of art inside them, both reminiscences of the golden age of the Orthodox Church and the faith of the Russian people.
History says that a few years after the assassination of Dmitry, Godunov himself was assassinated, and the Tsar Mikhail I took over in 1613, initiating the Romanov´s dynasty which lasted for three hundred years until 1918, when the Bolsheviks did away with all the Russian royalty by murdering Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family in Yekaterinburg, so initiating 70 years of brutal, inefficient, inhuman, corrupt and inept government. that promised heaven for the future while actually producing hell in the lives of the Russian people.
Wherever we went in Uglish we found History. It was like all of a sudden we immersed ourselves into the depths of the middle ages and had a chance to walk and live part of those historic but tragic times of the Russian History. No wonder, according to our guides, Uglish is one of the most historic, cherished and loved cities of Russia.
VOLGA WATERWAYS
UGLISH, AS SEEN FROM OUR SHIP UPON ARRIVAL
It was here, in Uglish that we had a chance to have lunch with a typical Russian family in their own living quarters, a family who belongs to the inner Russia, the Russia that has not changed much throughout the centuries, the Russia where the common Russians live, the people who have not changed throughout the centuries, the people who has maintained intact the sympathy and simplicity of the country Russian, even after going through the 70 year long and nasty communist night.
EIGHT ECUADORIANS DINING
WITHA RUSSIAN FAMILY
It was here that we met this lady (60) and her two daughters (27 and 30), who live in a 500 sq feet apartment. This was people humble but generous, proud of their history and hopeful for their future. All three of them work to make ends meet. It was here that we had a chance to flavor the common Russians´ food, a very simple but nutritious and balanced food. Vodka accompanied our food and soon after we took a couple of glasses of it, Russian music was turned on and we started to dance.
ECUADORIANS DANCING WITH
OUR RUSSIAN HOSTS
We danced, yes, we danced Russian music played in a small CD player, we danced with the three ladies in the house, and we had a lot of fun. We drank vodka and so we felt the flavor of Russia. The food, consisting of a cabbage salad and boiled potatoes that had no seasoning but salt, was indeed very modest, but it was nutritious and was tasty as well. It was, most likely, the food that this family eats very frequently in their day to day life
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THE CATHEDRAL OF THE PROPHET ELIJAH
IN YAROLSLAVL
At 5 PM we returned to the ship to continue our journey, this time we were going to stop only after 36 hours of sailing. Our next stop was going to be on May 4 in YAROSLAVL , a city of about 600,000 inhabitants, also in the Volga River banks, at about 160 miles north of Moscow and 100 miles South of St Petersburg. The weather was still good considering the time of the year. The historic area of the city is a Patrimony of Human Kind as declared so by the United Nations.
THE MONUMENT TO PRINCE YAROSLAVL
IN THE CITY OF HIS NAME
The city´s origin goes back to the 10Th century when Viking tribes inhabited the area. The name of the city comes from Prince Yaroslavl “the wise” of Rostov a nearby principality, who defeated the local tribes which had taken to vandalize and extort trades and other travelers passing by this place while navigating the Volga. The native people, who worshipped the bear, after being defeated by Prince Yaroslavl, challenged him to fight their bear god and accepted that if their bear was defeated, they will obey Yaroslavl orders and will become his vassals. Yaroslavl took the challenge and defeated the bear in a clean fight; he immediately ordered the construction of a large commemorative church which is still there. Ever since; the natives stopped all pillaging, and the site became the city of YAROSLAVL. A large monument to Prince Yaroslavl remains in the historic part of the town. The symbol of the city is a large bear with an ax on its shoulder and can be seen everywhere within the city.
THE CHURCH PRINCE YAROSLAVL
ORDEREDTO BE BUILT IN YEAR 957
THE CATHEDRAL OF THE TRANSFIGURATION IN YAROSLAVL
The most important monuments in Yaroslavl, just as in the other Russian cities we had recently visited, were religious monuments. The Church of St Elijah, built I 1650 and the Monastery of the Transfiguration built in the XII century, are among the oldest and favorite, almost mandatory stop of all kinds of tourists, Russians and foreigners, travelling through the Volga waterways. It was here that we spotted, as we passed by in our bus, a Café named Café Cuba located right in heart of the city, most likely it was owned by a Cuban man or woman who stayed in Russia after being sent to Russia by the Cuban government before the fall of the communist regime in the late 80´s.
In my next posting: GETTING CLOSER TO ST PETERSBURG
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