14th Dec 1985
The day began with a burst of tears as we said goodbye to some of the best friends we had ever made. They would be leaving Butterworth soon to return to Australia and it would be some time before we saw them all again. Ah Bah turned up half an hour late but got us to the airport in plenty of time to take our flight to KL. The transit stop there passed quickly as we were amidst plenty of excited company. Many other teachers and their families had joined us. So had Eric's brother Kenny.
We flew to the Soviet Union with Aeroflot arranged by Sharma Travel and Tours in Penang on advice from all the families who had done it without any trouble the year before. We had been given the front block of seats which provided us with heaps of leg room. We had just a one hour stopover at Karachi for refueling where we found the terminal deserted but with refreshingly cool 23deg air. It was here that we first learnt that Aeroflot don't normally allocate seating so people began queuing very early, we let all the children do it for our group.
Our itinerary is Russia, England, Scotland, back to England, Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and home to Malaysia.
We landed in Moscow at 4:00 am on the 15th Dec and eventually got everyone through Customs and Immigration despite the very strict procedures and then organised a bus to take us to the Hotel Sheremetyevo. It was very difficult to negotiate anything as there was virtually no one who spoke any English and our Russian was non-existent. Eventually, after a long wait we discovered the hotel was within view so we were able to walk across to it though this proved quite difficult as we were all lugging heavy loads of winter gear. We still had a I hr wait until breakfast was served at 8am. It was our introduction to Russian fare: bread, cheese, boiled egg, a continental pastry and mineral water.
That's our group outside our hotel. Eric and I were each given separate rooms, with no children perhaps they didn't realise we were married. We'll never know. It didn't matter anyway, there was no way I was sleeping on my own so we shared his single bed for the night. Russian spies and all that, I had the Heebie Jeebies.
After breakfast we took a bus and the underground rail to the Government Intourist Travel Agent in Gorky St to jump on a tour. The train trip was quite an experience a woman only just managed to squeeze on before the doors slammed shut. Unfortunately her handbag didn't make it but the doors didn't reopen, she just had to wait until the next station! We discovered that we had missed the 10 am tour so, despite the fact that it was bitterly cold outside, we walked Red Square and beyond. The many guards made themselves very obvious and kept everything very orderly as thousands of local Muscovites lined up to view Lenin's Tomb. How they stood still in the line for so long in this chill wind amazed us. It was a huge square and standing at one end near the GUM store, we tried to imagine the interesting history of the Square- from being the site of bloody fights in the medieval times, to a place used for official parades. No decorations for the Christmas season were in sight.
That's Kenny and I trying to keep warm and standing out as obvious tourists in our colourful ski parkas. On the right is the Kremlin wall which extends the entire length of the western side of Red Square. It protects Moscow Kremlin, the royal bastion and the official residence of the President of Russia. Lenin’s Mausoleum stands in front of the wall.
We walked by the Bolshoi Theatre on Theatre Square and the stone-carved statue of Karl Marx at the Teatralnaya Square which had the inscription “Workers of the World Unite”.
At 2pm we took the tour which began back Red Square outside St Basil's Cathedral. The onion domes stood out because of their architecture and amazing colour, about the only colourful item in the whole square (other than us). Even the people are all dressed in drab grey, black and brown. What makes Red Square really unique is that it is surrounded by so many important landmarks: The State Historical Museum, another cathedral and more statues.
Below is another angle of the Kremlin overlooking the Moskva River, and below it the GUM Store which also faces Red Square.
Our tour then continued to museums, statues, the industrial area and the university with much propaganda and very little opportunity to do anything except see it all from the bus window. Below is the Olympic Stadium.
Perhaps it was just as well it wasn't a 'hop on hop off bus' as it was so cold. After the tour we caught the underground and bus back home to our hotel. Our dinner was Russian salad and caviar, beef with white sauce and cup-cake with tea. Then we went to bed early as we hadn't had a lot of sleep since leaving Butterworth the day before. The most notable thing today was that nobody accepts Russian Rubles or Kopeks from foreigners. You must pay for everything, except rail and bus fares with foreign currency, the first time we have struck this. They will forego a sale rather than take local currency. Now we have a problem, how will we get rid of all these rubles we exchanged. Exchange rate $10 Aust = 5.14 Kopeks, a Russian unit of currency equal to 1/100 of the ruble. We were discussing this quietly across the table over a meal and in no time a waiter approached and offered to do an exchange, obviously a trade that suited him favourably. Once again we have the Heebie Jeebies. How did he overhear us?
15th Dec
After a good night's sleep (despite the single bed) and breakfast we went back into Red Square, just in time to see the changing of the guard. We ventured into the GUM Store, amazed to see the lack of free choice available. The shelves might be stacked with dog food but it is all the one brand. There is not a Christmas decoration in sight or even for sale.
Very few Russians speak any English. The few young ones who did were keen to exchange our gloves and jeans for hats or money. Who'd be crazy enough to give away their jeans on the black market? It was definitely too cold to walk around in long johns. We continued to wander the streets in the vicinity of Gorky Street, Moscow's main thoroughfare that was known for its fashionable shops, luxurious hotels and the homes of the wealthiest aristocrats in pre-revolutionary days. We were looking for a Russian hat for Eric, an ushanka which literally translates to "ear flap hat". His head was too big. Probably a good thing as they weren't cheap either. We arrived back at the hotel for a hearty late lunch of red cabbage, caviar, roast beef, soup and bread. In the late afternoon we all assembled and trundled our gear back to the airport for the next leg of our journey.
We landed in Moscow at 4:00 am on the 15th Dec and eventually got everyone through Customs and Immigration despite the very strict procedures and then organised a bus to take us to the Hotel Sheremetyevo. It was very difficult to negotiate anything as there was virtually no one who spoke any English and our Russian was non-existent. Eventually, after a long wait we discovered the hotel was within view so we were able to walk across to it though this proved quite difficult as we were all lugging heavy loads of winter gear. We still had a I hr wait until breakfast was served at 8am. It was our introduction to Russian fare: bread, cheese, boiled egg, a continental pastry and mineral water.
After breakfast we took a bus and the underground rail to the Government Intourist Travel Agent in Gorky St to jump on a tour. The train trip was quite an experience a woman only just managed to squeeze on before the doors slammed shut. Unfortunately her handbag didn't make it but the doors didn't reopen, she just had to wait until the next station! We discovered that we had missed the 10 am tour so, despite the fact that it was bitterly cold outside, we walked Red Square and beyond. The many guards made themselves very obvious and kept everything very orderly as thousands of local Muscovites lined up to view Lenin's Tomb. How they stood still in the line for so long in this chill wind amazed us. It was a huge square and standing at one end near the GUM store, we tried to imagine the interesting history of the Square- from being the site of bloody fights in the medieval times, to a place used for official parades. No decorations for the Christmas season were in sight.
That's Kenny and I trying to keep warm and standing out as obvious tourists in our colourful ski parkas. On the right is the Kremlin wall which extends the entire length of the western side of Red Square. It protects Moscow Kremlin, the royal bastion and the official residence of the President of Russia. Lenin’s Mausoleum stands in front of the wall.
We walked by the Bolshoi Theatre on Theatre Square and the stone-carved statue of Karl Marx at the Teatralnaya Square which had the inscription “Workers of the World Unite”.
At 2pm we took the tour which began back Red Square outside St Basil's Cathedral. The onion domes stood out because of their architecture and amazing colour, about the only colourful item in the whole square (other than us). Even the people are all dressed in drab grey, black and brown. What makes Red Square really unique is that it is surrounded by so many important landmarks: The State Historical Museum, another cathedral and more statues.
Below is another angle of the Kremlin overlooking the Moskva River, and below it the GUM Store which also faces Red Square.
Our tour then continued to museums, statues, the industrial area and the university with much propaganda and very little opportunity to do anything except see it all from the bus window. Below is the Olympic Stadium.
Perhaps it was just as well it wasn't a 'hop on hop off bus' as it was so cold. After the tour we caught the underground and bus back home to our hotel. Our dinner was Russian salad and caviar, beef with white sauce and cup-cake with tea. Then we went to bed early as we hadn't had a lot of sleep since leaving Butterworth the day before. The most notable thing today was that nobody accepts Russian Rubles or Kopeks from foreigners. You must pay for everything, except rail and bus fares with foreign currency, the first time we have struck this. They will forego a sale rather than take local currency. Now we have a problem, how will we get rid of all these rubles we exchanged. Exchange rate $10 Aust = 5.14 Kopeks, a Russian unit of currency equal to 1/100 of the ruble. We were discussing this quietly across the table over a meal and in no time a waiter approached and offered to do an exchange, obviously a trade that suited him favourably. Once again we have the Heebie Jeebies. How did he overhear us?
15th Dec
After a good night's sleep (despite the single bed) and breakfast we went back into Red Square, just in time to see the changing of the guard. We ventured into the GUM Store, amazed to see the lack of free choice available. The shelves might be stacked with dog food but it is all the one brand. There is not a Christmas decoration in sight or even for sale.
Very few Russians speak any English. The few young ones who did were keen to exchange our gloves and jeans for hats or money. Who'd be crazy enough to give away their jeans on the black market? It was definitely too cold to walk around in long johns. We continued to wander the streets in the vicinity of Gorky Street, Moscow's main thoroughfare that was known for its fashionable shops, luxurious hotels and the homes of the wealthiest aristocrats in pre-revolutionary days. We were looking for a Russian hat for Eric, an ushanka which literally translates to "ear flap hat". His head was too big. Probably a good thing as they weren't cheap either. We arrived back at the hotel for a hearty late lunch of red cabbage, caviar, roast beef, soup and bread. In the late afternoon we all assembled and trundled our gear back to the airport for the next leg of our journey.
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