Suzdal

We boarded a train in Moscow to reach Suzdal, a 1000-year-old town. Never before have I ever been in such an ancient village. It was established in 1024 and this year they are celebrating their millennium.

The train journeys are very pleasant, no crowding it’s like boarding an aeroplane, there is a ticket lady who allotts us our seats and we are right on time. No one is supposed to chat and we try to maintain the silence, but sporadic outbursts are expected, we are Indians we can’t keep silent for too long.

We get down to the town of Vladimir and from there, a smaller bus takes us to Suzdal. Big vehicles are not allowed in this town. Russia is mostly pollution-free but here the air is cleaner, and the sky bluer. It is located near the Kamenka River. The eight towns near Moscow have been preserving 12th- 18th-century unique Russian monuments and traditional food recipes, so are known as the Golden Ring. Suzdal is one of the smallest of them.

We feel a relaxation come over us.

It’s a quaint village very silent. We check-in at the hotel and the afternoon lunch is salad, soup and rice. Not very filling as we all are used to our dal roti but when in Russia….

We then stroll around nearby, taking in the greenery all around.

The next day we went to see the Museum of Wooden Architecture. It has numerous examples of ancient wooden structures in the old classic Russian style. A typical village has been constructed with all the features of a Russian settlement.

Church, houses of peasants, wells, mills and barns are in the museum. They are known as open-air museums.

Many festivals are held in this place. We explore it all, take pictures and keep walking around. Raindrops splatter us. Small puddles of rain get collected on the roads. What impressed me was the courtesy of the locals. They would come in a car and circumvent the water so as to not splash it on us. A rare form of civic sense.

The population of this village is only 9,286.

Lunch consists of salad and chicken roll and the Morse and the special dessert a cheesecake famous in this region.

Evenings were spent exploring the shops where we found unique things to buy. Russian chocolates were just yummm, we bought as much as we could, ate a few, and carried home the rest.

Next day we were to do some sight seeing in Vladimir but the roads were being built for the upcoming millennium celebrations in Suzdal so time shortage made us dash for the airport rather than linger there.

Russia is an amazing country in many respects. They have wonderful transport systems in place metro, trams, electric buses and trains all were very efficient and the cleanliness Wow!! Not a speck Of garbage anywhere, no dust at all and every small place is very well maintained.

The idea of our days here being over, We all were feeling a bit low but as they say, all good things have an end and here we were saying

Dasvidaniya ( Goodbye) to Russia.