just another morning here

Russia, land of the Tsars – also this summer was notably a land of heatwave, peat and forest fires, and smog. It seemed so bizarre to me that while Pakistan was enduring huge floods, Russia was suffering from quite the opposite.

Anyway. This summer’s trip to Russia has been in the pipeline for years; it was first conceived by a small committee of people around the time that Anna joined Exeter Children’s Orchestra three years ago. Little did I know then that I’d have anything to do with it at this point!

Last year we signed up to be part of the trip – I figured it would be the experience of a lifetime, since I knew that our family would never be brave enough to go to Russia on our own. I’ve been part of the planning process this year, working harder on things as the year went on, so it was just incredible to finally see it all come together and for 104 people to *actually* go to Russia (and get back, too!!). We had an amazing time – we all really enjoyed it for various reasons, and I don’t regret it for a moment. I’m almost looking forward to helping organise the reciprocal visit!

So, read on if you want the details … or as many as I can remember, at least

Usually I write a diary while we’re on holiday, so that I can remember things to blog about when we get home – but I was so busy organising things this time that I didn’t get round to it. I thought I hadn’t taken many photos either, but Steve made up for that, even if they’re not quite the shots I would have taken. Here goes, anyway.

Sunday 8th August
Our adventure started this evening, as we travelled up to a Travelodge the night before our flight out. I’d thought that this way we’d get some sleep before a whole day’s journey the next day, but I was wrong. In typical Travelodge style the mattress was soft and bendy so I spent the whole night lying awake trying not to roll into Steve … he slept ok, apparently, and so did the kids, so that’s what matters I suppose!

Monday 9th August
We had to be up early, to get our car to Purple Parking (all great there – would use them again, does what it says on the tin, happy customers!) before getting to Terminal 5 for 6am. When we arrived lots of our group were already there checking in, so we joined the queue! We had Anna’s cello with us as well, which had a seat booked on the plane, so that made for some extra excitement … and we took another couple of kids plus cello and tuba with us so that we could get the instruments through security – almost lost the tuba at one point but talked the security people round! They were the first three onto the plane because of the instruments so that was fun

So, the flight left at 9am, and it was a three hour flight – not too bad really. Arrival in Russia, three hours ahead, was late afternoon, and then it took us a while to get ourselves organised at the other end. Note to self, if I do this again, have the coach groups organised in advance! Classic moment as we were hurried onto the last coach and one other mum turned to me as the coach drove off and said ‘have we counted?!!’ … our counting was done by looking back out of the window and checking there was no-one left on the pavement!

The coach journey from Domodedevo airport to Yaroslavl was about 4 – 5 hours long. This was a bit dire for some as the stops hadn’t been organised in advance, the drivers didn’t really know where to stop, and none of us had much to eat … anyway, never mind.

We made it to the hotel, eventually (our coach driver got lost, which was quite amusing), around 11.30pm which really wasn’t too bad. Everyone checked in and went to their rooms. The Park Hotel was great – it made all the difference for everyone to have a bit of personal space! Unfortunately this evening we discovered that one of our group had lost their passport at the airport, but this got sorted out during the week, with only a day lost for the people concerned when they had to visit the British Embassy in Moscow to apply for a replacement.

Tuesday 10th August
We woke, bleary eyed, and had our first strange breakfast of the stay: savoury rice pudding with butter, followed by a strange cheesecake – all a bit much to take first thing in the morning. Still, our group was fed in a nice conference room which we had to ourselves, making it nice and easy for me to give notices every day about what was happening (if I knew, of course, which mainly I didn’t!). The most annoying one this morning was that in order to use the hotel swimming pool we needed swimming hats – only 3 out of 104 people had thought to bring them!

The orchestra had a rehearsal in the morning, which, due to being late, didn’t really happen A few parents went out into Yaroslavl and we all met up at the Jubilee Restaurant for lunch. After lunch we had a tour of Yaroslavl’s monastery, which was interesting. Most amazing were the singing quartet who just started singing in the Cathedral – incredible voices and the acoustics in there gave it a wow factor too.

At 5pm we opted to go back to the hotel rather than having free time in the city; it was incredibly hot (mid thirties) and smoggy, and we were all still really tired.

One of the ladies from the Friendship Group (Yaroslavl’s version of our Twinning Circle) had, however, managed to buy 100 swimming hats! I’ve never seen children looking so excited about swimming hats – most of them immediately went swimming before dinner!

Wednesday 11th August
The smog lifted – but it was still very very hot. The kids had a rehearsal in the morning, during which a few of us walked around the city. Steve and I walked as far as a supermarket to buy drinks and fruit from a fruit stall, then back to the Art School where the children were to meet up in time for lunch. In fact then I went off with one of the Friendship Group people to look at venues for the other concerts, and had an epic taxi drive back through the city at 60mph – Russian driving is worse than French, I think! Met the rest of the group back at the Russian Hunt restaurant.

Wednesday afternoon was the first ECO concert, in the Art School. Some Art School students performed as well, making it very long – and the auditorium was very very hot – little or no air circulation; I seriously thought some of the kids might melt (or at least faint!) under the stage lights. We were all sweating buckets (nice!). There was a presentation at the end too, making everything take even longer! Luckily then we could leave all the instruments on the stage and the kids had a ‘disco’ outside, with some Russian children – I’m hoping someone else has photos of this because I didn’t take any …

Back to the hotel for dinner after that …

Thursday 12th August
We had a sightseeing day today – something I’d never usually choose to do when on holiday, but it was strangely relaxing, and very entertaining. Firstly a three hour drive through the Yaroslavl Region to a small town called Myshkin (definitely worth clicking on that link to get the full story on what the town was all about, it will save me explaining), where we had a brilliant guide, and visited an interactive museum – this had everything from singing tea ladies to live mice that made you jump, a potter and a blacksmith, loads to see and do, and we had lunch there too.

After that we travelled back to Uglich, another town on the Volga, where we unfortunately only had half an hour to look at the churches and things there – the kids stole the show by paying to dress up in prince/princess outfits so we took more pictures of them posing than of the architecture!

A long journey back to the hotel after that, and dinner …

Friday 13th August
Today was ECO’s second concert – at Yaroslavl’s Palace of Culture. Sounds posh – and it was! An amazing building, which, thankfully, was much cooler than the last venue. The weather had cooled off a bit itself, too, but temperatures were still in the high twenties, if not around the 30º mark. Anyway, the kids had a rehearsal, during which we discovered a missing music folder, and a missing trumpeter, so a couple took a taxi back to the hotel to pick up the folder and Alex, who had fallen asleep after breakfast and missed the coach – and no-one noticed . Bedtimes were strictly observed after this so that no-one could claim they were so tired!

The concert went well, then we all had some free time in Yaroslavl, before going back to the hotel for dinner, and then watching ourselves on Russian local news tv – very exciting!

Saturday 14th August
We had a sightseeing visit to Tutayev by boat along the Volga river today. Very relaxing on the boat – lots of chatting going on as well as having the chance to take in more Russian countryside. When we arrived we were greeted by a welcoming party who presented Richard and Ron with decorative bread – some Russian tradition or other, I understand! No-one ate it, which I thought was a shame!

The actual tour around Tutayev was rather rushed, but we enjoyed seeing the cathedral there – both inside and out – amazing. We had lunch cooked in a school, which was interesting – and then had to rush off to catch our boat back to Yaroslavl.

In the evening, the hotel had laid on a ‘Russian Evening’ for us; which consisted of traditional Russian food (ie stew!), but then we were treated to a Russian folk band who came and played for us. They were totally amazing – I was particularly impressed by the accordian player, I’ve never heard an accordian sound so wonderful We bought CDs, we liked it so much!

Sunday 15th August
We had a bit of a later start today, thank heavens (it was all great but somewhat ‘full on’), everyone enjoyed a bit of a lie- in. After lunch in the Jubilee Restaurant again we had some free time in Yaroslavl. A few of us went to Exeter House, significant for all of us from Exeter anyway but specifically for one member of our group who was the architect who designed the house when it was built! He and I went in a taxi with the director of Yaroslavl’s city council’s International Department who quizzed us about how and when we were going to arrange a reciprocal visit. This has always been our intention, but there is clearly a difference in expectation about what a ‘city council’ will be involved in. They were clearly very involved in hosting our trip, but I can’t imagine the city council here to be involved much at all if ECO host a return visit! Anyway.

After that I legged it down to meet Steve, who was entertaining two small boys, on a little island where there was a fairground type thing – and also a geocache Well, it wouldn’t be a holiday without one! I took a couple of teens with me, who cache at home too, so they were chuffed to add a Russian cache to their count as well.

We met up with the rest of the orchestra after that for the final open air concert, alongside the Volga Embankment. The concert had been publicised and there was a big crowd out listening, which was great. We were entertained by the dancing OAPs at the back, and then by the stray dog which wandered into the orchestra. Richard, being a dog lover, stopped the concert to stroke and make a fuss of the dog!

Back to the hotel for a swim and dinner again …

Monday 16th August
Our last full day in Yaroslavl was spent visiting the city’s new zoo – which they opened specially, it was their cleaning day, but they let us in! The kids loved the area where they could hold some of the animals. Again a bit of a rushed visit but nice nonetheless.

After that we were bussed to a fab cafe on the Volga Embankment where we had our official reception with the deputy Mayor, city council members, people from Exeter House and the Friendship Group. They thanked us for coming and we in return thanked them for their hospitality and helpfulness – they really were great; every day we had Russians with us to help with translation etc., and that really made all the difference. Lunch was great in that cafe, although it was very unfair that only the kids got ice-cream!

After the reception we hung around on the Volga embankment taking photos and being interviewed by the TV cameras again (and were on tv again that night), before finally going back to the hotel to pack.

At dinnertime we had our own embarrassing thank you speeches and I was presented with a rather lovely engraved glass which has taken pride of place *in front of* Steve’s motor racing ones! It really was a superb trip, and Ron, who organised most of it, was amazing – there was nothing that he hadn’t thought of. Everyone went down and took photos afterwards, of the ECO kids and then the boring old grownups. Then it was off to the shop to stock up on snacks for the next day …

Tuesday 17th August
This was always going to be a long and tiring day but I think we all agreed it was worth it. We got up at 4am to throw last minute things in suitcases before gathering downstairs at 4.30 in order to leave by 5am – which, miraculously, we did! It was 5 hours’ drive back to Moscow, where we picked up some fantastic Moscow guides who were with us for the day.

We had a bit of a coach tour round on the way into Red Square, then some time in Red Square itself. This was when, on visiting the toilets in the GUM shopping centre, Josiah’s croc got mangled in an escalator. I still look at the photos and wonder how he didn’t lose his toes as well! Anyway, that made Red Square even more memorable for us

The guide took us onto the Moscow metro, which is famous for being so beautiful – and it was. I loved it. Steve said he thought the marble made it all look grey, but what does he know. He took plenty of photos anyway!

After that we had some free time in Arbat Street, the main pedestrian shopping street in Moscow. A chance to have something to eat (we chose Italian!), and spend some last roubles before going home.

Then back to the coaches for more sightseeing by coach, on the way to Novodevichy Cemetery. I like looking round cemeteries anyway and this one was stunning – some of the monuments were simply amazing. Apparently these days you can’t buy a space in this cemetery, you have to have made a significant contribution to Russian life somehow in order to earn a place there.

After that a tiny bit more sightseeing from the coach then it was on to the airport. Or so we thought. One of our three coaches broke down on the way there! We had to be collected by another coach and unload/re-load all our luggage by the side of the road. Still, we made it to the airport on time nevertheless, checked in etc., and waited for the plane home. The flight was fine, everything went smoothly, and I think everyone just fell asleep!

We landed at half past ten UK time, which is of course 1.30am Russian time, so what felt like a 21 hour day for most people. Worth it every time though – I’d have hated to *not* see Moscow.

We picked up the car, then opted for a Travelodge again since it would just have been too much to drive home straight away. We all slept well and then drove home in the morning.

Other general memories:
The Friendship Group people were amazing – they had thought of everything. They were rubbish at telling us, and I often didn’t have a clue in the morning how arrangements for instruments or whatever were going to happen, but they invariably did happen, and seamlessly, at that.

Late night drinks with Ron & Natasha (the main organisers of the trip) made for some fantastic evenings – in fact some nights we started drinking before dinner as well as afterwards – I was exhausted (and at times slightly merry!). But it was very entertaining and Steve & I really enjoyed getting to know them

All the families and individuals there really pulled together – it did feel like one happy family, which the Russians even commented on! A brilliant sense of camaraderie despite little niggles along the way – fabulous.

Hotel breakfasts – as odd as odd can be. Savoury rice pudding/semolina/custard, then strange cheesecake or egg bake things – or cold sausage and peas. Lunches and dinners were nice though, once you knew what to expect: vegetable starter of some kind (coleslaw type things), then soup, then meat and pasta or potatoes. A few of us had dodgy tummies for a while but nothing awful.

Spent ages trying to download the Moscow Lonely Planet app on my phone – eventually did it and I’d recommend the apps – for £3.50 you get what looks like pretty much the whole Lonely Planet book as well as an interactive map which you can use offline too. Very impressive I think – and it gave me technical gadgets to play with while we were in Moscow

Steve and I even really enjoyed having time together – we often ended up sitting next to one another on the coach, and because the kids were with friends they just took care of themselves, leaving us to enjoy the sightseeing stuff together – a rather nice by-product that we hadn’t expected!

And if you’ve made it this far – well done. Ron predicted that 50% of the people on this trip will visit Russia again – I know Steve and I would quite like to see St. Petersburg now … in a few years’ time perhaps

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