Moscow- Golden Ring- Sergiev Posad

Hey My Birdies…

Let’s start with our second day trip to Golden Ring City tour- Sergiev Posad.

We started our day early in morning as there is a traffic issue in Moscow. So our guide was punctual enough and we left hotel by 8.00 Am. Before we start let me give you small info about Golden Ring. The ‘classical’ route starts from Moscow, goes through Vladimir, Suzdal, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Rostov Velikiy, Pereslavl-Zalesskiy, Sergiev Posad. All cities and towns are located relatively close to each other at countryside of Moscow, the ‘Golden Ring’ forms a ring, so from one place you can reach to another and make a circle until you get back to the one you started with. Our Itinerary was planned in this way- Visiting Matryoshka Doll Museum and then Sergiev Posad which is 2-hour drive to the UNESCO- listed monastery and for evening I have personally planned a Moscow boat ride. This was again a fun filled day with awesome experiences. We have also covered certain monuments through our vehicle, here are the glimpse of few..

Let us start with Matryoshka Doll Museum-

Our guide has explained very beautifully about history of these dolls and how children used to play with these dolls and now it has become tradition in Moscow. It is a small wooden doll, in a cylindrical shape, painted to resemble a peasant woman in a traditional sarafan dress holding a rooster. These dolls are made in set of 5, 7, 15, 25 and each doll opens to reveal a smaller doll, which opens in turn to reveal yet another doll, and so on. Each doll is decorated with brightly colored clothing and bears a small smile, pink cheeks, blonde hair, and a headscarf, of course with few glitters on it.

When I heard about making of this doll I wished to make one for me and guess what our guide has planned a workshop for us where we have painted our own dolls. Well from making of this doll from wood to painting it, was an awesome experience. We had purchased certain souvenirs from museum and yes, we have taken this painted doll with us as a gift of remembrance from our guide.  We further traveled to our next place followed with lunch and being a veggie, I had to survive on bread and butter but lucky enough to have that.

Sergiev Posad-

It is one of the oldest cities on the Golden Ring and a spiritual centre of Russia. It is home to the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra (also known as the Trinity Monastery of St Sergius) which is included on the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Our guide has hired one local guide and she explained us about Monastery and every picture which was painted on wall. I must say it has a very beautiful and interesting history. One thing which I appreciated was whenever they have to mention “peter” they used to say “Peter the great” which is so good to listen and respectful.

After wandering through entire monastery, we have been given half hour time to roam around nearby area. There was a street close to Monastery with lot of shops in a line where you can shop souvenirs, handmade woollen shrugs, sweater, tops, dolls etc.. The breeze was getting cold with shiny sun on sky so in short it was a very rosy climate. All over the day was good and we left for our hotel which took us another 2 hours to reach.

Moscow Boat Ride-

We reached hotel by 5.00 in evening and as I wanted to do boat ride, I got freshen up within 5-7 minutes. With me few people from our tour joined and we took the help of receptionist, she arranged cab for us and as we wanted to catch Radisson Boat we left immediately but unfortunately till the time we reached their boat was full and didn’t get any ticket to be on board. But as I have surfed a lot about it I didn’t wanted to give up on my plan and hence we all went to another boat depo which was another 20-min walk. Yes, we walked and found a local boat, so after negotiation with lady we purchased a ticket and we all boarded the boat. It was a complete new experience for us as we were seating with locals. It was a 3-hour trip and it started with juices but guess what here also we struggled with food. We did carry some snacks with us on which we survived in chilling cold for 3 hours. Even the chef was very kind he gave us two bowls of freshly prepared salad each. It was a weekend, started with live music and people were having fun with their families, partners, friends. I guess we were the only Asians in that boat. But as I said in my previous post that Russians have welcomed us open heartedly. They made us dance with them on their music feat. I saw a couple dancing completely lost in each other, in their own romantic way, kissing each other, holding each other… it was so romantic that it just lightened me up from inside. I always wanted to have this type of romantic dance with my partner and when I saw couple performing dance it was like I was living my dream with an open eye. The boat ride was awesome…

City looked more beautiful but more than city I was amazed with locals. We were back to our destination and, so we again took help of locals to understand the route for our hotel.

There I met a Lady “Larrisa” as she knew English and she made us understand the route to metro with help of her husband. I don’t know what connected between us, but she hugged me, she praised me for my eyes, features and skin tone. We had a nice chat about boat ride, their lifestyle, Moscow, and so on. She was little drunk, so she was not in a mood to leave me but thanks to her husband… 😉 Some people just leave there footprints on your heart within moments…

 Metro Friend- After the boat ride we took metro and guess what I made a friend there, her name is Jane. The good part was she knew English and she helped us till our stop. We got connected so easily as if we knew each other since long. She shared with me about her goa trip and her profession and yes, still we are connected on social site. Its a blessing to meet such lovely people in different country.

The entire journey went so smooth, enjoyed so much, met so many people, made new friends and finally we reached to our hotel in night 12:30. Such a lovely day it was, still so fresh in my mind. I hope you all have feel my experience. Till then be optimist, be happy, as life is precious and comes with lots of Surprises. Take care…

Stay connected for last day of my Trip…