Day trip to Murmansk
Tuesday January 4th
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Our day trip to Murmansk lasted from about 2:30am on Tuesday morning till
2:30am on Wednesday morning, so it was a full 24 hours. But this included
about sixteen hours of train travel, so we didn't have to go without
sleep.
As a foreigner in Russia, I was supposed to register with the authorities within three days of arriving in a new city. For normal tourists this is not a problem because the hotels do it for you. However as I had been staying in a private home, and the local authorities were closed for the holiday period, I had been unable to do anything thus far. Consequently, one of my objectives in visiting Murmansk was to find a cheap hotel to check into for a day so that I could get my registration stamp. Unfortunately we would be saying goodbye to Masha that evening. She had to be back in Moscow by Thursday, so had arranged to travel home directly from Murmansk. |
| At 11:14 we had arrived and were making our way along the station platform. |
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In case there is any doubt as to where we were, here is Masha, Sasha and
Lena on Ulitsa Vorovskogo at 11:35, with what appears to be a city
crest on the wall behind them.
I think the soviet star at the top commemorates the status of Murmansk as a "Hero City" (Gorod-Geroi), an honorary title awarded to twelve cities (and one city-fortress) in the Soviet Union for outstanding heroism during the Great Patriotic War (WW2). Murmansk was awarded the title in 1985. |
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Across the square is the hotel Arctica, which, after checking prices at
a few other hotels, we settled on as the best option for satisfying my
registration obligations.
I didn't take this picture, but it is very close to what it looked like at the time. |
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At 11:57 I had checked into my hotel room at the Arctica, and while we weren't
going to be staying the night, it was useful to have a place to leave our
packs, and gave us a place to have some lunch. Unfortunately it had a
Television, and whilst Lena is very fond of boasting about the the fact
that she doesn't need one at home, it was pretty hard to tear her away from
this one.
The room cost me 690 rubles, which sounded like a lot at the time, but according to my credit card bill, that worked out to UK 13.66. |
| The hotel room also gave an excellent view of the city, with the monument we were planning to visit visible on the hilltop to the right of this picture. |
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| Masha took this picture of the route map as were were riding trolleybus 3 to Lake Semyonovskaya on a plateau above the town at 14:42. |
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At 14:47 we were off the bus and walking to the monument.
Masha also took this picture to prove (if you can read the sign on the building) that you can find an Internet Cafe even here in Murmansk. The small print down the right hand side of the sign says "Internet Cafe". The large letters say "Pifagor", which I assume is just the name of the cafe. |
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At 14:52, the view to our left as we walked East from the bus stop
to the Alyosha monument and a view of the city.
I wasn't sure what this was when I took the photograph, but I later found this photograph which seems to indicate that I was looking across the frozen lake Semyonovskaya. |
| More snowy terrain |
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| A slightly blurry picture of Masha, Sasha and Lena, taken as we are walking along the road near the end of our journey. |
| At 15:09, we have reached our objective just before dark, and are greeted with an excellent view of the port. |
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| Lena wanted one of her trademark pictures with the port in the background. |
| and then another pose.. |
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| Then it was my turn, though it was rapidly getting too dark to see any more than a silhouette. |
| But the darkness made the lights of the city stand out well.. |
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| One more from a slightly different angle.. |
| And a picture of the Port at 15:22. |
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Masha ran off with my camera for a while, and I think this was
one of her pictures.
The plaque reads: |
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The Memorial to the defenders of the transpolar region, known to
the locals as 'Alyosha', honors those that died in the
the second world war. It faces to the west - believed to be
the German direction.
At 15:30 it was already getting a little dark to get a good picture, but at least in the twilight you can see the flame at Alyosha's feet, with the people milling around at his feet giving an idea of his size. |
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| At 15:53 it is getting dark and almost time to leave, and my last chance to get a picture of myself with Alyosha in the background. |
| and Lena wanted one in return. |
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There was then just time to head back to my hotel room for a last
cup of tea before collecting our things and checking out.
We then made our way to the station, where we said farewell to Masha and boarded our 18:10 train back to Zelenaborsky. As usual, the train was scheduled to arrive at out stop at an ungodly hour (it was about an eight hour trip) so we had asked the train conductor to wake us about half an hour before we arrived, which was the minimum amount of time Lena said she would need to get ready. He did wake us, but it was not until about 5 minutes before our stop, so we ended up piling out of the train in a disorganized mess at about two 2am, and had to finish dressing in the snow beside the tracks. The conductors probably do that for entertainment. |
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