We got off the train. We found the Metro station. We knew the station we needed to go to. BUT, there were no ticket machines, and the woman at the kiosk showed us tokens we needed, but wouldn’t sell them to us. Instead she pointed us to another lady at a barrier, we walked to her and she pointed us back to the kiosk lady. We left the station. This breakdown in communication wasn’t the ideal start to our time in a Nizhny Novgorod, but such things are bound to happen occasionally. Having found token machines in another area of the station, we made our way to the Ibis (luxury for the night!), and were able to check in early.
After visits to two branches of Lavanderia, which turned out only to do dry cleaning, it was third time lucky when we arrived at what we believe is the only launderette in Nizhny Novgorod. Clothes washed, we headed back to the hotel and planned something more interesting for the next day, Thursday.
The next morning started with a quick run in park next to the hotel. We found some gymnastics bars there and as we stopped to do some pull ups (well, I had a gentle stretch), some middle aged Russian men showed off their actual gymnastic skills which was impressive!! Breakfast at the hotel was interesting, the options for the hot section were hotdogs, spam, steamed cauliflower and baked cottage cheese. Russia, you failed us on that one. I stuck to the fruit and pastries!
Fuelled from breakfast we headed to the cable cars which are used by locals to travel from one side of the large expanse of the Volga to the other. Having followed google maps dodgy looking route, we ended up down a back alley with a food kiosk, some locals and a closed gate near a cable car set up. Nothing seemed to be happening, but everyone was waiting in anticipation of something…so we hung around. Turns out they close the cable car from 10:45-13:00, but everyone starts queueing up at 12:20. Bizarre, but well worth the wait, as we got a spectacular view of the confluence of the Volga and the Oka rivers.
On our walk to check out the Kremlin, we found Victory Park, which had a collection of tanks and planes. We then had a very proud moment at lunch time. We went in a cafe that only had a Cyrillic alphabet menu, with a waitress that only spoke Russian and managed to order two soups (solyanka meat soup) and two coffees, with a little help from Google Translate! High on our victory, we walked along the walls of the Kremlin, taking in the sights of the city. Having had such a busy day, we found sustenance at Travellers Coffee, in the form of cake, and then headed off to board the 21:25 to Kazan.
F&G
Travel in Trainers 