Metro Archives - Wandering North

Belarus Belarus/Dubai trip 2023 Europe

Minsk Metro

A whole post devoted to metro stations probably isn’t warranted, except that Minsk’s Metro stations are beautiful. The Soviet Union placed great value on public transportation and, generally, made their metro stations lovely rather than merely functional. The most beautiful I have seen are in Russia, but other former USSR ones I’ve seen have been impressive. Minsk’s were no exception.

Minsk’s Metro only has three lines but has stops that can be useful for a visitor, such as for visiting the architecturally amazing library. For the most part, Minsk’s sights are walkable, but I wanted to see some of the stations. I didn’t visit all, but on my final day or two in Minsk, when I had seen much of ‘the sights’ I made a point of popping into a few stations to check them out.

The Metro is incredibly cheap – only less than $0.50 per ride – and when you pay, you get a neat little plastic token to enter.

Some of the stations have beautiful lighting and columns; others have interesting design on the walls of the tunnels in the stations. The best ones are those that still have their Soviet insignia intact.

You’re not officially allowed to take photos of the stations, but if no one sees you doing it, it’s no problem.

Like many Russian and Ukrainian stations, some had little shops in the tunnels leading to the stations, selling delicious baked goods.

Others had monuments and memorials. Of the latter, the most notable is at Nyamiha metro station, where, outside, there is a monument to the victims of the Nyamiha stampede where 53 people were crushed and trampled to death after people crushed into the stations during a sudden rainstorm.

Nyamiha stampede memorial

The possibility of sudden death aside, it’s worth visiting the Minsk Metro, whether you need to take it or not; to see the decoration and just to participate in a bit of everyday life in modern Minsk.

More subway memorials. The one on the right is for WW2. The one on the left is for a 1905 shooting, i think.

Asia Central Asia 2022 Kazakhstan

Almaty: Green Market / Red Meat

The Green Bazaar

Almaty’s central market is the Green Bazaar, technically Kök Bazaar. I walked there from my hotel. A nice walk. Sights and sounds of Almaty.

It opened in 1875 but was rebuilt after an earthquake later that century and then rebuilt multiple times over the decades. The market does not look interesting from the outside. It’s just a big green building. Nondescript. Inside though, it is bustling with everything you could want from a Central Asian market. Piles of colorful fruits and vegetables. Bins of spices. Jars of pickled … everything. Nuts and dried fruits. Locally made honey. Horse meat. And unidentifiable food items.

I took a lot of photos of everything; the familiar and the new. Smiling at vendors and sampling items as they were offered.

The butchery section of any market is always one of my favourites. I just find it fascinating and gruesome. We never see this stuff at home (unless you’re actively involved with the killing and processing of animals for food). And I do love gross stuff, so seeing piles of hearts and stomachs, intestines strung up like morbid party streamers, severed heads staring back…I love it.

As far as markets go, the Green Bazaar was not gruesome. Pretty tidy actually, but still vastly unlike the markets we have in Canada. There was the section for horse meat (of course, of course). Horse meat is a staple of Central Asia. It doesn’t bother me at all. Meat is meat and I don’t eat any of it.

My favourite thing about the Green Bazaar though was the dairy section. They had very local and specific products that I would eat: fresh and fermented camel, cow, and horse milk. I didn’t care for the fermented milks, but the fresh camel milk was excellent. (I think this is more due to the freshness and quality more than the animal of origin.)

Also, they had qurt, which is a fermented and dried milk ball. It was created many years ago as a portable source for calcium and protein that nomads could carry without risk of spoiling. It comes in many different varieties. I can’t summarize all of the differences, except that some are from different animals, and some have different amounts of salt. The consistency is like really hard chalk, and it tastes…strong. Salty and pungent. I really liked it, a fact that seemed to delight the woman at the stall who let me sample everything.

The Metro

I went to some different areas of Almaty that day. Partly just to check out some different neighbourhoods; partly to look for a specific cigar lounge that I never did find. I walked a lot but also used it as an opportunity to take the metro.

The Almaty metro is not super comprehensive, nor is it very old, but it is nice. Each stop is a little different in its design and decoration. One had a stained-glass window of an apple tree (Almaty means ‘city of apples’); another has this 1960s modern style décor. (Lousy photos, but you get the idea). They feel quite Soviet but opened in 2011.

My favourite thing about the metro though was that when you buy your fare (super cheap: 80 Tenge, which is about 25 cents Canadian) you get a bright yellow, thick plastic token. It is oddly satisfying – and ended up being my only souvenir.

I spent my evening with cigars and shisha at what became my favourite evening patio. The next day I would cross the border to Kyrgyzstan by a car and foot combo.

Asia Azerbaijan Azerbaijan trip 2019

Night Train to Sheki

I awoke on the third day in Baku, Azerbaijan feeling leisurely. There was one area I wanted to check out, but beyond that there wasn’t much on my agenda. I had breakfast at Manipura, a vegan café I had found the day before and then walked in a different direction, along the water, past an area with a bunch of pretty man-made canals winding past fancy looking restaurants.

I wanted to check out the carpet museum – not the inside, but the building itself. A notable entry into Baku’s crazy architecture collage, the carpet museum is shaped like a giant rolled up carpet. It did not disappoint.

Across the street from that is a funicular that takes you up to the base of the flame towers. There are also stairs, but it is quite far and the funicular is only one manat. There really is no reason to get up close to the flame towers but you get great views over the city.

After that I just wandered around, drank coffee, smoked – all very relaxing.

At some point I packed up my backpack and took the metro to 28 May station, which is where the main train station is in Baku. I was taking the night train to Sheki.

I had bought my ticket ahead of time online, which was a good idea, as the train seemed full. Buying the tickets online was easy enough. They went on sale about 10 days before and the site had an English option. I picked up my ticket at the modern train station. The ticket for the approximately 8 hour ride was $5.60 CDN.

There are different classes of cars. You can book sleeping cars with two beds (SV/lyux) or four (kupe), or you can book tha platzkart, which is an open car with loads of beds. There are also cars with regular seats. I decided to go with the platzkart. Having a sleeping car with only two or four beds can be weird if you are traveling alone. I figured more beds would be safer and more…interesting.

The car is set up so that on one side of the aisle are beds stacked two high running the length of the car. On the other side of the aisle are alcoves with four beds, stacked two high. I booked myself bed 17 because it was in the centre of the car (away from the toilets) and because it was on the lower level, meaning I could store my backpack under the bed. Had I booked bed 19, I would have also had an electrical outlet. Now you know.

When I got on the car, I found there were already three guys in my four bed alcove. They were playing cards and drinking home made beer from repurposed two-litre soda bottles. They looked alike. Sort of like crosses between Al Pacino and Charles Bronson, all with moustaches. The spoke no English. I was friendly enough, but I thought, “It’s nearly midnight. When are they going to wrap up the cards so I can lie down and sleep?” I chatted with a young man sleeping across the aisle who spoke good English and could answer all my train questions.

At about 12:30am they put the cards away and took out plastic bags from which they produced: a whole roast chicken, a kitchen knife and cutting board, a container of raw onions, about a dozen or more tomatoes, two loaves of bread, a whole fish (smoked?) wrapped in newspaper, and bags of sunflower seeds. They proceeded to prepare supper. The young man told me this is typical, though he clearly did not approve. They kept offering me food and beer, which I politely declined.

Other people went to bed right away, or stayed up drinking tea or chatting.

Finally my seat mates they wrapped up their meal and I could get to bed.

Each train car has a woman called a Provodnitsa who oversees things. She sternly walked down the aisle at the beginning of the trip, handing out plastic bags containing two sheets and a pillow case. Each bunk already had a pillow and mattress rolled up. I made my bed and went to sleep.

I slept pretty well actually and woke up about an hour before reaching Sheki, which allowed me to get a few creepy photos of the train car in sleep mode and to get a look at the dry and desserty landscape.

I had no idea we had arrived in Sheki when we did, as we arrived a little early, and I might have missed my stop, had the Provodnitsa not come and barked “Sheki” at me when she did.

The Sheki train station is a bit out of town, but there were lots of taxis on arrival. For 10 Manat, I secured a ride to the centre.

I am so glad I took the train. It was hassle free, comfortable, and gave me a non-touristy view of Azerbaijan. Ok, I didn’t love the fish and chicken smells, but It was worth it. With my arrival I would spend a day and a night in Sheki.

Asia Azerbaijan Azerbaijan trip 2019

I fell in love with a building in Baku

I enjoyed my first day in Baku, but my second was better. I was rested and having gotten a sense of how compact things were I was freed from any anxiety about seeing everything in the time allotted.

I went for a leisurely breakfast of cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, cheese, and mountains of bread. (I didn’t eat mountains, but they provided it.) They take bread very seriously here. Perfect baguettes, round and sesame simits, long and salty bread that is both flat and fluffy. Apparently bread can never be allowed to touch the ground, even when discarding it. I had a cigar at a leafy cafe.

I walked many of the streets were the same that I saw the day before but it was less hot and I had more energy, so it was better.

But I did have a sort of a plan. I wanted to go see the Heydar Aliyev Centre but it was a bit far from the city centre, so I took the metro. The metro system in Baku isn’t vast, but it’s decent. I went to the station at the old city, bought a BakiKart (plastic metro card, which costs 2 manat) and loaded a couple of rides, which I think were about 30 qəpik each. It’s a regular metro and was easy to use. They even call out stops in English as well as Russian and Azeri. I took a few pictures before I realized that is not allowed.

I got out at the Nariman Narimanov stop, expecting to see the distinctive building I was looking for, but I didn’t, so of the four directions I had available to me, I picked one on instinct and it was the right one. (I assure you, I am not usually so lucky.)

If you are trying to make the same trip, as you exit the metro station you have two directions to choose from. Take the one on the left. When you get to the street walk so that the park and the unsightly McDonalds are at your back. Keep walking for a couple long blocks and you will eventually see the white Heydar Aliyev Centre one block away on your left.

The Heydar Aliyev Centre is magnificent. I had actually debated visiting it at one point, thinking, “Do I really want to go out of my way to see the exterior of a building?” I am so glad I went. It is huge and gleaming and as you walk around it, it reveals itself in various, beautiful forms. It’s like a frozen wave or a perfect cloud.

Baku is fully of varied architecture, from ancient and Islamic, to Soviet, to modern and beyond. But this is, in my opinion, the best of it.

What made visiting it a bit of a challenge was the wind. It was the strongest wind I think I’ve ever experienced. It blew me off my feet, lifted my heavy shoulder bag, and swiped the sunglasses of a woman I asked to take my picture.

On the grounds of the centre are numerous brightly coloured rabbits and snails. I don’t know why.

From there I walked in the hopes of finding the next closest metro station rather than backtracking. I didn’t find it. Rather, i walked for quite a while through an area predominantly populated by garages, whilst getting pelted by gravel and sticks from the wind. I did stumble upon a market, which was nice, but I was tired and that dampened my enthusiasm for watermelons and figs.

So i hopped on a bus. I didn’t know where it was going ultimately but it was heading in the same direction that I was, so…good enough. Of course the bus quickly started turning until I had no idea where I was. Eventually, seeing a bunch of taxis, I hastily got off while the bus driver stopped for shawarma. And where was I? At a metro station! So I was able get myself back, getting off one station early, which allowed me to walk through a new neighbourhood.

I stopped at a cute baklava bakery (one of many) in the old city for a Turkish coffee and a selection of treats. Baklava so sweet my mouth felt like it was vibrating.

I had a bit of a nap and then went out for some shisha and delicious eggplant rolls stuffed with walnut paste and pomegranate arils. I also had tea. They are very big tea drinkers here, but one thing that is unique is that tea with jam is often on the menu; one selects the type of jam and gets a huge bowl of it, which they stir into their tea and eat by the spoonful. I did not have that. It looks appealing, but I don’t really want to eat a bowl of jam.

I went to bed around midnight and dreamed of rabbits.

Europe France

Montmartre by Metro

Today we took the metro to Montmartre, and walked in the footsteps of the French bohemian elite. Betty Lou was delighted with the charming village atmosphere and oodles of artists displaying their wares. We wandered through the narrow passageways past the quaint and the touristy alike. In one of the churches we visited we walked in on a wedding! (I know, yesterday it was a funeral…tomorrow we are sure to stumble upon a baptism.)

We then visited the Sacré Coeur and took a stroll through the delightfully seedy Pigalle area, past the “Sexodrome” and other peepshow venues.

Another short Metro ride whisked us to the Père Lachaise cemetery. We meandered through the grounds in search of a few special graves: Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Chopin, and Proust. It was no easy feat, but we managed to locate them all. Jim Morrison’s grave was especially impressive, due to the throngs of pilgrims leaving flowers and pouring liquor on his grave.

After that we visited the bustling Marais district, and then walked to the Pompidou, where I went in to gaze upon the best of modern art, while Betty Lou opted to sit outside in the evening air and watch the street performers.

Walking back to our hotel, we had dinner at a delightful cous cous restaurant. Shortly it is off to bed for us weary but contented girls.
That is all for us, except for one important message: Happy Birthday, Dawn!
d&b

Tag: Metro

The Green Bazaar

The Metro