GHOST STATION

At the moment I am quite excited about the discovery of a 'ghost station' on my metro line. You've probably heard of similar phenomena (if I can call it that) on other metro systems. I know that my brother and sister-in-law know of a few on the Tube in London.

My own ghost station, here in Moscow, is an unfinished station that the Soviets started to build back when the line was first being put down. But the chosen location of the station was changed during construction and the original was abandoned before it was ever opened.

The reason I had known nothing about this station was because, quite obviously, it isn't lit. But recently I was on a train and just happened to be travelling through the station at the exact same time that a second train was travelling through it on the other side, in the opposite direction (the plaform is obviously open, like most on my line). The lights from the second train briefly illuminated the station and gave me my first view of it. Spooky! It makes me wonder how many years it has been since anyone has stepped on that platform. Does the station ever even have a name?

MANEZHNAYA WHERE?

I hope I didn't confuse anyone with my last post. The fire at the Manezh made it onto international news, though only briefly I hear.

The Manezh is (or was) quite a famous early-19th century building just off the Kremlin, which rather symbolically and spectacularly burnt to the ground on election night. Perhaps it was an accident (it's not the only important building in central Moscow to catch fire in recent months), or a protest, but most likely in my opinion it was a deliberate tactic by the government to divert media attention from the elections.

Incidentally square next to Red Square is called Manezhnaya square, after the building. The Manezh was architectually special because it used a cunning system of beams to remove the need for internal supports. This made it ideal either for its initial use, as a riding school and parade ground, or for its final use, as an exhibition centre and gallery.

I happened to be in the city centre on the evening of the fire and saw the whole thing almost from the start. The roof of the Manezh was made of wood so the fire spread incredibly quickly. Groups of Russians stood around, agog, until the police moved them (and us) on. More enterprising locals turned up with crates of beer to sell, and the public toilets made a killing. The emergency services seemed to do little to tackle the blaze, although later reports said that several firemen had died tragically and heroically. I don't want to be cynical.

Incidentally, I walked past the burnt-out remains of the Manezh several days after the fire. The roof is completely gone but the outside walls are still standing. With its large arches it looks more like a Roman ruin than anything. I hope that the authorities leave it standing. I doubt they will.

WHEN PUTIN WON HIS SECOND TERM

When Putin won his second term
his men had guns and moved us on
and glass gave up and stone gave in
and metal was all molten

The sky was red it fell like rain
we saw them let the Manezh burn
the world was full of fire and flame
when Putin won his second term

OUR MAN IN VOLOGDA

I am back from Vologda.

It was a city of a third of a million but felt like Wokingham. Though obviously not in every respect.

I will now list everything of interest in Vologda, in roughly decending order:

1) the world's oldest statue of Lenin, from 1924. The statue is also lifesize, which doesn't make it a very impressive monument (Lenin was, I now know, rather short). But they'd stuck him on a big pedestal to compenstate. Though now you really have to crane your neck to see him. He looks a bit lost up there to be honest.

2) a Christmas tree carved from ice, and a big children's slide made of blocks of ice. Julia, who came with me on the trip, slid down this (the slide, not the tree!) and scared the bejesus out of all the little kiddies.

3) some nice wooden buildings in the centre, that people still lived in, and looked about to collapse. The irony being, they had probably looked that way since they were first built hundreds of years ago.

4) a cool statue of a bloke on a horse (with no plaque so I don't know who he was). But he was overlooking...

5) ...the river Vologda. It wasn't very big. But it was totally frozen over. I fell on my backside several times, indeed once slid along on it for at least three metres, and amused the ice fishermen. The small children would also probably have laughed had Julia not scared them about an hour before.

6) no phone reception. The first place in Russia I've been to where I couldn't get a signal on my mobile.

7) a very unbusy art gallery in an old church in the city Kremlin. The gallery only displayed pictures by one artist, and he wasn't even from Vologda. And the gallery staff (all seven of them, for two of us) were so flummoxed by actually having visitors to the gallery that they forgot to charge us foreigners' prices.

8) the local club. To celebrate the highly romantic Women's Day, the club administration presented Julia with two separate and different porcelain models of frogs having group sex. One of these now has pride of place on my TV next to the statue of a bear being intimate with a sheep (a present from my Welsh flatmate).

9) lastly, and least interestingly, the town made their own potato crisps, which Julia liked. And all the restaurants cooked with garlic in every dish, which I approved of.

A strange world, isn't it?

VOLOG-WHERE?

This weekend is yet another three-day holiday weekend (International Women's Day has rolled round again), so I am off on a jaunt. This time the destination is Vologda, a mid-sized and more than slightly obscure city about 9 hours north-east of Moscow (yes, I'm sick of this southerly, mild weather). It's on the river, er, Vologda. Which is easy to remember.

Why Vologda? Well, a friend from last year, Hugh (whose name unfortunately sounds very similar to the Russian for 'penis'), strongly recommended that I pay a visit. Now is my chance. Well, we are catching the overnight train tonight (Friday), and come back during the day on Monday. Actually, that'll be the first time I've ever made a long train journey in Russia during the day. I might actually see something.

Vologda. Famous for its wooden buildings, churches, and lace manufacture. Sounds like my kind of town! Anyway, I'll let you know.