When we look at the exchange rates, our morning starts with our eyes wide open. Everything has become more expensive, especially euros and dollars, which is necessary not only to travel to your beloved Europe or America, which has become inaccessible for a long time, but also to travel to Asia and even Turkey. What should we do? An unexpected and simple answer is to travel around Russia.
Let’s assume that getting to Pereslavl-Zalessky is easy and simple. Neither dollars nor euros will be needed. You will need a car. The Yaroslavl highway has changed significantly over the past five years, and along this road you can get to your destination in an hour and forty.
And then begins the Russian fairy tale, which consists of elements that seem incompatible, but together form a fascinating model that is loved.
First, we will pass through Pereslavl to get to the Nikitsky Monastery. There a strict priest reads a sermon that we are all possessed by demons – sex, alcohol and food. He is probably partially right. The monastery was founded over a thousand years ago. So this is the millennial history of Russia, literally before your eyes. The monastery is not very rich and not even very beautiful. There are no stained glass windows and restored ancient frescoes. Even the domes there aren’t gold. The floor is paved with late Soviet tiles and somewhere with linoleum. But as they say, there is something real about it. After all, history is not smooth and even, but that’s exactly it – it combines many eras and forms. Among them there are those who are sad, annoyed and sharp. So that’s the Nikitsky Monastery – complex and multifaceted. The monastery shop has delicious pies with eggs and onions, buckwheat honey, kvass and even mead. All of these are delicious and inexpensive. The numerous cats roaming the area add charm to the entire area.
You have to turn to the other end of Pereslavl-Zalessky to settle into a good hotel. There, a few years ago, a Belgian in love with Russia built two hotels. We won’t name it because it’s totally unethical. But the hotels are purely European in the truest sense of the word. There are also restaurants with good food and, of course, tincture.
If there are not enough tinctures, you can go to a farm twenty kilometers from Pereslavl. There, a Moscow journalist bought a surprising number of hectares of land and set up a full-fledged farm – geese, ducks, cows, sheep, goats and piglets as the main attraction. Tourists come only to see these piglets, it is impossible to remain indifferent to them.
There is also an open-air restaurant. And there are already many tinctures of all kinds, from the classic cranberry to the exotic fly agaric.
In the city itself, life is in full swing on weekend evenings – there are 24-hour bars serving unexpectedly high-quality Pan-Asian cuisine. Imagine what this experience is like – you’re eating buckwheat noodles or avocado rolls in a wok in a millennial one-story Russian city!
Pereslavl has its own Red Square of the same name, many years before Moscow. On the square stands the classical Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral of the so-called Vladimir-Suzdal school. Perfect in its conciseness and form. And in the square there is a fair where there is nothing but a giant swing for the children, homemade tablecloths for the adults, and salting and cigarettes for everyone. Even harps are sold and taught to play.
The largest well in the history of Russia is also here. After all, all ancient cities started with a wall. The Moscow Third Ring was formerly Kamer-Kollezhsky Val.
Along this shaft, bypassing the entire historical center along the Trubezh River, you can go to Lake Pleshcheevo, the Church of the Forty Martyrs and watch the sunset from the observation deck for a long time. There is also the beach – people relax as much as they can. Some on boats, some on freshly hatched stems, some with fishing rods, some with dried fish. Music everywhere, but unobtrusive, respecting personal boundaries.
What can be learned from such a trip? Great concentration of impressions. A sense of relaxation and even a little grace. And most importantly – a firm understanding that there is everything a restless traveler in Russia needs – roads, transport, hotels, restaurants, entertainment, landscapes, kind and hospitable people, landscapes, architecture, forests, lakes, burning at sunset the sky, the unexpected buffs, and the air you want to breathe.
Did I mention the euro and the dollar? Therefore, they are not needed in this formula. They are only necessary for anxiety. And without them there is enough.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.