Suzdal is a village of about 12000 around 4 hours north east of Moscow. It seems to have been almost untouched by the mass production of soviet buildings from the era of the 'perestroika'. It is a city of ancient churches and monasteries, dating back at least 1000 years.

We stayed at an unmarked hostel in one of the buildings of a youth club located at the end of the red square in a two story white building. It was insanely cheap, and the women who ran it were very nice. In this building were living a bunch of guys who were working on a building where orphans from the area could come and live. After too many shots of vodka, a lot of slang which i didn't understand and dinner cooked on a portable coil stove, one of the guys convinced us to go on a walk around the town at 1am. He put on his best suit and tie for us.

Click the photos for larger versions.




I went with Petre the Moldavian. This is us, in one of the monestaries

The road to the river

Foot bridge.

An old wooden church.

Monastary fortifications at the edge of town.

This is a view from a hill on which the city walls used to stand.

The towns main drag...

Someone's home, beautifully decorated.

Part of a monestary wall.

The church of the Monastary of St. Euthymius.

Inside the church at the St. Euthymius Monastary.

Along the main street, there are many tunnels like this one which lead to courtyards and smaller streets.

Along the river...our feet

The suzdal bus station... about 1.5 kilometers outside of the city. It's one of the only old soviet style buildings which I saw there, with the exception of the administrative building at red square.