While I was looking my aunt’s Facebook post of her recent tour to Russia, I was intrigued with the images of Yaroslavl, and that brought back memory of my 2007 trip to this city. Initially Yaroslavl was not part of a plan; all suddenly happened when my friends and I had lunch in St. Petersburg and one of them wanted to see Volga River because he believed that it was a divide line of Europe and Asia. Maybe because of too much Vodka in our blood, on that day night we were on the train to Yaroslavl via Moscow! The train was very slow and very cold with no heater and full of drunken Russian and Dutch passengers, when we heard the word “Yaroslavl” we happily jumped out of the train, after some direction confusing, we discovered that we turned up at a wrong railway station outside Yaroslavl! No bus and no taxi and almost dark, we decided to walk to Yaroslavl for about 5 Kilometers, on the way we unknowingly walked past the famous St John the Baptist Church, which is featured in 1000 Ruble banknote, we stopped to see the church because of its irresistibly amazing and graceful domes.

When we reached the city, it was dark and covered with thin layer of snow. We successfully made our way to hotel without lost. We were so tried and slept like a log until next day late morning. When we walked around, we felt sad to the city with its decaying state, tram was very old and the tracks were not properly maintained. Everything seemed a little bit better when we reached the old city area. We saw the newly renovated fortified church of Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery; the repaint did everything in the complex looked unbelievably new and we were disappointed. Then we continued to see the Volga River, the riverside park was shabby, and the Volga was just another river with nothing special. Since we fulfilled our goal to see Volga quite early, we did not know what we should do next, so we just walked around the city. One thing we noticed was that Yaroslavl was full with churches and these churches were very nice especially Church of Elijah the prophet with its amazing painting and iconic green domes and two belfries, the small but lovely Alexander Nevsky Chapel in the middle of large square was striking for its nice design, Church of Epiphany was another highlight with its red grazed brick and tiles, and the neo-classical Ilyinsko-Tikhonovka Church was very unique with its Roman dome and columns. We spent around four hours around the city center and decided that we should better back to Moscow, so we took the evening train back but ending at Rostov Veliky instead but that’s another part of memory.

I have to admit that I was quite disappointed with Yaroslavl, the city was not in good shape while I was there; but when I saw my aunt’s photographs, I was really surprised how the city has change during the past seven years. The city now is vibrant and attractive; they rebuilt Dormition Cathedral in the Volga riverside park which creates a nice landscape view from Church of Elijah Square, even the Ilyinsko-Tikhonovka Church has been renovated and has golden spire. The streets look clean, and the city modernized the tram system. My aunt even said that Yaroslavl is her favorite city in the Golden Ring. The question of revisiting is in my mind as many of my friends also want to complete the Golden Ring. But thinking again that the decay post-soviet image of Yaroslavl is the unique reason why I still can remember the city vividly, so should I treasure this old memory by avoiding the new one is still the thing I cannot find the answer.