27 June 2018, Wednesday

It was an early start to the day as I checked out of Godzillas Hostel at about 6:15am and booked an Uber car to go to Moscow Kurskaya railway station. The Uber ride took only around 10 minutes and it cost 318 RUB (S$7.40). I arrived in good time and made my way to the platform to catch my train number 323.

This train service was specially arranged to transport FIFA World Cup fans from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod. The train ride was free for all fans who had a valid ticket to an upcoming match in Nizhny Novgorod. This means that you can actually make your way to Nizhny Novgorod a few days in advance of the match. This provides an opportunity for fans to spend more time in the host city, and it also helps to spread out the crowd so they don’t all head to the host city at the same time. Wonderful, isn’t it? Once again, I must mention that Russia’s organisation of the World Cup has been excellent.

The train was modern and spiffy, and very comfortable. It was totally different from the sleeper train that I took from St. Petersburg to Moscow a few days earlier. We departed promptly at 7:15am and zoomed towards Nizhny Novgorod, about 400km east of Moscow.

In what seemed like no time at all, we arrived at Nizhny Novgorod railway station at 11:02am, right on schedule. As I was carrying a very heavy backpack, I didn’t feel like doing too much walking so I tried to book an Uber car to take me to my accommodation. My first Uber driver cancelled on me and my second one showed an estimated arrival time 41 minutes later so I cancelled it. I realised that the situation was due to the road closures in the city because of the World Cup.

As a last resort, I approached some of the taxi touts outside the railway station but they all quoted me an exorbitant price of 1,500 RUB (S$35) for the 4km journey. I gave up trying to get a taxi and decided to take the Metro instead. In any case, riding the Metro was free for ticket holders because it was match day today, so I didn’t have to pay for the Metro ride.

I alighted at Gorkovskaya, just one stop away. From there, I managed to book an Uber car (phew!) to my accommodation, and it only cost me 119 RUB (S$2.77). I should have done this right from the start. It would have saved me much effort and time. But thank goodness I didn’t give in to the taxi touts! My accommodation was only a short ride away and I arrived at 12:02pm.

Happy Holiday Hostel
Address: Grebeshkovskiy Otkos, 9A, 60300 Nizhny Novgorod
Room type: 8-bed dorm room
Price: 2,268 RUB (S$53.14) for one night
Website: https://www.booking.com/hotel/ru/happy-holiday-hostel.html

As I only had one day in Nizhny Novgorod, I dropped my bags and headed out quickly so that I could explore the city. Not wanting to waste time, I booked another Uber car to go to the city centre, even though it was quite close by. Anyway, the Uber ride cost only 159 RUB (S$3.70). Due to road closures, the driver dropped me near Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street, the main street in Nizhny Novgorod.

It was a very long pedestrian street and it is considered the high street in the historical centre of Nizhny Novgorod. Flanking both sides of the street were elegant Neoclassical style buildings, dozens of restaurants, coffee houses and retail shops. There was a buzz of World Cup fever in the air.

I decided to have my lunch first. I found a noodle restaurant called Cobok, which looked cosy from the outside. When I stepped in and saw the record sleeves lining the top of the shelves, I was sold. The restaurant was evidently popular among locals and the bar table was where the only seats were available. I ordered a serving of chicken noodles (200 RUB/S$4.65), a chocolate waffle (60 RUB/S$1.40) and an iced latte (120 RUB/S$2.80). So much food for under S$10!

Next, I continued walking along Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street and it led me to the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. Minin and Pozharsky Square, the area in front of the Kremlin, was where the FIFA Fan Fest was held at. I went in for a look and found that it was very empty, unlike the ones at St. Petersburg and Moscow. Anyway, it was very hot when I visited at 2pm and there was no live match taking place at the time, so that contributed to the thin crowds.

I bought a beer to cool down and also to collect the souvenir cup. As I sipped on my beer, I saw the Costa Rican ladies who were decked out in very beautiful dresses sporting their country’s colours of red, blue and white. They attracted so much attention that everyone approached them to take photos, and the ladies gamely agreed, with big smiles on their faces. This is what the World Cup is all about – showing the best of each country and bringing the world together as one.

After that, I visited the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin. Like its counterpart in Moscow, the Kremlin here was a fortress with 2km of perimeter walls and 13 stone towers. It was built between 1508 and 1515. Nizhny Novgorod used to be a guard city, serving as a place for gathering troops for Moscow’s actions against Kazan, until Russia conquered Kazan in 1552.

The city was originally just named Novgorod, which means “new town”, but in order to distinguish it from the older and more well-known Novgorod in the west (Veliky Novgorod), the city was named Nizhny Novgorod, where “Nizhny” means “lower”. It is so-named because it is located downstream of other Russian cities like Moscow and Vladimir, and it has nothing to do with altitude.

During the Soviet period, Nizhny Novgorod became an important industrial centre. The city was heavily bombed by the Germans during World War II because it was the main supplier of military equipment. It became a closed city until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1990. Today, Nizhny Novgorod is the fifth largest city in Russia with a population of about 1.25 million. Due to its geographical location at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers, it is the main centre of river tourism in Russia.

I spent only around 15 minutes at the Kremlin and went back to Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street to soak in the atmosphere. I also did a spot of shopping and ended up buying a T-shirt with some Russian words on its front. It cost me 1,390 RUB (S$32.32). It was designed to look like a police T-shirt but it said “Province” instead of “Police”. It was meant to be a parody and I thought it was quite cool so I splurged on it.

I then took a slow walk back to my hostel, arriving at 4pm. After resting for a while, I left my hostel again at about 5:30pm and walked to Gorkovskaya, took the Metro to Moskovskaya, then transferred to the blue line and alighted at Strelka, one stop away. From there, it was a short walk to the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium and I arrived at 6:20pm.

Having experienced my first World Cup match yesterday, I knew what to expect this time round. The first thing I did was to head to the Official Fan Shop to buy the official match scarf, as I knew that it would sell out quickly. I then walked around the stadium to check out the fringe activities.

As it was still very early, it wasn’t crowded yet. I took photos with Zabivaka, the World Cup mascot. The name Zabivaka is a blend of Russian words that mean “yellow wolf” and “hammering”. He is dressed in white, blue and red, colours of the Russian flag and national team.

I also queued up at the photo booth and snapped some pics for a free printout. I then went to get my face painted with flags of both countries that were playing today – Switzerland and Costa Rica, one on each cheek.

At 7pm, I bought a beer and entered the stadium to check out my seat. This stadium was built specially for the World Cup so it was spanking new. It had a capacity of 44,899, which made it smaller than the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Because of this, it was cosier and I felt like I was closer to the pitch and the action, which was not a bad thing.

At 7:40pm, my seat mate arrived. He was also here on his own so we struck up a conversation while downing our beers. His name was Patrick and he was from Switzerland. My other seat mate arrived at about 8:20pm, and he was Nicolai from Nizhny Novgorod. Nice to see the locals joining in the World Cup fever as well.

At 8:50pm, the proceedings began as huge flags of both countries were brought out to the pitch, and the national anthems blared over the speakers. If it were even possible, the atmosphere here today was even better than yesterday. Kudos to the Costa Rican fans, who turned up in their finest threads and cheered loudly even though their team was already out of the running for the competition. They were playing for pride today and they were determined to put on a good show in this final match of the Group stage.

At 9pm sharp, the referee blew his whistle and the match was underway! I wasn’t actually supporting any particular team but since I was sitting beside a Swiss, I decided to support Switzerland today. In fact, after yesterday’s match ended 0-0, I was just hoping for goals galore today.

Well, it turned out that the match was indeed much more exciting than yesterday’s. There were plenty of near misses, VAR reviews, late penalty drama and best of all, well-taken goals. My wish came true as I was rewarded with four goals and the match ended 2-2. A hard-fought draw was well deserved for both teams and as a result, Switzerland moved on to the next round. Patrick was happy of course, though he had to leave the stadium before the match ended as he was catching a flight home that night.

After the final whistle blew, Nicolai and I left the stadium together. We chatted as we made our way to the Metro station. It was memorable because he didn’t speak much English so we had to rely on Google Translate heavily. Nonetheless, we understood each other as humanity is a universal language.

It was well past midnight when I finally reached Happy Holiday Hostel. I quickly took a shower and did some last-minute packing and headed to bed, because I would be leaving very early tomorrow. It was a short but sweet stay in Nizhny Novgorod but I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end my World Cup adventure!