I think that anyone who visits the U.S. and only sees New York City, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles receives a skewed view of the country. Likewise I didn't want my time in Russia to be limited to Moscow and St. Petersburg. These are cosmopolitan, first-class cities. These cities are cultural, political, and economic powerhouses. What's the drop-off from these two juggernauts to Russia's smaller cities. I wanted to see a few mid-major cities and a convenient one to see is Tver since its on the train line between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Tram Line 5 connects the train station to the city center. The ride costs 20RUB. After some brutal rush hour traffic I made my way to Buna Buna for a cappucino. The cafe was right off Tver's pedestrian promenade so I headed there next and walked towards the river.
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Tver seemed worn down. It didn't appear that the city ever had a major heyday with extravagant architecture or construction. What it had was nice. The buildings were close to St. Petersburg but there wasn't much more than a block of nice buildings. I still liked the visit and it's an interesting slice of Russia that is so close to Moscow and yet it's definitely not Moscow.
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I ate dinner at Chicken House, a local chain. Huge bin of fries, small soda. Tver doesn't get too many tourists passing through - of all the places I visited this was the only one without English on the menu but they did have pictures so everything worked out fine. I caught a tram back to the station, this time with a lot less traffic, then caught a high-speed train to Moscow. While waiting for the train I checked out a Russian supermarket...which is exactly like any other supermarket in the world except for a couple of aisles dedicate to Russia products.
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