Life in Russian Village: Our Journey to the Rural Russia

What is the daily life in the rural Russia? How the traditional Russian village still looks like? This is a very popular questions among the foreign travelers. This August we visited a small Russian village located in the middle on nowhere that is just 250 km from Moscow.

Read our story! It tells how to travel only 200 km from Moscow and find the Rural Russia!

The road was very long… about 4 hours of driving with several stops. As usual, being quiet hungry we visited a café not so far from Moscow. It was extremely good with a playground for children, new plates and furniture, tasty and cheap dishes. How have we found it? Just checked the Yandex maps for cafes with a good reviews! It’s not so easy to find, because there are not so many reviews for godforsaken places, but if you find it, do not hesitate, go!

After the lunch, we continued driving… we turned from the highway on the small but nice asphalt roads. There were almost no cars, just trees, trees and trees. Such roads go on for thousands miles in Russia. Most of the time it seems that no one lives in this country! Only rare buses reminded us about remote Russian villages that are invisible from the road.

Finally we turned from this long and lonesome road to the even smaller with some potholes and no cars at all. We crossed the river and drive several kilometers more to suddenly reach the village.

It was small but nice with a several large wooden houses located in the distance from each other. People in the villages respect their own private space. Fortunately, there’s so much space in Russia that it’s not difficult to have it.

Our friend’s parents live in this village for many many years. Once they were typical city dwellers with good education and job. Then they moved to the rural Russia just to have their own house, livestock and garden, to live close to nature. To be closer to the real life.

When you pass the nice wooden fence, you get inside flourishing little garden. Actually, it’s not little! But branches of trees, a pops of grasses and flowers, vegetable patches leave only few space inside.

There were also animals everywhere! Nice dogs were barking at the duck that was standing on the terrace looking at the kitten that was hiding in the corner because of the dogs and watching his relaxed mother cat drinking the milk. A harmony as it is!

We got to the inner yard and found the space with a fresh-cut grass, some wooden sheds and greenhouses. Small piece of earth where its chaotic nature was slightly tamed!

Then we passed another fence to stumble onto a flock of sheeps. We were about to apologize for such a sudden invasion, when sheeps decided that it’s better to leave and run behind the shed.

Actually, I couldn’t stand and did my best to force them into a corner to make nice photos. It was not easy at all! They were fast and well-organized! Finally, they get tired of me running to and from and hide in the darkness of the shed.

We went outside and have a walk around the village. Our children were happy to spend time there. Fields, a lot of flowers, animals… and freedom! Till now, a lot of people send their children “to grandma to the village” for the summer holidays. What an amazing place to learn the world!

Finally, we got to the house of a horse family… It was REALLY a house where they live. Moreover, they choose it by themselves and were totally free to move into another house.

These were horses of our friends. The father’s name was Earl. It was incredibly strong and big! It was ready to defend his wife and small. We were a little bit frightened even despite it was hobbled not to run away. Petr, his owner, fed them with bread.

In the evening, we returned to the wooden house of our friends to have a dinner. Should I describe how tasty it was?! Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and traditional bortsch from local vegetables… Mmm, it seems that I started to understand why people move to villages!