Monday 27th September
Not had the best news in the world today! Upon speaking to a few of the other travellers in the area, it appears that the visa on entry option for Mongolia has been stopped for the foreseeable future. Not what we wanted to hear as we are leaving tomorrow evening to go there, so as soon as we arrived in Irkusk today we headed straight to the embassy, only to be told that they were not taking any more visa applications today and we were to return in the morning. They also informed us that because it was such an urgent visa request it would be 6200 rubbles per applicant so about £450 in total, Unfortunately we have no choice but to do it, however I just wish someone may have mentioned this earlier on. We also hadn't received our formal invite from our tour operator until yesterday so we couldn't have got it anyway.
Nevermind, if all goes well in the morning then we should at least ibe able to continue our journey, the other alternative is to be stuck in Irkusk for a few more days and the head straight to Beijing.
Irkusk has a large student campus with 3600 different colleges in or around the area and it seems that the miniskirt has just come into fashion over here. I could certainly think of worse places to be stuck but not sure Pauline feels the same.
Monday, 27 September 2010
We shall miss you Listvyanka
Sunday 26th September
I would recommend this place to anyone Tyler loved it as soon as we arrived, can't explain why but its just perfect.
Finally we managed to get some of our washing done, its the first time during the trip that we have had our own space to do it and pauline finally got to use the clothes line she had nagged me to by her!
When we woke this morning there was a light layer of snow on the ground, not a lot but just enough to get Tyler excited. To Tyler's amusement someone has made a snowman outside on the veranda it's tiny but that besides the point, it's a real snowman and that's all that matters to him.
Thank god we packed our ski jackets, it's freezing up here and there are several people who forgot their's completely. We all wrap up warm and walk to the "view point" about an hours walk and then a quick jump onto a ski lift which is great fun and provides some sensational views over the lake. The mist has lifted too so the view of the distant mountain range is incredibly clear.
At the view point itself there is a large collection of ribbons, bands and other cloth that has been added over the years by tourists visiting the area, it adds an incredible touch to the location. Once again the views are absolutely incredible, I am sure my pictures will not do it justice (once we get the ability to upload them) however take my word for it they are breathtaking.
Finally we make our way back into town and head to the local hotel for dinner, it's been a great day and we are all very warn out.
I would recommend this place to anyone Tyler loved it as soon as we arrived, can't explain why but its just perfect.
Finally we managed to get some of our washing done, its the first time during the trip that we have had our own space to do it and pauline finally got to use the clothes line she had nagged me to by her!
When we woke this morning there was a light layer of snow on the ground, not a lot but just enough to get Tyler excited. To Tyler's amusement someone has made a snowman outside on the veranda it's tiny but that besides the point, it's a real snowman and that's all that matters to him.
Thank god we packed our ski jackets, it's freezing up here and there are several people who forgot their's completely. We all wrap up warm and walk to the "view point" about an hours walk and then a quick jump onto a ski lift which is great fun and provides some sensational views over the lake. The mist has lifted too so the view of the distant mountain range is incredibly clear.
At the view point itself there is a large collection of ribbons, bands and other cloth that has been added over the years by tourists visiting the area, it adds an incredible touch to the location. Once again the views are absolutely incredible, I am sure my pictures will not do it justice (once we get the ability to upload them) however take my word for it they are breathtaking.
Finally we make our way back into town and head to the local hotel for dinner, it's been a great day and we are all very warn out.
From Russia with Love..
Saturday 25th September
Once again we are dumped unceremoniously at the train station to be greeted by our tour guide. We have an infinite ability to Forget peoples names as soon as they are given to us, however her English is great and she speaks enthusiastically about the area as soon as we arrive.
She even offers to pull over to allow us to get some breakfast before we make the hour and a half drive from irkusk to listviyana, which we snap up without hesitation. On route our guide shows us a collection of pictures from the local town, during winter lake baikal freezes across with up to 2 meters of ice, strong enough for tankers to drive across (which her pictures contest to).
They drop us off at our guest house, a wooden chalet accommodation with our own private room and en suite (considering where we had been living for the past week this seems like a 5 star hotel). The landlady is lovely and has offered to cook us dinner later in the evening to save us having to navigate the town on our first day. After a shower (during which we manage to flood the dining room and have to walk downstairs to a room full of patrons with our tails between our legs) the tour guide returns and takes us on a guided tour of this wonderful waterfront town.
We stop of at the museum dedicated to the wildlife and scientific research of the lake, she seems genuinely enthused by the information that she is relaying and we cannot help but get caught up in her excitement.
There are even two sea lions from the lake that have their own space within the aquarium there, they are unlike anything that we have ever seen, far fatter than usual and with real character.
After this we head off to one of the few tourist attractions, the local market. This is split neatly between a large majority of fish stools selling all sorts of inedible looking local fish and a large selection of stools selling local tat. We were not there long as neither we that appetising, and were returned home for an early dinner and early night.
Once again we are dumped unceremoniously at the train station to be greeted by our tour guide. We have an infinite ability to Forget peoples names as soon as they are given to us, however her English is great and she speaks enthusiastically about the area as soon as we arrive.
She even offers to pull over to allow us to get some breakfast before we make the hour and a half drive from irkusk to listviyana, which we snap up without hesitation. On route our guide shows us a collection of pictures from the local town, during winter lake baikal freezes across with up to 2 meters of ice, strong enough for tankers to drive across (which her pictures contest to).
They drop us off at our guest house, a wooden chalet accommodation with our own private room and en suite (considering where we had been living for the past week this seems like a 5 star hotel). The landlady is lovely and has offered to cook us dinner later in the evening to save us having to navigate the town on our first day. After a shower (during which we manage to flood the dining room and have to walk downstairs to a room full of patrons with our tails between our legs) the tour guide returns and takes us on a guided tour of this wonderful waterfront town.
We stop of at the museum dedicated to the wildlife and scientific research of the lake, she seems genuinely enthused by the information that she is relaying and we cannot help but get caught up in her excitement.
There are even two sea lions from the lake that have their own space within the aquarium there, they are unlike anything that we have ever seen, far fatter than usual and with real character.
After this we head off to one of the few tourist attractions, the local market. This is split neatly between a large majority of fish stools selling all sorts of inedible looking local fish and a large selection of stools selling local tat. We were not there long as neither we that appetising, and were returned home for an early dinner and early night.
Room with a view......
Friday 24th September
Russia is an extremely vast country with a varied and fascinating landscape, cities larger than London fly past our windows at lightening speeds only to be followed by a series of shanty towns for miles on end.
With my family fast asleep I thought I would take some time to reflect on some of the intricacies of the train journey thus far.
1. This particular train has no washing facilities, whilst this may be fine for those travelling for a single day we have now been on it for three and there is a distinct odour emanating from our compartment. You don't even want to get me started about the people who have been on here for the full five days but let's just say you can smell them before you can see them.
2. The Gestapo trained carriage attendants lock the toilets before entering a station, however they do this to there own agenda, sometimes locking it just before we get there, other times locking it 30 minutes before arrival. Whilst this has been fun to watch, Pauline seems to have coordinated her restroom breaks precisely minute after the doors are locked and sometimes has to wait several hours to use them (much to my amusement).
3. The buffet car is guarded by two trolls who have on,y a basic concept of currency and guard their territory with an iron fist and a complete inability to smile. The same item can be charged at different prices throughout the day and they stock an immense selection of some of the worst tasting substances known to man.
4. Over time layers of filth have congregated onto the windows of the carriage making it next to impossible to take pictures without them looking as though you are shooting a Petrie dish full of microorganisms.
5. The toilet (when unlocked) opens directly onto the track which provides quite a surprise the first time that you go to use it. The previously solid base of e toilet flaps down as you flush to allow yesterdays dinner to grace the railways sleepers of some poor Russian community.
6. If someone is to join your carriage in the early hours of the morning, Gestapo lady will simply unlock your door, throw on all of the lights and dump the poor soul in the middle of the room much to the annoyance of the bleary eyed, angry and very tired inhabitants.
7. At all of the major stations a plethora of the great unwashed descends onto the platform to be greeted by a selection of the great unwashed from the local community touting their wears. These range from your standard name brand drinks (none of which are stocked by the trolls so it makes sense to get them whilst you can) to a great selection of dead, mostly inedible looking creatures of the fish and roadkill varieties.
8. There are only a cole of power sockets for the entire carriage and up until now we have found only one that actually works. This means that at different points throughout the day Pauline or I can be found wedged into a corner, outside a toilet, sitting on a trash bin wi some piece of electrical equipment resting precariously on our knees.
9. The fascinating thing is that it all seems perfectly normal for everyone involved and I have to admit that I too am becoming accustomed to the curiosities of the journey. It is what it is, you can't change it, so why not kick back, relax, drink a dodgy Russian soda, eat your daily port in of dried out roadkill and smell the place out like the rest of them.
Russia is an extremely vast country with a varied and fascinating landscape, cities larger than London fly past our windows at lightening speeds only to be followed by a series of shanty towns for miles on end.
With my family fast asleep I thought I would take some time to reflect on some of the intricacies of the train journey thus far.
1. This particular train has no washing facilities, whilst this may be fine for those travelling for a single day we have now been on it for three and there is a distinct odour emanating from our compartment. You don't even want to get me started about the people who have been on here for the full five days but let's just say you can smell them before you can see them.
2. The Gestapo trained carriage attendants lock the toilets before entering a station, however they do this to there own agenda, sometimes locking it just before we get there, other times locking it 30 minutes before arrival. Whilst this has been fun to watch, Pauline seems to have coordinated her restroom breaks precisely minute after the doors are locked and sometimes has to wait several hours to use them (much to my amusement).
3. The buffet car is guarded by two trolls who have on,y a basic concept of currency and guard their territory with an iron fist and a complete inability to smile. The same item can be charged at different prices throughout the day and they stock an immense selection of some of the worst tasting substances known to man.
4. Over time layers of filth have congregated onto the windows of the carriage making it next to impossible to take pictures without them looking as though you are shooting a Petrie dish full of microorganisms.
5. The toilet (when unlocked) opens directly onto the track which provides quite a surprise the first time that you go to use it. The previously solid base of e toilet flaps down as you flush to allow yesterdays dinner to grace the railways sleepers of some poor Russian community.
6. If someone is to join your carriage in the early hours of the morning, Gestapo lady will simply unlock your door, throw on all of the lights and dump the poor soul in the middle of the room much to the annoyance of the bleary eyed, angry and very tired inhabitants.
7. At all of the major stations a plethora of the great unwashed descends onto the platform to be greeted by a selection of the great unwashed from the local community touting their wears. These range from your standard name brand drinks (none of which are stocked by the trolls so it makes sense to get them whilst you can) to a great selection of dead, mostly inedible looking creatures of the fish and roadkill varieties.
8. There are only a cole of power sockets for the entire carriage and up until now we have found only one that actually works. This means that at different points throughout the day Pauline or I can be found wedged into a corner, outside a toilet, sitting on a trash bin wi some piece of electrical equipment resting precariously on our knees.
9. The fascinating thing is that it all seems perfectly normal for everyone involved and I have to admit that I too am becoming accustomed to the curiosities of the journey. It is what it is, you can't change it, so why not kick back, relax, drink a dodgy Russian soda, eat your daily port in of dried out roadkill and smell the place out like the rest of them.
Saturday, 25 September 2010
Disorientated express
Thursday 23rd September
At this stage I have completely lost track of days, we have passed through so many timezones that we have no idea what the current time is. Our limited vocabulary doesn't stretch to asking the time and nobody that I have seen has a watch, there certainly isn't one on the train.
We have taken to keeping track of the various stops the train makes as this gives us some indication if we are able to decipher the station name against the timetable. We have no idea wether the train is currently running to schedule but we figure it's got to be roughly accurate.
We taught Alexander gin rummy today, he had attempted to show Pauline and Tyler a Russian card game but the only rules that we could decipher was that he could put any card down that he liked and nobody else could. Highly entertaining as a spectator but i would imagine that it would be somewhat frustrating fornthe contenders over time.
We just found out that he is actually getting off of the train later this evening so with any luck we may have our own carriage for a little while.
At this stage I have completely lost track of days, we have passed through so many timezones that we have no idea what the current time is. Our limited vocabulary doesn't stretch to asking the time and nobody that I have seen has a watch, there certainly isn't one on the train.
We have taken to keeping track of the various stops the train makes as this gives us some indication if we are able to decipher the station name against the timetable. We have no idea wether the train is currently running to schedule but we figure it's got to be roughly accurate.
We taught Alexander gin rummy today, he had attempted to show Pauline and Tyler a Russian card game but the only rules that we could decipher was that he could put any card down that he liked and nobody else could. Highly entertaining as a spectator but i would imagine that it would be somewhat frustrating fornthe contenders over time.
We just found out that he is actually getting off of the train later this evening so with any luck we may have our own carriage for a little while.
Rolling rolling rolling
Wednesday 22nd September
After an initial period of panic at Perm II train station, caused once again by a complete and utter lack of understanding Russian, we managed to successfully identify and navigate onto the correct train. Train number 340 bound for Irkusk looked as though it had seen better days and has long since passed it's prime but this in no way diminished our enthusiasm.
At last we would once again have our own space to be ourselves and not have to worry about waking up early or having to vacate our space when needed. So you can imagine our surprise when we slid open the door to find a half naked young man looking as if he had just seen a ghost.
Alexander was to be our comrade for the next 2 days and true to form he didn't speak a word of English. At first this proved to be a little uncomfortable for all involved (with the exception of Tyler who never let's a little thing like a language barrier stop him from incessantly shooting questions at whoever is unfortunate enough to be within earshot) however if music is the language of love then beer is definitely the language of inhibition.
After perhaps our 4th or 5th Efes Pilsner we were getting along like a house on fire, so much so that Alexander brought out a bottle of vintage Cognac which we proceeded to destroy. At the end of the evening I am not entirely sure any of us knew what language we were speaking but it just seemed to make sense, here is the information we managed to glean from our inebriated exchanges:
Full name: Alexander Kylogin
Age: 24
Occupation: Railway worker for Belarus railways
Marital status: Engaged or seeing someone
Music taste: Trance & Dance (although he first selected take that on the laptop which was a little disconcerting)
Recent holiday destination: Egypt
I think we can all be proud of ourselves for such an achievement although the hangover and stunned silence this morning may mean that we have to try this approach again this evening!
After an initial period of panic at Perm II train station, caused once again by a complete and utter lack of understanding Russian, we managed to successfully identify and navigate onto the correct train. Train number 340 bound for Irkusk looked as though it had seen better days and has long since passed it's prime but this in no way diminished our enthusiasm.
At last we would once again have our own space to be ourselves and not have to worry about waking up early or having to vacate our space when needed. So you can imagine our surprise when we slid open the door to find a half naked young man looking as if he had just seen a ghost.
Alexander was to be our comrade for the next 2 days and true to form he didn't speak a word of English. At first this proved to be a little uncomfortable for all involved (with the exception of Tyler who never let's a little thing like a language barrier stop him from incessantly shooting questions at whoever is unfortunate enough to be within earshot) however if music is the language of love then beer is definitely the language of inhibition.
After perhaps our 4th or 5th Efes Pilsner we were getting along like a house on fire, so much so that Alexander brought out a bottle of vintage Cognac which we proceeded to destroy. At the end of the evening I am not entirely sure any of us knew what language we were speaking but it just seemed to make sense, here is the information we managed to glean from our inebriated exchanges:
Full name: Alexander Kylogin
Age: 24
Occupation: Railway worker for Belarus railways
Marital status: Engaged or seeing someone
Music taste: Trance & Dance (although he first selected take that on the laptop which was a little disconcerting)
Recent holiday destination: Egypt
I think we can all be proud of ourselves for such an achievement although the hangover and stunned silence this morning may mean that we have to try this approach again this evening!
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
The wonderful world of open Wifi
Wednesday 22nd September
Yipee!! I have managed to blag free wifi from someone close to our home stay so I can finally take some time to update this thing properly.
It has been nothing short of strange over the past week, we have seen loads and met some of the nicest / strangest people Russia has to offer.
To take it from the beginning we landed in St Petersberg on Monday 13th and were promptly met be Sergei at the airport, he was to be our tour guide for the following day and had dubious hygeine standards. First stop was our Home Stay, a phrase that up until then had meant absolutely nothing to me but basically meant that we would be couch surfing with random people. Sounds exciting?
Wrong, its down right scary, we were shown a room by Margaret a woman who's approach to learning English seems to have been the same as her approach to interior decorating, bascally why bother? We did have some interesting conversations with her though, mostly one sided in fairness but somehow we managed to glean enough information for us to get out of there as quickly as possible, drink as much as possible and find our way back there again with a new inhebriated language that seemed to offer us more success with our host.
We all kept one eye open throughout the night just in case we were in the company of an axe murderer and were startled to be woken by Margaret, knife in hand, announcing that breakfast was ready. She could have also been saying a variety of other phrases but when some large Russian with a knife is pointing towards the kitchen you tend not to ask too many questions.
Sergei picked us up at 10:00 and provided a very thorough tour of the city, he went into great detail about everything and we promptly absorbed next to nothing that was said due to lack of sleep and a desire at that stage to be anywhere else. To the casual passer by it must have looked as though the janitor from the mental health institution was ferrying three mental patients around town for their last look at freedom.
St Petersberg itself is absolutely beautiful though, the sun was shining, there seemed to be an endless supply of tourist attractions and we instantly felt a little more relaxed once the tour had finished. We continued on foot to some of the major sites and by this stage Tyler had adopted the persona of David Bailey, finding creative ways of taking photos everywhere we went, his masterpiece though must have been his ability to stand at the top step of St Isaac's cathedral and take a close up of the bottom step without moving. Yep, he dropped the camera down 20 flights of stairs and after 1 days use ended his photography career in a single flash.
Before we left him Sergei offered us tickets to a "real Russian culture show" so we snapped at the chance.
We managed to find our way there with minimal difficulty and had our first taste of vodka (yum) and caviar (yuck), quickly followed by copious amounts of coke to remove the lingering taste from our mouths. The show itself was pretty impressive, lots of singing dancing etc, unfortunately one of the ladies dragged me up on stage and proceeded to prance me around like a fat english tourist, much to the delight of the rest of the audience. the finale of the show was a man wearing a costume of two eskimo wrestlers who pounced onto the crowd with wreckless abandon and seemed to have a fond effection for Tyler (who will be emotionally scarred for the rest of his life).
In the morning we got our tickets to Moscow and headed to the station, expecting a beaten up old diesel locomotive we were quite shocked to be presented with one of their new bullet trains. It flew into Moscow in no time at all and we were met by some random guy who didnt speak English, didnt want to be there and didnt care if we made it to our homestay or not.
In hindsight that may have been a bonus as none of us slept over the next three days, I still cant put my finger on exactly why but it had that sort of crack den come crime scene sort of feel to it. The hosts were very nice and one spoke a little english which enabled us to at least get the address of the apartment and exit routes should we need them in a hurry! They even gave us our own set of keys so we could come and go as we pleased, and go we did, in fact we went pretty much as soon as we woke and returned when we needed somewhere to lie down!
Moscow was fun, we had a walking tour organised and Kate our guide was really friendly and happy to accomodate our stupid questions, namely how do you say thank you, whats that building, how do you say thank you, etc. We have the worst memory for languages so despite being told anything 100 times it went in one ear and out the other, however by utlising the good old point and shout technique that we had adopted early on we managed to get through without issue.
Once again the weather was fantastic and we spent the majority of our time around red square, watching infinate brides prance around in their wedding dresses getting their 6 hour photo shoots. It seems it is pretty traditional to get married early and then spend the entire day with a photographer getting you to pose in very weird settings, I guess after which they quickly set off to the nearest Russian boozer to get shitface on cheap vodka.
Actually Moscow seems to be really into their wedding traditions, we passed a bridge that had locks up and down the entire stretch of wrought iron with the names of the brides and grooms emblazooned on them.
In the center of the the red square is a plaque( the true center of Moscow), it is considered lucky to stand on this and throw coins over your shoulder whilst making a wish. Funnier still were the old ladies who scramble to pick up the thrown coins (free money) most amsuing to watch, these ladies I nicknamed Bingo buddies (they looked like little old ladies who would go to bingo)
Back on the metro (which is very cheap you only pay once for any journey about 29r) we make our way onto the trans-mongolian train, backpacks seamed heavy at this stage, could we find the platform, no we walked around for what seamed like hours and shoved our tickets at the faces of random people in the vain hope that they could point us in the correct direction. Finally we get their, drop our bags on the platform and turn to find an english couple standing right next to us. They too have just stared there gap year and unbelievably we find out the they live in Aspley Guise just 5mins from us, finnally someone we can talk to.
Darren has put his back out luckily he can rest for 24 hours
The train compartments are comfortable and we were lucky enough on this leg not to have to share. Bedding is provided for us and we are so glad that we dumped the expensive sleeping bags in cranfield. Everyone on the train seams friendly including the nosiy 3 year old who seems to have taken to Tyler much more than he would like (he has decided that he dosen't want a younger brother, especially a Russian one).
The carriage itself is clean and there is far more room than we expected especially for storage. This particular train has toilets but no showers but by now we are getting used to looking rough. Each train carrage is joined by a piece of metal on the floor which Tyler loved and made a game of jumping from carriage to carriage. The buffet car was only 2 carriages down so not too far to walk. No one speaks English so to order Tyler food I just pointed to the menu and prayed, luck was on our side it was beef and fries, feel like I have cracked the Russian language,not!
Well the train rattled and groaned all night so none of us got much sleep, it wasnt until the next day that we remembered that we all had ear plugs in our bags so we will definately be using these next time.
We arrived in Perm to be met yet again by a randon Russian man and pointed to a car that took us to the next home stay. Catalina was the most enthusiatic out of all our hosts, her English was great but we yet again felt uncomfortable, the front door was locked and this time we had no key to open it, bloody health and saftey. Our host insisted on cooking our tea ( at extra cost) which consisted of a lovely chicken caserol and salad, there was however an item we did'nt reconise which turned out to be fish pie (which is just wrong), so we left it.
Perm is an industrial town, during the war they made all the weapons for Russia so to keep the location secret the Russians remade all the maps so that Perm did not exsist, then after the war it was put back on the map. Perm also supplies 35% of the world with salt. we went on a day trip to Perm 36 this is a very interesting Gulag (Russia prisoner of war camp).
We are now on our way back onto the train for 3 days, we have bought food supplies in case we are not brave enough to use the buffet car.
Take care all!
Darren & Pauline
Yipee!! I have managed to blag free wifi from someone close to our home stay so I can finally take some time to update this thing properly.
It has been nothing short of strange over the past week, we have seen loads and met some of the nicest / strangest people Russia has to offer.
To take it from the beginning we landed in St Petersberg on Monday 13th and were promptly met be Sergei at the airport, he was to be our tour guide for the following day and had dubious hygeine standards. First stop was our Home Stay, a phrase that up until then had meant absolutely nothing to me but basically meant that we would be couch surfing with random people. Sounds exciting?
Wrong, its down right scary, we were shown a room by Margaret a woman who's approach to learning English seems to have been the same as her approach to interior decorating, bascally why bother? We did have some interesting conversations with her though, mostly one sided in fairness but somehow we managed to glean enough information for us to get out of there as quickly as possible, drink as much as possible and find our way back there again with a new inhebriated language that seemed to offer us more success with our host.
We all kept one eye open throughout the night just in case we were in the company of an axe murderer and were startled to be woken by Margaret, knife in hand, announcing that breakfast was ready. She could have also been saying a variety of other phrases but when some large Russian with a knife is pointing towards the kitchen you tend not to ask too many questions.
Sergei picked us up at 10:00 and provided a very thorough tour of the city, he went into great detail about everything and we promptly absorbed next to nothing that was said due to lack of sleep and a desire at that stage to be anywhere else. To the casual passer by it must have looked as though the janitor from the mental health institution was ferrying three mental patients around town for their last look at freedom.
St Petersberg itself is absolutely beautiful though, the sun was shining, there seemed to be an endless supply of tourist attractions and we instantly felt a little more relaxed once the tour had finished. We continued on foot to some of the major sites and by this stage Tyler had adopted the persona of David Bailey, finding creative ways of taking photos everywhere we went, his masterpiece though must have been his ability to stand at the top step of St Isaac's cathedral and take a close up of the bottom step without moving. Yep, he dropped the camera down 20 flights of stairs and after 1 days use ended his photography career in a single flash.
Before we left him Sergei offered us tickets to a "real Russian culture show" so we snapped at the chance.
We managed to find our way there with minimal difficulty and had our first taste of vodka (yum) and caviar (yuck), quickly followed by copious amounts of coke to remove the lingering taste from our mouths. The show itself was pretty impressive, lots of singing dancing etc, unfortunately one of the ladies dragged me up on stage and proceeded to prance me around like a fat english tourist, much to the delight of the rest of the audience. the finale of the show was a man wearing a costume of two eskimo wrestlers who pounced onto the crowd with wreckless abandon and seemed to have a fond effection for Tyler (who will be emotionally scarred for the rest of his life).
In the morning we got our tickets to Moscow and headed to the station, expecting a beaten up old diesel locomotive we were quite shocked to be presented with one of their new bullet trains. It flew into Moscow in no time at all and we were met by some random guy who didnt speak English, didnt want to be there and didnt care if we made it to our homestay or not.
In hindsight that may have been a bonus as none of us slept over the next three days, I still cant put my finger on exactly why but it had that sort of crack den come crime scene sort of feel to it. The hosts were very nice and one spoke a little english which enabled us to at least get the address of the apartment and exit routes should we need them in a hurry! They even gave us our own set of keys so we could come and go as we pleased, and go we did, in fact we went pretty much as soon as we woke and returned when we needed somewhere to lie down!
Moscow was fun, we had a walking tour organised and Kate our guide was really friendly and happy to accomodate our stupid questions, namely how do you say thank you, whats that building, how do you say thank you, etc. We have the worst memory for languages so despite being told anything 100 times it went in one ear and out the other, however by utlising the good old point and shout technique that we had adopted early on we managed to get through without issue.
Once again the weather was fantastic and we spent the majority of our time around red square, watching infinate brides prance around in their wedding dresses getting their 6 hour photo shoots. It seems it is pretty traditional to get married early and then spend the entire day with a photographer getting you to pose in very weird settings, I guess after which they quickly set off to the nearest Russian boozer to get shitface on cheap vodka.
Actually Moscow seems to be really into their wedding traditions, we passed a bridge that had locks up and down the entire stretch of wrought iron with the names of the brides and grooms emblazooned on them.
In the center of the the red square is a plaque( the true center of Moscow), it is considered lucky to stand on this and throw coins over your shoulder whilst making a wish. Funnier still were the old ladies who scramble to pick up the thrown coins (free money) most amsuing to watch, these ladies I nicknamed Bingo buddies (they looked like little old ladies who would go to bingo)
Back on the metro (which is very cheap you only pay once for any journey about 29r) we make our way onto the trans-mongolian train, backpacks seamed heavy at this stage, could we find the platform, no we walked around for what seamed like hours and shoved our tickets at the faces of random people in the vain hope that they could point us in the correct direction. Finally we get their, drop our bags on the platform and turn to find an english couple standing right next to us. They too have just stared there gap year and unbelievably we find out the they live in Aspley Guise just 5mins from us, finnally someone we can talk to.
Darren has put his back out luckily he can rest for 24 hours
The train compartments are comfortable and we were lucky enough on this leg not to have to share. Bedding is provided for us and we are so glad that we dumped the expensive sleeping bags in cranfield. Everyone on the train seams friendly including the nosiy 3 year old who seems to have taken to Tyler much more than he would like (he has decided that he dosen't want a younger brother, especially a Russian one).
The carriage itself is clean and there is far more room than we expected especially for storage. This particular train has toilets but no showers but by now we are getting used to looking rough. Each train carrage is joined by a piece of metal on the floor which Tyler loved and made a game of jumping from carriage to carriage. The buffet car was only 2 carriages down so not too far to walk. No one speaks English so to order Tyler food I just pointed to the menu and prayed, luck was on our side it was beef and fries, feel like I have cracked the Russian language,not!
Well the train rattled and groaned all night so none of us got much sleep, it wasnt until the next day that we remembered that we all had ear plugs in our bags so we will definately be using these next time.
We arrived in Perm to be met yet again by a randon Russian man and pointed to a car that took us to the next home stay. Catalina was the most enthusiatic out of all our hosts, her English was great but we yet again felt uncomfortable, the front door was locked and this time we had no key to open it, bloody health and saftey. Our host insisted on cooking our tea ( at extra cost) which consisted of a lovely chicken caserol and salad, there was however an item we did'nt reconise which turned out to be fish pie (which is just wrong), so we left it.
Perm is an industrial town, during the war they made all the weapons for Russia so to keep the location secret the Russians remade all the maps so that Perm did not exsist, then after the war it was put back on the map. Perm also supplies 35% of the world with salt. we went on a day trip to Perm 36 this is a very interesting Gulag (Russia prisoner of war camp).
We are now on our way back onto the train for 3 days, we have bought food supplies in case we are not brave enough to use the buffet car.
Take care all!
Darren & Pauline
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Perm.....where people go to dye!
Tuesday 21st September,
Sorry for the lacklustre updates, we still have no access to the internet and find ourselves huddled in the corner of random coffee bars just so we can get wifi from time to time.
As such this is going to be yet another brief update so apologies in advance!
OK, casualty number 2, we had my camera stolen in Moscow so not only have we not been able to take pictures for the past 3 days but also the ones we had taken of Moscow are now confined to some criminals basement. As you know we are not the best looking familty in the world so serves them right :)
Casualty 3, I put my back out a few days ago and I am now walking around like even more of a retard than usual, strangely though this appears to help me fit in with the locals so I guess there is an upside.
We are getting back onto the train tomorrow to go to our final Russian destination and hopefully will have good access to the internet from there so can update everyone properly for a change. However here is a brief synopsis of the last 8 days....
Weather great, food great, cameras bad!
Good news though, we just brought another camera so you too can see for yourselves how bad we now look!
Hope to write more soon
Darren
Sorry for the lacklustre updates, we still have no access to the internet and find ourselves huddled in the corner of random coffee bars just so we can get wifi from time to time.
As such this is going to be yet another brief update so apologies in advance!
OK, casualty number 2, we had my camera stolen in Moscow so not only have we not been able to take pictures for the past 3 days but also the ones we had taken of Moscow are now confined to some criminals basement. As you know we are not the best looking familty in the world so serves them right :)
Casualty 3, I put my back out a few days ago and I am now walking around like even more of a retard than usual, strangely though this appears to help me fit in with the locals so I guess there is an upside.
We are getting back onto the train tomorrow to go to our final Russian destination and hopefully will have good access to the internet from there so can update everyone properly for a change. However here is a brief synopsis of the last 8 days....
Weather great, food great, cameras bad!
Good news though, we just brought another camera so you too can see for yourselves how bad we now look!
Hope to write more soon
Darren
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Its been a surreal week!
Saturday 19th September 2010
Finally, found another free wifi location and although we have to endure what is possibly the worst attempt at italian cuisine that I have ever seen at least we can update this for a change!
Well what can I say about Russia, the Mullet has just come into fashion, especially for the women who seem to be sporting it with wreckless abandon. Its been a good experience thus far though, we still have all of our limbs (just), we have only had 1 casualty (tylers camera, 1st day, 20 flights of stairs) and we havent been mugged yet (although I am sure we have had a couple of close calls).
To be honest everyone in Russia has been really friendly, there are more good looking women per capita than anywhere else in the world although with my 10 day facial hair growth most of them give us a very wide birth, preferring to jump into oncoming traffic than to be seen near me. We are still adapting to the wonderful world of Russian "Home stay" which basically consists of sleeping in whatever spare room a family has available, we have been lucky so far and have had 1 x dining room and 1 x bedroom, however its just a matter of time before we kip in a shower cubicle im sure!
Most of the people we have run into have spoken little English, so we are in good company :-) The age old point, shout, point again and shout a bit louder guide to foreign correspondance has come in really useful and has only landed us in strife a couple of times!
We have the wonderful prospect of heading to "Perm" tomorrow, a town so bad that they named it after a hairstyle that nobody here has, in fact it has a single solitary line in our guidebook advising us that the most interesting place is 100km outside of the city! Yipee . Perhaps they should consider renaming it "Mullet" to attract more visitors?
Anyway, Tyler is once again kicking me off the laptop to play games! Enjoy and hopefully we will have a chance to update this again soon.
Darren
Finally, found another free wifi location and although we have to endure what is possibly the worst attempt at italian cuisine that I have ever seen at least we can update this for a change!
Well what can I say about Russia, the Mullet has just come into fashion, especially for the women who seem to be sporting it with wreckless abandon. Its been a good experience thus far though, we still have all of our limbs (just), we have only had 1 casualty (tylers camera, 1st day, 20 flights of stairs) and we havent been mugged yet (although I am sure we have had a couple of close calls).
To be honest everyone in Russia has been really friendly, there are more good looking women per capita than anywhere else in the world although with my 10 day facial hair growth most of them give us a very wide birth, preferring to jump into oncoming traffic than to be seen near me. We are still adapting to the wonderful world of Russian "Home stay" which basically consists of sleeping in whatever spare room a family has available, we have been lucky so far and have had 1 x dining room and 1 x bedroom, however its just a matter of time before we kip in a shower cubicle im sure!
Most of the people we have run into have spoken little English, so we are in good company :-) The age old point, shout, point again and shout a bit louder guide to foreign correspondance has come in really useful and has only landed us in strife a couple of times!
We have the wonderful prospect of heading to "Perm" tomorrow, a town so bad that they named it after a hairstyle that nobody here has, in fact it has a single solitary line in our guidebook advising us that the most interesting place is 100km outside of the city! Yipee . Perhaps they should consider renaming it "Mullet" to attract more visitors?
Anyway, Tyler is once again kicking me off the laptop to play games! Enjoy and hopefully we will have a chance to update this again soon.
Darren
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Monday 13th September
Hi All,
Well, we left wet London on Monday 13th September, 2 planes later and we arrived in St Petersburg. Some rough looking man picked us up in his beaten up car, to take us to our home stay. What a shock we were sleeping in someones dinning room, classy! The entrance looked like something out of a crime scene . What have we let ourselves in for, we left our luggage and quickly ran to the pub for beer, 1 very large one later & felt much better( probaly a bit tipsy) so went back for bed.
Tuesday 14th september (Weather Sunny)
The sun was shinning and Sergei our tour guide for the morning arrived( in his car).We embarked on a 3 hour tour of St Petersburg, Sergei talked for the whole 3 hours, lots of battleships and palaces. nice place though good food and lots of beer.
Tyler wanted to eat in "The IDIOT" restaurant very funny, had to explain it may have meant 'good food' in Russian
Wednesday 15th September (Weather sunny)
Happy anniversary to us 6 years!
Breakfast was tea and pancakes the same as yesterday and probaly the same as tomorrow. On reflection of my shock last night we soon relise that the russian way is if its not broken, it's ok, hence lots of rusty cars. We are way too materialistic in the UK.
We take ourselves off on our first adventure THE METRO, mission completed we made it to the other end. very cheap, we think you pay once for a journey no matter how long. Once off the train we walk around none of the signs make any sense to me anyway. I asked for directions in Pauline's langage, people seem to understand, that pointing to a map works and is universal. The museums out here are massive but everything is entirely in russian so we have absolutely no idea what we are looking at.
Tonight as it is our anivaersary we booked in to see a Russian folk show that had champagne, canopes and caviar. We all try the caviar thank god no-one really likes it, champange was good though. The show was brillant, fantastic singers and dancing, Tyler was impressed by the amout of knickers on show, Darren got dragged up on stage to dance with some girls, Tyler was really jealous as he wanted to be kissed with the lipstick girls too. Following this we were sat on by a dancing eskimo, we all really enjoyed the show and we will try to uploads some pictures soon.
Waited for ages for our tram home 30 mins, it still did not come along so I pointed to my trusted map at the conductor, and a nod of the head we were finally on our way home quick beer stop then back too sleep.
Thursday 16th September (Weater Sunny)
Last day in St Petersburg, we planned to have a great walk around, but 1 phone call fron Sergei and its painic stations" you must be at the station by 12.30 someone will meet you with the tickets get a taxi it will be quicker, the contact will meet you at the statue" well has Darren joined the MI6? we rush to the station, pick up tickets and are on our way to Moscow, train is very nice and i am really missing coffee. Finally have access to wifi on the train, so we can update this blog!
Pauline
Well, we left wet London on Monday 13th September, 2 planes later and we arrived in St Petersburg. Some rough looking man picked us up in his beaten up car, to take us to our home stay. What a shock we were sleeping in someones dinning room, classy! The entrance looked like something out of a crime scene . What have we let ourselves in for, we left our luggage and quickly ran to the pub for beer, 1 very large one later & felt much better( probaly a bit tipsy) so went back for bed.
Tuesday 14th september (Weather Sunny)
The sun was shinning and Sergei our tour guide for the morning arrived( in his car).We embarked on a 3 hour tour of St Petersburg, Sergei talked for the whole 3 hours, lots of battleships and palaces. nice place though good food and lots of beer.
Tyler wanted to eat in "The IDIOT" restaurant very funny, had to explain it may have meant 'good food' in Russian
Wednesday 15th September (Weather sunny)
Happy anniversary to us 6 years!
Breakfast was tea and pancakes the same as yesterday and probaly the same as tomorrow. On reflection of my shock last night we soon relise that the russian way is if its not broken, it's ok, hence lots of rusty cars. We are way too materialistic in the UK.
We take ourselves off on our first adventure THE METRO, mission completed we made it to the other end. very cheap, we think you pay once for a journey no matter how long. Once off the train we walk around none of the signs make any sense to me anyway. I asked for directions in Pauline's langage, people seem to understand, that pointing to a map works and is universal. The museums out here are massive but everything is entirely in russian so we have absolutely no idea what we are looking at.
Tonight as it is our anivaersary we booked in to see a Russian folk show that had champagne, canopes and caviar. We all try the caviar thank god no-one really likes it, champange was good though. The show was brillant, fantastic singers and dancing, Tyler was impressed by the amout of knickers on show, Darren got dragged up on stage to dance with some girls, Tyler was really jealous as he wanted to be kissed with the lipstick girls too. Following this we were sat on by a dancing eskimo, we all really enjoyed the show and we will try to uploads some pictures soon.
Waited for ages for our tram home 30 mins, it still did not come along so I pointed to my trusted map at the conductor, and a nod of the head we were finally on our way home quick beer stop then back too sleep.
Thursday 16th September (Weater Sunny)
Last day in St Petersburg, we planned to have a great walk around, but 1 phone call fron Sergei and its painic stations" you must be at the station by 12.30 someone will meet you with the tickets get a taxi it will be quicker, the contact will meet you at the statue" well has Darren joined the MI6? we rush to the station, pick up tickets and are on our way to Moscow, train is very nice and i am really missing coffee. Finally have access to wifi on the train, so we can update this blog!
Pauline
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