~ Oscar Wilde
Russia
21 August 2008
Trans-Mongolian Railway
The Russian border guards arrived and dropped off customs and entry/exit paperwork and then came by for our passports. Then lady came by and inspected all the storage places in the room. Then a man came by and opened all the panels in the room to make sure we didn’t have any people folded up in the ceiling. Eventually they came by and returned our passports. We pulled out of the border around 3 am.
22 August 2008
Trans-Mongolian Railway
After our long night we slept in. When we did get up we were treated to beautiful views of Lake Baikal. We made some stops at various stations along the way purchasing beer and snacks.
We met up some nice people from the UK a car down. They were part of the Mongolian Rally. They brought a 4-Runner from the UK to Mongolia and then donated it so it could be sold for charity. They had some great stories.
One issue with this particular train was that there were no outlets capable of powering our laptop. The only outlets in the carriage were a measly 48 volts. Doug headed down to the restaurant car to try and charge up the laptop. When he arrived the lady running the carriage grabbed a menu and headed over. Doug waved her off and made a gesture that he wanted to plug in the computer. She then signaled it was going to cost money…unbelievable. She then headed over to a guy that was charging his cell phone. He quickly grabbed it out of the outlet and practically ran out of the carriage.
Back in our carriage Doug gestured at one of the attendants about plugging in the computer. The attendant opened a private cabin that had a power strip. He plugged in the computer and then locked the cabin. At least we would have some power.
Later in the evening Anna got all the girls excited about watching the “Sex in the City” movie. The issue was with no direct power we could only watch the movie in chunks. We decided to try the restaurant car and see how much it would cost. When we arrived, the lady running the car told us it was going to cost 500 Robles (about $20 USD) to play the DVD on her DVD player. So we asked about plugging in the computer so we could watch it on our laptop. She said it would cost us 100 Robles for every 30 minutes. So we tried to get some beers thrown in with the 500 Robles option…nope. We decided to watch it in chunks instead. It seemed strange that there was no possibility of negotiation.
We held our little movie in Matt, Cass and Jill’s room. We got about 1/3 of the way through before the computer pooped out on us. Doug brought the computer down to get it recharged and everyone headed off for bed.
23 August 2008
Trans-Mongolian Railway
Siberia was beginning to give in more cities as we made our way west. We spent a lot of time reading, resting and socializing with our friends. We even managed to finish up “Sex in the City” despite our busy schedule.
Anna’s big chore today was to get cleaned up. Wet wipes will only go so far. She took the shampoo and headed off to the bathroom and managed to wash her hair in the sink (no easy feat when the train is constantly moving).
At one of the stops we went on a beer run. Unfortunately the beer prices seemed to be rising since we crossed the border. We decided to do as the locals do…we purchased a plastic 1.5 liter bottle of beer. If we didn’t pass as locals before, we definitely fit in now.
There was another beautiful sunset tonight. Later in the evening a few of us watched the first half of Ratatouille and headed off to bed.
24 August 2008
Trans-Mongolian Railway
The day’s now seemed to blend in. We woke up, had our usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast and hung out. There wasn’t much going on.
After lunch we watched the remainder of Ratatouille with about 9 of us in the room. After the movie we went our separate ways for an hour or so. The train eventually stopped, and we all got out of the train to find something new to eat. But the food all seemed to be the same stop after stop. One thing we continued to stock up on was beer.
For dinner the girls thought it would be fun to dress up, and have dinner together. Matt and Holly put on sheets as togas. Doug put on his swim trunks with his North Face jacket. Crissy, put on a fancy sparkling outfit, Jill had a kimono robe on, and Anna put on a skirt, and tank top. All the girls put on make-up for the occasion. It was fun to dress up for a change. All of the train attendants stared, and laughed at us.
Once dinner was over the Brit’s joined us from the next car over. We all hung out chatting, drinking beer for a while before heading off to bed. This was our last night on the car.
25 August 2008
Trans-Mongolian Railway
The day began just as the three before. We woke up, and cleaned up as much as possible on the train. It was now time to pack our bags, and tidy up the room. It was definitely interesting living on the train for 4 nights. And it was really nice to have the room to ourselves. After packing up we hung out with our neighbors here and there. The train made a couple stops during the morning. But neither of the stops had anything good to buy food wise.
At 2:30 the train arrived in Moscow. Everyone exited the train, and we took one last photo to remember the 4 day journey with our new friends.
Everyone made their way to the Metro. The British people we met made their way to Red Square. They were going to wait out the night in town, being that their flight left at 10:30 the next morning, they were planning on sleeping on the plane. They didn’t see the need to check into a place to stay. Jill, and Cass went to their hotel, Matt went to his hostel, and we found our way to ours.
Getting off the metro stop we were not exactly sure how to get to the hostel. So we followed the map. Sure enough we ended up taking the long way around, but eventually found it. After checking in and unloading our bags in the room, it was Shower time! Washing in the sink on the train was fine for a day or two, but four days was almost too much.
Once we were clean, and email was checked the next stop was for some normal food. The hostel guy said there was a market just down the street. And since this was one of the most expensive hostels we have stayed in on the entire trip, we would be making our own food for a while.
The market was small, but had an adequate selection to choose from. Anna chose some pasta, sauce, and bread for dinner. Doug was excited to get some salami, and beer. With our items we headed back to the hostel for dinner. After dinner we were tired. Sleeping on the train can be very restless after a few days, so we stayed in for the night.
26 August 2008
Moscow, Russia
The day started nice and early with the construction going on in the hostel. We got up, and headed out to get Anna a cup of coffee. She was very excited to have a “real” cup of coffee. Doug ordered a hot chocolate which ended up being a cup melted dark chocolate syrup. He was not impressed enough to drink it. Anna enjoyed her coffee.
It was now time to do some sightseeing. We took the metro two stops to Red Square and just our luck…it was raining. The square was beautiful. We took some photos of St. Basil’s cathedral, and then decided to go see Lenin’s tomb. This was one of the only free things in the city to do.
We had to stand in line to get through a gate, then we checked our bags with camera (no photos of Lenin), next we went through a metal detector. Once we entered the gate we saw some of the tombs of all the previous Russian big wigs. Last but not least, we entered a dark building; went down some stairs, and up some stairs to view Lenin. There were guards everywhere; shushing people who dared to speak in front of the dead man. Lenin was an interesting sight. His body didn’t look real at all, he looked…waxy. Oddly enough the wax people in Madame Touseus look more real than he did. After viewing Lenin, we exited the dark building and Red Square.
The next item on the list was the Kremlin. After a short search we found the ticket booth and entrance to the Kremlin. Doug purchased 2 tickets, Anna checked the backpack, once again we had to go through a metal detector, and then we were finally able to enter the Kremlin.
The Kremlin was interesting. Once going through the big arch there were two sides. On the left were some government buildings which were all guarded. On the right were the cathedrals. We made our way to the right taking photos as we went. The cathedrals were very beautiful to see from the outside, and inside. After a couple hours of the Kremlin we made our way out. It was too bad the weather was not cooperating.
We then walked around the city for a while taking photos. After an hour we ended up on a street with a lot of souvenir stores. To avoid the rain we began going into the stores, and pricing a few items we were thinking of buying. At one store we did end up negotiating a purchase. Going farther down the street we ran into a Hard Rock restaurant. Doug said we should stop in to have a couple beers as well as an appetizer. The nachos ended up being as alright, but Doug enjoyed his beer. Anna had a virgin piña colada; she thought it was nice and sweet. After our snack it was time to go back to the room. We were almost dry leaving the café, but it was still raining pretty hard.
After one metro stop, and a short walk we were back at the room. We changed our clothes, hung out at the room for the evening; Anna thought it would be a good idea to do laundry. At 8:00 Doug went to the reception to check on our Russian Registration, and also inquire about train tickets to St. Petersburg. The registration was done for 600 rubles each (we thought quite expensive). But the train tickets sounded trickier. The girl said there were three options. The cheapest would be to get a hard seat for 600 rubles, and the train left at 2:00am. The middle priced option would be to get a hard sleeper for 900 rubles, on the same train at 2:00am. The most expensive option would be for the fast/luxury train for around 2000 rubles. Well the decision was simple to take the ticket for 900 rubles. But the girl kept saying it might not be available, and the best thing would be to go with the most expensive option. We kept telling her this was not an option for us. (If the most expensive option was an option for us, then we would not be staying in a hostel) We told her to get the hard sleeper if this was not available, then get the hard seat, and if this was not available then we would find our own way. She then told us she was taking 100 rubles for her time if she was not able to get any tickets at all. The girl was not very good at what she was doing, and was very vague on the whole process. To say the least we gave her our money to get what she could. Our Chinese experiences at buying train tickets was not very good, we did not want to find out how the Russian experience would be unless we had to. There were too many bad stories of different things.
27 August 2008
Moscow, Russia
The day started with drilling next door. We got up, and went to the post office. There were a few things we were carrying from Beijing, to Tianjin, to Ulaanbaatar, and now to Moscow. The mailing systems seem to be different in various countries. We were now keeping our fingers crossed our items could now be mailed from Russia. The woman at the post office was very nice, wrapped our items, and allowed us to mail them by sea. GREAT!!! We were able to get rid of these things, finally.
The girl buying our train tickets said she would have them by mid-day. We decided to do a little walking tour in our guide book. We walked down to Red Square, and around the area taking more photos. The weather was sort of cooperating with us today…only sprinkling. After walking for a couple hours we came across a McDonalds, and had lunch. After eating we made our way back around the Kremlin, and finally back to the hostel. The girl who was supposed to have already purchased our train tickets said she would now not have them until 10:00 in the evening, because she had to work. It would have been nice, if she would have mentioned this the day before. We would have gone to the train station ourselves, and avoided her commission.
We hung out in the room a little and got cleaned up. For dinner we decided to check out a small pizza restaurant located near the metro station. The food ended up being pretty good, and the beers were the right size. On the TV’s we watched American music videos. It was nice to hear something we could understand for a change. Arriving back at the room we started watching a movie. Around 8:30, there was a loud knock at the door. Doug went to go see who was knocking. Our train tickets were purchased. She was able to get us the hard sleeper tickets. This was fine.
28 August 2008
Moscow, Russia
Anna woke up sick. We decided to stretch out our checkout time as long as possible. Just before noon we put all our bags in the luggage storage area and headed out. Our first stop was to a nearby park where we sat and read to let Anna rest. Then we wandered down towards the Red Square area. For lunch we pulled into a place that had a long buffet line. Anna rested while Doug got lunch and soup for Anna.
Back at the hostel we settled in on a couch for a bit to relax. While we were resting our Swiss friends from the Beijing to Ulaanbaatar train showed up. Anna was still not feeling too hot, so Doug ran off to find some soup…but all he could find was instant noodles (which was probably only going to get her more sick after 6 weeks of them in China). Back empty handed we decided to head off to the train station early. We walked our Swiss friends to Pizza Hut, which is right next to the metro station. We said goodbye again and headed for the train station.
Once we got off the metro we walked into the train station. We found a seating area and Anna asked an attendant if we were in the right spot. The lady pointed outside and to the right. We headed outside and saw a train station across the street and to the right. Once we were inside we took off our bags and settled in. Once again Anna asked an attendant if we were in the right spot. The attendant said no. The bags went back on and we headed outside.
Anna flagged down a girl and pointed at our tickets. The girl pointed back across the street to the station next to the station we had already been in (apparently there are four train stations all next to each other…genius!). Once we got into that station we confirmed with two attendants we were in the right spot.
We found an eatery next to the waiting area that had food that was edible. Doug had some meatballs and mashed potatoes, Anna had some soup. Then we found some seats upstairs and we settled in for 7 hours of waiting (not a typo).
At 2 am we boarded our train. There was a guy with a bicycle who needed help securing it above Doug’s bed. Thankfully Doug had some parachute cord and was able to strap it down so it didn’t fall off in the middle of the night and crush the lady below. Not much later our train was off and we finally got some sleep.
29 August 2008
St. Petersburg, Russia
Around 11am we both started stirring. We had a little breakfast and soon our train stopped in St. Petersburg. We found the metro and soon arrived near our hostel. We wandered around trying to find the hostel but we couldn’t seem to find the sign for it. Our guide book does a great job of translating however it didn’t include the Cyrillic names of the streets. Eventually we found the place by its street number. When we got upstairs Doug asked where the sign was and they said they didn’t have one. The good news on checking in was we didn’t need to register (which cost us nearly $50 USD total in Moscow…but they did mention that if we did, they would do it for free). The not great news was we were staying in a different location that wasn’t as close to the downtown area, but they would drive us there.
After a short drive we arrived at our hostel. It was a really nice place. It was more like an apartment with a couple bathrooms and few bedrooms. It had free internet, free laundry and a pretty substantial breakfast.
After a shower and checking our emails we set off on a short walk. St. Petersburg is quite beautiful. It is sort of the “Venice” of Russia. There are numerous canals winding through the city and the buildings are quite amazing.
Anna did some shopping at a grocery store and bought some items for a pasta dinner. The sauce turned out to be something other than tomato sauce, but not too bad. Soon we were asleep in bed.
30 August 2008
St. Petersburg, Russia
Today we headed off for the Hermitage museum. The Hermitage is Russia’s version of the Louvre in Paris or the MET in New York, and it doesn’t fail to impress. While we were in line we met a couple guys who were on summer break from Cambridge. As we got to know them we revealed we were on our 8th month of a one year trip around the world. When they asked where we started and Anna said, “Mexico,” they gave a very confused look. Anna didn’t miss a beat and said, “You do know where Mexico is don’t you?” To which Doug replied, “Cambridge is really slipping these days.”
The inside of the Hermitage was exquisite. The museum was broken up into displays featuring different regions of the world. We started in the Egyptian region and worked our way up to the third floor. Highlights include works by Rembrandt, Di Vinci, Van Gough, and Monet.
The highlight of the day was soon to come. Possibly greater than the works of Da Vinci, Van Gough and Rembrandt…the works of Carl’s Jr. Doug was in shear bliss while he enjoyed a Double Western Bacon Cheese burger, what he considers the greatest fast food burger ever created.
With Anna still hungry after watching Doug stuff himself we headed off to a nearby sushi place. We ordered three rolls that were edible but less than impressive.
After we left we headed to the “Church on Spilled Blood.” It is an amazing church (similar to St. Basil’s) built where Alexander the Second was killed. We did some shopping with the souvenir vendors around the church.
Back at the hostel we relaxed and watched a movie before going to sleep.
31 August 2008
St. Petersburg, Russia
After breakfast we decided to do a walking tour of St. Petersburg. First we passed through a park near the Church of Spilled Blood to get to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Thankfully the grounds were free to enter. We wandered through this small fortified island for a while. The big highlight is the cathedral which has a 122 meter tall spire (steeple). There was also a nice art studio housed inside the fortress walls which featured a lot of really nice paintings.
Our next stop was at the Birzhevaya Plaza. It served as the center for a musical water fountain display similar to the Bellagio in Las Vegas (except this one takes place in the middle of a river). From here there were excellent views of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Hermitage museum.
St. Isaac’s cathedral was our next stop. The big highlight here was that we could buy a ticket that would allow us to climb up to the colonnade and get a great aerial view of the city. The stairway was only 262 steps but it was a spiral staircase most of the way so we were a bit dizzy at the top. The view from the top was gorgeous in most directions. Unfortunately a couple of the better views were blocked by construction cranes.
On the way to get Doug’s lunch we stopped for a coffee and tart for Anna. Then it was off to have seconds at Carl’s Jr…mmm. Then we did a little souvenir shopping before coming back to the hostel.
Back at our place we cooked dinner did laundry and got ourselves ready to go to Estonia the next day.
1 September 2008
St. Petersburg, Russia
The alarm went off at 5:30. The both of us got up, and finished packing our bags. We were out of the hostel by 6:00. As soon as we walked outside (leaving the key inside, because we didn’t want to go to the other location to drop it off) Anna began checking to see if her wallet was in her jacket. And sure enough it wasn’t. Anna opened her bags looking around and couldn’t find it. Doug immediately put his bag on, and went back inside the building to where we were staying. After about 15 minutes Anna went back inside to find Doug not there. He woke up some poor girl up and convinced her to let him in. She waited about 5 minutes before Doug came out. He could not find the wallet anywhere. Well we had to catch our bus.
The metro was only a 5 minute walk away. And since all of the Rubles were in Anna’s wallet we only had the metro tokens to get us to the bus station, no money. Downstairs at the metro Doug asked a guy how to get to the Baltic station. He was really nice, and helped us through the first train, and then followed up by telling us which train to transfer to. We made it to the bus station by 6:45am. Our bus was to leave at 7:15…WOW! We had an interesting morning. And Anna felt terrible. She couldn’t remember where her wallet could be.
The bus arrived at 7:05, and we got on. After the bus left the bus station, Doug called the bank to make sure all transactions were put on hold, just in case it was stolen. No transactions had been made which was good news.
The bus stopped after a couple hours for a bathroom break. And then we arrived at the border around 10:15. Everyone unloaded off of the bus with their bags, and went inside. The line was small, and everyone was stamped through without hassle.
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