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Published: June 16th 2008
Hi all!
We left you last time in the finnish lakes promising to not leave it so long 'til the next one and it would appear we may have fibbed! Sorry for that!
Anyhoo, Helsinki, managed to find a room in a massive hostel above a nepalese restaurant (very tasty!) although they didn't always have a room for us so we had to check in seperately every day we were there and had to experienced our first dorm stay, have to say, not too bad at all. No midnight feasts, reading the Beano under the duvet by torchlight or pillow fights, all quite sedate unfortunately!
After an initial struggle with the challenges of moving from 3 days in the wilderness with only a kayak for company to an actual city (the first since London) and over a million people we quicky warmed to this beautiful, friendly and relaxed city. The sunshine helped a lot we think but in general it just seemed a really great place to be, the architecture is a great mix of periods and styles, there are plenty of parks and open spaces to stop and people watch, people were friendly and helpful, we really enjoyed our time there and would definately go back. Can't really think of anything too specific to add, it was just a good vibe.
Which is in direct contrast to the horror that was St Petersburg!
Lets try a management technique called the compliment sandwich for this one.
There was some nice food. (good pies!) and we did 'enjoy' our first vodkas.
However, It's a dirty, noisy, smelly polluted city full of rude, unhelpful, ill tempered people (both locals and tourists alike), the architecture was pretty terrible, for a city that is not really very old it is in a terrible state or repair except for anything we actually wanted to see which was invariably covered in scaffold! There are some gems here, in particular some of the cathedrals with amazing mosaic frescos and iconostatis, although they did seem to pretty much sum up St Petersburg, all flashy show and no substance.
Roger Waters from Pink Floyd turned up and played the entire of Dark Side of the Moon, outside the Hermitage, for free. Which was nice.
Damning I know, and I'm sure there will be lots of people who disagree, but hey, there it is, it's our blog and we'll write what we like. Perhaps one of the several thousand (or so it seemed) armed policemen who moodily stalk the streets fingering their triggers will come to prove me wrong. or not.
Right, bad stuff over and on to Moscow. To countinue the Russia being shut theme, Red Square was closed for a concert (this time we missed it, although we heard it was going to include the winning Eurovision song entrant so we were not overly bothered) and therefore Lenin was not receiving visitors. Plus we payed loads to get into the Kremlin and 3 out of the 5 buildings you get access too inside were also shut and covered in scaffold (they didn't mention that before we went in!), same goes for the Bolshoi, full of scaffold, so much so that we walked past it when looking for it the first time.
Really, people of Russia, if you want a tourist industry, do the building work in the winter (wear gloves if it's cold) and let us see the good stuff in the summer when it's nice! That aside though, Moscow was lovely, the language barrier was a bit of an issue but people were really patient and helpful (especially when I was trying to mime Talcum Powder in the chemist, you try it, go on!)
The hostel was run by a pretty laid back guy and his cat (were not sure who was more in charge) right in the centre of town and things couldn't have been made more easy for us. It's a much more compact than St Petersburg and easy to get around. St basils is stunning, day or night and there seemed to be a stunning building just around every corner.
Not having the wardrobe for a ballet, we opted for the circus instead, which was.... interesting.... Regular circus stuff, tumblers (who dropped things occasionally) jugglers (who didn't), clowns (who did) and only a couple of animal acts, some dancing poodles, some pretty docile snakes and a lion tamer who thought he was Frank Sinatra for some reason, who climaxed with the classic head in mouth routine.
It was the pre show entertainment that was oddest. In reception, along with the popcorn and flourescent wigs you could have your photo taken with..... (deep breath) a camel, some poodles, tiger cubs, old english sheep dogs, a panther, a leopard, a crocodile and a bear in a car. All the animals looked like they'd had a good long lunch and just wanted to sleep (probably the best way if you are letting snack sized children near them) but it seemed a bit odd to our english sensibilities. The russians though, were queing up, grown ups as well as children.
After three city breaks in a week and a bit it was time for a rest and what could be more restful than four solid days on a train? Actually, nothing, the trans sib was an absolute joy but thats for our next blog. Which will also include Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal and a full written apology to the city of St Petersburg (we'll aim for two out of three shall we!)
Hope you are all well, mail us with your news!
Danny and Claire
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Sandy
non-member comment
Fascinating stuff. I think you should get excited about scaffolding. Check out the techniques used. Take photo's. The locals will think you're mad, but therein lies the fun. Oh and another task for you - I want to see photos of locals in their dodgy fashion styles. Eastern Europe is a mine field for such fashions.