After our few days in St. Petersburg we took the overnight train to Moscow. The Russians made it very dramatic by broadcasting old marching music over the loud speakers as the train pulled in to the platform. I felt like I was part of one of those old black and white movies where people run along the platform chasing a loved one as the train chugs out of the station. The music lasted about 10 minutes and then continued for the whole train journey (thankfully we discovered the volume control in the carriage). It was a pretty comfortable cabin for 4 [View Full Entry]

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Sunday June 22 2008 I knew Vladdie was a commie. His grandmother was a sniper in the Red Army and his grandfather was in Berlin in 1945 chasing SS guys through the woods until 1949. We are heading for the museum of Armed Forces. Military band greets us at the front steps of the museum. they play the US anthem, Russian anthem, and When the Saints come Marching In. Originally opened as a museum for the red army, today it has been expanded to include all eras of Russian military history. Some interesting facts: there werer 8000 russian women in the [View Full Entry]

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Hi All, Moscow, What a town, it is so much more than we were expecting and told to expect, by jealous St. Petersburgers. St. Petersburg is beautiful, of that there is no doubt, but it is very uniform, the buildings look stunning but the same, the streets are straight, in a grid pattern and boring, God forbid there might be a bend. Moscow is just as beautiful, but much more quirky, interesting and not afraid to be different, just look at the triangular Kremlin, the glory that is St. Basils Catherdral, the sparkling metro stations and many other odd but beautiful [View Full Entry]

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Die Moskauer mögen ja stolz sein. Aber so unfreundlich wie ihr Ruf sind sie nun auch nicht. Man muss die Dienstleister eben betteln. Aber man kommt zum Ziel. Eine "Dienstleisterin" suchte sogar innigen Blickkontakt. Als sich mir wenige Minuten später ihr Freund Gernot vorstellte und im gleichen Satz erwähnte, er sei von der Air Force Russia, nun ja, da entspannte sich die Situation nicht gerade. [View Full Entry]

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Gooday, right now I am in Moscow with Bird. We are at some hostel called the comrade hostel, and it is pretty relaxing. The 5 and a half days on the transsiberian day went by faster than expected. The train ride was loaded with experiences and I am happy that I made that trip. Day 1 18th June: We get on the train at about 7 AM and it leaves at 7 45. We get settled in our cabin and start listening to music and checking out the train. In inner mongolia a chinese archeologist joins our cabin. He is going [View Full Entry]

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Hi everyone! Just a few pictures from our stint in Moscow and St Petersburg. We are finding it incredibly difficult to find internet cafes where we can upload photos here in central asia. We had an interesting time in Russia. The majority of people in the cities weren't overly friendly, but nicer out of town. Moscow was a bit more exciting and edgier than St Petersburg, but bloody expensive! We did all the typical touristy stuff as you can see from the photos. We sure had our fill of Borscht! [View Full Entry]

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So, an update from your favourite Moscow Blogger. Had I published this on Saturday as originally intended I wouldn't be about to write about the scenes from that night after Russia's victory over Holland in Euro 2008. It produced some amazing scenes on Tverskaya Road and Red Square. The road was grid-locked with cars beeping their horns, passengers leaning out their windows with huge flags and women dancing half-naked in the middle of the street flashing cars as they inched past (some drivers will have seen some interesting patterns on their car bonnets yesterday!). The celebrations continued in Red Square until [View Full Entry]

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Nous y voila, dans le coeur de l ame russe! Quelle magnifique ville que St-Petersbourg! Completement magique et disproportionnee dans sa splendeur! Alors que Moscou, plus cosmopolite ne connait jamais le repos de ses travailleurs ... ils sont plus de 10 millions a y vivre. D ailleurs, il nous a semble que la grande majorite de la ville etait reveillee et prete des 6 heures du matin! Si vous voyez le metro russe! Sublime decor a l image de l ere soviete et de sa grandeur historique. C est par milliers a chaque minute qu ils s engouffrent dans le metro [View Full Entry]

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Despite advice from others we flew Aeroflot to Moscow and indeed the warnings are correct. Two days before the departure date we received an email that the flight was moved to a day later and the only option was a refund. By then it was too late to move our hotel reservation, so we missed a day of vacation and paid for a hotel we could not use. Don't trust the Internet either when you book a hotel in Russia. The hotel we booked was listed by Orbitz.com as within 3 miles of the Kremlin, but it was 50 miles away [View Full Entry]

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Pictures from my last 2 voyages to Moscow! summer 2007 and spring 2008. Conclusion : inferior goods are very cheap, but when it comes for going out in general or nightlife, Moscow is a very expensive place with not as much glamour as it's told on TV. The real estate prices rised so preposterously high, it's nearly impossible to get a flat in Moscow unless you are very high paid (and we arent talking about anything under 4 000 or more). However it's very impressive with leninistic skycrapers at every corner. An absolute must is the Hram Hrista Spositelja by night! [View Full Entry]

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