http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Russia en-us Sun, 08 Nov 09 20:12:56 +0000 Sun, 08 Nov 09 20:12:56 +0000 Letrsquos start by learning how to say hello in Russian ldquoDoes your arse fit ya.rdquo Say it out loud you know you want to Now say it a bit quicker and mumble it slightly in the manner of having downed a few too many potent Russian vodka shots Diz yr arz fitya 104710761088107210741089109010741091108110901077 hello FUN FACT There was once a be http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-448972.html Irkutsk to YekaterinburgPacked and on the train shared open third class compartment with Alexander x Russian born in Kazakhstan some sort of police work. and Licka 20 headed to Novosibirsk. No English but it developed with time and still no Russian on my side. Starting to recognize the sound of some words like harashaw good fine all is well. Visited several hours and got off at station http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Irkutsk/blog-448290.html Our Russian experience has been incredible and happily concern free. Upon preparing for this trip we did what many before us had done we read numerous Travel blog entries of peoples experienced in Russia visited the Trip Advisor website for the dos and donrsquots and for the most part they all painted a similar picture that Russia wasn't going to be easy. Various blogs warned of trouble with http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/blog-447693.html Moscow Airport Waiting on tarmac for takeoff clearanceWe haven't even pulled out from the gate yet and already this flight has gone for long enough. Of course the two hour delay at the gate hasnrsquot helped and for the life of me still cannot fathem how a flight can be delayed for takeoff due to our lsquoweather conditionsrsquo as flight control over the intercom so put it. Looking out http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-447252.html We arrived in Moscow late approximately 10pm after a 6hr train ride from St Petersburg. Luckily wersquod manage to secure transfers before we left and there was our driver waiting at the end of the platform. It couldrsquove been very interesting trying to secure a taxi and also nerveracking seeing the number of police and officials around and trying to get a taxi wouldrsquove put the brigh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-446559.html Hey Allwe still owe you with some pictures from the Baikal Lake as that posting went without photos... sorry. So here you go enjoyGreetsCA http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Lake-Baikal/blog-446369.html Hello again now from Beijing. Apparently this site is not blocked but facebook is.... But ok this posting should have been done in Ulaanbaatar UB Mongolia but this didn't happen due to a lack of time. So this posting is just a copypaste from a email draft that lingered in Agi's mail box for 2 weeks.... Enjoy.Ulaan Ude Ulaanbaatar After 13 hours on the bus we arrived to UB yesterday at http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Ulan-Ude/blog-446353.html So far Moscow has been equally as welcoming as its counterpart to the north St Petersburg. The following morning after our arrival the night before we awoke early today was going to be a long day we had two tours booked. First was a metro tour which involved the guide meeting us at our hotel and then walking from our hotel to the closest metro station and showing us about various station stops http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-446146.html Thank goodness for Russia and the amount of Russian themed songs on my ipod Scooter Boney M Dschinghis Khan The Beatles and the Anastacia soundtrack were all played excessively during our Siberian jaunt I arrived in Listvyanka more hungover than I have ever been in my whole life. I caught a glimpse of myself in a window reflection and scared that I would terrify small children and puppies as http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Lake-Baikal/blog-445548.html A six hour train ride to Moscow is what the day had in store for me. The wind in St Petersburg that blew straight through you threatening to take your umbrella with it quickly put an end to any ideas we had to spend our last few hours wandering the old streets. Back to the hotel and a long lunch before jumping in the waiting car to take us to the train station. Thankfully since traffic was abo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-445534.html If you havenrsquot already realized by now dear reader snow is something that I am easily excited about. Having seen snow only once in my life for a week whilst skiing in Australia before this trip I have now seen it multiple times in different countries and it is fantastic. Unlike the locals I am not as yet put off by the slushiness occurrence that happens after snowing it is still rather m http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-445526.html The capture of Leningrad was one of three strategic goals in Hitlers initial plan codenamed Operation Barbarossa for invading and conquering the Soviet Union. Hitlers strategy was motivated by Leningrads political status as the former capital of Russia and the symbolic capital of the Russian Revolution its military importance as a main base of the Soviet Baltic Fleet and its industrial strength http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-445524.html I arrived in St Petes almost expecting the worse slow and rude bureaucracy little English and police officers wanting bribes and pickpockets as far as the eye could see. I must say so far there has been none of these issues.We were clever enough to secure a private city tour before we left Perth and we woke on our first full day in St Petes filled with anticipation. St Petersburg as a city is http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-444703.html On 1 May 1703 Russian calendar during the Great Northern War Peter the Great captured the Swedish fortress of Nyenskans on the Neva river in Ingria. A few weeks later on 27 May 1703 May 16 Old Style lower on the river on Zayachy Hare Island three miles 5 km inland from the gulf he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress which became the first brick and stone building of the new ci http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-444696.html Oh no looks like I have become what annoyed me while reading other peoples' blogs A rare poster.Truth be told I write every day but as it turns out I write elsewhere and sent the link to friends and family so they'd know how I am doingWhat can I say I am cheap and don't like to call out with my mobile. I guess I didn't think the decision through when I set up this account and realized that a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-444655.html Took the over night train or Red Arrow from St. Petersberg to Moscow. Managed to end up in perhaps the most miserable hotel in the world in the middle of nowhere. Locals aren't the most accomodating of people so a good way to throw ourselves into backpacking and trying to work the network of stunning Metro stations to get into the centre and Red Square to join the throngs of tourists clicking awa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-443492.html After a very late night madly packing up the house and quick run across Heathrow Terminal 5 as they called our names for the last call we started our Round the World in St. Petersburg. It was a pretty cold start and took us a while to work out what was going on with the language but we managed to survive the 3 days here by finding the two restaurants that had an English menu that weren't McDonal http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Saint-Petersburg/blog-443487.html So we boarded our train Friday evening which was two nights long another long one For this train we were unable to get the cheaper plaskart 3rd tickets so we had our first experience of Kupe 2nd class which was a lot better all the price was over double but still only 60 pounds each which isn't bad for a train that takes around 34 hours Kupe has the same four bunks beds but thats it and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Lake-Baikal/blog-442015.html So got the bus from Suzdal back to Vladmir to wait for our train that we had booked to Novosibirsk. It was a bit confusing because you have a train number on your tickets and a departure board except the departure board had a different time to our tickets...we waited around till that time and it suddenly changed to the right time we had so all was good. We headed to our platform to find there w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Siberia/Tomsk/blog-442005.html So our guide book had told us about a little town called Suzdal to get there you have to get a bus to Vladimir 36 hrs and then a 1 hr bus to Suzdal. We decided to spend the night in Vladimir as we had sorted out any accommodation or didn't know anything about getting the busses from Vladimir to Suzdal. We had tried to reserve a room on this hotels website there were not any hostels in Vladi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Russia/Northwest/Moscow/blog-441916.html