MOCKBA!!!

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It's been some time since last I wrote anything on travelblog. Mainly because I haven't travelled as much as last time I wrote.

Anyway, that is all behind me now as I look forward to yet another long trip. I have left my job in London and headed to the east. I am currently in Moscow, on my way to do yet another major trip. This time I have decided to travel by land and catch the trans siberian railway through Siberia and Mongolia (a dream of mine I have had for quite som time).

I arrived yesterday afternoon after an eventless and tedious flight from Copenhagen to Moscow with Aeroflot. The staff was anything but nice, little did I know that it was my first introduction to Russian behaviour (I later learned that noone smiles in Russia, after countless attempts from my side to see them crack a smile). I was picked up by a grumpy driver who turned on the radio as to say "don't talk to me!" I got the hint, but he could not surpress the joy I felt to be on the road again.

I got unpacked at the hotel, Zarya, which was clean and tidy with surprisingly friendly staff (note contradiction to previous people I met). I then headed out to meet Fidot, the guy I had befriended on couchsurfing.com. He was a big, readheaded, burly guy with good English and a fascination for America. He took me around town, places I would normally not go to, and which in retrospect I do not now the name of. I will just have to settle with having been there (wherever "there" is). I also met his girlfriend and her daughter, which was a bright, sparkly 8 year old with an appetite for life and one heck of a fireball. She was adorable, and enchanting. I was glad to spend time with them all, they were friendly and I felt more at ease with being away from home. But I had been up early that morning and I wanted to go to bed early to get some rest. It didn't really happen, and I ended up at my hotel past 1 am (note: we were not out partying, time just flew away).

Today I met up with another person from couchsurfing, Yulya and her husband Tim. They were also friendly and well spoken but still their personalities were completely different from the guy I had met before, almost like day and night. Whereas Fidot had despised tourism, Yulya and Tim were happy to show me the tourist sights like Kremlin, Red Square, St Basils Cathedral etc. I had a very good time with them and I was very pleased with the time I spent in Moscow, even if I didn't do all the tourist things one is "supposed" to do.

What struck me when I arrived in Moscow wasn't the differences between Russia and the Western world, but rather the similarities. I had expected Russia to be falling apart, and have clear signs of communism and the Soviet legacy. Yet what I found was a country very much modern (not like the west though) and up-and-coming.

If only I could get them to smile........ 😊

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Photos

Lenin's mausoleum
Some old Soviet followers were celbrating Lenin at his tomb.

Yulya and Tim
Two of the guys from couchsurfing that showed me around town.

Comments

[daveybob]

stiff smiles and fireballs
haha. great stuff. yes the I found stiff smiles in the former states of USSR (shh dont say that). perhaps its the cold. keep on truckin. xx