From Russia with Love

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We got the train to St. Petersburg from Vilnius in Lithuania on Monday night at 6:30pm. It’s always anxious times when arriving in the station to try and figure out the platform, train number, carriage number and cabin number, especially when everything is in a different language. However this time around we were more prepared and I used my secret weapon Google translator to assist me. We boarded the train for a 15 hour journey to St. Petersburg over night. Not many people speaking English around here but luckily onboard I got talking to a French guy who was a teacher in Paris and was just off for the summer travelling by himself. He had been to St. Petersburg before and said we would love it. He gave us some general tips on what to do and things to see.

For anyone from the ‘West’ arriving in Russia can be a bit daunting. As children we were brought up with images of the USSR as an authoritarian place; where people with name sakes like “Peter the Great” or “Ivan the Terrible” ruled with an iron fist, and those who voiced their opposition were punished, or we imagined were sent on their way to Siberian work camps! When we saw (the west) New York on TV it was always bright lights, Macys, the Statue of Liberty, and cash registers ringing up the purchases of the ever spend thrift American consumer ...not to mention the all too well known ‘have a nice day’; When we saw Russia - it was cold, snowing, serious looking guys we couldn’t understand; war; and best of all communism! - Scary indeed to us from the West who knew next to nothing about communism apart from the fact it was bad!! - The “West” and the USSR were in a way pitched to us; as good against evil! No more so was this borne out than in the James Bond classic: “From Russia With Love”. Contrary to what we have been told; they don't have horns!

St. Petersburg

As we arrived in to the train station in St. Petersburg both myself and Nicola looked at each other; in one sense delighted to be here; in another not knowing what to expect. Western propaganda seems to have been in full swing over the years and a trip to Russia is not as nerve rattling as it may first appear. We made it out of the station after managing to order a coffee and a green tea, and only being growled at once for something but I am not sure what. We managed to find a taxi-guy outside who knew where our hotel was. He didn’t know at first but luckily I had the Russian Cyrillic name. Otherwise things would have been looking bleak. If you turn up somewhere like here, no one is going to know the English name or address for the hotel, so you’d want to have the address in Russian Cyrillic. Also you’d want to possibly stay in some massive hotel chain which everyone in St. Petersburg is going to know and the staff will likely be multi-lingual there. Otherwise you’ll be spending sometime playing Charades….. I used the Goggle translator to do all my translating and took down the hotel address and pictures of the hotel onto my iPhone. Worst case I could show someone the pictures of the outside of the hotel and they were bound to know it.

Over the next few days we spent some time exploring the city and figuring out our way around. Once you master the metro - you’re set. I must have spent 20 minutes standing there asking people how to get tokens for the Metro; no one of course could speak English so I just watched other people who came and didn’t have a ticket. I figured out EVENTUALLY if you put a 100 rouble note into this particular machine that 5 tokens will fall out. Each token is good for a ride on the metro….. sounds simple I bet, but the sweat was coming out my ears trying to figure this one out…

The metro is actually quite scary. It must be about 200 meters underground - you get on an escalator and just go down and down and down and DOWN! - And don’t get off for about 3 minutes. I think that it’s so far underground so as to prevent the metro from being bombed, though don’t quote me on this. Anyway once you’re on the Metro; you want your wits about you - as everything again is in Russian Cyrillic. Basically for people from Ireland this means unpronounceable and difficult to decipher the characters of the alphabet. Even when the voice-over on the train calls out where you are you’d be hard pressed to guess what this is in Cyrillic. We kinda got it after a few hours, basically if you go three stops left on the Metro-map; make sure you go three back again. Easy! and if we changed Metro lines each line was colour coordinated so that helped…. unless I suppose you were colour bind - then you’d be screwed! All in all, once you have this pegged the Metro-system is super and can get you anywhere in the city for literally a few cents.

What’s a little bit weird in this part of the world is that the sun is still up at 11:30pm at night and it's still pitch bright. Yes, yes, I guess it’s to do with the latitude, but it’s slightly eerie and unnerving to see something like this. And to treat ourselves rightly, we sat in the sky-bar on the top floor of the hotel having the Russian caviar on offer, while watching the sun set!! You know the way people tell you caviar doesn’t taste that nice. They lied!! - sure it does!!

Two of the best tourist attractions we went to see in St. Petersburg were the Hermitage and the opening of the bridges.

The Hermitage is a State Museum with over three million works of art and treasures housed in five connected buildings. Reputedly the second biggest in the world after the Louvre in Paris. After queuing for an hour we managed to get in. There seems to be a different concept to queuing here in Russia than we’re used to in the west. I had read this in the guide book but could not believe it until I saw it with my own eyes! When you are queuing you can leave the queue at any stage - so you just turn to the person behind you and tell them you’ll be back later. Then you simply head off…..pick up a coffee, have a cigarette and maybe take some pictures by a fountain!!!!! Just like the lovely young couple in front of us did….and then rejoined us again once we got to the top of the queue! Great one you might think - unless you’re the one left stuck in the line in the soaring heat.

Anyway whether you’re an art connoisseur or not (& I’m not) this is one museum that can’t fail to impress. If works by Picasso, Van Gogh, or Rembrandt don’t make you gasp or impress you, then seeing a Da Vinci painting or Michelangelo sculpture will. Maybe someday, we’ll even get to see something by our own local hero Guggi (Bono's painter friend) here!!!

The other tourist gig; the Opening of the Bridges in an event which takes place every night in the city. St. Petersburg is split by the river Neva. The main bridges across the river open for at least four hours every night starting about 1:30am to let “large ships” pass down the river. The opened bridges also leave a lot of angry drivers and pedestrians stranded every night as you can’t get from one side of the city to the other. No kidding!! This unique spectacle didn’t fail to impress and attracted large crowds of jubilant tipsy locals, tourists and ourselves cheering on this rare event at 2am on an early Wednesday morning.

Overall spending a few days in St Petersburg is excellent and it’s a shame so few Europeans make it up to this neck of the woods. Highly recommended as city to see, which I believe could rival Rome or Paris for elitist cultural and awe inspiring architecture.

Moscow - Mother Russia

After two fun-filled days in St. Petersburg, we got a train down to Moscow at 11:30pm. It was an 8 hour overnight train, so not too bad. I actually reserved the tickets online via a Russian ticket agency who could speak English, as it’s just complicated to try and take-on the might of the Ticket Office in the station by yourself. As I had reserved the tickets all we had to do was hand in our printed reservation at the station and the ticket lady should be able to give us our tickets. The station was manic and tricky to find out where you should go. After an hour of queuing, including tea breaks for the staff (which is very odd; basically the staff all go on a break for 10 minutes and the queues still wait there), we got our prize (a one-way ticket to Moscow). We booked Plaskart, (which means 3rd class); firstly, it was cheap, and secondly, to be honest we didn’t mind chancing it to see what it was like. When we boarded the train that night we could see why it was called 3rd class. This is perhaps a bit rough for most Westerners. Basically it’s 58 bunks in an open plan carriage. (like a hostel on wheels) and you just find your bunk. Put the sheets on the bed and you’re sorted. Lights out at 12 midnight. We were the only Westerners and English speaking people in the carriage and attracted quite a few looks and stares. I thought the Russians would be piling vodka into themselves with songs being sung about Lenin and Co. along with nostalgic stories of past Russian glories; not this crowd though; the carriage attendant turned out the lights in the carriage at 12 midnight and we were tucked up nice and early…

We arrived in Moscow at 7am. I had booked the hotel right across the road from the train station as it was a central transportation point with three main stations and a metro converging locally. Our Trans-Siberian train was also leaving from the station next-door in three days time, so all very handy indeed. Ok I lie! It was also the Hilton as we said we could try that too for a day or two. Important to see both sides of life 😊 Pool, gym, you get to be called Sir, Madam; and more caviar even. How could we resist!!!

The first thing I noticed in Moscow is you could literally see drunk people anywhere at anytime of the day or night. Someone always seems to be drinking around us on the streets and both men and women seem to drink beer walking along the streets during the day like we would tend to drink water.

The concept of Taxi’s in Russia is a bit of a mystery, I'd guess, to many people not familiar with Russia. Everyone is actually a taxi. If you want, you can just stand by the side of the road and raise your hand and someone will pull in and pick you up. Believe it! You negotiate a price and you’re off. Simple!! Many Russians are seen to do this as a form of extra income. I can’t imagine something like this would go down too well with the unions in Ireland, though if everyone started this…

We took the chance to visit the historic Kremlin/Red Square and the surrounding grounds in the city centre. It’s quite breathtaking to see with its Red iconic towers and high walls. St. Basels Cathedral is part of the ensemble (see picture) and once the unfortunate architect who designed this building had completed it; he had his eyes gouged out so he could never create something so beautiful again. Now let that be a shot across the bow of any architects in Ireland who hope to reach to spectacular design heights. Inside the Kremlin is total serenity - it’s basically a city within a city. I got picked out by the police for not crossing at the pedestrian walk-way inside the walls of the Kremlin. A serious offence it seemed and for a moment I thought I could be deported. Nicola then got pulled up for going out of bounds by another trigger happy police man who blew his shiny whistle loudly to ensure we got the message.

Also while in Moscow I had to pick up our tickets for the Trans-Siberian train. Basically a train route from Moscow to Beijing, China via Siberia and Mongolia, which myself and Nicola were taking. I was sure something was going to go wrong here, as I wandered aimlessly down Moscows outer districts to find the office of the online Russian agency, that I had arranged this with. Could it be when I arrived at the address that it wouldn't be there and my money and tickets would have vanished? Nope - there she was! - Building number 9, right there as promised on the email. After taking 5 minutes to try and explain to the building security why I wanted to go into this commercial premises and having to show my passport and visa numerous times, I was allowed pass. Floor 3 and I found the office. Sure enough there was a woman there who could speak broken English and thankfully someone had written down the information for her with regards to our tickets. Phew!

Now all we needed to do was show up for the 76 hour train journey to Siberia (the first leg of our Trans-Siberian journey) and we’d be sorted.

Some Trivia
* Getting into Russia is a bit tricky in the first place. From Ireland you actually have to be invited to go to Russia by a friend, company, business partner or tourist agency etc. Once you get your printed "official invite", then you can apply for your Russian visa. Once you get a visa; you can go to Russia for 30 days. On your way into Russia you get what’s called a migration card which you fill in. Not something you’d want to loose as everyone wants to see it before you can check into your hotel.

* In any city you go to in Russia you have to register within two days of your arrival. i.e. register your migration card with local authorities that you have arrived. If you don’t and the police stop you; you’ll get fined. You also need to carry your passport everywhere with you. You also can’t seem to board a train without your passport.

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Photos

Room with a view
Cafe in St.Petersberg

Midnight Sun
Just about mid-night in Petersberg

Toilet Tricks
Worst job in the world! Spot the lucky lady.

Opening of the Bridges
Open Sesame

Its good to text
Early text message on stone tablets

St Basels Catheradal
Red Square