Blogs from Russia, Europe - page 325

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Europe » Russia September 11th 2004

My dad and I set off for a few weeks of travel in Central Asia before I continued travelling on my own for some time, and our first transit stop was for 2 days in Moscow. A friend Gnadi that my dad had met in 1990 who had come to Seattle for the Goodwill games, the director of the Briansk Philharmonic, met us at the airport and went along with us to an old ratty Soviet hotel. Central Moscow is very cosmopolitan and reminds me in many ways of Paris. With so little time, we did just typical touristic things... went to red square, Lenins tomb, the Kremlin, and rode the metro around the circle line... the most amazing and ornate subway system I have ever seen. The whole line is littered with brilliant art ... read more

Europe » Russia » Northwest » Saint Petersburg September 10th 2004

September 7 Tuesday Woke up real early today for our 7:45 am flight for St. Petersburg. Good thing we got our suitcases in Lylah’s trunk the night before. Thank yous , hugs and kisses for our perfect hostess, Lylah Moonlight, and Emy and I were off to Russia via Paris. From Paris, it was just another 3 hrs or so before we landed in St. Petersburg. Emy was held up in the airport immigration for a good half hour. By the time they released her and allowed entry to Russian soil, they have managed to tamper her passport presumably to check if her passport photo was not something surreptitiously slipped in!!! Gosh, you find a sea of unsmiling faces comprising your reception committee in this communist country and it’s enough to give you cold feet. Worse, ... read more
St. Basil's
Imperial City
Church of the Spilled Blood

Europe » Russia » Siberia » Lake Baikal August 14th 2004

14.8.2004 Bok! Pa zacnimo pri Homeri. Tisti ki mi celo odgovarjate, bi vas prosil, da pisete brez sumnikov, ker potem dobim pisma v grabljicah. Zdaj pa naprej. Naslednji dan v Irkutsku je bil prav zanimiv. Najprej sva imela probleme z registracijo, ker se moras tukaj vsakic, ko si dlje kot tri dni na enem mestu, registrirat. Midva se v Moskvi nisva. Potem pa se stiri dni vlaka. Prisla je inspektorica in po pol dneva tuhtanja so naju oprostil 1000 rubljev (7000sit) kazni. Upam, da ne bo na meji prevelika jeba. Prisel je tudi prvi veliki nateg. Gregor, Steve (alias Kiwi iz NZ) ter jaz gremo restavracijo. Narocimo piscanca za 55r, pivo in krompir. Hrana kul, potem pa pride racun. Moral bi biti okoli 220 za enega, je pa prislo 400 na enega! ??? Poklicemo kelnarco in ... read more

Europe » Russia » Siberia » Irkutsk August 9th 2004

Lep pozdrav vsem skupaj! Prisla sva v Irkutsk. 5500 km in tri dni voznje je hitro minilo. Z Moskvo sva koncala. Bilo je se zelo zanimivo. Oni dan, ko sem pisal, sem bil v enem internet kafeju na univerzi. Potem sva sla se malo naokoli in iskala stolp, od koder bi se lahko videlo Moskvo (tako nama je Vika rekla). Na, pa greva do dalec najvisje in najmogocnejse stavbe na hribu in hoceva noter. Ven pride en student, Slava po imenu, pa ga pobaram, ce se da gor it. On rece da ne, ker je to fax, ampak da bo poskusil on uredit. Prvi poskus ni uspel, ko smo se hoteli pretihotapit v studentski dom z njegovo izkaznico. Sta bila pri vratih dva pol cloveka, pol medveda, tako da smo sli raje nazaj. Tam smo dali ... read more
Vlak

Europe » Russia » Northwest » Moscow August 4th 2004

Bok! Evo! Prvo oglasanje iz Moskve! Po mirnem letu (res je bil zelo miren let, samo malo je vcasih treslo, pa so bili trije Dolenjci za mano tako prestraseni, ker so prvic leteli, da so me sprasevali, ce je to normalno in ce res ne bomo dol padli:) ) in dobrem obroku - surov losos, sva iskala najinega ze narocenega taksista, ki naju je za 35$ pripeljal do najinega stanovanja. Ker ga na zacetku ni bilo, sva se ze skoraj zmenila z enim drugim, ki naju je hotel nategnit za 60$, ampak hvala bogu se je kar od nikoder prikazal pravi. Najina gostiteljica Vika naju je lepo sprejela, stanovanje je pa tako, da ne bi v njem zivel pri nas niti najbolj reven student. Imava svojo sobo in naslednji dan sva osvojila ruscino, ruske avtobuse in ... read more

Europe » Russia July 31st 2004

This morning we were really early on the train station while the train instead was late... The waiting can seem endless in that case... In the end we boarded the train around 6 am. I decided to take a (power)nap for a couple of hours and then wake up when we start circling southern part of Baikal Lake. Getting up at that time - certainly paid off. The view was just splendid: lake, forest and mountains in the background. We coasted the lake for over 200 kilometers and the view just got better and better. Once we moved away from the Lake Baikal, we rode along the Selenga river. Also beautiful! No need for any other kind of entertainment... just watching through the window. Towards the evening we arrived on the Russian border. The soldiers ... read more
Cirkumbaikal
Cirkumbaikal
The train

Europe » Russia » Siberia » Irkutsk July 30th 2004

Yesterday we have left Listvianka and returned to Irkutsk. We took a boat this time (not the bus), just for a change. It was a good choice though... It was definitevely more spacious... For us and our bags. Also here we booked a homestay, by an older lady, Tamara, that used to be german teacher. This simplified the communication a great deal. Well - between the guys and the lady... my German is non existent. Today we wondered around the city. In LP Irkutsk is described as Siberian Pearl... it might have been so once upon the time, but there is little over of its past polish. There is not much to see or to do and we're glad we have planned to move immediately on. The only highlight of the town is definitevely the ... read more
Ikutsk - and the sinking house

Europe » Russia » Siberia » Lake Baikal July 28th 2004

Today is our last full day in Listvianka and we decided to cross the river to Port Baikal for a walk along the original trans-siberial rails or circumbaikal railway. It was a beatuful sunny day but quite fresh and actually cold in the morning (only 8'C). The boat ride to cross the river was short, around 20 minutes. Originally we planned to take the train ride - but once we got to Listvianka we heard that the train rides only on Sundays. So since that was not an option anymore - we decided that hike will do. Se we did about 15km of the railway and then returned back. This one goes through lots of little tunnels and over little bridges and the scenery is really beautiful. What we certainly didn't expect though is to suddenly ... read more
Just a beautiful hike place
Along the Circumbaikal
Little tunnel

Europe » Russia » Siberia » Lake Baikal July 27th 2004

Today we have decided to go for a bike ride around Listvianka. We rented the bikes from the only hotel in the surroundings and hit the road. Down the hill is pretty easy - but up the hill a bit less. In some points the road was so steep that we had to push the bikes! After a while, tired to follow the main road we decided to follow the 'road less travelled'. Basically we wanted to get to the river and follow it back to Listvianka. The road in the forest was muddy and quite difficult to follow but it was fun to figure out a way through. At certain point we arrived to a little river and the only way was to bike across it. Shortly after that it started to rain cats ... read more
Crossing the little river
Crossing the little river 2
Crossed!

Europe » Russia » Siberia » Lake Baikal July 26th 2004

We woke up to a relatively chilly and rainy day today. No worries - we are still up to some hiking and exploring. After a huge breakfast (Mrs Galina, our host lady made us pancakes, eggs, and pulled out sauseges, salamis, chees...) we took a fast boat to Bolše Koti. The boat was full of people and in 20 minutes we were there. It is a really small village only reachable with boat via lake and counts a population of about 100. In the short time of us getting out of the boat and taking few picture - all the people from the boat simply disappeared! It was down to four of us and some cows. No one else. So we decided to walk around and check the place out. We shared the place and its ... read more
Bolše Koti: just got off the boat
Bolše Koti
Walking around Bolše Koti




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