Flying Sux.....

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....cos trains rock!

Greetings all. As they would say in Russian:

ну вот мы и снова встретились, г-н икс икс икс, но на этот раз преимущество на моей стороне. (So we meet again, Mr XXX, but this time the advantage is mine.)

We're warning you now. This is big. Real big. You may need to go and get a coffee right now. Yes now. We're not kidding. And maybe some food. Milk arrowroots? They go nicely with coffee. Or a yo-yo. Mmmm.. my favourite. Anyway....

Our title is appropriate because we have had such an awsome time travelling on the trains. It is wonderful to see the world pass by and the landscape changes as we drift from the city to country and cross borders. We have met several people who have aimed to go the whole way around the world without a single plane trip. Then, you may ask, how the hell do they do Australia (as Sof did). One guy had organised himself a trip on a freight ship from Singapore to Darwin... and just travelled like a crew member, having a great time! Flying is now officially boring!!!! Well, it was officially boring before, now it is extra officially boring!

**THE ODD PARAGRAPH**
Our whole Russian experience has been a little odd. Who would've thought that we would actually be looking forward to China for a little normality. This country kinda has the inconvieniences of China, with a language we dont understand, combined with a lack of german efficiency. For example, at one hotel entrance there will be guards and a metal detector, yet nothing at the 6 other doors. Weird.
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Our 3 day train trip from Moscow to Irkutsk (I now know where that is... its not just on the board game Risk... and yakutsk and kamchatka also exist too!!!) was fantastic. We had initially been incredibly security conscious, having seen a terrible bag-snatching in Moscow, and we pretty paranoid about locking up bags and stuff. Nevertheless, 30 minutes into the trip, all that was put aside, as one of our compartment companions, Alexid, proceded to pull plastic bag after plastic bag of food out onto the table for us all to share. Chicken pirog, beetroot, cucumber, tomato, wacky bread, not to mention the AWESOME russian vodka (no mum, it didnt have a label.... only kidding!) with pinecone nuts or something in it. We had no choice but to drink the whole bottle and share his meal. Hands in, free for all! It is amazing how a meal can provide so much more than food. He spoke only russian at us. Maybe with about 5 english words in his vocab, but we got along fine. And our security fears disappeared with each gulp of vodka (vodka is only to be shot, not sipped in Russia).

How's that coffee coming along?

However, before embarking on this train ride, we had been in St Petersburg for a couple of days, and then Moscow. Arriving in St Petersburg was quite interesting, for the first thing we needed to do was take the metro to our hotel. Of course, all the metro stations on the subway map are all written in the cyrillic alphabet. As are, in fact, all street names in Russia too. Our Lonely Planet map didn't have the subway lines marked, and all the streets and metro stations are written in English. Useful.........(pause)....NOT!!! (We watched Borat in Tallinn). At that stage, we couldn't read cyrillic so we ended up at the wrong station, about 83 hours later we got to our hotel, thanks to a really helpful taxi driver, even though we had been warned to not take a taxi in Russia. Anyways, we decided that learning the cyrillic alphabet would be a useful thing to do. So we both learned it that evening, although it was only Zac who retained any of the information the next morning. Probably because of the vodka.

Unfortunately, no one had told us (including the partly useful Lonely Planet) that the day we were in St Petersburg, everything shuts down. All the museums. All the etc. It was May 9, victory day. Although in Europe, May 9 is called Europe day. So we didn't do all sorts of museums that we had planned to do, but it was ok because we've been to a lot of museums in the last 2 months anyway. You win some, you lose more. So instead, we decided just to wander around. This was short lived because of the pouring rain and icy wind. So we just jumped onto a random bus and decided to see the city that way. It was wonderful, because there is much of St Petersburg which looks more glamourous than Paris - the whole river front looks amazing, and every ten minutes you have to stop and marvel at another piece of architecture. But this bus trip gave us the opportunity to see more of the real St Petersburg: the millions of grey square Soviet appartments and government buildings that look even more depressing in the grey weather. Its a really cool city, it has everything, and thats just on the outside. Later in the day, we saw a parade, kinda like the Anzac Day parade, with war veterans all walking down the street to celebrate victory. Many people carried pictures and flags of Lenin and Stalin, and CCCP flags, unlike the Anzac Day parade. I'm not sure exactly what Lenin had to do with the second world war, maybe we should have asked someone. We also had the chance to see the Peter and Paul fortress, which is probably the origin of the playschool song of the birds on your body. Lots of people holding birds in that fortress.....(pause)...NOT!!! There was a chapel containing all the tombs of the Tsars and other important people. Plenty of cool architecture and pictures there. And we also climbed the outside of St Isaac's Cathedral and had panoramic views of the city. Spekky churches are everywhere. And the Hermitage looks pretty fine too. From the outside. But enough St Petersburg for you. Moscow time.

And the bikkies? How are they???

Our 2 days in Moscow quickly turned to 1.5 days having to deal with a psycho travel agent lady (but we wont waste your time having to hear us winge about her... just never use the tour company we did). Now that Zac knew the cyrillic alphabet (he still does not understand why cyrillic isnt spelt cyrillik though), getting around was much easier. Our first day was spent looking at the outside of the Kremlin (of course, the ticket office is closed on thursdays), the AMAZING St. Basil's on red square and we decided to pass on pickled Lenin. Unfortunately, we experienced the horrible bag snatch in a coffee shop here. Definitely made us more conscious of our stuff (until the russian vodka of course). We then went to an amusement park, which was also closed. We really didnt have much luck in St Petersburg and Moscow in terms of doing stuff. However, we got into the Kremlin the next day and 4 of the 6 buildings that we'd paid to see were open (doing well, doing well), and went to really cool souvenir markets near our hotel. The closed aspect of many places that we tried to visit can be summed up in the **ODD paragraph ** near the top.

The hotel we were staying in in Moscow was only topped by the one in Irkutsk for appalling soviet architecture. The Lonely Planet "Trans-Siberian Railway" says about our hotel in Irkutsk: "central, but outrageously overpriced". Thanks again to our wonderful tour company. Not mentioned for fear of defamation. Please email us if you'd like to know who to use for your next trip.... (pause).... NOT!

Irkutsk was a chance to feel like we were in the sticks of Russia. There is much of it that feels like rural China. The local architecture (not the soviet stuff in the centre) is all wooden housing with brightly coloured windows. It really is beautiful. Our second day in Irkutsk got off to a crazy start (see that **odd** paragraph again). Firstly, the multi-lingual staff at the hotel, who couldnt speak english, told us the wrong bus number to catch to get to the main bus station. Pretty important info for tourists we think! So, we got sent off in the wrong direction, and basically had to walk back because the traffic was so bad. We then decided to attempt a tram. Again, with no map, no idea of ticketing system etc. But it worked out. Once you know where the trams go in Irkutsk, they are a really easy way of getting around. However, if you dont know, it may take you 3 or 4 trams to get to the bus station (which is kinda in a straight line from where we were). We got to the bus station. No ticket office. Weird. Found a mini-bus to take us. They wait until they are full til they leave. Just like China. Of course, we were one of the first onto the bus, and we had to get off early at the Taltsy Museum, so basically had to evict most of the passengers to let us off!
We were able to see some minority groups ruins amongst a forest at the Museum. A lovely place to spend a morning wandering. The museum is just off the main road on the way to Listvyanka (where we were eventually heading). So having left our mini-bus, we then had to hitchhike to the town.

Time for another coffee?

We waited a while, before eventually jumping on the bandwagon on the back of a Chinese tour group. Dear oh dear. 5 chinese giggling college girls who just talked about trying to make their eyes look bigger with makeup, and which colours to use. Spose they thought we couldn't understand. Or didn't care. Of course, half way to Listvyanka we had to stop to take photos, including us in their group photo. Yet more random foreigners in Chinese photo albums. Dixon, maybe you can help us shed some light on this??? Then we went to another museum on route, well, the girls did..... we waited in the car with the russian driver who desperately wanted to chat to us except he didn't speak a word of english. Not a word. And thought we'd understand his russian. Hmmm. Half an hour later, we continued to our destination. At least they didn't charge us for hitch hiking. We arrived to see Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, and sat and ate something random on a stick (might have been a big fish, or seal, or bird, or who knows what - maybe even the neighbours' dog) and watched the waves for a while. It was big, this lake. Like, really big. It looked like the ocean, except we could just make out snowy mountains on the other side. Ahhh, the serenity.

As far as our food adventures go, apart from eating mystery meat, we managed to find THE biggest vat of homebrew in Irkutsk. We figured you could fit somewhere between 9 and 11 Sof's in it (we're telling you this because we dont have a photo, not because we tried). It tasted good too. The beer, not the vat.

Enjoy the pics.

The second half of this blog is to come.

Yes, definitely get that other coffee now.

софия и зак (Sofia and Zac)

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Photos

St. Basil's in Red Square, Moscow
Once upon a time there were lots of little Basils running around Europe... Siberian Hamster???

Anton, Alexid and Zac
Somehow Sof is still standing to take the photo...

Looking out the train window
See title of the blog

Checking the train acoustics
Everytime the train stops, staff bang various metal bits with a stick. Apparently they are checking safety aspects. How in tune are train staff with the sounds of a broken piece of train and a not-broken one?

Trying to hitchhike...
Where are all the cars??

Almost at Lake Baikal
The photo stop with the Chinese students!

Meat on a stick
Any suggestions?

Irkutsk Architecture 1
Our ridiculously overpriced hotel with multi-lingual staff...(pause)... NOT!!

Comments

[Sally]

Yo
I miss you sooooo much. So wonderful to hear from you again. Keep up the pics and stories cause I love it. Love you both. x

[Prof. Dixon]

PhD thesis: why Chinese like taking photoes with foreigners
It's simple, usually 2 major reasons: 1. curiosity - Chinese are a single-culture, self-closed group of people for the most of last 100 years, any race other than Mongolian Asian will be regarded as rare animals and keep their eyes wild open 2. vanity - Chinese have their own logic to "earn some faces", showing off pictures with white people is one of the holy grails to make their friends and families "Wow..." Other possible motives include: want to practice English, boresome, want to make a foreigner friend, star scout for local product ads, hobbie, want a blonde wife/husband, mental illness, trouble makers, thiefs and slickers...... and most unlikely, Wolf Creek series killers