Catchup 1 - Russia!
Yeeah, it's been a while, and uh,how're you...Anyway, might as well just hop straight in!
...as we rolled into this huge deserted station in St.Petersburg, they started playing this communist march over the Tannoy, foreboding stuff!
Happily, the whole Russia section of the tour was organised by a tour company, so we had little or no actual travelling to organise ourselves. We were met at all the stations by people with no english, but a card looking for people with names spelt similar to our own. So apologies to Laura Ruder and Andrew Horan. We stole your holiday, and hope that you're not wandering around that station in St Petersburg.
So we stayed in the Hotel Neva (formerly a bordello), drank some vodka, didn't go to the museum of human monstrosities, saw a car chase (Motorbike vs police Ford Focus), took a walking tour of yellow edifices with white columns, and visited the Hermitage.
Then on to Moscow, where we arrived 7 hours early in our hotel and spent those seven hours asleep on couches in the lobby, drooling, snoring, not showered. Ah the people at that hotel, they loved us.
Moscow, we saw all the Red Square stuff, the Dead lenin stuff (he glows!) some KGB stuff, we were taken on a tour by a woman who was understandibly angry at the legacy of the stalinist purges. (apparently, it had thinned the gene pool considerably, and now, on the metro, well there are not many men whose faces you would not get tired of looking at)
So after 2 days there, we began the more epic part of the trip, the TRANS SIBERIAN RAILWAY!! (trans manchurian to be annoyingly pedantic)
We had our own four person cabin, which was plenty of room, and we spent the four days in a pleasant fug of napping, dozing, staring out the window, napping, dozing, you get the picture.
We also met two Swedish guys, Janni and Thomas. (more on whom later)
Eventually, we pulled into Irkutsk, were driven out the country to a tiny town in Siberia called Listavyanka. (which scans really well to the song Lisdoonvarna) We spent 2 lovely days there in a homestay, having saunas, trekking through woods, eating like kings. Yeah, Siberia was lovely.
And we ran into Janni and Thomas, by the shore of Lake Baikal, purely by accident. (more on whom later)
Then a quick sojorn in Irkutsk, and back on the train. Only this time, we had King Lion instant mash potato! The best instant food in the world.
NEXT UPDATE-CHINA!
...as we rolled into this huge deserted station in St.Petersburg, they started playing this communist march over the Tannoy, foreboding stuff!
Happily, the whole Russia section of the tour was organised by a tour company, so we had little or no actual travelling to organise ourselves. We were met at all the stations by people with no english, but a card looking for people with names spelt similar to our own. So apologies to Laura Ruder and Andrew Horan. We stole your holiday, and hope that you're not wandering around that station in St Petersburg.
So we stayed in the Hotel Neva (formerly a bordello), drank some vodka, didn't go to the museum of human monstrosities, saw a car chase (Motorbike vs police Ford Focus), took a walking tour of yellow edifices with white columns, and visited the Hermitage.
Then on to Moscow, where we arrived 7 hours early in our hotel and spent those seven hours asleep on couches in the lobby, drooling, snoring, not showered. Ah the people at that hotel, they loved us.
Moscow, we saw all the Red Square stuff, the Dead lenin stuff (he glows!) some KGB stuff, we were taken on a tour by a woman who was understandibly angry at the legacy of the stalinist purges. (apparently, it had thinned the gene pool considerably, and now, on the metro, well there are not many men whose faces you would not get tired of looking at)
So after 2 days there, we began the more epic part of the trip, the TRANS SIBERIAN RAILWAY!! (trans manchurian to be annoyingly pedantic)
We had our own four person cabin, which was plenty of room, and we spent the four days in a pleasant fug of napping, dozing, staring out the window, napping, dozing, you get the picture.
We also met two Swedish guys, Janni and Thomas. (more on whom later)
Eventually, we pulled into Irkutsk, were driven out the country to a tiny town in Siberia called Listavyanka. (which scans really well to the song Lisdoonvarna) We spent 2 lovely days there in a homestay, having saunas, trekking through woods, eating like kings. Yeah, Siberia was lovely.
And we ran into Janni and Thomas, by the shore of Lake Baikal, purely by accident. (more on whom later)
Then a quick sojorn in Irkutsk, and back on the train. Only this time, we had King Lion instant mash potato! The best instant food in the world.
NEXT UPDATE-CHINA!
posted by Andy at 12:29 AM
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