The Great White Continent-Antarctica

Antarctica
My 7th Continent
A once in a lifetime experience. 
Penguins, sea lions, ice and icebergs. I will never forget this trip and the people that I shared all this with- sensational is one word.

Clackity Clack The Trans Mongolian Experience

My very first tour of my World Odyssey in April 2011. We had a great group and a great fake Russian guide who didn't drink vodka. Miss you guys xx

A FEW VODKA’S WITH SOME SHAMPANSKOE

WEATHER:  WARMER TODAY TOPS 9C– LOWS 0C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY :  Seeing original artwork by Monet, Van Gough, Piccasso - AMAZING

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Last day of the trip and saying good-bye’s

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Vodka Museum ticket

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – Sookar ( the only naughty word we know - meaning bitch )

BIG day planned today.  We headed off to the Hermitage this morning, which is walking distance from our hotel.  There is still a bit of a nip in the air, but we are nearly going to be into double digits temperature wise, so hopefully it will warm up.  We get to the palace at 10 and it doesn’t open till 10.30, so we joined the growing que that was waiting at the front entrance and nearly turned into an iceblock at the same time, but by the time doors opened the lib=ne was quite a ways back, so it was good that we got there early in hindsight. 

I have been to plenty of museums in my life.  I had heard that the Hermitage was one not to miss, but really what could be so different about this place.  Okay it is one of the largest and oldest museums of the world, which was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and open to the public since 1852. Okay, so now you have my attention.. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display, comprises of nearly 3 million items, ears are now pricked,  including the largest collection of paintings in the world. Okay, so maybe this museum will be a little different to the others.  Once we got through the line up, checked in your jackets, bought a photographer ticket, security check and ticket check, the first thing that you see is the main staircase that is literally fit for a Queen.  It was an amazing introduction to the palace / museum. We were initially given 4.5 hours here, and we all said that we wouldn’t need that long, so we were to meet 3.5 hours out the front of the palace.  Well in hind sight I can see why people want to come back, need to come back – as it is massive, and we probably could have benefited with the extra hour.  But like anything else, sometimes enough is enough and we got to see quite a bit in the 3 hours we had, and if you ever get a chance to come to St Petersburg, DO NOT miss the Hermitage.  The opulence of the rooms, the chandeliers, the portraits and I am not much of an art buff, but we spent a lot of the time looking at the Impressionist and non impressionist painters and the Gallery of Modern Art where we saw original paintings my Piccasso, Matisse, Van Gough, Monet, Renoir and Gaughin.  It was surreal I was looking at these paintings hanging on the walls and even more surprising you were aloowed to go crazy taking photos of the paintings aswell.  Actually the whole palace was allowed to be photographed, as long as you paid the additional $200R you could knock yourself out.  There were only a few exhibits that couldn’t be photographed, but there are signs telling you and also women are stationed all through the palace keeping their beady eyes on every move you make.

Walking around looking at all that history makes for thirsty people, so we decided to head to the Vodka Museum.  There is also one in Moscow, but apprarently the St Petersburg one is better.  We paid an additional $5 and got a guided tour of the small museum that they had thethere, before heading to the ODKA bar and taste testing 3 different vodka’s.  Woo hoo now we are talking!!!  According to the legend monks of Moscow monastery were the first who started producing Russian vodka. During their visit to Constantinople they tasted grape spirit . The drink had such a strong impact on the Russians that as soon as they got back home they started to make the first hooch still. As there were no grapes growing in the homeland the spirit was made of grain.

WHAT DID I LEARN FROM THE VODKA MUSEUM?

Do not “freeze” the vodka!  The vodka pours out all weird, (thick and slow ) This is all wrong.  The correct temperature for quality vodka is about 55ºF.  There are four ways to drink vodka:

1. Mixed (such as a Screwdriver),
2. Sipping (as you would Scotch),
3. Shots (about an ounce every 15-20 minutes), and
4. The correct, Russian style: a BIG shot (about 3.5 ounces) every hour or so.

It was their suggestion to leave mixed drinks to the ladies and reserve sipping for Scotch.  Method 3 (shots) is acceptable, although a few big gulps at greater intervals (Method 4) will produce by far the most pleasurable, controlled, consequence-free intoxication results.

Pay special attention to chasers, those foods that immediately follow the shot.  Salty and spicy ones are the best, both in terms of taste and alcohol absorption.  Sour pickles or pickled tomatoes neatly sliced and arranged on a plate is an easy, highly popular, and effective vodka chaser.  Try not to drink more than one kind of alcoholic beverage in one day.  Combining drinks of different proof is a recipe for disaster.  If you absolutely cannot avoid doing this,

1. Do not make any plans for tomorrow, and
2. At the very least, drink in ascending proof order (i.e., beer before wine, before port, before liqueur, before vodka/rum/gin/tequila).
3. NEVER, EVER, EVER go down in the proof of your drinks.  Just a few sips of beer after a night of drinking vodka, and you won’t see that redhead neighbor of yours for a very long time.
   Do not chase vodka with a carbonated beverage of any sort – the CO2 in such drinks provides for faster, less pleasant intoxication.
4. Drink a lot of water (at least two cups) or sweet tea with lemon before going to bed. Take some vitamin C, too (eat a grapefruit?).  Then drink some more water.

Hmmm some handy tips there, and I will need to keep them in mind next time I am going to a bar and ordering my vodka black in a bottle, which breaks about 3 of the avove rules!  I knew I was doing something wrong!!!

For Russians vodka is not a trifle matter. It’s a drink close to human’s soul used both in joy and in sorrow. We drink it to celebrate an unexpected gain and to ease the pain, to welcome back a long-absent  friends and bid them good buy, to overcome stress and to cure depression. Vodka in Russia is irreplaceable all-purpose drink, the subject of novels and poems, songs and legends.

Needless to say after 3 vodka tasters and 2 shots ( larger in size and paid for ) of the no. 1 vodka of the museum / site restaurant, which was Beluga Vodka, we were flying a little high, as we consumed them all in about 40 minutes, and pretty much broke every one of the rules below.  But it was a great visit and would also recommend this to any vodka drinker if in St Petersburg.

Well we managed to walk home from the museum with the plan of getting a bit of a nana nap in, but alas we were out of time, as we had to get ready for the Russian Floklore show we had booked earlier in the day. 

The show was awesome.  It is located at the Nikolaevsky Palace, which was constructed in 1853-1861 for Emperor Nikolay I's son Grand Duke Nikolay. The palace is in the top-100 list of the most valuable and preserved buildings by state monuments such as Kremlin and the Hermitage. They had singers, dancers, a live band and audience participation, which one of our crew Jesse, got picked to go up and strut his Dutch stuff on stage.  It was hilarious, but he did very well and better  than the other 2 guys that were also conned.  The best thing I think was they added in some humor to the show, so it wasn’t all stuffy and long in that regard.  We got ‘special’ tickets that got us into a small hall for champagne and vodka shots during intermission with some nibble foods, before heading back to second session of the show.  It was something good to do – and to see the fella’s do the Russian sits, leg flicks and jumps was worth the $60 we paid for the show.

From the show we headed to our final dinner.  It has been a massive 3 weeks, and I know I have said it before, but my group were awesome and know I have made some friends.  I only miss Julia in London by 5 days, but Christy and Eric – I will be coming to visit you in LA – mark my words, and I want that ‘special’ t-shirt worn and I also hope to catch up with Lulu as well – don’t you guys dare ditch her!

It is a shame that the day was so busy as it is now hard to tell what the highlight of the day was.  A very tough call – but I do know one thing and that is that I LOVED the Hermitage.  I also got a Bernstar jump in one of the main ball rooms just to top off my visit there and also a full group jump at the front ) we were missing Bill the other day )

In summary – The Trans Mongolian was AWESOME

The people were AWESOME

The countries were AWESOME

Gap Adventures were AWESOME

And last but not least our tour leader or CEO Julia was SUPER AWESOME

London here I come for 2 days R and R and 2 days of tours booked before heading to Rome and catching up with Chelsey and starting my European section of my trip.

ST PETERSBURG – THE VENICE OF RUSSIA

WEATHER:  Still cold MAX 5C – MIN 0C – bring on some double digit weather!

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  Hot chocolate purchase with breakfast – it was awesome

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not being able to get into our rooms till 2pm

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Phone mataurushka’s for $1

WORD OF THE DAY: - ‘civilized’ or ‘uncivilized’

We arrived into St Petersburg at 6.45am.  We have now completed the Trans Mongolian and I cannot tell you how great it was.  To travel the length of a country as BIG as Russia (and China and Mongolia), is just amazing and it really has surprised me along the way.  Even though we had cold weather, and it was the first departure of the season, I could not imagine doing the trip in summer; I think it would just be too hot and super busier.  In saying that, to see some of the places in summer, green and with flowers would be magic.  We had a group of 6, Julia’s next departure is early May and there are 12 on that trip.  Good-luck Jules and I hope they are as nice as us!!!

We couldn’t check into our hotel till 2pm.  So we went for a quick breakfast, as we had our walking tour at 9.30am.  Nothing like keeping us on the move, but I think it was a good thing to keep us busy, as we would have just died in the arse, after not having a hotel room from noon yesterday and only 5 hours sleep on the train, it is quite tiring!

Our guide Michael was great.  Born and breed in St Petersburg he took us around his beautiful city on foot for 3 hours.  St Petersburg really is a Venice of Russia.  Over 350 bridges and canals it really is pretty.  We got Michael to take a group shot of us doing the ‘Bernstar’ jump – and I think I am going to get my groups on all my tours to do it.  I wonder how many of my Contiki people will do it?  There are up to 40 people in those groups!  How awesome would that look!  We saw the Neva River, the outside of the Hermitage (we go back tomorrow), Church of the Savior of Blood (the St Basil in Moscow look-alike) and just crossing the many bridges and waterways.  I didn’t know that St Petersburg was made up of so many canals.  It really does look like Amsterdam or Venice on drugs.

After our walk we had lunch.  All we seem to be doing is eating, walking eating, walking, resting, eating and sleeping.  I think the amount of food we eat is compensated for the amount of walking we do, well I am banking on that, as it seems like all I have been doing is eating.  But my clothes still seem to fit, so I will keep working with my theory until my clothes don’t fit then I will be in a world of hurt!

Our afternoon was to ourselves.  With the temperature dropping outside along with my energy levels, I went back to the hotel to complete some more of my blog, Facebook and also managed to get in an hours sleep to re-charge the batteries that really were running on empty.

Welcome to St Petersburg – I think we’re going to make great friends!

GOODBYE MOSCOW – YOU WERE AWESOME

WEATHER:  Bloody Freezing Tops 2C – Lows -1C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  TGI Friday mudslide

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Weather was a little crap to start – but cleared up, well to 2C

BUYS OF THE DAY:  TGI mudslide – I don’t even know how much I paid….

We had the day free today, no commitments to meet the crew till 9pm that night, where we had a transfer booked to take us to the train station and on to the last part of our rail journey to St Petersburg.  The only stipulation was we had to be checked out of our rooms by midday.  As the weather had not improved, it was still snowing with some showers now and then, I decided to have a lay in and stay in the room till exactly 12 noon, check out and then catch the metro and head to the post office to send some stuff home.

Well I ran into Christine and Eric in the luggage room and we decided to get a game plan together for the afternoon and away we went to spend our last day in Moscow.  We had to still check out, and this can be a very testing time.  A little patience is required, as they certainly run on Russian time, and they certainly will not go out of their way to be helpful.  They had 7 queue’s happening with only 4 staff.  You didn’t know what line was for what, so we decided to spread out and we all jumped in a line to see who would get served first.  Well I made it first after about 20 minutes, told the lady I wanted to check out, she took my card and said fine.  Um – well I need to get my passport back and she pointed to where Eric was waiting, so he had the right line after all.  If you don’t laugh at these things it can really ruin your trip.  I guess for them it is an organized chaos and must work for them – somehow.

First stop was St Basil’s Cathedral. This is the famous coloured church in Red Square.  It is only open to the public on certain days, so we thought it would be worth the look inside.  I am sure there are not many people that take the time to go inside this much photographed building and we were right. After paying the $200R there was only a handful of people inside the church.  I know what you are thinking, seen one church, seen them all, but St Basil’s is actually a little different as it is 8 churches all in one.  After leaving the ground floor, the second level was like a maze of rooms and chambers and the view back to Red Square was also quite spectacular.

Lunch was next.  As mentioned previously, I was in Moscow in 1999, and back then there weren’t a lot of English speaking food places to eat at.  After eating a hot dog in the park for lunch and dinner on the first night (only thing the vendor sold – so no stuffing up) I walked further afield and found a TGI Fridays that had a picture menu.  So now 12 years on, it was time to have lunch down memory lane, and we ate lunch at TGI Fridays Moscow.  The BIG draw card for Christy and I was the mudslides they sell there, and it was just divine and to have a bacon cheeseburger with it, it was nice just for a change from dumplings, cabbage and potatoes.

I then headed to the post office, to send some stuff home.  Now I knew this was either going to be easy or very difficult?  Once again there were 2 lines to choose from, after asking 3 people in front of me if I was in the right queue, to get the blank faces staring back at me, I decided to pick one and hope that I was in the right line.  Well 20 minutes later, I get to the little window, popped my stuff I was wanting to send on the counter and told her I wanted to send this’ pointing to my bag’ to Australia.  She looked at me, spoke Russian, and waited for my response.  So I repeated the same thing again and I got more Russian.  So I rephrased my question and said Australee – souvenirs and the penny dropped and she understood I wanted to post it to Australia!  In the end I got the package away (well we will see) for the grand total cost of $30, which included the box, for 1.083kg.  I didn’t think that was too bad.  Second box sent home – it will be like Christmas when I get back the way I am going.  I am also including a little something for my god-daughters every time I send a parcel home – just so they won’t forget me!

Our last thing we wanted to do was take a ride around on the Moscow Metro.  The stations are just magnificent, from mosaics, to lead lighting, to paintings to sculptures, each station is designed differently and you actually feel like you are walking around a museum.  It was quite difficult to get pictures, as it is illegal to be taking pictures of the metro, not sure why, maybe it is a security thing, but I managed to snap off a few photos for my collection.  It was around 4pm by this stage, and it was pretty cool to just stand there and see all the people pass you by and the masses of people coming and going on each train.  The average daily passenger traffic during the year is 6.6 million passengers per day. The highest passenger traffic is highest on weekdays, when the Metro carries over 7 million passengers per day. The traffic is lower on weekends.  With only 182 stations, that’s approximately 38,461 people through a station a day – madness.  The Moscow Metro is the world's second most heavily used rapid transit system after Tokyo's twin subway and I can see why.  We rode the circle line, getting on and off stations that were recommended for their opulence and we weren’t disappointed.

We departed the hotel at 9pm for the train station, which is about a 25 minute ride and our train departed Moscow at 11pm.  I am glad I had a chillaxing morning, as it just would have made for a massive day if we had of been on the go from 9am. 

Goodbye Moscow – you were a cold son of a gun – but I enjoyed every minute.

Our arrival into St Petersburg will be at 6.45am – where we will find ourselves at the end of the line, literally.  After 18 days, 156 hours of train travel and 8900km clocked up, we will finish our massive Trans Mongolian train journey across a continent.  If you have ever had inkling to do the trip, I would highly recommend it to anyone.  It has certainly been a journey of a lifetime for me and I will take away many good memories and a few new friends as well for good measure.

A LITTLE SNOW IN MOSCOW

WEATHER: Tops 2C Lows -2C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY :  Going inside the Kremlin and seeing snow fall in Red Square

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not being able to find the Mataruska Doll Museum after 1 hour of walking

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Lunch at GUM – again…  It really is a beautiful building

Day 2 of Moscow and we had a BIG day planned.  Kremlin, lunch, Gulag Museum, Matarushka Museum and if we had time a visit to some of the metro’s.   

We had to catch the Metro form our hotel  to Red Square.  After getting onto the Metro 3 times yesterday, I think I have worked out the system – even if it is all in Russian.  We decided to re-name all the stations into something that made more sense to us, so we had Haymarket Street, Webenko and Mentho to name a few.  Whatever works right! 

The metro in Moscow is amazing.  It is the second busiest metro in the world after the Tokyo Metro.  I guess when you have a population of 10 million and you are moving them around the city, you need something that works.  You never have to wait more than a minute for the next train to come, and the mass of people is incredible.  Well you have not had a train ride till you have ridden the metro in Moscow in RUSH hour.  Our station was 5 stops from Red Square, so by the time it pulled in for us the train is packed.  I’m talking really packed.  Like 5 people get off and 30 need to get on!  I am only exaggerating a little bit – but not much.  With a little back pushing and a little side shoving, we all piled in, as the train waits for no-one.  So we are in, and if you are claustrophobic, then the Moscow Metro will not be for you.  You are either leaning on some-one, staring at some-one right in the face, and if your Bill, some guy had Bill’s armpit in his face for 3 stops as he held a rail above his head!!  It was a little squashy, but that what the Russians do.  Well next stop, 3 people get off and another 30 people get on – how the hell they made the room I have no idea – but a little more shoving and packing us a little tighter, the doors close again and away we go.  We finally arrive at our stop, and you really need to fight your way off the train, otherwise you get caught on there and you miss your stop.  We made it out the Metro, looked around and there was no Mel.  We waited 5 minutes and out she pops from the station.  She got caught up in the flow of people the stop before us and literally got pushed off the train in the departing people.  That truly is how many people are getting on and off the metro at one time.  As the trains are so frequent she just jumped on the next one and was able to meet up with us again so quickly!!

We were going to visit Lenin’s Mausoleum, but he is currently on holiday ( closed for renovations ) so we had some time to kill before we met our guide at the Kremlin.  So we succumbed to the dark side for the first time in 3 weeks and we all had McDonalds for breakfast!  And let me tell you it was delicious!!!! Sometimes the golden arches is just what the doctor ordered!

The Kremlin was our next stop.  What can I tell you about The Kremlin?  It was amazing.  The history of this place is mind blowing.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and as we walked around the gardens she pointed out things you know the stuff like ‘ those cannons were used in the fight against Napoleon’’ St Basil was built on the orders of Ivan the Terrible’ you know just boring stuff NOT!  Besides the beautiful churches they have on the Kremlin grounds, they also have the world largest cannon and also the world’s largest bell that has never been rung.  But I think the highlight has to be The Amory.  This is where the they have pretty much everything kept  from 450 ish years ago of history.  This stuff is amazing.  The hall of the clothes included dresses worn by Catherine the Great at her Coronation, Ivan the Terrible’s Helmut, all the Tsar’s cloaks and staf’s etc.  These things are priceless and the gem stones that adorned these things were insane.  There was also a hall of all the gifts given to the Royals over time, and they had them classified by countries.  The Germans and the Swedish were very generous and the French a close third.  Once again we are talking gold clocks, plates, gem stone books, challis and the list goes on.  The last hall was the carriage hall and these carriages are straight out of a Walt Disney movie.  Most of them were gifted to Catherine the Great over a period of 50 years from other countries and were stunning.  There was one there that was the biggest, and she only rode in it once as it wasn’t very comfortable, so she never rode in it again!  So after 3 hours of touring the Kremlin, we crossed back again to ‘plebsville’ and headed to GUM for lunch.

Our afternoon consisted of a visit to the Gulag Museum.  People could be imprisoned in a Gulag camp for crimes such as petty theft, unexcused absences from work, and anti-government jokes.  About half of the political prisoners were sent to Gulag prison camps without trial; official data suggest that there were more than 2.6 million imprisonment sentences in cases investigated by the secret police, 1921-1953. The Gulag was radically reduced in size following Stalin’s death in 1953.

It was a little depressing.  More than 14 million people passed through the Gulag from 1929 to 1953, with a further 6 to 7 million being deported and exiled to remote areas of the USSR. According to a 1993 study of incomplete archival Soviet data, a total of 1,053,829 people died in the Gulag from 1934 to 1953  More complete data puts the death toll for this same time period at 1,258,537, with an estimated 1.6 million casualties from 1929 to 1953  These estimates exclude those who died shortly after their release but whose death resulted from the harsh treatment in the camps.

By the time we got out of the Gulag, we spent around 50 minutes trying to find the Maturuska Museum, but we didn’t have any luck, and after asking 2 people and the snow getting heavier we decided to pack in the day and just head for home.  By the time we got back to the Metro it was 7pm.  We literally had walked for 10 hours – less the hour we stopped for lunch.  Needless to say our feet were killing us and our beds didn’t feel so good ever.  Moscow is an awesome city, even with the snow.

MOSCOW MOSCOW

WEATHER: Tops 4C – Lows 0C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY : Arriving into Moscow and walking into Red Square

BUMMER OF THE DAY: It’s cold – brrrrrrrrrrrrrr – like freezing cold

BUYS OF THE DAY:  2 Russian tea cup holders made of brass $500R on the train $1500R in the shop

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically –

Welcome to Moscow!  The most northern city in Europe with a population of 10 million people, and the 7^th most populated city in the world!!!!  Yes people, it is massive.

I was in Moscow back in 1999, and beside the major landmarks, the place has really changed from what I remember.  It really has a vibe to it now, and in terms of people, clothing and amenities it really has moved forward to join the western world.

We arrived into the beautiful Moscow train station at 9.20am and were transferred to our hotel which was about 25 minutes away.  We are staying at a group of hotels that were originally built for the athletes of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.  They are massive buildings and house up to 1900 guests at any one time.  I’d like to say that they have been refurbished in the last 5 years; the bathrooms are new, the heating works and Wi-Fi in the rooms – what else could a traveller ask for?

After a quick turnaround it was off to Red Square.  There are some places in the world that just amaze and Red Square for me is one of them.  Once you have walked through the gates at one end of the square in one frame you can see, St Basil’s cathedral ( that beautiful coloured church that is one of Moscow’s re-known images ) the State Department Sore ( also know now as GUM ) and the Kremlin to the right.  The Kremlin!  It is amazing.  As it is a square though, the wind was ripping right through there, and with the temps at 2C, I hate to think what that wind chill factor would have been!

GUM has always been there.  It was there in ’91, but I don’t remember it being so fancy.  It really is now a high end department store, with the like of De Beers, Audi, Tiffany’s etc. now occupying shops.  I remember little stalls of souvenirs and it being poorly lit.  Bill was there in the ‘70’s and he said the only thing you could buy back then were rubber boots and not much was for sale for the locals.  But I think the ‘70’s would have been a scary time to be coming to then the USSR.  The building is just beautiful now, with it having been all cleaned and restored now.  It certainly would give Harrods in London a run for its money that is for sure.

Before we left the hotel, we got copies of our passports, a copy of our visa, and there is a VERY important document you get when you enter Russia, the immigration form (treat as gold – if you lose this you are in a world of hurt) and this is also copied.  By law, your passport stays at the hotel, but if you are pulled up by a policeman in the street and you have your passport or the magic card on you, you need to pay the policeman money to get it back!!!!  Does anyone else see a problem with this?  Dodgy right!!!! What chance have we got if the police do that?

Anyway, so off we set (with photocopies in hand) and Julia took us for an orientation of the city – where she lived and studied for a few years.  It was good for us to get our bearings.  Everywhere you look there is just a ‘wow’ factor.  Even though it is freezing, once you start walking around for a few hours, if the wind behaves itself, it really isn’t too bad.  Half way through, it started to snow!  AWESOME, we’re in Moscow and it is colder than the temperatures we got in Siberia!!!!

For transport, the city is set up on a Metro system.  The stops at the stations are in Russian (no English) but set up very similar to the tube in London.  They have different coloured ‘lines’ and metros where you need to change.  I think for me the concern is that everyone puts the fear of god into you with pickpockets travelling through the Metro’s.  It is nice to be fore warned, but they make it sound a little scary.  Beside that, the stations being in Russian for some reason just throws me off a little – not sure why.  I guess this is part of the experience and I will need to get used to it as I want to go to the Cosmonauts Museum tomorrow, and I need to use the metro AND change lines to get there!  Let’s see how that pans out.  There are some Metro’s worth seeing just for their beautiful architecture.  There is a circle line that runs the internal network that you can just hop on and off to take pictures.  It really is not permitted to take photos, but if caught the fine is $100R, which is about $3.50AUD – so I think I can handle that. 

Our last stop for the day was old Arbat Street.  It is a busy pedestrian area full of café’s and shops, but back in the 18^th-19^th century it was a traditional place of residence for the gentry.  The architecture was awesome through here.  It really is an amazing place.

Off to the Kremlin tomorrow, yep the Kremlin!!!!  How amazing does it sound?

Moscow – you may be cold – but I think I like you a lot!!!!

DEDICATION TO ERIC BROWN – WITH NO ‘E’

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY : Eric winning the Ekaterinburg challenge   

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Losing the Ekaterinburg challenge against Eric

WORD OF THE DAY: - Eric is the best

This is a dedication to Eric Brown. 

After starting our city tour in Ekaterinburg, our local tour guide Galina, gave a challenge to the group.  There would be a prize at the end of the tour for the person who participated the most for the 3 hours.  Well I am always up for a challenge, but as I was keeping Bill company towards the back of the group, I missed some key points which were explained and in turn missed some opportunities that pulled Eric to the front of the leader board.  To be honest, I didn’t know half the answers anyways – but don’t tell Eric I said that! 

It was so funny at the award ceremony at the Pirogi shop Galina gave her endearing speech………and the winner is ‘ what is your name’ LOL

So as the winner, Eric received the world’s smallest Matryoshka doll keyring and a request to have his own blog entry – so Eric – this blog entry is dedicated to you, the best ( and only ) Californian guy I know – so far.

Eric Brown is the best.

ON THE MOVE AGAIN – TRANS MONGOLIAN TO MOSCOW

WEATHER: Climate controlled at 24C inside and 3C outside

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY :  Back on the train for some rest.  Gives me the opportunity to catch up on my blog entries, photos and updating my ipod etc…..

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Dropped my ‘drinking’ camera and it now seems to be having some problems.

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Hot tea served by our stewardess in fancy Russian glass holder for $1.50

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – pasholsta / please or your welcome

1800km to cover today.  This means approximately 24 hours on the train.  We can finally set our clocks to Moscow time and have no more time changes till we leave Russia in 7 days, moving our watches back 2 hours.  Thank-god.

Train departed Ekaterinburg at 7.20am ( Moscow time of course ) so we were collected at 8.30am for our transfer to the station.  See how confusing it can get!  This train is amazing.  It is near new, there are even more ‘wow’ things on this one than the last one and we thought that one was cool.  I think, to do the journey, the Beijing to St Petersburg direction is better than doing it in reverse.  As you move west the trains keep getting better, where if you do it in reverse, you start with the best train and descend to the worst train heading into Beijing, which all things considered wasn’t ‘that’ bad.  It seems like an eternity ago already.

On train number 15 you get:

An amenity kit ( toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, cotton buds, wet towels, shoe heel and eye wipes ) Um excuse me are we still in Russia? 

There is a personal safe for each berth, not per cabin, so we all get one each

An individual temperature control for the cabin ( finally we won’t have to sit in an ice box or an oven )

Ear and TV ports for the TV and remote included

A small rail to hang your hand towel

A smiling carriage attendant who for $1.80 serves you tea from fancy Russian mugs

…and the piece da resistance a toilet that can be used stopped and at stations!  I know right, they are biodegradable toilets, so we can knock ourselves out! They also look the cleanest by far!!!

My afternoon was spent updating my budget, my blog, adding some of my trip pictures to my Ipod, reading and listening to some music.  I do love train travel.  I can’t believe that I am saying this, but it is a shame that we aren’t on this train a little longer, as it is the Rolls Royce of all trains. 

It is going to be a real pain in the bottom, when this trip ends and I have to pack my bags to be ‘plane’ ready again.  I have gotten a bit into the habit of having an additional plastic bag full of crap and food that just doesn’t seem to fit back in my bags the way it did when I left Australia.  I haven’t bought much, and what I did buy, I have had it posted back home from Mongolia. Now this is the ‘downside’ of travelling.  Baggage and weight restrictions, flamables, sharps, liquid and gels.  I remember a few years back, I flew Scandanavian Airlines from Copenhagen to Frankfurt to pick up my Singapore Airlines international flight home.  I was over 3kg and was charged $210.00 for my effort and the buggers don’t tell you how much it is till your bag has gone down the conveyor belt.  Thanks visa card for getting me out of that one.  I wonder how many times I will be charged excess baggage on this trip?  The positive thing is I cannot possibly fit another thing in my backpack, so I know it won’t get heavier than 22.9kg right?  Gee I hope not – I will keep you posted.

Moscow in the morning!

EKATERINBURG – MILITARY VERSUS ROMANOV’S

WEATHER: Tops 6C - Lows 0C 

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY : Eating fancy Pirog ( Russian pastry and filling )

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Thinking my reloading of my Travelex cards weren’t working till I realized I was transferring into another card – but all good as at least I know where the money has gone!

BUYS OF THE DAY:  A little supermarket shopping. Cheese, bread, soap, chocolate milk - $4

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – chipsee – chips – Dobree Noche – Good night

Arrival into Ekaterinburg at 5pm, was the first afternoon arrival we have had to date.  We are staying at a wonderful hotel called the Park Inn ( a Radisson chain hotel ) where the Wi-Fi  is quickish, the showers are awesome ( not sure if it had anything to do with us not having had one for 2 days ), the bathroom floors were heated and as the rooms were toasty, I was able to get some washing done ( shirts and smalls ) and it was bone dry within a few hours.  I also got all my pants washed through the hotel and the prices were a little steep ( compared to what we have been paying ) but I am happy to get big items washed properly when needed.  The wash for 5 items was $43, but some things I am just going to have to suck up.  It does feel good to be wearing properly laundered clothes.  It is funny the small things that can make a BIG difference when travelling.

Dinner that night was a treat.  We went to a themed USSR re-created restaurant, where we ordered dinner from ‘Top Secret’ menu’s, had vodka shots and watched the locals boogie on the dance floor to a live 2 man band.  You wouldn’t believe though the wine we chose off the menu was an Australian wine from South Australia – Wallaby Creek and it was $40 for the bottle, not too bad for an imported wine, and it was quite tasty.   

Ekaterinburg was going to be interesting for me due to the Romanov story of the Royal Family being killed here in 1918.  The city has so much more to offer and it is a shame we only got 2 nights and one full day here, but we made the most of our time, I know I have said this about other Russian cities in previous blogs; I really like this city as well.  It is more of a university city, so there is a really good vibe here and I think a place I would eventually come back to at one stage down the track.  There are a lot of museums to see ( which I am not a huge fan of ) but I think the ones they have here would be worth coming back for.

The city itself only opened to foreigners in 1991.  Previous to that, there were a lot of military plants / factories open ( and still are today ) and they didn’t want tourists and possible spies, in their city trying to find out all their secrets, as our guide put it.  Not sure what has changed as the plants are still in operation today, and our guide works in one as an interpreter, but I am glad we got a chance to see the city.  The factories still make bombs, rockets and weapons for the Russian Army today.  We also got to see a mock T43 tank, which apparently won them WWII, but that is according to a Russian.  My WW history is limited to say the least, so I can’t make a comment either way.

We covered a lot of ground on our city tour.  We got to see a really moving monument called the Black Tulip.  Named so as that is what the planes were called that bought back the dead soldiers from the Afghanistan war that ravaged on for 10 years. Ekaterinburg lost 250 men, just from that city alone, multiply that by hundreds of other Russian cities and towns  that sent their own young men and that number jumps to thousands.  The actual monument, besides the listing of the names and the years that the soldiers passed away, was a 4 meter high statue of a down cast soldier thinking about lost comrades. It was one of those moving monuments that just make you realize how lucky our country is.  There was also a small dedication to soldiers also lost in the Chechnya war over a period of years as well.

The Romanovs.  I am sure everyone has heard of the story of the execution of this famous family, and the possibility that one of the daughters, Anastasia, had survived the massacre.  Movies have been made on the subject, and books written – but I am going to set you straight on what actually happened.  The Bolsheviks over threw the Royal Family and Nicholas II, his wife, 4 daughters and a son were sent to Ekaterinburg and put under house arrest for 78 days.  They were permitted to walk outside twice a day for 15 minutes only.  On the 79^th day they were taken to the basement of the house that they were contained to and shot.  Why were they killed?  The main theory was that the Bolsheviks were worried that there was a conspiracy to get the Royal Family back into power.  Now this is where the story gets a little more gruesome.  After getting shot, they were then moved not far from the house to a ditch, and because they were still alive, they had acid poured on them and then they were buried where they lay. When the remains of the family were found in 1991, they were sent to London for DNA and genetic testing  to make sure they were the Royal Family and in 1998 it was confirmed that indeed it was the Romanov Family.  There bones are now buried in the Royal cemetery in St Petersburg. 

There were marks on the bones that indicated that they were also slashed with knives or axes, and god knows what else was done to them, so it was not a pleasant end to their lives.  Apparently Nicholas II was a religious man, and instead of trying for exile or trying to escape,  decided to run with what God had planned for him. ’What will be will be’ – that is my destiny.  I wonder if he knew what was going to happen, would he have changed his mind.  Well at this point the son and a daughter were missing from these remains, which fueled the story that maybe 2 of the members had escaped, but in 2007 the remains of Aleksey, the young son,  and Anastasia were found nearby to where the other family members had been found and also tested and confirmed that indeed it was them.  A sad story.  There is small memorial out of Ekaterinburg you can go to where the family was discovered, but it was a little too far to go out by taxi. 

The whole family was declared Saint Martyrs in the 1980’s and a church was built in their honor in 2000.  I have seen a lot of Russian Orthodox churches but this one that was built for them was truly beautiful.  Maybe because it was so new, but maybe a little sad as well knowing the history of the family.

It was cold in Ekaterinburg.  Their main river was still frozen, but it must be on the edge of thawing as there were no people walking on it like we have seen in previous cities.  It is getting the point where all the snow is starting to melt and it turns into the muddy sludge on the roads and footpaths.  Which in turns becomes quite slippery if you’re not careful?  Needless to say all the cars are filthy, I think a carwash would go great guns in this city – entrepreneurial  opportunity maybe?  No matter on the cost of your car – it was covered from bumper to roof in mud.

Highlight of the tour, was when it concluded at this wonderful old building that housed a brilliant café that was famous for Pirogies.  A Piroge is a Russian pie, with pastry and a filling of pretty much anything you want.  Savory or sweet – the selection was massive.  I got a chicken one, and I have to say, I think it was the best thing I have eaten in a really long time.  Washed down with a wonderful cup of green tea, it was a great way to complete a 3 hour walk around a beautiful city.

We also got the opportunity to go to the Opera in one of the 23 theatres they have.  I have never been to the Opera before, and with tickets only costing $6, you would be crazy to not go along and spend some time in one of the older buildings that was built in 1918 and then recently restored to it’s former glory.  The Opera was Tosca.  Julia briefly explained what the story was about before it commenced, so I had an idea on what was happening, but I have to say after the first 30 minutes, I was starting to drift off to sleep.  I think it was a combination of the warmth of the theatre, the orchestra playing its wonderful tunes, a big day and with the Opera in Italian and the screens translating into Russian, it was just too much for me.  So after the first act, I headed back to the hotel and met up with the rest of the gang after the performance.  BUT I gave it a go right?  It was an amazing experience and it was a first class performance – the theatre was packed.  I am glad I went, even it was for a short time, but I truly don’t think I could have done the whole 2.5 hours.  For the record – they all die.

I do need to mention that the Russians on a whole have been very friendly and courteous.  We really haven’t hit a meanie in our travels to date ( not including the train attendants of course).  Touchwood this continues.  I like Russia.

6 days left of the tour, and I will be sad to say good-bye to new friends made.  I guess this is the downside of doing the tours, you really get to know these people, spending nearly 12 hours a day with them, you do become friends, and I will miss them.  But the upside is I get to start all over again and make new ones and the process begins all over again.  This is where Facebook is awesome, to stay in touch, and it’s not good-bye for some it is just farewell till next time.

Off to Moscow tomorrow and another 24 hours in the train.  Choo Choo – clickty clack.

TRAIN HOURS

WEATHER: A constant 24C – 28C temperature controlled

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY : Copying 1800 songs to iPod from Jesse and Julia ( a mix of Russian and Dutch songs to add some variety to my musical selection) and finally, FINALLY getting reception on my mobile phone for the first time since leaving home and texting with my best friend – gee I miss them……

BUYS OF THE DAY: The only thing to buy–dinner, which was delicious I might add -600 roubles - $20 AUD

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – fgoovzna / delicious – horoshow / good

-          Ya neit loobloo greebees – I don’t love mushrooms

Hands up who loves train travel!!  If you don’t then this is NOT the trip for you.  With 7983km of train track and 164 hour on the train – this would be a pretty long trip if you weren’t prepared for some down time.  To give you an idea are the following travel times that we have done ( section 1-3 so far )

Section 1 – Beijing to Ulaan Bataar – 30 hours

Section 2 – Ulaan Baatar to Irktusk – 40 hours

Section 3 – Irktusk to Yekaterinburg – 54 hours

Section 4 – Yekaterinburg to Moscow – 26 hours

Section 5 – Moscow to St Petersburg – 14 hours

With 2 more sections to go, you would think that we would be sick of the train right?  But we are all coping quite well and still enjoying the experience and each other as a matter of fact.  As mentioned in the last post – it could be a long 3 weeks if you have the proverbial pain in the arse on a trip like this. We have been super lucky.

So what do we do on the train all day?  It is amazing how fast time flies.  The longer journeys have been night time departures, so by the time you settle in and get organized, it is bed time and 10 hours has passed by the time you wake up the next day.  So  even though it sounds a long time, there are a lot of sleep-able hours included.  We chat, we drink tea, we eat, we chat, we drink tea, we eat, we sleep, we chat, we drink tea, we eat, we sleep, we chat, we drink tea – anyone see a re-occurring pattern here?  By the time all that has happened its dinner time and we head to the dining car – to yes eat!  We have bought cards, dominoes and a crap board between us and to be honest we have not bought any of that stuff out.  We are all readers, so when we go for the compulsory nana nap in the afternoon, we read, some iPods come out, it’s down time and then we all stir and then the same routine happens again.  We chat, we drink tea, we eat, we chat, we drink tea, we eat, we sleep, we chat, we drink tea, we eat, we sleep, we chat, we drink tea – what a life.

We are getting quite organized with the food situation on the trains.  We always get to a supermarket before we head to the station to buy supplies.  Water, snacks, vodka’s, toilet paper and the last 2 sections we have smartened up and bought on our own breakfasts.  There has always been a dining car on each section, so if you didn’t want to lug an extra bag of food on the train, meals are served between certain times there – it can be a little costly, and I use this term loosely as a 2 course main meal and a beer will cost you $20 – still not bad in the western world – but costly in the Russian world apparently.  My breakfasts have consisted of crusket equivalents, cream cheese ( similar to laughing cow cheese – keeps well with no fridge ) and a few almonds.  Lunch is noodle bowls, as there is always hot water available at the end of each carriage and then we splurge on dinner and dine in the dining car.  Tea is a big commodity on the trains.  I have NEVER been a tea or coffee drinker, but the first train we were on was FREEZING ( an ice box on wheels ) and I had tea to warm up and I haven’t looked back since.  At the age of 36, I can now sit down with a book in my hand and sip my tea ( green or earl grey seems to be the fav of the moment ) and just watch the snow covered landscape pass me by.  What have I been missing all this time?

I guess the most asked question is what are the toilets like on the train.  There is a toilet at the end of each carriage.  Depending on the trains, they sometimes differentiate between a men’s and a woman’s toilet but generally they are unisex.  There is approx. 36 people to a carriage, so 36 people using the same toilets – I guess when you put it out like that – it doesn’t seem too bad.  BUT a public toilet is a public toilet and yes they can get pretty gross by the time the 40 hour journey comes to end.  You generally have to roll the bottom of your pants up, as you don’t want anything touching that floor, toilet paper is all gone and usually the hand soap is also gone.  All these factors also depend on your cabin steward, as to how receptive they are to the cleanliness of the cabin and toilet in general.  The first 2 trains we noticed that they kept one toilet locked, and if you paid money, then this toilet ‘could’ become available ( if you get my drift ).  We learnt this lesson, so for this train ( 3^rd section ), we loaded up our stewardess with chocolate and found it has not helped one iota.  Oh well we put our hat in the ring and didn’t gain anything.  I guess at the end of the day, when you gotta go you just gotta go, no matter on the condition of the toilet.  We have had a few of our people jump a few carriages to get a better cleaned toilet and we always BYO toilet paper so we are not left ‘ hanging’.  The toilets are closed during station stops, for the obvious reason that the waste is deposited directly onto the tracks, so when it is stationary I guess they don’t want a whole pile of s@#t left on the tracks when we pull out.  Understandable.

Dress standard for the trains is comfort.  No fancy pancy clothes when you are sitting down for long periods.  There is probably the largest group of tracky dack travellers in one area at one time on the trains.  It is funny as the carriages are all heated, we are all stripped down to t-shirts and the Russians are in shorts ( some in wife beaters ), you would think it was summer in here, but when the train stops and the smokers want to get off it is quite a sight to see people out there in their ‘summer’ garb when it is 2C outside and coming out of their winter there is a lot of very white ‘chicken legs’ prancing around out there!!!!!

The only other thing that differs on the Irktusk to Yekaterinburg train ( now being 100% Russian train ) is the time difference has confused the hell out of us all.  All Russian trains, no matter where you are travelling to and from ( Russia has 11 time zones ), as long as you are in Russia on the Russian train network it will always be operating on Moscow time.  Well that doesn’t seem so confusing right? Well to give you an idea, we left Irktusk at 7.10pm local time, which is 2.10pm Moscow time.  We arrive into Yekaterinburg at 5.15pm local time, which is 8.15pm Irktusk time and is 3.15pm Moscow time.  So what the hell time do we run on when we are on the train.  We have decided to do the destination time, for time keeping purposes and once we did that we realized we are on the train an additional 6 hours than planned – but we have enough tea and snacks to get us through – so it was no worries – but when we changed our clocks back 3 hours it made our bed time from midnight to 9pm – it really felt like we were travelling in the twilight zone.

Welcome to the world of train travel – and we are having a ball.  If you ever had an inkling to do the Trans Mongolian – I would highly rate the experience and urge you to make a booking.  I would have loved to have done the whole trip, which is the original journey from Vladivostok to St Petersburg, which is an additional 7 days, but time was an issue for me, and as much as I enjoyed the train could I do an additional week? Hmmmmmm – let me ponder that.