Lake Baikal

Day 36 - 30/06/2010 - 21:09 - Irkutsk, Russia

Today we got up stupidly early (considering our lack of sleep and adjustment to the time) and headed for Lake Biakal. We left at about 8am as we had to get to the bus station on the other side of the city centre and managed to get tickets for the 9:30am bus, there were only 5 seats left when we bought them!

We got there at about ten to 11. The weather was beautiful and the lake, wow. It took my breath away it really did. The water was so clear and tranquil, tiny waves hitting the pebble beaches and the mountains of the other side of the lake in the distance. Fantastic.

We were originally planning to get the boat to the next village up the lake but this was a little too expensive and we instead opted for a one hour boat trip on the lake which was nice but incredibly cold, the air from the water really reflected the coldness of the lake.

For lunch we had Omul, the Lake Biakal native fish which was absolutely delicious - even Laura liked it and she doesn't usually like fish. People just bought omul - a whole cooked fish - and ate it on the beach - which is precisely what we did! It was beautiful and we ended up sharing 3 fish between us.

In the afternoon we had a quick look around the village that we were in - Listvyanka - walking inland a bit. We also sat on the beach and caught some of the sun - a little too much on our noses!

I've got some fantastic pictures and videos (one of us dipping our feet in the ice cold water!) Myth says it's supposed to add 5 years to your life if you dip your feet in!

Irkutsk

Day 35 - 29/06/2010 - 20:15 - Irkutsk, Russia

2 full days in Irkutsk we've had now. Arriving at about 10am on Monday (28th) - it was raining for the first time in about 10 days - it was pretty cold too! We slowly made our way over to where we thought our hostel was (forgot to print a map out) and we met a man on the road side that was in our train carriage - I heard him on the train and knew he was a German.

He stopped to talk to us in the rain "Are you English?" he said - I presumed he had kind intentions and wasn't going to lay into me for Englands poor performance so I said yes. He asked if by any chance we were going to this particular hostel. It just so happened that we were and therefore we both walked with him trying to find the hostel with the lack of directions either of us had (he had a print out of directions but they were truncated).

Luckily we managed to find the hostel surprisingly easily in the rain and we checked into our private room whilst our German friend had one of the dorm beds. The shower and tea we had was most appreciated and we took our time getting ready. I managed to have a fairly lenghty conversation with the German guy - he said he was travelling from Moscow, via Yekaterinburg and Novosibirisk as well as Irkutsk - sepending 10 days around Lake Biakal, one one of the islands there and then going to Mongolia for a few days before heading home. I am quite jealous of the amount of time he has around Biakal, but then this is whistlestop eh!

I then bit the bullet and asked him about the World Cup - he said he'd only watched the Ghana game. I told him about the England game - he chuckled to himself and said "oh, sorry!!" Very funny - oh well, I'm on the other side of the world - I have no need to get upset about football now!! I have the whole of next season for Villa to bore me waiting when I return home!!

So yesterday we didn't do much - we spent a lot of time resting and didn't see much of the city. The weather was truly awful yesterday which was such a shame but there you go - you can't have everything!

Today however, we saw quite a bit of the city. We saw the trans siberian builders monument (of Alexander the III) which was about the only useful thing he did! We walked through town to the main square area where the main 3 churches are. It was very nice. The weather was a little better than yesterday - not as much rain but still muggy and grey.

There are quite a few differences we've noticed between here and the other 3 places we've visited in Russia. First of all - there is poor drainage, everywhere. The water just sits there which made it particularly horrible to go out yesterday. Secondly, there are few to none road crossings for pedestrians. There are zebra crossings, but drivers like to pretend the aren't there and will often drive faster around you before you reach that part of the road. The air quality is not as good - they obviously use lower grade petrol here and finally it does not look as well off as the other parts of Russia we have visited.

That said though, it is still a nice enough place, barring the air quality. There are also a few "oriental" influecned buildings here too and more oriental looking people than elsewhere in Russia.

We are off to Lake Biakal tomorrow - I really can't wait for that. The tap water here is sourced from the lake and it's absolutely amazing water - really nice taste!

The longest journey

Here are my write ups from the train journey between Yekaterinburg and Irkutsk:

Day 31 - 25/06/2010 - 23:55 - In Transit, Russia

So today was our last day in Yekaterinburg and we couldn't find the QWERTY monument much to my disappointment. We believe it's been taken down because of graffiti or something, we were in the location that the pictures were taken from!

We did however, go to Giana Yama - a monastery complex built on the grounds of an abandoned copper mine where the Romanov's were brutally murdered. It was very tranquil, as it should be, and the weather is nice but I wasn't feeling well so I really didn't appreciate it all - I had a very bad stomach (it happens I guess on these sorts of trips!)

I definitely didn't appreciate the hole in the ground outhouse "squat" toilets either. Bad, bad times!

In the evening however, we did treat ourselves to some Japanese cuisine, expecting it to be like the Japanese food in Moscow but after something relatively plain. Mine however, had something that seems to be an absentee in Russia thus far - flavour! A rare treat indeed!

So we're on the move again - this time to Irkutsk! We are one hour into our journey, and we've just stopped at a train station - a 25 minute stop. I guess it's for refueling as I can see nothing of any particular note here.

The train is similar to the one (#68) from Moscow to Yekaterinburg. We are sharing a cabin with two women, both Russian - one middle aged + one old aged woman. We have chatted to the older of the two with our limited Russian and sign language (as you do). Her name is Anna and she knows our names, where we are from and where we are going (Irkutsk). We also caught the came of the place she was going to - all I knew is that it was after Irkutsk.

She seems very nice but reminds me a bit too much of Pat Butcher off Eastenders!

The train, whilst similar to the 68 is better. Whilst there is no window in the cabin we are in that opens, which really worried us when we first got on - there is A/C instead! It kicked in about 20 minutes after we set off. Bliss! We also got a pack of goodies courtesy of Russian railways (slippers, toothbrush etc) as well as a load of Russian newspapers and magazines that are of no use to us!! That would have been the services element of our train ticket then!

Day 32 - 26/06/2010 - 22:16 Local Time - In Transit, Russia

So, almost a full 24 hours on the train, in fact as the time zone has changed to +3 Moscow time, we've technically (although not actually) been on the train longer than 24 hours!

I slept OK last night, I didn't realise how loud Russian women could snore thought. And being only 1 metre or so away from the source (Anna) was rather distracting. She snored like a beast!

Nonetheless, I did eventually fall asleep and coupled with a 3 hour nap today I feel great - napping is most certainly commonplace on the trains!

We ended up getting up at about 10am local time - a nice lie in! We had some breakfast and just relaxed.

In the early afternoon an attendant came in and took our order for lunch - one of the meals included on the trip. I overheard the word plov, so had that, whilst the attendant spoke a bit of English and said there was chicken on the menu - so Laura had that!

It arrived at 3pm or so and it was very, very nice. Plov is an eastern Russian meal which is mutton with rice and spices and it was probably one of the better meals I've had out here (although that really doesn't say a lot!) It came with a load of plastic cutlery, water as well as some tea/coffee sachets. Unfortunately we didn't have a mug.

Anna asked us later if we wanted a tea or coffee and pointed to our sachets. I managed to communicate that we had no mugs (Niet *point to mug*). She immediately got up, went to I presume the attendants cabin and came back with 2 mugs! Legend!

Later on the other woman offered us tea which was gratefully accepted along with some milk! I was amazed that she had milk in her tea but then she does live in the far east of Russia (beyond Chita) so that may have something to do with it! I looked very grateful and said "Britannia, chi, malokov, da!" which was greeted by much laughter from the two Russians!

We actually had a good few conversations with the ladies, we showed them our itenary on a map which they were amazed to see and very surprised that we were doing it alone (apparently Russians think you are mad if you don't do something as a tour - plain, simple and organised!)

We had a 25 minute break at Omsk, a station in central Russia were we all got out to stretch our legs - Anna somehow had a key to the carriage compartment so she could lock it freely! We are now about an hour away from Novosibirisk, capital of Western Siberia. Today has been wonderfully relaxing yet one of the most interesting days thus far!

Day 33 - 27/06/2010 - 23:20 local time - In Transit, Russia

So we're nearly there! We've been on the train around 45 hours or so - one night between us and Irkutsk!

Today has been fine but I'm starting to feel a little bit stuffy on the train - the A/c has been rather sporadic today - I need a shower!

I've read a fair bit of my book today - The Long Way Round by Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman - listened to my Zune and managed to stretch my legs at Krasnoyarsk, Ilanskya and Tayshet whilst the train was stopped for 20-30 minutes or so. Last night I got off at Novosibirisk for the 40 minute stop too.

Anna and the other Russian lady are still pleasant company - Anna sharing this large Russian salami she had for tea - it was very good - unlike the food on the train for lunch today. I had two small chunks of grey beef with pasta. Yum. Why wasn't there plov again?!

Roll on Irkutsk, the outside world and a shower tomorrow!!

My thoughts so far...

Apologies for not posting my own comments on here- I've been writing my own journal every day by hand, but I decided just to share my thoughts of the trip so far :)

The European leg of the journey is probably going to be the easiest one by far- most of the people we met could speak English and the restaurants all had English menu's, plus the alphabet was the same as our's. I'm pleased that we did the journey this way round as its eased us in gently!

Prague is definitely up there in my favourite places we have visited, there were so many beautiful buildings, the food was very cheap and we stayed in a lovely hotel in a very good location. I really hope we can go back there in the future.

Poland was a very friendly place, and again the architecture in both cities we visited was beautiful. Tom and I differ on our favourite of the two- he likes Krakow because of the old buildings, and I liked Warsaw the best. Even though the buildings in their 'old town' were relatively new it was still very beautiful in my opinion.

Vilnius was quite small, again pretty with a lovely big river, but we saw everything of interest within our first day. Definitely somewhere just to visit for the weekend.

Riga's old town was very quaint and had some pretty churches, however the restaurants were quite pricey and we struggled to find any authentic Latvian food. As with Vilnius, there were not very many places of interest, and those that were there were very close together so we saw them within the first day. However there was a really good museum about Latvian history that we spent many hours at on our last day.

Tallinn was definitely my favourite of the Baltic states- the old town was full of medieval buildings and the local tourist industry has definitely taken advantage of that, with restaurants such as 'Olde Hansa' where we spent our last evening. I also really enjoyed the music festival that was on at the time- it created a great atmosphere. The hotel was also the best we have stayed in, we payed less than £20 for both of us per night and the room was fantastic, as was breakfast.

St Petersburg was somewhat marred by the fact that lots of things went wrong, however I loved seeing the cathedrals there, and would probably have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been so full of tourists, but I can't really talk! The hotel however was a let down, we didn't even have curtains! None the less it was just somewhere to sleep and we managed that after Tommy put a bed sheet over the window!

Moscow was brilliant, completely different to what I had expected. The Russian people were friendly, we had enough to keep us occupied for the time we spent there, and thankfully the hotel was much more adequate for the price we paid. We had curtains, a fridge and TV in our room, and only had to share a bathroom with 2 other rooms, not a whole floor like we did in St Petersburg! St Basil's cathedral is my favourite building so far, and was not only beautiful on the outside, but also on the inside, where centuries worth of paintings are on every wall. The food was again very expensive for what you get, canteen food in our case was around £20 for both of us, sometimes more, but it is a capital city so what you should expect really.

And finally Yekaterinburg was a lot nicer than the Russian girls on the train made it out to be! The hotel was a lot to be desired but the food at least was cheaper, and this evening we found a Japanese restaurant that did lovely tasty food, yeey finally something other that mash!! We managed to see the Europe-Asia marker and go to Ganina Yama, which is where the Romanov family were murdered and subsequently a complex of monasteries have been built. Unfortunately we never found the QWERTY monument, after searching for ages, Tom is quite disappointed, but I think its been removed. So we are now sat in the Hotel's cafe waiting to go to the train station to catch our 55 hour train :S I hope it goes quickly and we are sharing with people who don't get up at the crack of dawn and who like having the window open!

Train Journeys and Yekaterinburg!

Day 27 - 21/06/2010 - 11:35pm Moscow Time, 01:35am Yekaterinburg Time - In Transit, Russia

So we are on the train to Yekaterinburg, due to arrive at 06:14 ocal time on the 23/06. Our hotel is no longer the one we thought - we've been unable to get a reservation for it so we've been 'upgraded' to Hotel Sverdlovsk a hotel near the train sation with ensuite - should be interesting!

Our train is nice but is much more basic than the Red Arrow (we're on train #68) and is much more stuffy - great considering I've had a migraine for much of the day!

We are sharing with two Russian girls who seem about our age, if not a little bit younger - I think the rest of their family are next door. One of them just shut the window, much to my horror - it's like a bloody oven in here, I'm going to waste away overnight! Nevertheless I digress.

Today was OK, we didn't do much once I got my migraine. We tried this oriental food place for lunch, because it was a bit cheaper than usual in Moscow. Much to my disappointment, the oriental Russian food is as bland as all their other stuff - bad times! We didn't make it to Sergiev Posad, but we both liked Moscow and I think it's somewhere we'll visit again. I'll get you next time Posad!

So today we checked out and deposited our bags at the train station - we then went to find a post office which for once actually turned out to be a success. We sent 11 postcards in total - from St Petersburg and Moscow. If you were lucky enough to be sent one, you'll be even luckier if it turns up according to what our guide book says about the Russian postal service!

We spent the rest of the day surfing the net and chilling in the park by the Kremlin. It was a beautiful afternoon only marred by my migraine! Roll on Yekaterinburg!

Day 28 - 22/06/2010 - 17:00 Moscow Time, 19:00 Yekaterinburg Time - In Transit, Russia

So we've been on the train for just over 18 hours, another 11 to go. It's been surprisingly relaxing on the train, if not a little hot at times.

As I write this, Laura is having a nap on the bunk above me, the Russian girl on the other top bunk is leeping too. Opposite me, the girl is looking out the window and listening to her MP3 player - something I'm doing too! I'm a multi-tasker!

I think we both slept rather well, despite the heat for me. A little bit of a draught was coming through the bottom of the door and I slept OK with just a pair of shorts on - which is great. I was really expecting to wake up with a headache today due to the heat and being stuffy whilst asleep.

We've had basic conversations with the Russian pair - the can't for the life of them work out why we're going to Yekaterinburg. Home town deprication or shit hole? I'll report back tomorrow - it's got to be better than Bromsgrove though!

We said we were going to visit the Romanov memorial there but it just drew a blank face from the RUssian girls! Surely Romanov is Romanov in Russia?

I for one am looking forward to it, even if it just is for two nights. This is our 4th longest train journey @ 29 hours. The longest is the next one (Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk) @ 55 hours and the 2nd longest one is immeidately after that (Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) @ 34 hours. I think I'll be cherishing my time on steady ground over the next week or two!

Day 30 - 24/06/2010 - 17:53 - Yekaterinburg, Russia

So we've been in Yekaterinburg for almost 2 whole days now. We've had a pretty good time thus far and I can 100% confirm that it is not as bad as the Russian girls on the train were saying!

We slept reasonably well, going to bed at about 10:30pm Yekaterinburg time. We were unfortunately woken up by the girls, chatting at 5:15am (3:15am Moscow) or so, Laura woke up slightly after me. I took the oppurtunity to see some of the secenery. The low fog in the Ural valleys was absolutely stunning at so early in the morning, it was just a shame it was only cabin side of the train, where the window is really too small to take a picture. I did, however, manage to get a picture of the stone obelisk marking the boundary between Europe and Asia, which I only knew about from our guide book, it tells you the exact KM where something is which you can correspond with the kilometre posts along the track which is pretty handy.

We arrived in on time into Yekaterinburg (doesn't surprise me, it's not the UK) and made our way to the hotel across the road from the station. They were kind enough to let us check in at about 6:30am and we went to the room. The room is really, really basic. There is wallpaper missing from bits of the walls, open (on show) pipes, a rusting fridge which doesn't shut (therefore been unable to keep drinks cool) and the window has open insulation showing. The beds are also extremely hard and lying on any side of your body apart from you back will hurt. Apart from that, it's OK - we've got a TV and our own bathroom (hence the pipes) and both of those work fine so I can't complain. They even very kindly gave us breakfast slips for that morning as well, which was appreciated but not used! We slept from 7am-12noon! Ooops.

Nevertheless, we made the most of the afternoon. We walked into the city centre, which was a 25/30 minute direct walk. However, we made the most of the sights on the way, seeing a couple of churches, monuments and buildings of partticular interest including the Church of the Blood which houses the Romanov family memorial. It was very grand and very fitting, although I did find it rather stupid that there was a statute to commemerate the Communists of the Urals across the road from the Church! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the memorial (which is fair enough) but I did get some good ones from outside where they had many pictures of the Romanovs. We saw much of the city centre, before heading back to the hotel via the metro and the supermarket. We had tea in the cafe here at the hotel, which was cheap(er) than most places but not great. It did it's job on a basic level though.

I watched the England game in the evening which was good, we're through that's all that matters! We also skyped home using the Internet in the Lobby (Wifi) which was nice. I got my University results and luckily I don't have to fly back for any Resits! We then went back upstairs, I tried to stay awake for the next set of games (started at half 12 in the morning) but only managed the first half. My dad was at one of the games in the front few rows, I was looking out for him but unfortunately there wasn't much action down there in the first half. It was a very strange feeling to know my old man was one of those people in the corner of the ground and I was watching him all the way from central Russia - very wierd!

So today we got up in time for breakfast which was surprisingly good - much better than the one in St Petersburg! I had pancakes, eggs, croissants and TEA WITH MILK! Yay!

Yesterday we looked into the possibility of going to the Europe Asia marker but the only tours the company we knew of (based in the hotel) did private tours only costing 3500 rubles EACH - around £77! No way! We managed to get some information of Wikipedia which looked sketchy at best, but we tried nonetheless. We managed to get bus tickets, from the kiosk for 60 rubles each (around £1.30). We missed the stop for the Europe Asia marker, despite trying to get the driver to tell us when it was, and got off when someone else did, about 5km away. We went under the dark underpass, came up the other side and got a bus again - 40 rubles each (90p). We got off at the stop after the Europe Asia marker going to Yekaterinburg (should have got off on the one before) but it was only 1km away so it didn't take long to walk back (after crossing the dual carriageway, there was no underpass!)

We saw the little (newer monument) but not the older one, because it was very far away by foot (we would have seen it with the tour but, pricey!) had a look around that part of the complex, having a cold drink by a fan in the cafe (it was 31 degrees today) and then headed back to Yekaterinburg. Cost of drinks (45rubles - 99p each), cost of bus back (30 rubles each - 65p). Total cost of our trip (per person): 175 roubles (£3.85). Savings!! I'm very proud that I managed to get us there!

When we got back to Yekaterinburg we went to the city centre once more to have another look around the river area. We tried to find the QWERTY monument (a giant English keyboard - bizzare but true) but couldn't find it! Maybe tomorrow! We're planning to go to Ganina Yama tomorrow on a tour for 500 rubles each - it's the abandoned copper mine where the remains of the Romanovs were found, now there is a monastery in their honour there. That should be interesting! If we have time, we'll find the QWERTY monument before our train to Irkutsk (3 nights away!) which leaves here at 22:46 local time!

Over Lenin's Dead Body

Day 26 - 20/06/2010 - 20:15 - Moscow, Russia

So today we set out to make sure we saw Lenin's Mausoleum as well as the Armoury chamber, and that is precisely what we did - yay for things going to plan!

We woke up this morning and had breakfast. The hotel is great compared to the one in St Petersburg, but the only problem is the walls are thin. There is a guy in the room next to us, who likes slamming doors and he usually wakes us up as he leaves his room to use the shared facilites. Today on the other hand, we were woken up by him slamming something else. We've seen this guy, and he definitely had a room to himself. However, there was a much younger voice, a female voice, complete with giggles and all kinds of sound effects I'm sure you can quite possibly imagine coming from the room this morning. I wonder how much an early morning call out costs in Moscow. Hmmm. He was getting bang for his buck again (seriously no pun intended) when we were leaving the hotel this morning. I found it very funny.

So we got to the city centre by 11:30am, where we deposited the bag in the cloackroom, with my camera AND phone deposited safely in the bag. We went to where the queue was - it was a lot longer than yesterday but nevertheless we managed to get in by 12:40 or so. You are sent along a one way route, along the Kremlin wall then into the Masoleum, down a fair few stairs, with guards every 10 metres or so along the route. The room Lenin in was very cold, you walked up and around a platform, where you could see his body and then back out. It was very strange to think how old his body is - but it still looked fairly human. He had facial hair and was dressed up in a suit. The only thing that detracted from his life like state was the colour of his skin. It was very white - not human white, just very very pale.

After that interesting wait and walk we had a quick drink bought from the supermarket in the sun (it was very hot today in Moscow, supposed to be hotter tomorrow too!) we then made our way to the Kremlin ticket office to try our luck getting a ticket into the Armoury. You need to buy tickets 45 minutes before a tour starts (thats when they go on sale). We got into the queue at 1:15pm, 30 minutes before they went on sale, got to the front 10 minutes later (much to our surprise) and got told to come back at 1:45pm, when they went on sale. The queue was longer now, so we went to the back. When we got to the front again, it was about 1:35/1:40pm and we tried another window. She sold us tickets. No wonder we didn't get any last time if they sell them before they go on sale!

So we had about 50 minutes to kill before we went into the Kremlin again. We walked along to the entrance for the Armoury Chamber (you can only use one of the two entrances) and sat on the grass by the Kremlin wall, outside the entrance as many others were doing - enjoying the sun.

The armoury chamber itself was very very impressive. Jewellery, Faberge eggs, luxurious plates and utensils, weapons and armour with jewels in, gold laced clothing and carriages (horse drawn) all appeared in the museum. It was all so grand, I dare say it probably in total would be enough of value to buy a small European country! It was absolutely amazing, and some of the things on show were beautiful. There were even a collection of throne chairs, of different Tsars! Incredible. It's just a shame that we weren't allowed to take photos here either, we took a grand total of 0 photos today, the lowest amount so far! Nevermind!

After those, we had a spot of lunch (a very late lunch, it was gone 4pm!) then headed back to the hotel via the Internet cafe in the Metro station and the stall where we like buying food from. It was funny, when he saw us today he had a massive smile on his face and spoke to us in English - considering he didn't speak much, he knew a lot! We had a kebab type wrap, which was absolutely lovely with a samosa too. We got back to the hotel to watch the Italy game (what a waste of time that was!) and now we are chilling out - it's still pretty hot outside - I think I might go and sit on the balcony (yes we have one!) with a beer!

Moscow!

Day 25 - 19/06/2010 - 20:11 - Moscow, Russia

So we've had another 2 days in Moscow, and we've done a fair bit, but certainly not as much as we would have like to have done.

Yesterday we spent the morning in the Kremlin, looking at the main sights - the cathedrals, bell towers, gardens as well as the palaces and the oversized cannons and bells! We stayed there to about 2pm where we made our way back to the food court, albeit this time trying somewhere much nicer, so much we went back there today!

In the afternoon (well the rest of it) we went to an Internet cafe, tried to find a post office (no success) and then made our way to the main station to try and get some tickets to Sergiev Posad - a town 1 hour away from Moscow, which has it's own Kremlin and is supposed to be beautfiul. We were going to go today, but we couldn't find the right place to buy the tickets - the station is like a zoo, it's mental.

We are now hoping to go on Monday (21st), after we've deposited our bags in the lockers and we're ready to move onto Yekaterinburg. We can leave early and come back in the early evening, before our train at 10:55pm. That's the plan anyway, we may just end up exploring further afield in Moscow - if we can't master the maze. We couldn't even deduce the station we need to leave from on Monday either - there are 3 main stations within 100 metres of eachother, 2 on the same road - one we arrived at, one we are leaving from - the problem is the one we are leaving from isn't a regular station - all the platforms are round the back of the station, outside of the main building! Very confusing! There is also a set of platforms (are they the ones we saw?!) where just the regional trains run from! Argh! I'm very much looking forward to Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk and Ulaanbaatar - only one station to worry about!!

So today, we were planning on going to Lenins Mausoleum - his preserved body from his death in the 1920's. Problem is there was no electronics allowed in there, esepcially cameras. They didn't let me in because of my phone having one... back we go tomorrow - it's only open 3 hours a day! As well as that, we tried to get into the armoury chambers - a museum which includes a large collection of Faberge eggs. Problem is, you need to queue 45 mins before the scheduled tour to get in. We got there 15 minutes before the 45 min window began, we got there 10 minutes after they went on sale (to the front of the queue) and they had already sold out. Trying again tomorrow.... Yay.

So we spent part of the rest of the day looking round the Gym (pronounced Goom) - an old state department store which has been converted into a very very posh shopping mall - all designer shops. We couldn't afford anything, obviously - but the building itself is well worth the visit, it's beautiful inside.

We then went to a cafe which had free, fast Wifi! Yay! Now we're back at the hotel, chilling and watching the football, when it's on. Just caught the last 20 mins of Australia-Ghana. We've been eating our main meals in the day, and getting snacks for tea. We've been stopping at a food stall just outside the metro station (there are loads of different market type stalls selling different things) where the guy sells Russian/Turkish cuisine - he speaks a bit of English, told me that he speaks fluent German as well as Russian. Nice bloke. I might try something else tomorrow. The last couple of days I've had this doughy bread thing with lamb and onion in it - very nice but Laura had this pork samosa today which was amazing!

3 Posts in One - From St Petersburg to Moscow

Day 22 - 16/06/2010 - 23:46 - St Petersburg, Russia

So at the very moment , we are sat on the Red Arrow - the Kpachaя Ctepna - train number 1 to Moscow. We've yet to depart.

Today has not been great for a number of reasons - a succession of continuous blips from day 1 in St Petersburg - right up to just boarding the train, there was a dead body on the platform next to us! He was only covered up with a blanket - the authorities were inspecting his things on the platform next to the one we were one. On the video we took of the platform, you can just see the ambulance before I stop the first part of the video on the platform!

Anyway, back to the train. It is immaculate. The interior is beautiful, the cabin is spacious - we are sharing a cabin with a Russian couple but still plenty of room - much better than the Prague to Krakow train!

And we're off! Just as I'm writing this!

As for today - we checked out at no great pace and went to the station to drop off our bags at the lockers - mine wouldn't shut (I'd done everything Laura had) and the guy that worked there had to play with the lock to shut it, setting all of the alarms off! Unsurprisingly, the same thing happened when collecting the bags later in the day.

We had lunch at an internet café and then headed to Yusupov Palace - where Rasputin was famously shot and then thrown into a river in winter. Afte, we walked back to town via St Issacs, a beautiful cathedral.

We then went out of our way to find a post office to post some cards, on the other side of the city as it was the only one we knew of - it was closed! Yay!

Back on Nevksy, we made our way to a sports bar that we went to yesterday to watch the Spain v Swizterland game - it was very animated in there and most people were cheering for Switzerland - which paid off for the Swiss - obviously! The place erupted when the scored, it was well funny. Afterwards we had tea at a café, we didn't realised they charged by weight and got massively, massively ripped off - the most expensive café I've ever been to!

It's not great, some things have gone wrong but we've enjoyed St Petersburg, I certainly have and and has dispelled many of my ideas of Russia and the people already (although I always had a feeling it was a Western perception)! And of course at least we are still alive and well, unlike the guy on the platform!

Day 23 - 17/06/2010 - 10:55 - Moscow, Russia

So we've arrived. The train journey was very comfortable, and I actually slept very well, once I'd fallen asleep! I was woken up at about 6:20am by light and the female half of the Russian couple rummaging around and doing her makeup! Nevermind! At least I slept well!

We got into Moscow on time, which was nice and headed for the Metro, which is only slightly more expensive for a single ride than St Petersburg (26 rubles - about 57p - rather than 22 rubles, around 48p). We managed to get to the metro station we needed to, it took a while - it's a long way from the centre - Moscow is massive! As well as that, the rush hour crowds were mad, I've never seen anything like it, just hoardes and hoardes of people, all going separate ways!

When we got to the station, we tried to find the hotel - I didn't have a map, merely had written two road names on a piece of paper, both in Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. I stupidly assumed the road we were one was the first one, when it wasn't and subsequntly took Laura on an early morning stroll a bit out of the way. We found our way back, I got my bearings and it was 10 minutes from there! Easy!

We've now checked in - my my what an improvement! Whilst we still have a shared bathroom, it's only shared between 3 rooms, not the whole floor like St Petersburg! We have CURTAINS! Unlike St Petersburg. We have a TV in our room - WORLD CUP!! OK I won't make friends with a security guard in the lobby - but we don't need to spend our money on drinks in bars either - they are expensive here - like the UK!

So, lets see where today gets us, I REALLY want to see some of Red Square!

Day 24 - 18/06/2010 - 10:52 - Moscow, Russia

Yesterday was good fun. We set out after showering and freshening up we headed out towards the centre of Moscow, we got off south east of the Kremlin and walked up to red square, passing lots of churches on the way. We made it into red square where we were in awe at St Basils and even walked around it before heading inside for 50 rubles each - a bargain - it was so beautiful inside. The photo license cost more but was worth every penny.

After that, we walked through Red Square, past Lenin's Mausoleum which was closed (only open 3 hours a day, not Friday though unfortunately) and around the Kremlin wall. We stopped for lunch in a food court in a shopping centre undergrond, just outside the Kremlin, before continuing to walk around the Kremiln walls, looking at parks, towers and the tomb of the Unknown soldier - we even saw the changing of the guard!

We spent the evening in the hotel (I had a nap) watching the 2 evening world cup games and going through our photos and videos so far, it's all very great!

Today we are planning to see the Kremlin, hopefully!

St Petersburg

Day 22 - 16/06/2010 - 00:20 - St Petersburg, Russia

Well, it's just gone midnight in St Petersburg, and we've had 3 full days here now. I've been unable to update the blog electroically because of the lack of my computer's touchpad. Something seriously went wrong on Sunday (12/06) and I've been unable to fix it since, it's become very limited. I managed to get a mouse today, but as I've wiped my PC trying to fix it, I have had to start afresh. Luckily I've backed up the old one but don't have a program to open it with at the moment. Ru back home is going to convert it for me (I've sent him an e-mail)

Anyway, our first day here we didn't get much done. We got here early, showered and headed out. We walked around Nevsky Prospekt a bit, had a cappucino at the train station (where we picked up our e-tickets to Irkutsk via Moscow and Yekaterinburg) and had a pastry, with some kind of berry jam in it for brunch. It was OK. We then headed back to hotel and slept for quite a while, until about 3:30pm. I spent a bit longer faffing around with the Netbook (to no avail) and then afterwards went out for a bit longer around Nevsky Prospekt. We ended up eating dinner at an Azerbijani restaurant which was quite nice. It was a mild type of Asian food, I had chicken with salad on some sort of wrap - it was quite nice, and different.

On our second day here (14/06 - Monday - Day 20) we tried to register our visa, as it was a working day and we needed to as soon as possible. The hotel here could do it, for about £5 each. We had already prepaid this service with the company that prepared our invitation, so politely declined their offer. We got up quite late, missing brekafast in respect of sleep. It worked nicely, and we felt refreshed. However, we'd got to Nevsky Prospekt and realised I hadn't got the address of the company who would register us. We tried to find somewhere with Wifi, with no luck and ended up in an Internet cafe on Nevsky. I pointed to the time I wanted on the price list, which was enough for the desk staff to understand. Turned out the company was 1 block down from us so we headed over there. Alas, it was shut, we waited a whole 20 minutes and had wasted about 2 hours of our day in total. Great.

Nevertheless, we decided to pay for the service at the hotel when we got back there in the evening and made the most of our day. We headed down Nevsky towards the west end of it, when we saw the Church of the Ressurection just off it. We went down, there had a look around, stopped in a park round the corner and continued to walk, over the river to Peter and Pauls fortress where there were a number of museums and a cathedral. We got an 'all in one' ticket for 170 rubles (students) about £3.80 which was valid for two days. After all the troncing around the city earlier in the day we were quite tired but managed the cathedral and one museum. The cathedral was very nice and is the resting place of the last Tsar of Russia and his family - Nicholas II whose remains were moved from Yekaterinburg to Peter/Paul Cathedral in 1998. It was very interesting.

That evening we had dinner in a bar, where they had Wifi, and chatted to Ru about getting my laptop sorted, it was stressing me out quite a bit in the end, luckily he managed to find some places where we might be able to get a mouse - a temporary solution but a solution nonetheless. It didn't help that I was rather ill as well, and just wanted to go to bed. I missed the Italy game against Paraguay but as far as I know, I didn't miss much.

Today (15/06 - Day 21) we went in search for the mouse from the information Ru gave us via email. We headed for the main station, as there was supposedly a computer shop a few blocks away. A nice local Russian bloke helped us get our bearings as we were rather confused when we first stepped outside. There was no shop at the address given, just some office block with security personell round the corner. We were going to try another place quite far out of the city when we decided to look at the train station itself, as there were a lot of shops on the main concourse - as we remembered from the Sunday. Lowe and behold and comms shop that sold a mouse! Yay! (and just for the record - it works!)

After we sorted that, we looked into going on a hop on hop off bus service we saw yesterday. We managed to find the stop where the sign was from our knowledge and memory and saw they were every half an hour. We ended up waiting an hour in total - 40 mins stood at the stop, 20 mins in a park next door where we could see the stop - nothing! We did however meet two women, one from the US and one from Norway (who was 80!) seeing St Petersburg and Moscow (they had just come from Moscow). They were very interested in our trip, I gave the American woman the details of Real Russias website (the site we booked the rail tickets through!) The Norwegian woman impressed me. She was still going strong, she had visited Armenia on her own cycling trip not so long ago! Incredible. They came and waited about 30 minutes with us at the stop before leaving (I wish we had then too but nevermind!)

Anyway, after that we got the metro back to Peter and Pauls fortress where we saw the Prison on the island. It was great, I don't think Laura appreciated it too much but to see where Trotsky was held before the revolution and the conditions he lived in along with all the other revolutionists and "terrorists" during the times of hardship in Russia was facsinating.

We then proceeded to walk back to the main island, via the other side of the fortress, passing the Hermitage (the Russian state museum), several museums and churches with wonderful architechture and also past Decemberists square and St Issacs cathedral. We wanted the go up to the dome for a view but we were 5 minutes too late unfortunately. I found 400 rubles on the floor though, which cheered us up a bit and bought us a drink at the sports bar where we watched the Ivory Coast v Portugal game. Dull. Nevermind, the litre of beer I had helped!

We had tea at a restaurant on Nevsky before heading back. I had raw (salted) Herring with boiled potatoes and mushrooms, it was very nice - Laura even tried some and thought it was OK! Result!

Back at the hotel we Skyped home and I watched the Brazil v North Korea game with a security guard from the hotel. I knew little Russian and he knew zero English but we still had conversations - just about. I even managed to tell him that Korea had scored in Russian (Korice goak! d-va - adien - Korea goal! 2-1) when he was talking to someone else around the corner. He seemed as surpised as I did! Football eh, it's universal on this planet! He also managed to tell me that the beer I was drinking (a Russian beer called Balticka in Cyrillic obviously) is crap and I should try something else.

I've been pretty stressed about my prized possession and we've left the luxury of the Reval Park Hotel in Tallinn but I've really enjoyed St Petersburg. If the rest of Russia is like this, I will love it. Everyone is friendly and if you make the effort to speak Russian it's greatfully received. The hotel isn't amazing (although the showers are hot and the bed is comfortable what else do I need!), but it's part of the experience and I'm greatful for it all. If you see Russia as a rich Western tourist, you don't see it all, evidently!

In Russia!

Day 19 – 07:34 – 13/06/2010 – St Petersburg, Russia

Well we’ve made it into Russia. Yesterday was good, apart from the coach journey where I got a massive 2 hours sleep. Bad times. We got to St Petersburg early, at about 6:15am (due in at half 7) and we got the metro straight to the hotel where they have very kindly let us use the room to dump our bags and have a shower (the showers are communal).

We’ve left the luxuries of Europe and are now in the hybrid of Asia and Europe as Russia. We are luxury backpacking on this trip, we’re doing it on a budget but not an extremely tight one However, in St Petersburg, £35 a night gets you nothing. Our room has no curtains, and has 4 single beds in each corner of the room. There are no real facilities in this room, just beds – for £35 a night. Breakfast is included, not today, obviously. We shall see if that has any redeeming features.

Nevertheless, the people we’ve met have been so far hospitable. The coach driver told us to get off a stop early because it was closer to where we wanted to go. The metro staff helped us get our head round the token system (you literally buy a coin and insert it into a slot to get on) and our hotel staff have been nice too. So much for stereotypes – even the border inspection wasn’t that bad. Hop off, check passports, through customs, back on again.

Anyway, yesterday – our last day in Tallinn we got up at a reasonable time, had breakfast and checked out , leaving our bags with the staff. The room was excellent, as was the breakfast, and the staff. We had everything in our room, for £18 a night. I miss it already!

In the morning/early afternoon we walked around the old town perimeter, gazing at the beauty that is the castle round the other side – you can’t actually go in the castle, it’s where the President lives. We had lunch in a nice park round the back of the old town wall and it was very nice but very windy. We made our way back slowly, all the way round and back into old town where we watched more festival activities and some football too. All in all it was a very relaxing and nice day.

For tea we treated ourselves and went to a medieval restaurant called Olde Hansa. It was fantastic – albeit expensive! Laura had “Himalayan lamb with lentils, nuts and a “bean bag”” and I had “Bear, Wild Boar and Elk sausages” with pickled cabbage, caramalised onion (way too sweet) and swede. It was very nice although I didn’t particularly like the beer, which was full of herbs, despite the recommendation of it being good with sausages!

We then went back to the hotel and headed for the coach station where we – luckily – found the café there showing the England – USA game. I was very excitable as always with football and enjoyed celebrating the goal. When Robert Green the England goalkeeper fumbled the ball into his own net to make it 1-1 however (I’m still livid) I was not impressed and shouted “You dickhead”. Quite a few people laughed, despite not being English, they obviously still knew what I meant!

Anyway, it’s time to explore St Petersburg. What’s done is done, we are here now and Prague, Krakow, Warsaw, Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn are behind us. We’re planning on coming back at 11am or so to have a nap. Exploring either side – as always!

Trip Advisor Reviews

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/members-reviews/tclstravel - On this site we are reviewing the hotels as we go along. You can read what we have to say for each one.

An unproductive day - thanks weather!!

Day 17 – 22:48 – 11/06/2010 – Tallinn, Estonia

Well we haven’t done much today for a number of reasons. We got up at a similar time to yesterday, and had breakfast downstairs much like yesterday. This time though there was no ommlette left, much to my disappointment.

Anyway, we went back upstairs and got ready to go out. The weather did not look good so we opted for a castle trip rather than an excursion out of Tallinn. Luckily we made the right choice. It started raining at about 12:30pm and didn’t stop until about 7pm. We were at the castle from about 11am to 1:30pm before we decided to come back, the rain was pretty heavy.

The rest of today we’ve just relaxed, watching the football on Estonian/Finnish TV. We had a meal down at the hotel restaurant which was actually pretty cheap, helped by a free drink voucher. I had stuffed pork, an Estonian dish. It was very nice.

Tomorrow is our last day within the comfort of the European Union, where everything is standardised and you can tell that everything is so. We are leaving our comfort zone tomorrow night for Russia and although we’re a little nervous as we’ve never done anything like this before, we both cannot wait – I can only speak for myself when I say this has been the best 2 and a half weeks of my life so far.

Beautiful Tallinn (Pictures)

Day 16 – 22:05 – 10/06/2010 – Tallinn, Estonia

Well we are in Tallinn after our first full day here. I would like to take the opportunity to talk about that Black Balsam we bought from Riga first – it was horrible. A bitter, bitter liqueur (literally). Tallinn have their own too, which I would like to try at some point.

The day began with a mixed mood. The breakfast at the hotel was very good, as was the weather that we could see from our window (which made a change as our last hotel didn’t have one!) Our hotel room by the way, is amazing. It’s massive, with a HUGE sized bed and it cost £18 a night AND included breakfast. The don.

However, we are both a bit disappointed that it looks like we will be unable to go to Helsinki for the day – it’s too expensive for us to justify a few hours out on our budget. Next time eh, I have my whole life to visit the rest of Europe after all, on various city breaks I’m sure.

Anyway, we had a rough plan about our day – after we got a decent map from the tourist centre from the shopping centre – a day in old town proper, a day hopefully away from Tallinn (weather dependent) and a day exploring the castle complex in the old town. World cup matches included into the plan, which starts tomorrow. We’ve planned to see as much in the morning/afternoon so we’re back for the first game at 5pm and have snacks and drinks bought from the supermarket in our hotel room for tomorrow!

In the morning we stopped off in the town square, watched a bit of live music (there is a festival on in the city centre at the moment) where we saw an orchestra, a very good one too. We then explored a few churches before stopping for a sandwich and a cappuccino in the old town. The funniest part of the morning was when we visited a church, which cost money to go in – we didn’t have a small enough note to get in (it was only 15 crowns – 75p for both of us) we had 100! The guy wouldn’t change it, but just as we were leaving a woman said there was a free concert starting at the front of the church and was free. So we went around the church with our concert ticket, and left before they even started!

After lunch we went up the spires of St Olavs church, the tallest building in the world – in the 13^th century! It was a long way up to be fair, and the views were great. We also went to one of the watch towers along the city wall which housed an exhibition which included medieval armour which you could try on – very fun. We walked around a bit more, seeing many old buildings and churches before sitting in the square for a bit more entertainment from the festival.

Tallinn is beautiful – the weather was fantastic today. The city is well preserved, with a lot of the city wall still intact, some of which renovated but most of it preserved. It feels medieval, it’s beautiful. On the coast as well, which just adds to it all! It’s easily my favourite of the Baltic capitals, I’ve made up my mind already! Sitting in the square watching all types of music was great too. Wandering around the cobbled streets and following the wall around the city was fantastic. It is as beautiful and ‘magical’ as Prague (minus the gothic-ness and the size of it) but without as many tourists).

We really hope the weather is good tomorrow or Saturday so we can pay a visit to one of Tallinn’s supposedly beautiful beaches, as well as seeing the castle on the other day! The problem is the weather on this holiday hasn’t exactly been predictable so far, with it being incorrectly forecast on many days! Forecast showers tomorrow, maybe it will be wrong? Here’s hoping!

Pictures

Lils looking fearsome at the medieval armour exhibition in Epping Tower

Me in armour at the medieval armour exhibition at Epping Tower
City wall
Laura on top of St Olavs

Sea view from the top of St Olav's Church

City wall from the top of St Olav's Church

Town hall/castle fortifications (from right to left) from the top of St Olav's Church

St Olav's Church

Laura Outside the House of the Brotherhood of Blackheads

City wall from just inside the city

Pictures from Riga

The flag Tom mentioned in his last blog post - the one where the Soviets, when capturing Riga, took the white stripe off the Latvian flag and replaced it with the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union

Tommy pretending to be a Sniper at the war museum
Me in a chair on our hotel floor
View of Dome Cathedral and another church/modern buildings from top of St Peters

House of Blackheads (Music/concert hall) with St Peters Cathedral in background (medieval)
3 Brothers - An example of the architecture of medieval age Riga
Dome Cathedral 1211
Me outside of the Swedish Gate - one of the last parts of Riga city wall left today
Freedom Monument

Goodbye Latvia/Hello Estonia

Day 15 – 20:42 – 09/06/2010 – In Transit, Estonia

So we’re on the move again, this time to Tallinn in Estonia, but the method for the time being remains the same, the coach! Same company, same comfort, this coach has a lot more people on it though.

Riga was very nice, but the weather was not kind to us – today it was cloudy and cold, despite the weather forecast stating sun and steady 20 degrees Celsius. Never mind. We made the most of the time we had today, looking around some of the newer parts of the town this morning and then some of old town before stopping for some lunch.

In the afternoon we went to the Latvian war museum, which was absolutely fascinating. They’ve been invaded by absolutely everyone over time and it shows very much in their capital city. The museum had some great exhibits, particular from the two world wars, some of the stuff they still had was amazing – like the Latvian flag the soviets unstitched the white on and replaced it with a hammer and sickle in the top corner – you could see where they had unstitched it! Best of all - the museum was free, which was nice for us as Latvia on our budget was a lot more expensive than anywhere we’ve been so far, so we found it hard to keep within the unofficial budget we set. That said, it’s still a lot cheaper than the west of Europe for living!

I liked Riga, it’s a shame about the weather and I’d like to visit Latvia (as a country next time) again. The one thing that did annoy me were the amount of beggars there were, more than we’d seen everywhere else, but it’s a small gripe. Riga was clean and friendly and I would definitely recommend a visit there. We've also bought a small bottle (4cl - 2 shots) of Black Balsam, a local Riga based liqueur. Will probably have it tonight and report back - it was £1.20 - told you it was cheap compared to the UK!

On to Estonia and Tallinn now! Will post Riga pictures this evening!

Riga

Day 14 – 23:49 – 08/06/2010 – Riga, Latvia

So we’ve concluded the first 2 weeks of the holiday, 13 weeks to go. It’s been an incredible journey so far, we’ve seen lots of places, even more churches, and met lots of weird and wonderful people!

So today was our first full day in Riga. The weather wasn’t great today – it didn’t rain much at all but was generally grey and quite chilly compared to how warm it was yesterday.

We lounged about a bit in the morning, the breakfast being a vast improvement on the one in Vilnius, although I didn’t appreciate the weird look I got when I asked for milk with my tea! I’m English, it’s perfectly normal!! We then headed out at about 11am to see the sights of old town.

It feels smaller than Vilnius, partly because of our location actually being in old town here – which is great. We saw lots of monuments, including the freedom monument which was nice, a fair few churches including the main Lutheran cathedral which we went up the tower of for sights of Riga and also saw lots of interesting buildings, some even from the medieval ages – impressive for a city which was destroyed in the war (sounds a bit familiar!)

In the evening we went to a particularly strange restaurant – a garlic restaurant where everything (including the beer which had a skewer in it with garlic on it) had garlic on the menu. We had practically a clove each with our tea. I didn’t appreciate it with the beer but it was nice enough with the meal.

After we ate we went to a “Rock bar” which was next to our hotel for a drink, a round being about £3, slightly more expensive than Vilnius but still cheaper than the UK. The beer was nice but the music wasn’t very rock!

Tomorrow we are hoping for better weather (it’s forecasted) as well as planning to see more of the town and maybe a museum!

Photo's from Vilnius

Tom relaxing with a nice cold pint of Baltas in Old town

Me in the park

The Cathedral and Tower

The river Neris

The view of the city from the top of the castle

St Anne's church

The Gates of Dawn and chapel

On the coach to Riga!

Day 13 – 21:31 – 07/06/2010 – In Transit, Latvia

I’m sat writing this on the coach between Vilnius and Riga, we’ve crossed the border, about 20 minutes ago and are due to arrive into Riga within the next hour at around 22:25. I’m writing this knowing I can publish is straight away on the blog, with WiFi on the coach. This coach is absolutely amazing, comfortable and has lots of legroom – at least the 8 hour overnight between Tallinn and St Petersburg won’t be too bad now!

So last night after the blog post we went out into old town and walked about 30 minutes each way to a Lithuanian restaurant. Laura opted for a stroganoff, whereas I had “Zeppelins” IE MASSIVE DUMPLINGS. Had to be done really, washed back with a Lithuanian “Baltas” beer, a very light, wheat like beer with a hint of citrus – great on this hot summer days I must admit (although as I’m typing this it’s pissing it down!)

Anyway today we dodged breakfast, eating some stuff we had left over from the day train from Warsaw to Vilnius – packed up slowly and left the bags at the hotel as we walked round Vilnius one last time. We ate a large lunch (sandwiches this evening) and then headed out the other side of the city centre, and walked along the River Neris on the north side of the city. The weather was absolutely beautiful today, and the river side was very tranquil and pretty. After that we slowly walked back via old town, having a drink on the main old town street (I had a Baltas, Laura actually had a cider!!) then back to the hotel.

We are now on the coach. Maybe I can convince Laura to post some pictures from the last few days when we get to our hotel – the wifi isn’t great on the coach which is understandable, so you’ll have to wait a while!

Strange times.

Day 12 – 17:51 – 06/06/2010 – Vilnius, Lithuania

Today has been OK. My cold is leaving, slowly, but it seems to be escaping via Laura who seems to be feeling like I was 2 days ago. We are back in the hotel room and she is resting as I’m writing my blog! We got up reasonably late today as we were knackered from yesterday.

We hadn’t seen much of town yesterday, just the bit between our hotel and the restaurant we went to, which was one that sponsored the city map provided by the hotel. I had a very juicy steak with potato wedges and salad for around £6 – prices are very similar to Poland! I splashed out on a steak which was probably the most expensive thing on the menu as I felt I needed some much needed iron! From what we saw though it looked nice.

Today we got up at about quarter to 10, which is late for us, but breakfast was until 11. I don’t know if it’s just at the hotel we are staying at or it’s a Lithuanian thing but breakfast was horrible, and that’s being kind. You had two choices of bread… sour and… even more sour. You also had rice cakes. Then you had cereal with beige coloured milk, also used for the tea/coffee although to its credit the milk wasn’t that bad.

Anyway, we headed out after breakfast. Once again there are lots of old churches/synagogues to see. We even saw our first Orthodox church today, which will be the first of many I’m sure. We do feel a little churched out in fairness, but the buildings are very nice. Even though I’m not religious and cannot appreciate the meaning behind it all, I think that anything that can invoke such a creation through architecture must be a good thing.

After we’d seen a lot of old down we sat in the town square and had some lunch that we’d prepared earlier. We then went up to the castle (walking not the funicular!) and up the reconstructed tower for a nice panorama of the city.

We slowly made our way back through other streets in old town, admiring all the amber shops and musicians on the street. My camera cap for the battery broke earlier in the day and so we went back via the 24 hour supermarket that is a 5 minute walk away to get some superglue, as well as some washing power for the laundry service back at the hotel. Although we had fun trying to get change for the machines, which people in Lithuania (as well as Poland) don’t like giving their precious change away, which is the complete opposite in the UK – everyone wants the notes!!

The hotel here is weird. It’s very clean, neat, and up to date and the room is nice. I think they have some deal with students of the local University though as there are messages to students everywhere and there are communal kitchens and dining rooms on each floor. Bizarre. But it’s nice enough and we’re making use of the washing machines at the moment! Did I mention the breakfast is weird too? Oh yes, I did!

On the move again

Day 11 – 11:05 – 05/06/2010 – In Transit, Poland

I’m writing this from our cabin on the train. We are cruising along with the window open, just me and Laura in a cabin for six, with the window open and the fresh air circulating the cabin. It’s wonderfully relaxing. We’ve had the occasional extra person in for 1 or 2 stops, but the train is mainly empty (this carriage goes into Lithuania, whereas the other half of the train terminates at the last city before the border)

Yesterday was a bit rubbish for me, I felt awful in the morning, with a terrible sore throat – we got up later than usual and didn’t really leave the hotel until 11am and even that was via a stop at the pharmacy which was open – yay!

We got the bus to the town centre and from there walked into old town which is about 1.3km away (according to the signs!) We had a big meal because we knew we were going to go to bed early yesterday. I had soup (to try and make me feel better) and then you’ve guessed it – perogi! I felt a little better after lunch and we headed to the castle to look around (neither of us were particularly feeling energetic and enthusiastic about walking much more than we have been doing!)

During the castle tour I really came down with the shakes and a temperature. We had to leave prematurely (we still saw everything, just not in as much detail) and walked back slowly to the bus stop. We also desperately needed supplies for today and yesterday evening so we reluctantly dragged ourselves around a supermarket on the way back to the hotel.

We got back at about 5:30pm, I slept until 7pm. We went to bed properly at around 10pm for a 05:30 start, which surprisingly, wasn’t as painful as expecting. I don’t have the shakes anymore, just a full blown cold which I am solely blaming on the Canadian girl from the Prague-Krakow train.

I will report thoroughly from Vilnius tomorrow night, when I’ve had chance to see the place, we will be moving 2 hours ahead of the UK this afternoon!

A change in feelings (and health!)

03/06/2010 – 22:45 - Day 9 – Warsaw, Poland

Well I’ve changed my mind about Warsaw a little bit. It’s OK but it’s certainly not as special as Krakow in my opinion.

For starters everything was destroyed in the Second World War. Therefore, the old town is not old town, it’s in fact pretty recent town. Don’t get me wrong, old town is nice, but it’s not as special as Prague and Krakow in my opinion. The reconstruction of it all Is great, just does not feel ‘real’.

Secondly, for a capital city, the place is a ghost town. Hardly anyone can be seen around our hotel, few people at all. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was Corpus Christi today and therefore a national holiday so everyone was at home/church, I can only confirm tomorrow.

Today we just walked around, via a walk which wasn’t very inspiring to old town. We walked around old town which was nice then headed to the north end of the city to catch an underground to where we could get a bus home.

Maybe it was the fact I wasn’t feeling very well (I’ve got a very bad sore throat) and couldn’t get any lozenges (everything shut!) but today wasn’t that fun for me.

I did however, enjoy walking around old town and enjoyed the evening where we went to a “Perogiria” (if you can imagine such a thing)! The weather during the day itself was also fine – around 27 degrees Celsius and sunny!

Hopefully I will feel in a more excitable and interested mood tomorrow, but Warsaw is not as impressive as my first impression thought.

Pictures

Me in the Perogiria with oven baked perogi and a nice beer

Laura with a bell in old town - the bell never rang as it was designed incorrectly but is said to contain mystical powers (wooooo)
Castle (rebuilt of course)
A war monument near to our hotel