St Petersburg

The train to St. Petersburg left at 11.30pm and I was so sleepy when we got on that I could hardly walk. I slept well on the train and woke up to find that we were in St. Petersburg. That morning everything was very disorganised and we did not get into our hotel until 1pm despite arriving in the early morning.

Jenny and I spent the afternoon looking at the Peter and Paul's fortress, however due to reconstructions most of the place was closed. On the way to the fortress we saw this Mosque, which I really like and was a change to the churches we had just seen.

At the fortress we were able to see the impressive Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Cathedral has a huge spire that is 404 feet tall, which has a golden angel holding a cross on the top. We also were able to walk on top of the wall of fortress and see the city.

Outside Peter and Paul Cathedral

Inside Peter and Paul Cathedral

Jenny and I then tried to do a walking tour of the city, we saw the outside of the 'Church Our Saviour on the spilled blood',the Admiradlity and the bronze horseman.

Me at 'Church Our Saviour on the spilled blood' kind of looks a look like St Basil's

The bronze horseman

The Admiradlity

The weather was really hot and walking around after the big day before was really hard. That evening we went on a boat cruise around the canals that make up st Petersburg. Note to everyone:I got my tickets as student prices by showing my drivers licence because they could not read English and assumed it was a student card. Very helpful!

The canals of St Petersburg.

St Petersburg is such an amazing place. It felt really weird to be in such a European city after being in Asia for so long. Moscow was great and has a huge WOW factor with the Kremlin and the red square but St Petersburg is stunning and every building looks good. I could not believe how nice it was. Everyone else had seen more of Europe than me and Jenny even declared it nicer than Paris!!


At night it never really got dark as it was during the White Night period when the sky always remains light. This made drinking at the pub a problem because you kept saying you would go home when it got dark.


Speaking of drinking at a pub we were at a beer garden and this guy ordered his beer then asked the waitress to heat it up in the microwave until it was hot like a cup of tea temperature. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. I could not stop laughing. He then drank it and ordered another one. I know we give the English crap about warm beer but this was just crazy.


The next day we got up early and went to the Hermitage. It was free because it was the first Thursday of the month or something like that. The rush to get in was crazy. The Hermitage has a revolving glass door at the entrance and people were being crushed trying to get in. It was insane. I just laughed at all the chaos.


Jenny and I got an Auto guide to share and walked around the Hermitage for around 6 hours and still didn't see everything! It is just so big and the art work is amazing that you need a week to see it all. I had no idea how much art work was there and how much well know work at that.They have work from Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael,Picasso, and Matisse. It is going to be hard to top this collection but we will have to wait for France!


After the Hermitage we were exhausted and had a rest before looking inside the 'Church Our Saviour on the spilled blood'. The church was amazing and I recommended everyone to have a look inside it. It is worth the money. The Church has such an unusual name as it was built on the site where Alexander the Great (II) was killed. The whole inside of the church is a mosaic! It must have taken years to make and during Communism it was used as a storage shed. It is hard to believe such a lovely place could be used to store food and even dead bodies during the war.


That night was our last night with everyone so we had a fear well dinner at the place down the street. The next day Jenny and I went to the Russian Art Museum. Well we tried to but ended up in a Russian history museum. The history museum was great and we were able to see the history of Russia and Siberia. It was the prefect end to the trans Siberian railway. I was glad that we found it instead of the art museum. I was a bit over art after the hermitage.

St Isacc's Cathedral

Afterwards we went up St Isacc's Cathedral to have a final view of the city. The next morning I left for Helsinki at 7am.

Moscow

We only had limited time so Chris, Emma, Jenny and I had spent the train ride working out when and how we could fit everything in to our 2 days. We arrived in Moscow in the late afternoon so walked down to the Red square, and had a look around town. In hindsight this was the best time to see the Red square and St. Basil's Cathedral as the light was good for photos and there was not many tourist around. I could believe I was actually at the Red Square. It was just like every Jame Bond movie I have seen.

The next day was Monday which was going to be our day to see St. Basil's Cathedral but due to renovations our plans were changed. Emma had managed to convice Chris that he had to see a ballet with her in Moscow and both Jenny and I decided to join them. I had never seen a ballet and thought that Moscow must be the perfect place to see one. That morning the four of us got tickets to 'Romeo and Juliet' for that nights show.

We then spent the day looking at the Moscow's Metro. The metro stations in Moscow are one of the big tourist attactions with each metro station having it's own stunning architecture filled with Soviet art and large chandeliers. The escalators down to the metro made the Parliment station in melbourne's escalators look short.

After looking around the Metro. We had a look at the main shopping street called Arbat. The street was full of shops selling everything Russian from hats to dolls and ex army gear. I didn't get anything but did try on a few hats. what do you think.....

Afterwards we went to Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. It was so big and now dominates the skyline in Moscow. The church was destoryed during Stalin's time and for 50 years was the site of the world's largest swimming pool.

That night we went to the ballet. It was really great. The dancers are so fit. After the second act all the preformers came out as if the show was over. I was very confused as both Romeo and Juilet weres still alive. Very odd! Then everyone left the hall. We were all shocked. we soon discovered that it was just another intermission. After 20 mins the show continued.

The next day we got up really early and made plans to do the Kremlin and Lenin before lunch. The Kremlin opened at 10.30 but we were in the line by 8.30. When the ticket office was about to open a man came up and told us that due to the bomb scares in London the Kremlin would be closed. We had waited all that time and we happy to wait another 5 mins to hear the thruth from the ticket box ourselves. In the end the man was lying in an attempt to get us to go to the Diamond mesuem or something. So at 10.30 we entered the Kremlin, second in line. We had to have an Autotour because they said they were not selling other tickets. It was all really just a money making operation but I didn't care cos I really wanted to see the Kremlin and it was worth it. Check out these pictures.

Putin, the man himself was in America so we couldn't get to see him though we did see this look alike outside.

After the Kremlin, Jenny, Daniel and I went to see Lenin. The line for Lenin was 2 hours long and he was only going to be open for another hour so things were not looking good. We went to the back of the line and were shortly apporached by a man offering to get us and people next to us in now if we aid him 150 roubles. Lenin is normally free but to get out of the line I was willing to pay. So with his help we bribed the guards to let us in. It was great fun.

Lenin was looking good compared to Mao and Ho Chi Minh who I have seen before. Then we got to see the tombs of other past leaders like Starlin. Boris wasn't there as he was burried somewhere else.

That night we took a boat cruise down the Moscow river. It was a lovely way to see the city and say farewell to Moscow for now.

Apologies

Hi everyone,
Really sorryfor how rushed the past posts have been. I am planning on proof read and spell check them etc asap. Sorry in the meantime for the hopeless grammar and spelling.
Cheers
Ness

The train from Irkutsk to Moscow

This train lasted for 3,5 days and covered 5189 km! I was sharing a cabin with Chris, Emma and Jenny for this train ride and we decided that we needed to stop eat every 30mins like normal train rides and instead have meals at normal times.

The train team- from the front left Emma, Jenny, me and Chris {Emma´s husband}

We turned our watches to Moscow time we were got on the train and tried to get use to the five hour time difference straight away. Peter on the other hand said it was better to work on local time and spent the whole train ride up dating his watch with every time the train travelled through a time change. It became a running joke to wish peter a good morning when it was his lunch time etc.

The train was the nicest one we had been on yet. On Russian trains each carriage has two provodnik or provodnitsa. According to the LP if you butter the provodnitsa up the right way they can make your journey much more pleasant. We had two provodnitsa {female attendants} called Anna and I can not remember the other ones name. The woman who's name I have forgotten was really nice to us and we helped her out by explaining everything she told us to the other so she did not have to repeat herself. Anna on the other hand was lovely looking but always looked like she hated her job and wanted to cry.


The whole train journey was very long so I will just tell you about some of the highlights:

While travelling through a small town we watched three guy scull a bottle vodka straight. They were typical Siberian man with no tops on and were drunk at 2pm. One of them sat up and then proceeded to threw up all over the train track. I have never seen anyone vomit that much before. After he threw up he sat back down and continued to scull the bottle of vodka. All class!!

In most train stations in Siberia you where glad you did not have to stay in the towns. The people were generally drunk, no matter what time of the day and look very unhappy with everything.

One of the highlight stops on the first day was at 3NMA which we declared to be Emma stop. We got off here and tried local food and looked around for 20mins before the train took off.

Russian trains have a remarkable record of being punctual and as we discovered if you arrive at a stop late you must leave at the correct time regardless of if the timetable says you have a 30 min stop or not. One time we walked over to the babushka for some food only to have to sprint back to the train as it began to take off 5 mins later. I have never run so fast in my life.

Lake Baikal night 2 and Irkutsk

The next day it was raining and overcast all day. We had planned to go on a boat trip and hike up a hill but all this went by the way side. Instead I played Mahjong most of the morning with Emma and Chris. We then went for a walk down to the deck restaurant again with Maryanne and Jenny for lunch. Daniel came and joined us after he had tried fishing in the lake all morning with no success. He was dripping wet!

After lunch we watched a DVD and meet another Vodka train group who were traveling the other way. That night we had a "picnic" dinner inside which involved a very over price smoked fish. After dinner we played some drinking games and talked to the other group for a bit.

In the morning we were leaving for Irkutsk at 11am so I went for a quick walk around town before we left. Lake Baikal reminded me of early 1980 Country Australia. There are lots of kids riding around on bikes too big for them. Everyone is wearing really bad 80s clothing and has 80s hair cuts. It was a really cute little town!

The bus ride how was crazy. The bus driver took every corner at 120km and would change sides of the road without warning. I thought that after china I would not have to worry about being in a car again but I was wrong! After an hour of thinking we were all going to die we reached Irkutsk. Alex revealed that we no longer had a day in Irkutsk but instead 1,5 hours. Jenny, Chris, Emma, Daniel and I set off on our walking tour of Irkutsk.

Raising of the cross church
Saviours Church
Saviours Church- from the other side
Bogoyavlensky church

After our walking tour and a 5 min look at the web for the first time in ages. So sorry to everyone for not being in contact of updating this blog for so long!!! We then went to the supermarket and got our supplies for our 3,5 day train trip to Moscow!

Irkutsk and Lake Baikal

We arrived in Irkutsk to meet our guide Alex. He wanted to take us to a bank and then straight to lake Baikal. This was a nice idea but we had not eaten really food for two day and where all going crazy after the train ride with the border crossing from hell. i had eaten too much sugar and was losing the plot.

Alex could not be convinced so after watching for the money exchange office to open for 1,5 hours we started the bus ride to Lake Baikal. Our bus driver looked like the late Boris Yeltsin. I slept the whole way and woke to find us pulling up out the front of a very cute little wooden house.


After some more discussion we finally convinced Alex to let us eat some breakfast. We ate down on a deck by the lake. The lake was so big!


After lunch we went for a walk around the area. We were staying in Listvyanka which is lake Baikals most visited spot. We walked to the wooden cottage villages called krestovka and the Svyato Nikolskaza Church which was named after the apparition st Nicholas who saved the maker from a ship wreck in the lake.


After our walk we headed back to the hotel for some lunch. Lunch that day was a lovely 3 course meal cooked by the ladies at the hotel. It was great. We actually ate vegetables for the first time in ages and I began to feel better in no time. The food in Mongolia was very average! After lunch I went to bed as I did not get much sleep on the train as our cabin was the party cabin and no one would go back to their cabins when we got sleepy.

After a good night sleep and writing in my journal we had dinner. My life in Lake Baikal was all about food. That night we watched a DVD called "the Matador". The DVD player was really crap the movie kept stopping. After dinner I sat up and talked to Jenny for a few hours.

The Train from Mongolia to Irkutsk, Russia

The train had no dining cart like predicted. We were also told that we would reach the border at 3,30am and the toilet would then be locked until we finished crossing the border which was predicted to take anywhere between 5 to 10 hours. We set our alarms and got up at 3am to go to the toilet.

In woke in the morning to find that we were still sitting in the same place and everyone was out side yelling that the train was gone. It was all very weird. Chris wrote this in my diary to explain the situation:

10,16am 25-06-2007

7 hours and counting, our friends on the 9 other carriages have disappeared and only us and one other carriage of westerners have survived. Savage dogs are circling outside preying on the caged strangers as we go quietly stir crazy inside.

We ponder our fate every minute for those who have watches. Others lay idly reading books they would never normally read and listen to music they would never normally listen to.

Hopefully we will move soon. Some passengers have reported seeing a camouflaged mad man carrying a knife and the paranoia is festering internally. Nobody knows if everyone is still accounted for as supposed official guards have stated burning documentation and strong rumours exist of them being relayed to organ trafficking circles.

We will leave soon, only hope and the glimmer of life we love so much may get us through this.

Only time will tell

ANON.

It was not quiet that bad but the dogs and man with a knife are all true and we did have no idea when we would move again. We also had to pay to go to the toilet and get past the dogs to do so.

Finally at 9am the Customs offices started work and collected our passports. It was another 2 hours until we started moving across the Nomans land towards the Russian border. We had to fill out the Russian custom forms in duplicate and there was 3 forms. The female Russian guards were really scary and they made us move our bags out of our room while the searched the room. The man Russian guards were much friendlier. After the customs had finished we were off again. The border crossing took 10 hours in total!! It was crazy!!

I was sharing a cabin with Tracy, Yeresa and Jenny again and we found ourselves the party cabin which was really crap when we wanted to go to sleep and just be left alone for a bit. At one point we had 8 people in our cabin. It was all a bit too much for me and I found myself locking the door so we could get some peace.

Before we went to bed there was a lot of confusion about time zones and what time we would arrive in Irkutsk. The train was travelling on Moscow time but operating on local time. Whatever that means! The problem was occurring because no one knew who was on day light savings and who was on normal time. There was another group of traveller who had a guide with them from Australia but he was the most useless person ever and the general rule was whatever he said was wrong!

Finally we reached Irkutsk at 7 am local time or 2 am Moscow time!

Hiking in Gorkhi Terelj National Park

The next morning we got up early and went for a hike to Turtle rock. The rock I think really looks like a turtle.
We then climbed around the rock and Daniel naturally ended up being a mountain goat and climbing everything he could find.


After we walked to the temple. The view from the temple was great but we did not pay to see inside the temple as it was really small and we could see everything we wanted to see from the front door. We ate lunch at the temple and then walked back to camp.

The temple

On the way back to camp we saw some work men putting up a Ger tent. Maryanne, Dean and I stayed and tried to help. It was great to see how the tent was created. They did the whole job in around 30mins.

That night back at the ger camp we had a "supermarket clearance" party: where we ate all the left over food from our train trip and the snacks we brought to the Ger camp with us. I ate way too many sweets and felt ill.

The next day we took a bus back to Ulaanbaatar and rented a hotel room for the day to keep our gear in. I did some washing and had a look around town.


We then stopped off at the supermarket to get some food for the train ride as no one knew if we would have a dining cart on this train. All the food in the supermarket was either German, Russian or Chinese. I found it really weird that there was so much German food and assumed it was to do with the old communist days and east Germany.
After shopping we got on to the train and left for Russia!