Tuesday, October 12, 2004
loose ends, lenin and birthdays
... well, this evening we are embarking on our 4 day train journey to Irkutsk - meaning that we will be out of internet reach for a little while. Sorry about the lack of photos of russia... you will just have to wait until Mongolia to see them (presuming they can be done there!).
We can still be contacted by text message (but not by voicemail unfortunately).
Happy birthday to Matt aka The Landlord (just in case we are away from the internet on the right day) (we are also not entirely sure when 'the right day' is!).
PS. We saw Lenin this morning. Looking very fresh. Pete got shushed by the guard and moved on from staring in one spot too long. I thought we were going to get deported. Apparently they last changed his suit in 2003.
We can still be contacted by text message (but not by voicemail unfortunately).
Happy birthday to Matt aka The Landlord (just in case we are away from the internet on the right day) (we are also not entirely sure when 'the right day' is!).
PS. We saw Lenin this morning. Looking very fresh. Pete got shushed by the guard and moved on from staring in one spot too long. I thought we were going to get deported. Apparently they last changed his suit in 2003.
Monday, October 11, 2004
barnaby the bear's my name..
never call me jack or jane...
happy 2nd birthday to barnaby and to barnaby's mum, aka bridget.
happy 2nd birthday to barnaby and to barnaby's mum, aka bridget.
enjoy your linner
now then, the ruskies don't appear to have cd drives on any of their computers - so whilst we have oodles of photos ready to go, we have no way of sharing them with you. so it's just dull prose that noone can be bothered to read i'm afraid.
so, 7 days into Russia and we're about to leave moscow. we arrived on saturday morning on the night train from st petersburg. it was all a bit disconcerting; it was dark when we left and still dark when we arrived; the stations at either end looked identical, as did the metro systems; none of the ruskies smiled in moscow either and it was difficult to tell whether the train had actually gone anywhere at all during the night. not much sleep was had as for some reason the 2 ruskies we were sharing a compartment with decided to leave the lights on all night.
anyway, we found hostel tramp on the outskirts of moscow. it's an old intourist hotel (your friendly local communist chain). breakfast is included. it feels like when you are 10 years old and if you don't eat what is put in front of you, you know you'll be getting it for dinner the next day and the next day until it's gone. we've now been given the same slice of bread and salami 3 days in a row. our only hope is that tomorrow it's gone visibly mouldy and even the ruskies can't serve that.
never one to shy away from champagne socialist tendencies, we spotted the chance to have the ultimate day in champagne socialism. during the morning we tried to visit lenin's mausoleum (unsuccessfully, it seemed that as we were in possession of a small daypack and we'd have to try again the next day). following that we were more succesful in gorging ourselves at the 'linner' buffet at moscow's most expensive hotel. with seats in full view of the kremlin we treated ourselves to limitless champagne and cherry cognac. the book of words described sunday brunch (or linner as the hotel staff called it) as an expat institution. whilst we certainly have no intention of becoming expats here, we were happy to drink them dry of champagne and ate at least 10 plates of food each. predictable drunken behaviour followed.
emboldened with the sort of courage that a bottle each of champagne gives you, we no longer walked quietly through red square, avoiding the ruskie police. instead we posed for comedy photos by lenin's tomb in fits of giggles. we even decided to blend in with the locals by drinking beer from a can as we walked the streets. and lo and behold we even made one ruskie (only one though) smile on the metro home.
suitably hungover today, it's been back to the sightseeing. the rules and procedures necessary to get into the kremlin are enough to sap the will to live out of even the most gung ho tourist. that and the price - $30 each ffs! courtney has bought a russian doll set so she's happy, and so am i as it only cost $5..
russia in general. well, it takes about 3 days just to cross the road - and that is assuming you can find the crossing (ken livingstone would have a field day sorting it out). the book of words has put the fear of god into us about the police and their passport checking scams so we spend a large proportion of the day changing route to avoid them. picking out police isn't easy - it seems every 3rd russian is in a uniform.
anyhow, it's not all bad. we've found a knockout restaurant where they do burgers and nuggets and have clean (and free) toilets. i'm sure the golden arches theme would do well in the west...
okay, so tomorrow we depart for siberia (where i'm assured everyone is really friendly and the food is fantastic!). train leaves at 21.32 and 4 days and 5 time zones later we get off in irkutsk. so that gives us till tomorrrow to find a computer with a cd drive to share those great comedy red square photos with everyone.
oh, and it's started snowing.
so, 7 days into Russia and we're about to leave moscow. we arrived on saturday morning on the night train from st petersburg. it was all a bit disconcerting; it was dark when we left and still dark when we arrived; the stations at either end looked identical, as did the metro systems; none of the ruskies smiled in moscow either and it was difficult to tell whether the train had actually gone anywhere at all during the night. not much sleep was had as for some reason the 2 ruskies we were sharing a compartment with decided to leave the lights on all night.
anyway, we found hostel tramp on the outskirts of moscow. it's an old intourist hotel (your friendly local communist chain). breakfast is included. it feels like when you are 10 years old and if you don't eat what is put in front of you, you know you'll be getting it for dinner the next day and the next day until it's gone. we've now been given the same slice of bread and salami 3 days in a row. our only hope is that tomorrow it's gone visibly mouldy and even the ruskies can't serve that.
never one to shy away from champagne socialist tendencies, we spotted the chance to have the ultimate day in champagne socialism. during the morning we tried to visit lenin's mausoleum (unsuccessfully, it seemed that as we were in possession of a small daypack and we'd have to try again the next day). following that we were more succesful in gorging ourselves at the 'linner' buffet at moscow's most expensive hotel. with seats in full view of the kremlin we treated ourselves to limitless champagne and cherry cognac. the book of words described sunday brunch (or linner as the hotel staff called it) as an expat institution. whilst we certainly have no intention of becoming expats here, we were happy to drink them dry of champagne and ate at least 10 plates of food each. predictable drunken behaviour followed.
emboldened with the sort of courage that a bottle each of champagne gives you, we no longer walked quietly through red square, avoiding the ruskie police. instead we posed for comedy photos by lenin's tomb in fits of giggles. we even decided to blend in with the locals by drinking beer from a can as we walked the streets. and lo and behold we even made one ruskie (only one though) smile on the metro home.
suitably hungover today, it's been back to the sightseeing. the rules and procedures necessary to get into the kremlin are enough to sap the will to live out of even the most gung ho tourist. that and the price - $30 each ffs! courtney has bought a russian doll set so she's happy, and so am i as it only cost $5..
russia in general. well, it takes about 3 days just to cross the road - and that is assuming you can find the crossing (ken livingstone would have a field day sorting it out). the book of words has put the fear of god into us about the police and their passport checking scams so we spend a large proportion of the day changing route to avoid them. picking out police isn't easy - it seems every 3rd russian is in a uniform.
anyhow, it's not all bad. we've found a knockout restaurant where they do burgers and nuggets and have clean (and free) toilets. i'm sure the golden arches theme would do well in the west...
okay, so tomorrow we depart for siberia (where i'm assured everyone is really friendly and the food is fantastic!). train leaves at 21.32 and 4 days and 5 time zones later we get off in irkutsk. so that gives us till tomorrrow to find a computer with a cd drive to share those great comedy red square photos with everyone.
oh, and it's started snowing.
