Day 44 - 47: Russia Part 3, Tran-Siberian Railway

 On Day 44 we embarked onboard the Trans-Siberian railway, a 78 hour journey through the mountains and forests of Siberia.

The train itself was a massive highlight of the trip and definitely an experience of a lifetime. I highly recommend it, although perhaps not for those of you who who are creatures of comfort!

The cabins are very basic, measuring about two metres by two metres and comprising of four bunk beds, storage above and below and a fold up table in between, leaving not much room for anything else - including us! A reading light above each bed is the only luxury and with the air conditioning options being 'window open' or 'window closed', I had to ensure everything on my top bunk was tied down so as not to lose it out the window into Siberian wilderness!

Each carriage has a toilet at each end but they aren't the most sanitary of facilities and we learnt quickly to wear shoes and bring our own toilet paper. They also close the toilets half an hour before and after as well as during the stops in each city since the toilets flush directly onto the tracks - high tech Russian technology right there!

There is also a single hot water boiler for each carriage, and this is the one and only source of food preparation equipment. So before embarking on the journey we stocked up on copious packets of instant noodles, instant porridge and other essential long life foods and snacks, such as Kit Kats and Pringles!

 

Life on the train was fairly laid back, almost like mandatory rest days to recuperate before the journey resumed. We were bunking with a couple from the UK around the same age as us, Sophie and Sarah. The four of us clicked straight away and it was great getting to know them.We spent our days lounging around, chatting, playing cards, eating and reading. After the second day, I hardly got out of my pyjamas, even when we hopped off to stretch our legs at platforms.

I worked out a pretty good routine of commandeering one of the carriage toilets each morning and evening for my extravagant OCD washing regime that involved copious amounts of baby wipes, seriously, we went through about 200 of those things in five days! Every item of clothing was hung on the hook and getting changed involved a blancing act to avoid clothing coming into contact with the floor - this is pretty tough too with the train ricketing around unexpected corners every few minutes.  Luckily I only had to sacrifice one pair of underwear - after they accidentally fell off the hook and touched that floor they were most definately not going anywhere near my backpack again!

As can be imagined, the cramped quarters, high temperatures and lack of wash facilities and air conditioning leads to a rather pungent atmosphere and somewaht shortened tempers, so when the train stopped a couple of times each day, anywhere from two to twenty minutes, we all spilled onto the platforms for some fresh air and space to stretch our legs! I'm not ashamed to admit that on occasion 'cabin fever' took over and there were piggy back races up and down the platforms as we revelled in our brief freedom!

The locals flock in with carts of home made breads, patries, fresh fruits and more, we learnt quickly to follow our tour guide around as he always knew the best bits and pieces to eat! We had to keep a close eye on the train though and make sure not wander too far as it often leaves off schedule and without much warning!

 

Our tour group took up the majority of a full train carriage so our evenings involved hall parties, multi cabin card games and drinking... LOTS of drinking. In Russia, the traditional chaser for a vodka shot is pickles and raw pigs fat, yep you read it right, a big white rubbery hunk of raw pig fat! Now I'll try anything once... but needless to say, it was definitely ONLY once for that!

On the afternoon of Day 47, we arrived in Irkutsk, the last major city in Russia, before the border into Mongolia. We piled ourselves and our luggage into a bus for a twenty minute drive out to Lake Baikal. First priority on arrival - a well needed shower!





Day 43: Russia Part 2, Moscow

 Early on Day 43, our overnight train arrived in Russia's capital, Moscow. We were met at the train station by our local guide with a mini bus and taken out to our hotel. Unfortunatley, the sign-in process at the hotel took about two hours, eating into our one day in Moscow big time! And after all that we didn't even get our rooms, and had to put our bags in storage for the day til we could get in that afternoon.

When we were finally cut loose we rode the metro into the city centre and Russia's quintessential must-see, Red Square! Red  Square is bordered by the Kremlin, the Lenin Mausoleum, St. Basil's Cathedral (another candy church), the State Historical Museum and the GUM store (large department store).

With no time to waste, we immediately made a bee-line for Saint Basil's Cathedral, only stopping briefly so I could snap some pictures out the front.

The inside is a maze of rooms, all considered seperate churches, around a central core. The rooms are octagonal in shape and decorated in amazing murals with tapestries, books and artwork on display.

 

Next we explored the Kremlin, Russian's version of the White House, the residence of the President. With only limited time, we just paid basic entry allowing us into the grounds but not the museums and churches. As it was though, it took us a good couple of hours to cover just that, the grounds are massive.

 

Since we only had a few hours in Moscow we'd made the tough decision to bypass the Lenin Mausoleum, the line was enourmas! However after we left the Kremlin we ended up folding and joined the end of the 300m long line, stocking up from a near by McDonalds walk-thru (yep they've got that in Russia) we settled in to wait the hour or so wait, after all... how many times are you in Moscow!? We knew at least Ben would regret it if we didn't make the effort after coming all this way.

 

I can't quite tell you it was worth the wait, but it was definately a very 'Russian' experience. When you eventually reach the front, they let you inside in small groups, after you've checked all electronic items into a cloak room. And don't think you can sneak your little iphone in because as you file in you pass armed security guards where you're frisked and every thing you carry in with you is inspected. Once inside, you're marched in single file through a dimly lit corridor and into the main chamber of the mausoleum, where Lenin's embalmed body lays behind glass. There's no stopping to take it in though, the line files through at a slow but steady pace, past six to eight armed guards who'll reprimand you for a whisper, or, as I discovered, for just putting your hands in your pockets! Then, before you know it, you're out the other side. All that wait for a short glimpse at what looks like a Madame Tussauds waxwork!

 

From Red Square we rode the train back out to the Izmailovsky markets near our hotel, for some last minute shopping. I picked up a traditional Russian matryoshka (nesting) doll and some cute Russian Christmas ornaments.

 

Day 40 - 42: Russia Part 1, St Petersburg

We arrived in St Petersburg in Russia exhausted. Travelling for about six weeks across twelve countries so far with another two and a half weeks and three counties to go. And so, we made an easy decision on Day 40 to have, what we referred to as, an 'admin' day. We lucked out in that decision since it was raining, so we didn't miss much.

Our admin day consisted of a sleep in, blog updates, several episodes of Game of Thrones season three, and laundry. A LOT of laundry. Our hotel was kind enough to lend us their laundry facilities including a washer and dryer, however after experiencing several shirt shrinkages on our last laundry stop using a dryer, I was adamant everything would be air dried. This was made somewhat difficult due to the dreary wet conditions and pretty soon our room looked, smelled and felt like a chinese laundry with clothes racks everywhere and additional shirts and underwear hanging off every bedpost, chair leg and wardrobe door handle, the air a musty humid haze with the heater turned up full ball to try and dry our stubbornly damp clothes!

That afternoon, I amused myself browsing the nearby shops and adding more to my ever growing, soon to be overflowing backpack. We finished the day with a greasy delicious meal of Carls Jnr, one of our American favourties we discovered was also franchised in Russia!

Day 41 was officially the first day of our Trans-Mongolian G Adventures tour. Tour members were supposed to arrive throughout the day and embark on their own activities before the first meeting that evening.

Rested and refreshed, after an early run, we set out to explore. First stop, via train ride was island citadel, St Peter and Paul Fortress.

 

From there we wandered up to one of my favourite sites in the world, 'The Church of the Spilled Blood', a spectacular Russian Orthodox church, the churches I like to call 'candy churches'. Words cannot describe it, so here is a picture and there'll be more further down, cause we went back again the next day to see it in the sun!

  

We strolled around town and checked out the markets then had an early dinner and headed back to the hotel to meet the tour group.

 

After the tiny group we had in Egypt, we were shocked to see we were two of fifteen on this tour! After a meeting with our tour guide we went out for a group dinner (dessert for us) and some drinks to break the ice.

 

Our first priority on Day 42 was the rugby. On the other side of the world, the Brumbies were playing in the Super 14 Grand Final, and Ben wasn't about to let 15,000 kilometres and seven hours time difference stop him from watching it! We'd done our research the previous day and scoped out a number of Irish Pubs that might be showing the game. We lucked out on the second try and settled in with a platter of chips, onion rings, calamari and spring rolls (just your standard morning tea snack) and a couple of beers and watched as the Brumbies (and Ben's) dreams were crushed as the lost 27-22 to the Chiefs.

 

One of the solo tour group participants, a 19 year old from the UK, joined us, also being an avid rugby fan. Much to Ben's delight he had someone to discuss the game with who actually knew what he was talking about. I was just happy to munch away on the endless supply of snacks that continued to appear before me!

 

After the boys comiserated their loss over a few more beers we left the pub and Ben and I set out on our own once more to see some more of the city. With the sun out, we wandered back to the Church of the Spilled Blood and strolled along the canal where I could snap some pictures.

 

 

 

We ended up at a little market behind the church and bought some presents for friends back home. We found the Bridge of Four Lions and then checked out the Hermitage museum, stopping to watch a BMX competition in the square out the front.

Russia was one of my picks for the trip. Ever since I can remember I've wanted to go to Russia. (I think it might have initially had something to do with my favourite Captain Planet character, Linka, who was from the USSR!) Although thoroughly impressed with the city I wasn't so impressed with its people! We had been warned the country wasn't very 'tourist friendly', with our first experience in that before we left home jumping through numerous hoops just to gain a visa for entry! However I wasn't prepared for what we discovered.

As you may be aware, Russia uses cyrillic, however tourist maps are printed in English, so you couldn't even match the cyrcillic writing on the wall with the writing on the maps, since they were different languages. Instead we quickly resorted to counting train station stops in each directions and taking photos of the train station names on the wall so we knew how to get home and what station we needed to find our way back to if we did get turned around!

The people MIGHT have spoke English, but if they did, they sure weren't bothering to help us out considering our extreme lack of Russian. Instead we were generally ignored and given up on as soon as it was discovered we were foreign, this included clothing stores, restaurants, everywhere! Now don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those ignorant American (sorry Davis family) tourists who expects everyone to speak English as a second language and accomodate us when we're in their homeland, but even if I were to speak a second language, I highly doubt it would be Russian. And with the number of countries we were travelling through on this trip, it wasn't even plausable to learn the basic phrases in all of them! I know when I worked in the retail and food industries, I made an effort to accomodate foreigners, I would never just shrug and walk away without a backward glance like one girl did to me when I politely tried to ask for a different size in a clothes store.

We did encounter some lovely people though, including one lady in the markets who spoke quite good English and bent over backwards to find the items we wanted to buy. Ensuring my Russian stacking Christmas ornaments weren't chipped and the paintwork was perfect, and finding Ben the perfect metal and leather shot glass to add to his collection. She got a lot of business out of us that day!

That night, all packed and ready to go, we trooped afew kilometres on foot through the streets of down town St Petersburg to the train station for the first leg of our Trans-Mongolian adventure. We boarded the train and crammed ourselves into our tiny four sleeper cabin with our room mates for the night, Sasha and Claire, two solo travellers. As we drifted off to sleep we were whisked away on our way to Moscow!



Day 37 - 39: Helsinki, Finland

After arriving late the previous night, we were up and about early on Day 37.

Our hotel in Helsinki was awesome, it was built in an old jail that had been fitted out as a hotel. All the rooms were two cells merged together, the hallways still had the metal walkways and staircases and the dining room was in the basement, complete with metal cups and plates.

For our first day in Helsinki we bought tickets on the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus, departing from Helsinki Cathedral - a huge white church in the centre of town.

From there we rode the bus around town past all the sights, hopping on and off as we pleased. We stopped at the Uspenski Orthodox Church and the impressive Rock Church - built out of rock that creates awesome accoustics.

On the other side of town we visited the Helsinki 1952 Olympic Stadium. We checked out the complex and went up in the tower for a view from the top across the city.

 

 



We wandered the shops that evening and finished the day with an all-you-can-eat buffet of pizza, pasta, salad and dessert! Yum!

Day 38 was Ben's birthday! After an early run we set off on the ferry for his birthday choices of sightseeing - Suomenlinna Fortress and the Helsinki Zoo.

Suomenlinna  is a maritime fortress built back in the 18th century. You can explore the original fortress walls, tunnels, cannons, or check out all the museums, including an old submarine. The naval academy is also out on the island and we watched them welcoming in a Japanese ship with artillery fire.

A short ferry ride later and we arrived at Helsinki Zoo, also on an island. Here Ben's life was made complete when he saw an ibex! I'm not quite sure why this was his 'unicorn' in life, but it was. We've searched zoos near and far, all across the globe to no avail, until we ended up stumbling across them unexpectantly at Helsinki Zoo.

 

That night, Ben's birthday dinner was at Hard Rock Cafe, Helsinki.

Day 39 we treated ourselves to a sleep in and late breakfast. We lazed around and packed our things then left Helsink aboard the train bound for Russia!

One thing of note throughout all the eastern European countries (as well as some of the Western ones and middle east) - bring change for toilets, you have to pay everywhere! Even in high class shopping malls in Helsinki, it costs to get through the boom gates into the public toilets.

Day 34 - 36: Stockholm, Sweden

We flew from Warsaw to Stockholm on Baltic Air.

A little piece of advice - never fly Baltic Air. They are ridiculous. After rocking up at the counter to check-in we found out it is mandatory to check-in online and that it would cost us ten Euros each if we wanted them to check us in. So, we stepped away to login to the airport wi-fi and check-in. However, then we discover the wi-fi requires a code to sign you in that you get off your boarding pass which, of course, we can't get UNTIL we check-in! Back to the counter we go resigned to the fact that we're going to have to pay the ten Euros each. Then we're told they don't accept payments at the check-in counter and that they will check us in, but hold onto our boarding pass at the desk until we pay, and for that we must go to the other end of the airport where the airline admin offices are, pay the money and return to collect our boarding passes, all whilst still carrying our luggage. When we reach the admin office, we find the one and only admin lady is currently swamped trying to sort out a flight cancellation for a group of three families travelling together with about eight young children, as well as another guy off our flight waiting for the same reason as us. Before long, another eight or nine people have lined up behind us for the exact same reason. Time ticks by and pretty soon we are only an hour out of flight time, half an hour before boarding and the admin lady is still sorting out the three families with cancelled flights. Meanwhile, we still have to get back, drop our bags, pick up our boarding passes, get through passport control and security, along with about half the flight who have lined up behind us in the last hour and a half. Ben even went back and explained to the people at the check-in desk what was going on but was turned away and told to go back and wait. That was most definately a close call but we made it on the flight at the last minute, throuroughly unimpressed.

Anyway, now my rant is over, on with Sweden!

We arrived in Sweden late on Day 34. The airport is outside of Stockholm so we bought tickets on the express train into town. We lucked out when we arrived and found our hotel was right on top of the main train station.

Stockholm is a rather unique city, its built on a bunch of islands with bridges joining them all. Early on Day 35, we ran across Gamla Stan, the old town island to complete our first essential mission - sourcing somewhere for Ben to watch the rugby. We scoped out an Irish Pub and made a booking for dinner and the game that night.  As we arrived back at our hotel we lucked out and found we were right next to one of the Hop-on, Hop-off bus stops, so after showers and a gourmet three course breakfast in the hotel we set out on the bus to explore.

We rode the bus around town to get our bearings then headed out to Skansen - an open air museum and zoo, for the afternoon. The museum has old fashioned stores where the bake fresh breads and pastries, blow glass and work metal etc. allowing you to go in and watch and buy samples and souvenirs of all the hand-made traditional items. The zoo has a lot of northern European animals like wolves, reindeer and moose!!

 

 

 

From there we headed back to explore the old alleyways of Gamla Stan. The alleys are filled with souvenir shops which I discovered had all things moose related! I picked up a few souvernirs, including a moose umbrella, then we headed into the Irish Pub for dinner and the big game - a win for the Brumbies in their semi-final!

On Day 36, we spent a few more hours exploring the city before catching the train back out to the airport for another awful Baltic Air experience as we flew on to Finland.

Day 33 - 34: Warsaw

The overnight train arrived in Warsaw around 6.30am on Day 33. We had one night there and were staying in services apartments right by the train station. The lady had emailed and said she'd meet us there off the train, however after waiting outside for half an hour in the rain we called and she said it now wouldn't be available til 1pm.... Thanks for the heads up lady!

So we ditched our bags in the train station baggage storage and hit the town, once again in a hop-on hop-off bus. The grey rainy weather was a pleasant change after the heat we'd had through the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

We rode a loop of the bus around town, checking out all the sites. Ben's main point of interest however was the World War II sites so wandered down to the last remaining buildings of the ghetto - apartment buildings that housed all the Jewish families.

 

The drama with the serviced apartment continued around 1.00pm. We returned to the apartments to check-in and have a much needed shower after a night on the train, only to discover the hot water was out! Apparently it was being fixed that day and would be up and running after 6.00pm that day. So off we went again, to continue our sightseeing...

We rode the bus up to Warsaw Old Town where we spent the afternoon wandering the markets and exploring the historic buildings, old city wall and more churches.

Warsaw had some of the best shopping I'd found in Europe and that night I spent several hours getting lost in the mall near our hotel, stocking up on Lee Jeans at half the Australia RRP as well giving in and buying another bag to store my increasing stash of souvenirs and new clothes!

Next morning, Day 34, the dramas continued when we discovered the hot water was off again! Discovered this after a forty minute run, we had no choice but to have cold showers or stay gross and sweaty all day. About that time, I wasn't so appreciative of the cooler, grey rainy weather!

We checked out the Warsaw Uprising Museum that morning then rushed off to the airport to continue on our way.

Day 29 - 31: Czech Republic

Next stop was Prague in the Czech Republic. Just like Budapest, I immediately fell in love with the city. We arrived on the train from Vienna late afternoon on Day 29 and set out to explore that evening, wandering down to Old Town Square and Charles Bridge.

Later that night we went to the Ice Pub! A bar completely made out of ice. Even the cups are ice. They provide you with a poncho and gloves and only let you stay in 20 minutes at a time because it's so cold!

 

  

 

Day 30 found us on another hop-on hop-off bus - they are definitely the best way to see a city if you're on a tight schedule. We explored all the main sites over the river in Mala Strana (the lesser town), spending a few hours in the castle on the hill, chomping on fresh pineapple and watermelon from a street vendor and wandering through the narrow streets outside the castle walls. 

After looping back round the city on the bus, we got off back in Old Town to explore the many winding streets and alleyways and browse the souvenir shops. Prague is another city with beautiful old buildings I loved to photograph. They all have such character, with their own styles and all different colours.

Charles Bridge in Old Town is an adventure in itself, by 9am it's packed with tourists, beggars, buskers, street artists, souvenir stalls and more. It also provides some amazing views of the castle on the hill in Mala Strana opposite Old Town. 

 

 

That night we had dinnner in a Medievil Tavern. Dinner came complete with a show of medieval brogues having sword fights, belly dancers and fire breathers. All including audience participation! The food was served on metal plates and cups, the 'serving wenches' stay in character all throughout the night and the decor was great - a ceiling covered in skulls!

The only downside to Prague, also similar to Budapest - and probably because we visited in the middle of summer, was the massive number of tourists, with way too many skanky teenagers. It gets so busy in the middle of the day, you can't move and the shops are like saunas with everyone shuffling around crammed in like sardines. It's almost impossible to get pictures of the main sites without an ocean of people in the way. 'Almost' impossible.... that is, but not completely! We solved that problem on a couple of our early morning runs with my handy iPhone camera in tow. While the party goers were sleeping off their hangovers only the serious tourists were out of bed and we were amongst the few.

Running in so many different places was a definate highlight of the trip. From navigating the run down cobblestone streets to dodging the patrons setting up shop as the sun came up, we got a lot more into our days by seeing some of the sights via run!

 

Day 31 was a looooong day. We checked out at 10am but didn't have to catch the train til very late that night, another sleeper train, so it meant we had the whole day to kill with no option of going back to the hotel for a rest. 

We started off visiting the KGB museum where a very enthusiastic, most likely ex-KGB member himself, guy showed us round and gave us a run down of the history of the topic. Next up was a visit to the Museum of Medievil Torture during which I came to the conclusion that I need some of those options for use at work! 

After strolling around the main tourist sites one last time and buying some souvenirs we'd spotted over the last two days we were left hot and tired, sick of walking, sick of crowds and sick of being in the sun - but with no where to go and long time to wait! We ended up in the park next to the train station, reading in the shade to kill the remaining time before a healthy dinner of Burger King to complete our day. 

Needless to say we slept well that night despite being in a too short train bunk in a stuffy cabin, arriving the next day in Poland!