I like this city a lot more than I expected to. Everyone in St Petersburg said that it would seem drab and dingy by comparison. But it's a vibrant city and quite beautiful in a more muscular sort of way. There's a lot of money flying around here these days and I think it gives the city a certain energy.
Even though I was here a week I still didn't see everything I hoped to. I had planned on going inside the Kremlin today. But after a week of warm, sunny weather I awoke to a cold, drizzly day. I walked down there, but the line was long, and more to the point, everyone I've talked to who went inside said it was disappointing.
So instead I used the afternoon to stock up on supplies for the train, including the one currency that's accepted everywhere: vodka.
Yesterday marked the two-month anniversary of my departure. By this time tomorrow I should be in Asia, my fourth continent in two months. The idea behind this trip was to backpack through Asia so in a way I'm just getting started! I still haven't been to any of what I envisioned to be the highlights of the trip, so hopefully the best is yet to come.
Showing posts with label Moscow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moscow. Show all posts
7/28/2008
Mystery solved
The name of my hostel here in Moscow is Yellow Blue Bus. The name is in English. It turns out that it's pretty close to the English spelling of how to say "I love you" in Russian. I'm so glad I didn't approach a Russian woman and ask her if she knew where my hostel was...
7/27/2008
Quote of the trip, thus far
A group of eight young Americans stayed a night in my hostel. They're in a Christian rock band came to Russia to perform in Archangel, which is way up north, on the coast near Finland.
There was also a guy named Daniel, who had spent two weeks in St Petersburg for a business class and was doing some sightseeing before heading home to Innsbruck, Austria.
We were all introducing ourselves. The missionary group is from California. One of them asked Daniel where he was from and he replied "I'm from the same place as your governor."
"Oh, cool, Sacramento."
I don't mean to sound harsh. Daniel speaks perfect English with only a slight accent, and the musicians were all quite nice (and educated). But it was pretty darn funny.
There was also a guy named Daniel, who had spent two weeks in St Petersburg for a business class and was doing some sightseeing before heading home to Innsbruck, Austria.
We were all introducing ourselves. The missionary group is from California. One of them asked Daniel where he was from and he replied "I'm from the same place as your governor."
"Oh, cool, Sacramento."
I don't mean to sound harsh. Daniel speaks perfect English with only a slight accent, and the musicians were all quite nice (and educated). But it was pretty darn funny.
7/26/2008
An authentic Russian experience
The place and time to shop for souvenirs in Moscow is weekends in Ismailovsky Park. It's huge. And you can buy anything there. Shaving cream? Check. Used Soviet military pilot uniforms? Check? T-shirts? Check. Religious icons looted from churches? Check. Everything from the tackiest tourist crap to genuinely good original art.
And if you're looking for matrushkas, the nested wooden Russian dolls, there are thousands of styles available, traditional ones, and not-so-traditional ones painted like the Simpsons or the New York Yankees. Or one set which had Bill Clinton, with the smaller nested dolls all representing the women he had affairs with.
I would have liked to buy one of the icons, but I wasn't sure I'd be allowed to get it out of the country. Of course, market merchants will tell you just about anything to get you to buy their wares, so I knew it was a bad idea when the guy said, 'Yes, this will be problem.'
But I did buy a hand-painted poster from 1934 for the film 'Battleship Potemkin', which I'm really excited about. Although I haven't figured out yet how to get it home...
After doing the touristy thing I had my most authentic Russian experience. I went a banya, or public bath house.
I thought Nicaragua was hot. I thought the Sahara Desert was hot. The banya was so hot it was actually painful. It felt hot enough to melt lead but I'm told the temperature is only somewhere between 175 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit.
It's something I wanted to do, but was warned I shouldn't do without a companion who speaks Russian. My French friend Francois from the hostel speaks Russian, and had been, and agreed to go with me. I'm glad he did.
It's not that I would have felt uncomfortable as a tourist. The signs were in Russian and English. It's just that I would have never figured out the procedure!
You pay to get in -- a lot -- and go upstairs to the dressing area. You put your stuff in a locker, disrobe, then shower before entering the banya. You know how it feels walking from an air-conditioned room into the sunlight on a hot summer day? Walking into the steam room is like walking from an air-conditioned room into the sun itself.
You walk up the steps and sit on a wooden bench. The further you walk up, the hotter it gets. In fact, it's noticeably hotter if you simply stand up. Francois and I lasted two minutes on the top bench. When you get hot, you leave the steam room and get into a pool or tub of cold water. Then you repeat two or three times.
There are bundles of birch twigs lying around. Only birch. I'm not sure why. You douse them in water and take them into the steam room. To magnify the cleansing effect of the heat you smack your body with the birch twigs. All the locals do it, so we did it. I was skeptical, but it did produce a tingling sensation in addition to the feeling that my skin was cooking and peeling off.
For the Russians, it just can't get hot enough in there. I expected a pile of hot stones like you see in a sauna at a gym in the US. But there was a massive wood-burning stove about the size of a toll booth into which the locals would toss pail after pail of water. Then one of them would wave his towel around his head to disperse the heat. And then I would get up and go hop in the cold pool.
There is a bar, and in the dressing area groups of men sit around in their towels -- or out of them -- and drink beer or vodka and talk and watch sports. You go in the steam room, socialize a bit, then go back to the steam room.
This probably goes without saying, but no, I didn't take any pictures.
It was quite uncomfortable at times but quite relaxing. I can see how it could become a ritual. I feel like a wet noodle. I expect to sleep well tonight.
And if you're looking for matrushkas, the nested wooden Russian dolls, there are thousands of styles available, traditional ones, and not-so-traditional ones painted like the Simpsons or the New York Yankees. Or one set which had Bill Clinton, with the smaller nested dolls all representing the women he had affairs with.
I would have liked to buy one of the icons, but I wasn't sure I'd be allowed to get it out of the country. Of course, market merchants will tell you just about anything to get you to buy their wares, so I knew it was a bad idea when the guy said, 'Yes, this will be problem.'
But I did buy a hand-painted poster from 1934 for the film 'Battleship Potemkin', which I'm really excited about. Although I haven't figured out yet how to get it home...
After doing the touristy thing I had my most authentic Russian experience. I went a banya, or public bath house.
I thought Nicaragua was hot. I thought the Sahara Desert was hot. The banya was so hot it was actually painful. It felt hot enough to melt lead but I'm told the temperature is only somewhere between 175 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit.
It's something I wanted to do, but was warned I shouldn't do without a companion who speaks Russian. My French friend Francois from the hostel speaks Russian, and had been, and agreed to go with me. I'm glad he did.
It's not that I would have felt uncomfortable as a tourist. The signs were in Russian and English. It's just that I would have never figured out the procedure!
You pay to get in -- a lot -- and go upstairs to the dressing area. You put your stuff in a locker, disrobe, then shower before entering the banya. You know how it feels walking from an air-conditioned room into the sunlight on a hot summer day? Walking into the steam room is like walking from an air-conditioned room into the sun itself.
You walk up the steps and sit on a wooden bench. The further you walk up, the hotter it gets. In fact, it's noticeably hotter if you simply stand up. Francois and I lasted two minutes on the top bench. When you get hot, you leave the steam room and get into a pool or tub of cold water. Then you repeat two or three times.
There are bundles of birch twigs lying around. Only birch. I'm not sure why. You douse them in water and take them into the steam room. To magnify the cleansing effect of the heat you smack your body with the birch twigs. All the locals do it, so we did it. I was skeptical, but it did produce a tingling sensation in addition to the feeling that my skin was cooking and peeling off.
For the Russians, it just can't get hot enough in there. I expected a pile of hot stones like you see in a sauna at a gym in the US. But there was a massive wood-burning stove about the size of a toll booth into which the locals would toss pail after pail of water. Then one of them would wave his towel around his head to disperse the heat. And then I would get up and go hop in the cold pool.
There is a bar, and in the dressing area groups of men sit around in their towels -- or out of them -- and drink beer or vodka and talk and watch sports. You go in the steam room, socialize a bit, then go back to the steam room.
This probably goes without saying, but no, I didn't take any pictures.
It was quite uncomfortable at times but quite relaxing. I can see how it could become a ritual. I feel like a wet noodle. I expect to sleep well tonight.
7/25/2008
Moscow, cont.
I still haven't been in the Kremlin yet. I wanted to get around and see different parts of the city. I started in Red Square, where I watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It happens every hour and always draws a crowd.
From there I walked down to see the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This was built in 1997 for Moscow's 850th birthday.
I didn't go in because I wasn't wearing shorts. This picture was taken from a footbridge over the Moscow River. Looking one way there's a nice view of Kremlin walls, with St Basil's on the right.
Looking the other way you can see yet another of the bizarre visual juxtapositions that fascinate me so much: On the left is an immense statue of Peter the Great. In the center is a tour boat. And on the right is a giant building for Megafon, a mobile phone company.
The church is built on the site of the site of another church of the same name that was leveled by Stalin. He planned on replacing it with a giant Palace of Soviets, featuring a 100-meter statue of Lenin. But it was never started. I'm sad the church was built, because I would have preferred to see what it replaced: the world's largest swimming pool.
Then I took the subway outside of town to walk up Sparrow Hill for what are supposedly the best views of the city. The views weren't so great, but you can see the stadiums and arenas they built for the 1980 Olympic games.
The hills are near the Moscow State University, so a lot of students go down to the river to hang out and sunbathe, as you can see in this picture taken from the metro station.
From there I walked down to see the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This was built in 1997 for Moscow's 850th birthday.
I didn't go in because I wasn't wearing shorts. This picture was taken from a footbridge over the Moscow River. Looking one way there's a nice view of Kremlin walls, with St Basil's on the right.
Looking the other way you can see yet another of the bizarre visual juxtapositions that fascinate me so much: On the left is an immense statue of Peter the Great. In the center is a tour boat. And on the right is a giant building for Megafon, a mobile phone company.
The church is built on the site of the site of another church of the same name that was leveled by Stalin. He planned on replacing it with a giant Palace of Soviets, featuring a 100-meter statue of Lenin. But it was never started. I'm sad the church was built, because I would have preferred to see what it replaced: the world's largest swimming pool.
Then I took the subway outside of town to walk up Sparrow Hill for what are supposedly the best views of the city. The views weren't so great, but you can see the stadiums and arenas they built for the 1980 Olympic games.
The hills are near the Moscow State University, so a lot of students go down to the river to hang out and sunbathe, as you can see in this picture taken from the metro station.
7/24/2008
Dirty Harry moment
It is with great reluctance that I am changing my Russia itinerary. I had hoped to take the train through Siberia and make a couple stops along the way. But I've decided to stay in Moscow for a few more days, since I haven't seen much of it, and then take a non-stop train to Irkutsk, which is the jumping-off point for Lake Baikal.
It is, in a way, a more authentic Trans-Siberian trip, since rather than making a few "short" trips (by Russian standards) of 20 or 30 hours, I'll be on the train for about three days. I'll "only" be traveling about 3200 miles, for 76 hours and 42 minutes. And it will be exactly that. If there's one thing the Russians know it's trains. By my watch my train from St Petersburg to Moscow left 23 seconds early.
The Trans-Siberian runs from Moscow to Vladivostock on the Pacific Coast, a distance of 5771 miles. The whole trip takes seven to eight days, depending on the train. The Trans-Manchurian route makes a turn south in Chita, just past Lake Baikal, and heads onto Beijing. The Trans-Mongolian makes a turn south at Ulan Ude, just before Chita, and heads through Ulaan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia, and onto Beijing. This is the route I will travel.
I was hoping to change my itinerary to be in Novosibirsk, smack-dab in the center of Siberia, on August 1. There's a total eclipse of the sun that day, and Novosibirsk will be the best place in the world to see it. But there are simply no train tickets available to get there. People from all over the world are traveling there to see it so for probably the first and only time in history Novosibirsk will be the tourist capital of the world for a day.
"A man’s got to know his limitations," as Clint Eastwood memorably said at the end of "Magnum Force." I also decided to modify my itinerary because I have discovered my limitations. I can do okay getting around Russia. I didn't expect people here to speak English.
But buying train tickets in Russia is like going to the proctologist, only not as fun. Without knowing the language it's difficult, time-consuming and stressful. The women who work the counters (they're all women) don't speak a word of English and have absolutely no patience, even for Russians! I have heard them chew out quite a few of their countrymen. I was wasting too much time and making myself too miserable trying to work out the logistics, and not spending enough time sightseeing.
I finally broke down and paid a travel agent to book my last ticket. I had to pay a small fee, but it was worth every penny. I sat with a pleasant young woman who was anxious to practice her English and patiently worked with me as I requested times and prices for different routes. So here's a tip from your Uncle Jeff: If you ever decide to do the Trans-Siberian, book your tickets in advance and/or use a travel agent. It's worth the extra money. This is not the best country in which to "wing it," especially for a traveler as inexperienced as I am.
So I'll be in Moscow for a few more days and then hop on the train for Siberia on the 28th. My Trans-Sib guide book was the first one I bought when I first started pondering this trip about three years ago, and though I considered many possible routes the train ride was always the centerpiece.
I'm really, really excited.
It is, in a way, a more authentic Trans-Siberian trip, since rather than making a few "short" trips (by Russian standards) of 20 or 30 hours, I'll be on the train for about three days. I'll "only" be traveling about 3200 miles, for 76 hours and 42 minutes. And it will be exactly that. If there's one thing the Russians know it's trains. By my watch my train from St Petersburg to Moscow left 23 seconds early.
The Trans-Siberian runs from Moscow to Vladivostock on the Pacific Coast, a distance of 5771 miles. The whole trip takes seven to eight days, depending on the train. The Trans-Manchurian route makes a turn south in Chita, just past Lake Baikal, and heads onto Beijing. The Trans-Mongolian makes a turn south at Ulan Ude, just before Chita, and heads through Ulaan Bataar, the capital of Mongolia, and onto Beijing. This is the route I will travel.
I was hoping to change my itinerary to be in Novosibirsk, smack-dab in the center of Siberia, on August 1. There's a total eclipse of the sun that day, and Novosibirsk will be the best place in the world to see it. But there are simply no train tickets available to get there. People from all over the world are traveling there to see it so for probably the first and only time in history Novosibirsk will be the tourist capital of the world for a day.
"A man’s got to know his limitations," as Clint Eastwood memorably said at the end of "Magnum Force." I also decided to modify my itinerary because I have discovered my limitations. I can do okay getting around Russia. I didn't expect people here to speak English.
But buying train tickets in Russia is like going to the proctologist, only not as fun. Without knowing the language it's difficult, time-consuming and stressful. The women who work the counters (they're all women) don't speak a word of English and have absolutely no patience, even for Russians! I have heard them chew out quite a few of their countrymen. I was wasting too much time and making myself too miserable trying to work out the logistics, and not spending enough time sightseeing.
I finally broke down and paid a travel agent to book my last ticket. I had to pay a small fee, but it was worth every penny. I sat with a pleasant young woman who was anxious to practice her English and patiently worked with me as I requested times and prices for different routes. So here's a tip from your Uncle Jeff: If you ever decide to do the Trans-Siberian, book your tickets in advance and/or use a travel agent. It's worth the extra money. This is not the best country in which to "wing it," especially for a traveler as inexperienced as I am.
So I'll be in Moscow for a few more days and then hop on the train for Siberia on the 28th. My Trans-Sib guide book was the first one I bought when I first started pondering this trip about three years ago, and though I considered many possible routes the train ride was always the centerpiece.
I'm really, really excited.
Moscow and Siberia
Subways are not something I generally get excited about, but I had heard so much about the Moscow metro, and it was all true. It's incredible. I have not waited two minutes for a train, which is incredible considering it's the most-used subway system in the world. I've read that eight million people use it daily, more than New York and London combined.
Don't believe me? Check this out.
You need the subway to get around because Moscow is huge. You can see most of St Petersburg by walking, but not Moscow. Whether you count the population of the municipality or the metropolitan area, Moscow is the largest city in Europe. Yes, bigger than both London and Paris. Good trivia question. Some Europeans I've met take issue with that. I think they don't consider Russia European.
Geographically speaking, the dividing line between Europe and Asia is the Ural Mountains, in Russia. Moscow and St Petersburg are in Europe, while the vast majority of Russia is in Asia.
In fact, though there are different definitions of what Siberia is, historically it has been considered to be everything to the east of the Urals. So while Siberia brings to mind images of wintry landscapes, the territory extends to Russia's southern borders with Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, etc. And it can get quite hot.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the northern hemisphere is in Siberia: -96 degrees Fahrenheit. And people live there. (Check out the book "The Reindeer People" by Piers Vitebsky.) During the summer the temperature, in that same area, can get into the mid-80s. Which means that the temperature difference there can be greater than the difference between boiling water and ice!
Don't believe me? Check this out.
You need the subway to get around because Moscow is huge. You can see most of St Petersburg by walking, but not Moscow. Whether you count the population of the municipality or the metropolitan area, Moscow is the largest city in Europe. Yes, bigger than both London and Paris. Good trivia question. Some Europeans I've met take issue with that. I think they don't consider Russia European.
Geographically speaking, the dividing line between Europe and Asia is the Ural Mountains, in Russia. Moscow and St Petersburg are in Europe, while the vast majority of Russia is in Asia.
In fact, though there are different definitions of what Siberia is, historically it has been considered to be everything to the east of the Urals. So while Siberia brings to mind images of wintry landscapes, the territory extends to Russia's southern borders with Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, etc. And it can get quite hot.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the northern hemisphere is in Siberia: -96 degrees Fahrenheit. And people live there. (Check out the book "The Reindeer People" by Piers Vitebsky.) During the summer the temperature, in that same area, can get into the mid-80s. Which means that the temperature difference there can be greater than the difference between boiling water and ice!
Self-portrait: Red Square
Red Square was open to pedestrian traffic and it was a gorgeous sunny day, so I took some more pix. Here is Lenin's tomb with the reflection of yours truly in the bottom lefthand corner. (I'm the one holding the camera.)
I haven't been in St Basil's yet, but my gosh, what a magnificent building.
Legend the Terrible has it that Ivan the Terrible liked it so much that he had the architects blinded so they could never build anything so beautiful again. I guess he figured, "Heck, they're already calling me 'the Terrible,' so why not."
Here's another picture of the square in which you can sense the scale of it.
I haven't been in St Basil's yet, but my gosh, what a magnificent building.
Legend the Terrible has it that Ivan the Terrible liked it so much that he had the architects blinded so they could never build anything so beautiful again. I guess he figured, "Heck, they're already calling me 'the Terrible,' so why not."
Here's another picture of the square in which you can sense the scale of it.
Red Square at night
Red Square is lit up like something out of a Christmas special at night. But you can see the Russians are still working the whole tourist thing out. It's quite impressive, but the lighting is provided by giant spotlights attached to lightpoles. The effect is a bit harsh and obtrusive, and makes taking a decent picture difficult.
This is a nice view looking through Red Square from, but you can see from the position of the lights that it's nearly impossible to get a clean shot of St Basil's.
I had to get in really, really close to get this, and even so you can see the glare of a spotlight in the top right corner.
And it gives me no end of amusement the way communism has become a commercial product. Look at the way Lenin's tomb literally bathes in the light of the GUM shopping mall. You can't even read his name!
This is a nice view looking through Red Square from, but you can see from the position of the lights that it's nearly impossible to get a clean shot of St Basil's.
I had to get in really, really close to get this, and even so you can see the glare of a spotlight in the top right corner.
And it gives me no end of amusement the way communism has become a commercial product. Look at the way Lenin's tomb literally bathes in the light of the GUM shopping mall. You can't even read his name!
7/23/2008
First REAL post from Moscow
This is my first glimpse of Krasnaya Ploschad, or Red Square.
It was a bit eerie seeing it. Growing up I would usually only see pictures or footage from here when something bad was happening. I flashed back to images of military parades with high-stepping soldiers and ICBMs being wheeled through.
It was closed off today for some reason, which made it even more intimidating. At the far end is Pokrovsky Cathedral, better known as St Basil's. That's actually a misnomer, since St Basil's only refers to the northeastern chapel, which wasn't part of the original contruction. On the left is the Kremlin, with Lenin's Mausoleum in the center.
Here's a better picture.
I plan to go back and visit the Kremlin, and hopefully walk through Red Square, and get some better pictures.
The tomb is open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m., and is something you simply have to see while in Moscow. I can't say I enjoyed it, but I'm glad I went.
I have no pictures of it because, not only are pictures not allowed, you're not even allowed to take in a camera or celphone. You can't take in anything, as a matter of fact.
You may not speak. There are soldiers in every corner of every stairway, hall and room, and they will shush you if you do.
You may not wear shorts.
You may not put your hands in your pockets.
You must remove your hat.
It is free, however! This was the queue about 15 minutes before opening.
I was in and out in about 30 minutes, believe it or not. You're not allowed to linger around the tomb. You get about 20 seconds of viewing time before the soldiers move you along. It's very solemn and rather creepy.
Lenin's body is in a glass case, minus his brain, which was removed so Soviet scientists could study it and discover the root of his genius. They take him out from time to time and work their magic on him to make him presentable.
He is on display against his wishes and those of his widow. He wished to be buried in St Petersburg beside his mother. Boris Yeltsin tried to have him moved in the 1990s, but the political left (and tour operators) managed to block the move. Yeltsin was probably less interested in seeing Lenin's wishes fulfilled than removing the literal embodiment of communism from the Russian capital.
Across from the icon of communism is perhaps the ultimate symbol of capitalism, a luxury shopping mall called GUM (goom).
Here is Lenin's tomb in the background with GUM in the foreground. Is there a more jarring contradiction anywhere in the world?
My guide book says of the black market, "Once the sale of a pair of Levis in Moscow could cover your spending money for the entire trip but this is just not the case anymore." In fact, since I needed a pair of jeans, I decided to buy a pair here! I got a kick out of the irony of buying a pair of Levi's in Moscow on Red Square. (Don't ask the price.)
Afterwards I went with two guys from my hostel, Alex (Greece) and Francois (France) to the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, celebrating the Russian space program. It's on the right here, with some sort of tower and a hot-air balloon ride on the left. It's hard to believe it was built by the Soviets.
Inside you can have your picture taken in a replica of Yuri Gagarin's spacesuit. (He was the first man into space. The first woman in space was also Russian.) You can do this when it's open. It wasn't today. All renovations and construction is done here in the summer, even though it's tourist season, because they can't do it in the Russian winter. Paint and concrete won't dry properly when it's 20 below.
7/22/2008
Oops
No, I wasn't kidnapped by the Russian mafia.
I've been in a bit of a jam the past few days. Long story short, I'm in Moscow but my wallet is somewhere in St Petersburg. So I had to lay low while I sorted the situation out and found a bank that would give me a cash advance on my credit card. I knew there would be days like this, but why here?!
I'm getting ready to travel 5,000 miles by train in a country where I can't even read the language, let alone speak it. And then I'm going to yet another country where I don't speak the language and don't expect to find many people who speak mine. Mongolia is arguably the most remote country on earth and is definitely the most sparsely populated. And from there I'm going to China ... not an ideal situation to be in without any cash.
But everything is straightened out. I lost a little money and two days of sightseeing, but I'm sticking to the plan. I'll have two and half days of sightseeing in Moscow and then I'm hopping on a train and heading east to Siberia.
I haven't seen anything in Moscow yet. I literally haven't seen Red Square or the Kremlin. I realized today that I'd been here for two full days and hadn't taken any pictures! So here's a picture from my hostel, called Yellow Blue Bus. (The name of the place is in English. And I don't know how it got the name. And it's impossible to find, like all other Russian hostels.)
From the left are Francois (France), Kiyoshi (US) and Stefan (France). Stefan just this minute left for Mongolia. Kiyoshi recently flew to Moscow from Mongolia -- he didn't take the train! -- after going there to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. Pretty cool, eh?
On the table in front of Kiyoshi is a bottle of kbac (kvass), a non-alcoholic brew, kind of a cross between beer and Coke. Don't worry, there's beer there too.
I've been in a bit of a jam the past few days. Long story short, I'm in Moscow but my wallet is somewhere in St Petersburg. So I had to lay low while I sorted the situation out and found a bank that would give me a cash advance on my credit card. I knew there would be days like this, but why here?!
I'm getting ready to travel 5,000 miles by train in a country where I can't even read the language, let alone speak it. And then I'm going to yet another country where I don't speak the language and don't expect to find many people who speak mine. Mongolia is arguably the most remote country on earth and is definitely the most sparsely populated. And from there I'm going to China ... not an ideal situation to be in without any cash.
But everything is straightened out. I lost a little money and two days of sightseeing, but I'm sticking to the plan. I'll have two and half days of sightseeing in Moscow and then I'm hopping on a train and heading east to Siberia.
I haven't seen anything in Moscow yet. I literally haven't seen Red Square or the Kremlin. I realized today that I'd been here for two full days and hadn't taken any pictures! So here's a picture from my hostel, called Yellow Blue Bus. (The name of the place is in English. And I don't know how it got the name. And it's impossible to find, like all other Russian hostels.)
From the left are Francois (France), Kiyoshi (US) and Stefan (France). Stefan just this minute left for Mongolia. Kiyoshi recently flew to Moscow from Mongolia -- he didn't take the train! -- after going there to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. Pretty cool, eh?
On the table in front of Kiyoshi is a bottle of kbac (kvass), a non-alcoholic brew, kind of a cross between beer and Coke. Don't worry, there's beer there too.
7/20/2008
First post from Moscow
I rode on my first Russian train today. Technically it's not part of the Trans-Siberian, since it's a local train that runs to/from St Petersburg, but it's a start. Then I had to take the subway and even switch trains to get to my hostel. So I'm pretty pleased to be here typing this.
Of course, they're overbooked, so I'll be sleeping on an air mattress, but I'm only in this hostel for one night and will be leaving first thing in the morning, so no big deal.
Of course, they're overbooked, so I'll be sleeping on an air mattress, but I'm only in this hostel for one night and will be leaving first thing in the morning, so no big deal.
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