Moscow

The overnight train from St Petersburg to Moscow wasn't a comfy sleep. It was a cosy four berth cabin though. Ian has a tour mascot, his small toy cuddly tiger which used to sit on his computer at work, and he comes out for a picture every now and then (which will hopefully feature at times when we figure out how to put photos on this sight). So Tiger has his photo taken on one of the bunk beds with us girls. The train doesn't have showers, but 24 her hot water for cuppas, soups or noodles. Our Moscow city guide by the name of Vlad (22 yr old Uni student) picked us up from the station for our 3 day stay. It was pouring down rain. Thankfully he gave us a couple of hours to rest when we got to our hotel before setting out for.....you guessed it.....sightseeing. Each city we get to we have to have our visa's registered, that are in our passports. If we didn't have someone else taking responsibility for this, ie. like a hostel or tour company, it may be a bit difficult. A number of sights are all in the same convenient location. Red Square is a cobbled large square that is surrounded by Lenin's mausoleum, St Basil's Cathedral, The Kremlin and the Goom Shopping Arcade. We lined up to see Lenin's mausoleum. We had to go through security, there were police and guns, and you couldn't take in day bags or cameras. It was built on the side of The Kremlin in 1930 of red granite. Lenin's mummified body is on show and you have to continuously walk past it being silent. Doubled up guards stood at every new area and hurried you along, or told you to be quiet. I assumed the body was plastic, but apparently it's real. He died on the 21/01/24 and he was apart of the Communist era so there is some embarrassment by the locals they it is kept on show and so many people line up to see it. St Basil's Cathedral was commissioned by Tsar (King) Ivan the Terrible (he was from the 16th century and Ivan the Great was 1462-1505). Unlike the very open and grand Cathedrals this one had many smalls rooms and it was easy to loose which ones you had been in, as it was cave like. The outside, although under renovations was very similar to the "Split Blood" Temple in St Petersburg, which I related to India. The story goes that when Ivan the Terrible asked the architect who built it whether he would be able to create anything better, he popped his eyes out when he said he could! In Napoleon's day when the French invaded Russia in 1812 the Cathedral was used as horse stables. There was a revolution towards the end of the 18th century. In 1917 Soviet Power was established, with the subsequent civil war creating terrible food shortages and loss of life. By the late 1980's services had started to collapse under Gorbachev's reforms and the breakdown of Communist Power. (There was a bit of history for you to set more of the scene). The Kremlin is the seat of Russian government. It is a huge building that holds not only this but Cathedrals where 46 Tsars (including Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible) are burried, a huge cannon that was apparently never fired as the balls were too big, a huge bell, that was also too large to have ever been used, and the Armory Museum that holds the richess of the Royals - carriages, armour, clothes, jewels, crockery, and these amazing Faberge eggs (like Easter eggs) one with a gold wind up Trans Siberian Train. Everything seems to be large, and tends to have water and fountains. There was Victory Park with a World War 2 Monument, Statue Park, which included the 1st KGB leader amongst others, and the All Russian Exhibition Centre, with large water fountains. Even Russian Pool (billiards) is played with huge white balls that hardly fit in the pockets. Unlike all the walking in the previous city, this time we took the Metro everywhere, which my feet were thankful for. This Metro was even more impressive than our first stop. We experienced a business buffet lunch, which was cheap and apparently the way to go, by having the main meal during the day. Deciding that I needed to understand more about the Tsars (Kings) and history, I asked our guide to draw me a family tree, so that I could see it written down. Well, as I tried to stay awake, although very informative, he began........at the VERY beginning! Somewhere around the year 608 (that's without referring to my pages of notes), when the first Tsar was a Viking. Amazingly Vlad went through the whole history with pictures and exact years!!!!!!!!!!! It seems to rain somewhat each day, for a period of time. So we took a boat cruise. Couldn't see anything, but it had a bar. Ian, Vlad and his friend who had joined us briefly commenced the Vodka consumption. Somewhere Ian had heard that one of the 100 things to do before you die is to drink a Russian under the table. Considering that the Russian are well known for the amount they can drink, and Vlad had been personally bragging about it, the competition was on. By the end of the night Ian was very proud to maybe not say much right then - but he had drunk Vlad 'under the table'. And of course Vlad couldn't understand why he ended up throwing up a couple of times. Next....... Late train to Irkutsk (still in Russia). 3 days and 4 nights.

Travel mascot "Tiolet Tiger" with the girls on the Trans-Siberian Railway

The Summer Palace (Peterhof) fountain's water runs into the Gulf of Finland

The Summer Palace of gold sculptures and fountains

Kym & I after the Vodka Museum and on the 2am boat ride

Our Guide Ivan and tour buddy Kym

At the top of St. Issacs Cathedral

The Temple of the Spilt Blood with amazing mosiacs

Ian at the Hermitage (Winter Palace)

Saint Petersburg

What ever made me arrange a 6.30am flight from Heathrow, London, was beyond me. Ian and I left Bournemouth, on the south coast of England, at 3.30am! Nice surprise at the Russian airport though of St Petersburg, to have a transfer waiting for us, due to some changes in our hostel arrangements for the first couple of nights before our 21 day VodkaTrain tour commenced. Interesting communication between our Russian non-English speaking host, with hand signals, and nodding even when you weren't quite sure what you may be agreeing to. The breaky though was great with an unusual combination of frankfurt (hot dog) sausages, cold corn and peas, bread, cheese, tea, yoghat and a sweet cake! And the sight seeing commenced!!!! And the walking!!!! And the bloody blisters!!!! The Peter and Paul Fortress / Museum, the city's first stone structure, was built in 1703 to keep the Swedish invaders out, was a good introduction to learning about this country. A ear shattering noon day cannon fired and scared the shit out of everyone even though you were anticipating it. At this time Ian and I were sharing our flask of tea on the overgrown lawn. Yes, Ian has a flask, and I must say that it is going down a treat! The Cathedral (as our book says "the highlight of the fortress") is where most of the Russian rulers from Peter the Great to Nichollas 2nd are buried. There was also a Cosmonaut Museum, of which Ian was quite happy with, having his photo next to the stone head of Uri (first man in space). This was our first experience of tourists being charged anywhere from 3 to 10 times as much as the locals! The Resurrection Temple, otherwise known as the Saviour of Spilt Blood, was really interesting. It was modelled on the 17th century styles, and reminds you more of Indian mosque domes on the top of the building. It was where Alexander the 1st was killed, and was later used as a wharehouse during the Communist era. Most churches were, which is unbelievable, considering how much money were put into them. This one had amazing mosiac art covering the whole inside, of approx. 7,000 sq. mtrs. Other grand Cathedral's were Kazansky and St.Issacs. Changed our accommodation to dorm rooms, in a small but very comfortable hostel. Met our city guide Ivan (17 yr old) and our one other tour participant. Yes that's correct, there is three of us! Me, Ian and Kym from Perth. Most of the people that apparently go on this tour happen to be Aussie's. The company is actually based in Melbourne. Had a traditional Russian meal. Took the easy option of Beef Stroganoff which was fantastic. All the meals since have been really nice. Went to the Vodka Museum with a 3 in 1 deal of a history lesson, a meal and vodka shots. It appears that Nichollas 2nd (Tsar - King) tried to band all alcohol, which for a country used to drinking a HUGE amount of Vodka was not a good thing, and during the Revolution the whole family was killed. My Vodka drinking this night was quite impressive with 6 shots in total, and a number of beers. The flavours experienced was a plain Russian one called Pushkin (the nicest one if you can say that about straight vodka), one with ginsing, port, and lemongrass. We then killed some time before our 2am boat cruise to experience the bridges up on the Neva River, in an English pub drinking beer and watching the entertainment of skantly clad women, much to the boys delight. One of the many Palaces of Peter the Great, was his Summer Palace called Peterhof. It was amazing with its 3 cascades, 144 fountains, golden sculptures and huge grounds. One of the fountains acutally flowed all the way into the Gulf of Finland. The Winter Palace is the Hermitage. It is the worlds most monumental art collection housing 3 million pieces. We skipped the huge entry line by paying more for a tour of the Winter Palace, with an informative and very over enthusiastic, theatrical woman. By the time this had finished (1 and a half hours later) we were too tired and couldn't be bothered looking much around the art works. We had done so much walking in our five days that I ended up with the biggest blisters that you have ever seen!! A heart felt thank you goes to our other tour buddy Kym for giving me the skills to undertake surgery on my blisters with a sewing needle and squeezing all the liquid out, which enabled me to walk some more, without limping. The Metro (Underground trains) were really impressive. Due to them being used as bomb shelters in the 2nd World War, they are so far under ground that the escuators are so long, and it feels like you are on them for such a long time. They are really clean, some have mosaic art, marble, and are quite impressive. You can buy beer on the streets at little kiosks and people walk around drinking it. They even advertise gin as an energy drink. There are funny electric buses and really old looking trams. When you first arrive in the city from the airport there are lots of dirty, old looking houses that you could just imagine would be from the communist times, rations and bread queues. The more you look around though, there are a number of nicely painted buildings, although they do tend to be important buildings. The books relate the city to Venice, as it is situated on 42 islands at the delta of the Neva River where it flows into the Gulf of Finland. It was named after the Patron Saint of its founder Tsar (King) Peter 1st The Great. It has a population of approx. 4.6 million. It reminds me more of Amsterdam, as the rivers that wieve through the city are not as small as the ones in Venice. The history of Russia is really interesting. St Petersburg was the 1st paved city, as a legacy to Catherine the Great. The prostitutes who were picked up the night before would sweep the streets each morning. Catherine the Great wasn't even Russian, she managed to marry into royalty, get her lover to kill her husband, contained much power, and managed to have young toy boys as she grew older. She is one of those strong women that you read about, like Mary Queen of Scots. There is so much money wrapped up in the Palaces, Museums and Cathedrals its unbelievable! It is also interesting to think that Communism only fell 12 years ago. The water here is infected with Giardia! So we always had to have bottled water, even to clean out teeth. That's a big tip for anyone wanting to visit. Next stop is Moscow. Hopefully the overnight train is comfy!

And we're off

Ian and I been talking about it for so long and now it's actually happening. 18 months of planning to up and leave the United Kingdom, saving as much as we could so that we wouldn't have to work along the way, and backpack around the world for as far as our savings would take us. This should be interesting as the only thing booked is our flight to get on the Trans Mongolian Railway from St. Petersburg to Bejing - and that's it. Wish us luck! Best try one last repack in my little 40 ltr pack - surely I can fit another top in. Or not! My last list of tasks (of course there has been many) have been all ticked off and now we wait for the ridiculous 6.30am Heathrow flight. What was I thinking? From Bournemouth we are leaving at 3am. All I was acutally thinking about was what time I wanted to get to St. Petersburg, instead of the practicalities of getting to the airport for an early flight out. Most of the people that will access this site are Aussie based and will be able to tick off their calenders in excitement and anticipation for Christmas, which is when Ian and I will be home (passing through really). Mum wants to know exactly when, and I told her - Christmas??? The aim is to keep my travel journal regularly updated, rather than using my e-mail address (although I will check it). And where ever possible add photos to really make you jealous of the amazing things we are going to do and see. Please join us on our journey.........................