Darren weblog

Arrived into Moscow this morning c. 10.00am. The train journey was interesting and turned out to be a sleeper train, so we got to experience the Trans Sib train a little earlier than expected.

We were in a shared cabin with two Russains – a youngish guy and a women in her late 40′s / early 50′s. They were both nice and put us to shame with our ability to speak Russian – when they asked how much Russian we knew – our reply was two words – hi “privyet” and thanks “spasiba”! Anyway the journey turned out ok – Irene (the Russian lady) snored all night and the guy (cant remember his name) drank himself to sleep. Have to say I am so pleased we have booked ourselves on first class for the longer journeys!

Moscow is a lot more European than we expected; the weather is amazing too- sunny and really warm – just what I’ve been waiting for! It certainly doesn’t fit with the stereotypical view I had of Moscow (i.e. freezing cold, fur hats and coats!)

So excited to be sleeping in a proper (double) bed tonight!! Ow with air con – the extremes we are going to!!

Kx

so today we leave St Petersburg and move onto Moscow – one step closer to the TransSib and hopefully once in Moscow we will get our Mongolian visas, otherwise we are screwed! Yupp – I read somewhere you get the Mongolian visas at the boarder, but it turns out that is only at the airport not the railway station – doh! However, to their credit, Monkey Business have been awesome and have begun the application process for us and hopefully the consulate in Moscow will issue them to us – fingers crossed!

SP has been interesting – for all its history, wealth and impressive architecture, it is still quite a poor place, so god knows how people have fun when its over 4 quid a pint. But we actually have a theory on that – people basically get pissed on the streets. Little newsagent stores sell beer at a fraction of the bar prices so it is VERY common for people to be either a) walking down the street drinking, b) sat on park bench’s drinking or, most commonly, c) sat around the kiosks drinking in groups!

Thanks for Pete’s parents we got to see the main museums of SP for free and without queuing which was greatly appreciated. The Hermitage was amazing – over 3m pieces of art which I am told if you spent 30seconds on each would take you 11 years! Given we only had 4 hours, we choose carefully!

The Tsar’s also have a thing about fountains (check our the photo’s) and we made a trip to Petrodvorets one way by ferry and back by local buses & metro – check us travellers out! There also seems to be a popular tradition in SP for all brides to have there photo taken in town – so there you are getting a tourist photo and so are another half dozen brides! At first you think they are doing something special, then you realise they all do it – how they don’t have other bridges in the background of the there photo’s is unbelievable!

All in all SP has been great, other than I have been eaten alive my mosquitoes (honestly!), I have thoroughly enjoyed SP. To finish our time here we are off to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood and maybe a boat trip around the SP canals. We then board the train at midnight tonight (Sunday) to Moscow for a 9.30 arrival.

Photo’s form SP are up, can’t get them to insert in here, may try again later!

bye for now, Dan & Karen x

The bus journey from Tallinn was spot on getting us into St Petersburg early yesterday afternoon. We arrived into a completely different station, which threw us somewhat; probably more so me than Dan, however after some “ow lord I don’t understand anything!! Arrgghh!” we managed to get some cash, get a metro card and find our way into the city centre. I am particularly proud of making it to the hostel which took us about an hour after the metro stop and involved carrying our bags on our back all the way (no wheeling – well done me!)

We met up with DJ Pete’s Mum and Dad today, who were a god send, thanks so much Pete, Marianna and Pavil. We were able to get some wise directions and were very lucky to even got into the Hermitage for free – thanks again. The Hermitage certainly gives the Louvre a run for its money!

Unbelievable, on the St Petersburg bus at 05:45 this morning only to notice all the instructions for the on-board free wifi! This post, the Tallinn post and the new pictures for Tallinn are proof it works, so GNER, sorry, National Express – take note, get it sorted, wifi on the move is possible!

ps: onboard wifi has also enabled us to apply for the Mongolian visa’s I forgot to do before we left – doh!