Moscow - the first night

After finally getting off the train and managing the cab ride to the hostel, we climbed four flights of stairs to the Napolean Hostel. (Located in the building that Napolean actually stayed in when he was in Moscow.) Immediately inside the door to the hostel, guests are greeted by a wall full of old soviet propaganda posters.

We piled into the ten-room beds, showered (after four days on the train we needed it) and set out to do a little exploring for the evening.

Our hostel is located in a really neat part of Moscow and it was fun to walk through the stone streets and see the old buildings. Unfortunately, I don't have any really good pictures of these buildings right now, but here are some funny things we saw during our walk.

We first made our way to Red Square where we saw thousands of Russian military troops. We're not sure exactly why they're in town, but between Yeltsin's death, May day and the Russian national holiday on May 9th, we're in for tons of festivities.

It was really awesome to see them marching so perfectly in sync and in such huge numbers. They also sang/chanted what seemed to be the Russia national anthem - or some sort of patriotic song as they walked. I managed to get a video of that and it was quite amazing!

After crossing the river, we made our way to Sculpture park. This park was recommended by Ben, the Australian I met in Irkutsk. He really enjoyed it and suggested we check it out. We also had the task of adding his "modern art sculpture" to those already there. Jasmin and I didn't find the park quite as impressive as he did, but we did accomplish our task. Here I am with Ben's "sculpture" and the Pinnochio sculpture in the park.

Outside sculpture park was a giant statue of Peter the Great. Supposedly Moscow Russians don't really like it. A Russian friend of Ryan's told him that it was originally designed to be Christopher Columbus as a gift for America. But, America didn't want it (or maybe it was the cold war) and so they re-did the head/face and put it up in Moscow as Peter. I have no idea how much truth there is to this story, but it is interesting regardless. I like the statue.

Our last stop of the evening was Gorky Park. Ryan was very excited about going there because he read a book entitled "Gorky Park" in middle school and had promised himself that if he ever made it to Moscow that he would visit. And there we were. It had gotten a little chilly, so we didn't stay long, but we did have pizza and beer and enjoyed people watching for a while.

the entrance to Gorky Park

On the way home, I used the Moscow Subway (Metro) for the first time. What an amazing maze of tunnels deep below the city. The escalators are extremely tall and the tunnels are long. But, the metro can get you anywhere!

Moscow from a Cab

I call it.... "My first glimpse of Moscow - from a taxi"

It is my best work.

Ok, it's not my best work.

Those opening lines are dedicated to Ben after his terrible Russian customs ordeal and because he made me laugh for two days solid! :)

Here are a couple of pictures from my first moments in Moscow, Russia.

street tram

beautiful architecture

Pamela's world presence

a view of the buildings through the traffic

wow - five people have a lot of bags

the real trans-siberian

Well, the journey has finally come and passed. I just finished four days of straight travel on THE trans-siberian Railroad. What a neat experience, though I must say that I am very happy to be off the train (and showered).

This trip, I booked a seat/bed in the third class cabin. I had no idea what that meant when I booked it - only that it was the least expensive and that I would have a bed. Actually, it ended up being pretty neat. The third class car is very open and crammed full with as many bunks as possible.

Unfortunately, I had a top bunk and in third class the top bunk is VERY cramped. I couldn't sit up at all, so had to lie down to sleep or read when I was in my actual assigned bunk.

People tended to congrigate in the isles and on each others bunks. My particular car had about 20 young Russian army guys and they acted like they owned the place.

The first day, the lady below me was really wonderful. She was sweet and always moved over so that I could sit down there (as everyone SHOULD have done). I also met a neat girl the first evening who spoke perfect English. She was studying linguistics at the university in Irkutsk and was traveling home for a visit...with her cat! What a sight it was to see her in her bunk with the beautiful feline loungin on top of her!

The second day I wasn't as luck. The second girl was a really sour puss and felt the need to sleep and stretch out on the bottom bunk all day and night, so I had nowhere to sit.

Fortunately for me, Jasmin had booked a first class cabin, so I was able to spend quite a bit of time hanging out with her there. What a difference!

We spent a lot of time eating, reading, eating, chatting, eating and napping. I think we both gained about 2 Kg during this trip! (Boy does Russia have good chocolate - and so many kinds!)

And in between our snacking, we had some really neat views out of the train. It was especially interesting when we'd go through a village or town as the countryside got a little monotonous.

Near the end of our journey, the windows were really dirty, so sometimes there was a ghost/ added bonus in the pictures. Here's Jasmin with a grinning face.

And the dirty windows didn't keep us from seeing the Eur-Asia marker in the Ural mountains that marked the line between continents. Here it is:

Impressive, huh?

Jasmin and I also connected with three guys who were traveling the same route from Irkutsk to Moscow. Ryan, from Canada, is making a trip around the world by surface only (no flight). He's "train-ed" "bus-ed" biked and sailed for the last 18 months from Toronto to Moscow (to see his blog, click here). He, Andrew (English) and San (Korean) often came down to hang out in Jasmin's compartment

San, Ryan and Andrew join Jasmin in first class

Or we'd all head down to the dining car to get some food (of course) and chat.

San places an order with the leopard print clad waitress

Andrew got his "sandwich"

How much did you pay for that?

Of course, we didn't always hang out only with ourselves. It is such a highlight to meet local people. Fortunately, Jasmin had one compartment-mate who spoke English and was very friendly. She worked for Pepsi (a strange, but funny, coincidence is that the lady before her had worked for Coke!) and had a bunch of really fun co-workers with her. They were traveling for business, but definately had time for fun on their 24 hour train ride.

It all started when Jasmin agreed to go out for a cigarette break with a couple of them.

After that, about eight of us crammed into Jasmin and Nadia's compartment for talking joking (and, of course, translating). Jasmin and I both got a Lays potato chip pen with a slogan in Russian and we all had a great time.

What a neat trip!

Now we're in Moscow for a couple of days. More to come on that...

Stay tuned.

Listvyanka and Lake Baikal

After arriving in Irkutsk, I was not sure how long I would stay. I knew I wanted to see the lake and thought I'd probably do it in a day trip and then continue on my way towards Moscow. However, these plans changed even before they had really been made.

At the Baikaler hostel which was recommended by a fellow traveler in Ulaan Baatar, I met up with Jasmin (Switzerland/ New Zealand) Paul (Switzerland) and Ben (Australia). We were all traveling solo and decided to hook up to take an overnight trip down to Lake Baikal. Another Australian couple staying at the hostel recommended a place in Listvianka. Listvianka is a small town on Lake Baikal and about an hour drive from Irkutsk. It is a really cute, quaint little fishing village.



They had found the place by accident when the guesthouse recommended by our hostel in Irkutsk was full. What a perfect find.

We ended up staying in a small log cabin house owned by a lade in the village. It had three bedrooms with a fireplace/stove in the center that heated the entire house. Here it is:

our cute little cabin

The day we arrived, we spent the day walking along the frozen shore of the lake. It was a really interesting mix of people that led to good conversation, much laughter and tons of fun!

the frozen lake

standing on a lake is cool!

Ben likes to jump into pictures

Don't jump Ben!

trying (but failing) to break through the ice

At lunchtime we went to the local market and bought both steamed and dried fish (yum!) as well as some souvenirs.

Fish for sale

anyone want a babushka

After lunch we headed up to the lookout point. Since it was Sunday there were hundreds of people (mostly Russians from "town") who had come to the lake for the weekend. We lucked out and stumbled upon a Russian man with a great talent for guitar playing and Russian folk songs. I sat entranced for about an hour and we continued to pay him to play. What an incredible voice!

my musical heart-throb of the day

That evening we'd arranged with the lady who owned the cabin for a sauna and home cooked dinner. We'd asked if she'd let us pay her to cook us a Russian dinner and she's suggested the sauna. We agreed to both and all parties came out of the deal happy.

Ben and Jasmin in the sauna

Dinner is served!

Paul, Jasmin, Emily and Ben at dinner in Babushka's house

(I just HAD to give her a hug for this wonderful meal!)

The rest of the evening we spent sitting around the central stove sipping wine and talking. The stove actually managed to heat the house for the entire night. How wonderful it is to snuggle deep into a bed! (And to be somewhere that has soft beds!)

The next morning we walked a bit more around the shore and then Paul and I headed off to the Lake Baikal museum. We didn't really have enough time, but what we did learn was quite interesting.