Training

A four night trip from Moscow to Irkutsk, sharing the coupe with Ruth and Wendy, both experienced travellers ... although everyone else in the group is as well, now that I think of it.




Several stops each day, although only two or three when it is long enough to get out and purchase food from kind women selling on the platform, sometimes clearly local produce ... cucumbers, tomatoes, roast chicken ... other times the usual water, beer etc.




Sometimes the competition for boiled potatoes with dill or for hardboiled eggs can get a wee bit fierce, leading to minor gloating by the successful hunter/gatherer.




People fall easily into their natural roles: drug provider, delinquent, upstairs maid, industrial accident, talent spotting supervisor etc.




Outside of the activities associated with these roles, a variety of recreational options are available, including competitive appliance charging, chess (Russia 11.5, England 5, New Zealand 2.5), bridge (when cheat sheet provided) and the increasingly international games of 500, Revolution etc.




More extreme sports include being scared by trains going past and playing spot the birch. Harry Potter made a welcome appearance, at least for those who could share earphones; how could we forget to take a splitter.


- Posted at another Starbucks, probably.

Moving on, Moscow

Two days in Moscow were more memorable for the metro, accommodation and for Maria, our unofficial guide, sent to improve Russo-Canadian relations after that nasty Starbucks incident. Also complete lack of wifi, despite expensive coffees. More exposure to canteen-style restaurants.




Off for the hard core train travel, via three metro stations. Yes, individual artistic decoration evident ....








Such a trip requires both careful planning ...




... and cautious imbibing of drinks. Little did anyone suspect that the trial by hot tea was only hours away.





The scenery from the train was fabulous, every changing. Apparently there were birches.








- Posted from Xi An Starbucks, probably

Red square, multicolored hair

So: Red Square has nothing to do with bolshevism, but just refers to the positive colour; the kremlin is a generic term, not to do with Moscow -- although admittedly echoes 'The Palace' rather than 'Downing St' -- and the Romanovs sent people into labour camps and exile in Siberia (which incidentally isn't the east of the country but the middle and which never had serfs, unlike European Russia) ...

These are all things Andrew would had told us if we weren't constantly quizzing hIm on when we could get laundry done, where the nearest ATM was, could we put the toilet paper into these toilets, and in fact where was the toilet paper ...




Fortunately Russia was a series of weddings. Members of our group appear in only a minority of photos of these events.




Vladimir Illyich appeared unwell upon our visit. The current President was not at work when we respectfully paid a whistle-stop visit to his offices. But there were a fine harvest of tourist groups visiting the Kremlin, discovering far more about the country's imperial past than about the past century ...



















And now for Liz's next trip ...


- Posted when wifi permits, rather rarely at the moment ...

Moscow

From Suzdal by van and then bus from Vladimir to Moscow, and a serious lug of luggage via fairly busy metro using three different lines to our home stay. Yes, Moscow metro decorations impressive but your focus is elsewhere in the crush of the moment ... A quick visit to Red Square to get our bearings, then dinner together at a cafeteria style restaurant.












One disadvantage of group travel is that you focus on following rather than finding out your own way. Missing Nevsky Prospekt!

Our home stay is a multi room flat, in which a family of up to five squeeze up to fit in half a dozen tourists, adding a couple of extra toilets to meet the need.

Tonight pickled cucumbers, the next day pickled Lenin.


- Posted from Beijing

Suzdal, by the see

It appears that a number of pieces we uploaded from Lystavanka have disappeared into cyberspace and appear neither on blogspot nor on our iPad. Sorry about that ... They were mostly about St P but also included our meeting up with our TransSiberian Express group when we moved hotels.

It has turned out a very good group -- the Australians are mostly teachers, one Canadian principal, a couple of students and their parents from the UK via Germany. Our leader Andrew hails from NZ, and has done the trip a few times but mostly works in Borneo.

First part of the trip was overnight train ... our first go in the 2nd class coupes (two sets of bunks) that we'll use for the rest of the trip. Began the acclimatization process and development of the routines that will serve us so well in the months of small group travel to come (ie always interrupt the group leader, need to be told things three times, quote Lonely Planet guides to resolve misunderstanding, develop great tolerance for others' travel anecdotes etc).

Early arrival at Suzdal.




Suzdal is one of a number of early Russian capitals, preceding Moscow and St Petersburg, and is now pretty small but with lots of churches and cathedrals. Mediaeval Russian cities were based around the central fortified kremlin, including cathedral, dwelling for metropolitan etc, and Suzdal was apparently also further defended by a ring of outlying fortified and guarded monasteries.




So from the Kremlin museum buildings you can see onion domes in all directions ... quite a lot of which seem to have been cathedrals at one time or another




We had breakfast in a local home after checking into our hotel and some initial exploration. Then a guided tour around the main parts of the old town, including museums etc.










We visited an historical display of Siberian peasant housing -- and of course churches, but everything in wood -- then back to Elena's for dinner and impromptu dancing...








- Posted from China. How far behind we are!

Croydon by night

A late night/white night river cruise also gave us an example of tourist-funded hooning on the water.

Each midnight in the summer the canal cruise boats take out to the River Neva to watch the various bridges across being raised to allow the large ships to navigate the river.

As there are several bridges being raised in turn, this generates much macho if relatively pointless jockeying for position to obtain the best views of this rather modest spectacle for the enthralled thousands of tourists.

See evidence below. Another one of those quite fun things you wouldn't get around to doing in your own town.










- Posted when wifi permits

St Petersburg: a fortress and a Russian retrospective

The final places visited in St Petersburg were the Fortress of St Peter and St Paul, essentially the fortified island on the mouth of the River Neva where Tsar Peter I first settled; and the Russian Museum.

The Fortress is the kremlin of St P, and as such contains a mix of military buildings, official residences and cathedrals, including one that contains the tombs of the Romanovs, including those killed in 1917 and at least one pretender (these put in place quite recently).


















Hot day, waiting for the bus in whatever shade there is ...

The Russian museum -- in another palace -- contains works of Russian artists from early icons on, together with some crafts.








Our search for a new jigsaw was finally over ...





Sent some postcards yesterday, and very relieved to have uploaded a few missives at last.


- Posted when wifi permits