Holy Freaking Crap, I'm Still In Russia!
Yes, it really is that surreal.
I need to write this post quickly since there's no timer at this internet cafe - I'll do my best.
Since I last left you at the Hotel St Petersburg where I last updated two days ago, quite a bit has happened actually. First and foremost I met up with my tour group from the Imaginative Traveller. I'll be travelling with them from St Petersburg to Beijing. My tour guide, Laziz is an Uzbek fella who speaks no less than 8 languages. The really impressive part in my mind is that they have very diverse alphabets - everything from English, Chinese, Mongolian, Russian, Uzbek, Persian and a few others. Truly remarkable considering that I only speak English and a little French (and I sound like a dyslexic St Bernard when I speak French)
After meeting up with the group on Wednesday evening, we all went out to dinner at an authentic Russian restaurant where I got some Solyanka (pickle and pork soup) and some fish. It seems to me that Russian food is centered around a bit of a sour taste. Nothing overpowering, but everything from the Bread to the soup has a hint of it. It's not my favorite but I'm sure I'll dreaming about it when I have nothing but Mutton to eat in Mongolia.
I also met up with my roommate for the trip, Steve from NewCastle England. Steve has been travelling around Europe for the past month, mostly through Scandinavia by ferry. Other than Steve the group consists of a married couple from Luxembourg, a married couple from New Zealand, a married couple where he's English and she's an Aussie (met travelling in South America, eloped in Las Vegas), a pair of Belgian guys, a Dutch girl, and an older English woman. Quite the mix, and yes, I am the only American.
After dinner I went to bed and the next morning was to see St Petersburg. Steve, the two Belgians and I decided that we would stick together for the first day and go see the Hermitage. Before that we went to see the Church of the Resurection or the Churched of the Savior of the Spilled Blood (both names are accepted). Its a truly Russian sort of monument complete with frescos and gold onion domes.
After the church, we went to the Tsars Winter Palace, which is home to the Hermitage. Since it was the first Thursday of the month, entrance was free! It was definitly the most impressive museum I had ever seen, and also the one with the most lax security. First of all, the museum has over 400 rooms, each with a breathtaking display. On top of that, there are a number of rooms that are preserved to appear as they did in the day of the Tsars. The throne room, and the chandalier rooms are especially impressive.
After the Hermitage we got some lunch at a little cafe nearby. Steve had been told by some travellers that the best way to order food in Russia is to get the so called "business lunch" which is just the daily special. For 150 roubles apiece we got soup, and a main course of fish and potatoes. It all felt very Russian, and for a little more than $5 a bargain as well.
After lunch we saw St. Isaacs Cathedral and took a long walk back to the hotel along the river. It was really really beautiful. The architecture in Russia is very unique, with all the buildings painted some sort of pastel color, and largely unadorned buildings excepted for elaborate molding around the windows and tops of the buildings.
After walking around for 8 hours, I decided it was time to go back to the hotel and meet up wtih the others. We sat around and talked for a while before it was time to get on our overnight train to Moscow! The tour had arranged a minibus to take us to the train station.
The train was comfortable enough. We were in 4 person berths where it was me, Steve, Pat and Hanna (the brit and aussie who got married in vegas). Sleeping was suprisingly easy, but we were all really exhausted from touring around St Petersburg.
Once we got into Moscow we transfered to our hotel. if I thought the last one was big - this one is just enormous. It's actually one of the buildings that was built for the 1980 Olympic village. (you know, the one we boycotted?). Once we all got freshened up in our rooms it was time to head into town.
Today, I stood in Red Square. Red Square! It's really weird to think that I was standing in a spot so infamous in the West as epitomizing our ideological opposite. I also took at look at St Basil's which is another big onion dome church type deal, and some walking around the Kremlin. At 3 oclock, I spent the $40 and took a 3 hour guided tour of the Kremlin with 4 others from my group. The old buildings inside the Kremlin were built by the Tsar's and there are some really incredible Orthodox churches, as well as government buildings and sights such as the world's largest cannon.
Included in our tour of the Kremlin was a tour of the Armory, which is where the store the treasures of the Russian Federation. This included not only a ton of really impressive jewelery, the Tsar's clothing (incredible!), and about a dozen of their old coaches, but they had an entire of display of real faberge eggs! There's only about 40 real faberge eggs in the world, and all the hype is completely deserved.
Tomorrow I'm going to get up early and go see Lenin, the man himself - embalmed and kept on display in Red Square. creepy to the max. can't wait!
Regards,
Andrew
I need to write this post quickly since there's no timer at this internet cafe - I'll do my best.
Since I last left you at the Hotel St Petersburg where I last updated two days ago, quite a bit has happened actually. First and foremost I met up with my tour group from the Imaginative Traveller. I'll be travelling with them from St Petersburg to Beijing. My tour guide, Laziz is an Uzbek fella who speaks no less than 8 languages. The really impressive part in my mind is that they have very diverse alphabets - everything from English, Chinese, Mongolian, Russian, Uzbek, Persian and a few others. Truly remarkable considering that I only speak English and a little French (and I sound like a dyslexic St Bernard when I speak French)
After meeting up with the group on Wednesday evening, we all went out to dinner at an authentic Russian restaurant where I got some Solyanka (pickle and pork soup) and some fish. It seems to me that Russian food is centered around a bit of a sour taste. Nothing overpowering, but everything from the Bread to the soup has a hint of it. It's not my favorite but I'm sure I'll dreaming about it when I have nothing but Mutton to eat in Mongolia.
I also met up with my roommate for the trip, Steve from NewCastle England. Steve has been travelling around Europe for the past month, mostly through Scandinavia by ferry. Other than Steve the group consists of a married couple from Luxembourg, a married couple from New Zealand, a married couple where he's English and she's an Aussie (met travelling in South America, eloped in Las Vegas), a pair of Belgian guys, a Dutch girl, and an older English woman. Quite the mix, and yes, I am the only American.
After dinner I went to bed and the next morning was to see St Petersburg. Steve, the two Belgians and I decided that we would stick together for the first day and go see the Hermitage. Before that we went to see the Church of the Resurection or the Churched of the Savior of the Spilled Blood (both names are accepted). Its a truly Russian sort of monument complete with frescos and gold onion domes.
After the church, we went to the Tsars Winter Palace, which is home to the Hermitage. Since it was the first Thursday of the month, entrance was free! It was definitly the most impressive museum I had ever seen, and also the one with the most lax security. First of all, the museum has over 400 rooms, each with a breathtaking display. On top of that, there are a number of rooms that are preserved to appear as they did in the day of the Tsars. The throne room, and the chandalier rooms are especially impressive.
After the Hermitage we got some lunch at a little cafe nearby. Steve had been told by some travellers that the best way to order food in Russia is to get the so called "business lunch" which is just the daily special. For 150 roubles apiece we got soup, and a main course of fish and potatoes. It all felt very Russian, and for a little more than $5 a bargain as well.
After lunch we saw St. Isaacs Cathedral and took a long walk back to the hotel along the river. It was really really beautiful. The architecture in Russia is very unique, with all the buildings painted some sort of pastel color, and largely unadorned buildings excepted for elaborate molding around the windows and tops of the buildings.
After walking around for 8 hours, I decided it was time to go back to the hotel and meet up wtih the others. We sat around and talked for a while before it was time to get on our overnight train to Moscow! The tour had arranged a minibus to take us to the train station.
The train was comfortable enough. We were in 4 person berths where it was me, Steve, Pat and Hanna (the brit and aussie who got married in vegas). Sleeping was suprisingly easy, but we were all really exhausted from touring around St Petersburg.
Once we got into Moscow we transfered to our hotel. if I thought the last one was big - this one is just enormous. It's actually one of the buildings that was built for the 1980 Olympic village. (you know, the one we boycotted?). Once we all got freshened up in our rooms it was time to head into town.
Today, I stood in Red Square. Red Square! It's really weird to think that I was standing in a spot so infamous in the West as epitomizing our ideological opposite. I also took at look at St Basil's which is another big onion dome church type deal, and some walking around the Kremlin. At 3 oclock, I spent the $40 and took a 3 hour guided tour of the Kremlin with 4 others from my group. The old buildings inside the Kremlin were built by the Tsar's and there are some really incredible Orthodox churches, as well as government buildings and sights such as the world's largest cannon.
Included in our tour of the Kremlin was a tour of the Armory, which is where the store the treasures of the Russian Federation. This included not only a ton of really impressive jewelery, the Tsar's clothing (incredible!), and about a dozen of their old coaches, but they had an entire of display of real faberge eggs! There's only about 40 real faberge eggs in the world, and all the hype is completely deserved.
Tomorrow I'm going to get up early and go see Lenin, the man himself - embalmed and kept on display in Red Square. creepy to the max. can't wait!
Regards,
Andrew
posted by Andrew at
2:06 AM
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