Moscow part 1

day 14
MOSCOW!
arrived at 420am, waited a couple of hours at the station, then taxied to our very central, very accessible, very open hostel. soon enough, showered and changed, we were hungry as hell, so i talked for hours to Steve and Sinead (NZ and Welsh, married), while Dee was on the internet.

finally, we left the hostel, walking to RED SQUARE! Steve, the tour guide, directed us in from the north, definitely, must approach the square from the north. St Basils Cathedral is incredible, as are all the buildings. i was surprised how small the square is, but it's massive, nonetheless.

after lunch, we visited the 7th sister tower on a hill outside central Moscow and, wow, the building is incredible. it's a university, with halls of residence, and a number of lone buildings conjoined into one towering eddifice. built in the wake of the USSR's grand victory over Hitler.

a stroll down the road, and laid out before us (and a few hundred other people) was the city including, directly below, the stadium that hosted the Chelsea v Man Utd UEFA final last month. we counted off the 7 sisters, including the one behind us.

i was finding the city unphotographable. i felt like just buying post cards, cos i needed a helicopter to get a decent angle on the grand structures dotting the landscape. beautiful city, and the subway stations are incredible too. of course, how they financed the entire operation is a bit of a downer.

came back to the hostel, a beer, a chat, then collapsed into bed around midnight

leaving Siberia, morning vodka, and scrabble (of course)

Day 11
woke up, slept, woke up... the warmth of the east was waning, a couple of stops and opportunities to purchase local treats, a pancake filled with what seemed to be sweet cheese and another filled with honey or a caramel sauce. Dee enjoyed them both, but i could hear mysel getting fatter.

the lady sharing our cabin (hers was a top bunk) planted herself on Dee's bunk an seemed content and, after a few hours, got on Dee's nerve (mine too). we finally got control later in the night while we made a tomato, tuna an cucumber sandwich (thanks to the green grocers on the platform at Taiga).

beat Dee at scrabble, 333 points (a record for me)

we were still awake, chatting about prostitution, when the train rolled into Novosibirsk at 2am(ish). too cold, or too tired, or lazy, to jump out for a look. blankets on my bed for the first time.

day 12
BADGER
nothing much all day. our cabin friend left a chewed piece of gum on Dee's bunk which she promptly sat on and somehow restrained herself from going apeshit. wonder what i would've done.

short stops, long waits, timezone changes, turgid scrabble, and Dee was coming to some kind of precipice and dragging me with her. finally, got to Yeketerinburg, got out for a walk with the crowds on the platform, splurged on some water, bread, chocolate and i hoped Dee was turning back...

we'd finally left Siberia (not that the scenery changed much) in the evening, and passed the Asia/Europe obelisk just before midnight to little fanfare (first time i've ever been to Europe).

day 13
in the morning, a man blocked my path at the hot water dispenser holding a bottle of vodka and two glasses. after joining him for a shot, he followed back to our cabin where Dee and i were playing scrabble. another shot down (still before lunch) and i was slightly drunk while he was wasted. he was harrassing our cabin friend, so Dee and i had to boot him out, literally dragging him down the aisle by the wrist. (should i mention i won the scrabble while still slightly drunk?)

at one of the stops, some of the hard men from the carriage split kindling for the carriage attendant. at another 2 minute stop, the vodka guy, who'd disappeared for the afternoon, hopefully sleeping, and the wood splitter held up the train while they stocked up on beer. then an argument over language, culture, importance, and we were 3 hours closer to......

on the move, a break in Siberia, then on the move again

Day 6
Trees trees trees and grass. beat Dee at scrabble.

Grass grass grass plus trees. a few stops but none any longer than 15 minutes or so. lots of food on offer out there.

Beautiful sunset again. we had a pink sky for about an hour! and the trees and forests became misty as dark set in.

lots of abandoned buildings in the process of crumbling or getting close to ruins status. long since used. and the houses are small wooden boxes, like cheaper versions of log cabins. i was literally reminded of Asterix comic books. the cars though, all seem less than 10 years old. oh yeah, the wake up music at 10am nearly blew my ears off. very dance, very rave though. my thoughts went back to Chinese trains and the Kenny G on loop play....

Day 7
sleep and trees and grass and rivers. big big rivers. with ruins. either modern buildings a few decades since being abandoned, or even castle-like behemoth skeletons overlooking those rivers. Dee bought us some nice food at one of the stops and befriended a couple of railway workers sharing our carriage.

they spoke very little, or no English, so they enlisted Anya, one door from us, to help translate. she was a little shy at first, but for no reason. very capable of english conversation. she lives in Chita with her husband, and she's a railway engineer. the two men also worked for the railway, although i couldn't figure out what they did. perhaps they drove trains? no idea.

soon enough though, having knocked back a few shots of Vodka, the boys started hitting on Dee, so we retired back to our cabin which had a slight smell of BO. settled in for the "night", although the sun went down around 11pm and it was still light at midnight.

Day 7
a fairly strong version of body odour woke me up. i'm certain it wasn't me, but rather from our cabin mates in the bunks below. an older couple who hadn't left their beds for 2 days. a short stop in Ulan Ude and our ever-increasingly friendly carriage attendant pointed the way to a photo opportunity with BEARS!! (carved from wood).

around Lake Baikal (wikipedia or google, people, it's very impressive), we were treated to incredible scenery: snow capped peaks, clear, clear lake water. Dee cleaned a window, pissing off the afore mentioned friendly attendant when she saw the colour of her previously white towel. made for great pics. Dee then scored 332 in scrabble!!!

and then, we arrived in Irkutsk, and, under the boiling evening sun, drama!

ticket sellers wouldn't sell us anything so we finally went to the "service" centre, where we were sold the wrong tickets, despite our very clear instructions!!! when we tried to change them, they closed in my face, saying "tomorrow". ARRRRRRR!

afer a few minutes to an hour of phone calls, most of that time being dedicated to finding a phone, we found a fantastic hostel. very lucky.

then i almost broke the washing maching because i don't listen...

Days 8 & 9
drama at the train station became a slightly expensive lesson in frustrating Russian logic as their mistake cost us money. but we spent the day chatting to other travellers, learnt a bit about Siberia from Alena, the hostel captain, and had a walk around town.

next day, we woke up too early due to failing the timezone change on my alarm clock! yet we still missed the bus to Lake Baikal. took a faster mini-cab, which was still quite cheap, and arrived at Listvyanka, a small town by the freezing cold water!!! we had a walk along the shore, then went to a small cafe to hide from the icey wind. a man made a rice risotto thing over a coal fire outside, so we had a feed of that, followed by sunbathing as the day heated up, then a speedy ride back to Irkutsk.

we got a little lost at the bus station, then had an argument with a German mechanical engineer in the oil industry over a beer at the local pizza restaurant (no, we didn't argue oil).

Day 10
finally, a sleep in, and no electricity at the hostel. cruised through the day, met some very beautiful and friendly Finnish girls, then found a www cafe. went to the train station in time to wait stressfully for our very late (by 15 - 20 minutes) ride to Moscow.

we gave up waiting in the station and headed to a/the platform. made it to our lower bunks, saw half of China disembark, then we left Irkutsk, Dee kicked my ass at scrabble, and that was another day as the sun kind of sunk below the horizon, but the sky was still a dark shade of blue

from Samcheon Po to Vladivostok's train station!!!

Day 1
walked out of my apartment, left Samcheon-po feeling a little depressed, but after seeing a Korean Air flight take off from Sacheon city (30 mins later), i was smailing with gay abandon all the way to Busan. Joined Dee on the beach, great swim, then to Kyungsang for a final night of drinks with Brian and company.

Day 2
the bus to Sokcho!
largely uneventful 6 and a bit hours ride. we ate Gamjatang (pork meat soup, yummy!) for dindins! scoped out the small city of Sokcho, and thought, woah, it's another Korean city.....

Day 3
went to the ferry terminal for our tickets, and once i got back, Dee's hotel room, or more precisely, her bags and possessions, were in complete disarray. i left her to it, hoping she'd sort herself out in time, and of course, she did. made our boat in the early afternoon, met Gary, of Australia, who is motorcycling from Vietnam to Italy via Spain!!! We also met a Spanish nun who lives in Vladivostok, plus a woman from Kazhakstan who lives in Korea, off to visit her brothers in Vlad.

the boat was relatively calm, rocking and vibrating constantly. i only felt queezy during the scrabble loss to Dee (and thereafter seeing and smelling the Korean men who were doing shots of soju in groups of 10 or more.

Day 4
woke up the next morning as we were docking at Zarabino (i defy you to find that on any map anywhere), and found it to consist of 2 sheds, a road, and a boat (ours). after a few hours waiting onboard, we finally made it through border control to an awaiting bus with an old driver with gold teeth (lots of golden smiles greeted us). the bus took us to customs and once the old dog got out of the way, we filed off the bus, into the building, through the turnstyle, outside and grabbed our bags off the bus again... i'm not joking! it was a 30 second transition.

walked to a street corner nearby to wait for a bus to Vladivostok, taxis being offered at high rates, but we were offered a ride by Mr Ham, of Sokcho, and Sergei Han, a Kazhakstani Korean, car salesmen shifting a car to Vlad from the ferry. a couple more hours waiting, goats feeding on the street corner, then the car cleard the customs turnstyle, and we were on the "road", most of it being roadWORKS (but most of it was perfectly okay).

the area south of Vladivostok is very beautiful countryside dotted with old houses, abandoned buildings, and trees, glorious trees! and a snake! at least 1.5m long! didn't expect snakes in Russia!!!

next, we stopped for dinner (it was around 5pm) and Dee and i made our first meal in Russia BORSCH! delicious. Mr Ham paid for, and after a little wait, we were transfered to Aleksanders car. Sergei refused any money for fuel (and looked insulted when we offered). then we hit the road again, seeing a MiG fighter jet land over the top of us! 30 minutes of high energy driving from Aleksander (an obvious fan of Gotham Racing), we were at our hotel, and in desperate need of some rubles!!!

Day 5
i wish i had a 4WD!! Vladivostokians used to wish that too. Beuatiful day, started late after a sleep in, changed money with the only slightly dodgey looking people sitting in deck chairs outside the bank, then bought our train tickets.

what a wait! we spoke no Russian, yet still took less time than most people ahead of us in the queue. after a high 5 with Dee in a successful tickets purchase celebration, the locals were all laughing, or at least, smiling. we'ed served as entertainment for a few minutes. Then, a walk to the beach, enjoyed the view (at which point, i shall refrain from mentioning the extremely attractive women populating the city, or more precisely, the waterfront ;) and to a monument nearby.

while waiting for Dee in the hotel lobby, maybe i should've wished for pointy toed shoes too.

we made it to the train, lots of tearful goodbyes on the platform from the locals (for other Russian people, not us), while i chatted to Lena, a lawyer/economist from Vlad, off to visit her parents a few hours away. As we left the station, the boys next door broke out a guitar for a sing, but soon enough, it was just the rocking and rolling of the train, and an unbelievable sunset.

all heads west (well, the first 12 hours were mainly north)