Trans-Siberian Adventure!

Bag finally arrived

alexhodge — Sun, 19 Oct 2014 15:20:00 GMT

My bag finally arrived at 3.20pm this afternoon!

Travelling home from Vladivostok

alexhodge — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 23:30:00 GMT

The journey back consisted of three planes from Vladivostok to Manchester via Amsterdam.

The first plane I caught was an Aeroflot plane from Vladivostok to Moscow. I was really impressed with it and had plenty of leg room for a 9 hour flight. I managed to watch 4 films, including the Lego film that I've been wanting to see for ages. I think that I was the only foreigner on the plane. The food was very good too and I got two large meals. I also listened to the Verve's 'Urban Hymns' album. It was starnge to think that I was the only person on the plane that had also gone to the same sixth form college as the Verve had!

I then caught a plane from Moscow to Amsterdam. I had a good chat on the plane with both a Dutch consultant working for Phillips who was advising the Russian's on improving their health service, and a German teenager who was at a German school in Russia. I couldn't eat all my food as I was still fairly full from the last flight!

I then finally caught the plane from Amsterdam to Manchester. I was feeling really tired as I had been up for nearly 24 hours! Once I went through passport control I waited to pick up my bag. Unfortunately it did not arrive and I had to fill in a form to state that it had not arrived.

I couldn't believe it when I finally got home!

Vladivostock

alexhodge — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 22:28:00 GMT

Couldn't belive in when we arrived into Vladivostovck and saw the pacific for the first time. However, it felt a bit of an anti-climax to finally get off the train.

When we arrived at our hotel the recipioniost asked where our registrastion papers were. You are supposed to be registered by the Police as soon as you arrive into Russia and this is done normally by the hotel. She asked where we stayed in Irkutsk and she was very surprised that I couldn't remember the name of the hotel. The tour of the city didn't start until 12 noon and this wsas too early to check in.

Our guide arrived at 12 noon and we had a tour of the city and this included visiting a submarine. The weather was so warm and it was strange to think that only a few day before it was so cold. We saw a monument that showed that we were 9233KM from Moscow. Before we saw that a party of Chinese tourists wanted a picture we me and my guide. It was so surreal!! There are loads of Chinese in the city as wer are so near to China.

It was strange being in a car with the steering wheel on the right had side. This is because as Vladivostok is so near to Japan most cars driven in Vladivostock are Japanese.

Had a great meal at a restaurant called 'Nostalgia'. I had the best chocolate cake that I've ever had abroad. I showed the waiter the review of the restaurant in Lonely Planet. He had not seen it before and was really pleased to know that it had been given a great review.

Found a really great supermarket near the hotel and spent time in the evening buying things to take home. I like looking at supermarkets abroad and seeing what is being sold.

Train from Irkutsk to Vladivostock

alexhodge — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 22:38:00 GMT

Monday:

This morning I had to get up very early as we were collected by our driver at 5.10am as the train was leaving Irkutsk station at 6am! On the train I'm with Cyril, who is also travelling to Vladivostock. Currently we have the cabin to ourselves. The cabin is very similar to to other trains that I've been on. It has space for four people on fourth berths. There is space to put bagagge under the bottom berths. The whole carriage is looked after by two carriage attendants and on this train there is man and a woman. They keep the place clean and sell drinks and snacks.

The landscape has changed from the shores of Lake Baikal to open steppe to rocky landscapes to slightly frozen rivers. The snow has come and gone.

The highlight of the day is when the train stops and mopst people get off for a smoke, as you're not supposed to smoke on the train, however I'm sure some do!

Ladies keep on coming up and down the carriage selling smoked omul and red cavier. I didn't get any as I think the cabin would have smelt of nothing else.

I'm glad that that I have basic Russian as the lady from the restaurant car has no English and when she came to ask what we'd like for lunch I wouldn't have understood otherwise. We got the choice of chicken, fish or pasta and I chose the chicken. This came with rice and beetroot.

As on the other trains I have been drinking copious amounts of herbal tea in the enamel mug that I brought from home. The hot water comes from the samovar at the end of the carriage that provides hot water all day.

We seem to be the only foreigners on the train.

Tuesday:

When I went to the restaurant car this morning I founjd out that the it was closed. The reason given was that there were lots of children that needed to be cooked for on the train, but I'm not sure if I believe this story. I had been looking forward to pancakes with jam but had to have a cereal bar and apple instead!

Bought a filled bread roll and picked gherkin from a lady selling food from a pram. She looked likme what I think might have been fish sticks but I'm not sure as I don't have enough Russian to understand what she might have told me!

I think that is is strange that you can cross the train tracks and don't need to use a bridge.

Not much use of personal protective equipment used by a man cutting branches with a chainsaw as I don't think that health and safety legislation has reached Russia yet.

Wednesday:

Today that we have been joined ny two Russians in the cabin! One arrived in the morning but has slept all day. It turned out that he was called Andrei and I think that he worked at his home but I'm not sure what. We had a brief caht, inbetween his rests, through the use of my basic Russian and my dictionary. The other chap was with his mother and sister. He wasn't interested in saying anything.

Irkutsk

alexhodge — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 22:00:00 GMT

Slept well for the best time in ages as the room was not too warm for a change.

Had breakfast of cheese, bread, sliced sausages and pancakes with sour cream and jam.

We were all picked up at 11am by our driver and guide, Helen. We first went to visit of wooden architecure. It consisted mainly of buildings that were saved from being flooded when a hydro-electric dam was to be built next to Lake Baikal. The museum followed the development of siberians towns and villages. I am especiially found fascinating the homes that people lived in.

We had lunch in the museum consisting of soup, chicken with cheese, mashed potato and finished as usual with pancakes. For a change it was served with honey and sour cream as usual. There was a group of school children in the restaurant who seemed fairly interested in our arrival and said to each other that they thought that we couldn't understand any Russian.

After lunch we had a city tour of Irkutsk. Helen told us that her grandfather had been forcibly removed from European Russis in the 1920's and had been sent to Irkutsk. He managed to get a job as a carpenter and then an engineer. Unfortunately at this time Stalin had taken against engineers and so he was put into prison. He then was sent off to war without any weapons and only got a gun when someone was killed in front of hm. He lived until he is was 75.

Martin and Charles were leaving that night to carry on their journey on the Trans-Mogolian railway to Beijing. Before they left we had a walk into the city and got lost on the way. Two ladies helped us find our way to where we wanted to go. One had spent time at University in Prague. She said that she didn't really enjoy her time there as the Czechs as sdtill not keen on the Russians.

We had food in a restaurant called the 'London Pub' another themed British restaurant. They couldn't manage to serve all our food at the same time as they said that they onloy had one cooker and there was too many people that needed to be served food. There was only us and another table eating!

I then bid Martin and Charles farewell onto their new adventure.

Arrival into Irkutsk

alexhodge — Sat, 11 Oct 2014 21:49:00 GMT

Up at 7.30am as had to leave the train at 8.38am. The train arrived earlier and we were met by out guide Helen who came with us to the village that we were staying at 'Lystyvanka'. The village is on the banks of Lake Baikal and this is the deepest lake in the world. Once we arrived at the village we found that we were staying at a very small guesthouse owned by Nikolai and his wife. He doesn't know much English but is very expressive so you can understand what he is saying!

Spent until about 1pm resting and then we went to have a look at the village. There is not much here and had luch of Plov (chicken and rice) and chicken skewers cooked over a bbq. It was good but very greasy!

We carried on walking and we sat and had a drink in a cafe and a peice of cake with two russian ladies who both worked for Mars.

I then walked to the museum about the lake but found that it was about to close.

In the evening went for a meal with Martin at a local restaurant and had the local fish caught in the lake 'Omul' baked with potatoes and cheese. It was really tasty and it was washed down with Russain Baltika beer number 7. There was an English couple sitting on the table behind us and they were the first English people I'd seen all trip. The meal finished with pancakes with melted chocolate and strawberries.

Continuation of second train journey: part 2

alexhodge — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:41:00 GMT

The countryside has changed from silver birch on the steppe, to evergreens to hills. There has been an increase of snow today.

For breakfast, I had a potato pancake and it was similar to a rosti with sour cream. The people in the restuarant car were a bit friendlier than yesterday!

Got out at various stations but there was nothing to buy.

During the day two drunks appeared in our carriage. One said that he was called Alexander and wanted his picture taken with me!

The policeman departed and so it was much quieter than the day before.

The film of the evening was 'Trans, Planes and Automobiles'!

Continuation of second train journey: part 1

alexhodge — Thu, 9 Oct 2014 22:05:00 GMT

Didn't sleep very well but got upo at 9am and decided to go for breakfast in the restaurant car. However, there was nothing on the menu for breakfast and so I thought I'd order rice pudding as there was nothing else that I fanced. However, when it arrived it turned out to a plate of boiled rice and dill!

When we arrived at one station I got out expecting to see people selling food. There was only a cafe, small shop and a small kiosk. I was pursuaded into buying some processed chsees triangles from the kisok.

The rest of the day was spent reading, chatting and looking out of the window.

For lunch we were given borsch, meat, pasta, a bottle of water and a cake.

When we stopped at one station I bought some chocolates with Charles that turned out to be filled with coconut! I'm not keen on coconut at all and so Charles ate them instead. We offered them to the Russian policemen, but they didn't want them either.

I also went mad and bought many filled bread rolls at another station. One I ate the next day tasted like it was filled with fish paste!

In the evening I watched 'Silver Street' on Martin's IPad.

Trip around Yekaterinburg and start of second train journey

alexhodge — Wed, 8 Oct 2014 22:37:00 GMT

After breakfast met our guide Olga who first took us to the Europe and Asia border shaped with an A and an E.It was strange having one foot in each continent!The weather was the same in both continents!!

Following this we went to visit Ganina Yama where the bodies of the last Tsar, his wife and children were initay buried after they were killed.It is now a monastery and is amazing how peaceful it is considering what happened there.We then headed back to the city to visit the church built on the site where the Tsar and family had been shot. Unfortunately we couldn't visit the inside if the church as the relics of a saint from Cyprus had been brought there for a few weeks and people we're queuing hours to see them.The relics are supposed to be ae to bring good monetary fortune to those that pray by them!We then had a quick walk around the city centre and a tour in our minibus.I was surprised that there was still a statue of Lenin but there are no plans to remove this.

I had booked late checkout from the hotel so we had somewhere to wait until we were collected to be taken to the station for our train to Irkutsk. Whist waiting in the afternoon we had food in a Scottish themed pub!

Once on the train it seemed that I was going to be in cabin full of a travelling group of Police volleyball players who were off to a competition somewhere.Once we checked I found that the details on my ticket were different to where I should have been.I think that they were relieved that I was not sharing with them but instead were sharing with the rest of the tour group.

Arrival into Yekaterinburg by train

alexhodge — Tue, 7 Oct 2014 22:30:00 GMT

Didn't sleep too well because of the movement of the train.Had breakfast in the restaurant car of pancakes with sour cream and jam and a bowl of porridge.

The train stopped at a station and I bought a filled bread roll (filled with potatoes) and some apples.I was too full from breakfast to eat the roll there and then!

Spent the rest of the day chatting, reading,eating and I watched the film 'Stir Crazy' on Martin's IPad.

On the last station stop before Yakaterinburg I was pursuaded to buy some cheese triangles from a lady in the platform food kiosk. I'm not very keen on ghese but there was nothing else to buy compared to the previous stop.

Once we arrived in Yekaterinburg we stayed at a very nice Novotel hotel. Had a quick drink and a plate of pelmeni in the bar before off to bed.

Moscow and train to Yekaterinburg

alexhodge — Mon, 6 Oct 2014 22:10:00 GMT

Met Luba our guide after breakfast and took the metro to the Kremlin and first went to the Treasury.This was extremely quiet when we arrived and we had the place to ourselves for a short time. The highlight for me was the Crown of Monmarkh that was used to crown the Tsars until Peter the Great. I've been waiting to see this for years! After this we had a brief look at one of the one of the cathedrals where the Tsars were crowned. It was then onto a brief tour if some of the more interesting stations including ones with bronze statues and an other with mosaics.

It was then time to time to meet our driver who took us to thd train to Yekaterinburg. We stayed in a cabin with four berths, two at the top and two at the bottom. I'm in one of the top bunks. We were all given a box of food including a yogurt, bread roll , strange piece of meat in plastic, water and biscuits. I had a quick chat with the lady who looked after the cabin and bought a glass of tea with lemon from her. I couldn't have much of a conversation as my Russian vocab is somewhat lacking! Before bed I are a bowl of soup in the buffet car. The car was surprisingly empty.

Photos: Trans-Siberian adventure

alexhodge — Sun, 5 Oct 2014 20:43:00 GMT

Photographs of Trans-Siberian adventure

First full day in Russia in Moscow

alexhodge — Sun, 5 Oct 2014 20:40:00 GMT

Had an interesting first full day in Russia today.

After breakfast I walked across the river from my hotel to visit the monastary on the other side. I turned up just as the church service was under way and so I stood at the door and had a quick look before heading back to the hotel.

At the hotel I met our guide for the day,Luba, and the other members of our tour group. Two (or possibly three) will be travelling with me part of the way along the railway. The two who I know will be travelling are called Martin and Charles. They are both off to Beijing and so won't be going to Vladivostok with me. Martin lives part of the time in Essex and part of the time in Thailand and Charles lives in Stockton on Tees. In the rest of the group today there is a couple who are travelling onto St Petersburg after Moscow. The rest include another group who have already been to Vladimir and Suzdal and are going onto Veliky Novgorod. I know Novgorod very well as I lived there for 5 months in 2002. Some of these are from Huyton!

We went via the Moscow Metro (underground) first to Red Square. The highlight of the trip today was the visit to Lenin's tomb. We entered this after walking past the graves of many revolutionaries. We had to keep totally silent in the tomb itself and keep hands out of pockets. It was very strange seeing Lenin and he looked like he was only asleep. After this we came out past more graves including Stalin, Breznev and Yuri Gagarin.Following this we walked across the square to visit St Basil's Cathedral. Last time I visited in 2002 I only saw part of it it this time we managed to see all of it. The morning service had not long finished and he smell of incense was very apparent. It was as beautiful inside as outside.We then went across the square to visit the GUM department store that is full of very expensive shops that I cannot imagine many Russians can afford to shop in. It was then another walk past the eternal flame in memory of the Second World War, and the State Russian Library, prevously known as Lenin Library.

After this it was time for lunch and some of us, including our guide, went to restaurant chain called 'Moo Moo'! I had borsch with sour cream and buckwheat. This all took me back to living here last time.

After lunch a few went back to the hotel and I went off to the Tretyakov art gallery. I had a whistle stop tour before as I didn't have that long before it closed. I got a bit 'iconed out' as there were galleries full of icons!

After this I went back to the hotel, had something to eat and soon I'm going to get ready for the next stage of my journey tomorrow to Yekaterinburg by overnight train. In the morning we go for a tour of the Moscow Metro and the Kremlin. I will only be able to write this blog again when I get to Yekaterinburg as there is no internet connection on the train.

Arrived at Hotel Katerina in Moscow

alexhodge — Sat, 4 Oct 2014 10:37:00 GMT

I've arrived at my hotel in Moscow.The flight to Moscow was delayed by about half an hour and once we arrived there was a scrum to get off the plane! Whilst on the flight I helped the father of the family sitting next me when he was asking for something as he only had very limited English. This was especially the case when the mother and their 1 year old son were asleep and he was trying to ask for a drink of water.

I felt relieved to get through passport control and find my baggage. Then I was on the look out for the driver to take to my hotel. I was surprised that he was not picking up anyone else from the airport. The driver was called Igor and only spoke limited Russian so I couldn't speak for him for long as my limited Russian did not make for a detailed conversation!

It took about 45 ministers to get to the hotel and once I was booked in I asked if I could change some of my dollars. the hotel couldn't do this and the receptionist told me where I could change some money. It took me a while to find it but as the bank had closed I could only take money out by card. I'd left this in my room and so in the meantime went on a magical mystery tour near my hotel and ended up at one of the large railway stations. I then went back to pick up my card and went out to draw some money out.

I'm now in my room and going to have some of the complimentary snacks from the mini bar. Last of the big spenders!

At Manchester airport

alexhodge — Sat, 4 Oct 2014 07:14:00 GMT

Waiting in the lounge for the gate to open for the first leg of my journey to Paris and then to Moscow.