So we're leaving to get on the trans siberian train now to mongolia and will unfortunately not be able to update you with anything untill we get to beijing which is the 26th of february.
I know, what the hell are you going to do without us? but its fun because we will have many stories of mongolian smugglers and what not. Should be a blast
Wish us luck! See you on the other side
xxx
p.s mums and dads- we've stocked up on porridge noodles and biscuits, no worries
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Mustache Man
20 million people live in Moscow, meaning public transportation is very popular. It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon and the underground was jam packed with people. We've all heard about how they treat people in Japan and push them onto the trains, this was exactly what it was like. We board the train by walking at a normal pace and suddenly out of nowhere get shoved at the speed of light into the opposite side. I landed face to face with a fat russian man wearing a fur coat. His mustache was almost tickling my nose as I was praying to god he wouldn't burp in my face. Not one of the most pleasant experiences as we were stuck like this for ten minutes. Disembarking was also crazy as everyone is in such a rush and frantic to get out before the doors close (the drivers don't care if people are boarding at the time, if they want to go they go). I was facing the wrong way so got shoved (more like carried) by the crowd and almost fell into the crack between the train and the platform. I managed to grab hold of Hannas jacket and keep myself upright, although nearly ripping her coat off in the process- literally. All in all an interesting experience.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Vodka, Pancakes and Baboushka Dolls
Last night we got a maximum of two hours sleep. Jason snored like nothing I have ever heard before! It was HORRIFIC! He sounded like a lawnmower on crack, ear plugs didnt help at all. Im surprised he didnt wake himself up. I was contemplating suffocating him with my pillow and Hanna dreamt I threw a boot in his face. He would definitely have deserved it.
We met our lovely honcho Marina, a 23 year old Russian girl with a twin sister. We were expecting a 2 metre tall bearded man so we were pleasantly surprised. She took us for breakfast at a local cafe. Hanna and I ordered pancakes (the only edible thing on the menu), BIG mistake. They were stuffed with cottage cheese and jam. Disgusting combination of savoury and sweet, as well as a long black russian hair placed nicely on my plate. The tea we drank tasted as though it was made from a sweaty old sock. 99 reubels and no breakfast later we set off for the local flea market. Here we were forced to buy baboushka dolls by angry russian locals. There were some fur hat salesmen offering free things for kisses. We declined seeing as they had no teeth. There was also a lovely collection of animal rugs made of wolf with the head still attached. Hanna bought one for her Mum- hopefully the swedish customs wont confiscate it on the way home.
By this time we were starving and walking zombies from the lack of sleep but nonetheless we set off towards the wooden kremlin. This was beautiful and built in 2003. Here we visited the Vodka Museum. Now we are professionals on how vodka is made and the russian history behind their traditional drink. We were all offered a shot of local vodka, perfect since we had not eaten anything and felt like death. The day was looking up as I tripped over a table, the vodka went straight to my head.
After this we headed to the revolution museum. (Still no food) This was not something either of us was in the mood for but we followed our group and thought it would be a speedy visit. Quite the opposite. I have visited a lot of museums in my life but never have I experienced such a massive exhibit with so many rooms. It took us 2 and a half hours to push through the whole thing. On the verge of collapse by the time we were done having not eaten anything for 7 hours we ditched our group and ran to Pizza Hut. Saviour in our time of need!
Here we are by a statue of a famous russian clown. If you rub his nose you get good luck (which was NOT the case today)
Baboushka Dolls
Michael Jackson Baboushka
Hanna looking fine outside the wooden kremlin
The Vodkatrain Gang: Hanna, Badonk, Nadine, Julia and Snorelax
We met our lovely honcho Marina, a 23 year old Russian girl with a twin sister. We were expecting a 2 metre tall bearded man so we were pleasantly surprised. She took us for breakfast at a local cafe. Hanna and I ordered pancakes (the only edible thing on the menu), BIG mistake. They were stuffed with cottage cheese and jam. Disgusting combination of savoury and sweet, as well as a long black russian hair placed nicely on my plate. The tea we drank tasted as though it was made from a sweaty old sock. 99 reubels and no breakfast later we set off for the local flea market. Here we were forced to buy baboushka dolls by angry russian locals. There were some fur hat salesmen offering free things for kisses. We declined seeing as they had no teeth. There was also a lovely collection of animal rugs made of wolf with the head still attached. Hanna bought one for her Mum- hopefully the swedish customs wont confiscate it on the way home.
By this time we were starving and walking zombies from the lack of sleep but nonetheless we set off towards the wooden kremlin. This was beautiful and built in 2003. Here we visited the Vodka Museum. Now we are professionals on how vodka is made and the russian history behind their traditional drink. We were all offered a shot of local vodka, perfect since we had not eaten anything and felt like death. The day was looking up as I tripped over a table, the vodka went straight to my head.
After this we headed to the revolution museum. (Still no food) This was not something either of us was in the mood for but we followed our group and thought it would be a speedy visit. Quite the opposite. I have visited a lot of museums in my life but never have I experienced such a massive exhibit with so many rooms. It took us 2 and a half hours to push through the whole thing. On the verge of collapse by the time we were done having not eaten anything for 7 hours we ditched our group and ran to Pizza Hut. Saviour in our time of need!
Here we are by a statue of a famous russian clown. If you rub his nose you get good luck (which was NOT the case today)
Baboushka Dolls
Michael Jackson Baboushka
Hanna looking fine outside the wooden kremlin
The Vodkatrain Gang: Hanna, Badonk, Nadine, Julia and Snorelax
Mooreen Dooreen and Badonk
Hello again,
Well we got here at last, as we were flying in over russia and i had cups over my ears it didnt look very much different from sweden, everything was covered in snow. We waited for like one and a half hours at the stupid passport control because the man checked everyones passports for 15 minutes each. It was ridiculous. AND these russian people kept cutting ahead of us, anyway the man at the passport desk was really young! He seemed like a bit of a newbie and i was deaf from my on flight ear experience so i had no idea what he was saying and he kept asking questions. OH WELL, mission entry into Russia was a moderate success.
We were met by our lovely taxi driver by the name of Vlad, who spoke no english and communicated with us through a series of grunting noises and shy gestures. He made us walk a kilometer with our fat bags, which by the way seemed a lot heavier after the flight than when we checked them in. Until finally we got to his uber small car, yeah how our bags fit in the trunk is still a russian miracle. He was listening to Tom Jones on the radio, and Tom Jones songs sound like porno movies so at first we were a bit unsure whether this was our guy. He realised our discomfort and changed to hardcore dance music, he turned around and said "You like trans?" in a Russian accent, we didnt want to offend him and sat for one and a half hours listening to weird electronic bleeps. Oh yeah and I have never seen so much traffic in my ENTIRE life, there was no point in driving, we could have crawled backwards and we would have moved faster.
Arrived at the hostel to find our room empty...sweet, apart from it smelled like weird mens deoderant and a really impatient hostel woman kept shoving linnen in our faces. In the common room we met some lovely people, rather many of them from the north of england... and one is from Canada oh and one is from Chicago!! (julia says raise the roof) Description of the rest of the Common Room Clan will come later. Oh and then we met our fellow Vodkatrain (yes thats what its called) companions. Two sisters from holland called Mooreen and Dooreen (their real names are Nadine and Badonk) and a boy from Australia called Jason who seems to have some sort of cronic sinus disease or disorder. Poor boy but more on that later.
Lots of love
xxxx
Well we got here at last, as we were flying in over russia and i had cups over my ears it didnt look very much different from sweden, everything was covered in snow. We waited for like one and a half hours at the stupid passport control because the man checked everyones passports for 15 minutes each. It was ridiculous. AND these russian people kept cutting ahead of us, anyway the man at the passport desk was really young! He seemed like a bit of a newbie and i was deaf from my on flight ear experience so i had no idea what he was saying and he kept asking questions. OH WELL, mission entry into Russia was a moderate success.
We were met by our lovely taxi driver by the name of Vlad, who spoke no english and communicated with us through a series of grunting noises and shy gestures. He made us walk a kilometer with our fat bags, which by the way seemed a lot heavier after the flight than when we checked them in. Until finally we got to his uber small car, yeah how our bags fit in the trunk is still a russian miracle. He was listening to Tom Jones on the radio, and Tom Jones songs sound like porno movies so at first we were a bit unsure whether this was our guy. He realised our discomfort and changed to hardcore dance music, he turned around and said "You like trans?" in a Russian accent, we didnt want to offend him and sat for one and a half hours listening to weird electronic bleeps. Oh yeah and I have never seen so much traffic in my ENTIRE life, there was no point in driving, we could have crawled backwards and we would have moved faster.
Arrived at the hostel to find our room empty...sweet, apart from it smelled like weird mens deoderant and a really impatient hostel woman kept shoving linnen in our faces. In the common room we met some lovely people, rather many of them from the north of england... and one is from Canada oh and one is from Chicago!! (julia says raise the roof) Description of the rest of the Common Room Clan will come later. Oh and then we met our fellow Vodkatrain (yes thats what its called) companions. Two sisters from holland called Mooreen and Dooreen (their real names are Nadine and Badonk) and a boy from Australia called Jason who seems to have some sort of cronic sinus disease or disorder. Poor boy but more on that later.
Lots of love
xxxx
Monday, 15 February 2010
Bad things happen in threes
When it comes to our trip to Russia and the Trans Siberian Railway EVERYTHING has been against us. Strike one was the train departure date getting moved up by one week and messing up our two month itinerary and resulting in more money spent in order to change the date.
Strike two was my passport disappearing on its way to the Mongolian Embassy in Goteborg. I thought this was due to my own stupidity by not sending it properly but turns out the man was a complete idiot and had the passport and my visa but somehow had "no record" of ever receiving it! I ended up getting a new passport on my birthday and starting the visa process all over again. Getting a Russian visa is impossible, Hanna was first denied because she did not have all necessary papers.
My third stroke of bad luck occured when driving down the motorway on my way to the airport thinking everything is under control and pleased to finally have managed to cram every last piece of clothing and survival medication into my backpack. Suddenly out of nowhere the speedometer dies down from 100km/h to zero in a matter of seconds and the car breaks down. Mid panic attack we manage to swerve to the side of the road, not completely out of harms way since this is one of the lanes and trucks are coming at us at full speed. We quickly got the red triangle thing out (you know the one I mean) and placed it a few metres up the road. Having only half an hour until check-in closes and wondering whether I should just give up and admit defeat, I called a taxi to pick me up in the middle of the motorway. You can imagine the surprise when I described my location.
In the end we didn't miss the plane and all is well- apart from Hanna who felt like someone was stabbing at her ear since she has suffered a bad cold these past few days and the air pressure didn't make this any better. She was handed a cup to hold against her ear by the steward and she kept it there for the duration of the flight, looking like a robot and feeling intense pain but she managed to pull through and all is well. She says it was horrible.
Over and out or should I say
большая любовь
Strike two was my passport disappearing on its way to the Mongolian Embassy in Goteborg. I thought this was due to my own stupidity by not sending it properly but turns out the man was a complete idiot and had the passport and my visa but somehow had "no record" of ever receiving it! I ended up getting a new passport on my birthday and starting the visa process all over again. Getting a Russian visa is impossible, Hanna was first denied because she did not have all necessary papers.
My third stroke of bad luck occured when driving down the motorway on my way to the airport thinking everything is under control and pleased to finally have managed to cram every last piece of clothing and survival medication into my backpack. Suddenly out of nowhere the speedometer dies down from 100km/h to zero in a matter of seconds and the car breaks down. Mid panic attack we manage to swerve to the side of the road, not completely out of harms way since this is one of the lanes and trucks are coming at us at full speed. We quickly got the red triangle thing out (you know the one I mean) and placed it a few metres up the road. Having only half an hour until check-in closes and wondering whether I should just give up and admit defeat, I called a taxi to pick me up in the middle of the motorway. You can imagine the surprise when I described my location.
In the end we didn't miss the plane and all is well- apart from Hanna who felt like someone was stabbing at her ear since she has suffered a bad cold these past few days and the air pressure didn't make this any better. She was handed a cup to hold against her ear by the steward and she kept it there for the duration of the flight, looking like a robot and feeling intense pain but she managed to pull through and all is well. She says it was horrible.
Over and out or should I say
большая любовь
Sunday, 14 February 2010
From Russia With Love
So, this blog is so that everybody who knows and loves us can follow our INCREDIBLE trip from Moscow to Singapore and see what exactly we're getting up to (or at least what we decide to share with you). We'll be stopping off in various places before our final destination, might not tell you them now because then it'll ruin the suprise. Then when we get to Singapore we go our seperate ways, Julia goes to Sweden and I go on to Australia.
Anyway lets not get too far ahead of ourselves now shall we,
Julia and I are going to Moscow tomorrow, and we are super excited. In Moscow we're meeting our 'honcho', which is apparently a word for guide person/leader/someone who knows about the place we're in. He will show us his home town for a few days, and then on Wednesday were getting on the Trans Siberian Express for four days to Ulanbaatar in Mongolia where we get off, go on a horse safari and live in a beautiful Mongolian hut. After that we get back on the train again and go on towards Beijing. Unfortunately I don't think that there is any interenet access on the train or in Mongolia so you wont hear from us again untill the 28th of February, which is when we get to Beijing...unless we get obsessed by blogging and add stuff in Moscow.
HOW EXCITING!!
Lots of love
xxx
Anyway lets not get too far ahead of ourselves now shall we,
Julia and I are going to Moscow tomorrow, and we are super excited. In Moscow we're meeting our 'honcho', which is apparently a word for guide person/leader/someone who knows about the place we're in. He will show us his home town for a few days, and then on Wednesday were getting on the Trans Siberian Express for four days to Ulanbaatar in Mongolia where we get off, go on a horse safari and live in a beautiful Mongolian hut. After that we get back on the train again and go on towards Beijing. Unfortunately I don't think that there is any interenet access on the train or in Mongolia so you wont hear from us again untill the 28th of February, which is when we get to Beijing...unless we get obsessed by blogging and add stuff in Moscow.
HOW EXCITING!!
Lots of love
xxx
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