More Adventures - Russia Unplugged - October 2008.

Once again Hello everyone from Kevin & I. Our latest travels saw us spend 9 days in Russia.

October 3rd Friday. We had a day in London tidying up things prior to heading off to Russia. We were staying at Kensal Green hostel 639 in Harrow road for a couple days before our Russian trip. We visited Bellerbys College to pick up our mail and used the internet & caught up on some chores there too. We had tea at Weatherspoons in Greenwich & got home by 9 pm. That was after delays on the Bakerloo Underground line.


October 4th. Saturday. We were up at 4.00 am showered & dressed & packed up and heading off to the Kensal Green Tube Station at 5.30 am to catch the train to Heathrow Terminal 5 for our flight out at 9.00 am to Moscow, Russia.

There were no delays and we arrived at 3.30 pm (Moscow time) ( The flight was 3 1/2 hrs long ). We met our "On the Go " guide & went by van with 7 others to our Hotel. We dropped off our gear & headed off to have some tea ( pizza & coke) and back by 8.00 pm for a meeting with our Tour Director - Katya. There are 12 of us altogether - 2 South Africans, 1 English girl, 7 Aussies & 2 Kiwis Thats us.

After the meeting at 9.30 pm we all headed off via the Metro into the Red Square to see the Kremlin at night. It was amazing & quite beautiful. We had a beer in a local Russian Restaurant altogether. We chatted with one another making friends, then again caught the metro home again. To bed by 12.30, a very long day today!


October 5th Sunday. We got up at 7.30 am after a lovely sleep. We went to brekky and met the others at 9.30 am, where we all caught the metro into Place Revolutsil - Red Square. We stood in line for a short while to view Lenin - he is embalmed in a Mausoleum and you file past to view him. Next we saw the Tomb & Memorial to the Unknown Soldier, Gum - the largest department store, St Basil's Church & the Kremlin.

We walked along the Moscow River also visiting Kitay Gorod, viewing the K.G.B. building, the Treasury building and Teatralnaya Place. We took off on our own after this short guided tour while the others had lunch. We explored the Moscow River again & walked along & saw the beautiful Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

We crossed over the Bolshoi Kamenny Bridge and walked down to see Peter the Great's statue. Its really very beautiful. We walked back up to Bolotnaya Park - very nice in its autum colours. Next we walked back to the Red Square by 6 pm to meet up with the others for our excursion to see the Moscow Circus. This was an excellent show which we both enjoyed. It had acrobats, gymnasts, jugglers, trapeze artists, horses, magicians & motor cyclists too. We got back to the Hotel by 11 pm.


October 6th Monday. We were up at 7.00 am for breakfast and after this we met up with the others at 9.30 am. We went in to Red Square again via the metro to meet our local guide - Irena for a detailed tour of the Kremlin. (10.00 - 12 midday ). Its very interesting cause its like a small town inside a wall.

We took off on our own again and took the metro to Smolenskaya stop & saw a small Cathedral and another one of the 7 Sisters ( a group of buildings styled on the Empire state buildings of the USA. The Communists ( USSR ) wanted to do one better ( More like 7 better) than the yanks so decided to build 7 of these buildings to outdo the good ol USA ) and these are scattered around Moscow.

We walked past several Embassy's including the British Embassy with a statue of none other than "Sherlock Holmes & Dr Watson". A photo was necessary here before we walked over the Movocerbatsky Bridge over the Moskva River ( Moscow River) and saw Sister No 2 then looked the other way and saw Sister No 3.

We walked along beside the river till we got down in the Kievskaya area. There was a huge Fountain here , which was very nice. It was a lovely warm day here today - 20 degrees.
We got the metro again and got off at the Oktyabraskaya stop - we saw another church & also Corkey Park ( made famous from a spy movie by Hollywood), there was also a huge statue of Lenin here.

Again we carried on the metro to the Komsomolskaya stop near the Kazansky Railway Station. We saw another 2 Sisters - 4 & 5. Also there was a huge flea market and lots of homeless people here as well. Again we got the metro to meet up with the others by 5.30 pm.

Katya our guide took us to Smolenskaya to walk down a famous shopping street - Arbat Street. We stopped and had tea & a beer in a typical Russian Cafe. Then we got back on the metro to go & view several stations with their fabulous art - Mosaics & Candalabras etc... They were very nice but really elaborate. It was to promote how marvellous the Communists are! We arrived home by 10.30 pm.

October 7th Tuesday. We slept in today only getting up at 9.30 am & to brekky by 10.00 am We had a relaxing time in our room & decided not to look at anymore flea markets & plus it was raining today. We met up with the others at 12 noon and went off to the " Great Patriotic War Museum" - not intending to go in, but because it was so wet we bought a ticket each. We went round on our own as the others had paid for the local guide and we did this for a fraction of the price offered.

It was very interesting seeing the events of the Soviet ( or Russian) history of the 2nd world war and how influential they were in halting the Nazi invasion of Russia. We saw the Hall of Memory with the names of Russian Hero's. Also the famous Katusha - Tanks, Cannons, Mortars & Military Vehicles.

There was a wonderful Monumental Memorial outside the complex as well. We caught the metro back to the Hotel and had something to eat prior to meeting up at 5.00 pm with the others - ready for the transfer by bus to the Leningradsky Railway Station to catch the overnight train to Pscov at 7.30 pm.

October 8th Wednesday. We had spent an interesting evening together sleeping in tiny bunks on the train - 6 of us to a cabin. " A good Communist Experience" ha ha ha.... We arrived at our Pscov Hotel at 7.45 am and had brekky & a shower before heading off to visit Pechory Monastery & then on to a Russian Banya ( sauna).

The Monastery was very beautiful, it even had caves which were working churches to. Pilgrim's by the thousands gather here on Holy Days. The Banya was terrific! We had some food first then went into the sauna (hot+++) then out into an Ice Cold Lake then back into the sauna. Then we were beaten with silver birch leaves, then into the sauna again & out into the Ice Cold Lake. It was certainly a great experience, way out in provincal Russia off any kind of tourist location.

Next we had our 2nd course of food - chicken kebab's delicious!! A wonderful day was had by everyone. We got back to the Hotel at 5 pm and had a relax till 7.30 pm. Then we went out for tea at a traditional Russian Restaurant with Russian singing and dancing. Home by 10 pm tired out!

October 9th Thursday. Again up early because we were departing Pscov for St Petersberg by 9.00 am. We just had a drive drive day today arriving in St Petersberg by 2.30 pm. We drove past plain flat unused farmlands with pretty delaperdated buildings and an uninteresting landscape.Once at the Hotel we had a rest. We got some money changed, used the internet for 1/2 hr, & got some food from the supermarket.

At 5.00 pm we caught the minibus into the city with the others who were going on a Cossack Show excursion, that we had decided against. Caroline also was not doing it , so the 3 of us explored around the St Petersberg River Neva & crossed the Dvortsovyy Bridge over to Varilevskiy Island.

We happened upon 2 weddings, as we wanderd around seeing all the fine architecture, walking along the Universiteskaya where we saw alot of policemen & cossack's all dressed up. Spotlights & cameras etc.. so asked what was happening - apparently "Interpol" was having a celebration there. We found a cafe & had a cup of tea then met up with the others for the bus ride home again at 8.15 pm. We arrived at our Hotel " Pocchr" at 9.30 pm.

October 10th. Friday. We were up and off by 10.00 am by coach for an included city tour. We saw the famous Church of the Spilled Blood, St Isaac Cathedral, Nevski Prospekt ( famous shopping street), Vasilevskiy Island with there universities. ( St Petersberg has 104 universities), The Winter Palace, The Hermitage & Dvorcovaja Square. Also the " Aurora" cruiser & Gostinyy Dvor ( or the great Bazaar)

We stopped for 1 hour to grab some lunch, then met up again for a more detailed guided tour of the Winter Palace & the Hermitage with Katya our "on the go " guide. We saw the Palace interiors - all amazing. We saw Russian, French, Spanish, German, British, Flemish, Dutch, Italian, Byzantium & Egypt works in the Hermitage.

Its next to the Louvre in its size of its collections. We had free time from 4.30 pm onwards. We walked around St Petersberg some more. Dekabristov Park was very beautiful in its autumn splendor. We wandered down Nevskiy Prospeki and had a look in the shop windows. We got tired and and met up with Simone & Erica ( the South Africans) and since it was drizzly and cold decided to catch the metro home, which we did.

We got some food from the supermarket & had our tea in our room. It had been a rainy overcast day & a little cooler in temperature today.

October 11th Saturday. We got up at 9.00 am as we had all day to explore under our own steam. We headed off to the St Peter & Paul Fortress. It was where the 1st city was settled & is now a State Museum of History of St Petersberg. The city was founded by " Peter the Great" in 1703 and was the capital of the Russian Empire. The Fortress has not been the scene of an actual war and while we were there we saw some Russian soldiers marching and doing all kinds of tricks with their rifles on a parade ground.

It also has the famous Cathedral Of the Saint Apostles Peter and Paul. We spent quite a while wandering around here, we saw a parade with band, flags and even rifle juggling - very impressive. Next we walked across the River Neva to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and on to Nevskiy Prospekt. It was drizzling and quite cool so decided to head home, it was 2.30 pm now.

We had some lunch & then did some internet catch up. We got back to the Hotel by 5 pm & changed as we had to meet at the "Church of Spilled Blood" at 6.30 pm for the excursion to the Russian Ballet. We got changed into our No.1's and used the metro to meet up at 6.30 pm as arranged and then we walked to the teatre to watch the Ballet. The ballet was just superb. It was a ballet about 'Spartacus' and it involved some great choreography and fight scenes as well as the usual elegant stuff.

We arrived home by 11 pm and we all got together for drinks as it was our last night together. We were trying different drinks ie; Vodka, Sherry & Champagne & Beer... a good time was had reliving funny moments on our tour. To bed by 12.30 am.

October 12th Sunday. We slept in till 8.30 am - lovely. Then up & farewelled Simone & Erica off to South Africa and Ross to Estonia, then we had breakfast. We lazed the morning away - tidying up & repacking our bags again. We headed off at 2 pm to catch our flight out at 5 pm.

We arrived in London at 5.30 pm due to Russia being 3 hours ahead in time. We caught the tube train to Shepherds Bush where our Hostel is & lugged our gear up 2 floors to our room for the night. We dropped our bags & went out & found a Aussie Pie Shop and had one. - Delicious!!

We had a walk aroumd Shepherds Bush before heading back to the Hostel and bed. Our room has its own shower & toliet & hand basin so is fine! We are booked in at this hostel for just one night. Tomorrow we pack up and go to Acton Town where we are booked in for a week so we can establish a base for more work.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Russia & learnt heaps & had a wonderful guide in Katya to teach us about the Russian way!

We are now going to be based in London for a couple of weeks where we will be looking for some supply work.

We will then be heading off for a 13 day tour of Southern Spain / Portugal from Oct 28 until Nov 9. After this it will be back to London and more work until we depart on our homeward journey on Dec 2.

Its a nice area Acton Town, with several food outlets, internet cafes, a swimming pool nearby, a couple of Laundrettes and is also close to Shepards Bush so we will probably base ourselves here till we return home.

We will be seeing the All Blacks play Ireland in Dublin ( Nov 15 ) and are in a ballot for the NZ V England match on Nov 29 as well so are hopeful to see that match also.

Until next time Cheers