Next up.

Taiwan and Hokkaido with the family next. It's going to be a tour thing, and I'm not looking forward to packing. But different experiences and all. I'm glad I have the chance to even get away!

Mother Russia Part 3: Til the (Mos)cow comes home

Time for another lazy copy/paste update. I've already written a lot on the photo album, and if I write now, I'd be making up most of the stuff anyway. So here goes:

So I have been unknowingly putting off the upload of this album for almost 2 weeks now, and memories have become more romantic and less accurate, but just as long, so as always, proceed at your own peril.

I reached Leningradskiy station in Moscow a little after 12, after nearly missing my train and being on the wrong carriage for almost half the ride before a nice man who spoke some English told me what to do. Anyway, I met my host, Anton there to prevent the St Petersburg incident from happening again. He took me around the city a little bit in his car, to see the seven Stalin skyscrapers (there was to be an 8th but it was never built), and art galleries and such, and where I could go, and what I could do.

I also learned from Iya that there were 3 train stations, Leningradskiy, Kazanskiy, and Yaroslavskiy, which just means "towards Leningrad, towards Kazan, and towards Yaroslavl" which explains the name of Moscovskiy station in St Petersburg. Yaroslavskiy station is also the one that serves the Trans-Siberian Railway to Beijing, and ends near Vladivostok, at the Japan border.

Anyway, Anton and Iuliia (@ippobnb on Instagram) were a super interesting couple who have travelled the world for a year and a half, being to places even I haven't been to, and I had a wonderful time drinking tea and talking about our travels. They also were fans of anime and manga, so we had lots to talk about. The room was very, very cosy, and done up with nice little touches, like a "welcome home, Justin" written on a little chalkboard and hung on the door. And there was water in the room, as well as 2 files with suggestions of what to do in Moscow, as well as in the vicinity. 

Leningradskiy Street. The main street of my Airbnb hosts.

The vicinity

Downstairs of the airbnb apartment

I looked through the files, settled on World of Shashlik and decided to head out and walk around the neighbourhood. I ended up not finding what I set out to look for (which is becoming sort of a pattern in my travels) and instead arrived somewhere else, also pretty awesome.

-Intermission-

At this point, I'd like to interrupt my own story and fit in this little story about a nice Russian lady in a random cafe helping me to find a place to change money. I wanted to buy her a coffee as thanks, but I was broke at that point in time. When I went back after changing money, she was gone. Many thanks anyway, person who will never read this!

-Intermission over-

In any case, somewhere else turned out to be Ilya Muromets, a restaurant serving traditional Russian style food. I had tea and blackcurrant jam, as well as leg of rabbit. The way to drink the tea with jam, as I have shared, was to put some jam in your mouth, and drink the tea through it. The flavour was slightly sour, slightly bitter, yet strangely pleasant. The rabbits leg, for a rabbit lover, would probably taste like infinite tears of disdain, helplessness, anger and sadness, but for a normal meat eating human, it tasted quite pleasant, not gamey, and complements the cream sauce quite well. There were also real singing canaries in the restaurant! All in all a good dinner.

Ilya Muromets setting. On the top left corner is one of the canary cages.

Menu

Tea with blackcurrant jam. Totally the Russian thing to do. Thanks google!

Leg of Mr Hoppity with a la King sauce.

Singing canary, kept for it's song. Not to be eaten!

Then I went back for more tea and talk, more or less concluding the first half day in Moscow.

The second day, I left early for the free walking tour, borrowing a jacket from my hosts because it started snowing one month early. It was a good thing I was walking so much, because otherwise I probably would not fit in the jacket. Anyway I couldn't find the walking tour meeting place (see?) but I couldn't just "end up" somewhere else, so I found it in the end, slightly late

Had a great walking tour by our guide Marina Vinogradova, who was very interesting and very informative! Learned many things, which unfortunately now exists in bits and pieces in my memory, freshest of which is the demolition of Hotel Russia (to the delight of all Moskovites), claimed to be one of the ugliest hotels ever to exist. Also met Mr Lenin (really his preserved corpse), who was smaller than I expected, and also possibly has a fake hand, according to urban legend.

Saw St Basils Cathedral and the Kremlin from outside, and really all the attractions were around the red square, so it was quite a central location to be in. After a recommendation for lunch, I hung out with a couple of new friends from the walking tour, and headed about the city with no real direction. Managed to see KGB, Bolshoi theatre and a super grand supermarket, as well as get some hot chocolate in a cafe to escape from the cold. 

At grave of the unknown soldier, Alexander Gardens
L to R: Mandy, Maite, Me, Grisha, Marina (our guide), Janire

Bolshoi Theatre
L to R: Mandy, Grisha, Me, Maite, Janire

L to R: St Basil's Cathedral, Janire, Me, Kremlin

Same location. L to R: Mandy, Janire, Maite, Me, Grisha

Atas supermarket. We later realised it was an attraction. Kind of the Harrods of Moscow

At night, we went to take the metro to look at the old, grand, metro stations. They were really cool, and mostly done up in marble and mosaic. It seems slightly less spectacular in the face of modern architectural marvels, but it must have been amazing when it was first built. It was well after midnight when I returned to the airbnb.

One of the metro stations: Grisha, Me, Maite. Janire had tendinitis in her knee and went back first.

The next day, I cooked chicken rice with/for my hosts for lunch, which meant that the morning was mostly spent bumming around in the room, which I kind of enjoy. There was also snow, and Iuliia liked that, so after cooking and eating the chicken rice (which turned out pretty good), she decided she was going for a walk, and I could also head out at the same time, so she could show me where I could get a pen that I liked.

I also tried looking for a Russian doll with little luck, and ended up heading back to the Red Square to meet Jimmy, my old walking tour friend from St Petersburg. We were intending to head to Gorky Park, with Janire and Maite from yesterday. Long story short, Gorky Park was closed, with some construction going on for an upcoming event, and I could not create memories with Winds of Change playing in the background. The winds also dictated that we change our location to indoors, so more hot beverages, and a huge spider at Garage Museum that is also on display in Guggenheim in Bilbao (the ladies hometown) later, we headed back to our hostels, rather late at night. 

Aragog.

Maite and Janire, somewhere over the Moskva

Snow at Alexander Gardens. Photo by Jimmy

The next morning, as I prepared to leave, early in the morning, I was thinking, "Already huh?" I also think I'm pretty lucky when it comes to having enough resources and opportunity to travel, but if we had to store memories and experience in luggages, I'd be broke trying to fly back with them.

The trip back was uneventful, and when I saw the welcome home sign in Changi Airport, it was somehow not as welcoming as the one hung on the bnb door.

Oh well, spasibo Russia! Uvidimsja!

TL;DR

Russia was great and I want to go again.

going solo.

Now before I go ahead and do the copy/paste shit from facebook, for the last part of the Russia trip, I figured I'd write down why I travelled alone, and my experiences.

Firstly, why?

Very simply, because noone else wanted to/had the time to come along, and I wanted to go. I had done this before, on a smaller scale, while wandering about in Dublin for two days, so actually planning to head to Russia alone was a decision that didn't come easy. The going part was easy, because of the wedding, but finding someone to go with me wasn't. This was proven when I failed at convincing anyone to come along, and went ahead on my own anyway.

Without going further into details, traveling solo does have it's pros and cons. I hope what I'm writing doesn't come across as thoughtcatalog-ish bullshit designed to make you think you are some pseudo-philosopher (which MIGHT happen) but anyway, I'll try to make this as intelligible as I can.

Being alone is scary, especially in my case this time. I was in a totally new environment and illiterate. There are signs, but none of them help, because even the alphabets used are different. The only phrases I know are "hello, how are you" and "you are very beautiful" (which I learned so that it would be helpful in social situations. It wasn't.) I was basically helpless and vulnerable (But I watched the Ameri-do-te videos by Master Ken so I can fight). Yet this feeling of helplessness was also what gave me the excitement of travel, a little fizzy feeling behind the testes (as James May would say), and when I needed help, I had to ask for it. I had to trust that the person I was asking would not turn me over and rob me, and on one occasion, this trust made me 10,000 rubles poorer. But this is all part of the experience, and while I'd rather not have been cheated/robbed, something like that could easily happen even if I wasn't alone.

There was also occasional feelings of "I wish someone could see this with me", but I got over that really quickly. It was not a problem in Rostov, because I went for a wedding, and was among friends, but a good way to get over this was going for free walking tours. Inevitably, there will be someone else traveling solo, and boom - instant new travel buddies. You might or might not become friends, but I managed to stay in contact with a couple of my travel buddies, and now have new places added to my to-go list, which is really just expanding at an uncontrollable rate.

This next point is really only half relevant, because when I travel with friends, we usually do what we want anyway, and go together on activities we all want to do. But when I was alone, I had the freedom to do whatever the fuck I liked, be it sleep in until 4pm (day after the wedding, because 1.5 bottles of vodka is not a joke), or stay out drinking, or going to places that I felt like seeing.

Of course, conversely, if you are the type to get lost on a straight road (like I could be), then you'll miss out many of the things you wanted to see (like I did). The good thing is that usually, you'll end up elsewhere, because when you're going somewhere, you'll always end up somewhere. It might not be where you intended to go, but it is somewhere you end up. And this somewhere could be really cool. In fact, getting lost is one of my favourite things to happen on a holiday, provided I eventually un-lose myself.

My senses also became extra perceptive, and I had all the time in the world (not really no, I have a train to catch at 07:00 and I'm LAAAAAATEEEE!) to think about all the things that happened, what I'm seeing, and make tenuous connections because humans cannot accept that sometimes things just happen. Anyway, I do keep a journal, and I find myself making a lot more observations in my journal when I'm alone.

I have a feeling this post is not going well. It's fucking aimless. Kind of like the way I am going solo ha.

Edit: Because it makes me feel alive. All the above is just nonsense.

Mother Russia Part 2: Sights and Sounds of St Petersburg

Again, a more or less direct lifting from the facebook album, with some selected pictures maybe:

So It's been a week since I've been back from Russia, though it feels longer away. That's just how work feels. And since it's Monday, and they usually suck, I'm going to attempt to make it worse for myself my reminding myself that the first thing that happened in St Petersburg was me getting scammed/robbed. Also this will turn out to be REALLY LONG. Really just skip this if you're not interested, as usual.

So in the morning, I happily checked out of Marins Park Hotel in Rostov, leaving my newfound friends behind, and hopped on a flight to St Petersburg. It was well, an airportsy experience. I will insert a Douglas Adams quote here:

"It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "As pretty as an airport." Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness arises because airports are full of people who are tired, cross, and have just discovered that their luggage has landed in Murmansk (Murmansk airport is the only exception of this otherwise infallible rule), and architects have on the whole tried to reflect this in their designs."

- Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul

Am I right? Am I right? It was really a coincidence, because Murmansk is really in Russia, several hours North of Moscow. I wasn't in Murmansk though, neither did my luggage go to Murmansk. The ride all the way until St Petersburg Pulkovo Airport was uneventful. But then I hopped on a cab at the airport. And insisted on the meter instead of a fixed price. Big mistake. So the 20minute ride from the airport to the hostel turned out to be 10,000 roubles. For comparison, the 20minute ride from my hotel in Rostov, with the meter was 500 roubles. Fuck me. And the driver didn't want to give me my bags until I gave him the money. So I gave him the money. All my roubles.

I went into the hostel ( Vintage&Funky Sport Hostel), freshly robbed and penniless, met the nice receptionist (her name was Alyssa [spelling unknown]) who spoke about 10 words of English, and managed to postpone paying for the hostel until the next day when I could withdraw money. (She was really, really helpful, and being really nice though, and although the hostel is a little far from the centre of attractions, it's a pretty cool place to stay in. Only good things to say about this place.) The first evening in St Pete's was thus spent moping about my sorry state. And walking about the neighbourhood, trying to find a money exchange. Turns out banks were closed on Sundays (who knew huh?), so I went hungry for a bit. 

My cool fishing themed hostel room at Vintage, Funky and Sports hostel

Next day, I went out at 9am, looking for a bank, found one, and changed more money. Feeling a little richer, I headed to a walking tour, to find out that the guide had called in sick, so there was no walking tour for the day. The other walking tour was slated to start at the same time, somewhere else, so I had the whole day to myself. So I headed off in my usual haphazard fashion, wandering wherever I pleased, and managed to hit most of the touristy spots, like Church of the Saviour on Blood (like I said, fucking heavy metal name and I was wearing my Iron Maiden T-shirt), and St Isaacs Cathedral (decidedly less heavy metal). The mosaics inside were very, very spectacular though. Long story short, I did many touristy things, took a lot of photographs, and had some nice food at a restaurant called Net, near the Winter Palace. Also saw some other couples getting married at St Isaacs. At the end of the day, I almost forgot that I had just lost about USD150 just yesterday. St Petersburg is a pretty and quaint place, with it's many canals reminding me of Amsterdam and Nyhavn in Copenhagen. I would love to visit again during the white nights.

Church of The Saviour on Spilt Blood - Day

Church of the Saviour on Spilt Blood - Night

Abruptly moving on to the next day, took a paid (1400 rubles) walking tour with Peters Walk / Walking and Bicycle Tours in St Petersburg, Russia, which is arguably the best thing I have ever done in St Petersburg. I know I wasn't there for long, but still, this comment holds water. I believe I have already shared that Peter is a man with many abilities, and speaks with a crisp, British accent. And also perfect Russian, when I questioned whether he was a local. Long story short, he is.

He is, also, in no particular order:

- Boss/Founder of Peters Walk since 1996
- Walking encyclopedia about St Petersburg
- A master of just about every topic (music, Literature, economics, animals, birds, fairy tales, cars, traveling, where to eat good pies)

And he tells you all the information in such an interesting manner, that I remember till today, nearly 2 weeks later, that in communist times, the hippies gathered secretly, recording overseas music on X-rays of their ribs. These albums are called ribs, and have piss poor sound quality, but is the symbol of rebellion from the innovative and resourceful. As are the bootleg copies of books, done 4 copies at a time, with carbon paper and a typewriter, so the last copy is always the faintest. And that hooded crows have lighter heads, and magpies are the ones that gossip, and that the developer of New Holland is hired by Roman Abramovic's wife. And Lonely Planet looks for him to write information about St Petersburg. So I am convinced he is the best in the business. And no, I wasn't paid to write this.

I am sorry I abandoned point form after the 3rd point, and at this point should randomly interject to say that I also went to John Lennon Street in Pushkinskaya 10, but I didn't spend a long enough time there, as well as the apartments Dostoevsky set Crime and Punishment in, as well as many back streets and courtyards that otherwise would have been missed.

L  to R: Jimmy, Me, Peter

 

 

Crime and Punishment apartments, so aptly named Crime and Punish-apartments in memory of Dostoevsky's novel.
Not.

Yellow Submarine and various graffiti - John Lennon Street, Pushkinskaya 10

After the walking tour (all 4.5hours of it), I hung around abit with James Hiryu, the other guy who took the walking tour with Peter. We headed to North St Petersburg, had a look before I headed to the Hermitage, hoping to catch a glimpse of the famous paintings by Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, and Black Square by Malevich. Suffice to say, I was on the wrong floor all along, and didn't see a single one. The other paintings were still beautiful, but this is just another reason to go back to St Pete's. Also, the number of mainland Chinese tour groups inside was just ineffable. And we must try to eff the ineffable. Anyway, had dinner at a bar/bistro recommended by Valeria Yatskevich (thank you very much!) and decided to walk about a little, and go for ice-cream. Which does seem quite retarded, but that's just the way things are. My ice cream wasn't the best, but sometimes in life you have to roll with the punches. So I went back to the hostel (30minute walk), packed up, and got ready to wake up at 6am, to catch the 7am Sapsan to Moscow.

This is probably a good place to round things up. Things didn't always go my way in St Petersburg, but being mostly on my own, I had to pick myself up and just move along, and make the most of the experience. Which I think I did.

Also, if you're illiterate, please go to the train station with about 20minutes to spare, instead of 5 minutes. I barely managed to hop on to my train to Moscow, because I couldn't find my platform. Because I couldn't read. That is a real pain.

Edit: I cannot believe I forgot to talk about the shop with the Soviet Era antique items. It was really cool and I bought a few Communist era postcards, from the 1950s. Not sending it to anyone. Also brought here during the walking tour, after seeing Marinsky Theatre and lunch at the pie shop. Good stuff that.

Second edit:
I just can't stop suddenly remembering stuff huh? Anyway, I also learned that Russians pay about USD$1 a month for an unlimited supply of gas from Peter. I just wanted to share this little factoid. And another one. While buying stamps for my postcards, Peter said that post offices in Russia still do telegrams, which is cool as fuck. Even cooler as fucker, is that fact that they have something called the Phonagram, which is basically for remote places with no telephones. So one post office calls another, dictates the letter word for word to the other post office, which will in turn write down the letter, and deliver the letter to the recipient. I'd love to see that in action! See how these little factoids keep coming back? Fun and informative haha.

Cheers!