From Russia, With Love - Pt 3 - TransSiberian & Ekaterinburg

The TransSiberian. The worlds longest rail network spanning the length of Russia, from St Petersburg in the West to Vladivostok in the East. Officially though we've taken the TransMongolian route, which heads south at Irkutsk, through Mongolia, to Beijing.

We took the train from Moscow to Ekaterinburg taking 26hrs to travel the 1,670km's. We had upgraded to a two-berth sleeper so we unpacked and settled in for the ride.

First class is a surprise to me as the cabin was just as good, if not better than any European train I've been on. They had lots of little cupboards to store your belongings, and the back rest of the chair flipped down to become your bed, already equipped with a nice mattress, quilt and pillow. The provodnik (conductor) sold us tea in glasses with the most gorgeous holders and the waitress from the restaurant car came around with a menu for dinner that could be delivered to the cabin. It was very luxurious.







The view was beautiful, most of the time made up of fields and paddocks, but the thing that surprised me was just how populated the countryside is. The distance between towns was very short and most of the way you can see houses dotted around. We were stopping at stations on a fairly regular basis where the locals came out to sell their goods to the passengers, though I couldn't believe the first stop when they were trying to sell glassware and chandeliers. I was also surprised to see how busy the line was, as we would pass another train at least once every 10-15 minutes.

We slept comfortably through the night and welcomed the chance to bum out through the day, we didn't have a choice; we had nowhere else to go. So we read books, wrote a blog, checked through our photos and had an awesome day.













We arrived around 8pm in Ekaterinburg, were met by the owner of the local tourist agency and taken to our home-stay where we met Lydia, our host. She was the sweetest lady, spoke absolutely no English, and would shake her head in humoured frustration when we couldn't understand her. One thing we did find out though was that the building she lives in was doing yearly maintenance checks on the heating system and so there would be no hot water for two days. This meant baths with water heated on the stove and a cup Ð was interesting, but doable.







The following morning we were picked up by our guide, Daria, and taken on a walking tour of the city. The two main things Ekaterinburg have going for it are 1. It's the capital of the Ural region and basically the mining hub of Russia and 2. It's the place where the Romanoff family, the last of the Tsars, was murdered in 1918.

So she took us all around pointing out different buildings and monuments including the Cathedral on Blood, which is basically a shrine to the Romanoff family, who later were declared saints, situated on the spot that they were killed.



She also took us to the Museum of Mineralogy, a massive private collection of stones and gems now on display for the public. The picture that the statue in the photo below is painting is actually a slice out of a rock as it was cut; it wasn't put together to resemble a landscape at all. I thought that was quite cool.



After she left us for the day we walked around a little more, went shopping in their massive mall, finally brought me a Russian jacket and did a bunch of grocery shopping for the train trip coming up. We got to the bus stop at 5:00pm and found that the buses were packed and with all our shopping we couldn't be bothered trying to fight our way on so we sat there in the beautiful sun, at the bus-stop people watching until the demand lessened and we went home.







The next morning Daria came and picked us up again, except this time we headed out of town to the Romanoff Monastery, set in the woods on the site where the bodies of the family were taken after they were killed. When we arrived we found that the main cathedral was on fire and there were fire fighters and news crews everywhere. The cathedral was made of wood so it went up pretty quickly and it meant we couldn't go into any of the other cathedrals as everyone in the complex was standing around watching the fire. It was all very interesting and the other cathedrals were very beautiful from the outside, and the fire made the news.









From there we were taken to the monument at the official border between Europe and Asia. The time had come; we crossed the line, and were awarded with certificates and a bottle of champagne. After seven weeks and three days traveling through Europe with the whole point to take the TransSiberian across to Asia it was actually quite a nice moment to celebrate.





We spent our final afternoon trying to find an internet cafe where we could actually connect. Eventually we sat down in one place, ordered lunch and when we received the password found that it just wouldn't work. Fortunately there was a regular sitting next to us who spoke English, was super friendly, and knew the IP address that my computer couldn't automatically find so we were up and running. You all owe the St Petersburg blog being online to that gentleman. And he didn't even want any thanks.

The next leg of the trip saw us spending three nights and two days totaling 60hours on the train from Ekaterinburg to Irkutsk. There was no first class on this train so we bummed in it second-class, though we did book out the four-berth sleeper just for the two of us, which made me feel a little la-di-dah. The mattresses came in rolls that we lay down two thick, the sheets came in a plastic bag delivered by the provodnik and the pillows ranged from thin to heavy though all were lumpy. There was no tea or dinner served in our cabin and the bathroom definitely dropped a lot in style too. But we actually found the set up to be incredibly comfortable and the days drifted past extremely quickly.

So we slept and I read three books to Andrew's three-quarters, though to give him some credit, it was in Polish. We watched the scenery fly past changing little, from thin woods to open plains to small towns and back again. We watched the ladies at the stations sell smoked fish and bread rolls. We had brought food with us but forgot to get any cutlery, so we ate our canned corn with the lid we'd peeled off and our potato & bacon soup with spare contact lens containers. All in all, it was fun and restful, which I know we both needed.

















The final morning we woke early and sat eating breakfast watching the sunrise. It was an absolutely beautiful way to finish the journey. We had reached our destination, Irkutsk, and with it Lake Baikal.

From Russia, With Love - Pt 2 - Moscow

We took the overnight sleeper train from St Petersburg to Moscow arriving at 5:30am to be greeted by a man holding a sign with SZEMIS written on it. He gave us the kindest smile and then motioned for us to follow him and walked off. He never spoke a word but we followed him to his car, were driven to our home-stay and we never saw him again. It was quite random but it was a beautiful drive watching the city wake up.

So we met the dearest lady named Olga who showed us our room and her apartment and then promptly told us she was going back to bed. We liked the idea and did the same, managing another two hours sleep before we had to get up for our orientation tour around Moscow. We were haggard, in looks and energy levels, but we were keen to check out the capital so when Kate, our guide, arrived we headed out.



The first thing Kate showed us was the metro system. Now I know most metro systems are definitely not worth writing home about, but this one is awesome and deserves a mention. For starters this metro system is the second busiest in the world, second only to Tokyo. Some six or so million people pass through the metro every day so the trains come every three minutes at the most. The stations themselves are works of art. Every station is different celebrating victories, commemorating historical events or just stunning for the sake of it. In my favourite one there are even marble columns in every archway and in another bronze statues depicting the ordinary people who fought to defend Moscow during WWII that the locals rub for good luck.







So Kate took us around, pointed out to us all the major sites and left us with the knowledge that we would need to explore on our own.











As one of those fortunate things you don’t plan for but it just turns out that way, we had arrived a few days after Moscow’s birthday. Most of the celebrations had been finalised and the ridiculous crowds had already gone home but one event that was still playing was the Moscow International Military Tattoo held in the most famous Red Square. So we brought tickets, went home to sleep some more and then around 7pm made our way back into the city to witness the closest thing to a military parade in Red Square that you can get outside of May Day.

We had the best of the non-VIP seats, sitting on the side where we could see St Basil’s Cathedral and the Watchtower, the most famous tower on the wall of the Kremlin. When we arrived we were handed little flags to wave when instructed by the usher that I found incredibly hilarious. It was like a ‘cheer now’ sign for the audience. We noted, with a little concern, that the Russians were very prepared with blankets and thick coats and sure enough by the time the spectacle began we were freezing.

Military bands from all across Russia, Europe & the Middle East came to play to celebrate Moscow’s birthday. It was absolutely stunning. The Russians were sharp and brilliant; the Scots were the Scots; the French were fun, standing in the form of the Eiffel Tower; the Ukraine Presidential Band got the audience vote with their dancing and the Police Band from Bahrain were very unique. And to end it all off the Russians brought out an amazing drumming band and then a beautiful fireworks display over the cathedral. With the stunning backdrop and the sheer reality of where we were we had the best night. Incredibly, the latest we’ve gotten home so far on our trip and it’s in Moscow. We did find this amusing as we caught the metro at 11:30pm.













To be honest there isn’t a whole lot to see in Moscow except for the very centre of the city, the Kremlin. Within the walls of the centre of Russian power are a few museums, cathedrals and park areas open to the public.



We brought our tickets and went inside to see the Armoury, a collection of the most precious articles in Russian History. There were halls and halls of the most intricate artwork; massive bible covers that sparkled with diamonds, amethysts and finely weaved gold; original Faberge eggs made from real precious gems that were actually given as Easter gifts to the royal family, one including a working miniature model of the first train to run on the TransSiberian; the crowns worn by the Tsars throughout the ages; complete dining sets with intricate plates, ladles, soup canteens and candlesticks; and even around fifteen carriages, the most glamorous of which belonged to Empress Elizabeth and was made of carved oak overlaid with gold. The whole time I was walking around with my mouth open. It is the most elaborate display of wealth and regal history I have seen in my life, and I’ve been to the Tower of London.

From there we headed to the cathedrals where the Tsars held their coronation services and a host of important Russians are buried. They were beautiful, as we’ve come to expect. We also checked out the ‘Secret Garden’ and it was there that I started to realise that autumn was coming to Russia! I am seriously excited about that.







We left the Kremlin, walked back to Red Square and noted a few things there that we found interesting. For starters the very heart of Soviet power is now taken over by commercialism seeing that the building opposite the Kremlin across Red Square, is now a massive designer mall and McDonalds is situated right outside. In fact we read somewhere that when the first McDonalds was opened in Moscow there was a line 5km’s long.



Secondly we find it amusing that wherever there is a monument or a fountain people love to throw money. At the very heart of the city is a monument called 0km’s where we found an elderly couple collecting the coins AS the people threw them. The lady even had a ribbon with a magnet on the end to make it easier for her to pick them up!



We hung around Red Square until night time, checking out the mall, taking random photos, drinking vodka and hot mulled wine with spices, and just enjoying the vibrant atmosphere.







On our final day we had a few hours until we had to catch the train for our next leg in the TransSiberian. Andrew had read a book called Gorky Park years ago so we decided to head there to check it out. Gorky Park is basically like Lunar Park in Sydney; a ‘Royal Show’ that never closes. Aside from the bumper cars with Russian flags on the back it was very tacky and a little gloomy, like the final day of the show. Even the music at the entrance was dreary so there wasn’t a festive atmosphere in the place at all. We left pretty quickly but it was funny to see.





So we headed home, said our goodbyes to Olga and made our way through the gorgeous metro system to find our train that would take us the 1,670km’s to Ekaterinburg, capital of the Ural region and heart of the Russian mining industry but for us a way to break up the really long train journey East.