Train & Tea

(October 14)
The old capital of Kazakhstan, Almaty, is a day away from Astana by train, so another overnighter beckoned! This time we had the top bunks in our cabin and were lucky to be sharing with two lovely Kazakh ladies; one who spoke brilliant English (and German) and another who understood English. It's their custom to offer foreigners and guests hospitality and were very embarrassed because they didn't have any treats to share. We, on the other hand, had come prepared with Tetley tea and lots of biscuits! The only thing we didn't have was a teapot - no problem! Kazakh trains provide china teapots and tea cups free of charge for passengers' comfort. Even Ben managed a cup of tea to celebrate this marvelous service!

Very civilised.

Kazakhstan has picturesque steppes that they all think are flat and boring. We found them flat and beautiful:


Unfortunately the beautiful lake on our trip passed by in the dead of night.
And the nice english-speaking lady informed us of all the things we should have seen in Astana. Like the aquarium that is the world's furthest from water, and actually going in the golden dome thing in front of the presidential palace.

(Only 2 more sleeps until we fly to New Zealand and our adventure is over - and the next one begins.)

Astana

(october 11-13)

Firstly and most importantly Joanna pictures. The sideways shot in Astana (in the park in front of parliament):


And she takes an alcoholic bent on her own drink tour. You're not allowed beer without a straw if you're a lady in Kazakhstan:

Ben will complete his drink challenge in our Almaty blog post soon...

Now, MikeB likes taking pictures of cranes. MikeB would be very happy in Astana:



No building is complete without a crane on top finishing it off:


Most of the city is being built in one go so it looks a lot like a vast building site at the moment. Some of the main infrastructure of the new capital has been completed to the south of the river, away from the old town/village, so we went for a walk...

This isn't a flying saucer, it's the circus:


This is an apartment block, the "Triumph Astana":


Here's the city's landmark globe, in front of the presidential palace (or "White House"):


A nice new mosque, although the Kazakhs could hardly be called religious (vodka-drinking, pig-eating muslims...):

In fact the call to prayer was what alerted us to take a photo, and it was only us heading towards the mosque...

And here's a monument to independence or something...:


Beyond that the main touristy thing we did was go to the most bodacious President's Museum. We ended up looking at the gifts various countries had given the President for quite a while before we found the most excellent yurt room. Yurts are the tents the nomadic Kazakhs used to live in. They had all the appropriate horse and camel apparatus too.

One thing we expected to be a right pain was registration of our visa (must be done within 5 days of entering the country. But they seem to have made things easier, as we found the appropriate government building, went straight to an english speaking woman, chatted to her for about a minute whilst she put all the appropriate stamps in the right places, and we were done. No big $$ charges or anything. So they're obviously getting ready for tourists, not that they're actually expecting any. Everyone was very surprised that we were tourists, and most interested as to what we thought of their country... Fortunately we could say we liked it.

Astana means 'Capital'. Apparently the previous name of the village/town meant 'White Tomb', and the president had too many jibes about moving the capital there... so he changed the name.

And one last point on where the money for all those new buildings is coming from. Here's the oil pipeline running through town...:

Train

We're back in Hong Kong btw. And we're updating the map, if you want to know where Vladimir is.

(October 8 - 11)

Back in Moscow, we had some time to kill before our appointed time to collect (hopefully) our Kazakh visas. We made it to the State History Museum in Red Square which covers the country from pre-historic times until WWI - mostly in Russian. So if osmosis works we're now experts ... but we have our doubts. We also had a wander round some more sites including the Monument to Victims of Totalitarianism. The building in the background was the KGB HQ and Lubyanka Prison for victims of Stalin's many purges:

It's now the FSB's HQ - the KGB's successor.

Then it was back to the Kazakh embassy and yes! everything was ready for us and in order. Joanna was very relieved, thanking the "gate-keeper" official profusely on the way out after becoming such good friends with him during our many visits!

So we boarded the train destined for Kazakhstan and Astana ... three days in our little kupe carriage with two strangers (one who snored quite a bit) and not really many photo opportunities except this one:

Please note: Joanna is not keen on it but it's our only one on board the train so has to be included!

Now, many would think a three day train ride would necessitate a buffet car ... but not on this puppy! There's a timetable which lets passengers know how long the train is stopping at each station and you have to pop off and grab whatever is on offer on the platform. Lonely Planet talks of delicious homecooked goodies sold by babushkas ... but reality involved pot noodles, chocolate bars and beer. Because the train was running late the stops were shorter than expected which worried Joanna as the train started to depart from Samara and there was no Ben to be seen! After a mad dash to the guard's cabin shouting, "moya moozh!", "my husband!", Joanna was extremely relieved to see Ben turn up from the next carriage having jumped on the train when it began moving. We should tell you at this point that he had been out getting a second lot of snacks for Jojos who seems to need a lot of feeding these days ...

After that kerfuffle we got the knack of the stops and there were no more incidents, even at the Russian border, where Joanna was certain they were going to stop us and send us to a Siberian gulag. That was until we were woken by the woman in charge of our carriage to get ready for our Astana stop. Up until this point all stops had been on Moscow time, so we thought we had hours to get ready for the stop. Not so - we'd jumped 2 hours to Eastern Kazakh time, and the train arrival was imminent. Suddenly sheets had to be removed, bags packed and tea sculled ready for Astana!

Vladimir

Just a quick update first: we're in Macau, the world's new gambling capital, and Joanna is failing to be converted. We flew happily thru Bangkok to Hong Kong, and from there we've popped over on a ferry ride to Macau. Still all safe, and only 7 days until we fly home! Can't believe how fast time's flown. Anyway, that means in a couple of weeks there'll be a whole lot more photos up etc...

But back all the way to Russia, and Vladimir. We had a weekend to fill whilst we waited for our Kazakh visas, and we were keen to get out of expensive busy Moscow. Our 3 hour bus ride (according to Lonely Planet - when will we learn not to believe them?) to Vladimir turned into 5 hours as heavy traffic & numerous car accidents slowed us considerably. You'd think they only designed roads for the elite few who had cars to drive on them, not having everybody wanting to use them. Also there was a bit of rain on the Friday after many days of gorgeous sunshine, so the road may not have been perfect for insane Russian driving. I'm sure that was the excuse for the half-dozen fresh accidents we passed, as well as the few slightly older ones we saw... We were glad we weren't driving the Clio at any rate.

Vladimir is another Russian city that can lay claim to being the first Russian capital. It was founded by Vladimir, but it was a different Vladimir nearly a century odd later who made it a city to be reckoned with. He managed to move the centre of the Russian Orthodox Church from Kiev up to his new stronghold, and it became the biggest Russian city for a century or so before the Mongols came through and destroyed most of Russia. There's still some impressive cathedrals though, including in our opinion the best church in all of Christendom.

On with the photos:
Joanna happy to be out of Moscow (near the fantastic church):


Here's the brilliant church, or Assumption Cathedral, as it is also known. It has a real corpse in it, and you can see the hand! It was some patriarch from the 13th century, but no guide books or internet resources seem to mention the actual dead body on show, and we've now forgotten his name.

The long distance artistic shot:


The church is astounding inside with all the sarcophagii and altars, paintings etc on show. It served as the model for the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin (now the centre of Russian Orthodoxy), but is way cooler. It seemed to have lots of Russian Orthodox pilgrims turning up, who didn't seem bothered by the towns other sites.

We were though. Next door is St Dimitri's. It is the epitome of Russian White Stone work from the 12th & 13th century:

It is amazing up close:


All around Russia - and indeed in Serbia & Romania, one name kept popping up. Alexander Nevsky was the great Russian Hero (as cannonised by Peter the Great). He has a lot of cathedrals named after him, and was buried in the aforementioned cool Assumption Cathedral (his casket is still there), before Moscow got strong and moved him there to assert their dominance. Ivan the Terrible brought all the religious / national treasures he could to Moscow. Ben's just read the wikipedia article on him - what a dude.
Anyway, here he is with Joanna's hero (*bleurck*):


And here's another sculpture, this time of Vladimir who made the town great, behind the Assumption Cathedral:


Here's the Golden Gate, which was the entrance to the medieval city, and is now a roundabout which it is necessary for all local bridal parties to drive around several times whilst hooting their horns. We had our picture of 2 brides in St Petersburg, but if we'd had a wide-angle lens we might have got 7 on a mound behind St Dimitri's. Seeing other brides obviously isn't something that they're worried about here.


We had fun at the local history museum too, despite it being all in Russian. But Joanna's very good at making up stories.

It was a weekend of achievement too, for Ben managed perhaps his simplest leg of the drinking challenge:

It may look like a tumbler of water, but that's vodka, russian style.

All managed rather gracefully.

Monday morning we were on the train back to Moscow, we hoped to pick up our Kazakh visas and head to Kazakhstan in the evening. We needed to in fact, as the train trip was 3 days and we had 3 days left on our Russian visas...

Moscow II

Where we start with a sideways pic of Joanna:


Sorry if that's a bit disappointing, we have more up-to-date shots with a bit more tummy, but you'll have to wait. She has however been told 3 times this week how neat she is for 6 months, so is very proud of that.

When we left you, we were covering our Moscow Tuesday. We went and saw the Armoury in the Kremlin, after the ticket lady told us we didn't have time to see everything and that was the ticket she was going to sell us! It's splendid, although very much a no-photographs sort of place, sorry. Faberge eggs, all the tsar's gold & silver gifts from the last few centuries, and their carriages, thrones and clothes. It's all there. And they seemed to get a lot of presents. None from NZ though, and just a few from Blighty.

Wednesday we couldn't go to the Kazakh Embassy so it was mega-tourist day. After a sleep in, obviously. But when we got to the Kremlin this was the sight that awaited us:


There was a "Young Russia" rally going on, with some serious security. This was the back-up, in case there was trouble:


So we didn't make trouble, and like everyone else quietly walked the long way around to Red Square. We said hello to Lenin (very quietly, no noise in the mausoleum please - or pictures), who was looking somewhat waxy.

Red Square was a bit emptier, the rally appeared to have frightened off some people. Young people had been bussed in fom the provinces and given flags, t-shirts etc ... although some seemed to be taking the opportunity to investigate Moscow's shopping. It's all a bit scary when the Yoof Of The Day support those in power - particularly when they do so so ardently.

We sneaked back past the rally to go see the rest of the Kremlin. It has palaces, including Puti-babes current residence, Stalin's favourite hold-up etc, but you're not allowed into them. Not even the ugly empty one where Communist Party conferences were held. You are allowed into the 5 cathedrals. Yes 5, which seems a little excessive for the Tsar and his family. We guess if they had a falling out on a Sunday morning they could all go somewhere different. The Patriarch (head church dude) has his residence open too, but his stuff has no English. And we weren't allowed to take our camera in, so we'll jump straight to St Basil's:

and it's interior:


Which is quite amazing and not very church-like inside. More like a rabbit warren. Had some nice singing inside though. And some impressive altars and other artwork.

That wasn't quite enough sight-seeing for one day, we also got to ... a shopping mall! Yes, Joanna conquered her fears and made it inside GUM, which it turns out has the only free loos in Moscow. It's too posh to charge. It is, in fact, very very posh. You've had the outside, here's the interior:


So Thursday we were back on the Kazakh visa trail. But we weren't quite quick enough off the mark. Although we made it out of the hotel at 9.30, and to the embassy before 10.30... they still hadn't processed us by the magic shut-off time of 12 o'clock. Come back tomorrow. D'oh. We were quite keen to leave over-crowded Moscow by this point...

So Friday we were very on the ball. 9am opening? We say: get there at 8.30. 2nd in the queue, we were done and dusted by 10. Well, "all submitted, come back Monday" dusted at any rate. So off we went to book tickets to Astana (Kazakhstan), and escape this town... Which took us quite a while, particularly with the world's most confusing train station that liked to send us from desk to desk. We eventually took a bus to Vladimir.

Moscow Part I

(Sept 30 - Oct 5)
We ended up in Moscow all quite a bit longer than planned.

We took an overnight train from Novgorod, with us both on top bunks (4 beds to a cabin in 2nd class). Joanna managed admirably, Ben struggled a little with the serious heat whilst we were trying to sleep... But a great way to travel - your night's accommodation sorted, and you wake up in a new place. At 5.30. Our hostel wasn't to be open until 9.30, so we sat about the train station eating our pastries we'd bought the previous night in preparation. Then we set off on the Moscow metro. Quite busy on a Sunday, but not too bad with our packs - it was only later that week we got the feeling that all >9 million daily users were trying to get into our carriage. Cyrillic reading all going well, we worked out our changing lines and made our way quite north of the city to the "Hotel Street" our hostel was on. Indeed the hostel was located on the 3rd floor of a hotel. We took our time working out where the entrance was, so by the time we got to the hostel office (which was just in a room on the 3rd floor) we were perfectly on time... Shame the hostel people weren't. So we waited... Until nearly 11, having had a good kip on the hotel couches... Apparently our booking hadn't been made, but they had space. Accommodation prices in Moscow take the breath away somewhat - there is no cheap or mid-priced sector really. But you do what you have to. Although we eventually discovered it was cheaper for a double at the hotel than the hostel...

After getting ourselves settled we went into town to have a look at the big sights, wandering around the Kremlin and then onto Red Square. St Basil's Cathedral isn't actually called St Basil's, that's just one of the chapels inside:


Also on Red Square is GUM, the famous mall that had nothing in it in later Communist days - these days it is all designer stores: very Posh.


Here's a view of the whole square:


That was enough for Sunday, Monday we headed to the Kazakh embassy to try to get the ball starting rolling on that front, but no go. In Moscow it turned out we needed an hotel reservation confirmation, which we wouldn't've needed in Blighty. So off we went to try and organise that... which didn't turn out to be so easy. The internet didn't come up with much, and whilst we filled in a couple of forms requesting reservations they still haven't got back to us! We did find a great wee local eatery chain though - Moo-Moo, so at least we had some success on our Monday... After it became clear things weren't happening on Tuesday, Joanna came up with the bright idea of going to a travel agents. Which worked brilliantly. Expensive hotels only available, but reservation was achieved... although unfortunately we got to the Kazakh Embassy at 12.30, and the visa applications shut at 12... and there's no Wednesday service...

So we had a wander down from the embassy again - we got to know the central area reasonably well... There's almost as much stuff being renovated as in St Pete's. Here's the Bolshoi Ballet Theatre:


The next image would've been one of Joanna sideways, as these shots are regularly requested, but this internet cafe doesn't do USB. So just the 5 images I uploaded at an Astana cafe, sorry. We'll have to continue the tale of hot, sunny, overcrowded, over-bustling Moscow someplace else.

Quick slice of life thoughts from the Russian capital though:
- No-one knows where they're going and we look Russian. Everybody seemed to ask us for directions. Although occassionally when we looked quite lost enough people would ask if they could help us with directions... which they generally couldn't.
- Sheets aren't allowed to be big enough for beds in Russia (and we've discovered in Kazakhstan too). Admittedly you don't use the sheet under the pillow, but seriously, cloth can't cost that much...
- They must worry about the great gob shortage in the west of the last few decades. We don't know where the men get all their phlegm from, but it seems to need constant expulsion from their mouths. Even whilst smoking. It may be phenomenal, but it's not a phenomenon that needs witnessing...

We're in Almaty (18 October), which is beautiful and leafy and gorgeously sunny. Turns out we didn't need to pack the thermals. Saturday we have a trip up a canyon before flying early on Sunday. We'll try and get Moscow finished tomorrow...

Update from Kazakhstan

So we're in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. And yes, a bit behind on the blog. Not always so easy to find good places to blog, particularly with USB ports to upload photos (because we know you're all about the photos).

But we thought we should update on a change of plan. We're cheating. We're going to fly from Almaty to Hong Kong. We decided that after the difficulties we had getting our Kazakh visa (Moscow post next up...) - both for what that foreboded with our Chinese visa and with the time it left us; and the difficulties that Joanna's belly was going to pose - both with the picking up of the pack and the fear of the Chinese food we'd be putting in it... we thought we'd better sack the China plan.

But on the plus side, as we're overnighting in Bangkok Ben will be able to complete that part of the drink challenge. And it gives us a bit more time to explore Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, and now: Macau.

Novgorod

We stopped for a night & a day in Novgorod, which is between St P'burg and Moskva. We arrived just after dark, and just went for the first hotel we found. Which meant we had to take a suite with a spa bath, but it cost about as much as a hostel in St P'burg (and less than Moscow), so we probably deserved it or something. Joanna still isn't entirely in tune with the weiners and salad for brekkie though.

This will obviously be your immediate expectation of what inner European Russia looks like:


Yes that is a beach. A river beach. Suddenly it became clear what we'd been reading about Novgorod being an important trading town for the Vikings - they could get their boats up this far. Novgorod is one of a few Russian cities that has claim to being the First Russian Capital. Apparently the Vikings, working on trade with the Middle East (I'm not making this up), were the ones to organise the Slavic locals into civilisations, countries etc. So Novgorod was set up as a trading port a bit over 1200 years ago, and was the capital of the first Russian state (of which there were to be quite a few) 1100-odd years ago.
Here's the Millennium of Russia monument they put up to celebrate it:


They built a great church in 1050, St Sophia's, where we got to learn a bit about Russian Orthodoxy as we tuned into a guided tour:


It was quite interesting. Although 2 hour services with no seats, or even any hymns sounds quite hard work. Also a bit weird watching all the women covering their heads.

Here's a different view of the Novgorod Kremlin (or "fortress" as we non-poetic anglo-saxons would call it):


And yes, we know you can get in trouble for taking pictures of stranger's kids, but we had to show you what was cool in town: autumn leaves. All the girls were collecting them, and some really cool cats knew how to turn them into a hat:


Final historical note for the history geeks: Ivan the Terrible is not popular here. He razed the town with his "storm-troopers" (not just in Star Wars apparently), stopping it being a major trading town forever more. Novgorod had survived the Mongols coming through Russia, as they were put off sacking it due to it being a boggy day when they arrived; this had left it as by far the prettiest Russian city before Ivan's men went to work on it. Oh well, a man can go a bit doolally after his wife dies I s'pose...

St Petersburg Part Dva

Where we get to tell you about how you can't move in St Pete's for sushi bars...

After the first day wandering about generally being amazed by the beauty of the whole of central St Petersburg (or at least the half that isn't being renovated), the second day we went into St Isaac's (no pictures inside, as usual, sorry) which was spangly. From there we went into the Hermitage (defo no pictures!), which was somewhat overwhelming. We didn't even go into the Gold Room (the room with all the gold). But we saw the 25 Rembrandts and however many Van Goghs, Picassos, Matisses, Monets & Manets etc etc... No glass covers on any of them, not really anything to stop you touching them, save a stern old lady in the corner of the room. It's all a bit jammed in across 3 palaces walls, but if you've got that much stuff (and only about 1/20th of their art collection is on show), it's going to get crowded, even if your palaces are massive and 3 stories high. It seems that Catherine 2 was a bit of an art collector - she certainly wasn't a looker, despite all those stories about her many lovers.

We wandered through the Mars field after, with its eternal flame. The Russians seem quite keen on eternal flames. We had to come back the next day for the Summer Gardens next door, which were in fact, somewhat autumnal:


Peter's Summer Palace is in the Gardens, but isn't very big unlike the Winter Palace of the Hermitage. So on we went ovber the river Neva to the Saints Peter & Paul Fortress. Peter I - the Great - established St Petersburg roughly 300 years ago after taking the area off the Swedes. To make sure they never took it back he built the fortress, with the centrepiece being this cathedral:


Orthodox churches are quite different, there are no pews - except one for the tsar, and one for the patriarch, and they are more thrones. Here's the view down the middle: (photos inside - yay!)


Here's the pulpit - would the Reverend Doctor David Clark like to preach from here we wondered?


All but 2 of the tsars since Peter I have been laid to rest here so the church is full of sarcophagi - and here's the great man himself:


It's hard to move around St Petersburg without bumping into Peter reminders. Indeed the whole of Russia has its share - even Moscow who he snubbed by moving the capital to St Petersburg. At that point it was just a swamp that he was having drained into canals, so the bureaucratic civil servants complained - but he didn't really like them anyway... Who'd have thought victory over Sweden would make you the country's number 1 hero?

Just outside the fort's walls we spotted these late September sun worshippers. Apparently in St Petersburg the only way to get a proper tan is to stand, tan lines just won't do!


Ben didn't get to go to the Liverpool Bar around the corner from our hostel, but they've not been doing so well since we came to Russia anyway. And we're not even mentioning the All Blacks.

St Petersburg

(September 25 - 27)
We arrived in St Petersburg quite late after our train journey from Helsinki. It was rather nice to cross a non EU border without any hassle - the officers just took our passports away and returned them with a nice stamp in it!

Ben was back to reading everything he could in Russian to show off his knowledge of Cyrillic - which came in handy when the first thing we needed to do was hop on a tube train. They come along every three minutes in St Petersburg and even more often in Moscow, Londoners would love it!

Our first day we headed out to walk around all the major sites, and to give you an idea of just what an architectural wonderland St Petersburg is, the next three snaps were all taken from the same spot!

Hermitage: Winter Palace. (Alexander I Column in front - everybody who beats Napoleon deserves a column, eh Nelson?)


Admiralty (now a naval college):


General Staff Building:


This is apparently the typical tourist picture that gets taken at the side of the Hermitage looking back over St Isaac's Cathedral ... but more on that later.


Our walking tour snaked around the city, past the Royal Stables, the house Pushkin died in after his duel and to the Church of Christ the Saviour on Spilled Blood. It seems to be a popular spot for couples to have their wedding photos taken beside ... someone really should have warned them not to wear the same colour!


The church gets its gruesome name as it was built on the spot where Alexander II (he who freed the serfs) was assasinated by the People's Will terrorist group in 1881.

We wandered on past many pretty buildings. Kazan cathedral was very beautiful, but Joanna doesn't like the face she's pulling in that photo.

The city council buildings and many others were former palaces, but back to St Isaac's:


The communists turned it into an anti-religious museum. It's now still a museum, but not anti-religious. It does have occassional services for big Christian events. The huge doors and all the gold and paitings are all very impressive. Actually the paintings on many Russian Orthodox church walls are amazing.

The view the other way from St Isaac's, across the river is brilliant too:


Massive fountains just in the middle of the river. Beautiful museums, and the Saints Peter & Paul Cathedral. The Cathedral is in the middle of St.s Peter and Paul's Fort. We went there on the day we left St Petersburg, but are having trouble finding a place we can get the photos off the camera. So we are going to do St Petersburg in 2 posts, as this one's been waiting for ages. The other one will be much smaller.