Last day in Moscow

Had coffee and breakfast near our hotel, before walking to Red Square. Security was high and you had to pass through metal detectors. The police were blatantly profiling people and we were invited to the front and briefly searched before being allowed through. Makes sense as we surely do not look like a threat.

Stalin at Red Square

Putin

We visited the Armery in the Kremlin where all the fine jewels, clothing and carriages are displayed. Very beautiful but no photos allowed. We tried to visit the Kremlin afterwards but being new year it had closed early.

Communist building, 1 of the 7 Stalin had built

Our last view of Red Sq and the Kremlin

Had an early dinner near our hotel and then did some grocery shopping.

We are now off to catch the Trans Siberia train!

The Moscow underground had only cyrlic so it was a challenge, but with some help from locals we navigated our extended route to go past the stations marked as beautiful in our guide books. We didn't get off, but looked from he train.
Found our way to the train station and waited on the platform for maybe two hours . There were two dogs to keep me entertained at least. They were obviously cared for by the station staff and one was quite obese. I think the guy said this was from being castrated, but maybe I misunderstood.
The train arrived and we boarded.

There was a Dutch couple in the coupe next to us, and we were the only people on our coach, other than the two conductors . I couldn't work out if there was 1 or 2 per coach. We settled in and had some of our salmon and bread for supper. Unlike in SA, Salmon seems to be considered one of the cheaper fish in Russia.

Our luxury coupe, with some alcohol chocolates we bought called bear bar, in shapes of bottles

Our shower, shared with the Dutch couple . It is between the two couple's, opening from each side and you lock their side when you are using it.

It was a spectacular way to leave Moscow with fireworks going off for our departure, or maybe for New Year. Sad to have missed being in Moscow for them but at least we saw some.
Roy and I decided to go look around and find some fun, so we headed towards the dining car and the shared coupes. We found just what we were looking for, some Berliners. We joined them for a drink, and got an invitation to their New Years party. We went back for a second bottle of red and I had an obligatory swig of vodka. Some others joined the party and at midnight champagne was popped and shared and we had one of the nicest New Years parties ever!

We finally headed off for bed at about 2.

Moscow

Slept until 11. How lazy, but definitely needed a catch up.
Red Square had extra security after the Volgograd bomb the day before. We walked to the gulag museum but it is closed on a Monday. Looked at the delicious cakes in Café Pushkin (but neither of us felt like sweet things) and have to confess we had a late lunch at Mc Donalds. It was cheap and filling.

Dress display in shopping centre next to Red Square

We then viewed Christ the Redeemer Cathedral, and again found the museum of fine art is closed on a Monday. Quite a grey day in Moscow. Just heard there was a second bomb explosion in Volgograd.

Cathedral of Christ the redeemer in the background,  Kremlin on the right.

Had dinner at Punch and Judy pub after walking around Red Square and the shops.

Expensive shops

Moscow aerobatics flight

Today was meant to be the highlight of the holiday, instead it was bitterly disappointing.
We were woken by the lady conductor at 4.45 and arrived at Moscow half an hour later. We looked for the metro, but turns out it only opens at 6 (we think). The first taxi driver quoted us 1000 rubles, but walking a few meters on we found one who charged 400. Arriving at our hotel at 6 in the morning, not having any contact details to do confirmations, we were very relieved when the door unlocked. The stairs up to the 5th floor looked a bit groty, but I was really pleased with the hotel. Modern, spacious,  just lovely, and so early in the morning it was already available. We had a quick shower and confirmed our transport and translator was on her way.
When we were in St Petersburg at the Vegan restaurant, Nicolas who worked there offered to give us any advice. Roy phoned him to see if he could advise on how to get to the airfield outside of Moscow, and he put us in touch with Nadia. She arrived soon after 7 and sms'd us that she was outside.

Nadia dropping us back at our hotel

We headed off for our big adventure! After an hour or two driving we stopped for petrol and Roy withdrew the last of the cash we needed. In St Petersburg we had literally emptied out the ATM, but where we were going had insisted on cash. We drove on through the snow covered countryside,  until we were about half an hour from the airfield, where Nadia and Roy bought some coffee.

As Roy got back in the car, his cell rang and even assumed it was the Russian acrobatics team calling to confirm we were almost there. Roy had struggled and organized this beyond all obstacles. Anyone doing flights was closed for the holidays, and after much perseverance the team had agreed to let 2 pilots take us out if we could be there on the 29th. Everything was coming together. 

Except the weather. She was phoning to say there was ice on the runway and the flights were cancelled. We were gutted.

Nadia phoned her back to find out if we could wait a few hours, but it was a no go.

This photo should have been us - off website of our plane we couldn't go up in

Miserable, we headed back to Moscow.

Nadia was so nice and tried to cheer us up with a drive around the city and walk next to Gorky park, but nothing was going to match flying around in a jet plane, and we were flat, sad company.

Real shuttle next to Gorky park

She dropped us back at our hotel where we moped a little, then decided to go have some lunch. As our hotel is so central (thanks Roy) we decided to find a place overlooking red Square. Silly.

Even Red Square won't cheer me up. St Basils cathedral. Legand has it that Ivan  the terrible had the architect blinded so he could never create something to rival this. Hectic!

Red Square

We got warm wine at the market, and stumbled into a shopping centre. Was glad to see it was as modern as other countries,  so it was just the one in St Petersburg that was time warped. We gave up on finding somewhere we could afford and starving, we finally had breakfast, lunch and supper at a Ukranian restaurant next to our hotel.

St Petersburg last day

Walked to the island which has Peter and Paul fortress. All slightly dull on this overcast day. Passed the military museum.

Took  the metro look at the stations marked as beautiful but wasn't too exciting. Roy wanted to see the Baltic sea do we took the underground north, walked through a theme park to the sea and found a fish restaurant where we are now having a late lunch.

Roy after lunch

Took a slow walk back to the metro and to our hotel where they were having their year end function in the kitchen next to reception. I was worried we were spoiling their party, but there was much popping and clinking of glasses, speeches and gift giving. They kindly brought us a plate of pastries and some tea. I read my book and enjoyed the rest, killing time.
We took the tube, with our luggage to the train station where we sat next to a sweet drunk old homeless man. I noticed there is still a lot of chivalry in Russia. I noticed a young man give his seat to an older woman on the train. Young men would often help me carry my bag up stairs. It is nice.
We found our platform number and boarded our train where this time it was full and we shared our cabin with another 2 guys.

Our 22h00 train from St Petersburg to Moscow

The gym instructor in our cabin said he noticed Roys spine wasn't straight and he offered to do a fix on his hips. While it might have been a good thing,  we weren't willing to risk it, considering he was still in training. Read a little and fell asleep to much klinking of metal. Tomorrow was to be a big day!

Hermitage & ballet, St Petersburg

We had a slow morning, did some banking and had an early lunch at our vegan, raw restaurant. Delicious warm lentil salad, fresh juices and a blueberry pie made with nut and honey base.

Vegan, raw restaurant

 We spent the afternoon at the Hermitage (museum) which is part of the winter Palace.

Roy enjoyed the art, and explained to me what was so special about the Rembrants we were looking at. There was a lot of work from famous artists, Monet,  Van Gogh, etc, etc.
Of course, the animals always appeal to me.

We had dinner in an Irish pub and then walked past St Isaacs cathedral to the Mariinsky theatre.

St Isaacs cathedral

Dad and Mom had bought us tickets to watch the Nutcracker. This being Tsikovskys city it was most appropriate. Thanks, it was great.

Mariinsky theatre

I struggled to find something smart enough in my backpack and ended up wearing my thermal longjohns as leggings,  but with my long jacket it seemed fine. Leaving my jacket on offended the staff at the theatre. They have quite a different way of doing things. We had to use a certain door depending on our ticket. I was told to hand in my jacket and when I refused she was furious. I was soon accosted again and told to remove my jacket. I gave it when we entered the actual stall and when I put my phone on before the show (to put it on silent mode), one of the dragon staff noticed and made a huge scene until I switched the screen off. What was amusing is that while photography is prohibited in the theatre, absolutely everyone was ignoring this. The man next me played on his phone the whole way through the show. I think I just had bad luck with bossy woman - it was getting a bit tiresome!

What was nice was that in my stall there were six people and I was on the back row, so could stand up to see the stage better.

The ballet was lovely and the music beautiful.  We walked home along the canals.

And for our last night's sleep in St Petersburg.

Catherines Palace

After breakfast at our hotel we caught the metro to Vitebsky station by 10 only to find the train service wasn't running until midday. So back into the metro we went to the station where you can get buses to Tsarskoe selo, where the palace is. The metro was uninteresting except that it was so deep. The escalator just kept on going down. The other new thing was that when we got to our station there was no platform initially, and then doors opened in the wall next to the train doors and you stepped through the doors onto the platform.  It was now getting light at about 11 o clock.  We found a bus easily enough and using the GPS on our phone we could work out when the bus was near the castle. There is not always English around in Russia.
The castle was pretty, but to be frank I'm a little tired of them now.

Catherines palace

 There was a room with all the wall panels made of amber. The Germans trashed this along with the rest of the palace in 1945, and a German company paid for the amber room to be recreated. No photos were allowed in this room.

Dining rooms

It was quite a bit colder out here, but sadly still no snow so we didn't bother looking for the horse drawn rides. The locals say it should have snowed a month ago already.

Freezing pond at the palace

 We couldn't find a bus that was going to the right station (we used Roys phone to convert the station name to it's cyrlic version,  but still couldn't find one, so we gave up and walked the 2km to the station and caught a train back to St Petersburg.

 Cold Russian station

 We found a nice restaurant on trip advisor,  halfway back to our hotel,  so walked the km there and had a lovely meal. As promised, the atmosphere was great and the waitresses spoke English. We did note the South African wine on the menu was 10 times the price of what it costs in SA. I had the R60 glass of Italian red, which was awful :)

Arrive St Petersburg

The first part of the train journey was updated in previous blog, where we fell into a deep sleep. At about 1 in the morning our door was opened and we were at the Latvia immigration. The tough looking man checked our passports and then called an official who could speak English and said Roy had to come with him. I chatted a bit while Roy was dressing for the cold and he'd lived in Peterborough for a while. We'd read that Latvia border was a little dodgy, so it felt reassuring for some reason that this man had lived in the UK. He explained they just needed Roys fingerprints because of him having a shengen visa. N the end they couldn't get it together and they just stamped his passport anyway.

We fell asleep again and were woken at about 2.30 at the Russian border. A very stern lady checked our passports, staring at us, then our photos. A young guy who had some English joined her and asked to see our tickets departing from Russia. All seemed in order and they left with our forms and passports. We'd read that you must get your entry AND exit form stamped . About 15 minutes later she returned our passports with stamped exit form. Wheh, we were into Russia. 

Fell asleep and were woken when I conductor opened our room and returned our tickets. We didn't realise our stop was soon and I'd have slept right through it, but fortunately Roy checked with her.

Arriving St Petersburg station

We decided doing the metro with bags was too much to attempt when all the stations are in cyrylic, so considered walking or a taxi. We found an autobank and Roy selected 500 rubles. It wouldn't accept his choice, so he chose 800 and the transaction went through, but gave him 100, with a receipt to match. The screen then showed that only 100, 500 or 1000 were available. So we tried again for 1000. It returned 800 with a receipt to match. How random.

We asked a taxi at the station how much and it was 1500.  Not having enough cash we started to walk when soon another taxi driver approached Roy. His car was very old, and he said he'd take us for 300! He drove like a mad man, weaving through rush hour traffic and got us to our hotel in record time.

We checked in and went to the bakery downstairs for a coffee and pastry.

Went walking....

Hermitage museum and Winter Palace

This church was built on the site where Alexandria or someone the 2nd was assassinated. 

Church on Spilled blood

Had dinner in a small restaurant which advertised being vegetarian and raw. We ordered linguini with porcine mushroom and truffle sauce. It was delicious. I ordered the pea soup, which tasted like fresh peas. It was incredible. Lastly we tried the quinoa which was also good. The owner chatted with us and asked us to put a good word on trip advisor, and offered to give us any advice n St Petersburg. After eating we visited the famous shopping centre on Nevsky Prospect but it was just too ugly to photograph. It looked like a centre must have 60 years ago. Really old fashioned. I was surprised as most the ladies in St Petersburg look very stylish. I've felt decidedly frumpy most of the trip. The standard uniform for woman in Europe has been tight fitted trousers,  boots over them and a stylish, mostly puffy jacket, often with a fur collar. I look a bit like I've just stepped out from the back and beyond. I have the perfect outfits at home, but no room in my bags.

St Petersburg at night

Now we are having a drink in an underground bar. St Petersburg is not cheap. R50 a glass of red wine . Then again we paid R45 per coffee at our hotel in Paris. Europe is not cheap. So far Lithuania felt the most affordable.

Kriek brasserie, St Petersburg

Vilnius, Lithuania

The bus cooled down and the chair went back far enough to make for a comfortable nights sleep. There was an annoying high pitched man sitting behind Roy who kept making a fuss when Roy reclined his seat. I thought he must have extra long legs or some disability, but on reaching Vilnius, we realised while he pushed in front of everyone to get his bag first, that he was just annoyingly precious and wanted the person in front of him to be the only person on the bus spending the night in an upright position. You do meet some characters travelling.
We disembarked and found a toilet, only to realise you had to slot in a coin to use it. Such an inhospitable place. Warsaw also charged Roy as much for a pee as the coffee which created it :)  There had been a toilet on the bus but every time I tried to use it, it was locked because we were in town. No idea why. But I'm sure this is more detail than anyone is interested in.
The man at the baggage lockers kindly gave me enough for us both.  Relieved, we walked to the train station over the road, drew cash and put our luggage in a large coin operated locker.
Again, we walked to what is called the old town.

Note all the ice - it's getting cold!

Gates of dawn

The streets were empty I think Europe only wakes after 9.

Streets of Vilnius

Some sweet chickens we saw in a shop window. I later bought myself an amber heart (for a necklace) at this shop.

This restaurant looked appealing, so we went in for coffee.

Mmm, good lavazza coffee. Healthy smoothie, omelette and chicken broth. Think we could spend all day here.

After a long breakfast we walked up to view the castle which was a bit dull although the view was good.

Not much of a castle

We then went to the KGB / victims of Holocaust museum but it was closed. We walked past all the fancy clothing shops. Needed to replace the shirt Roy forgot in UK, but typically,  I got a new shirt, not Roy.  I loved this statue outside an optometrists.

Feeling tired, we found a nice Lithuania restaurant where we had a late lunch.

Lunch

Roys was a smoked piece of chicken cooked inside a potato pie. Was very tasty. The Lithuania beers were ok.
To stop ourselves falling asleep we walked to the market in the square,  but there wasn't much, so we are back in the coffee shop again.

Same coffee shop after dark

Will walk back to the station in an hours time.

We had no problems catching the train.  There were plush carpets down the passages. Our lady conductor spoke no English, but someone on the platform translated for me. We had booked second class for this leg as it was short and substantially cheaper, but while the train seemed half empty, we were already 3 in our compartment with another person soon to join. I asked her if it was possible to move to an empty carriage. She looked very stern and it sounded like she was saying no, but she was really helpful and moved the other guys out of our compartment so nobody was more than 2 per compartment. It was great! There was a toilet but no shower. Thank goodness for the Dove deodorant Jess gave me.

Train from Vilnius, Lithuania,  to St Petersburg,  Russia

The one man who was moved from our room spoke perfect English, from Lithuania, and we chatted with him a while. We filled out are immigration cards, had some cambembert from France and naartjies from Vilnius (we gave our conductor some as we read Russians like gifting). We fell into a much needed deep sleep.