hostel

this hostel rules. Everyone is in bed by 10pm. They are all grown up and/or Germans. Why is it that I am the only one who has been doing what the Russians do and drinking on the street on my way to the 24 hour beer shop that also sells these warm sausages in a kind bread that could really do with ketchup but I can eat them anyway....?

I found we have Internet here so while Ania is shaking, sweating and feeling pain in her bones I can at least read her the latest news about the sicko from Austria and what he has been up to with his daughter for the last 24 years. It certainly makes for interesting reading. What is wrong with these austrians? Karl?

Uniform

One thing i have noticed about russia is the huge military presence everywhere you go. I'm to scared to take photos of them even though i have a discreet camera, I on the other hand stick out like a sore thumb and with a 28mm i need to get right in their face. I have figured out that there are four types of people in uniform.

Police: Mostly a blue uniform. I have seen these guys checking peoples documents and waving batons. There are usually 3 of them.

Military: Army, Navy...all kinds. Most of these guys are just kids and you often see them drinking in parks wich is a great russian past time.

Security Guards: Now these guys are confusing as they are in camo gear but may only be patroling a bank. I did see one guy with a machine gun leaving on his van with a fag. I resisted a photo.

Randoms: Now there are also just groups of guys who apear to enjoy wearing full on camo gear. this is kind of worrying as you never know who you should take seriously.

Luckily i have not been approached by any of them...yet.

I Don't Like It On Top

2 nights on the top bunk on the train kind of sucked but we made it to Irkutsk. It's pretty chilled here. Not so many scummy people and pretty chilled out. ania has come down with some kind of flu so looks like i will be having to make some friends at the hostel tonight. We have finally fallen into a travellers world. Only going to spend a couple of nights here then head to lake Baikal which should be lovely! We have already tryed the local fish and its a good 'un. No chips though as yet...

I have two songs stuck in my head from the radio over here and they have blended into one. So can someone out there do some kind of mashup with missy elliott - 4 my people and dj smash with Moscow Never Sleeps. Yes I did have to look these up.

"this is for my people, my ecstacy people.....Moscow never sleeps...."

Welcome to my nightmare.

its snowing!

yes its snowing here in novosibersk. The siberian wind is cold today which is just right for a hangover. Last night we went out to a rock bar. The band was cranking out the hits from ac/dc, the doors, pink floyd etc to another very enthusiastic Russian crowd! The place was packed and it was sunday night. It was like going back in time 15 years...amusing. Again we were the only westerners till later in the night we saw a couple of guys come in looking even more out of place than we did. Ania started talking to them and it turned out they were Italians over here as they own property here. Stefano and stefano! They were staying at our hotel as well so we had a few drinks back here at the bar. They said they hated it here and are were thinking of pulling out due to the lack of support against the Russian mafia who can do what they please. Aparently in the past the have just taken property from foriegners and there is nothing that can be done about it....unless you can outgun them!

Talking to these guys last night made us realize that we have not been able to have a conversation with anyone but each other since we left Amsterdam! Where are all these "travelers"? I'm not complaining cos I don't really want to be part of an Aussie backpacking posse but it seems kind of strange. This evening we leave for Irkutsk on the number 12 train (30 hours). Its minus 1 there right now.

People keep staring at me all the time, everywhere we go. I don't know what they are thinking...actually I think that they might just think I'm Brad Pitt.

You would have noticed a few more photos. Internet is still a problem so I didn't get to catch up as far as I would have liked. Ciao for now!

Plush

The toilet on the 350 train from Ekaterinburg to Novosibersk.

Waiting Room

We actually paid to wait in this lush waiting room. The idea of being stabbed outside did not really appeal.

The Afganistan War Memorial in Ekaterinburg.

We like tanks!

We couldn't get into the military museum in Ekaterinburg but we did get to look at tanks around the back.

Its A Bus

Soviet Hotel Chill Out Zone

Guinness

Someone said i wouldn't be drinking one for a long time. Guess again.

Now I wish i brought my bloody laptop!

Seems these russians don't want me plugging my camera into their computers at their "internet club". They don'teven have enough english skill for me to explain what i want to do the heathens. It's not all bad news though.we had a lovely breakfast of bacon, eggs and chips at an american dinner smack in the middle of communist concrete. We sorted out our train to Irkutsk and will leave tomorrow night. This leaves quite a bit of time to go check out the bars in this crazy town.

I have so many photos and a nice video to show you! Oh dear...

Before i go....let me say this in the most subtle way i possibly can.

If you like girls - Then you will like russia.

Siberia

so here we are now in Novosibirsk. We arrived last night after midnight after a pretty relaxing train journey. I just tried to sleep as much as possible. It was a 4 berth so we had the company of a little girl names christina and her mum. They were in a family group next door and mostly hung out there so we hardly saw them. Since we took one of the scummier trains there were no western travellers and not a word of English to be seen or spoken. I managed to buy a few beers from the babushkas on the platform who are there at just about every stop selling anything from beer to random vases and light fittings.

We were a little bit naughty last night as there are no hostels in this city and after our last soviet experience we have checked into the best hotel in town. Its pretty easy to talk them down to cheaper rooms which makes it a little more economical but even better as technically we had arrived on Sunday (only by 15 minutes) this means that we only pay for one night instead of two. I like this idea. I liked it so much that we went and spend half the price of the room on the bar. This hotel is amazing. I have never stayed in a place its own strip club before. And its open from 10pm till 8am! You could have breakfast and then a lapdance.

We are going to try really hard to find a decent internet cafe and upload some stuff today so stay tuned!

So...

So here we are in Yekaterinburg. The sun came out on our last day in Moscow which really made a differance to the city. Our train was really good. We had a whole compartment to ourselves and everything was spotless. Yekaterinburg is a nice little city. The people are a little more...normal compared to Moscow. In Moscow all the girls wear tight jeans or miniskirts with knee high boots. Here they are a little more relaxed. The hotel we are staying at is quite an experience. It was the cheapest that we could get and ius a monster former soviet place. You need a piece of paper to do anything. Our room has no toilet or shower. The shower is in the basement and you need to pay to use it. You can then give the pice of paper to the attendant. There are attendants on every floor...all waiting to see your papers. It's much how i expect prison to be. We are leaving today on our way to Novosibersk. Not sure how good this train will be as we booked this one at the local station not through a western agency.

here is a little video of our prison.

Actually...there is no video. Damn these russian PCs. I will try and post from another computer...

ciao

more pics

bollocks....pc's suck and im outta patience.

laters

photos!

ok....the frenchie is off the computer so here we go...

second impressions?

Glitzy!

Now that I have taken over logistics and we have our bearings we saw a whole new side to the city. Basicly the whole center is just full of designer clothing stores. Everthing you could imagine from the west they have at least one of. The trouble is that these stores are void of customers! Its funny. Its obviously a status thing for the wealthy Russians to wear these brands but they just don't seem to get it. Do they think that we actually wear this shit???
I have also never in my life seen so many "prestige" European cars in black and with blacked out windows. Its all very strange. Needless to say we did a fair bit of walking and touristy things today which was actually quite interesting/fun. We leave here tomorrow afternoon for yekaterineburg. Haven't been able to get any photos up as there is always some muppet on the only pc here in this hostel. I wore the same clothes for five days straight and it was great. Clean clothes are over rated. (in cooler climates at least)

oh dear

well. My first impressions of moscow I would have to describe as drab. As I have absolutely no idea about the language here I decided it would be ok let ania take charge of the directions and we went for a lovely walk into the centre. That is, a 40 minute walk east of the center in the pissing rain. It has not stopped raining since we got here. I started getting suspicious about our whereabouts though when there was nothing interesting coming our way. No problem though. We can just get the metro to where we want to be!(?)

Not really....the metro is VERY difficult even for someone with basic Russian skills. We have got it Sussed I think now but it makes you realise just how little influence the west has over Russia. There is nothing in English at all.

I took ania to a rockabilly club tonight. That was a mission to find in the middle of knowhere and in the pissing rain. We finally found it amoungst the housing estates in a basement down a long muddy drive way. Boy was it worth it! As soon as the band came on the Russians went crazy! All dancing like maniacs. Its so kitch. They really have no clue which made it so hilarious. I have photos so will hopefully post some tomorrow.

Its raining again all day tomorrow.....

we made it!

well....we have made it as far as Moscow. The train from Amsterdam was pretty sweet. We had our own cabin with a sink and bunks! The guards on each cabin did not speak any English at all(Russians)which made looking for the dining car quite an effort. There was no dining car! Luckily we did some shopping before hand or we would have starved. I did manage to aquire a couple of bottles of warm Russian beer from one of the guards. Anias parents met us at Warsaw and gave us more beer and food.

So first impressions of Moscow? Unsure as yet but the metro is confusing even without the language issue. Thank god for ania. I am completely in her hands. We have just checked into the hostel so going to get a shower and head out for a look around. Hopefully I will be able to upload some photos later...

warning

the current posts will be from my iPod which is evfn less perfect than I am when it comes to typos!

Yo yo!

so we managed to escape from england! We did have to use quite a lot of super glue and silicone but I think we managed to assert our selves in a "that's what you get when you fuck with me!.....whiteboy!" kind of way. I can't recommend going to Amsterdam via ferry enough. We had a really nice like new cabin and the actual boats bar and restaurant areas
restaurant areas were like new too. Hardly anyone on board either. Still its an hour and a half to Amsterdam but if you have the time its pretty chilled.

Amsterdam is great as always though its just gone midnight and the streets are 95% male and seem to be packs from
thenorth of England. Time retreat and reflect....actually ania wants to sleep and I might go to the bar so until next time sports fans...

Jace