Well, well done to Conor, Chris and Tom! I will repeat, you are all stars! I know that it's no easy task to move the vast quantity0 of material possessions that I have acquired over the last (nearly) 26 years, so "Spasibo bolshoye" as they would say over here. You will all be invited to share the vodka that I will (inevitably) bring back from this marvellous country. I think some Russian style drinking will be in order! I'm pretty excited about coming home to a whole new flat (and flatmate...).
Back in Moscow briefly, after a whistlestop trip to the beautiful St. Petersburg. Have been going to a lot of the usual tourist spots in both Moscow and St. Petes but have also managed to go some new (for me) and more unusual places. The Mayakovski Museum in Moscow is absolutely amazing and unlike anything I have ever seen before. Maykovski was a poet/ revolutionary/ artist and the building that he lived in has been transformed into this amazing modernist/ futurist museum dedicated to him. All the unsual things from his life (letters, clothes, posters he designed, books he read/ wrote) are displayed but not in the usual glass cases. Instead they are all set within these amazing futurist installations at weird angles with big girders and sculptures intermingled. I really can't describe it but it was fantastic. In St. Petes we went to the Zoological Museum. It's mostly stuffed animals, in a variety of lifelike poses, the highlight of which is a 44, 000 yr old mammoth that was unfrozen from the ice in Siberia in 1900 and stuffed. It's lost most of its hair so it kind just looks like an elephant. Pretty cool though! They also have a live insect zoo which was pretty cool but makes your skin crawl a little.
Have also visited a variety of cathederals/ churches and parks, have drunk plenty of Russki beer and some vodka. Living off street food which mostly consists of pancakes, pies and pastries with some fruit and veg thrown in occasionally for variety. Have also been overdosing on the tasty ice-cream. Well, when it's 20p for a delicious cone it can't be helped!
Have now safely deposited my sister on the train to the airport (Domedova) and I'm now off to a different airport (Sheremetovo-1) on the other side of the city to fly to Vladivostok. Am feeling rather nervous about this whole thing, although I'm really excited too. The trip to St. Petes and back really got me in the mood and I had a nice chat with a lovely man called Vladimir. Even with my terribly broken Russian we managed to understand each other (I think). Even if we didn't we both enjoyed chatting for an hour or so. I think this bodes well for the rest of the journey!
Weather remains hot and sunny but I have no idea what the Far East has in store for me...
Well, I think that's more than enough for now.
Ciao,
Lottie x
P.S. Ezio, I think my first stop will be Khabarovsk and then maybe Ulan Ude (couldn't miss the giant head after all). I don't think I'll be stopping in Chita - unless you would recommend otherwise. Any advice?
5 comments:
to the "scottish man" above (longer version of tom): russian man occupies 11 slots, vladimir only 8...
to lottie: i think the far east has some familiar weather in store for you, at least vladivostok won't be very different from leith, just the battleships resting in the bay might provide some 007-feelings. if you are reading this in vladivostok you are probably in the telecom office in front of the harbour, long and bare, like the whole country. anyway, things to do in vladivostok: hanging out at the train station for when "rossia" train leaves: there will be pleasent surprise. playin volleyball on the beach with a very diverse conglomerate of post-soviet under-ploretariat. watchin sun rising from japan (which reads: watchin sun raisin from sun raisin, not bad). going to north korean border if you can, i couldn't. oh, by the way, north korea has just launched some long-range missiles that fortunately exploded in mid-air. unclear where they were going. but that should provide for extra excitenment in the far east... all for now, dasvidanie druziat
Yes, Ezio, but I did say "A Russian man called Vladimir", which takes up much more space.
No, Tom, not all Russian men are called Vladimir, some are called Sergei. And, of course the mammoth isn't really 44,000 years old, that's just what these athiest commies think.
Thanks for the tips Ezio! Yes, I am indeed in the telecoms office opposite the harbour (how did you know? ;-)). Unfortunately, missed the sunrise this morning. I was so tired/ jet-lagged so slept in till 10.30am, but then that is 3.30am Moscow time. I am now at GMT +11 hours, which means I'm a whole 10 hours ahead of you guys and also means I lost half a day somewhere. Only staying here one night (last night) and heading off to Khabarovsk (about 13 hours away)tonight on the 23.30 train (or, 16.30 as the timetable would have it, since the trains run on Moscow time - still finding that confusing but invested in dual-time watch before I left the UK, which helps). No time to go see the North Korean border, but it sounds like it might not be the best place to be right now though!
So far in Vladivostok (about a day) I have spent hours getting to the centre of town from the airport (Glasgow Prestwick has nothing on Vladivostok!), been to the local history museum, seen some big warships hanging around in the harbour, climbed around in an old soviet sub and been to the fortress museum, where I had a nice chat with the dyevushkas (girls) that work there.
The town is full of Chinese tourists and also the US Navy, since there's one of their ships in town. I keep wanting to go up to them and say "Hello sailor" in a Barbara Windsor/ Carry On kind of fashion, and I've been stuck with "In the Navy" going round in my head too. Mind you, I'm not one to complain about having plenty of men (and ladies) in uniform around!
Anyway, that's a brief(ish) update, will let you know how the first leg of the journey once it's done.
Paka! (lit. "later")
Lottie x
PS Weather very unlike Leith, unless you were thinking of the Proclaimers song "Sunshine on Leith" since it's hot and sunny here. I seem to have the sun following me wherever I go at the moment, which is pretty nice if a tad too warm. Which brings me to "Everywhere you go, you always take the weather with you..." and with two songs to get stuck in all of your heads, I shall depart. x
sorry for being a pedantic analphil, but what you said was
"The trip to St. Petes and back really got me in the mood and I had a nice chat with a lovely man called Vladimir."
so my point stands
if then you want to detract "man", then it's 8 and 8, still no space saved
reference was to the fact that nippon (japan) means rising sun...
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