Lee and Clare, The road home

St Petersburg - Moscow

30^th October 2003

We are in an internet cafe in a huge underground shopping Mall in Moscow full of designer shops, just by Red Square.

Had a pretty cool time here so far. Highlight so far was going to the ballet last night. We were disappointed at missing out on going to Swan Lake in St Petersburg as we couldn't get tickets. So we went to the Bolshoi Theatre here and got some tickets off scalpers. They were about $60NZ. We were right at the back but still had a pretty good view. The ballet was Don Quixote and it was brilliant. It had a lot of Spanish type dancing in it, but we especially liked the proper tutu bits. It was so cool to actually be in the Bolshoi Theatre. People call out "Bravo" during the show and at the end people threw long stem roses onto the stage. Yay!

The train here was really nice, comfortable and clean, but we had a really bad sleep again, hard to get used to the moving of the train I guess, so when we got up at 5.30 to get off after 5 hours sleep we were really nackered!! We had two Russian guys in our carriage. One guy could speak a little English. He was a captain in the army for 15 years. The Russian Govt. won't let him out of the country for a few years yet as he knows too many secrets! It's amazing what a conversation you can have with a few words of English on his part and a Russian phrasebook and map on our part!

Our hostel here is quite nice, but the organisation is really really bad - something you just have to laugh at in Russia, sometimes you just can't believe it. The funniest thing is the old ladies who work in the hotel who come in your room and talk to you a fast Russian tongue for ages, while we stare at them blankly. It's like DUR, we can't understand a word you are saying!! So we talk back to them in English really fast. It's really funny, except when you need the key to get into your room and they're talking at you and waving their hands around and you just want to go to sleep!!

We went into Red Square on the afternoon after we arrived here. It was pretty cool even though we weren't quite sure what we were seeing. We've got things a little more sussed now with the help of our guide book. There is no Tourist Information in Moscow even though there are 9 million people here, but our hostel was kind enough to give us a map.

We went into the Kremlin today and had a look around. Lots of churches in there. They really rip you off, we don't know how we could afford this trip without our student cards. They even charge you $2US each bag to check in (and you have to check them in). It's quite funny as it took us ages just to find the ticket office and work out how to get a ticket then find the entrance. There are no English signs anywhere.

Here are some general observations:

We haven't seen any fat people yet, except for an American tourist. There aren't even any slightly overweight people.

Almost all of the beggars are old ladies. Some of them are even down on their knees and bent over and muttering. Quite sad. Lots of people do seem to give them money though.

The girls are all very fashionable and you never see any scruffy people. We are by far the scruffiest people we have met, bar another Kiwi guy.

Customer Service is pretty appalling. Even if you are waiting they'll just chat and laugh with their friends. At a ticket office if it's time for their break, they'll just close the window and pull down the blinds, even if there are 20 people waiting. No-one comes to take over.

The Metro is a hundred times better than England. For a journey anywhere you want to go costs about 15p. So far no delays and we ride it all the time. You only wait 3 minutes at the most. The carriages are way bigger as are the stations and platforms.

The smog here in Moscow is really bad, none in St Petersburg though.

The weather is much better than we expected, like summer today. We've been walking around in our t-shirts.

Okay enough of those. We'll tell you about how we bought our onward ticket to Kazan today. (We're going on the 1st of October at 7.30pm)

We got to the train station. It must've taken us at least 20 minutes just to find where they sold the tickets. The station was full of surprises and it was just like mayhem. When we found the ticket hall, there were about 20 queues and we joined one about 10 people back. Moved up a bit, then, as described above the girl put her blind down. Anyway we eventually made it to the front of a queue after a few Russians coming into the queue from the side. You can leave the queue to go to the toilet or get a drink and someone will save the place for you. The girl from our hostel had written in Russian what we wanted, but the ticket lady was still confused. She kept on writing stuff down in Russian and showing it to us. Well eventually she printed off a ticket and we paid for it. It's on the right date and time, but she put us in third class instead of second. So instead of a 4 berth cabin we get to sleep in a carriage which is converted into dorm type thing with about 54 beds!! Privacy is out of the question. Not really what we wanted, but we're stuck with it now!! You gotta laugh. It only cost $14US for the 12 hour journey (another night train). So we'll have to let you know how it goes!!

Went to some convent and graveyard yesterday. Got a bit lost and ended up in the middle of a huge market selling fur coats and leather shoes and all sorts of food. Quite crazy.

Lee and Clare