So we've been in St Petersburg Russia for 2 full days now, and tonight we head on an overnight train to Moscow. My observations thus far:
- The Russian language is much more difficult than one might think after studying it for 3 months.
- People in Russia generally don't like to smile, move out of a person's path, or be pleasant in any way (this is all part of the experience!)
- Food in Russia is much BETTER than you might expect. Last night we had delicious Armenian food, for example, and the Borshcht is to die for!
- Baggage loss on Russian flights is extremely common; but worry not, for baggage will be returned to your hotel within one day (albeit some articles may be missing from said baggage)
- Animal cruelty is acceptable and legal in Russia (this surprised me). It is not uncommon to see an average Joe parading a baby black bear or monkey around for tourist dollars. I asked our guide what happens to the baby black bears when they grow up big and strong enough to beat up thier evil owners, and she told me that the fate of the baby bears "eez not goot".
- Always keep your guard on. Don't look the police straight in the eye or they may harrass you for ID or money, and we hear that the Mafia really does dominate. Another interesting sight we saw today was a man laying on the sidewalk. He looked like someone had just freshly cut out his right eye, but no one seemed to care. (this WAS a sketchier part of town, but still...)
But really, this is a beautifully unique city, and 2 days is not NEARLY enough to do it justice. Besides wandering the side streets, trying to speak Russian, and sampling delicacies, we've seen the Hermitage and two other Palaces between the 4 of us. (one of which included the famous AMBER ROOM; a rediculous Amber stone paneled space within Katherine the Great's Pushkin Palace). And, we have a new travel mate named Sean. He's a Calgarian Nurse, and just splendid to have along. More on him later, I'm sure.
Sorry so short, but we have a train to catch! Please send good vibes, as I will be alone on our over night train to Moscow tonight and don't care to lose an eye.
Amber
Jul 23, 2007
Oh, Russia...
So here we are in Russia finally, and it's already a very different world than Germany. Our baggage was lost, and it didn't really seem like a very rare occurance. They had a busy room dedicated to others who had lost their luggage. Fortunately this is the part of our trip where we met up with vodkatrain, so we have contacts who can speak russian for us.
Billy (Dan and my father) joined us in Germany for the last week, and we had a blast visiting with Susanne and Hannes in Hannover, and meeting their friend Peter Lindenberg in Berlin, who is a professional artist that makes beautiful work in Berlin. He showed us the artistic world of Berlin, which was incredible and very different.
There are lots of great stories to tell, but I'm too tired to write much more that's coherent right now, but we are alive and well! I'm not sure how often we will be able to write during the next 3 weeks (internet may not be available everywhere that we go), so don't be too worried if you don't hear from us frequently. Pictures may have to wait until we're back to be uploaded, but we'll see!
Dasvidania (or however you write goodbye in Russian),
Eric
Billy (Dan and my father) joined us in Germany for the last week, and we had a blast visiting with Susanne and Hannes in Hannover, and meeting their friend Peter Lindenberg in Berlin, who is a professional artist that makes beautiful work in Berlin. He showed us the artistic world of Berlin, which was incredible and very different.
There are lots of great stories to tell, but I'm too tired to write much more that's coherent right now, but we are alive and well! I'm not sure how often we will be able to write during the next 3 weeks (internet may not be available everywhere that we go), so don't be too worried if you don't hear from us frequently. Pictures may have to wait until we're back to be uploaded, but we'll see!
Dasvidania (or however you write goodbye in Russian),
Eric
Jul 15, 2007
Poznań, Poland's Potatoland
Dzien Dobry!
Eric and I were loving Germany, but finding it very similar to Canada; thus we decided to shake things up a bit (i.e. make traveling more complicated for ourselves) and head to Poland.
We traveled on Friday to a city of 500,000 called Poznań, and the differences were apparent as soon as we crossed the Germany-Poland border. The trains were more like Italian trains (slow, smelly, late, but charismatic!), and of course, the language was COMPLETELY different (sounds like Russian, looks like English, but reads like djghlfkjgfsdkgsk).
As for the food, I learned today that there are three different words for potato in Polish - pyry, kartofle and ziemniaki. The particular region where Poznań is located, Wielkopolska, is also known as "Pyrlandia" - literally "Potatoland". This is not the place to come to dispel stereotypes about Polish food! So far it has been potatos, potato dumplings, quark, borsht, and relatively flavourless cheeses. The beer is somewhat budweiser-ish, which is a bit disturbing after the delicious beer in Germany, but it keeps the costs down at least!
98 % of the people here are Polish and white as could be, or at least it feels that way. Poznań is easily the least multi-cultural city we have been to (as an example, I was brave enough to try a "burrito" here yesterday, which in Poland consists of a crepe "tortilla" filled with chicken and ketchup). Let's just say I don't think I will sample the Chinese food in Poznań! Of course, the 98% Polish population did not occur by chance... it was carefully planned, and well, seems to have stayed that way ever since.
Although the vodka costs the same as it does in Canada, there does seem to be a lot of alcoholics roaming the city (we already have many pictures of drunken Polish men air-guitaring and prepositioning me when we least expected it!). Anyway, we are thinking that Poland is a good intro to what's to come in Russia next week.
Currently Dan is in Denmark, and Billy will be meeting us in Frankfurt on Tuesday... until then, prost!
Amber
Eric and I were loving Germany, but finding it very similar to Canada; thus we decided to shake things up a bit (i.e. make traveling more complicated for ourselves) and head to Poland.
We traveled on Friday to a city of 500,000 called Poznań, and the differences were apparent as soon as we crossed the Germany-Poland border. The trains were more like Italian trains (slow, smelly, late, but charismatic!), and of course, the language was COMPLETELY different (sounds like Russian, looks like English, but reads like djghlfkjgfsdkgsk).
As for the food, I learned today that there are three different words for potato in Polish - pyry, kartofle and ziemniaki. The particular region where Poznań is located, Wielkopolska, is also known as "Pyrlandia" - literally "Potatoland". This is not the place to come to dispel stereotypes about Polish food! So far it has been potatos, potato dumplings, quark, borsht, and relatively flavourless cheeses. The beer is somewhat budweiser-ish, which is a bit disturbing after the delicious beer in Germany, but it keeps the costs down at least!
98 % of the people here are Polish and white as could be, or at least it feels that way. Poznań is easily the least multi-cultural city we have been to (as an example, I was brave enough to try a "burrito" here yesterday, which in Poland consists of a crepe "tortilla" filled with chicken and ketchup). Let's just say I don't think I will sample the Chinese food in Poznań! Of course, the 98% Polish population did not occur by chance... it was carefully planned, and well, seems to have stayed that way ever since.
Although the vodka costs the same as it does in Canada, there does seem to be a lot of alcoholics roaming the city (we already have many pictures of drunken Polish men air-guitaring and prepositioning me when we least expected it!). Anyway, we are thinking that Poland is a good intro to what's to come in Russia next week.
Currently Dan is in Denmark, and Billy will be meeting us in Frankfurt on Tuesday... until then, prost!
Amber
Jul 11, 2007
NEW PICTURES!
Ok, so since the weather is so pissy today, we are hanging out in an internet cafe triple teaming the photo uploading and captioning. We should have Rome, Cinque Terre, and maybe France and Germany by the time you check them out... Check back tomorrow in any case.
In case you forgot already, or are blind and can't see the text "CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS", here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days/
Dan.
In case you forgot already, or are blind and can't see the text "CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS", here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days/
Dan.
Jul 9, 2007
Pouring rain in Europe
It's the middle of July and it's pouring rain like "une vache qui pisse" (french expression for raining hard, which means "like a cow pissing") all over north-western Europe.
You can see here that we clearly should have done Greece and Italy AFTER Germany and France. I wonder how much longer it will last... the pour weather has been in the news almost every day here, and shopkeepers and touristy places aren't making nearly as much money this summer. It will probably also have an effect on this seasons's produce and wine. It feels like Vancouver in October.
Anyway, last weekend I ditched Eric & Amber to meet Sanaee and her mom in Loue, a little village near Le Mans back in France. I stayed in their little castle, complete with two towers and a huge garden, surrounded by walls, but alas, no moat. We had all sorts of tasty foods (including Rillettes, a fantastic combination of fat and sausage) and wandered around the little villages around Loue on Saturday while it was mostly sunny. We even went to a famous Abby to hear Gregorian Chanting!
Dan.
You can see here that we clearly should have done Greece and Italy AFTER Germany and France. I wonder how much longer it will last... the pour weather has been in the news almost every day here, and shopkeepers and touristy places aren't making nearly as much money this summer. It will probably also have an effect on this seasons's produce and wine. It feels like Vancouver in October.
Anyway, last weekend I ditched Eric & Amber to meet Sanaee and her mom in Loue, a little village near Le Mans back in France. I stayed in their little castle, complete with two towers and a huge garden, surrounded by walls, but alas, no moat. We had all sorts of tasty foods (including Rillettes, a fantastic combination of fat and sausage) and wandered around the little villages around Loue on Saturday while it was mostly sunny. We even went to a famous Abby to hear Gregorian Chanting!
Dan.
Jul 3, 2007
Sicily Pictures Captioned!
Hopefully we'll find a computer to upload more soon...
We're safe and sound in the Black Forest (Germany) right now.
More to come,
Eric
We're safe and sound in the Black Forest (Germany) right now.
More to come,
Eric
Jul 1, 2007
Trust in the generosity of others
(the other titles I was contemplating were: "Train Adventures II - Self-Inflicted Pain", and "Karma Rules")
I (Dan) left Eric and Amber a few days ago to head down to Bordeaux to visit Melo and Calvin in their Apart'Hotel (longer term hotel). They graciously let me sleep on pillows in the hall, and despite the infamously horrible smell of Calvin's farts, we had a great time (hehe, sorry man!). To cut to the chase, I will recount only yesterday's climax of adventures, starting with today as foreshadowing.
I had a very lucky train experience today. At 10:30am we woke up from a horrible dream where I got on the train and then realized that I had forgotten my guitar. I guess I haven't told you that I am building a guitar right now. I'll have pictures later, once it's finished. Right now it only has 1 string and 12 un-intonated frets. After slowly lumbering around Melo & Calvin's room, Melo reminded me it was probably time to rush off to my 11:57am train back to Paris.
I tried taking the tram, but since it was sunday, if I took the tram, I would arrive after my train was supposed to have left. So I decided to walk. As it turns out, I began walking with 12 minutes to the next tram, and when I got to the station, there was 14 minutes to the next one, so I gained 2 minutes. Unfortunately, I arrived a few minutes after 12:00 noon. Optimistically hoping that the first train out of 12 or so would happen to be mine, I jumped on literally seconds before it started moving. The train conductor was amazed at my good fortune since it was only due to some confusion with a new guy at the train station that the train was late at all.
So back to yesterday now, where we had another different train adventure.
Melo, Calvin and I decided to visit Arcachon for its beaches and the largest sand dunes in Europe. We couldn't get the ticket machines to buy us tickets to Arcachon (70km away) in time, so we ended up missing the first train and waiting in the station for 2 hours for the next one. It didn't occur to us that this was an omen of things to come.
In Arcachon we sunbathed, rented bikes and rode to the dunes, sunbathed more, and hiked to the summit of the dunes. It was an amazing view: Lush green forests on the left, down a steep sand bank (200m?), and the ocean on the right. A cool breeze rushed up the sand bank carrying only the smallest particles of sand, and a refreshing evergreen smell from the forest below.
After sunburning ourselves, we returned to Arcachon to return the bikes and eat a plate of seafood before catching the last train at 8-something pm. We enjoyed raw oysters, and summoned the courage to down raw clams, raw mussels, and two types of cooked sea snails and finished with cooked little shrimp, prawns, and scampi (langoustines). Unfortunately, I bought a pastis and Melo bought a coffee before leaving, while Calvin ran ahead to buy train tickets.
Melo and I downed our drinks as quick as posssible and headed to meet Calvin at the train station. Unfortunately, what we met was the train leaving. We had a quick conversation with the last guy at the train station who laid everything out for us: no train, no bus, taxi is 140 Euro (210 dollars). After not much thought, I suggested we try hitchhiking back.
It turned out that our first ride was so easy that we accepted a ride halfway between Arcachon and Bordeaux (I think called Molis). There we tried for an hour maybe, with different techniques and signs, but everyone was going to Arcachon instead of Bordeaux. We figured it would be better to try to find a place to sleep in Arcachon instead of some farmer's field in Molis, so we returned back to Arcachon. Just as we were resigning ourselves to search for some expensive hotel, we were picked up by some friendly French people who loved smoking and Bob Marley & the Wailers who drove us all the way back. They were so nice they wouldn't even accept any payment for the ride.
Lessons learned:
- Always trust in the generosity of others.
- Hitch-hiking is cheaper than taking the train, and a lot more fun.
- Timeliness is its own reward.
Another highlight of Bordeaux was seeing The Snoc (a 'punk' band). They had a cute lead singer, an alligator playing guitar, and a drummer lost in happy drumland.
I'm now in Paris trying to get in contact with Sanaee to see some Gypsy jazz tonight with Jeanne.
Dan.
I (Dan) left Eric and Amber a few days ago to head down to Bordeaux to visit Melo and Calvin in their Apart'Hotel (longer term hotel). They graciously let me sleep on pillows in the hall, and despite the infamously horrible smell of Calvin's farts, we had a great time (hehe, sorry man!). To cut to the chase, I will recount only yesterday's climax of adventures, starting with today as foreshadowing.
I had a very lucky train experience today. At 10:30am we woke up from a horrible dream where I got on the train and then realized that I had forgotten my guitar. I guess I haven't told you that I am building a guitar right now. I'll have pictures later, once it's finished. Right now it only has 1 string and 12 un-intonated frets. After slowly lumbering around Melo & Calvin's room, Melo reminded me it was probably time to rush off to my 11:57am train back to Paris.
I tried taking the tram, but since it was sunday, if I took the tram, I would arrive after my train was supposed to have left. So I decided to walk. As it turns out, I began walking with 12 minutes to the next tram, and when I got to the station, there was 14 minutes to the next one, so I gained 2 minutes. Unfortunately, I arrived a few minutes after 12:00 noon. Optimistically hoping that the first train out of 12 or so would happen to be mine, I jumped on literally seconds before it started moving. The train conductor was amazed at my good fortune since it was only due to some confusion with a new guy at the train station that the train was late at all.
So back to yesterday now, where we had another different train adventure.
Melo, Calvin and I decided to visit Arcachon for its beaches and the largest sand dunes in Europe. We couldn't get the ticket machines to buy us tickets to Arcachon (70km away) in time, so we ended up missing the first train and waiting in the station for 2 hours for the next one. It didn't occur to us that this was an omen of things to come.
In Arcachon we sunbathed, rented bikes and rode to the dunes, sunbathed more, and hiked to the summit of the dunes. It was an amazing view: Lush green forests on the left, down a steep sand bank (200m?), and the ocean on the right. A cool breeze rushed up the sand bank carrying only the smallest particles of sand, and a refreshing evergreen smell from the forest below.
After sunburning ourselves, we returned to Arcachon to return the bikes and eat a plate of seafood before catching the last train at 8-something pm. We enjoyed raw oysters, and summoned the courage to down raw clams, raw mussels, and two types of cooked sea snails and finished with cooked little shrimp, prawns, and scampi (langoustines). Unfortunately, I bought a pastis and Melo bought a coffee before leaving, while Calvin ran ahead to buy train tickets.
Melo and I downed our drinks as quick as posssible and headed to meet Calvin at the train station. Unfortunately, what we met was the train leaving. We had a quick conversation with the last guy at the train station who laid everything out for us: no train, no bus, taxi is 140 Euro (210 dollars). After not much thought, I suggested we try hitchhiking back.
It turned out that our first ride was so easy that we accepted a ride halfway between Arcachon and Bordeaux (I think called Molis). There we tried for an hour maybe, with different techniques and signs, but everyone was going to Arcachon instead of Bordeaux. We figured it would be better to try to find a place to sleep in Arcachon instead of some farmer's field in Molis, so we returned back to Arcachon. Just as we were resigning ourselves to search for some expensive hotel, we were picked up by some friendly French people who loved smoking and Bob Marley & the Wailers who drove us all the way back. They were so nice they wouldn't even accept any payment for the ride.
Lessons learned:
- Always trust in the generosity of others.
- Hitch-hiking is cheaper than taking the train, and a lot more fun.
- Timeliness is its own reward.
Another highlight of Bordeaux was seeing The Snoc (a 'punk' band). They had a cute lead singer, an alligator playing guitar, and a drummer lost in happy drumland.
I'm now in Paris trying to get in contact with Sanaee to see some Gypsy jazz tonight with Jeanne.
Dan.
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