Saturday, September 29, 2012

The two largest cities

After a long time, we are connected to the World again. A few days on the train and a couple of others isolated in a small village didn't help the update of this blog.
So now I find myself facing the task of describing the experiences that we had more than one week ago. And a lot can happen in one week! ;)

Going back to Saint Petersburg, I think what stroke me the most were the canals, and the overall architecture. Opulent and luxurious is a big contrast to the idea I had with a soviet city. I know I should have thought of the Czares, of course!, but I thought recent times had left a larger mark on this city.
It will be images like this that will stick in my head.

Opening of the bridges. It even deserves a party boat to celebrate it!!

The canals with Spilled Blood Cathedral on the back (which is pretty nice)

Inside Hermitage (yeah, they liked to do it big)

Yes, he is EVERYWHERE, we heard his music even in Siberia

A view over the largest St. Petersburg Canal -» River

A view over the other side of the River

American style Matrioshkas

Moscow was a completely different city. A bit ugly, in the overall, I have to say. The highlight, for me, was the visit to a Cold War Bunker, where Isa launched a nuclear missile directed to the US and start the 3rd World War (haven't been checking the news, how's that going?). Unfortunately I lost the photos of her smile while she was doing it! Actually I lost all the photos of that day (facepalm)!
But we are three(four with Natalie) so there will be some photos to share, once we get all the photos from each other. Now, I only have one photo to share

Level -18. Getting under is getting safe
Other than that I really enjoyed the subway stations, which are, in fact, other forms of Bunkers for the population in general. Yeah, you can say the best part of Moscow is its underground which is always a bit strange. But here is why:
Subway station 1

Subway station 2

Subway station 3

Subway station 4

Friday, September 21, 2012

In the land of Czares

Getting from the airport to the city center and the hostel, we had our first glimpse of Russian mood and how to (try to) communicate with them..
When entering the bus that would take us to the metro we asked the driver for 3 tickets. Speaking in a furious Russian and pointing to a paper nearby we saw the price was 35Rubles. Not that bad, at least we got to know the price! We wanted to get the tickets, but the driver would just kept nodding his head and saying something that was impossible for us to understand. It was only after a while that someone nearby told us that the payment was done at the end.
So we all came inside... three people with big backpacks in a bus already packed with people. Every time I would turn I would hit something/someone.
At the end we tried to pay all our fares (a total of 105rubles) with a bill of 1000 because, other than that, we only had 100 to give. He wouldn't take it!! We showed them we only had 100rubles but at the same time, Isa found a coin with a 5 on its face. Perfect!!! When I see the 5 I hand it to him with the other 100rubles. But as soon as he takes the coin he grabs it and, literally, throws it away above our heads, and throw us out accepting a payment 5rubles short. We found out later, that the coin was of much less value, similar to our 5cents. But the gesture itself and the whole episode of lacking communication marked, right from the beginning, the tone for the rest. And, in fact, this is NOT a place of smiley people! We were so involved in the spirit that it even affected our pictures' poses.

Our Russian faces

But there is more to it than just serious faces. Saint Petersburg has plenty of Great! Great museums, great buildings, great streets, great canals, great the Peter, Paul and Catherine and all the other Czars who were always named... The Great!

Here I leave you with one of my favorite photos of today.


More photos and stories coming soon :)


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Getting there

And the day came! With packing still to be finished I have to confess I was a bit anxious about the task ahead. It didn't look easy at first!

The task ahead
But it all fit and in the drive to the airport I knew it had begun! :)
We got to Heathrow, London, in a non eventful flight and started discussing where we were spending the night - we had an overnight connection. The options were staying in the airport and stay in a paying lobby with rooms and showers; staying in the airport in a specific area (Terminal 1) with no rooms for free; or try our luck in the city. After we saw the 80/120£ prices of the lobby the answer to that option became pretty clear! Going to the city didn't sound too appealing for me so we finaly agreed with the free airport thing.

So there we went to Terminal 1 and started to prepare ourselves the best we could. The "bed" I prepared looked like this:

i
Sleeping facilities - first version
It was comfortable enough even if I was predicting a back ache for the next day. And after a long day, even with the background noise (there was some construction work, there) I was finally falling asleep...
...
...
Something wakes me up, and I see a security guide walking towards us and he is saying that we have to move "Please, move to Gate 2, we will be there in a moment". No reason why,... and I was still too asleep to ask anything. It was around 11h15 and, half awake, we drag ourselves to the so mentioned Gate 2 and wait for someone to open the door for us... and when get inside... "Ahhhh...." (a good kind of Ahhhh), we had these waiting for us:

Sleeping facilities - second part
A number of chaise-longs were just waiting for us, and suddendly, we were completly happy with the change of venue! :)
It actually looked a bit better than what it was. With an intense lighting it was a bit difficult to convince by brain that I was supposed to sleep. But, at around 1h30, I finally did, again!...
...Until 4am when the woke us up again because they were opening the gate and we had to go somewhere else to sleep. Dragging ourselves again we just moved to the most near-by straight line of banches and trying to ignore people passing by we had our third try of falling asleep.
At 6h30 we woke up (I don't think N. actually slept a thing there) and went to our gate, stopping to get the so needed morning coffee!
With a caffe latte or a cappuccino in front of us, enjoying a bit of a fantastic sunny morning in London, we were finally ready to board the plane and get to Russia!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Strike 3 - ready to go

At last, one week before the start of the trip, I am reunited with my Passport, now ready to be with me in the upcoming adventure!
The Chinese visa was a piece of cake compared with the other two (Russia and Mongolia). Just the normal drill of going to consulate, fill a form, give a few other documents and... that's it. Waiting time: ~30 minutes! A few days waiting for it and the result:


The final score? Bureaucracy 0 - Trans team 3 (damn, we still have to discuss the name :P)!
Now, all we have to do is to prepare everything else... in one week! ;)

/-------------------------------------------------------/

Por fim, uma semana antes do começo da viagem, reuni-me de novo com o meu Passaporte, agora preparado para me acompanhar durante todo o percurso!
O visto Chinês, comparado com os outros dois (da Rússia e da Mongólia) foi a coisa mais simples do Mundo. Apenas o processo do costume de ir ao consulado, preencher um formulário, entregar alguma documentação adicional e... é tudo. Tempo de espera: ~30 minutos! Alguns dias de espera e aqui está o resultado:


O resultado final ficou então Burocracia 0 - Equipa Trans 3 (raios, ainda não discutimos o nome! :P)!
Agora, tudo o que nos resta fazer é preparar tudo o resto... numa semana! ;)