The Diarrhoea Diaries
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Waiter, there's a fly in my Borsch!
Crossing into Russia was far less painful than I'd predicted, but you could instantly tell that you were now in a police state.
To get a visa for Russia, you need a Letter of Invitation from a Russia-based travel agency. Then, once you're in Russia, you need to register with the authorities in every city you visit within 24 hours of arrival. Hotels and hostels are more than happy to do this for you for an exorbitant fee ranging from US$10 to $25!!
Shannon and I were instantly enamoured by St. Petersburg. Having negotiated the Metro system with my recently acquired cyrillic-alphabet-reading skills, we surfaced in the centre of St. Petersburg on the city's main artery and shopping street, Nevsky Prospekt. We couldn't have looked more like tourists if we'd tried. Wandering along Nevsky, lugging huge packs and gazing, open-jawed, at the plethora of cathedrals (Including the incredible, onion-domed, Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Saviour on Spilled Blood) and colourful architectural gems that St. Petersburg is famous for.
St. Petersburg has joined the ranks as one of my favourite cities in the world. It is easily one of the most beautiful. It is built on several islands at the delta of the Neva River and it is criss-crossed by a network of canals, flanked by pastel-coloured neo-classical buildings, often giving the city a distinctly Venice-like feel. It's the northernmost city in thye world with more than one million inhabitants and, in its relatively short (By European standards) 300-year history, it can lay claim to a wealth of history - though some of it rather brutal.
Tsar Peter the 1st established the city in 1703 and since then it has been caught in somewhat of a tug-of-war with Moscow as Russia's capital. It was the home of Catherine the Great, was where the Russian Revolution began, was home to many artists and literary greats, was renamed Leningrad then returned to its former name after the fall of the Soviet Union, and was the site of the 'Siege of Leningrad' during the WWII, when the city was cut off from supplies for two-and-a-half years and over one million people died (Apparently there were no pets and no rats left in St. Petersburg when the siege was over. They'd all been eaten.).
Now St. Petersburg is justifyibly becoming one of the 'must-see' cities in Europe. Visitors come in droves just to see the Hermitage art museum - one of the largest and oldest in the world - housed in Catherine the Great's 'Winter Palace' and several other annexed buildings. The place is immense and houses many famous artworks (DaVincis, Michealangelos, Picassos etc.) and it alone makes a trip to St. Petersburg worthwhile.
The Cathedral of the Saviour is another gem. Having seen a lot of spectacular European cathedrals in my time, I feel I've become somewhat desensitised to them. This one (Which we got into at Russian price after I approached the ticket window with exact money and stern-faced, simply said 'Dva' - no please or thank you and with no expression - the way the Russians do it!) was an exception. The entire interior is covered in mosaic and the walls glitter with brightly coloured tiles, of which dominates. It is truly spectacular!
Shannon and I had a brilliant three days in the city. We drank vodka in the park (Which we later found out was illegal although drinking beer in the street is perfectly acceptable... and common!). We gawked at the ridiculous amount of stunning women who wander the streets in stilettos all day (Even Shannon had to admit it was an impressive ratio of hotties!). We almost got pickpocketed (A huge problem in St. Petersburg), but managed to thwart their attempt only to watch them try it on another unsuspecting tourist (Which was also thwarted!). We partied hard with our Norwegian roommates, Annette and Thea, and new American friend, Beau, and drank a few too many 20 rouble (60c) shots of Russian vodka!
I also managed to almost get in a fistfight by drunkenly, loudly and obnoxiously making fun of the local tradition of watching all the bridges on the Neva raise (A sight which draws massive crowds to riverbank every night at 1am and invokes loud cries of joy and wonder when the bridges open!). I still don't get it.... call me culturally insensitive.
We managed to escape the city without meeting a single cop, who have a terrible reputation of stopping foreigners, taking their passport, claiming there's a problem with your visa and/or registration and refusing to give it back until you've paid them enough of a bribe. One guy at our hostel got fleeced of US$200 after being stopped on Nevsky at 3am returning to the hostel drunk. Whenever we saw a cop we'd cross a street, walk the other way or, if it wasn't avoidable to pass them, we'd just stop talking so they wouldn't hear us speaking English. We did somewhat crap our pants when we were tapped on the shoulder in the Metro by someone who looked very cop-like, but were relieved when he turned out to be just Metro security, telling us we weren't allowed to take photos!
Russia is by no means a cheap travel destination. Moscow ranks as the world's most expensive city and St. Petersburg comes in in sixth place. This is of course based on wages and cost of living, so it's still not as horrifying as a week in Paris (Or Helsinki!), but it's as expensive as backpacking in North America, for sure.
The train between St. Petersburg and Moscow was the exception to this. At about US$25 for an overnight train in platzkart (A large sleeper car with about 50 bunks per carriage) which worked out cheaper than a night in a Russian backpacker hostel and managed to get us between the two cities surprisingly comfortably.
Finding the Napoleon hostel (Apparently in the building where Napoleon lived when he occupied Moscow) was not so easy and we had an interesting wander around near-deserted streets and 6am trying to find it. When I say near-deserted, I mean that other than prostitutes, Johns slowly driving the streets looking for a date, and the occasional scary, drunken Russian, the streets were deserted!
The weather had really turned by the time we arrived in Moscow and, despite being early July, it only made it to 13 or 14 degrees on the 2 days we were there, with the second day being cold and rainy all day.
Moscow was actually a pleasant surprise. I hadn't expected to like it so much. Red Square is one of those places that you stand in the middle of, surrounded by the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral and Lenin's tomb, and you say, 'Holy shit! I'm in Red Square!' It's hard not to be impressed by it.
Making a tour around the Kremlin walls and across the Volga River, we were actually pretty impressed at just how beautiful Moscow (At least this part of it) is!
We wandered up to Cafe Pushkin, a beautiful historic restaurant that's become somewhat of a Moscow institution, having attracted celebrities, politicians and probably more than one Mafia boss to dine in its lavish dining room or on its rooftop terrace. We opted to just have a beer at the bar so as not to have to remortgage our parents' houses.
The next day was supposed to have been spent touring the Kremlin and seeing Lenin in all his embalmed glory in the morning, followed by shopping for Babushkas and fur hats in the afternoon. Due to an unexpectedly large party at our hostel which had every hosteler and a handful of friendly Russian strays (That Shanno and some new friends picked up in the street while they were out for a vodka run), drinking up a storm in the reception-cum-living-room, with no attempt from hostel staff to calm things down. Awesome!
Actually, I wasn't so bothered that we slept through our Kremlin/ Lenin time. We'd packed in a lot in the week and were pretty exhausted. We opted to just spend the rainy afternoon at Izmailovsky Market. This proved hard to find after not being able to find a single English-speaker to get directions there after having left our map at the hostel... and forgetting the name of the market.
Shannon bought a bunch of souvenirs from salesmen who (For the most part) seemed desperate to sell on account of the bad weather and low visitor numbers.
In front of the market were three adult bears, either tied to posts or being teased with sticks so that they performed tricks for the tourists and consequently brought more money for the 'tamers'. This was an all-too-familiar sight in Russia, unfortunately. In St. Petersburg we'd become ill with seeing the amount of fully-grown eagles, monkeys dressed in denim overalls, baby lynxes and baby brownbears that were on display for tourists to be photographed with. It was a sickening sight and I had to wonder how badly they must be treated when they're not on display for tourists.
Our last night in Russia saw us eating delicious Borsch, drinking Guiness, enjoying some Russian music at a funky backstreet bar with some new friends from the hostel, and Shannon enjoying her last cigarette in a bar for some time to come!
Shannon and I parted ways the next morning at Sheremetyevo Airport. I was sad to see her go. We'd had a lot of fun (I haven't even touched on 'the glove' stories - this will be well documented on Shannon's Facebook!) and only one minor tiff! A solid travel companion!
So, onwards to Kazakhstan!
To get a visa for Russia, you need a Letter of Invitation from a Russia-based travel agency. Then, once you're in Russia, you need to register with the authorities in every city you visit within 24 hours of arrival. Hotels and hostels are more than happy to do this for you for an exorbitant fee ranging from US$10 to $25!!
Shannon and I were instantly enamoured by St. Petersburg. Having negotiated the Metro system with my recently acquired cyrillic-alphabet-reading skills, we surfaced in the centre of St. Petersburg on the city's main artery and shopping street, Nevsky Prospekt. We couldn't have looked more like tourists if we'd tried. Wandering along Nevsky, lugging huge packs and gazing, open-jawed, at the plethora of cathedrals (Including the incredible, onion-domed, Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Saviour on Spilled Blood) and colourful architectural gems that St. Petersburg is famous for.St. Petersburg has joined the ranks as one of my favourite cities in the world. It is easily one of the most beautiful. It is built on several islands at the delta of the Neva River and it is criss-crossed by a network of canals, flanked by pastel-coloured neo-classical buildings, often giving the city a distinctly Venice-like feel. It's the northernmost city in thye world with more than one million inhabitants and, in its relatively short (By European standards) 300-year history, it can lay claim to a wealth of history - though some of it rather brutal.
Tsar Peter the 1st established the city in 1703 and since then it has been caught in somewhat of a tug-of-war with Moscow as Russia's capital. It was the home of Catherine the Great, was where the Russian Revolution began, was home to many artists and literary greats, was renamed Leningrad then returned to its former name after the fall of the Soviet Union, and was the site of the 'Siege of Leningrad' during the WWII, when the city was cut off from supplies for two-and-a-half years and over one million people died (Apparently there were no pets and no rats left in St. Petersburg when the siege was over. They'd all been eaten.).Now St. Petersburg is justifyibly becoming one of the 'must-see' cities in Europe. Visitors come in droves just to see the Hermitage art museum - one of the largest and oldest in the world - housed in Catherine the Great's 'Winter Palace' and several other annexed buildings. The place is immense and houses many famous artworks (DaVincis, Michealangelos, Picassos etc.) and it alone makes a trip to St. Petersburg worthwhile.
The Cathedral of the Saviour is another gem. Having seen a lot of spectacular European cathedrals in my time, I feel I've become somewhat desensitised to them. This one (Which we got into at Russian price after I approached the ticket window with exact money and stern-faced, simply said 'Dva' - no please or thank you and with no expression - the way the Russians do it!) was an exception. The entire interior is covered in mosaic and the walls glitter with brightly coloured tiles, of which dominates. It is truly spectacular!
Shannon and I had a brilliant three days in the city. We drank vodka in the park (Which we later found out was illegal although drinking beer in the street is perfectly acceptable... and common!). We gawked at the ridiculous amount of stunning women who wander the streets in stilettos all day (Even Shannon had to admit it was an impressive ratio of hotties!). We almost got pickpocketed (A huge problem in St. Petersburg), but managed to thwart their attempt only to watch them try it on another unsuspecting tourist (Which was also thwarted!). We partied hard with our Norwegian roommates, Annette and Thea, and new American friend, Beau, and drank a few too many 20 rouble (60c) shots of Russian vodka!I also managed to almost get in a fistfight by drunkenly, loudly and obnoxiously making fun of the local tradition of watching all the bridges on the Neva raise (A sight which draws massive crowds to riverbank every night at 1am and invokes loud cries of joy and wonder when the bridges open!). I still don't get it.... call me culturally insensitive.
We managed to escape the city without meeting a single cop, who have a terrible reputation of stopping foreigners, taking their passport, claiming there's a problem with your visa and/or registration and refusing to give it back until you've paid them enough of a bribe. One guy at our hostel got fleeced of US$200 after being stopped on Nevsky at 3am returning to the hostel drunk. Whenever we saw a cop we'd cross a street, walk the other way or, if it wasn't avoidable to pass them, we'd just stop talking so they wouldn't hear us speaking English. We did somewhat crap our pants when we were tapped on the shoulder in the Metro by someone who looked very cop-like, but were relieved when he turned out to be just Metro security, telling us we weren't allowed to take photos!Russia is by no means a cheap travel destination. Moscow ranks as the world's most expensive city and St. Petersburg comes in in sixth place. This is of course based on wages and cost of living, so it's still not as horrifying as a week in Paris (Or Helsinki!), but it's as expensive as backpacking in North America, for sure.
The train between St. Petersburg and Moscow was the exception to this. At about US$25 for an overnight train in platzkart (A large sleeper car with about 50 bunks per carriage) which worked out cheaper than a night in a Russian backpacker hostel and managed to get us between the two cities surprisingly comfortably.Finding the Napoleon hostel (Apparently in the building where Napoleon lived when he occupied Moscow) was not so easy and we had an interesting wander around near-deserted streets and 6am trying to find it. When I say near-deserted, I mean that other than prostitutes, Johns slowly driving the streets looking for a date, and the occasional scary, drunken Russian, the streets were deserted!
The weather had really turned by the time we arrived in Moscow and, despite being early July, it only made it to 13 or 14 degrees on the 2 days we were there, with the second day being cold and rainy all day.
Moscow was actually a pleasant surprise. I hadn't expected to like it so much. Red Square is one of those places that you stand in the middle of, surrounded by the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral and Lenin's tomb, and you say, 'Holy shit! I'm in Red Square!' It's hard not to be impressed by it.Making a tour around the Kremlin walls and across the Volga River, we were actually pretty impressed at just how beautiful Moscow (At least this part of it) is!
We wandered up to Cafe Pushkin, a beautiful historic restaurant that's become somewhat of a Moscow institution, having attracted celebrities, politicians and probably more than one Mafia boss to dine in its lavish dining room or on its rooftop terrace. We opted to just have a beer at the bar so as not to have to remortgage our parents' houses.
The next day was supposed to have been spent touring the Kremlin and seeing Lenin in all his embalmed glory in the morning, followed by shopping for Babushkas and fur hats in the afternoon. Due to an unexpectedly large party at our hostel which had every hosteler and a handful of friendly Russian strays (That Shanno and some new friends picked up in the street while they were out for a vodka run), drinking up a storm in the reception-cum-living-room, with no attempt from hostel staff to calm things down. Awesome!Actually, I wasn't so bothered that we slept through our Kremlin/ Lenin time. We'd packed in a lot in the week and were pretty exhausted. We opted to just spend the rainy afternoon at Izmailovsky Market. This proved hard to find after not being able to find a single English-speaker to get directions there after having left our map at the hostel... and forgetting the name of the market.
Shannon bought a bunch of souvenirs from salesmen who (For the most part) seemed desperate to sell on account of the bad weather and low visitor numbers.In front of the market were three adult bears, either tied to posts or being teased with sticks so that they performed tricks for the tourists and consequently brought more money for the 'tamers'. This was an all-too-familiar sight in Russia, unfortunately. In St. Petersburg we'd become ill with seeing the amount of fully-grown eagles, monkeys dressed in denim overalls, baby lynxes and baby brownbears that were on display for tourists to be photographed with. It was a sickening sight and I had to wonder how badly they must be treated when they're not on display for tourists.
Our last night in Russia saw us eating delicious Borsch, drinking Guiness, enjoying some Russian music at a funky backstreet bar with some new friends from the hostel, and Shannon enjoying her last cigarette in a bar for some time to come!
Shannon and I parted ways the next morning at Sheremetyevo Airport. I was sad to see her go. We'd had a lot of fun (I haven't even touched on 'the glove' stories - this will be well documented on Shannon's Facebook!) and only one minor tiff! A solid travel companion!So, onwards to Kazakhstan!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Bathroom Habits of the Finnish
...And so it begins.
6 months traveling across the Eurasian continent. First stop: Helsinki, Finland.
My trusty sidekick, Shannon, and I arrived in the Finnish capital way back on June 29th. A lot has gone on since then, so I'm going to try to keep this first blogpost brief, so that I can get up-to-date as quickly as possible (Though many of you who've read my painfully long bulk e-mails from past travels know that this may be a difficult task)!
Helsinki is an undeniably beautiful city. It is surrounded by water and it's bays are studded with an impossible number of islands. The streets are cobbled, the buildings ornate and turreted, and trams trundle along the streets beneath the shadows of two spectacular cathedrals. There is a distinct air of sophistication about the place, but also a distinct lack of energy.
Perhaps we were expecting too much. The population of Helsinki is a mere half-million, and it's not exactly situated at a major crossroads (Which might bring travelers flooding into the city from all directions), like other more southerly European cities. Perhaps we were just put off by the prohibitively expensive nature of the place. More than London. More than New York. More than Stockholm. At about C$10 for a pint, this was a serious obstacle for our alcohol consumption goals, and we were forced to limit ourselves to just three beers!
Having enjoyed an evening wandering around seeing the sights of the city and becoming ever more confused by the endless twilight which lasted from around 8pm until when the sun finally set around 11.30 (Only to rise again a couple of hours later!), we decided that we didn't need to spend more time in Helsinki and opted for an earlier ferry to Tallinn..... But first we had to spend a night at the Eurohostel!
Helsinki was to be Shannon's first experience with hosteling, and unfortunately the Eurohostel was not a great first-hostel experience! Aside from the lack of atmosphere and soviet-style minimalist rooms, the shower room came as somewhat of a shock for poor Shanno! The Finnish are apparently completely comfortable being naked - presumably a bi-product of their sauna culture - which I assume is the reason there was not so much as a curtain on the showers for privacy. The only thing that displeased Shanno more than this was having to make her own bed (If only the video would upload!) - a highly amusing experience from an bystander's perspective!
The one saving grace was the abundant source of amusement which came from the hand-held bidet system next to every toilet (Imagine a shower hose next to the toilet that you use to wash your arse). The Finnish girl on reception gave us a quizzical look when, after explaining to us their purpose, and that they're quite common in Finland, we skipped away giggling like schoolgirls!
Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is being labeled 'The New Prague'. Maybe that's because it's a beautifully restored medieval city that offers a lot of 'bang for your buck', or maybe it's because UK stag parties and boys' weekends needed a new place to go after Prague started getting expensive. Whatever the case, the place is a gem!
Hostel number two, the Old House, was more to Shannon's liking despite being half the price of the Eurohostel. It was situated right on the edge of the old town and made an easy base from which to go exploring.
Tallinn is surrounded by a city wall dating from medieval times. The city has meticulously restored all of the buildings within the city walls (Having started restoration even before the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent independence), and if it weren't for the throngs of camera-wielding tourists from all over the world (Yes, myself included), you could probably be convinced you were walking around in the 14th century (Minus having buckets of shit thrown into the street from above).
It was our second warm, sunny day, and we put it to good use wandering every street and taking in the atmosphere. Following a very Estonian dinner at an African restaurant, we somehow ended up in an old bar later in the evening, tucked away in a vaulted cellar, where with an international cast of characters (And courtesy of Casper the friendly barman), we managed to obliterate ourselves. It was our first experience with Russian (Or Estonian) vodka. It was cheap in Estonia... and it keeps getting cheaper with every country I go to! Too cheap! The problem is that it also seems to get you much more drunk than you actually think you are, and it also produces massive memory-blanks!
We stumbled in at 2am (As the sun was rising after its 3-hour slumber), only to rise again a little after 5.00 to get to our bus that would take us to Mother Russia.
6 months traveling across the Eurasian continent. First stop: Helsinki, Finland.
My trusty sidekick, Shannon, and I arrived in the Finnish capital way back on June 29th. A lot has gone on since then, so I'm going to try to keep this first blogpost brief, so that I can get up-to-date as quickly as possible (Though many of you who've read my painfully long bulk e-mails from past travels know that this may be a difficult task)!Helsinki is an undeniably beautiful city. It is surrounded by water and it's bays are studded with an impossible number of islands. The streets are cobbled, the buildings ornate and turreted, and trams trundle along the streets beneath the shadows of two spectacular cathedrals. There is a distinct air of sophistication about the place, but also a distinct lack of energy.
Perhaps we were expecting too much. The population of Helsinki is a mere half-million, and it's not exactly situated at a major crossroads (Which might bring travelers flooding into the city from all directions), like other more southerly European cities. Perhaps we were just put off by the prohibitively expensive nature of the place. More than London. More than New York. More than Stockholm. At about C$10 for a pint, this was a serious obstacle for our alcohol consumption goals, and we were forced to limit ourselves to just three beers! Having enjoyed an evening wandering around seeing the sights of the city and becoming ever more confused by the endless twilight which lasted from around 8pm until when the sun finally set around 11.30 (Only to rise again a couple of hours later!), we decided that we didn't need to spend more time in Helsinki and opted for an earlier ferry to Tallinn..... But first we had to spend a night at the Eurohostel!Helsinki was to be Shannon's first experience with hosteling, and unfortunately the Eurohostel was not a great first-hostel experience! Aside from the lack of atmosphere and soviet-style minimalist rooms, the shower room came as somewhat of a shock for poor Shanno! The Finnish are apparently completely comfortable being naked - presumably a bi-product of their sauna culture - which I assume is the reason there was not so much as a curtain on the showers for privacy. The only thing that displeased Shanno more than this was having to make her own bed (If only the video would upload!) - a highly amusing experience from an bystander's perspective!
The one saving grace was the abundant source of amusement which came from the hand-held bidet system next to every toilet (Imagine a shower hose next to the toilet that you use to wash your arse). The Finnish girl on reception gave us a quizzical look when, after explaining to us their purpose, and that they're quite common in Finland, we skipped away giggling like schoolgirls!Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is being labeled 'The New Prague'. Maybe that's because it's a beautifully restored medieval city that offers a lot of 'bang for your buck', or maybe it's because UK stag parties and boys' weekends needed a new place to go after Prague started getting expensive. Whatever the case, the place is a gem!
Hostel number two, the Old House, was more to Shannon's liking despite being half the price of the Eurohostel. It was situated right on the edge of the old town and made an easy base from which to go exploring.Tallinn is surrounded by a city wall dating from medieval times. The city has meticulously restored all of the buildings within the city walls (Having started restoration even before the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent independence), and if it weren't for the throngs of camera-wielding tourists from all over the world (Yes, myself included), you could probably be convinced you were walking around in the 14th century (Minus having buckets of shit thrown into the street from above).
It was our second warm, sunny day, and we put it to good use wandering every street and taking in the atmosphere. Following a very Estonian dinner at an African restaurant, we somehow ended up in an old bar later in the evening, tucked away in a vaulted cellar, where with an international cast of characters (And courtesy of Casper the friendly barman), we managed to obliterate ourselves. It was our first experience with Russian (Or Estonian) vodka. It was cheap in Estonia... and it keeps getting cheaper with every country I go to! Too cheap! The problem is that it also seems to get you much more drunk than you actually think you are, and it also produces massive memory-blanks! We stumbled in at 2am (As the sun was rising after its 3-hour slumber), only to rise again a little after 5.00 to get to our bus that would take us to Mother Russia.