Yartsevo to Minsk

Day 27: Yartsevo to Minsk: A visit to Smolensk on our way to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where we will enjoy a sightseeing tour of this former Soviet stronghold. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Hotel Orbita
Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:00

Some people were still drunk this morning at breakfast. Renae made me bread with vegemite on it, as she had promised. Vegemite is vile! Lets just say that the fact that I thought my gagging on it would make the hung over people at my table throw-up so I had to use all of my restraint to control myself. After breakfast we had a tour of Smolensk, a dingy little Russian town. The Cathedral of the Assumption was the highlight of the tour, it is a remarkable cathedral.

At 9:45 we had a stop at Katyn Forrest where 21,000 Polish elite were rounded up and executed by the Russians, simply for being smart, which was a threat to Stalin. When this was discovered the Russians blamed the Germans (easy targets after WWII) and tried to divert attention by building a memorial at Khatyn Village (which I will describe later). In 1990 Gorbachev finally admitted to a mild version of the events that transpired here. The memorial here is very serene, a pathway through the woods with little memorials throughout. After walking through I used the bathroom before heading to the Belarus border, a very good decision.

At 11:00 we arrived at the Belarus border and made it into Belarus fairly easily by 11:55. Once in Belarus we had to turn our watches back 1 hour. At 12:15 we had a lunch stop on the side of the road. It had a closed restaurant on our side of the road and an open one (with a decent bathroom, or so I’m told) on the other side of the road. The bathroom on our side of the road was the worst bathroom I have EVER seen in my life! It smelled from a mile away too. I skipped using the bathroom at this stop.

On the bus we played some games to make the drive go faster and Maggy told us a little about Belarus. One of the things she told us about was Chernobyl, which was actually in the Ukraine, but 60% of the fall out landed in Belarus leaving large portions of the land unusable. There have also been reports of “monster babies,” which are quickly taken away from their mothers. It is believed to be the result of all the nuclear waste that went into Belarus and other surrounding countries, like Russia. This has also lead women to actively avoid men (as partners) who have genetic ties to areas near the nuclear fallout, and men to try and hide their ties.

At 3:15 I overheard Maggy on the phone with the local guide, telling her that we were lost and wouldn’t make it into Minsk until 5:30-6:00. I guess these things happen when the road signs aren’t in English.

At 4:15 we arrived at Khatyn Village for a 30 minute stop. In Khatyn Village the Nazi’s had come, rounded everyone from the town up, put them in one shed and burned it down, there were 3 survivors. 2 girls and 1 man. The 2 girls went to live in another village and were killed when that village was also burned alive. The man is Josef Kaminski, who is the man modeled in the Unconquered Man statue holding a child, he is holding his son who he found at the site after the Nazi's left. He worked at the memorial and was often seen caring for different parts of the memorial over the years. The memorial is one of the most moving I had ever seen. Soil was taken from each of the 618 villages destroyed by the Nazis to create part of this memorial; the cemetery of villages has a plot for each of the 185 villages that were never rebuilt. The bells at the village ring every 30 seconds, representing some (I think the rate that Belarusian's died in the war) rate of death during WWII. There is also a Memory Wall with a plaque and alcove for each of the concentration camps and sites of mass extermination within Belarus. There are many other symbolic aspects to this memorial, if you’re interested take a look at this site.

We arrived in Minsk at 5:30 and at our hotel at 5:45. We took a quick bathroom break, which I needed since my bladder refused to use a squatter toilet and earned a gold star for the day! Then we did a city tour. Before arriving Maggy had told us that Belarus is a little screwed up… Although this is considered a free state, it is run by a dictator, Aleksander Lukashenko, and as long as you agree with everything he says and vote for him, it’s a free state. I remember Belarus in the news a couple months before my trip, the elections were rigged, and people were actually bold enough to protest. President Bush commended those who protested, because it was such a dangerous thing to do. Anyway, 90% or 95% of industry in Belarus is government run leaving almost no public companies in the country. The major industry is refrigerators and TV’s,; however, Maggy tells us that they have not upgraded these industries in decades. They simply take the manufactured products and put them in warehouses and tell everyone they export them, primarily to Russia. The TV’s we had in our rooms in Russia were in varying degrees of newer then the one we had in our room in Belarus, which was easily 25 years old, technology wise.

On our city tour we saw the building where the Communist Party in Belarus started, The KGB building, Independence Square, and the bridge at the Island of Tears. Everything in Minsk seemed very shinny and happy. It was a weekend so we saw several brides. We also learned that it is traditional in Belarus to go to a memorial on your wedding day, which would explain the bridal party we had seen at Khatyn Village early. There is a religious reason, that I don’t remember, that keeps people from marrying through most of July and August, leaving June as a very popular month for marriage. In Minsk we also saw a lot of happy people relaxing, some on paddle boats. It was a weird place, knowing how much turmoil there is behind the smiling faces. Everyone looked to happy and the place looked too nice, it reminded me of the Stepford Wives. Our local guide explained to us about there industry – refrigerators and TV’s that are exported, mostly to Russia.

Once back at the hotel we checked in and had dinner. For dinner we had very greasy chicken and a delicious pastry for dessert. After dinner and before the exchange place opened up again (it had weird hours, on and off for 30 minute blocks all day) we were standing outside by the bus and looked over and saw a man peeing against a wall. It was so funny, but I didn't have my camera, but James did and he took a picture for me. So James, if you're reading this, can you send me a copy of the picture? Then we went to exchange money, for 5 euros I got 13,250 Belarussian Rubles, Wahooo, I’m rich! At the grocery store, which reminded me of an old school grocery store where the cashier manually enters each price, I struggled to spend little more then half of that money. I ended up giving Lis some of my money because the cashier didn’t have change for her 10,000 bill, since she had already given me all her change. It was actually pretty comical trying to pay for our stuff, since we all had large bills. This was not the first country we went to where ATM’s and exchange places gave you really big bills that no one wanted to take or didn’t have change for, I don’t get it.

After shopping Lis, Jilly and I popped into the bar for a few minutes, then ended up at the casino where James had won (and saved a casino chip for me to take home to my brother-in-law, I bet his other friends don’t have casino chips from Belarus.) I wanted to play the slots once, but you needed a chip or something and I didn’t have enough money to buy chips. What’s wrong with a machine that accepts bills in small denominations like they have in the rest of the world? Owell, there loss. After that failed attempt we went back to the bar for a few minutes and then decided to go to bed early, 10:45 since we had an early start in the morning to get out of Belarus. Yea, we were heading back to a civilization, Poland. I never thought I would say that.

Moscow to Yartsevo

Day 26: Moscow to Yartsevo: From Moscow, we continue to Smolensk - visit "Borodino" on the Dnieper that became the strategic key to Moscow in 1812 and 1941. Later we arrive at our overnight hotel in Yartsevo. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Smolensk Motel Oasis

Breakfast: 9:30

I woke up at 8:10, before my alarm, and used my extra time to go to the grocery store for food for the bus today. I met Leah at 9:30 for breakfast as we had agreed on the night before, and then we headed out to the market near the hotel. The art market here is famous for good prices and selection so most people used their free time to shop there this morning. It was raining this morning, which made shopping outside a bit of a struggle. We walked through the non-art market market, which consisted of mostly clothes, shoes and stuff like that. Then we got to the art market where there was a 5 Ruble charge to get in (the locals didn’t seem to be paying though). We decided not to go in as it was already getting a bit late (it took a while to get through the market with the rain) so we wouldn’t have much time and it was pouring rain which was dampening our shopping spirit. We ended up at the grocery store where I tried to spend most of the rest of my Rubles on candy and snacks.

At 11:30 the bus left for Yartsevo. I had trouble with my ipod last night, it wouldn’t turn off and it scrolled through my songs, but wouldn’t actually play any so I asked Andy, my new best friend, to take a look. Apparently charging it last night fixed it and it was working fine. At 1:30 we ended up making a quick stop at a McDonalds because we had been stuck in too much traffic and needed to stop soon anyway. I just got some fries in an effort to use up some more of my Rubles, the remainder of my Rubles would be used as donations at different memorial/ monuments and as souvenirs.

At 3:40 we stopped in Borodino to see the monument and use the bathroom. During the war of 1812 when Napoleon tried to take Russia the Russian army retreated to Borodino. In Borodino the Russian’s took up a defensive position and Napoleon's Army took a frontal position. 75,000 people died and the Russians retreated, but both armies claimed victory. The Russians burned Moscow and when (as Maggy called them) General January and General February stepped in, the French were forced to retreat. Napoleon returned to France with 25,000 of his 700,000 member army. One third of the military age men in France had been killed. Today there is a monument and our first encounter with squatter toilets in Borodino. I did not use the bathroom, but they didn’t seem that bad, for squatter toilets.

At 6:30 we arrived at our hotel – the Motel Oasis, best described as a truck stop in the middle of nowhere, Russia. Outside waiting for us was Dodgy Michael; we had been warned not to buy his cigarettes or his Vodka as they were both of very questionable quality. This hotel wasn’t terribly nice, the only nice thing was that my room (and some others, but not all) had a bathroom and separate bedrooms or a bedroom and a living room. When you walked into our room you were in a foyer and straight ahead was a bedroom (Tania’s) and to the left was the bathroom, both the bathroom and the bedroom connected to my bedroom. Maggy had warned us we might not want to shower here. While I couldn’t smell the water (still had a cold) I was told it did have an odor to it, and the shower had seen better days, about 50 years ago. Every Contiki tour has a dodgy hotel, this was ours.

At 7:30 we had dinner which was to be followed by a show. Apparently whenever Contiki shows up some of the local girls come to do a show for them, and the Tour Manager and Driver cover the cost of the show in an effort to help out the local economy. Since I don’t think there is a local economy (we were in the middle of nowhere - I'm not just being a wiseass) I’m sure it didn’t take too much. 4 girls, who seemed to be in their late teens came on and did a couple different dances to different songs. Since they changed after each song we had a little intermission between each song. I like to think of this as the Moulin Rouge of Yartsevo – the dancing they did wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t high caliber - think HS talent show caliber. After the teenage girls finished a stripper came out (we had been warned incase anyone wasn’t interested) and some people got special attention. It was an interesting night, Dodgy Michael was around all night; apparently his services also included prostitutes. When Kieran knocked a glass over, breaking it, Dodgy Michael tried to swindle 100 Rubles out of him for the glass. But since he hadn’t actually seen it, just thought it was Kieran, Kieran was able to tell him he didn’t do it and as far as I know Dodgy Michael didn’t get any money. The sign that the night was going downhill was when Clinton’s leopard skin g-string came out. At that point I decided it was time to go to bed...

Moscow Day 3

Days 25: Moscow Sightseeing: Two days to explore this fascinating city. Our sightseeing tour includes the Kremlin, the onion domes of St Basil's, Red Square and the GUM Store. There's even the opportunity to travel on the Moscow underground! (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Hotel Izamailovo Beta Block
Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:00

When I woke up this morning my eye was stuck shut, not good, I had pink eye! I'm in Russia, on tour, I couldn't have pink eye! But I did, and I was not going to go to the doctor! He'd probably send me to the hospital, I would tough it out without medicine.

This morning Galina took us to a WWII museum (it might be the Armed Forces Museum), which was very quiet since it is not the typical tourist spot. Galina had been a history teacher and so knew all the good museums in Moscow. Then we went to the museum for the Revolution. I think my brain had fully shut down by this point, but it perked up for Galina's story about the first McDonalds in Moscow, I will now butcher her story... You would wait on line for about 2 hours, typical for Russia. When you walked in, the floor was clean, that was the first sign that something wasn't right. When you got to the counter they had a smile in their face (hello, this is Russia) and asked what you would like. This was Russia at a time when you hoped they had something at the end of a line, let alone what you actually wanted. You ask for a Big Mac. Then to add to the confusion - they asked how many you wanted? Not only did they have food, you could get as much as you wanted. This caused so much stress and confusion (people thought it might be a trick and the government was listening) that they had to put up a sign limiting the number of Big Mac's to 15, people literally didn't know how to handle a lack of limits and choice. This was Russia where you went to a store and took what they had, they didn't have selection but they did have limits, there was a 2+ hour line behind you after all. In the bathroom they had... toilet paper, and if you took the toilet paper they put a new role on. This was all knew to the Russians. I love this story, it really made me understand Russians a bit and why capitalism was such a struggle for them culturally.

After the museum Kate, Andrew and I went in search of lunch, we ended up at the underground mall again. We ran into Lis, Jilly and Tom and relaxed a bit after lunch chatting since we were so tired. We were going to head outside to people watch until our meeting time, but it was raining so we went shopping instead. I found a T-shirt (which I had been looking for) and a long sleeve shirt (I had not been looking for), but when I went to buy it there was confusion with my credit card. They wanted my passport (which the hotel had, and stupid me forgot I had a copy of it in my backpack) and eventually accepted my room card, but then the credit card didn't work. I have no idea why and they didn't speak a word of English, owell. I met Kate and Andrew outside the store (Lis and Jilly were shopping in another store), and after telling them my story they offered to lend me the cash. Yea, I have 2 new shirts!

At 5:00 everyone met, but the bus was late picking us up. We didn't get to our restaurant until 6:00 and the circus started at 7:00. Once inside the circus they had animals displayed and you could get your picture taken with them. During the circus I sat next to Cara and we discussed what was going on. The first act had monkeys dressed like people, 2 were on leashes. One might wonder why you would have a monkey who needed to be on a leash in a circus. Then they had dogs, they would do tricks and get food as a reward. We all wondered if they were fed, maybe they didn't feed them and they had to do their tricks so they could get food. During the intermission I was on a hunt for cotton candy, it wouldn't be the circus without cotton candy. But we kept getting distracted looking at people taking pictures with animals (Marie got one with a lion cub). Finally I saw a woman with cotton candy, I chased her down for my cotton candy, it was as good as I remember it. In the second half of the show they had lions who seemed to be afraid of the lion tamer. Some seemed to be afraid to do their tricks, but when the lion tamer took out his whip they did what they were told. What I learned about the circus - you can be too old for the circus, but you can't be too old for cotton candy, clowns are dumb, and animals doing weird things isn't entertaining, it's weird.

When we were on the bus after the circus we saw two drunk guys fighting, fortunately they were too drunk to actually hurt each other. But one guy did take his shirt off for the fight, but all he did was kick the tire of our bus and stumble off in the other direction. When we got back to the hotel I got my stuff ready for a bus day the next day and then went with Tania to send some emails. I finished before Tania and decided to pop into the grocery store on the way back, not my brightest idea at 11pm. I was looking around and then noticed someone looking at me, for a second I thought maybe he was someone from tour, he had on goofy glasses, but he was just a weirdo. I made a quick exit and went back to the hotel, lesson learned.

I ran into a bunch of people at the hotel bar and hung out with them. It was an interesting night. Kevin went up to the bar to get a drink and the drunk prostitute hit on him, I guess he declined because she went back to the guy she had been sitting with earlier. When Sky and Tom went up to the bar she went up to them too, she was pulling on Tom's belt and made a pass at Skye as they were walking away. When the guy she was with left, she followed him, but he kept telling her to go away, oh those crazy Russians!

Moscow Day 2

Days 24: Moscow Sightseeing: Two days to explore this fascinating city. Our sightseeing tour includes the Kremlin, the onion domes of St Basil's, Red Square and the GUM Store. There's even the opportunity to travel on the Moscow underground! (Breakfast included)

Hotel: Hotel Izamailovo Block "Beta"
Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:00

At 9am we all met in the hotel lobby, today was a coach free day so we were starting off with a tour of the Metro. But first the sick people would have to be cared for. Daniel apparently had been sick for a few days and last night Galina had taken him to the hospital. He had an inner ear infection, he was still in the hospital. Tom also wasn't feeling well - something in his throat. Galina took him to the doctor this morning and he had to go to the hospital too, something had to be cut out of his throat or something. It turned out he had an infection in his throat (possibly from having a cut/sore in his throat and brushing his teeth with the water in St. Petersburg.) They gave him an anti-biotic and told him if he wasn't feeling better in a couple days it would have to be cut out.

At 9:45 we finally left, there was a Metro stop 2 blocks away, I took a picture of the name of the stop incase I needed it later. For the tour Galina would tell us the number of stops we were going and put up the appropriate # of fingers so everyone knew where we were going. No one seemed to get lost. At each stop Galina showed us all the cool stuff. The Metro was cool, much of it looked like it belonged in a palace, it was very grand. The decorations were very ornate and there was quite a bit of Communist things there, though some had been taken down. In one station they had montages and in one section they showed communist scenes, but in another area they had been changed and were just flowers. As grand as it was, the train cars looked like they were made of wood - that can't be safe.

When we finished on the Metro Galina put us on line to see Lenin's tomb. We waited on line for a little bit, then had to put our cameras and bags in a security thing since they can't go in. Going into the tomb was a very weird experience. After going through security you go inside the building, it's quite dark and the floor looked like granite, it was hard to see. There were guards when you first walk in, then you go down stairs and there were more, maybe 6 or more in each spot. Then when you walk into the room with his body there were only 2 in there, but at this point you're afraid to do something anyway, it's a very intimidating experience. Once in the room you walk on a pathway around the body, you can't stop or put your hands in your pocket (I heard someone did that and a guard came right up to him). The body is encased in glass and looks very waxy, totally unnatural - it was a parafin waxy look to be more specific. When Lenin died he wished for a small funeral with little fanfare. Stalin had a huge funeral with lots of fanfare for Lenin, he also ordered that his body be maintained so people could see him, like me. He told the Russian scientists to figure out a way to maintain the body. According to Lonely Plant the body is wiped down every couple days and then they use paraffin wax on the body to keep it looking fresh, that explains the waxy look. You too can have this done to your body, you just need to pay 1 Million dollars. After Stalin died his body was put with Lenins, but after 3 years Kruschev had his body removed from the tomb and buried.

Once we left the tomb we had to walk half way around Red Square to get our stuff back, but we did walk through GUM, which is a high end mall. One of the stores had mannequins with potato sack heads, interesting. Andy, Kate, Marie, Kieran, Ted, Lis, Jilly, James and I all went to the Church of Christ Our Savior, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful churches in all of Europe. The hand of St. John the Baptist was in the church, making it a little difficult to get in. It seems that every human being on the planet had made a pilgrimage to the church to see the hand, who knew? We walked by the line for it for quite a while before getting to the back of the church, we thought it was the entrance, but we couldn't get in since it was the exit. We were only able to take pictures of the back. From where we were the line continued around the block and then to the front of the church to get in, the line seemed to be over a day long. Man these Russians really do know how to make a line! After taking a few pictures we headed back to the Red Square area for lunch.

On the way back Lis and Jilly wanted to sit for a few minutes, it had been a long day and it had started getting hot out. Only Kate, Andrew and I waited with them, the others went ahead for lunch. The 5 of us ended up at the underground mall by Red Square having lunch at the food court - we had pizza with bad salads, we also ran into Tom, who had been released from the hospital, I think Lis had sent him a text message about where to meet us. At 3:00 the group met outside the Kremlin for our tour of the Kremlin. Once inside there are areas where you can and cannot walk, they get a little pissy if you cross the line. While inside the walls we saw a group of the military marching in formation, they started heading in our direction but Fraser didn't see them and they just kept marching right into him, it was pretty funny! Inside the armory we got to see some of the Tsar's Faberge Eggs, which were very nice. But I was so tired that it was hard to concentrate on what Galina was saying. After that we went to dinner near Red Square and had Borst (soup) which I didn't like and Chicken. After dinner we tried to go to a bar, but the one that had been picked out wasn't that good so most of us left. We went back to the hotel and tried to go into the Vodka Museum which was nearby, but it was closed. We ended up in the hotel bar having a few drinks, Daniel was there, he had been released from the hospital and was feeling a bit better.

Novgorod to Moscow

Day 23: Novgorod to Moscow: Past Klin where Tchaikovsky lived, then a short drive to Moscow where we enjoy a first glance at the city sights, including Red Square. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Hotel Izamailovo Beta Block
Breakfast: 7:00 Bags to the bus/depart: 7:30

I'll start with a brief history of Communism in Russia...

Although Moscow's history is much more diverse then simply Communism, the remains of Communism are much more prevalent then they were in St. Petersburg. Moscow is first mentioned in historical chronicles in 1147, it's been burned down several times and been at the center of many battles. But I think the more modern history of Moscow is more interesting so I'll stick to that.

After the Bolsheviks took power they moved the Capital back to Moscow, in fear that the Germans would try to take St. Petersburg if it were the Capital. In an effort to maintain power the Bolsheviks and Lenin imprisoned and killed opponents, the same as had been going on in Tsarist Russia, just at a higher level then the Tsars. Several attempts were made on Lenin's life, resulting in Red Terror - tens of thousands were executed or put into labor camps. Meanwhile the continuing civil war caused widespread famine and death in Russia. Both the red army, led by Trotsky, and the white army (Tsarist with the support of the US, British, French and Japanese) ravished the countryside of Russia. Lenin and some Bolsheviks broke off from the Socialists and started the Russian Communist Party. After the war, Lenin tried to rebuild industry and agriculture in Russia, as well as fighting Anti-Semitism. In January of 1924 Lenin died, but not before criticizing Stalin and saying he is too harsh and should be removed from his post.

After Lenin's death there was a struggle for power between Stalin and Trotsky, eventually Stalin took power, the party chose him because they thought he was the lesser of two evils. Trotsky and his supporters were exiled; eventually, Trotsky would be assassinated by Stalin. Stalin went on to ban the Russian Orthodox Church, and executed the Priests. His vision for Russia was to take the peasant society and make it an industrial world power, which he did. He took away the farms and property of 4/5ths of the population in order to achieve his goal - if they refused - Stalin sent the secret police in. Those in violation were sent to Gulag Camps, by the 1930's there were 10 Million people in forced labor. Stalin ordered the deaths of 90% of the 17th Congress, because he did not trust them. Paranoia and hysteria reigned supreme - 1 and a half million people were killed within a 2 year period in Stalin's effort to eliminate dissenters - this was known as the Great Terror. Those who were sent to Gulag Camps didn't fair any better, they did back breaking work and the death rate was close to 100% in some of these camps. Throughout all of this Stalin was revered as the father of Russia and loved by all, YEA for propaganda.

In 1939 Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. This made Hitler's attack on Russia even more successful, Stalin didn't expect it and dropped the ball on the response. In World War II over 8 and a half million Russian soldiers and 20 million civilians were killed in the war. At the Yalta Conference Stalin demanded control of conquered German areas in the East, the Allies agreed.

After the bombing on Hiroshima, Stalin studied the effects of the Atomic Bomb: Hitler's invasion of Russia was 4 times worse - Russia would be able to survive an initial strike by the US - a little scary if you ask me. In March of 1953 Stalin suffered a stroke and died 3 days later. I have heard that they knew what was going on (stroke) when he was dying, but refused to help him, waiting for him to die.

Nikita Kruschev took over power after Stalin and started the De-Stalinization of Russia, which allowed more liberalism in Russia and the Eastern Bloc. The Russian economy grew faster then many Western economies. But he also encouraged the building of the Berlin Wall and persecuted the Russian Orthodox Church. He deployed missiles to Cuba, causing the Cuban Missile Crisis. After that Kruschev was ousted.

Leonid Brezhnev took power in 1964. I like to think of him as the leader of Russia when the Soviet Hockey Team lost to the USA Hockey Team in the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid. But he did other things, like sending his military into Afghanistan. It is also believed that he ordered the failed assassination of Pope John Paul the II in 1981.

In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of Russia. Under his leadership the economy failed and there were severe shortages of food. Gorbachev worked with Ronald Reagan (who promised to win the arms race) to bring an end to the Cold War. He relaxed control over the Soviet Caucuses and eventually brought an end to Communism in Russia, along with allowing the unification of Germany. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

And so it was time to drive to Moscow...

We left a few minutes late this morning because Tony had accidentally taken a towel from his room and the hotel wanted it back. Our first stop this morning at 10:30 was interesting... It's almost like a rest stop, well more like a gas station with a shop inside and a restaurant next door. They had animals in cages (like a bear and a fox in a cage, along with other animals), it was a bit weird as they obviously were sedated, either that or they have all lost their will to live. I used a really crappy bathroom, but it was better then the free one. Maggy said the free bathroom was the dodgiest bathroom she had ever seen in her life, and she has been to Egypt so it's saying something. (That was what I had originally written and in all my life this was the second worst bathroom, the worst was in Belarus. The bathrooms in Egypt weren't that bad.)

After that stop we played a game with a matryoska doll of Russian leaders that Maggy had and then she gave us some more history on Russia. At 2:30 we had a stop at McDonalds, I tried to order my cheeseburger with only ketchup (I was afraid of what else they might put on it), I thought we sorted it out, but I ended up with extra ketchup and everything else (mustard, pickle, and onion). It could have been worse; I think, they originally thought I didn't want any ketchup. After lunch we drove to Tchaikovsky's House, on the way we passed a public bus that was missing a tire, it was just riding on the wheel, and no one seem fazed.

We arrived in Moscow at 6:15, picked up Galina, our Moscow guide, and Maggy gave our passports to someone else to go get our Belarus Visas. Galina talked to us a bit about Moscow and Russia on the way to Red Square for our group photo. On the way over to Red Square I saw a kid walking around with a stuffed mouse, what? Who would want a stuffed mouse? And no, it wasn't Mickey. Don't kids want giraffes like me? So we walked into Red Square where the Red Army has marched countless times. We were quickly lined up for our picture, we took a couple and of course I was squinting in the one they picked, owell, but St. Basil's is in the background. In Red Square they were cleaning up from the concert the night before, the one that Tania and I had watched on TV, I guess it was live.

After our photo Galina took us on a city tour, she showed us the KGB and a bunch of other stuff, I think my brain was getting overloaded at this point. She explained to us about the double headed eagle that Russia uses. I explained before that it came from the Byzantine Empire, and was taken by Tsarist Russia. Under the Tsars the two heads represented the church and the Royal Family working together. When communism fell they needed a symbol, so they took the double headed eagle again, now it represents the government and something else, but the running joke is that the other thing is the mafia.

When we got back to the hotel the girl who had taken our passports wasn't back yet, she was stuck in traffic, and so the hotel would not let us check in. Around now the trip was getting to me, I was tired and it had been a long day, I even commented to Kate that I was ready to kill someone, no one in particular, just that I was on the edge. I had been one of the last to get into the hotel and I heard Maggy announce that we couldn't get our rooms yet and that we were going to leave our bags in the lobby (with someone watching them) and the rest of us would eat. Everyone was bunched up in the middle so I was waiting till they cleared out to put my bag in the middle with the others. Renae asked if I was going to dinner, I said I was just waiting for everyone to move (I think I sounded a bit short with her). Right after Fraser came over and told me I had to put my bag in the middle... Well I lost it... I yelled something about how I could see what was going on, Fraser tried to explain himself, but I just yelled at him more. I hear he mumbled something about me being a bitch, he's not the first, wont be the last even though I really am a nice girl. Once I put my bag down I went up to dinner with the few people who were around to witness my outburst.

After dinner several people went to do internet in one of the other buildings in the complex, our hotel is part of a multiple building complex that was used for the 1980 Moscow Olympics (the ones the US didn't attend) so the hotel was nice, though the rooms were out of date, but the elevators rocked! While waiting I waited on line at the reception desk to find out about the internet in our lobby, eventually I found out they were only open 9am to 7pm - when we would be out of the hotel, naturally. Anyway the girl with the passports got to the hotel at 9:15 and I was in my room by 10:00. I did a little laundry in the room, since Moscow is the only city in Russia with "safe" water (I still only used bottled water for drinking and brushing teeth). When Tania got in she wanted to go use the internet so I went with her and spent 50 minutes updating everyone as to what I was up to. I had planned on doing something with Kate and Andrew, but I felt bad that the family hadn't heard from me in a while. I finally got to bed at 12:45.

St. Petersburg to Novgorod

Day 22: St. Petersburg to Novgorod: We leave the 'Cradle of the Revolution' and journey past collective farmland to Novgorod, which when translated means 'New Town'. This afternoon, a guided tour of the town and its famous church and millenium bell. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: Hotel Sadko
Breakfast: 9:00 Bags to the bus/depart: 9:30

This morning we were dropped off the Church on the Spilled Blood at 10am for a free morning. Marie was trying to arrange for a canal tour this morning, she had spoken to someone the day before, but no one mentioned that today was a holiday and everything was running with limited service. The only times we could get for the canal cruise would make it really tight for meeting the bus at 12:30 if we wanted to eat lunch too. We finally got one that was supposed to leave at 11 for 7 euro each. But by 11:15 the boat hadn't moved yet and they didn't know where the driver was, so we all got off and went for lunch instead, Subway.

At 12:30 we met the bus and headed off to Novgorod. Maggy had gotten our stuff from Dodgy Serg and gave it out once we were on the bus. Then she went over our Belarus Visas and gave us some history on Novgorod. Novgorod is 1047 years old, we didn't know it then but we found out later that today is "Novgorod Day," it's Novgorod's Birthday! Some history: the city was trashed by the Nazi's and Ivan the Terrible left his mark here, he sent his storm troopers in and killed 60,000 people. What a happy place!

At 4:00 we arrived at our hotel, which was really nice. But Contiki had not made our reservation and they weren't ready for us, but they had rooms at least. At 4:30 we went on our tour of the city while the hotel got our rooms and dinner ready. The city isn't terribly big, and a bit run down, but it was Novgorod Day so they were having a festival and everyone was out and about. We saw the Cathedral of St. Sophia, the gold gilding had come off the domes and you could find it on the ground, I found some. We also saw the Millennium of Russia Monument, celebrating the 1000th anniversary of Prince Rurick's arrival. We drove over the Volkhov River back to the hotel at 6:00 and had dinner at 7:30. With my free time I packed up my souvenir bag so it could be stored in the bottom of the bus so I wouldn't have to drag the stuff around anymore, I had collected quite a bit of stuff.

At dinner I sat with Skye, Tom and Michael. Skye and I decided to follow Maggy's advice, to go to the communist grocery store next door, then we were going to walk into town. Tania decided to come with us, but she didn't last long as she needed something back at the hotel and didn't even make it into town with us. The communist store was interesting, everything is behind counters and you tell the people what you want and they get it for you. Ahhh, so this is how the communists created jobs for everyone, by making everything excessively labor intensive. The girl behind the counter looked bothered by me and my buying candy, I love Russian hospitality.
We continued into town and it was nice since there were so many people in town. We looked for an internet cafe that was supposedly in town, but never found it. As it got later Skye and I started to feel a bit uncomfortable in town and decided it was time to go back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel I finished packing while Tania and I watched a concert that seemed to be going on in Red Square, we wondered if it was live. It was funny to watch because we couldn't understand 95% of what they were saying, but every now and then they would say a word that was close to the English translation and it would catch my ear, like "internet," but I still didn't know what they were talking about.

St. Petersburg Day 3

Days 21: St. Petersburg Sightseeing: Plenty of time in St Petersburg to get acquainted with the fascinating history and way of life. Our sightseeing tour includes the great Winter Palace, the incredible Hermitage Museum; visit Petrodvorets with its palaces, parks and fountains. And for a taste of local flavour, anyone for caviar and a vodka chaser? (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: LDM Ulitsa Professora Popova

Breakfast: 8:30 Bus departs: 9:00

The Niet Niet Ladies at the hotel had struck, apparently they had a substitute Niet Niet Lady and she wouldn't give the room cards back, Maggy was able to fix it before we left. Is it really that hard to exchange pieces of paper for room keys? While the hotel seemed to be pretty clean, the water definitely had an odor to it, you definitely could not brush your teeth here, and you had to keep your mouth closed in the shower. But at least I had a shower in my room, Scandinavia made me appreciate that.

Our first stop of the morning was a photo stop at the Arora Battleship. During the war with Japan there was a 45 minute sea battle in which 45 Russian ships were lost, the only to survive was the Arora. Next was Peter and Paul Fortress, resting place of the Tsars.

The bodies of Nicholas II's family were found in 1991 and were given a state funeral, by 1998 DNA testing showed a 98.5% chance that the bodies were Nicholas II, Alexandra, Tatiana, Olga, and either Maria or Anastasia. The bodies of Alexei and Anastasia have not been found.

Once at the Fortress we went inside the Cathedral, Anna showed us the tombs of the Tsars and explained about the Cathedral. There was a lot of construction inside, they were bringing the body of one of the Romanov wives from Copenhagen and they were setting up for her tomb. They seemed to be preparing the whole cathedral for the event. We also saw the room where Nicholas's family is interred, 2 places are left blank for Alexei and Anastasia. Our last stop in the Cathedral was to listen to the choir, they were truly amazing signers. I would have bought their CD, except it was 20 or 25 euros and I didn't foresee myself listening to it much.

After Peter and Paul fortress we had a stop at the Faberge Egg store. Tsar Alexander III started the tradition of purchasing these for his wife for Easter each year. Tsar Nicholas II would continue this tradition by purchasing them for his wife and mother. I purchased an egg charm for myself, it opens up and inside is a basket of flowers, this would be my big purchase of the trip, and a lovely one at that. I also got my mother an egg with a carriage inside, mom deserved something nice.

At 11:40 we were dropped off near the Nevsky Prospect McDonalds and had free time till 1:30. Today we had KFC for lunch, the workers hear understood enough for us to order. We ended up with enough time to not really do anything other then walk down Nevsky Prospect a bit. Our 1:30 meeting today was for our tour of the Hermitage, which I was very excited to see.
The reason we went to the Hermitage today instead of yesterday is that yesterday there were 5 cruise ships in town and the place would be mobbed, this is the value of having a tour guide. As excited as I was I was literally falling asleep standing up and walking, that would explain why I was walking like a drunk and bumping into people. It was kind of bazaar, but I do remember seeing many of the rooms in the Winter Palace and some of the famous works of art throughout the museum, I'm glad I got a book on the Hermitage. From what I remember it was a remarkable place with all the formal gold and jewles you might imagine. After the tour I decided not to continue walking around the museum for obvious reasons. I decided to find the internet and write home instead. Well I waited on line for 15 minutes at a coffee shop counter to buy 20 minutes of internet. The guy in front of me complained to some woman who had cut the line, she just showed her Hermitage id, said she worked there and gave the look of death. When I got to the cashier I was told they couldn't sell anymore time because they were closing in 15 minutes, NIET NIET!!!!! I must have given her the look of death because she called over the manager who explained it again. I swear, I almost jumped over the counter and strangled someone. It made me very cranky for a while, but I was able to save other people from wasting 15 minutes of their time on line, at least there was that.

We walked around a bit, saw some brides (these were not the first brides we saw in St. Petersburg, we had seen at least one everyday we were here) and walked over to the Church of the Spilled blood and a miracle happened, I actually bought a matryoska doll, yea! I even bargained for it. She tried to sell me another one that wasn't as nice since it was closer to my price range, but I liked the one I picked out much better.

At 5:00 we were picked up and taken to two photo stops, St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral and the palace where Rasputin was assassinated. Rasputin became a fixture with the Tsar's family and many believed he was really controlling the Tsar's decisions, some thought he was the Tsarina's lover too. In December 1916 those loyal to the Tsar thought he had too much power and assassinated Rasputin. They tried to poison him, but that didn't work so they shot him. When he was still moving after being shot they clubbed him and dragged him to the Neva River and threw him in - the cause of death was drowning.

From there we went to Moo Moo's for dinner. The restaurant is named after a Russian story about a dog named Moo Moo. The short version: Moo Moo rented a room from a Russian woman who did not like dogs. One day she took the dog, tied a brick to him and threw him in a lake drowning him, poor Moo Moo. From there we went to the Russian Folklore show.

Most of us were a bit ambivalent about this part of the Russian Optional package, but everyone seemed to enjoy the folklore show. During the show they did audience participation, and one of the woman in the show had been eyeing Fraser all night. Fraser tried to get Corey to switch with him so Fraser could be a row closer and right next to the stairs. Not sure what why Corey wouldn't switch with him, but it really pissed Fraser off. I could see why he wanted to switch, but I'm not sure what the big deal was. Fraser did get pulled up on stage anyway, and seemed to have a great time up there. During intermission they had fruit, Champaign and caviar. I was almost tempted to try the caviar, just to say I did it. Marie said it was good. But then Kate tried it, I was almost gagging just looking at her trying not to gag on it. After she got it down she proceeded to explain how all the little eggs exploded in her mouth, yuck! I didn't try it, and doubt I ever will. On the bus back Maggy played our day song, Rasputin, for us, and Fraser danced...

St. Petersburg Day 2

Days 20: St. Petersburg Sightseeing: Plenty of time in St Petersburg to get acquainted with the fascinating history and way of life. Our sightseeing tour includes the great Winter Palace, the incredible Hermitage Museum; visit Petrodvorets with its palaces, parks and fountains. And for a taste of local flavour, anyone for caviar and a vodka chaser? (Breakfast included)

Hotel: LDM Ulitsa Professora Popova

Breakfast: 8:00 Bus departs: 8:30

When I think of St. Petersburg I think of Tsarist Russia: The Romanov Dynasty. I think to appreciate St. Petersburg you need to know a little history about St. Petersburg and the Romanovs', I'll have some blurbs throughout about the history.

Ivan III (AKA Ivan of Moscow or Ivan the Great) was the first to take the title Tsar (Russian for Caesar), Emperor of all the Russias. Ivan took the Byzantine symbol of absolute authority, the double eagle, as his personal symbol. His grandson, Ivan IV, was the next to take the title Tsar, he is known as Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the terrible married Anastasia Romanov, after her death there was significant turmoil in Russia.

In 1613 a descendant of Anastasia, Mikhail, was found and became the first of the Romanov rulers and so the Romanov dynasty is born. Peter The Great (very long story short) became the Co-Tsar in 1682 and sole ruler in 1696. Moscow and Russia was stuck in the Middle Ages and Peter had a great love of the anything modern, or Western (Western Europe). He had a vision to create a new Westernized Russia. His first order of business, a Navy. Then he went West to learn about ships and different aspects of Western life, such as medicine. When he returned he wanted to change Russia - he forced Russia forward to be more Western. He envisioned a new city, on the Baltic, he built his own log house in a city to be known as St. Petersburg, which would be the new capital of Russia. It was a city in Russia that was never to surrender, and was built at any cost, it is also said to have been built on the bones of Russians (essentially slave labor with little or no tools and a high death rate). Peterhoff Palace, his Summer Palace, was designed to outdo Versailles. He told who to build what (Palaces) and where. Today the city is the remains of these palaces, which is one of the reasons it is a nice and attractive city. Other things that Peter The Great brought to Russia: the first newspaper, hospital, museum, schools, geography, astronomy, mathematics, a Navy, Army, Capital, even a new crown, Russia was now a global power, well sorda.

Under Nicholas I the Decembrists tried to start a revolution for a Constitution, they failed and the Absolute Monarchy stayed. Speaking of a rebellion or a constitution could be cause for exile or death under his reign. Nicholas's legacy was as the Police Officer of monarchy in Europe.

Alexander III rounded up the assassins of Alexander II and had them hanged, and the reform that had recently come to Russia was over. Alexander III built The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood on the site of the successful assassination of Alexander II, hence the name.

The following year Alexander III died and Nicolas II took over, but Nicolas was unprepared to be a Tsar. The poor were as poor as ever and revolution was in the air. Nicolas was considered out of touch with Russians and there was little faith in his ability to rule. Nicholas tried to expand into China and Korea and ended up in a fight with Japan. In 1904 Alexei was born, he was the 5th child and the only son. It was later discovered that Alexei had Hemophilia. The Empress Alexandra was introduced to a Monk and mystic, Rasputin. Rasputin became a fixture when Alexandra believe he could heal Alexei, but others saw him as a greasy womanizer with too much power. In December 1916 those loyal to the Tsar assassinated Rasputin.

Jan 9, 1905 workers, students, and priests marched on the Winter Palace, they wanted a representative government, and peace with Japan. Nicolas was out of town and Bloody Sundaywas born when the protesters were attacked, between 100 and 1,000 were killed.
Nicholas eventually gave in to the populous and created an elective assembly (the Duma) and a constitution. When World War I broke out Russia was dragged in, 8 million Russians were killed, wounded or captured. At the same time Lenin's slogan was "peace, land and bread."
On Feb 23 1917 bread lines turned to riots, Nicholas came home from the front and was forced to abdicate and give power to the Duma. The last European Monarchy had fallen. Civil War broke out and the Bolsheviks eventually took power. Some Romanovs were allowed to leave Russia, some were killed and Nicolas's family was moved around a bit. In July of 1918 the family was woken up in the middle of the night, taken to the basement, told to pose for a family photo and were killed by the Red Army. There bodies were soaked in acid and burned.

And so my first day in St. Petersburg went like this...

We left a little late this morning, since some people slept late and Maggy was being nice giving them a few minutes to get ready after waking them. Our first stop of the morning was the Peterhof Gardens at Peterhof Palace. We did not go inside the palace as we would be seeing other Palaces, but the gardens are breathtaking. The exterior of the palace is gorgeous and the workmanship and gold simply amazing, and to think of all the Russians who died building it and the Russians who died of starvation after it was built, yet all this wealth in one palace. The fountains are magnificent and you could see the great effort put into outdoing Versailles. Once we finished looking around we had a bit of free time to look around at the market outside the palace. I didn't know it at the time, but this was one of the places where you could get better prices on Russian souvenirs. I got a scarf for mom. But the most interesting thing was using the bathroom. I waited on line and had to pay 60 euro cent (or 40 rubles). The toilet paper was hanging on the wall outside the stalls under my favorite sign of the whole trip.

After Peterhof we made a stop at a church, St. Peters, to see and experience a Russian Orthodox Church. There was a little boy outside begging, he had an eye on Michael and followed him for a bit, it was pretty funny. Inside the church there were lots of little old Russian ladies praying. In a Russian Orthodox Church everyone stands, so there is no seating inside, except for seats for the Tsar and his family. During Communism many churches were destroyed, those that weren't were converted into warehouses, pools, skating rinks, anything other then a church, consequently there are not as many churches in Russia as there should be. After the church we were on our way to the Siege of Leningrad (Communist name for the city St. Petersburg) Memorial.

Several of the great world powers have tried to take Russia. King Charles XII and the Swedes tried during Peter the Great's reign, but failed and the great Swedish Empire collapsed. Tsar Alexander pretty much started a fight with the French (he aligned with the English) and Napoleon Bonaparte tried to take Russia. The Russians retreated from the French burning the land as they went, Napoleon followed deeper and deeper into Russia and finally met the Russians in Borodino, 75,000 men died and both sides claimed victory. The Russians retreated and left Moscow to the French, but not without burning the city. Napoleon ordered the retreat, but the Russian winter came early, they had little or no supplies and Russians attacked the retreating army. By the time they reached the Polish border the army had been decimated. On June 22, 1941 Hitler's secret plan for the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa began. The Russians were slow to respond and within 4 months the Germans were outside Moscow and laid siege on Leningrad. In 1942 Hitler went after Stalingrad (now known as Volgograd), but Germany's supplies lines were insecure and winter came early (early September). Stalin released restrictions on the church and appealed to patriotism to rally for the cause. In February of 1943 the German 6th Army surrendered. Leningrad had held out for 900 days, but never surrendered. By April 1945 the Red Army was in Berlin. There are a couple reasons for the Russian success: a large military was simply able to outnumber a better army; the scorched earth policy, where the Russians burned everything as they retreated leaving little for the advancing army; harsh Russian winters and long supply lines for invading armies; and well the Russians are used to hardship, there is more then one point in Russian history where it is believed that Russians resorted to cannibalism for survival, their own government treated them worse then any invading army could.

And so we stopped at the Siege of Leningrad Memorial. Downstairs they have a museum, they showed a video without sound of the hardships the residents of Leningrad, but Anna explained everything in the video. The city was under siege for 900 days, and over 1 million people died, despite the fact that many people were able to leave the city. At one point the daily rations consisted of 175grams (a small loaf of wonder white is 340 grams) of sawdust laden bread people supplemented by eating pets, rats, birds, wallpaper paste, leather belts and eventually some resorted to cannibalism. Some days as many as 30,000 people died, many just falling over in the street. Despite the hardships they never surrendered and human spirit remained alive, including acts of kindness and performances by the philharmonic and the symphony.

When we were walking back to the bus Anna stopped to talk to a guy on the sidewalk and let us know that if we needed to exchange money to see this guy. The black market exchange guy, nice! At 2:00 we were dropped off at the Church on the Spilled Blood for 3 hours of free time. Almost everyone went to Nevsky Prospect for lunch. I had Subway with Kieren, Marie, Kate, Andrew, Donna and Stephanie. Ordering lunch wasn't too bad, the people working there understood meatball and pointing at bread, relief! After lunch a bunch of us went to St. Isaacs Cathedral for a view of the city. Then we wanted to go to the Kunstkamera Museum (the deformed baby museum or the Museum of Anthropology & Ethnography), but other people were coming from there, the line was 45 minutes to get in - there wouldn't be time to go. We went back the the Church on the Spilled Blood because there was a market there. I looked at the martryoshka dolls, but couldn't decide on one, but I did get a flask for my brother-in-law.

Dostoevsky is a famous Russian writer and apparently they love him here, they even have a museum about him. In the fall semester of school I read a book by him, Notes From the Underground, it was awful! I don't specifically remember all that much about the book, except that reading it was torture. I have a friend who is a Russian language student and she says his other stuff isn't any better. I would not spend my free time going to see his statue or museum.

We went back to the hotel at 5:00 to get ready for the ballet and to have dinner. At 7:00 we left for the Ballet, we were seeing Giselle. When we went to find our seats someone was in my seat, he seemed confused about where he was supposed to sit and I didn't have the answer, but I knew he was in mine. Anna came in just after that and got rid of him. Our seats were very good, they were Orchestra seats in the front row of the back section, my seat happened to be at the end of the isle for the front section - I had an unobstructed view of the stage. The ballet was really good, quite amazing how they could tell the story through dance. I will admit I did fall asleep at one point during the first act, but I think everyone did, and almost everyone liked it. I think 2 of the guys left during intermission to hit the town. But buying the program was worth every penny, without it it's hard to tell what is going on onstage. The ballet finished at 10 and then it was back to the hotel for bed since I was exhausted.

Helsinki to St. Petersburg

Day 19: Helsinki to St. Petersburg: An early start this morning as we head to Russia. Stopping en-route at Vyborg - your first taste of old-style Russia, we continue to our hotel in St. Petersburg. (Breakfast and Dinner included)

Hotel: LDM
Breakfast: 6:45 Bags to the bus: 7:15 Bus departs: 7:30

Today we were leaving Scandinavia, which meant a lot of different things. Firstly, we were leaving 19 people behind, which I was sad about. I was also sad to leave the relatively slow paced Scandinavia, where the sun was always out, people were nice, they spoke English and nature was abundant. I was going to miss this place. But we were exchanging it for Russia: dirty water, dirty cities, corruption, bad bathrooms, people who don't speak English, and the remnants of czarist and communist Russia, I actually was excited about this.

I got up early this morning, 5:30. I wanted to actually get a shower before going to Russia, St. Petersburg in particular, and I wanted to try and call home again.

I woke up Nancy when I got up, which I felt bad about since she had come in even later then me last night, but she would be one of the few to see us off this morning. I did get to talk to mom and let her know I wouldn't be calling from Russia and that I was ok. Then had breakfast and everyone made their way to the bus. Nancy, Leah B, Karl, Sara and Ash saw us off this morning. Later on I heard that a bunch of people from the Scandi part of the tour went to Estonia for the day.

The rest of us got an introduction from Maggy and Ash as we hit the road for Russia. We were also introduced to our day song - Rasputin, fitting for a trip to Russia. Our first stop was just after 10am before the Russia border. This was our opportunity to go to the bathroom, get money, eat and get supplies for Russia. It was suggested that we split a case of 4 large bottles of water with someone, that that would be a good start for Russia since the water wasn't safe to drink or brush our teeth with. Around Moscow it was realized that some people considered this community water, some people must have taken more then they purchased and we ran out, leaving some people screwed out of the water they had purchased - nice.

We left there at 11:05 and went out of Finland, the customs guy came on the bus, looked very grumpy and stamped all our passports, yea, I got a stamp. We drove through no-mans land to the Russia border. We were told to go in the building and get on line, apparently we weren't supposed to and were sent back to wait until 12:15. On line I got to talk to a couple people, Fraser and Brittany and some others. The line moved well sometimes and then other times one person would take a half hour. One person had a lot of trouble getting in - he had lost his passport recently and so there was something with either the new passport or the new Visa that was a flag - they even took him to another room. In the meantime Maggy couldn't find out much about what was going on. Everyone finally finished going through customs at 3:00 and we actually got into Russia at 3:30, then had to change our watches ahead 1 hour.

After all that Maggy gave us a bit of history about Russia and as interested as it was I still fell asleep. At 5:15 we stopped in Vyborg, which used to be part of Finland, and were told to use the bathroom and find the train to St. Petersburg. Well I couldn't find the train since I don't read cerilic and the bathroom is best described as a cultural experience. My cold and congestion (I had felt better for about 1 day and then felt sick again) were a good thing in Russia, it's good when you can't smell the bathroom.

On the bus Maggy spoke to us about the trip and what to expect. At the hotels they have "Niet, Niet Ladies," when you check in you give your passport to the hotel and they give you a hotel card (in place of the passport). When you come and go from the room you exchange your hotel card for your room key. By the elevator was the Niet Niet lady who exchanges the key for the hotel card. She's a grumpy lady and says Neit Niet to everything - she's the stereotypical old Russian lady. Niet Niet ladies aren't only in hotels, any time you need something you'll have to deal with a Niet Niet lady. At some point I looked out the front window and saw the infamous "death lane," we were in it and straight ahead you saw headlights. hmmm, I probably shouldn't do that again. In Scandinavia the cars were all very nice and well cared for, in Russia they were all old junky looking cars. The roads are lined with trash and the road isn't in good condition, and we were on "highways."

Before our next stop we were introduced to our wake up song - Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Whamm. We got to our hotel at 8pm, LDM means "youth palace." Maggy had warned us that it was neither youthful nor a palace, she wasn't kidding. Just to emphasis this, Fraser got stuck in the elevator, most people ended up taking there bags up the stairs, thankfully I was only on 1, which was actually up 4 flights of stairs. We had dinner at 8:30, it was pork and rice and it wasn't too bad.

After dinner Anna, our local guide, took us on a Champanski Tour of St. Petersburg. We had stops at Decembrists' Square to see St. Isaac's Cathedral, Mariinsky Palace, the statue of Peter the Great (the Bronze Horseman) and the Astoria Hotel (where Hitler planned to have his celebration after he won St. Petersburg in the war). Our other stop was in front of the Central Naval Museum. We also saw the deformed baby museum (we didn't go in), Stroganov Palace, and Nevsky Prospect. We got back around 10:30 and Maggy set up Dodgy Serge's samples and took orders from everyone. It was a long day, but a good one.

Siege of Leningrad

For those who are unaware, Leningrad is now known as St. Petersburg. During World War 2 Leningrad was put under siege by the German army, the siege lasted 900 days. Hitler planned to stay at the Astoria Hotel once he took over the city, which never happened. When I was in St. Petersburg I had the opportunity to visit the museum for the siege, which like most Russian memorials was very good.

Here is some history of the siege: On June 22, 1941 Hitler's secret plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa began. The Russians were slow to respond and within 4 months the Germans were outside Moscow and laid siege on Leningrad in September 1941. To counter the effects of the German invasion Stalin released restrictions on the church and appealed to patriotism to rally for the cause - the Russians are good at rallying and being treated badly. Russians were able to bring in some supplies and do some evacuation of the city via Lake Ladoga by watercraft in the summer and ice/snow road in the winter, though this was very dangerous. Leningrad held out for 900 days, but never surrendered. As many as a million people may have died during the siege.

On my tour we first stopped at the Siege of Leningrad Memorial, which is quite grand and respectful of those who lived it. Downstairs they have a museum, they showed a video, without sound, of the hardships the residents of Leningrad, our tour guide explained everything in the video. The city was under siege for 900 days, and over 1 million people died, despite the fact that many people were able to leave the city. At one point the daily rations consisted of 175grams (a small loaf of wonder white bread is 340 grams) of sawdust laden bread people supplemented by eating pets, rats, birds, wallpaper paste, leather belts and eventually some resorted to cannibalism. Some days as many as 30,000 people died, many just falling over in the street. Despite the hardships they never surrendered and human spirit remained alive, including acts of kindness. It was a very moving experience and the museum gave a good reference of life under the siege, even though it was so harsh that one could barely imagine what it would be like.

Buying groceries

One great piece of advice I've always heard is to shop where the locals do. It's something kind of subtle, but can tell you about how others live and how it's different from how you live.

When I was in Scandinavia we went to a lot of grocery stores. Many were pretty typical - food, fruits, veggies, drinks, snacks. Then every now and then we would end up in a massive grocery store ya know the ones with lumber departments, clothing and all sorts of non-grocery stuff for sale. Wow, lumber, that was pretty impressive. It was so bizarre, if we had more time I probably could have done a lot of damage there, not on the lumber but on the myriad of other offerings. It threw me off a bit too, I would have expected Scandinavia to be more of a local store kinda place, not the type of place with big giant huge super stores.

Here in the US the closest thing to that would be a Wal-Mart - but groceries are just a section, it's not a grocery stores. Long Island and NYC don't have great Wal-Mart stores though. I hear in the mid-west they are HUGE and have pretty much anything you could ever need in them. I'm going to have to see one of these places one of these days.

Russia was totally different though. We didn't stop at many grocery stores, and I'm not totally sure if the grocery type places were typical grocery stores or just strange left overs from Communism. Everything in the store is behind a glass case and one of the workers gets each item that you need. The selection in the stores was poor, and the girl who I saw doing her nails behind the counter made me wonder about the sanitary issues. I opted to just get candy at that store. I guess when your country has communism and you need to create jobs for everyone, a labor intensive grocery store makes sense.

Belarus was a little different. The grocery store where I went reminded me of what a grocery store in the 70's or 80's in the US would have been like. It just didn't seem as sophisticated as grocery stores are today. The produce was weighed by a person in the produce section, then she would put a little sticker with the price on it on the produce. At the check out the person entered the prices for each item manually. I had exchanged 5 euro, but the prices were so cheap that I couldn't spend that much even when trying to spend the money. I probably spent about 2 euro worth on food and had a large bill, probably the equivalent of 3.50 euro. The girl could barely give me change, and I screwed up her drawer so much that she couldn't give change to my friend behind me. I was with 2 other girls and we played shuffle the money around so that we could each get our change for the groceries.

Shopping can be a great way to see how people really live, and it can help you eat on the cheap too. Next time you're away from home do some shopping with the locals, you might be surprised at what you find.

Evolution of a Traveler, Part 3

My third trip to Europe was to Scandinavia and Russia - two very different places and I took something different from each place. I'm not sure I opened up that much to new things on this trip, but I think the whole experience opened me to the possibility of being more open.

Scandinavia isn't one of the most happening places. The cities are nice and there is stuff to do there, but after seeing Paris, Rome, London the cities here didn't jump out at me. What did though was the extreme beauty. I'm not a nature girl, bugs are gross, I'm afraid of animals, hiking is work, and camping is beyond me. But after I spent a couple days in nature - mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls - I was able to really appreciate the beauty and the peacefulness of it. I'm still not into camping, but i can certainly stop to enjoy the beauty and the calm of nature. It was even worth freezing my butt off through Scandinavia.

Russia was my true introduction to Culture. This was the first place that I went that I really had a different culture in my face. It was also the first country that I spent more then 4 days in. There was definitely a difference in the people and the vibe and the whole country. The younger people spoke some English and were generally a little friendlier. But those little old Russian woman, wouldn't want to mess with them! The food was a little different - borst, salads without lettuce (still haven't gotten over that), dill, and high levels of grease - I wasn't a fan of the food. My local guide in Moscow (and the guide in St. Petersburg to a smaller extent) did a really good job of helping us understand the Russian people. Her story about the first McDonalds I think really shows how different of a culture the Russians were in under Communism. Here is a synopsis of the story: You would wait on line for about 2 hours, typical for Russia. When you walked in, the floor was clean, that was the first sign that something wasn't right. When you got to the counter they had a smile in their face and asked what you would like. This was Russia at a time when you hoped they had something at the end of a line, let alone what you actually wanted. You ask for a Big Mac. Then to add to the confusion - they asked how many you wanted? Not only did they have food, you could get as much as you wanted. This caused so much stress and confusion (people thought it might be a trick and the government was listening) that they had to put up a sign limiting the number of Big Mac's to 15, people literally didn't know how to handle a lack of limits and choice. This was Russia where you went to a store and took what they had, they didn't have selection but they did have limits, there was a 2+ hour line behind you after all. In the bathroom they had... toilet paper, and if you took the toilet paper they put a new role on. When I think of this story I think of how hard an adjustment it must have been to change to Capitalism, and to learn to be friendly to people. In one place you would find someone friendly and willing to try and help you, in another they were totally unwilling to help. It was a taste of old and new. And the Communist relics - the idea of how to deal with that as a country. As an American the closest thing we've had to this is the issue of the Confederate Battle Flag when it was still flying in South Carolina.

While I didn't necessarily embrace all these things I started to see them as a positive part of travel. Stepping out of your comfort zone and experiencing something new and accepting it even if you don't like/agree with it. I learned to stop and smell the roses and just be where I was and soak it all in.