Lake Baikal, Ulan Ude and boarder crossing

Sat on the train as I write this looking out over an endless pine forest, with a light covering of snow. Spectacular!

(Rubbish picture from the train)




Any minute now the first sight of the great lake...

Again rubbish train pic




The lake is reflecting the sun, obviously...

And an hour and a half later here's the lake in it's full glory.




And many hour after that crossing the River Selenga shortly before arriving at Ulan Ude for my last night in Russia (boarder crossing permitting)




See you joined me for my entire 7 and a half hour journey!

JT out.

Ok so no wi-fi access in Ulan Ude at all so I'll just keep going with this entry....

Ulan Ude was just one evening, but met a couple of cool guys from home and went for a beer, hopefully going to catch up for the footy in Ulaanbaator!

I took the slow train to Mongolia, so a 24 hour trip most of which was spent at boarder controls.

So just arrived in Ulaanbaator its 7.30am time for some kip!!!

Irkutsk

So Irkutsk... Nice hostel and my third visiting to a football stadium (my new obsession!!). Its a nice enough place buy I'm not too bothered that I'm only here for one night though. Seems a typical Siberian town to me.
It's a shame I haven't got time to go for a trip up to Lake Baikal. I'll get to see plenty of it tomorrow though. as my train journey (7 hours to Ulan Ude, during the day this time) spends most of the time skirting around the lake.

Interesting Lake Baikal facts: 1. 80% of the flora and fauna around the lake is unique. 2. It contains one fifth(!!) of the worlds entire unfrozen fresh water. 3. It will eventually become the earths fifth ocean splitting the Asian continent.

Finally some sleep...

My journey from Novosibirsk to Krasnoyarsk was a 12 hour trip (including crossing another time zone) which allowed me to catch up with my sleep and in the morning gaze out on a snowy Siberian landscape:







This is a bit of a first as the Siberian weather has been so nice that I've not seen a hint of snow!!

Again it took me four attempts to find a hotel. I don't think they like the hassle of having to register a foreign guest!! Luckily the place a found this time is only £15 for the night so it's the cheapest non hostel so far!

Krasnoyarsk is a nice enough Siberian city with plenty of bars (always a priority) but the most bizarre thing about it so far is that on the main street through the town there are speakers piping out easy listening music at high volume... It would drive me crazy if I was on my way to work!!

Anyway back to my beer....

Spartak Stadium Novosibirsk

A picture of the stadium (not mine) in case anyone is interested...

Sleep depravation and Novosibirsk

I thought when planning my Trans-Mongolian stops it would make sense to stop off in the odd place for the day and travel at night to avoid accommodation costs, sounds logical. Well I've gone on enough about my Kirov 20 hour mistake, but today it has dawned on me that the main problem has been that I'm only on the train for 7 hours at a time, meaning on those nights I only get about 5 hours broken sleep. When you follow that by 12 hours in a place on my feet no wonder I'm knackered all the time!!!

I'd also be interested to know if anyone else who's done the Trans-Mongolian stopped off in any of the places I have. I can't believe I'm the only traveller following this route in October! But I haven't met anyone other than (admittedly nice) Russians.

Anyway Novosibirsk.... It has lots of big squares and a top flight Russian football team and er....a big theatre...

I managed to sneak into the stadium to have a snoop about It is what i would call a classic Soviet style stadium. I reckon it was about 15,000 capacity with a running track around the middle and only had seating on 3 sides with the 4th side being a monument / scoreboard / place for dignitaries to sit and be seen. Well I found it interesting anyway....

My train to Krasnoyarsk leaves in 5 hours which I intend to spend in this bar drinking very slowly....

Anne Frank and Angry Birds

Today I have mostly been sitting in the Siberian sun reading my book and playing Angry Birds Halloween edition.

I managed to see the footy last night, typical lucky Gooners!!

As I said yesterday Omsk is nice but not really much else to report other than the weather is great and that there a A LOT of statues of Lenin!!

Omsk

I seem to have settled into a bit of a routine now on the Trans-Mongolian. Catch train in the evening > arrive am and find cheapest possible place to stay (usually a hotel as no hostels) > sleep for a couple of hours > wonder round to find food >
return to hotel and chill (maybe a bag if one nearby) > sleep > get up and check out > explore sites of said city > head to station > couple of beers > catch train > repeat.

Not that it's a bad routine! I am looking forward to reaching the tourist areas again though so I can meet up with some fellow travellers. I haven't seen a sole other than Russians for days (not that that should be a surprise!!).

So Omsk... Is a really nice place the hotel room I've got has a lovely river view and the attached bar/bowling alley downstairs has free wi-fi.

Spoke to Sacha earlier on skype which was cool if anyone else wants to skype me my user id is JT-Spurs. It's nice to be able to communicate for a bit!!

For my train journey a couple of nights ago I had the whole compartment to myself here is a pic so you can get the idea of my nightly sleeping quarters:





Here's one for Matt if he's reading... I found a dartboard!!





Laters....

Irish Bar and U2

To be honest i haven't updated the old blog because Tyumen has not really been particularly interesting.

I spent most of my day today wondering around waiting for the football to kick off, which I knew was being shown on Russian TV.

I did learn while in Tyumen that the likely Glastonbury headliners next year will be U2, Coldplay and Prince.

Now normally this wouldn't bother me in the slightest but.... I've always wanted to see Prince and to honest have never made any secret of my love of Coldplay.

So I found an Irish bar to watch the match (in which I think we were unlucky but on the other hand desperately miss a cutting edge striker...)

Once the football finished a band came on who among other numbers played both Coldplay and Prince. Just when I thought they couldn't rub it in anymore the music channel, put on once the band had finished, had a U2 night. Just showing how great they are live :o(

Roll on Glasto 2013....

The Romanov's

On my wonderings I just visited the point where the last Tsar Nicolas II and his family (of 7 plus their staff) we're executed by the Bolshevik's.

The house itself was demolished in 1975 and this wooden chapel built in it's place





It us also now the site of two modern cathedrals.

The Tsar and his family have since been canonised by the Russian Orthodox church and so the site is a holy place for Russians.

There you go a bit of a history lesson!!

Spurs and Sun

Having had a lie in until midday following on from an exciting late night session of listening to the Spurs on a BBC London stream, tweeting, watching the Bale goals via Sacha's emails (cheers dude, you know I'll be expecting this every match now). By the sound of it we were appalling and saved single handedly by Bale.... Same old same old.

Anyway back to the travels....

So after a relaxing night last night reading my latest hostel rescued book (The Diary of Anne Frank currently) with a can of the lovely Baltika, I'm out out about exploring Yekaterinburg. Which incidentally is the first city I've ever been to in Asia being just 17km over the Europe Asia border.
The weather today is superb! Its still chilly in the shade but there are blue skys and bright sunshine. (glad to hear its freezing in London)
Yekaterinburg is very pleasant with many post soviet buildings and a lovely main square.

The hostel I'm staying in is on the 7th floor of a soviet housing block but is actually really cosy and friendly inside.

My train leaves at 4.50am so I've booked a cab and will be attempting to have an early night to try and get some sleep in.

Next stop Tyumen, the first Russian fort in Siberia!

COYS

I just wanted to add for tonight COME ON YOU SPURS!!!!!

Perm and Yekaterinburg

Since the stress that was 20 hours in Kirov I've had an interesting couple of days

The next stop along from Kirov was Perm, which I had been told was a pretty dry and boing place.... It turned out to be the most tourist friendly place I've been in Russia so far. It had a really interesting tourist walk marked on the street taking you around all of the sights of interest, the commentary was in Russian and English which made a pleasant change from endless attempts to translate!! The station was also quite nice and I seem to have settled into a routine for hanging round the stations which basically involves drinking beer...
I also bumped into two girls from London who had apparently been informed that I was in town by the Left Luggage guy!!

Perm also had a great state art gallery which got me out of the cold!!

Today I arrived in Yekaterinburg where I actually have a bed booked for two nights. The hostel wasn't the easiest to find but I made it without too much trouble.

Today I'm just going to chill maybe grabbing a beer later. Then I'm going to attempt to listen to the football which doesn't start until 12.45 am here!!

Keep me updated on any score just in case I can't.....

Kirov

Today I learnt something new... 20 hours is a long time to hang around anywhere, let alone a place where you don't speak the language!!!

That said I had a nice wonder around Kirov and went for a coffee with Olya who I met on the train last night which was cool

My train to Perm doesn't leave for 5 1/2 hours so I have two options... drink or sleep. I can taste that beer already....

Hanging about

I'm in a much happier place today even though my morning started abruptly with the hotel waking me up as I'd overslept in a windowless room missing my check out time! To be fair to them though they did let me leave my bag there all day...

Today has been all about walking about Nizhny Novgorod viewing the sights (including an impressive array of Soviet Military machinery in the Kremlin) and hanging about I'm the cinema drinking beer and making use of the free wifi... I can think of worse ways to spend my day!!

My train doesn't leave until 23.00 but I'm going to go and pick my bag up in a bit. I'm not sure the hotel realise quite how long I wanted to leave it there for!!

I've also booked all the hostels I could up until Beijing to try and avoid yesterdays fiasco! I'm sure I'll still have some troubles along the way though, especially if there is no left luggage at my next station (Kirov)

Traveling stress

Things have not exactly as I planned in the last couple of days to say the least.

The train was not a problem, bar the issues I had getting into the top bunk! A very helpful Russian guy who wanted to practice his English translated for me.

The problems began when I arrived in Nizhny Novgorod... Of the cheap hotels listed in my two guides, one was closed down, the other full. I then tried all the expensive hotels they were also full!! All of this was while lugging my 20kg pack with me. I was tired and stressed out to say the least!!!

This is when the generosity of the Russian people stood out. The receptionist at hostel that was also a student halls phoned around different hotels until she found one for me. All without speaking any English. So I ended up in a hotel room, which was more than I intended to spend but hey, it's better than sleeping in the station and my faith in human nature (particularly that of the Russian people) is restored!!!

Last day in Moscow

Having had a quiet night last night I tootled off to the Kremlin today. The Armoury was well worth the 700R it cost to get in, the treasures are up there with the crown jewels in how spectacular they are and the amount of pieces is astonishing. The Faberge Eggs are an obvious highlight but I was equally impressed with the state finery including carriages and regal dress.

'Real Russia' have come up trumps and organised all of my rail tickets with two days notice and so tonight at 11.30 I head off on my great Siberian adventure....

I'm not sure how much wifi access I'll have during the next couple of weeks as Ive planned my schedule sleeping on the trains. As ever i'll keep the blog as updated as and when I can.

Next stop Nizhny Novgorod!!

Today I have been mostly hungover....

I also walked about 10 miles to see a park full of Lenin statues and tools of photos of the Kremlin at night.

Tonight I will be mostly sleeping

Location:Hungover

Freaked out

Last Thursday at La's gig in Dalston I very briefly chatted to an Aussie guy called Michael who told me he was going to Moscow this week.

I'm not shitting you when I say that I randomly bumped onto him tonight on a bar in Moscow. It was the most degrading shite bar ever but hey it's a small world....

ДРАНК

This afternoon has mainly been dominated by wondering around Moscow translating Cyrillic names into English. My first big success was translating souvenir shop (although to be honest looking at the shop it wasn't really rocket science).

I also visited the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was was spectacular!!!! and the wondered the streets of Moscow looking for bars, success none.

Saying that, I'm quite taken with Moscow, I've found the people friendly as cities go and the place itself is certainly grand in its scale. Tomorrow I'll visit the Kremlin.... Hangover permitting.

This evening so far has consisted of drinking the cheapest beer I could find (70p a bottle) and cheap vodka (2 quid a bottle) off out tonight with the Aussie, Canadian and American contingent from the hostel, who are all lovely. Vodka hazed eyes

3 things I've learnt today

1. Don't cross the road and walk along the river in Moscow... There is no return crossing

2. Russian cakes are the best in the world!!!

3. Moscow does not have any street visible bars

Day 2 Evening and Day 3

To be honest pretty much all I've done since my last update is sleep....

Ok thats a bit of a lie. I went out last night to find a bar to watch the football. this was an abject failure, I found an Irish bar where I brought an extortionately priced beer and watched a bizarre Russian bluesy rock band before heading back to the hostel to listen to talksport on my iPhone. Thats a lesson in how to immerse yourself in a new culture...

Today I decided in a panicked moment that my Russian was never going to hold up to buying all these random Trans-Siberian tickets in advance so I cheated by booking through an agency... On the bright side as I've chosen to spend most of my time travelling by night I should have saved a fair bit of cash (thats what I keep telling myself anyway)

Anyway off out to take pictures of the the things I forgot to photograph yesterday. I don't think I'll ever get used to this photography lark...

Day 2 Dead communists

So the first full day of the next 11 months started badly with me being unable to find anywhere to buy butter (crisis I know). I also made the school boy error of going out without layers and layers of clothes on when on my search.

Half an hour into this I gave up and returned with my tail between my legs to the hostel, this was all good though as I then met a couple of cool people one of which, Uri an Israeli, appears later in my tale...

So now looking like the Michelin man I wondered off towards Red Square to be a tourist for the day. First stop St Basil Cathedral, which was spectacular from the outside. Inside it was a mixed bag with some of the chapels fully restored and amazing but some work in progress...

Next up I bumped into Uri (see how I worked that) and went along to see Lenin's Mausoleum. It was certainly a surreal experience with much shushing and marshalling from the Russian Military Guards. When actually seeing Lenin for the first time all I could think of was Jeremy Bentham's auto-icon at UCL which I'm sure was not the effect they were aiming to achieve...

Later I am going to attempt to find somewhere to watch the England game. Not holding out much hope though

Three things I've learned today.

1. Cheep trainer/boots from TKmax are not waterproof or indeed even damp proof.

2. Moscow is cold!!!

3. Knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet is vital for navigating Russia

Laters!!

Day 1 evening

So after a flight delayed by 1 hour I finally arrived in Moscow at 9pm local time. By the time I cleared security and caught the train into the town, it meant I did get to my hostel until 11.30pm!

Since then I've been on an (unsuccessful) mission to find beer and food in the middle of the night.... Depressingly the only open place I could find was McDonalds. Deciding to avoid surrendering to that, I brought a cake for a 24hr shop and will resume the search for beer tomorrow!!

Day 1

So today is the big day....

On route to the airport. My last experience of the tube for 11 months has not left me feeling like I'll miss it!

It has just dawned on me that I arrive in Moscow at 8pm and have no idea where the hostel I'm staying in is. I don't think I'll be attempting to navigate the Moscow metro at that time of night so a cab it is... So much for budgeting

Keep me up to date with the footy tonight... (through a comment, twitter or facebook obviously)

This is JT checking out until I next have a wifi connection...

Testing blogging from iphone

Just thought I'd try and post a blog update from the old iPhone....

I could get used to this blogging lark. It's like twitter with unlimited characters!!

Is this working?!?

This should all appear in twitter and facebook....

Big day tomorrow

This is the first of what I hope will be many blog updates while I'm away on my travels.

I set off at 1 p.m. tomorrow from London Heathrow to Moscow Domodedovo, where I will attempt to bumble my way to the hostel I've booked in advance.

Thanks to everyone who came along to drinks last week and to those that have been so great the last few weeks

I'll miss you all :o(

For reference I will also be attempting to keep my facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/JTSpurs) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/JTSpurs) up to date. I am also on skype (JT-Spurs) and on email (tumbridge@gmail.com)