News from the exiles...

Simon writes:

We're in Irkutsk (Siberia), a town that the Lonely Planet describes as "seedy". Well sod you Lonely Planet! I think it's intensely agreable actually. Here are a couple of first impressions:


We got here by train, obviously. It took fully 3 whole days and 4 nights from Moscow and we're still only half way across Russia! Rather large really. On the train we encountered some lovely people, who took a great interest in the penguins and spoke English and even a bit of Mandarin! Sasha and Katia (see pic) - salutations to you both!

We also encountered a horde of drunken Russian army Lieutenants and a woman of quite staggering vindictiveness. Each carriage on trans siberian trains has a provodnitsa or attendant, who checks tickets when you get on, cleans the toilets and carriages, dispenses bedding etc. Ours was variously known as the Ayatollah, the Poinsonous Witch, the Moodswing Madam etc. Doing almost anything untoward (going to the toilet at the wrong time, opening the window, standing on the carpet at the wrong time etc) would inspire her to deliver a volley of abuse in Russian, even though she must have known by the end of 4 bleeding days that we had no idea what she was saying! I don't have a picture I'm afraid. I probably would not have lived to be writing these words had I attempted to take one. To be fair to her, she did keep the toilets in a useable state and brightened up when we offered her cake. One army guy we spoke to reckoned she was an alcoholic. Who knows...

Anywho, we're off to lake Baikal tomorrow and I hope to bring you lucky people more pictures of fish in due course! Then it's on to Mongolia and then China. Bye for now chums!

Oh, by the way, there's now a pic of the penguins in Red Square up on my last post...

Notes from Russia

Noelle writes:

1. I love Ladas! They are so cool. In the words of Joy Turner (My Name is Earl): I wonnit! So our backup plan for coming home is now to buy a Lada, drive to the northeast tip of Russia, catch a boat to Alaska and drive the Lada to Vancouver.

2. St. Petersburg has over 200 universities.

3. You are not allowed to throw toilet paper down the loo anywhere in Russia so most washrooms stink from the smell of the paper in the baskets next to the toilets.

4. Russian drivers are crazy! As crazy as the Mexicans my family may ask. I'd say they are nearly on par.

5. The food here is really good! Loads of pancakes (that's crepes for the North American readers) and great soups.

6. The Moscow metro has more commuters each day than both London and New York combined. And they are beautiful stations (see pics).

7. Russians love ice cream. It doesn't matter what the temperature, you can find ice cream kiosks everywhere.

Moscow

Simon writes:

We're in Moscow (a couple hours late because some numbnuts, who shall be nameless, had to go back to Suzdal where he forgot his money belt!). Russians are properly into their weddings by the way - bridal parties tour the main historic sites for photo ops, terrorising innocent tourists with their rose petals and their 1980s clothing. Shiny suits everywhere - eww!

The penguins were out on parole in Red Square (pic to follow). Being committed fascists, they weren't very impressed with all the Communist stuff and the glorification of Lenin that still goes on here. The cult of personality is alive and well it seems...

St. Petersburg

Noelle writes:

Wow, St. Petersburg is quite something! The buildings here are amazing and so colourful. Been to the Hermitage this morning and tonight we leave with our tour group for Suzdal, near Moscow.

It's freezing here so we had to go to the market yesterday to buy ourselves more clothes (including my new hat).

Situation resolved

Simon writes:

It wasn't pretty, but the hostage situation has been resolved. The police had to get involved and everything. Fortunately the description of the perps was unique enough for the investigation to be a simple matter for even the most dim-witted of coppers.

The penguins are now in a secure correctional facility / gulag (the bottom of my laundry bag with my dirty socks) until such time as they can prove they are no longer a danger to themselves or society at large. Honestly, bloody penguins! We should have brought pigs instead. They can't fly either and I love pigs.

Anyway, with that all cleared up, here's a few thoughts about Vilnius and Lithuania: Lithuania was the first country in Europe to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces so going out to trendy Vilnius bars was accompanied only by the smells of armpit and ass.

Speaking of "ass", Lithuanian is officially the "ass" languange of the world. According to one city guide we picked up you've got an 18 in 27 chance of adding "as" to the end of English(ish) nouns to get a Lithuanian noun: Baras, Bankas, Restoranas etc.

One particular highlight was "mate". We were in a place that specialises in different kinds of teas. One entry on the menu had a big long discription in Lithuanian with an English translation of "mate". Nothing more, nothing less. Brilliant.

We're in St Petersburg now at the start of the Trans Siberian tour. Very pretty, loads of art, churches etc. I'm a bit churched out to be honest. Looking forward to getting involved with some Siberians. Bye!

Hostage situation!

Simon writes (under duress):

This is an urgent message pleading for help! The penguins, apparently enraged at not having been included in our activities and consequently the blog, have taken us captive and are demanding a ransom! Please please please send 100kg of raw fish to the following address: random hostel in Lithuania. They've demanded that we post this photo of THEM (not us) out having a good time in Vilnius. Please hurry, we don't have much time...

Krakow

Noelle writes:

Krakow is lovely and although it doesn't feel as lively as Wroclaw (this may be because we were in Wroclaw on the weekend and Krakow during the week) it does have a lot of interesting sites to see.

On Monday we took a trip to Auschwitz which was very shocking. It rained most of the day we were there which felt quite fitting, as a place that has experienced such horror I can't imagine it any other way. Auschwitz itself has a museum set up which gives some of the history behind World War II and has memorials for all of the nationalities affected during the Holocaust.

We then went on to Birkenau (Auschwitz II) which was absolutely massive. It was so saddening to see such an enormous camp and to think that over 75% of those who arrived at the camp only lived for a few hours.

In Krakow itself we went to the old Jewish town, Kazimierz, and visited the New Jewish Cemetery which has grave stones dedicated to entire families killed during the Holocaust.

On a lighter and happier note we also visited the Salt Mines outside of Krakow which are over 700 years old. Our tour lasted almost two hours and we saw just 1% of the mines, they are HUGE!! Absolutely everything was made out of salt, the walls, floors, ceilings, sculptures, it even had an underground cathedral.

We are now in Vilnius and it's cold and rainy, but a lovely city nonetheless. We are heading off on the overnight train to St Petersburg tomorrow to start our Trans-Mongolian journey, very exciting!!

Krakow food

Noelle writes:

Simon has finally met his match in Krakow - food-wise that is. There have been a few meals that he just hasn't been able to get through. For those that have eaten with Simon before they will know that this is a first.

There was the 20PLN (less than $8 or 5 pounds) soup starter and then pork, potatoes and cabbage (see photo) and then the 50cm pizza we shared last night (sorry forgot to take a picture).

Tribute to Wroclaw

Simon writes:

Wroclaw (Southwest Poland) is, dear friends, bloody marvellous! A very nice lass called Monika rescued us at the international bus station and helped us book an overnight bus from Warsaw to Vilnius (the people at the international bus ticket office didn't speak English).

The town itself has a beautifully restored square, a 360 degree painting of the Polish army trouncing the Russians in 17something (gotta love that!) and a river/waterway that can be paddled on/fished in all round the town.

In the evening we ate Polish dumplings, potato pancakes and sweet beetroot soup washed down with beer. Later we hit the town, eschewing Polish oompah music wherever we found it. The Poles don't do it as egregiously as the Austrians or the Germans (or even the Swiss for that matter!) by the way. However, oompah music is oompah music and you'll not find me paying hard currency, no matter what its value, to listen to it, let alone dance to it! Still the place we ended up in was devoid of the toe-curling British stag do crowd and full instead of Polish students at the beginning of their university year. Beer was less than 2 quid a pint. Nuff said.

Simon writes:

As promised, here's a pic of the Penguins in Prague, which I formally declare the mullet capital of the world! This accolade is surely one of its most appealing attributes. On to Wroclaw then, which as Noelle said is just lovely lovely lovely! Here are the penguins enjoying the view:

Bus from Prague to Wroclaw

Noelle writes:

See now I can't get enough of the blog.

As Simon mentioned in an earlier entry we were lucky enough to get two tickets for the 'apparently' over-booked bus from Prague to Wroclaw, Poland yesterday. As we boarded to bus destined for Minsk (that's nearly 24 hours on the bus) everything seemed to be normally enough. It wasn't exactly a luxurious bus, nor was it what we are used to in Canada and the UK, but it was nice enough (pic below after the trip). We got seats right up front with good leg room and were off just ten minutes behind schedule (not bad).

Little were we to know that the trip would end up being a six hour ride in a sauna. No air conditioning (which was fair enough) but no air circulation to speak of. It got to the point where we would come to a crawl going through small towns and they would open the door to the bus as we were moving just to get some fresh air in.

I have no idea how those who were heading to Minsk survived the trip but I imagine we'll experience similar or worse by the time we get to India.



PS I love Wroclaw and would recommend it to anybody and everybody! Thanks for the suggestion Jay!

Transportation in Prague

Noelle writes:

I feel like I've been neglecting the blog a little so thought I'd write something about my near fatal tumble in Prague (huge exaggeration).

A word of caution to those attempting the metro in Prague. The escalators are FAST! Two to three times faster than those in London tube stations. Some even have a lovely little decline right before you step onto them of about 45 degrees so that you are propelled onto this super fast moving escalator that is the length of those at Holborn (LONG).

So my guess is that when they first put these escalators in everyone would approach to have a look but would be too scared to actually get on them. So the designers probably went back to the drawing board and decided to put a big invisible slope right before the escalators so that next time people went to have a look they were launched onto it.

Lucky for me Simon was in front to catch me on my first attempt. Funnily enough there are no signs (as in the London tube stations) that tell you how many injuries occur each year on the escalators. My guess is there are either way too many or it's just me. I'll let you be the judge.

Prague

Simon writes:

We took a beautifully appointed night train from Vienna to Prague, but didn¨t sleep well. Prague is lovely enough. Hourdes of tourists. Beautiful squares etc. Much anticipated pic of the penguins taken in the main square to follow shortly. CBA just at present.

We did go to a very interesting exhibition about Kafka cos it was raining this morning. Very cerebral and a bit weird.

We had a "computer says no" moment yesterday when trying to book bus tickets over the mountains to Wroclaw, which I am quite excited about. Today it was no problem for some reason.

Vienna and surrounds

Simon writes:

We´re coming to the end of our two days (three nights) in Vienna and it´s bloody marvellous! The picture above is of us with Susie and Mannie (hope I´ve spelt the names right!), who took us round town, entertained us for dinner in the museum district and Buchteln in Cafe Hawelka - v famous cafe run by the same couple for sixty years etc etc. Susie went to Durham so the tenuous connection was enough to get us an introduction. Lovely people they are too!

Just kinda been dossing around today not doing much. Nice place to do it mind. The penguins are having to get used to new food. This was made clear to them at the start so I don´t know what they´re complaining about. In the end we had to eat the strudel for them (see below).

Yesterday we went on a bike ride, got lost and ended up in the woods. We were hoping to get to the top of a big hill outside Vienna to see some amazing views:

We then whizzed down through the vinyards and wineries (most of which were closed):

We demanded wine off one poor vintner anyway and bought a bottle of Viennese white more out of guilt than anything.

Can´t recommend Vienna enough.

Simon out.

PS People in Vienna are lovely and we ate sausage.

Clothes horse

Noelle writes:

Well with a title like that it`s obviously me writing this and not Simon.

So I finally caved today and went clothes shopping. I `needed` another top and came out with two and a pair of shorts.

I forgot how much fun it is to try on clothes! And buy them of course :)

PS I love Vienna!!