7 August St Petersburg

We are shattered after last nights escapade and we sleep in. The internet here is expensive and doesn’t work so we go to Mconalds next door for breakfast  and to do the emails. We catch up on letters and postcards (17 in all) and finish our Russian present shopping. We will be in euros once we cross the border tomorrow and we have planned to have enough roubles to fill the car before the price gets expensive in Estonia tomorrow.

I have downloaded and am reading The Bronze Horseman again as it is set here in St Petersburg (Formerly known as Leningrad). All the streets are here and I recognise the parks and  places and have even seen The Bronze Horseman statue in town – the first official statue in Russia. They are now everywhere.

We have a lazy day. I take the car to be groomed for the border crossing and we walk back across the bridge to a restaurant we saw last night for dinner. Maurice has ditched us for a date with Sleeping Beauty – the ballet.

Weird, but we saw two cars drive by us tonight with blowup dolls in the front passengers seat – maybe some bizarre convention in town? Ew.

6th August - photo updates

- Posted on the run from IPad-

5 August Novgorod to St Petersburg

The roads are better but very busy with trucks as St Petersburg is the main port for Russia. The land has much more water around here. There are loads of bogs, lakes and swamps. We lose Murray in the motorway spaghetti junction equivalent as he follows another black defender to god knows where. He is pretty clued up with the GPS though and turns up again after a few kilometres. We have a tense drive into town as many of the roads are closed due to roadworks etc and we have to reprogram the GPS. I would hate to have to tackle this alone without a GPS. We get so close to the hotel – oe lane away but the traffic is diverted and it is a full 10mins later before we pull in the carpark. It is next door to the metro subway so parking is expensive 1000 roubles per car. (NZ$43).

The Hotel Mockba (Moscow) is huge. It takes us 10 mins to walk to our rooms. We all wander into town centre to suss out a canal ride for tomorrow. It is 6000 roubles or NZ$500 odd dollars for a private boat to take us on a 2 hr ride of the canals at 9am tomorrow

4 August Moscow to Novgorod

We drive north to Novgorod a beautiful old town just 200km south east of St Petersburg. Greg says all his clients love this little town and we do too. The hotel is called Sadko and it is the best in town…..which is’nt saying much. We walk through the town and over the bridge through the Kremlin to the town square. There are people and kids walking everywhere, fishing, biking, playing volleyball on the river beach. We pass another war memorial that has fresh flowers on it then hear a band in the distance. It is a brass band in the square and 100 odd soldiers march in. Their families are there and a small presentation is held. We work out that they have recently returned from Chechnya. We have a delicious dinner from a sulky waitress that we leave no tip for and take a long leisurely walk back.

3 July Moscow

We catch the metro into town to meet up with our bus tour. We are loving the metro now. Only about $1 to ride in. It moves pretty quick though – have to hold on tight. We walk up to surface hopeful we are in the right place and it works – we are right next to the red square. There is a another Kremlin here and St Basils a well photographed church. Tomorrow morning we will get up at 5am to come and take photos of the cars here. They are deemed as commercial photos and therefore not allowed – that’s why we come early.
We catch a bus tour of the city. It is so big. 10million live here and 8 million catch the metro at some time in the day. There are roads 12 lanes wide – you have to take the underpass to cross. The most billionaires in the world live here. There is a high number of very nice cars – mostly black with blacked out windows. We pass some beautiful buildings,  the old KGB headquarters which now houses the Secret Service. We go up to Sparrow Hills and excellent lookout over the city. There is a ski jump here that is used all year . We buy a couple of very cool caps to take home.
While waiting for the bus we notice a lady sweeping. No big deal you say but she is sweeping puddles. She sweeps continually until a wave of trucks drive by washing the road and it all starts over again and again. Boring but I geuss that’s one way of keeping everyone employed.
We sneak back to the hotel for a siesta and the boys hunt down a car museum they have seen on the internet.

2 July Nitzy Novgorod to Moscow

A frustrating drive today on busy roads that just got busier the closer to Moscow. Imagine roads the width of 4 or 6 lanes but with no lane markings. If you feel like taking up part of the other side of the road then you just do it. Have started seeing a few defenders around – must be in the bigger cities only.

We stopped at a Cafe for lunch today as it was too wet to have our usual picnic on the side of the road. Yesterday we had Borsch because it was the only thing on the menu we could say and understand. It was pretty watery and we don’t want the same again today. So I take the plunge and just order the most expensive thing on the menu (still only about $4) and hope that it is substantial…. It works! A tasty potato and meat casserole comes. We are staying at the Sokolinki Holiday Inn in Moscow which is very nice. We have a big dinner across the road and all go to bed early to rest up for a big day sightseeing tomorrow

1 August Kazan to Nitzy Novgorod

So last night we had dinner at a small restaurant out the back of the hotel. There is a party going on as there seems to be at every hotel we go to. Tonight it is a 21st and there are Russian dollybirds in 3 inch skirts and 5 inch heels everywhere. We sit outside as karaoke is on inside. Then through the window of the hotel we quite clearly hear groaning. It gets louder and louder. Then we see the legs up on the window. The partygoers laugh and start conducting a concerto outside until a good 10 mins later there is a very dramatic finish! We all stand and clap and cheer!

We start with a tour of the Kremlin. There is a Kremlin inmost of the cities - officially it is an old fortress and normally houses religious historical buildings. It is pretty average and we are more taken with a building we can see from the top of the hill and we ask Greg if we can have a closer look. It is new and we find out it is some sort of ministerial building. Some impressive gothic inspired apartments are next door.
It is a 400+km drive today to N. Novgorod. We are too tired to do the 40min walk to the city for dinner and opt to eat at the hotel which is average.

31 July Perm to Kazam - Long Drive and Bribes

 700km today. We were reluctant to leave the luxury of the Hilton. The scenery has changed to vast rollings hills of golden wheat and forest trees. The roads are not much better and the driving seems almost worst.

We stop at a spot where Greg has driven past for years and they sell these colourful things that he could never work out what they are. Turns out they are exfoliating scrubs for the banyas.

George is bored on the long drive and reads the Bear Grylls Survival Guide I downloaded onto the phone. She keeps me amused with survival questions and practices tying knots.

Greg got pulled over today by a very excited policeman that had been going the opposite way and saw him pass on a bridge so swung around and chased him down. Murray and I quietly stopped over the hill out of sight. The policeman explained the misdemeanour in broken English and said…. “Give me a surprise!”. I’d give him a blardy surprise! He wanted euros but Greg offered 1000 roubles. “Not enough”. In the end 3000 roubles plus some scrap notes was agreed. The first time ever since Greg has been doing this tour that he has had to “ make a donation to the policemans ball”. It works out to about NZ$130 so its not too bad.

We arrive in Kazam at 7.15pm but we gain 2 hours today as we have driven so far and the time is now 5.15pm. There is a pool here so everyone is swimming. I am trying to beat Maurice with my blog update for once!

30 July 2011 Perm to Kazam

 We cross the Asia / Europe border today and take the obligatory photos with one foot on each side. Apparently a lot of people come here to tie ribbons on the trees and get married and stuff. We add our ribbons to the thousands – guess which ones! Greg will check if they are still there next year.

The shot of the white landcruiser is a guy that tailgated us for a while. Trying to push us to the side so that he could pass. I made him wait and we took a couple of shots. When we did let him pass he was just smiling at us with one hand on his chin, his eyebroow raised,  and not looking at the road at all.

We have been looking forward to the Kungur Caves for a while now.  We can’t understand how they can be iced inside when it can be 30 degrees outside but,…. They are. You walk into the hill and it is instantly freezing. The walls are covered in ice and there are frozen cave ponds and waterfalls. It is a 1.5km walk and the temp comes up a bit in the middle but drops again near the exit. The Russian doris has on white capri pants, high heels and a midriff top. We have icebreakers and puffer jackets. When we step out it is like breathing in a sauna. Murrays glasses instantly fog up and our camera condensates inside.

We carry on to Perm. Tonight we stay at the Hilton. Greg has a habit of twisting tales and this was one of them. He said it was a shitty hotel but it was only one night. Not. It is very nice. Modern with every facility we need including laundry – yay.

29 July 2011 Yekateringberg

So we decide to join the boys for a day sightseeing in town. They are pretty fit and we set off at a cracking pace. We walk for an hour to the military museum which can’t be that popular as she opens it and turns the lights on just for us. Only $4 each to enter and you pay an extra $4 to take photos. We then have lunch at Aladdins cave. I was quite disappointed the wifi password was not “opensesame”.
We started to get ambitious and caught a bus taxi which is a bus/van really, to the train station to see the museum there. Then got real ballsy and attempted the metro subway. We went for 3 underground stops, came out on top and uh oh – this doesn’t look right. We were in an urban area and we expected to be in the middle of the city. Back on for the trip back and we get there okay. A great day really and we’ve seen most that the city has to offer.

I’m getting addicted to borscht soup. Have had it twice today. Will have to learn how to make when we get home.

Greg has uploaded the report on our trip from China to Mongolia so far.....
Check it out here:  http://rallytours.co.nz/Rally-Tours/2011-B2P-Tour-Diary.asp

28 July Yekaterinberg

28 July Yekaerinberg

We have a two day stop off here to catch up on jobs and relax.

This morning we have a tour with our local guide whom is also called Veronika with a k. We go to the Church on Blood in the name of all Russian Saints. It is in town and has been built to symbolise repentance for the deaths of the Romonov Tsar family. This is the equivalent of the Russian Royal Family. They have now all been made saints. They were brutally murdered in the basement of a house they had been imprisoned in. There was no warning, they were just told to go to the basement as the army was approaching. There they were shot. But the women and girls had jewels sewn into their corsets and the bullets would not penetrate so they were beaten with rifle butts. The bodies were then  taken and dropped in a mine shaft and then moved again and butchered and dropped throughout the nearby forest.

No photos were allowed inside the church. Georgia and I had to wear scarves. They had these beautiful icons at the altar that were encased with large rings and pearls which had all been donated by believers. They believe that they have to suffer in order to get favours therefore they give their favourite pieces.

We then went to the forest where they have now built a monastery in the name of Saint Tsar Great Matyrs. There are 7 buildings here – one for each of the Romonovs. A lot of work has gone on and continues here but they seriously need to work on the toilets which were the most revolting on the whole trip yet. Maybe that is part of the suffering that they require for this religion. Very yuk. There are pits where I’m guessing the bodies were.

We stop at the souvenier shop and buy some books and postcards. Maurice tortures us with a CD of religious singing that he buys plays on the bus ride home. Everyone is too tired to walk the town today and we all retire to our rooms for the afternoon. George and I are gonna hit the sauna.