Some thoughts on Russia

Danielle and I are sitting in Domodevo Airport for a few hours until we fly to Hungary, so I thought I would add a post with my thoughts on Russia.

Firstly for any travelers reading this, if you have to choose between St. Petersburg and Moscow, go with St. Petersburg. Moscow is interesting, but incredibly frustrating at the same time. Even in the most popular tourist locations like the Kremlin there is no English, or even pictures so you can figure it out, everything is in Cyrillic. Also the metro and train system here is very difficult to figure out, and finally the people are not approachable, and downright unfriendly to foreigners. I cant tell you how many times we were denied things, here, or told not available, just to turn around and get it from someone else.

St. Petersburg is the complete opposite, the metro has maps with both the Cyrillic and English Alphabet which makes it a breeze to navigate, people were friendly and willing to help, and as you would expect in the major tourist sites there were maps (pictures) and even signs in Languages other than Russian. Why the difference, maybe the proximity to Europe? Also we felt that the sites we visited in St. Petersburg were in all very rewarding, while some of the sites we visited in Moscow are not worth the entry ticket price.

For example, if I had to do it again I would not pay to enter the Kremlin, it is just as beautiful from the outside as from the inside. Also don't waste your money on the Amory, the jewel display is nothing to right home about, we were told you must see the Fabergé eggs, so we payed the 350 rubles, and when we got there said "is that it?". If you have seen the Queens Jewel House in London you will be very disappointed in the Amory. Also St. Basils is very beautiful on the outside, but not worth the admission.

So to sum up Russia, it is very expensive, you will find yourself charged for everything from using the toilet, to taking pictures of the skyline (we never paid for the use of our camera, only got busted 1 time). The country seems very insular, they are not geared up to support foreign travel and in fact make you feel very unwelcome. However St. Petersburg is a ray of hope, and if they can do away with the backwards visa rules and make it easy fro Europeans to visit, I can see that city taking off as a must visit city. The architecture, history and atmosphere are awesome.

Final day in St. Petersburg..... Hydrofoil time

Just a quick note while Danielle is checking us out of the Nord Hostel here in St. Petersburg. First, the hostel is a large improvement over what we had in Moscow (I would not recommend Sweet Moscow Hostel to any other traveler), friendly staff, a free breakfast (as much as you can eat), and hot showers. However it could be cleaner, the bathrooms were very clean the day we arrived, but now they leave something to be desired. We are looking forward to a night on the Red Arrow train back to Moscow tonight as it is very nice, and a great nights sleep.

So whats planned for today? Well we are leaving our bags in a locker at the hostel and heading down to the river to catch a hydrofoil out of the city to Peterhof (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterhof), where we plan to spend most of the day. Later this afternoon we may visit the university and then back on the train to Moscow.

Tomorrow we plan to spend the day exploring the Kremlin, and the fly to Budapest.

The eternal flame, St. Petersburg, Russia.

D and I had an awesome day today, a little late start because we were up until 2am drinking vodka with some other travelers. We really like St. Petersburg, and in comparison to Moscow it is very foreigner friendly. This is a pic of Danielle next to the eternal flame in the Mars park. Take a look at the rest of our pics in the flickr photo stream. The day started with a visit to the Peter & Paul Fortress, the original city of St. Petersburg. We spent half the day visiting the various sites and then walked across the river looking at the Winter Palace and bridges. I am actually up late tonight because we are waiting until 1:30am to go see the bridges open for ships coming in. We also visited the Church of the Spilled Blood, the most impressive interior I have ever seen, 7000 sq meters or mosaic tile. Followed by a walk to the top of St. Isaacs Cathedral and a 360 degree view of the City.

I will post some notes on yesterdays visit to the Hermitage/ Winter Palace tomorrow, as well as some video.

Off to see a bridge :-)

Video of the Kremlin from across the Moscow River

Ryan & Danielle in Red Square

 Here is a pic of D and I in Red Square, to see more check out our flickr photo stream.

A 360 Degree View of Red Square, Moscow

Quick note

We think starbucks is going to become a refuge. Not because of the coffee "Steve R", but because it is warm, has comfortable chairs and wifi access.

Sent from my iPhone

Avoiding the rain by hiding in one of Moscow's many starbucks

Moscow, Russia. Comming to you from a starbucks because it is raining outside.

Let me start by saying the 10 hour flight to Moscow felt way longer than it was. We tried a new sleeping pill to help pass the time, it worked, but had the side affect of making me queezy and causing Danielle to throw up into a zip lock bag on the train into the city from the airport. So not a good start to the day. Our next challange was to navigate Moscow metro, which is easier said than done because all the signs are in Russian alphabet Russian, and the maps are in English alphabet Russian. We found an English speaking women who helped us find our way. Subsequently we have developed a system using a printout we got from the hostel and the first 4 letters of the station name.

When we arrived at the hostel we were greeted with an ice cold shower because of some plumbing issues. However shortly afterward we had found our way to Red Square and were blown away by this beautiful spot and the scale! The square is surrounded by the Kremlin on one side, a beautiful merchantile building on the other side and St. Basils cathedral on one end. We took a stroll across the bridge over the Moscow river for a better view of the Kremlin which is just massive. We plan to spend the day in the Kremlin on our return to Moscow on Wednesday.

Today was very cool. It was a national holiday of sorts celebrating the paratroopers, so we were treated to a miltary parade in Red Square. I will post vide and pics when we get to St. Petersburg. We spent the rest of the day walking the gardens outside the Kremlin, visiting the Pushkin Museum and Church of Christ the savior.

Shortly we will be heading to the train station to catch on overnight train to St. Petersburg.

The Megabus

So we set off on our adventure Thursday by means of the megabus to Chicago. Besides an hour delay and standing in the rain, the trip was well worth the $15 ticket. Once in Chicago we had an awesome evening with our friends Cathy and Alan, which ended drinking beers on the roof of a highrise looking at the Chicago skyline.