Saint Petersburg

August 8-11,2009

No Russia visa registration hassles with the hostel... a very pleasant surprise! Turned out to be one of the most easy going places I've stayed (foreigner operated). Saint Petersburg is a very 'European' city and is well worth visiting! Could have easily spent more time here if only my visa wasn't expiring :(

ps, I'm back in Canada now.. maybe this blog will catch up to me someday!

Kostroma

Kostroma is a city to the north east of Moscow It is one of the "Golden Circle" cities so called due to their proximity to Moscow.
Alex's cousin has a nice apartment in Kostroma which he was nice enough to lend to us for the week. Kostroma was a great way to experience Russian living.

Moscow

July 18-23, 29?-Aug8

Made it to Moscow!

My friends met me at the train station and we headed out on the train to their home in the surrounding area just north of Moscow. There are lots of differences between Russian life and my experiences in Canada. The housing was one of the first things to hit me. On the outskirts of Moscow there are cozy large 5 story apartment complexes in the woods. It was pretty neat to walk across the road into nature and to a nearby lake to have a barbecue. The area my friends lived in was once designated as the housing for geologists. Despite living so close to nature many have a summer cottage a few miles further away where they have space for a garden and lawn.

It's very common to not buy a ticket for the commuter train. You can tell when the ticket-checkers are advancing down the train by the crowd of people ahead of them. They are good enough to keep their pace down so even grandmas can keep ahead of them. Longer distances reqire an end run however and with that you risk getting the doors shut in your face ... which seems to be fair game. If going all the way into Moscow you may need to climb down a locomotive to avoid the turnstiles.
Red Square was teeming with tourists.. great photo ops.

In Russia vodka is the poison of least expense and most effect. I risked losing face everytime I turned down a drink.. which was necessarily often. The first drink I turned down was at 8am on the train into Moscow. It was a nice gesture but I just couldn't handle a beer that early.

Pictures include me in front of the KGB headquarters as well as Red Square and monuments to the first man in space.

Back through Kiev..

July 16-17, 2009
Stopped in Kiev to pick up my passport with Russian visa and all.. success!
The hostel situation had changed dramatically. The owner of two hostels I had stayed at had broken up with his girlfriend and decided to leave Ukraine. It took him less time than the two weeks he had taken to move there! He drilled open his own safe and left in days back to London - hostels still going and since they were registered in a residents name (the girlfriend ) they might just continue to operate. Me, I was on my way to Moscow.

Lviv, Ukraine

July 9-15, 2009
Lviv was a nice surprise. "The Cosmonaut" hostel was a great place to stay. Despite genuine warnings in guidebooks and a recent incident the only 'police' hassles were done by a member of of the hostel staff dressed in a soviet era unifform. The bleary eyed guests lucky enough to be picked in this manner soon realized they were the butt of a good natured joke; but usually not until after they had produced their passports! The staff were excellent as were the fancy powerful space age shower capsules. There was a great crowd of travelers there as well as two very non-pc characters trawling for desperate eastern european women.

Kiev, Ukraine

June 29 - July 8, July 16-17, 2009
One night in a rented apartment before my Russian friends had to leave. We spent most of two days rushing around and saw a lot. Of course I stuck round a few more weeks ;) Michael had gone back to the Crimea but Alex and Masha went back to Moscow and got my invitation letter which I needed to apply for a visa fo Russia. The Russian consulars initially didn't like that I only had one blank page in my passport.After I mentioned that I had fought unsuccesfully with the Ukraine border guards to keep two pages clear they decided they could do it for me. This after saying it was impossible twice... which I considered might be a prelude to a bribe offer... which never happened. In the end they got creative and with my permission put my visa stamp on an 'observation' page in my passport which is supposed to be used by Canadian authoriries... but they won't possibly use it 'till I'm home and need a new passport anyways.
I had a mini adventure dealing with my hostel booking. I later found out that the German non-employee friend manager didn't have the password for the website booking - so after coming back from a night in their sister hostel due to a water main break, myself and another guy found our beds to be given away despite our luggage being left behind. This happened twice with no explanation at the time other than that internet bookings somehow took precendence over in-person bookings !?!?

Sevastapo, Ukraine - Russian Navy Port Panorama

One of many inlets with Russian Navy ships. Used to be only James Bond could get pictures like this... zoom in and spot the subs!