Moscow at dawn

I woke up at 4.30am and noticed that we had left the curtains open.  Usually not a problem, but in summer, the sun rises rally early and the light can easily wake people up.

In my case, it was already light outside.  Bugger.  I only got to sleep around midnight.

So, I got up and had a look to the window.  What a view !  Although the sun hadn't made an appearance yet, the light was good and there were a lot of scattered clouds about.  I waited for about 35 minutes, and was finally rewarded with the sun making a show through the clouds.

I must have taken dozens of photos,mtrying to capture every angle and the many different shades of light.

Here is one I took with the iphone.

Moscow - a new city to conquer

A recap of the last two days that we have spent in Moscow.

First of all, Moscow is a big city.  More than 11m people live here.  They have a great metro system, used by 7m people a day.

Well, we were able to conquer the Metro.  Basically, it is very simple.  Buy a ticket (or better, one that lasts for 5 trips) and then pick your line (ie, line 2 or line 5) and then pick a direction.  This last step can be a little difficult, as the places the metro stops are written in Cyrillic, which is all Russian to us...

The metros are often very deep underground.

There are also some metro stations that have been decorated like museums, often at the expense of artworks and marble stolen from churches. The 1930's.

The streets and the maps, well, not so easy. Both maps we used have been created with an unusual scale and not all streets and their names are included.  Even if the street is on the map, the name in the English alphabet does NOT, repeat, NOT resemble the name in Russian.  BIG problem.  At one stage we were trying to cross the city, just four blocks or so, but we ended up going in the wrong direction and finished up about 10 blocks from where we wanted to be.  We only know where we ended up by coming across a Metro station that we could look up on the map.  

Red Square is big, surrounded by St Basil's, the Kremlin, the GUM shopping centre, Stalin's mausoleum, other churches and various museums.  

The GUM shopping centre is full of expensive brand name shops and some coffee shops and restaurants.  Very upmarket.  We managed to find an affordable cafe on the 3rd floor that served simple, delicious food.

St Basil's' was a little disappointing, as instead of a very large interior, the inside was very poky and broken into nine smaller chapels, each beneath one of the domes.

The roads can be very big, especially the ring road.  I counted at least 6 lanes in each direction, some areas having 8 lanes.  This makes it impossible to cross and it is so busy that the authorities have made many underground passageways to improve traffic flow.

We found some affordable restaurants to eat in (ie, not the $50 breakfasts in our hotel) and every now and then treat ourselves to a coffee and cake in the afternoon.  Once, at the Vogue Cafe, one of the cakes costs almost as much as our entire lunch !

All in all, we are filling our days up, leaving our room at around 11 am and often not returning until 10pm after having dinner at the restaurant across the road from the hotel.

This final selfie was taken in front of the Bolshoi Ballet Theatre.

Krakow - a quite morning listening to Chopin

We've been out for breakfast (we found a great bar that serves a full breakfast for around $6 that included a cafe late, oj, eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, croissant, etc...) ans started our walk thigh the old Krakow City, but it started to rain.

Instead, we decided to return to the room, TC got changed into some warmer clothes, and we sat lustening to some Chopin.

Our room is amazing,  spacious, full of antique furniture and a cupboard full of antique croquery.

Warsaw - surprisingly interesting

I had little expectations from our visit to Warsaw.  Originally, I had suggested that we did not spend much time there, as I had thought it has just a large, grey, dry city.

How wrong was I  .

Warsaw is vibrant, full of people.  And to think that most of the city was completely destroyed on 1944 and it's population of 1.3 million people either relocated, net to concentration camps and killed or some stayed back and lived in the ruins.  

The city is now full of large, shiny, new(isg) tall buildings spread amongst a fe emty blocks and apartments blocks of varying styles build in the soviet ar between 1950's and 1980's.

Now, there is a lot of building going on.  Tall skyscrapers, new residential blocks, older buildings (pre war, if still standing) renovated.  Older monuments being re built from the ground up to look exactly like the old ones.

Vibrant streets, lots of cafés, restaurants.  People everywhere.  Lights, shops, brand names on display.  

Most people seem happy.  Some are not, and obviously have so few possessions that they ar reduced to asking others for help.  A few old ladies have a couple of items on display on the ground that they hope to sell.  A few flowers(most likely picked from the park), a couple of glasses, a pair of old shoes.  Nothing of real value, but they are trying to raise a few zlotys to keep themselves going.

We walk past one such old person (I thought it was an old bloke) and I thought, I should give them some money... But the moment had passed and we moved on.  But Therese said, no, go back.  So I did.  I took 10 zlotys (around $3) and dropped it in one of the glasses they had been trying to sell.  The lady (yes, it was an old lady) looked up and said some world which I took for thank yous.  Her face beamed, and she again expressed here real gratitude.  Probably, the most money she had been given that day.  

Perhaps she now had enough to eat a meal tonight.

Warsaw.  A very vibrant city.  Full of people, history and hope.

Poland - on the way to Warsaw

IWe're on a bus, called the Simple Express.  It travels from Vilnius to Prague, via Warsaw.

We've been on a Lux Express, which was a pretty modern and well fitted bus.  We also splurged a few extra euros and got on a Lux Express Lounge bus, sort if like business class seats , each with its own video screen that plays around 24 movies and other stuff on demand.

The only service to Warsaw was the Simple Express, and 'cause of the name we had little expectations if the quality and features on board.

Little did we know that this bus was even better equipped !  Each seat had its own visor screen !  Sure helps pass the time !

We're starting to like traveling around Eastern Europe by bus !!!

Vilnius- finding a laundromat, how hard can it be ?

Here we are.  Therese and I about half way through our Eastern European holiday.  We're now in Lithuania, and enjoying the old city, full of churches and old buildings.

One of the challenges of travelling for more than 2 weeks is doing your laundry,  I last did some laundry at Andrew's place in Singapore, so had a reasonable supply of undies, but by now, I was almost out.   Therese was up to the re-use stage and we wanted to avoid that.  You know what I mean ?

So, the other day, we asked the nice lady in the Tourist Information booth about laundromats, and she was very helpful.  Gave us a list of about 10 laundromats in the city.  She picked one, and went to great lengths to show us how to get there.  It was a fair distance out of the city, but we acknowledged that the time and effort taken was a cost of travelling as independent tourists and also not willing to spend around $5 to get one pair of undies washed in the hotel.

We use google maps to identify where the proposed laundromat was.  We were also able to fit in one museum on the way (the Jewish State Museum) and the caught a bus that would take us to the general area of the address given for the laundromat.

We visit the museum (always very moving) and make our way to the bus stop.  By this time. Are already a bit behind schedule.  We wait for bus-trolley #15.  About 10 mins went by and finally our bus came.  It was one of the very old ones that roam the streets of Vilnius.  We keep a close eye out for the correct bus stop that we need to get off.  3rd after the big round about.  We find it, signal the driver, and get off.

Now that we are off the bus, we look around our surroundings.  We are looking for street number 176.  It appears to be an old, abandoned building across the road.  No road crossing, except for a very suspect underground walkway.  Where are we ?  What are we doing here ? Were some of the thoughts crossing our mind.  But our spirits were high, so, we kept on going.

Once we cross the street, we walk around the huge building that supposedly is #176.  Nothing, no doors, no signs, no people.  A little further, around a corner, we find a modern looking shop, and we enter , eventually, to ask for directions.  The man was helpful, he said he knew of the shop, and it was a little down the side road amongst other shops.  We were very grateful, and now had some more hope.

We walked in the general direction indicated by the helpful shopkeeper, and walked into a what we would call an industrial park.  Mechanics, panel beaters, and other like businesses, but no laundromat.

We traced our steps back and walked 'behind' the #176 building, and saw some signs.  Perhaps somewhere here ?  Looking, looking, but no laundromat.  

How hard can this be ? I wanted to shout.  We looked around and saw in the distance a building that looked like it had some offices.  Perhaps they would know.  As we approached, one of the doors had a large 7- 22 on top of its door.  Perhaps there were a number of business inside, and they would know where out laundromat was..

We walked inside the door and were literally blown away.  It was a modern shopping centre, including one of the largest supermarkets that I have ever seen, and, yes, our bone-fide laundromat was also there.  

What a relief.  Therese and I could now travel in the knowledge that the stars we attract are not directly related to the state of our undies.  

ps - we bought the lady a box of chocolates as a thank you

pps - when we got back to our hotel room, we realised that we had only taken half our dirty laundry !

pps- I guess we'll have to do this all over agin in Krakow, Poland . . .   :)))  

St Petersburg - the selfies rule

Seems like this is our first major trip where I have an iPhone readily available, and I find myself taking selfies all the time.  I can't help it !

The above photo was taken in front of one of the most beautifully decorated cathedrals that I have ever seen - the Church of our Saviour on the Spilled Blood.

The above photo was taken inside the same church.

The above photo was taken outside of the Hermitage Museum.  In the background is one of the biggest (longest) buildings I have ever seen.

The Hermatige Museum can be seen in the background of the above pictur, over the main river in St Petersburg, the Neva.

Our hotel, Hotel St Petersburg, in the background.  A VERY large hotl, but falling to bits.  Saving grace was the view from our room.  

The above photo was takin in Tallnn, near the Fat Margaret bastillon (part of the old city walls).

St Petersburg - from Helsinki to Swan Lake

Sunday, June 1, was a long day.  We woke up around 5.15am, so that we could pack, check out, walk to the station and catch our train to St Petersburg at 6.12am.  

The walk to the station took round 12 minutes, and along the way, we thought that people had come overnight and emptied all of the rubbish bins in the streets.  Man, there was rubbish everywhere !  Then we realised that there must have been a lot of people out and about the pervious evening, perhaps to celebrate June 1, as most of the rubbish was made up of beer bottles, cans and fast food wrappers.

We got to the station at about 5.55am, and found that the main front doors were shut !  Bugger !  I was a little stessed, as our train was leaving in about 12 minutes . . . But then. Followed some locals in the 'know' and found a side entrance.  Once inside, the station was both vibrant with the real travellers and the remnants of the revellers, often lying on the ground fast asleep.  Not sure they were going to catch the 6.12am to St Petersburg. . . :)

We found our train, found our seats, settled down.  Train left on time.  Trip took 3 1/2 hours, and it was a good, fast, clean train.  Even had free wifi on board.

We got out of the station in St Petersburg, got our bearings and started walking.  Bear in mind, that we were not exactly 100% sure where out hotel was! as we booked thought Flight Centre and they did not have an address on the booking confirmation.  When in Helsinki and on the train, I tried to find the hotel on the Flight Centre web site, or on bookings.com or on expedia.com or even on google - but we could not find it anywhere.  A bit of a concern, but we trudged in the general direction where we assumed the hotel would be.  Hotel St Petersburg.  How hard can it be ? 

We found our hotel.  It was big, it was obvious, and a classic good, bad and the ugly.

The ugly was the terrible state of disrepair most parts of the hotel were in.  Perhaps 30 years ago, this would have been a nice hotel, but now it was falling to pieces.  

The bad ?  There are 7 elevators, but only three working,  it is at least 130 paces from the elevator to our room.  Our room is very simple.  

The good ?  Well, this makes up for the bad and the ugly.  We are on the fourth floor, and overlook the river, .  Fantastic view, both in day time and night time.  Highly recommended.

We settled in the room.  Just before leaving the holt, we noticed a poster promoting the famous 'Swan Lake' ballet, and it happened to be on in the ballroom of our hotel, that night !  We decided to try to come back by 7pm to see if we could get tickets.  Something to look forward to.

From our room, we could see where we wanted to get to.  It did not seem far.  But, we underestimated by far the distances one needed to travel in St Petersburg.  Warning to future travellers : make sure your hotel is within walking distance to the Hermitage museum and close to the Nevsky Prospect.

We walked, walked, and walked.  It seemed to go on forever.  The rivers (the Neva) is very wide, the buildings are very long.  Anyway, it took us about an hour to walk to where we wanted to go.  The queues to the Hermitage were so long, we decided to give this one a miss .  So, we decided to go on a boat cruise along the river and the canals.  Around 1h and 30m.  A fantastic way to spend the afternoon and to get to know St Petersburg.  The sense of long distances was engrained in our minds.  

At the end of the cruise, we walked along the Nevsky Prospect and found a nice cafe on the first floor in a book shop.  The view blew us away.  It was of the Kazan Cathdral.  Amazing.  Fantastic.  Another kick-arse monument in your face. (St Petersburg is full of what I call kick-arse buildings, monuments and cathedrals... In other words, they are big, and I mean, big, and very impressive).

Anyway, we continued to walk towards another nice Cathdral, called Church of our Saviour on the Spilled Blood.  Long name, but another amazing kick-arse monument, museum, cathedral.

We could not get it as it closed at 6pm, se we decided to walk back to our hotel.  We had to get back close to 7pm to see if we could get tickets to the ballet.  We got back at 7.12 and did get tickets in the middle of the third row.  A shower and clean (more formal) clothes helped us feel more part of the crowd (most folks were dressed up for the evening).  

The ballet of Swan Lake was very good.  World class.  Being so close, we could see the facial expressions of all of the dancers and almost reach out the right hand side of the live orchestra.  The oboe soloist was less than 3 meters in front of me.  What a fantastic experience.

The performance finished just after 10pm.  We were on a high, so went to the bar and had some drinks and a cake.  As we looked outside,  realised that the sun had not set.  In fact, the sun had snuck in between the clouds and the horizon and lit up the city .  Another amazing St Petersburg site.

All in all, a very long, full and fulfilling day !  Not sure we can keep this pace going, but we are certainly getting value for money !

Helsinki - three old ladies

Therese and I found Helsinki to be a very peaful place.  The people are very trusting, the streets clean (except for the morning of June 1, as there must have been a lot of people on the streets drinking and making a hell of a mess !).  A very pleasant city.

Therese and I were walking along a quiet street, looking for a church (that had a very tall spire) but we were out of luck.  As we had no pressing schedule, we were meandering, minding our business, when we were approached by old lady #1.  

She spoke to us in passable English and asked if we were heading toward the square where the singing would start at noon .  We had no idea of what she was talking about.  She went on the explain that they were going to gather to sing a national Song that some politicians where talking about banning.  The song had some Christian connotations, and given that the population was becoming more varied (about 80% of the population is Lutheran).  But the locals were standing up for their song and culture, and we're going to gather around the corner and sing it together.  Around 3000 people were expected.

We arrived at the square about 11.20, so, plenty of time.  It was like a market square, with a few stalls, a few people, and a cafe with tables and seats.  One of the tables was free, so I asked Therese if she wanted to sit down and have a tea.  We settled down, and I went to the counter to order a coffee, a tea and two local cakes.  All for €9.50.  I returned to the table with our drinks and noticed that next to us was a lady with two enourmous poodle like dogs.  Meet old lady #2.

She introduced herself as a retired opera singer, and her two dogs, were also retired champion show dogs.  I liked them.  They got to know me.  The lady went on to tell us about the event, and that her sister, who ran the Helsinki Opera, was organising this event.  She felt very strongly about the threat to their national / cultural show and wanted to let the people express their feelings about this proposed ban.  She explained that there would be a bunch of opera singers appear on the balconies of the apartments around the square and that they would sing the song.  And be joined by the crowds gathered.   More than 2000 people were expected.  It was not a large square, so I expected that it would be crowded.

Old lady #1 dropped by to say hello, she had found her friend and moved to sit on another table.   A few minutes later, another old lady approaches us and asks if she can sit down on our table.   Meet old lady #3. This lady was also Finnish, but had lived in the sates for 25 years and been very successful in the corporate world.  Now, she was living out here days in her beloved Finland.

This lady told us more about the song and the event.  Now we considerd ourselves experts.  The conversation moved on to the living conditions in Finland and the mood of the people.  Apparently, not all is well in Finland.  High unemployment, people are depressed, and the government is divided and unable to act decisively.

As we talked, the crowds were growing, to the point were the square was full of people.  All of a sudden, we heard clapping and about 20 men dressed in black tie came out on the verandas of some of the flats that were facing us.  Within a few minutes, the head of the helsinki opera spoke (not in English) and we assume introduced and talked to the issue of the national song.  A lot of cheering and clapping followed.

All of a sudden, the men started singing, and more than 2000 voices joined them.  It was an amazing experience.  People were voicing their stand by their presence.  Every time the chorus started, voices from all over were heard.  

It was an amazing experience, one that we would have missed had we not been meandering and been happy to talk to some of the locals.  Three old ladies and two dogs called Boris and Carlos.

Helsinki - a blog on the bog

Why ?  This is one of the things technology has made possible.

The 12 hour flight on Finnair was pleasant and time passed quickly.  We had great seats , lots of space, just behind business class.  Service was great.  Fellow passengers all looked Nordic.  The entertainment system worked well.

We arrived in Helsinki 15 mins late.  It was 10 degrees, cold , rainy and windy.  We are not prepared for rain.  A little cold we can cope with.  Let's hope for the best.

Now, on though customs and pick up our bags and catch a bus to the center of Helsinki.

Singapore - Part 4 (various photos)

I can't say that we have done much tourist stuff in Singapore, but we did manage to have one of the world's largest coffees, and enjoyed the night show at Marina Bay.

Truly, this coffee was ginormous.  The Ice Chocolate besides the coffee was a large size.  John = happy !

The above photo was taken just before the water and light show shown every night in Marina Bay (near the Casino).  It last for 15 minutes and is very spectacular.

And no, we did not eat any of the smelly poo fat on offer (but we did eat in that same Thai restaurant) some delicious meals.

Singapore - Part 3 (Frogs legs, Crab and golf)

In my life, I have never tried frogs legs or crab.  However, on Sunday my hosts in Singapore, Andrew and Hien, took me to a local food court on. Holland Drive,  one of their favourite eating places, which they visit almost every Sunday evening.

Although the restaurant serves normal meat (ie, meat), their best dishes were seafood based, including black pepper crab and frogs legs with chilli and ginger.  I thought if I don't try some now, perhaps I never will.  Andrew' son, David, said that the frog tasted like chicken....  doesn't everything taste like chicken ?

So I did.  And I survived.  

Frogs leg meat was very tender.  Probably the most tender meat that I have ever eaten.  It was ok.  Most likely an acquired taste,  Not sure I would acquire it, but , it was not the end of the world.

Crab meat was different.  Not what I had expected,  it looked like, jelly.  Tasted a bit like jelly meat.  It was ok.  I survived.  Again, not sure I will ever eat this again.

I always say, new experiences are good for the soul.

****

I played a few rounds of golf in Singapore. 

The first round was on a course called Vanda.  It was beautiful.  By Australian standards, it was enormous,  the club house was like a palace.    And quite formal (ie, please tuck your shirts in, sir).

The first 4 holes were very difficult for me, cause apart from being a little stiff, it was hot and very humid.  Although we had a cart, it was exhausting.  Then the rains came.  And it bucketted down.  At first we stayed in the cart, as it had rain curtains, but then we moved to a covered area where we could rest and get a drink.  Rain lasted about 45 minutes, and it was very heavy.  Once the downpour was over, the course Marshall let us know that we could continue our games after about 10 minutes.  Wow, drainage must be fantastic !  And it was,  the course played really well (except for the bunkers as the sand was still wet).  I didn't break any records, but my game got better  after the rain.

Round 2 was on a course called Warren.  Very impressive clubhouse.  This one had a resort attached to it as well.  I played better at the Warren course, and I got to like the clubs I was playing with (Andrew had a spare set), especially the hybrid fairway club - as I could hit this as far as I could drive a ball with the 3 driver.    We had a nice lunch at the clubhouse when we finished, with our playing partners - Mark (an acquantance of Andrew's) and Adena (a Hungarian expat Who seems to play golf everyday and met up with Andrew and Mark a few months ago).

All in all, a very civilised and pleasant way to spend  your days.  The only drawback were my eyes.  They seem to shut more often out in the open, probably the sun, and glare. Not being able to clearly see where your ball goes is not nice, and having to stop suddenly whilst walking to get my bearings is also annoying.  But, c'est la vie !  I take the good and the bad and move on.

Now I am looking forward to picking a Therese up this afternoon from the airport, and probably go out for dinner tonight around Marina Bay and watch the water and light show.