Best Eastern Hotel Arktika Murmansk

... us from a mile off, plain clothes policemen and normal clothes policemen closed in on us in a pincer movement, and took a picture of our visas with their camera phone. We took a picture of the train station, left behind the last bit of burden to make our bags as light as possible, the laptop for two days, and picked a direction. For the first time in any city, too, we picked up a map. This proved to be essential, as the day wore on, even though it was in russian. We headed ...

... He even asked for travel insurance.. I guess health insurance is free for all in Estonia like most social medicine countries so they make sure we do not take advantage of their system. The border is a beautiful river with 2 castles overlooking at each other. After that , it was a SMOOTH ride into Tallin. I do mean smooth, because the Russian roads are so full of pothole that I am developing this major carsickness, luckly I didnt puke..

... bus passes with this little electric machine. Lord only knows how she gets around, because we were bodies stacked on bodies up to the roof. The bus is a good deal (16 rubles = 50 cents) per ride, and the number 7 picks us up about 2 blocks from the dorm. Not much for manners though; people will give up seats to an old babushka, but there's generally a lot of pushing and squirming and pushing going on. Now home for dinner and more of Anna Karenina. Love and Kisses, Caroline Chasevna Reida

St. Petersburg is only a couple of hundred years old. Built by Peter the Great as a place of culture and also the only water access to europe via the sea of findland. Its really just like Venice with canals everywhere. The archecture is amazing and the traffic is damned frightening. We stayed in a very nice flat in the centre of the city. Most buildings have alleys into "court yards" that allow access to the flats farther back in the ...

... to write about the border! Hard to say if they were friendly or not. They dont smile and there is even a booklet at the border explaining the ins and outs of Russia. Didn't help us. No women were allowed near the bikes during inspection which meant me and Danny were in charge of unpacking and repacking the panniers. Not a wise move. Things never did go back in right! Apparently I tried to bribe the officer with a badly ...

... the term at the time because I didn't see Zoolander until several months after the tour!) At one point, Laura had to use the washroom. The toilets were around the corner in the area where we always had breakfast, but there was a problem. The lights were off in the room where we ate, and the light in the washroom had burnt out. Also I don't think they even had toilet paper! Well, on the way there, Laura noticed that the barrier to the large ...

... crazy: my neighbour seat mate, an old lady even had to stop the bus to puke on the side way of the road... The view was becoming darker and darker, in the middle of the tundra half frozen half melt, letting appear a black mud with dead trees, a factory with 3 big chimneys spitting black smoke ( and I'm not caricaturing the view) with behind the Soviet town with square building architecture and with military camp everywhere till Murmansk. I ...

... day. I am dissapointed because I wanted to experience an arctic day where I could see just how high the sun would actually rise, but I haven't seen an outline of the sun through clouds. Anyway, looking at the weather it looks like Moscow is warming up for us, with 4 degrees expected for our arrival. We leave tonight on a 36 hour train ride. This time we have booked beds.

... more comfortable to be back in the homeland, as he put his foot to the floor, screaming over the bumps, and sliding around the slippery corners. Lucky there were few cars around, and it was 5 hours before we actually came upon one we had to overtake. For the whole 6 hour drive I don't think we went through one town. All the while, Megan and I were growing more nervous. For three days we had been trying to book a hotel in Murmansk, however had not had any luck. We were told ...

... forgotten how deep they are here, it makes London underground look like a mere step under the surface!) and fought our way out at the other end, to walk god knows how far to the hostel. I know all places claim 'very near to......', but this really was taking the ****! It took us about 45 minutes to walk to the right street, by which time we're all fantasizing of clean teeth and naps, but the hostel isn't at the address! We're in a really dodgy, especially run ...