Best Eastern Volga Apart Moscow

I woke up at about 2:30 in the morning. I tried falling back asleep, but ended up watching more Russian television/working on my mod instead. Around 7:00 I went down for breakfast...since my dinner had been small I ate very well. Afterwards I went on a walk a few blocks around the hotel, since the concierge wasn't at the desk at that point. It's a nice little area...lots of old-style architecture. Only one problem: no Starbucks yet. :P <br><br>When I got ...

... St Petersburg. She seems lovely. I liked her straight away and I think having a Russian tour guide will be great. There are only 7 people on the tour so that is also fantastic. Met 3 already., Phil, a Londoner who works in Dubai and another couple from Melbourne who were not fazed by the Crazy Silent Driving Man so they must be BRAVE!!!! Hotel is OK, small room, no real genuine non smoking rooms (we switched once and got a better room) and about 4 metro stops ...

... Luckily for us with our jaunt to St. Petersburg we managed to avoid the 72 hour window for Moscow and we just need to keep all our rail tickets to explain ourselves to the border guards when we leave Russia. We hope. <br><br><br>Our guidebook states: "Russian people are very friendly - except those behind glass windows of any kind". This is true, upon discovering that you don't speak Russian you will quite often be ignored which means when you do ...

... in the gift shop and checked out the pool (family tradition is to test the water temperature--even if we have no intention of swimming. I'm not sure why.) Eventually, I decided that I wanted to see Moscow. I had no clue how close we were to Red Square, but I'd overheard someone say that it was only a couple blocks away. I thought that maybe, just maybe, you could see St. Basil's from our block. You can't actually see it from that block, but I had fun ...

... we aren't sharing with English people as we are getting to experience a more authentic trip. Victor (like most Russian people) appeared stern at first but he's actually really friendly. I think it's the language that makes them sound quite aggressive as it's very stern sounding. Later in the night we starting playing Dominos with Victor as it's a pretty universal game so easy to explain the rules. A Russian guy ...

... sang hymns for hours. I never realized how nice hymns were, until I realized how deprived I had been over the last ten weeks. Sunday morning we climbed some hills behind Almaty for some great views. Then we caught our train to Novosibirsk. On the train, our first class seats turned out to be second class, and the stewardess gave us no chance of catching any train to Moscow, this made us worried. Upon ...

... boots were for a 6'7" guy. They have the collection of carriages, horse fashion (how about a completely diamond covered medallion to fit on the horse's forehead), and some weaponry. We proceed to the 2nd floor where they keep the gifts of state. Since these are meant to impress, they must be huge. Platters, incense burners, tea services (one was called the selfish tea service as it was for one), diamond encrusted snuff boxes. The ...

... lot of braking, tooting and cursing - but rarely hitting another car. If you want to make a U turn, feel free to do so over the two white stripes in the middle of the highway. Everybody does it. I miss the convenience of having a car but would never dare trying to drive here. In the first week of January, I have seen 2 cars being hit when they were parked (btw, nobody cares where they park a car - on pedestrian crossing, mostly though on the pavement - even behind railing defining the ...

... out for a full day of sightseeing. We saw Saint Basil's Cathedral in Red Square. Red Square is not red. It consists of the Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum, the Russia Museum, walls of the Kremlin, and a high end shopping mall. The Red Square McDonald's is also very close by. Unfortunately, dead Lenin wasn't available for viewing on this day. His tomb operates under mysterious hours, and apparently closed for the next two days. After Red Square, we ...

... from hell. Very Russian and didn't so much as ask us to come here or do this but barked commands at us. We got the giggles and found it hard to be serious. Someone asked her a question about something she'd already told us, her reply was, "didn't I just tell you this? Weren't you listening correctly?" We were too scared to ask her to repeat anything else. :) Despite all this she was an encyclopedia of knowledge on Moscow. The fashion here is shoes, shoes ...