Hotel Tsentralnaya Nizhniy Novgorod

... desormais pour notre premier long trajet en train couchette (20h seulement). We spent a really good time in this City with our delighfull hosts, and their friends. This city is the best we've seen so far, we can easily avoid the pollution and walk in parks, with a great view on the Rivers Volga and Oka. As usual there is plenty of beautiful churches. It's a shame that we have to leave so soon...

Premiere vraie galere, pourtant c'etait bien partis, j'avais pris mon billet pour Kazan (en Russie, les billets s'achetent a la gare de depart), mais apres avoir marche sous une pluie battante avec du vent et 6 petits degres (affiches a la sortie de la gare, les chiffres qui apparaissent ici, sont des chiffres veritables) a la recherche d'un hotel ni rase ni ferme et ayant ...

... rough but turned out to be really cool. Even the statue of Lenin in the square next door appeared to be pointing the way to the hotel!. After checking in, we went to the train station to buy tickets, which then left us with 2 days in the city. We wondered around the many Church's in the city and the Kremlin, which was full of wedding parties or something like that as brides and grooms were everywhere, getting ...

Niznij Novgorod (Gorky). Km 461 of the Trans-Siberian-Railway. A big vibrant industrial center of Volga region. More ...

Nizny Novgorod was not stop we planned in the beginning, but was recommended by people we met and Tim wanted to see the Volga of the Boatmen. It was a very nice town with lots of nice looking churches and a kremlin on top of the hill. A girl in Mcdonalds seemed surprised that tourists would come to Nizny Novgorod but its a nice spot. We arrived in the morning and booked the train to go that night (saves accomodation!) so had a day to wander.

Three-day visit to Nizhny Novogorod for work. We visited the city center (according to Wikipedia the fourth largest city in Russia) in the evening. In the past the city served as a Russian fortress with a dominating Kremlin structure on the ...

... The Mongolians were out in force again as they were at every station. Scared looking Russians trying to move out of their way not liking the hard sell. It was about time to try the local tipple so I bought some beers from a kiosk. The beer was actually quite nice but was soon gone. Yekaterinburg the next stop was one that I wished I had some time at. The birth place of Boris Yeltsin, the place where the Romanov family was murdered, their remains being found near by in ...

... has been great about helping me out since my wallet was stolen. I worked out an arrangement with the director of the program (American) and he's acting as "my ATM" until we get home. I'm just so greatful that I was able to work something out, because with Moscow coming up, it would not have been cool to not have any money.....NOT AT ALL.... Speaking of Moscow, we leave in just a little over 3 weeks now for the capital city. I'm so very excited. But, in just two weeks we ...

... your way into the bus, at no physical cost! Of course it'll be tight, but at least you're on. If you do not do this, you'll never get home. Once you're on is when the real fun begins. Your left arm is up in the air, reaching for the handle bar to hold on...your left arm is either holding onto your bag or protecting your pocket from pickpockets....your face is most likely smashed into someone else....your feet are grappling for hold....it suddenly feels ...

... words I've picked up that are the same or similar to Romanian words. Like sour cream, time, and love. For our seminars, we get great guest speakers. Once, an Orthodox priest, then a folk singing group, different professors, authorities in their fields. And our teacher, the director of the program, Harley Wagler, is a treat. He has lived in Russia for over 17 years and has many interesting things to say. It's crazy, only seven weeks of classes left, and ...