Intourist Hotel-Veliky Novgorod

... some exciting high points along the way. Mainly, chudo bars (lit. 'wonder' bars) which are sweet cream-cheese filled bars covered in chocolate - definitely not in the health food section if there was one here. Also, the usual blinis (the twin sister to the French crepe) and of course ice cream which is above and beyond any ice cream I have had in the US.

5. Always learning - I am going to miss the mental challenge of living in this country quite a ...

... Caroline and I got up very early to catch the 8am train to Novgorod. By train it takes about 3.5 hours to get there and the entire trip is full of beautiful Russian countryside scenery. Novgorod is a medieval city which has been in and out of all sorts of Russian-Ukrainian drama for the past 1,000 ...

Only a week and a half left in St. Petersburg and I am filled with a strange feeling of excitement to finally be home and panic that I haven't see all the Petersburg museums on my list!

Thursday I finally got to the Nabokov museum here. Nabokov is a well-known Russian-American writer most famous for his controversial book, Lolita. I really love his style of writing perhaps because his multilingual background (French ...

... exploring the streets. We found a gym, where it appeared some gymnastic students were training (one of the trainers had a Russian team shirt on). The outside of the gym was very run-down, bit inside, all new equipment, very swish! That seems to be the way with a lot of buildings in Russia, ratty looking on the outside, very plush inside! We will be working our way to Moscow next.

The overnight train from Moscow pulled into Novgorod at about 6am. We hopped into a taxi to the hotel from the train station. The cab was a typical russian old school taxi with a scary looking man behind the wheel. It was still dark and with the rain falling it was quite scary when we crossed a bridge and seemed to be heading out of the town ...

... 10. This one was the oldest in Russia. Naturally, you can't take pictures in side. You also have to wear a scarf over your head. Most likely, you will still look a lot like a tourist and people will give you dirty looks anyways. The river was on the other side of the Kremlin. And there were crazy people swimming in it. It was about 40* out. But keeping in the Russian Orthodox theme, we visited St. George's ...

... New Town") is one of the oldest cities in Russia and has long been a much revered center of Russian history and culture. Its apparently a pretty big stop for domestic tourists, but many foreigners tend to give it a miss. With the city lying on a more minor rail line and off the main St. Petersburg - Moscow road, its perhaps understandable. I, however, managed to figure out the rail times between the two, giving me the opportunity to come down yesterday evening ...

... there! Kenny walked up and pulled an extra chair over. We all looked over the menus and decided on a couple pizzas to share. When the waitress came by she told us that only the breakfast buffet was open and we couldn't get pizza... and we were crushed! So she held up a hand and walked off, then came back a couple minutes later and said they'd do pizza for us, although it would take awhile because the ovens weren't heated. We were ecstatic! Lunch was great, and for the ...

... to communicate with the people there and trying to get their computers to talk t o us in English. This whole trip and the inability to speak with people has been a real learning experience. Hans and Olga spent the night with us on our last night in Moscow. Parking that big ole Lincoln and then packing it was a real challenge. Then we picked up Olga's nutritionist who will drive ...

... Petersburg I go on to Moscow. Stop near Novgrorod. It's still difficult to find accomodation why I need to overnight again in the wilderness where millions of mosquitos waiting to me. I'm a litte afrait about the street who passes near to my tent. Next day I took a route away from the disgusting mainroad. There is a really beautiful side of Russia!