Karelian Government Hotel Petrozavodsk

... the level of St Petersburg. At one stage we were in the lock looking down on the road. Lake Onega that we are now on is Europe's second largest lake, fed by 58 rivers and only one river, the river Svir, drains it. The Lake covers an area of 9.7 thousand square kilometers and there are 1369 islands. The Lake is famous for its pure water which supports more than 40 species of fish, including trout and salmon ...

... wooden buildings and churches. Luckily for us, Maxim has a friend in the hotel where we bought our ferry tickets, so we got 20% off. Afterwards, we bought some beer and had a sit in a park while we talked and he regaled us of stories and hard facts about life in Russia - namely the rife corruption in the police force and government and the huge gap between rich and poor, with no middle class. We were pretty shocked at some of the things he had to say. Russia still has a very long ...

... were actually built on Kizhi (like the two churches mentioned above) while others were transported there from around the region. In one of the other smaller churches, a guy was giving a concert every once in a while playing the church bells. Again, this whole thing was somewhat similar to what I saw at Taltsy and also outside of Ulan-Ude. After walking around for a couple of hours, I still had some time left, so I left the southern part of the island ...

... is more like a hotel, a little sterile and not particularly sociable. I did have a dorm room to myself though, and it had a TV, although everything is in Russian, so I kept myself entertained by watching some badly dubbed episodes of South Park, I could almost hear the English under the dubbing. There has been a disappointing lack of people wearing silly hats in Russia it has to be said, thereby thwarting my plans for the inaugural Eurovision Silly Hat Contest. I did see a shop ...

... Straight away bring in Russia smacks you in the face due to the language (Cyrillic signs everywhere), the mad traffic of Ladas mixed with Mercedes and of course the huge statue of Lenin himself outside the station. Decide to walk to hotel (1km away) rather than negotiate the Metro for the sake of one stop. Looks pretty easy on map but how do you cross the road. Marks on road for pedestrian crossing but cars are not stopping - hmmmm. Figure out after 20 seconds ...

Less pukey today. Went walking with Ian and saw much better things and i even bought a hairbrush. Got back to hostel and had nap and then went to the pub. Had one pint and felt ill so had to go back. When got back there were some lads playing chess so i stayed up a little and watched them. Saw St Basils Cathedral and it was really cool. Looked a bit like the one in Moscow.

... a wipe out. Looooong bus journey including Russian checkpoint for an hour before being allowed to get back on our bus. We got there and it seemed a bit unpleasant but have now discovered the nice bits. Had some alleged armenian food. All a bit confusing becasue it doesn't get dark until nearly midnight.

The past two days have been EXTREMELY cold!!! It is about -30 degrees and with the windchill they factor it at -41. It just HURTS to go outside!! Finally the apartment is not too hot though! Usually it is pretty warm in here, too warm, but since it is soooo cold outside I can feel the cool air coming in from the tiny gap in the window.

... going on on-board. We had the last lesson of "Modern Russian Politics." We can know how much modern Russians dislike those people from other republics of former Soviet Union (Ukrainian, Estonian) than, let's say, Chinese, American, or German. Then it's captain's farewell party and farewell dinner (you bet! We had caviar and vodka again for dinner). The captain Yuri gave every lady a nice red rose and my mom got one too. I was glad that I wasn't offered one or my mother will ...

... ship. Why wasn't I told it is from he other Germany'? The weather was really bad that day on Lake Onega. It was rainy, damp, and cold when we arrived the port of Petrozavodsk. Petrozavodsk is the capital of the autonomous Republic of Karelia (which means that it is still a part of Russia). This city is not attractive or interesting at all. Adding to the bad weather, this stop is really an anti-climax to this morning's tour ...