Parkcity Hotel - Cek Chelyabinsk

... of ours, I feel like I want to give up and run away from the effort of keeping a smile on my face despite sometimes obvious stupidity, sometimes simple misunderstandings and meanings lost in translation... It is very difficult to keep a smile on your face when exasperation is all you feel. 3.The missing of familiarity, the constant change in the landscape, no two sunset the same, no two sunrise in the same place. I guess that's why it felt a little like arriving home when we ...

... have told us something! Not to worry, the border officials were really nice about it (probably thinking, 'dumb Kiwis') and after having us empty out the truck, letting the drug dogs sniff through it and checking underneath with mirrors, should we have secreted anything, they waved us through into Russia. Yay, let another adventure begin.<br>It was only a short drive to our hotel in Chelyabinsk so we stopped of for a (real) coffee at a roadside cafe. (Not ...

Cheliabinsk is not on the Trans-Siberian-Railway. It is far more south. Here we had a wonderfull time with swimming, sauna and a russian massage: http://www.atlantida-spa ...

... rich family from Murmansk drove me last. We passed the spot where, in last year's attempt to hitchhike to Siberia, I'd almost gotten killed by two guys in whose cabin I slept. Fond memories ... well, not really fond. I made it four-hundred kilometers, after a late, afternoon start and a long-ish first wait. Yana had given me "Kapitanskaya Dochka" (The Captain's Daughter), a classic by Aleksander S. Pushkin; I began reading it in the ...

... are usually huge things commemorating the glory of the USSR, but this one was very different. Instead of a triumphant soldier (which they obviously couldn't use!) its' a soldier sitting crosslegged, looking utterly dejected. A lot more powerful than the standard type. It's not far from there to the point where the Tsar and his family were killed. The house they were being held in has been destroyed, and there's now a decadent church ...

... my nose and get to sleep. got some sleep after getting on the train at 4am. the whole of today, tonight, tomorrow and tomorrow night before we escape. spent out time eating, sleeping, getting cross cos kiwi in the bunk below is snoring, reading, listening to ipod etc. toilets on train not as good as the moscow to ekaterinsberg train was. proviniste bit less house proud. not added extras in the form of tea and biks either!

... hoping he wasn;t gpoing to show... then a miracle happened. our prayers were answered. sort of. karill and his bad hair and tache didn't show. but gleb, a cute 19 yr old guy, did! the transformation was amazing. we all went from hunched up, miserable grouches to all smiles and hair tossing. we lasted the whole walking tour with gleb and then he gave us a lift to the supermarket in his car so we could buy provisions for our long train journey ahead. long walk back to the hotel with heavy ...

... church from some old russian lady in a tasteful housecoat. v hard not to get the giggles. then out into the rain to look at some wooden buildings that some one had nicked from the surrounding villages. which i'd be a bit ****** of with if i lived there. russuan lady appeared again. this time dressed as the gestapo from allo allo in black leather coat, hat and boats. bit of a ...

Breakfast was included in our hotel cost so we headed downstairs, not sure what to expect. We had our phrase book at hand in case we needed to interpret the menu, but luckily it was buffet. Breakfast started at 7am and we got there at 9am where we had to scrounge up some of the leftovers. It looked as though we had left it a little late as there was no bread left, no bowls or cups for the cereal and coffee, no knives and the dregs of juice left, but of course no cups to pour it ...

... Russian polka classics. Were we in hell? During the night our cabin companion, Alexander, had gone AWOL, returning at around lunchtime to cut up a dead fish on our shared table. He ate this with glee and kept a conversation going with Rick the entire time. Rick had no idea what he was saying and Megan, faking she was asleep, was no help. We then realised he'd been drinking a heap of vodka with the Army Coast Guard guys from the other end of the carriage. After scoffing ...