Utes Hotel Chelyabinsk

... We found that the laundry was closed, until 1PM, so we found a wi-fi coffee place, and while Jon was out doing some shopping and surveillance, I sat there for 8 hours, only breaking to get the laundry in, uploading pictures and chilling with one apple juice and one coffee until it was finally time to eat and leave. A pizza each, and leaving behind 20 pounds between us, the pictures uploaded, we picked up the dry laundry, and we went to buy our tickets to Ulan Bator, Mongolia. <br ...

... 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 ...

... index.php?o ption=com_content&amp;task=blogsection& amp;id=9&amp;Itemid=31 More information: http://wikitravel.org/en/Chelyabinsk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabins k

... shirt with oasis patterns on it; shorts; and his tan body posed athletically at the wheel. He swore more in glooby Russian, which sounded like he was speaking noodles instead of words. He bought us a roadside, five-course meal that included hardy borscht. We slept in his truck, and he cooked breakfast. He said without "sala" (pig fat, loved by Russians) and vodka, the Russians wouldn't have beaten the Germans in World War II. We ...

... 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 ...

... as no one spoke English we figured it might be down the street a little bit. After walking in the freezing cold for ages we asked for directions at a camera shop as Rick needed to buy some film because the digital camera packed up the other day. The lady was very helpful, even trying to call her daughter that studied English at university. Unfortunately we didn't get very far and she couldn't contact her daughter, so still lost we headed across the road to what looked ...

... lady behind the desk whether our onward train tickets had been delivered she gave us one of those "And do I give a sh_t" looks and shook her head. We figured this was going to be typical Soviet service. Getting the ancient and somewhat dangerous lift (the doors kept slamming shut and didn't stop) up to our floor where we woke up the "Lady with the keys". They have one of these on every floor, in charge of the rooms on the floor. With our key in hand we checked out our room. It ...