28.04-4.05: Moscow and St. Petersburg; culture, culture, culture and churches

I reached Moscow ten days after boarding the Transsiberian Express in Vladivostok. I was dirty and dead tired. All I wanted was a steaming hot shower, a strong coffee and a soft bed. The fancy hotel that I had booked to spoil my mom and sister should offer all of the above but it was still many hours before formal check-in time. I nevertheless went down for a baggage drop-off and guess what? The hospitable hotel hostess turned a blind eye and checked me in. I guess I must have smelled like a pig…

Since my mum and sister wouldn’t arrive before the evening I had ample time for ‘scheduled maintenance’, a synonym for a beauty retreat in the vocabulary of my friend Marion Corbet. It was amazing how good it felt to be clean again. And how quick human batteries can recharge; within the shortest time I bubbled with energy once more. Ready for new craziness 🙂

Linda dancing

I had invited my mom and sister to Moscow for two reasons. The first was to let them experience the dynamics of globe trotting and to become part of my adventure. They have been my biggest fans and support on my Corners tour and have supported me in tough times during the journey [and before]. Secondly, I wanted to restore our tradition of ‘mother-and-daughters-day’. This tradition is sweet and simple: every year (at a minimum) we take some time out to spent together. Just us lot. No intrusions allowed, niece/nephew calamities excluded. Our annual event had been on the back burner since I moved to Dubai to all our displeasure. Mom en Peggy accepted my proposal without thinking, which is why -after a lengthy visa process- we re-united at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

I know every family is different and that relationships between mothers and daughters and between sisters can range from being great to gruesome or even broken. We belong to the first category. My mom, sister and I are close. I can’t recall any issues or disagreements, honestly. I had been solo on the road for several months so it felt like a warm bath to be in each other’s company. No distractions, no next appointments; fantastic! We talked and talked and… talked and went from the one coffee to the other to food breaks and a drink now and then. Mom’s bags bulged out with sweets and savory that would have fed us without any need for other meals, which Peggy and I loved. Oh, and when we weren’t indulging, we of course explored the magnificent Moscow; we went to the Red Square, the Kremlin, the Armoury, took hop on-off buses and much more. The Armoury impressed us the most; it is definitely the place to be for any good old fashioned jewel thief!

Our discussions revolved mostly about life and love and [remotely] related matters. Probably those are not too appealing for non-van Dijks, but, more importantly, they are strictly restricted to the Clan van Dijk. What happens in the family stays in the family. The rest of the blog is therefore pictures only, without comment 😉 Here is hoping you will enjoy nevertheless!

Moscow

 

St. Petersburg

19-28.04: Vladivostok to Moscow… a helluva ride

I have been thinking long and hard on what to write about the Transsiberian Express (or Sibi for insiders). For starters because this train actually doesn’t exist. Anyone expecting to board a ‘Polar Express’ train as in the eponymous movies will be in for a disillusionment. There is no Sibi brand; no trains covered in Sibi stickers, no dedicated radio adds, website or ticket booths to get you all mellowed up for this mighty experience. For Russians, trains get you from A to B,  if -but mostly when- the airfares are too high. People thought I was mental for traveling by train for pleasure.

So why all the fuss? Well, the Transsiberian line happens to be the longest national railway link in the world. It runs from Vladivostok in the East to St. Petersburg in the North West, covering 9,289 km and 7 time zone in 8 days (!!).

Once a week there is a direct train but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone -if I would recommend Sibi all together. That would be mental and physical torture (more below), but more importantly, it defeats the purpose of the Sibi experience because half of the fun is to disembark and explore the Russian territory across.

(Vladivostoc)

I myself underestimated the importance of the hop on/offs. I was limited in time due to my Moscowegian deadline so I could only hop-off twice. Russia punished me badly for exchanging Sibi days for Japan, I had 2 very, very long legs ahead of me…

My Sibi experience started troublesome. I almost missed the train in Vladivostok. I wasn’t late (really, I wasn’t!) – the train left early I guess. Guess? Yes, I guess, because Russia doesn’t do English (editorial: not even in Moscow and St. Petersburg). It is therefore the absolute winner of my Corner’s Award for ‘Most difficult countries to travel in/ biggest language barrier)’ with special recognition for the absence of English signs and English speakers.

Can you picture me, Linda, in a confined area for 8 days with NO ONE to talk to? I was thankful to meet the ‘three Olegs’. Two of them were on Sibi too. They had just started to learn English so I instantly promoted to English tutor, yes, a Dutchy can be a tutor too (in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king…). We covered thousand-and-one topics simply because at some point we would get stuck on a trivial word.

The occasional chats with the Olegs were basically the only time killer on the train. Normally, one can enjoy the scenery from the window but the Russian landscape was pretty boring. My timing wasn’t the best; spring hadn’t really started, so the land -mostly plains and modest hills- was still dry and empty. I can’t share the views because the windows of the train were too dirty to snap pretty pictures.

The next best time killer would have been… the Internet. Not in Siberia though. Internet + Siberia = NO, or better, NOOO!!! The odd minute here and there was insufficient to browse, let alone place a Skype call. TV? NOPE.  One channel and Russian only. Books/e-readers? Another NO. My travel bag only fit one book but if when reading ’24-7′ such book is never thick enough. The e-reads that I had downloaded on my stolen iPhone somehow hadn’t sync-ed in the Cloud so weren’t accessible on my new phone.

So what to do then? Food? Nope-nope. I knew that Sibi was notorious for bad food so I had stocked up to circumvent their poor catering. My bag bulged with instant noodles since I knew boiling water was available on the train. Great idea… until I found out that my noodles needed 5 minutes of solid boiling. The hot water got them semi-soft – at best. Disgusting! Boy, I wished their labels would have been in English so that I would have known that in the store…

Final attempt to kill time: sleeping. And this was… another NO. The bed was short and narrow (maybe 185x 50 cm). My effective width halved because of a broken ‘fall protection handle’ in my [top] bed. I toss-n-turn pretty badly so I kept my bum frantically pressed against the wall.  Not the best position for a relaxing nap. What also didn’t help (sarcasm!) was the softness of the bed;  a table with a cloth has more bedspring then the Sibi bed.

So, the bed wasn’t the place to be. The first night I was even afraid to jump in for a whole other reason. I shared the berth with three potent Russian knuckle draggers (in Dutch: mannen die me mijn botten met 1 vinger konden breken). The berth had an inside lock and I pictured what they could do to a woman asleep. Nothing happened of course, I got out alive and unharmed. Hurt, yes, but that was 100% bed-related.

The last NO was the shower. Actually, I can’t complain about the shower because there was none. Baby wipes to the rescue once more.

Irkutsk

Three nights later, I reached Irkutsk at 5 AM. I had 17 hours to spend and aimed for Lake Baikal. This is the world’s largest fresh water lake which completely freezes over in winter. When I visited [in April] it was still covered with floes. Mesmerising!

I had wanted to go sledge dog driving but had missed the season by a week. So I went for a horse back trail instead. I told my guide, Nicolay, that I had ridden for 24 years and of my horse, Adrian, but he shrugged and made me take his riding test nonetheless. (Ahsan, no comments please, even our pics playing your ‘game of kings’ (polo) didn’t help). So, I obediently demonstrated stand-and-sits, side swings, trots and a canter.  The ride was fabulous though, it fully restored my Vitamin H(orse) levels and made me feel alive again after so much inactivity on the train.

Sometimes good things happen without asking. I got an unexpected hitch hike back to the railway station. (Did someone stick a sign on my back saying ‘helpless tourist’?)  We listened silently to 80-90s music because my driver could not speak English. Interesting.

Yekatarinaburg (Y’burg)

My train left Irkutsk late at night, and this time I was more “Sibi-proof’. I accepted the no shower, bed, food, friends, reading material. I didn’t met a new Oleg, so I spent my time mostly in silence. Ample time for self reflection and I found that unexpectedly good experience.  Nevertheless, I was eager to hop off the train in Y’burg’. Y’burg is a surprisingly picturesque and vibrant city with wonderful people, such as Oleg (Novoselov, ‘Oleg no 2’), who show me around town. Thanks!

Y’burg was also special because… of the opera. I had never been to one before and went to their premiere of Carmen. It was sung in French (at least attempted) and subtitled in Russian and since I speak neither languages I was happy that I had read the story line before the show. Opera has a new fan, it was stunning.

The next day I messed up badly. I missed my train! I had mixed up local time and Moscow time on the ticket and arrived 5 minutes too late. Russia has many time zones and therefore they print both times on the tickets. This is really handy as soon as one gets used to it, and I had been fine until Y’burg. I was devastated because I didn’t want to be late for my mom and sister in Moscow. Four gentlemen recognised a woman in distress and asked what was wrong. They deliberated and offered to chase the train 200 km up North. They raced all the way pretty much ignoring all traffic rules in the book. We reached at the next station; sprinted to the track, I put my first foot on the rung and heard the whistle blow. I had made it!

When -after 10 nights- I finally reached Moscow and had checked in to a fancy hotel room [to spoil my mom and sister] I couldn’t believe how happy a person could be with a cup of decent coffee, a hair wash and a soft bed….

Crazy linda