Update

Everyone to the map page quick!

It is now current, as of today. Click on the tabs. Learn a little something about how the trip went or just see a small part of the world through our eyes. Whatever, just check it out and sate the cartographic demon inside.

Day 8

Sabrina where are you?

OUTLINE

• 8.30am arrive in Saint Petersburg. We leave our comfy sleeper for a noisy, cold, dirty, smokey city
• Discuss methods to reach our hostel – decide to march
• Arrive sweaty and tired at the small crumbling doorway entrance to hostel Sabrina
• Enjoy tea and jammy swiss roll while awaiting an English speaking taxi driver to take us to another Sabrina hostel. This one has a singing shower (?)
• 45 sleepy minutes later the crease faced, leather cap wearing crazy taxi driver shows up and we weave through busy traffic to our real hostel
• No visa registration, it’s a 10 day Russian holiday

• Explore the city to shake our dark first impressions of the district around the train station. We walk and walk but nothing really changes

Tonnes of Lemsip and a frantic march with a huge pack will do wonders for a cold.

Bums in train stations are the same the world over but in Russia the police are meaner.

Jay can’t map read.

Russian people are either stern and a bit rude or crazy and really nice but mos of the time they are all drunk.

St. Petersburg – Venice it ain’t.

Heating inside Russian homes is always on Max, this explains the huge stripey, puffing chimneys which dominate the skyline.

Sarah’s Russian is ace.

Russian tv looks 40 years old and is really over the top.

Driving is total madness and crossing the road is a leap of faith.

St. Petersburg is busy.

click for larger images

…and all through the house, not a creature was stirring. Not even a mouse.

“Donner, Titzen and Rick!”

So Christmas is done, the turkey all has been gobbled and all the lovingly wrapped presents lay scattered about the house in many various bits and pieces but I’m awake typing out my merry memories and travel plans just for you.

This house which has seemed so large and empty every day for the past month is now bursting at the seems. All the beds have been taken and I am relegated to the sofa in the front room with the opened toy boxes and discarded sweet wrappers, where I have no chance of any sleep. I wouldn’t want it any other way. My nan (mothers side), Louise, Rob and Lewis (who provided the quote above over dinner when reciting Santa’s reindeer helpers in song - just one of many times he would reduce all of us to tears of laughter during the day) joing me, mum and dad for a great day taking in all of the festive traditions. We ate our weights tore open all manor of gifts, took loads of pictures, played games, shared great old stories, got a wee bit drunk, watched loads of telly and even followed a pirate treasure hunt around the house to find a buried/locked chest. One of the best.

I took the chance to update the Map page with our full projected route, taking in not only our travel plans across mainland Europe Eastward into Russia but also now the Trans Siberian train route leaving Moscow towards Ulan-Udewhere we jump track and switch onto the Trans Mongolian trains which take us all the way to Beijing. Here the plans go a little fuzzy. I’d love to head North to take in Harbin but realise time is short and with such a large expanse of country still to explore before our thirty day single entry tourist visas expire, I probably should plan to head South, exploring the busy coastal regions, eventually jumping the boarder to head for Thailand and work (James may be able to secure jobs teaching in China which will change all this. We wait on confirmation).

It’s been a busy old holiday. I’ve also had my stitches out although of the five sewn in, only two remained. I didn’t even notice them beingtorn from my rippling neck. Superman! I took the opportunity, while visiting the health centre to visit my nurse one last time to review my inoculation record pre-travels. A clean bill of health and a good luck hand shake where issued. I re-packed my mega bag choosing to jettison a pair of shorts, my belt, one of the two towels and three socks (a pair and one of my Liverpool football club socks for our Champions league winning season – the one with the hole. I’m usingthe other as external hard drive protection. I just had to keep it on board somehow). Now my boots fit inside my bag and the whole mess feels alot more manageable. I also started on reading Catch-22, which I am completely enjoying. A minority opinion I share with but one person I have questioned regarding the work. I plough on undeterred. I also took in a great movie I was saving for a special occasion ‘Soylent Green’. I really can’t speak highly enough of this dark distopian vision. Heaston leads a fine cast who all turn in worthy and believable performances. The future vision is not too distant as to be over fantastical (Startrek) but still with farsighted gloomy signposts of societies disturbing trends (furniture girls). A beautiful flick which has dated like a fine wine, truly a test of the sci-figenre and testament to the strength of the inevitable plodding story. Good soundtrack too. I am a geek for this kind of thing though.

Amongst all this good stuff was a real stinking sprout of a phone call for one – Mr. Shortball. It seems I won’t be able to squeeze my load onto his back seat. I was going to hitch a ride down south with his mother but now it looks as if I’ll be hauling ass in cargo class on the mega bus. This does have the benefit of giving me two extra days at home, relaxing the last minute rush I’ve had my self in seemingly for the past four weeks. But on the downside I’ll be traveling on the day of the Eurostar connection thus removing any safety net time and also costing me a whole £15. Worst of all I won’t get to relax with my budski’s before the away and do all the last night big idea-ing, having the best kind of pie-in-the-ski-what-might-be kind of dreams. Never mind, we’ve got months for all of that bunkum and claptrap.

Also as a little aside, I have sliptinto a very strange sleep pattern. A two day off, one day on kind of shift thing which allows me to go for long periods with out feeling as though I require any sleep at all ultimately paid for with a swift and very definite return to earth and beyond. I party hard in the land of Nod. I don’t go often but when I go, I go big time – mad, vivid dreams et al.

Sorry if this is too flowery and wordy I’ll try and return to a sharper prose style and nice easy thumbnails asap – there started already.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS