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Phase II
London-Moscow Blogs
Will and Eric have met up in London; let the adventure begin!
The flight to London was uneventful, and Eric's precise instructions for
trains and underground connections were flawless, (as expected!), so Will
wasn't left standing out in the cold - well chilly - London weather for
long.
So, off for a bit of shopping; just a few things that are handy from London,
then aboard the Eurostar to Belgium this afternoon. Mmmm, chocolate...
Will - from Irkutsk
Brussels - blur!
Missing our scheduled train to Brussels meant that we had to catch the one
two hours later; the two hours we'd thought we would have for shopping were
wasted stressing out in the London train station. After all, we would have
14 minutes to catch our only connecting train to Moscow. Miss this one, and
the rest of the 10,000 Km journey falls apart...
The Eurostar ride itself was a commuter affair. Clear French Immigration in
London, get on the train, stress out for another couple of hours, and the
first leg is history. It was a good thing they announced the approach to the
Chunnel - it was terribly anti-climatic changing from dark scenery to just
dark. I don't know what I expected, a tunnel can't be that interesting!
We explained our situation to our train manager, and he got us as far
forward on the train as possible, and kindly determined that our departing
platform was number 16 for us. When the train stopped, we bounded off, (our
decision to travel light with only one bag each starting to pay off
already), and literally ran to catch our train. To my horror, a minute
before the allotted departure time, platform 16 was empty! Checking the
board, it soon became obvious that it was the correct platform and our train
just hadn't shown up yet. Whew. The only serious problem now: no chocolate
for our trip. :-(
Suddenly, the stress turned to holiday joy, and we both relaxed.
Will - from Irkutsk
Moscow
Our first overnight train journey was a blast! We were finally relaxed and
having fun; in spite of our rocky start. OK, inquiring minds want to know...
we missed the Eurostar because when I asked Eric to use his scanner to make
images of my documents to post on-line, (just in case we lost our originals,
AND the photocopies we were carrying), the last document got left in the
scanner. Yup, my passport!
However, other than the delay in getting Eric's vacation started and missing
out on the Belgian chocolate, we have recovered from this amateur-traveller
mistake. Now, Eric insists on us doing the dummy-check: passport, wallet,
each other; let's go!
Getting out of the train station in Moscow was the first indication that we
weren't in Kansas any more, Toto. However, this was not the Russia I
expected. Sure, there were grey skies and grey snow, old cars and people in
drab clothes, but the explosion of neon signs threw me. A giant casino
opposite the station, and adjacent garishly lit shops were a shock.
Amongst the glowing signs found a money changer and got our first roubles:
2780 to $100 USD, or looking at it the other way 100 R is about $3.60 USD. I
bought a Coke to test the validity of the currency and was delighted that
commerce does indeed work as expected here.
Our taxi was no more difficult to organize, but in spite of it being a
proper licensed taxi, he had to rip up his map and stop for directions
several times to find our hotel. We were checked in by 10:30 AM Moscow time
and at 10:59 our phone rang with our "buddy tour" calling from the lobby.
Russian efficiency was proving not to be the oxymoron that I'd been led to
believe.
Lena, our guide, was an efficient woman in her 50's that worked hard to
ensure that we would see the important sights in the short time we had in
Moscow; (our train left that evening at 11:35 PM), learn more than a little
about Russia and its history; as well as get the essential shopping, (and
not so essential shopping), accomplished. We went to an outdoor market and
bought our winter wear, so we were really ready to spend the day walking and
taking the subway around Moscow, and for the rest of our journey across
Siberia.
We toured the Kremlin and the Armoury Museum, Red square, and a mall that
had every western brand, (including a whole Levi's store). We ate at a local
deli, shopped for vodka in a store that was once a palace, bought our water,
coke and snacks for the next journey, and managed to knock off the obscure
items, (shot glasses and chop sticks?), from our list.
We hardly had time to rest as we repacked and awaited our driver that
evening. We did, however, make an incredibly important discovery about
vodka...
Will - from Irkutsk