Home at Last!

Monday 4th February 08

Well i am finally home after my exhausting trip through Russia! When i arrived at Vladivostok there were no shops so my idea of going shopping went right out of the window. But there was a play going on at the end of the station. It was a russian theater group performing Romeo and Juliet in russian of course but my russian has really improved since I'm been here so to my surprise i understood quite a lot of it! Then on the way back i saw Annushka again and we talked for the rest of the journey and i have her email so i can talk to her. I arrived home about an hour and a half ago and am completely exhausted! but i did manage to make that album I talked about and have stuck it in here i hope you like it! Right now i am going to sleep as i am soooooo tired and my bed looks really inviting. Speak to you on my next trip! bye!
x Tiffy x

Day 7 Vladivostok!

Monday 28th January 08

Well it's exactly 4 hours until i arrive in at Vladivostok at 6:00. I can't wait although i can't celebrate with anyone as Annushka is gone but i will see her on the way back. .......... em ................ i'm pretty bored.................. maybe i should take some photos ............ there's a good one ......... nah .................. how about that ............ hm ......... nah .......... i know ............. voila ......... fabulous a picture of the track how amazing! I'll put it in here for you! In fact i'll make an album of my journey that's it! but enough of that. When i get to Vladivostok i will be there for three whole hours so i will have a lot of time to look around before i get back on the train home. I think i might go shopping for a bit. anyway speak soon!

x tiffy x

Day 6 Back on the Train After Irkutsk!

Sunday 27th January 08

What can i say... another town, another experience, a wicked time! I got to Irkutsk at 1:15 and had some lunch at the Station as i was pretty hungry. I ate a sandwich and had a drink of coca cola. It is nice to know they have coke even in Russia!! When i went outside to call for a taxi i got a mega big shock. As i hadn't been outside of the station since I'd arrived i hadn't realized how cold it was!! I asked someone what temperature it was and they replied -17 degrees celcuis!!! I fished through my bag and found my Eskimo hat that i bought in Tyumen and boy was i grateful. In the taxi, on the way to the hotel, i saw an amazing sight. It was a whole village made out of ice!! Of course! how could i have forgotten. In the winter, the central park has many ice sculptures as well as an ice castle that you can walk around in. There are ice slides in this park also. Most Russians stand up and slide on the soles of their shoes. The park is very lively at night with tourist, even though the temperatures drop well below -20 degrees C.
I arrived at the hotel and dropped of my bags and headed off to the Kazansky church. When i got there i was almost overwhelmed by ow beautiful the church was and how grand when you get so close up. The inside was just as beautiful and equally huge. There was a free tour so i tagged along and brushed up on the history of the church. afterwards as now i was really starting to get a feel was Irkutsk i made my way to the ice sculptures and castle and it was so much fun!!! I climbed the castle, i looked at the sculptures and i slid down the slides standing up!!!!(after a couple of attempts landing on my but!) At about 6:00 i walked back to the hotel and took a swim in the pool as it was warm and i was cold!!!!
Afterwards i decided to have dinner in the hotel restaurant as i didn't feel like going out. I had as a starter scrambled eggs with caviar and blinis. But i must mention that for my first time trying caviar i can't believe people actually like it honestly its disgusting. Especially since i just found out its fish eggs!!!!! For a main course i ate pelmeni with potatoes. Pelmeni is beef, lamb or pork (i had lamb) mixed with onions and peppers and wrapped in a thin dough. It was really good! For dessert i had Oladi which is the same as pancakes but more filling! at 10:00 i was ready to hit the sack.
This morning i woke up early, ish and had some breakfast. then as soon as the Nepinary was open i was straight down there to see those cute seals. Honestly they were adorable!! They gave a show where they danced to some music and then let you touch them!! After that the staff gave them paintbrushes with different colors and they painted a picture!I took a shot of they painting and put it in here!
Then i had to rush back to the hotel pick up my bags and shoot to the station as i was running pretty late! And now I'm on the train towards my final destination Vladivostok! Speak soon !

x tiffy x

Day 5 on the Train!

Saturday 26th January 08

Average, thats how i explain my day today, average. I woke up this morning with a pretty bad back i think i had slept on it funny! I then got up and made my way sluggishly towards the restaurant carriage and had some breakfast! Afterwards i when back to my seat and started talking to Annushka again about this and that. My next stop is Irkutsk and right now i am deciding what to do when i get to there at 1:00. I have just looked on Annushka's laptop and found out that there are a couple of museums about Irkutsk which might be quite interesting to see about the history of the town. There is the Kazansky Church which i will definitely go and look at because it is soooo beautiful. I even printed of a picture and put it in here!!! There is also a small Nerpinary(seal aquarium) tucked away in Irkutsk that has two Baikal seals that do a small presentation which i will have to go and see because i lllooovvveee seals!!! I will be staying in the Angara hotel which is 2.5km from the station so i will need to take a taxi! i will be arriving in Irkutsk in exactly 2 hours. I can't wait to be off this train in a nice deluxe suite for the night instead of these really uncomfortable beds!(i worked out i didn't sleep funny it was the bed!) bye bye for now speak to you tomorrow!

x Tiffy x

Day 4 Back from Tyumen!

Friday 25th January 08

Bbbbbbrrrrrrrr, it's soooo cold! I just got back on the train from Tyumen. Yesterday was a day like no other!! I arrived at 11:00 yesterday and it was FREEZING!!. The temperature was -13 degrees Celsius!!but at least it was sunny! The hotel was 3 kilometers from the Train Station so i had to catch a bus to the hotel! I stayed at the Quality hotel and it was very good quality teehee! As soon as got to the hotel i put my bags in the room and went straight to the jacuzzi to have a nice long soak! At 4:30 i left for the theater to see the Ballet and let me tell it was Amazing! The main character was this beautiful dancer called Anastasya Ippoli. The ballet was about how a beautiful women has fallen in love with a merchant boy who is nowhere near her standard in society and she is forbidden to see him but in the end they ran away together and after the performance i was nearly in tears! i included a postcard of the theater i picked up as i left! I got back to the hotel at about 8:00 and went straight out to dinner. But on the way back, as i walked because it wasn't very far, it was so cold my teeth were chattering!! I went to this little place about a two minute walk away which was a traditional russian restaurant. For my dinner, as a starter, i had herring in sheepskin coat which is small pieces of the herring mixed with the boiled potato, beef, carrot and mayonnaise. for a main course i had Beef Stroganov which is pieces of beef prepared with cream sauce. For dessert i had Tvorog which is cottage, usually served with honey or berry jam and i had it with honey! By the time i had finished it was gone 12:00 so i sleepily walked back to the hotel and upstairs and crawled into bed! This morning i woke up at 10:15 and i was just like aaaaahhhhhh because breakfast finished at a quarter to 11:00 so i rushed real fast and bunged on any old clothes and rushed downstairs. For breakfast i had Drachona which is a round cake made from eggs and some blinies which are mini pancakes and i had some orange juice too. After breakfast i went to the monastery and it was incredible. I had a tour of it and saw all the ins and outs. It's so interesting. After the tour i went back to the hotel grabbed my bags and headed for the train. It was still very cold when i got back on the train it was about -11 degrees Celsius. I caught the train at 3:45 and i am back on track towards Vladivostok! Going now speak more tomorrow!!

x tiffy x

Day 2 on the train!

Wednesday 23rd January 08

What a great day. It started off ok, you see i was really bored on the train. I was just sat in my seat listening to the same song over and over again when i heard a women of about my age, sitting across from me, talking to someone on the phone in English!!! which is kind of amazing since everywhere else I've had to use the little amount of russian i know to get by! So after see finished i began to talk to her and it turns out she was going to visit some family in Omsk and would be catching the same train back to Moscow as me! I was so excited at this thought and for the rest of the day we talked and talked! Her name is Annushka and she is from St Petersburg and is going to see her family because she missed Christmas with them as an important work project came up so she couldn't go! That is really sad :( . While i was talking to her i took a picture of the scenery and put it in here for you to look at. I must say its still very snowy, i hope i brought enough clothes!!! But i can't wait until i get to Tyumen its going to be so much fun to see a different aspect of life!

x tiffy x

Day 1 on the Train!

Tuesday 22nd January 08

Today, is my first day on the train and its a whole different feeling compared to yesterday the light is streaming into the carriage and the view is amazing. I woke up about two hours ago. I had a look around the train earlier and found the restaurant cart where they were serving breakfast so i settled down and had some eggs on toast and a typical Russian dish which is ham fried in mustard and then placed on fried bed with dill and parsley. It was really tasty. My next stop on the Train is Tyumen. Tyumen has a lot of intriguing history to do with exports and industrialization, it all sounds very interesting! When i get there i have organized to go and see a ballet in one of the many theaters there because they are very famous theaters that have wonderfully architecture. I can't pronounce the name of the ballet though! Tyumen even has a professional ballerina of there own, Tamara Toumanova. Sadly she will not be in the performance as she is out of town but it should still be amazing! I have heard there are a number of good restaurants so i will have to try out one of those too, to get a feel for russian food! Also i will go and see one of the old mid 18th century monasteries. I think it will be this one i printed off the internet but I'm not sure. I'm going to go now speak some more tomorrow bye!

x Tiffy x

On the train!

Monday 21st January 08

Few!, i just made it. I thought for sure i was going to miss the train. O right, yes, what happened. Well i arrived in Moscow at my estimated time 11:30 with 3 and a bit hours to spare. So first of all i went shopping and looked at all of the different types of things they sell here in Moscow. Then i went and had some lunch in a typical Russian cafe. So after lunch at 2 i caught a taxi to the station but the taxi took over half an hour to go about a 2 and a 1/2 kilometers. I was so annoyed. When i got to the station i payed and dashed out of the car and straight to the platform. What a palava, anyway I'm here on the train now in seat number 7 which by the way is quite cosy. I have a window seat which is pretty nice and I've just left the platform. the picture is of my train (i took a quick shot before i got on the train). I'm going to sort everything out now so I'll speak some more tomorrow.

x Tiffy x

The Day Before The Trip!

Sunday, 20th January 08!

I am so excited that i think my my sides are about to split its going to be so fun fun seeing the beautiful landscape of Russia!!! Tomorrow i will leave from the Yaroslavskaya station in Moscow at 2:46 and it will be the 20 th of January. I will be traveling on the "1/2 Rossiya" which is a train that goes from Moscow to Vladivostok and the train will be a Firm Train, firm trains are the fastest at TransSib. I am going to be staying in the SV carriage which is a sleeping carriage. My seat is number 7 and there can be up to 18 seats in this type of carriage. I have my ticket and I've put a copy in here and labeled it so you can understand what it means. So, it is precisely 4:27 and i am in the process i packing my bags!. I've packed a small bag for my hand luggage. In it i have my passport (very important or wouldn't be able to get on the train!), my tickets (for obvious reasons), my travel sickness tablets, my ipod and book if i get bored, my keys, my purse, my make-up (just in case) and my phone! Also I have all of my clothes and bits & bobs packed in my big case but i am having a lot of trouble trying to fit it all in! I've already tried sitting on it but it won't work so i am going to try and stand on it and see if that works! fingers crossed! Anyway better go speak tomorrow.

x Tiffy x