Back in the U.S.S.R - Russia

After 3 incredible weeks gallivanting around the countryside of Mongolia it was time for us to make a move and head back to civilisation... in Siberia... in southern Russia.

To depart Mongolia we jumped aboard the world famous trans-Siberian railway for our 24 hour journey from Ulaanbataar to the city of Irkutsk in Russia, our gateway to visit the world's oldest and deepest lake, Lake Baikal. With our expectations set to rock bottom, we arrived at the station to an incredible surprise that our train was not some Soviet-era throw back with rooms that resembled a prison. Instead, we were riding in the relative comfort of a brand new carriage that was more comfortable that most of the beds we stayed in during our time in Mongolia. We spent the next 24 hours playing cards, eating salami, reading, eating more salami and even sampled the produce in the dining carriage - it wasn't mutton so it was incredible!

Our brand spanking new train for the 1st leg of the Trans-Siberian

Classy!

KG fired up for our first non-Mongolian meal in 3 weeks!

We eventually arrived in Irkutsk and were greeted by our Couchsurfing host Maria who was nice enough to take us in for a few days and show us around town (and let us harass her cat). To say we were surprised by Irkutsk is a massive understatement! It proved to be a beautiful little city on the side of a river, with excellent restaurants and some awesome coffee (finally!).

After a couple of days we headed down to Lake Baikal to the small village of Listvyanka where we proceeded to do absolutely nothing for 3 days. We continued our trend of doing absolutely nothing  whenever we are near a large body of fresh water. During these visits, we find it acceptable to do nothing but eat as much food as we can get our hands on, get well acquainted with the local breweries' finer work and play an astronomical number of card games. So for 3 days, we rotated between napping, eating, playing cards and even managed to throw in the occasional stroll along the lake side to find some different places to eat. Because this was a stressful few days we then headed back to Irkutsk for a few days of doing more eating and drinking!

On the shores of Lake Baikal after trekking with our CS host Maria.

Saying goodbye to Olga, our delightful guesthouse owner in Listvyanka.

Our daily stroll down to the markets and restaurants in Listvyanka.

KG hanging out in Kirov Square in Irkutsk.

The "old town" in Listvyanka.

It was now time for our major train trip - a delightful 40 hour journey from Irkutsk to Omsk, another small Siberian town in Southern Russia, this one just a bit closer to our eventual destination of Kazakhstan. This time our train was a little more like what we expected: a lot of wooden panelling and a bathroom that looked like it had been pulled straight from the 1940s. We passed the time in a very similar fashion to our previous trains - cards, salami, beer, books and instant ramen.

"Ulaanbataar to Moscow" - our second train on the Trans-Siberian

No idea what hour out of the 40 hour trip this was - cards and beers!

KG in one of the random stops between Irkutsk and Omsk - completely over by this point and refusing to pose.

Russia continues to surprise us when we arrived in Omsk - a town that had been given a tourist rating of 1/10 online. Omsk turned out to be a beautiful little town with some fantastic restaurants and cafes, and enough to keep us busy for more than a few days. We spent a few days rotating between napping, sampling some amazing cafes, the beautiful old town and we even managed to squeeze in a feed at McDonald's - it was superb. We hit up Couchsurfing again and met Alyona, who showed us around for a few days and took us out for a great coffee and drinks at a couple of Omsk's awesome bars.

We Love Omsk!

KG hopping her way through an archway in Omsk as she makes a wish with our Couchsurfing hosts.

The Assumption Cathedral in Omsk.

Tom not sure what to make of this monument in Omsk.

For our trip from Russia to Kazakhstan we had the choice between a 17 hour train or a 55 minute flight, both of which were roughly the same price. We took the flight in a heartbeat and prayed to never have to spend 40 hours on a train ever again.

Next up, Kazakhstan!

Yeah/Nah Index

Irkutsk - Yeah, if you're in the area it's well worth a gander.
Lake Baikal - Yeah, why not? Check it our for a few days.
Omsk - Yep, especially in a couple years when they have finished prettying up the place.
Tran-Siberian Railway - If 40 hours in a room the size of toilet is your thing - deffo!

Latvia: Fried garlic bread and Black Balsam

So since the last post we have made our way from semi-sunny Tallinn to semi-sunny Riga in Latvia. Managed to be the most under-dressed people in an otherwise classy bar in Tallinn on our last night, some pretty awesome views of Tallinn at night...

Finally... a decent glass of red!

After a very short 4 hour bus ride, highlights including Tom falling down the stairs of the bus due to being overexcited about his pack of Cheetos, we arrived in Riga. Riga is quite similar to Tallinn, with a lovely little Old Town, but it has much more to see outside of the Old Town. There is a Soviet area, a street art area, Art Nouveau area and the old Jewish ghetto. One of the main highlights has been the amazing food and drink - and how cheap it is! A particular favourite was 'Shots Cafe', which had over 120 shots on the menu and most were less than a dollar. Tom has taken a liking to Latvia's national drink, Black Balsam, which tastes like Jager but twice as bitter. It's as gross as it sounds, but apparently a shot a day keeps the doctor away so who are we to argue? Tom should be as fit as a fiddle for the next 6 months (at least).

Latvian garlic bread - deep fried, covered in garlic and served with aoili... hello heart disease!

Tom having a moment with his first Chicken McNugget meal of the trip

Tom having another moment... this time with fried potato pancakes, bacon and sour cream. Perfect hangover cure!

The culprit of said hangover... Black Balsam

I have had a fantastic time exploring Riga's Central Market - huge zeppelin pavilions full of fruit, veg, cheese, bread and meat. Managed to buy enough rump steak and veg for 7 meals (feeding us, an Irishman and a Chilean) for about $9! The men were having withdrawals from lack of red meat so an emergency steak was required.

Feeding the meat-eaters, with some veg thrown in for good measure

Central Market fruit and veg stalls

The meat pavilion... fun trying to buy things without speaking a word of Latvian. May explain why I bought enough meat to feed an army.

Yesterday we ventured out on a day trip to Sigulda, which is a lovely town about an hour out of Riga in the middle of a national park. We caught a rather small cable car across the river then wandered through the forest up to a 13th century fortress with Eddie (a.k.a. The Disappearing Irishman - has a habit of wandering off but can always be found eventually!). Amazing views all round.

The Disappearing Irishman and Tom in a cave near Sigulda

Perhaps too much Latvian garlic bread for Tom? 

View from Turiada Fortress in Sigulda

Today we are off to Vilnius in Lithuania. Farewell Latvia, the land of giant food portions and dirt cheap alcohol, you will be sorely missed!

St Petersburg or "Piter" as the locals like to call it...

We arrived in St Petersburg to a cliche backpackers' hostel - hairy showers, paper thin mattresses, dirty kitchen, no lockers and weirdos. Thankfully, the situation has improved and we have located a clean shower, a new bed and most of the weirdos have exited the building. One of the highlights of the hostel was finding that a hairier version of Kitty was residing in our room, except this version was much friendlier than Kitty so it was unlikely she was merely a stowaway. There has been plenty of Uno playing, which has started the 'Ultimate Uno Champ' tally. We will be sure to let everyone know the eventual winner (probs will be Katherine - yeah!)

Russian Kitty that we found in our hostel room - this one was WAY more friendly that our puss.

We have visited some amazing sights, including the Hermitage Museum, the Cathedral on Spilled Blood and St Isaac's Cathedral. St Petersburg is far more laid back and casual than Moscow - we compared it like Melbourne to Sydney for the atmosphere. Atop St Isaac's Cathedral some retard took a lovely photo of us with some scaffolding rather than the view we were hoping for. We saw some great OH&S (or WH&S as it's now known - thanks Steph :) ) - no harnesses, no hard hats, no safety boots and wooden scaffolding.

Pretty self-explanatory - at Peter & Paul Fortress

The Hermitage

Some Bell-end German tourist took a picture of us and a heap of scaffolding - wanker!

KG hanging out on one of the many canals St Petersburg has to offer

A highlight was Catherine Palace, which required our first 'day trip'. We caught the metro then a 'mini bus taxi' which was quite the experience. No seatbelts, no English, no windows, and no idea where we were going. But it cost f*** all and got us where we needed to be so no complaints here! 

Katherine's group photo with some random Russians

Turns out Catherine I had a slammin Panasonic Plasma - nice!

Catherine Palace - Catherine spelled the "crappy" way apparently...

We have also tried some of the local cuisine, including borscht, pancakes stuffed with cabbage, dumplings and fried cheese (not sure how Russian this is but it got Tom pretty excited).

KG getting right into her Borscht

What an "explosive" meal - this was the Hezbollah sandwich

Our Russian cuisine smorgasbord

Tom having a serious moment with his new love -  fried cheese

Moscow: Where they speak zizz English

Moscow is really not what you would expect - luxury department stores, amazing cars (think Maserati, Ferrari, Audi R8 etc but none as fast as the Corolla), beautiful women (and yes, even I can appreciate that part) and beautiful gardens. We have taken in the main sights - St Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin, Cathedral of Christ the Savior and Lenin's Mausoleum. Lenin is starting to a look a bit rough around the edges.

Alexandrovsky Garden

St Basil's Cathedral

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Our 'picnic' lunches (i.e. pov backpacker sandwiches) have been in some pretty amazing spots, like the Alexandrovsky Garden, Gorky Park and the Novodevichy Convent. Packed lunches have proved to be the solution to avoiding me getting 'hangry'. There was an unfortunate incident last night where I became hangry, and let's just say we will be avoiding this from now on.

Snacking :)

The locals are, shall we say, indifferent to tourists. Nothing is written in English, and no-one speaks English, and if you say thank you in Russian don't expect them to crack a smile! On the plus side, once tourist places know you can't speak Russian they generally can't be bothered asking you for student IDs. Student ticket success rate currently 7  out of 8.

Kicking it with the locals on the Moscow Metro

Russians love striking alluring poses for photos, think Russian bride ads. We have tried, but I think our posing still needs some work.

Strike a pose, there's nothing to it, vogue...

Tom striking his best Asian tourist bus pose

One of the best spots we have been so far is Gorky Park, which is a big park with open air cinemas, lakes, gardens and restaurants. There are free giant beanbags and sun lounges, so we hairy eyeballed a family off a beanbag then claimed one for an hour of sunbaking and eating icecream.

Sun and ice cream in Gorky Park

We have allocated roles for the rest of the trip. Tom is in charge of PR, security, navigation and technology, while I am in charge of cuisine, photography, bookings, immigration and general admin (and also being a drip, according to Tom). Working well so far!