White Nights

Hello everyone,

Right Moscow, Russia - the seat of the Russian empire... So, how was it?

Well, if you've read my Diary, then you'll know that I arrived in an emotional state leading to my sub-concious intention to walk in the wrong direction. Thus requiring the aid of a kindly (surprisingly sober) Russian guy who helped me find my way and then flag down a taxi at 5am. All without speaking one word of an intelligable language!

24 hour reception at the hostel turned out to be from 8am to midnight, but handily they left mattresses in the hall, so I laid one of these out and went back to sleep. Maybe that's what they mean by 24 hour reception??!

Walking around Moscow, my first impressions were heavy-hearted. It's another big city, so why am I here? Then I discovered the middle of Moscow (the places where everyone else normally goes first) and it was like walking into a fairy tale! With beautiful churches, and lots of brightly coloured, jigsaw style domes or golden shiny bulbous ones, big red castle walls (the Kremlin) and lots of cool looking buildings. Rock on!

I visited the Kremlin which was well worth the one hour queue (russians are into queueing) and giving the army guards the evil eye. Carefully of course - didn't want to get chucked out! Actually, worth noting here that there are an INCREDIBLE number of military/police/secret police (their number plates are 999) in Russia. They are everywhere! I met a few backpackers who had problems with them wanting bribes for stupid reasons but I never had an encounter. Lucky for them... hee hee.

The hi-light of Moscow was going to the Bolshoi Theatre to watch the ballet, Don Quixote. In my top 3 of things to do in Russia list (the other things being trans-sib and eating caviar). The theatre is truely outstanding and the ballet performance good albeit not impressive. Unfortunately it was not their principle company. I found it amusing that Russian ballerinas expect you to clap after every major dance, not just at the end of Acts like other performers. Prima donnas! Tuh!

Architecturally, Moscow is impressive and I spent a great deal of time just observing buildings. Good think too really as its majorily expensive!

The hostel was OK, but it was great to finally be able to talk to English to people again, so I did a lot of that : )

3 days, 2nights there and then it was overnight train to St. Petersberg. The cabin was a little pricey but thought it was worth it to get a good nights sleep. BIG mistake! A large, very drunk Russian turns up just after departure and after making a fool of himself infront of the other 2 passengers, he passes out on his top bunk, opposite me. Volcanos would make less noise than the sounds emerging from his person. Needless to say I had little sleep.

St. Petersberg is stunningly attractive. You walk along the streets and oh, it's another palace, another waterfall, another statue, another canal, another park, another bridge, another church, another big beautiful building.... until you just can't take it anymore!

On my first evening I went on the Doestovesky Murder Pub Crawl in honour of my finishing Crime & Punishment (very proud! turned out to be very interesting book, guess thats why its a classic). The book is set in St. Petersberg and whilst its not fact, the author describes real buildings, flats etc. So a Russian, called Peter, decided to turn the murder route (the crime part of the book) into a pub crawl. What a great idea!

On the crawl, there was a russian/dutch couple who had met throught the internet - this was their second date.., a cool american girl called Lumina and 3 beautiful US army officers. They were just so pretty... Anyway, I digress. Quite wierd though cause they served in Iraq and had stayed in Sadaams palace. As I totally disagree with them being there, we never really talked about it. Anyway, Lumina and I ended up going with them to a party at the US consulate after the crawl and then to a trendy club in town. The club was full of "beautiful" people so I clearly didnґt fit in, but Lumina and the guys were such good fun that we partied till 6am.

The next day I dragged Lumina out of bed and we had a Russian day. This involved going for a late breakfast of blinis (amazing stuffed pancakes) and then visiting a Russian friend of a friend who doesn't speak any english and has an oil painting of himself in his bedroom! Eccentric but cool.

That evening the US army guys and I went out again for white nights. Everywhere in Russia, Eastern/NOrthern Europe it doesnt get darker than twilight and that happens at about 4am. In St. Petersberg they open all the bridges on the canal so the barges can pass through. Supposed to be quite a sight so we thought we'd check it out. This, unsurprisingly, involved more pubs, the trendy club and a wicked club on the river. It was a "pirates of the caribean" ship with hip hop on the deck and salsa down below. I loved it!

Didnt get to bed till about 6am... again. At 11am I dragged myself out to visit the Hermitage. Never been to a big art gallery before. It was pretty cool, amazing palace interiors and lots of paintings incl. Rembrandts, Picassos, Rahpael, a sculpture by Michealangelo, Matisse, Gaugian, Goph etc. Paintings are not by thing, but it was surreal to walk around and think I recognise that name and that name. The only art to have any effect on me was 2 Monets which made me well up for some reason and the 2 Da Vinci paintings which also made me feel very choked. YOu're supposed to take 2 to 3 days to see it properly. I did it in 3 and a half hours! About as long as I can hack it in a museum.

Oh yeah, I also did a tour around another palace which was pretty but didn't blow me away. I think when it comes to expensive or famous or beautiful objects, art, faberge eggs etc., either I like them and I want own them or I don't care. Whats the point in looking at other peoples stuff?

So Russia was pretty sweet and then it was an overnight coach to Estonia, but I'll save that one for another email.

Currently in Riga, Latvia.

Hope all is well with you all,
Kx