Zagreb onwards

In Zagreb we couch-surfed with Maris and Fran who were a couple in their thirties. The guy Fran was this geeky computer nerd and they were both bog fans of doctor who, sci-fi etc!! Maris had made us made us a meal of mackerel, eggplant and stuffed tomatoes with Dalmatian red wine and water which was lovely. They have this lovely flat on the 6th floor and really made us feel at home. They invited us to come with them to a surfing party. It was fun, though absolutely everyone was Croatian, so they were all talking to each other. But we chatter to Maris for ages, who was lovely. Fran got very drunk, and ended up being sick, it was very funny! We got to see Zagreb by night which was nice, though we were both pretty knackered. Next day it was Tom’s birthday, though we had a bit of a rubbish morning. Zagreb was HOT! We walked around the old town, nice, but didn’t really rate that high on our lovely scale!! It took us ages to find somewhere to eat because everywhere was so expencive and everywhere just seemed to serve coffee and cakes!
In the afternoon we got the train to Lipovljani. I was very nervous, I just didn’t know what they would be like, didn’t know if someone would pick us up! I felt like how I felt before meeting the babushka in Russia. Anyway, half way through the journey, the conductress comes in with a tray of hot, sweet coffee, 2 ice creams, a bottle of whipped cream, and a bottle of ice tea, saying that it is a present from ‘your cousin’! We were both in shock. We had no idea how a. She knew that it was for us, b. How the family had got it on the train! We were both very freaked out! So after enjoying our ice cream, we arrived in Lipovljani and were met by Stefka and Tanja. Tanja was pretty much our translator for the whole time we were there. She speaks very good English. I spoke a bit of Russian and we got by fine! After being picked up at the station, we went to Auntie Natalka, Bapcha’s sister’s house where we were immediately bombarded with food. We had made the error of eating a pizza in Zagreb, as it had been late and we need to have something and all the supermarkets were closed! So neither of us was hungry! We then went to Stefka’s house. It is a lovely house with huge fields all around and a big family sized patio. Ivana, the eldest of Stefka’s daughters lives with her husband Mario and their two adorably cute kids Ema (6) and Petr (3) live in a house built behind Stefka’s. It was really nice that all the family live so close and they all just pop round all the time and sit and have a chat or have dinner. We were given tea and coffee with yet more cake! After sitting chatting, a bit awkwardly at times, me, tom, Michaela, Tanja, Ivana and her kids went to their local lake. We had a nice time throwing stones, chatting, and laughing at the two kids. Tom and Ema bonded over races and throwing big stones! We went back to the house, had some beer, and met Mario, Ivana’s husband. He speaks pretty good English, and he and Tom had some manly chats and Mario tried to persuade him to go to the pub with him! We started dinner with a shot of Rakija followed by noodle soup, then big chunks of veal with potato wedges, and salad. Yum. Then sat and chatted more. Tom and Mario got onto a debate about economics and the infrastructures of the economy in Croatia and the UK! Tom likes to argue, so I had to hit him under the table! The dinner was delicious and everyone was chatting, so I think everyone was having a good time. Next morning, got up to the hugest pile of pancakes I think I have ever seen. Not only pancakes though, but ham, cheese, salami, cucumbers, cheesy/eggy filo pastry things... so much food, again! So we ate as much as a normal person would and still they were insisting that we eat more, even after we had explained that we couldn’t eat any more. THEN, Stefka, obviously assuming that we hadn’t already eaten enough started to make us a packed lunch. Now this was some packed lunch. We left with three tupperware tubs jam-packed with food: pancakes filled with plum jam and nuts, little nutty layered chocolate cakes, about 20 of the eggy filo pastry things, and finally one with 5 pork schnitzels! Oh and also, if that wasn’t enough, 2 huge sandwiches, 2 cartons of juice and 3 packets of sweets!
Pretty much the whole evening before, the adults had been talking about where Tom and I were going next and trying to figure out amongst themselves how we were going to get there! We planned to go to Banja Luka and from there to some waterfalls I had read about. This seemed to cause a lot of stress on them all! In the end, Franjo (Husband of one of Olga’s daughter) very kindly volunteered to drive us into Bosnia to one of the border towns, where there was a bus station. So, at about mid-day he came to pick us up and brought with him as a present to Tom and I a battered copy of a Croatian to English phrase book, so we could learn Croatian on the bus for something to do!! So sweet! So we got on the next bus to Banja Luka which was a pretty hot, sticky experience! Sorry to say it, I know that Bapcha’s roots lie in Banja Luka, but it is a dump! Not very nice at all! But, driving out of the town of Banja Luka was beautiful! Huge big rocky ravines with a fast paced river beneath; apparently some of the best rafting takes place in Banja Luka. This was confirmed by the sign I saw for the “World Rafting Competition. Start”. So, this was now a bus from Banja Luka to Jajce, the town with the waterfalls. It was another stunning journey, the scenery was just fantastic. Lots of big mountains with pretty houses and for the most part of the journey we were perilously driving on skinny mountain roads with the river beneath us and huge mountains on either side of us. We got to Jajce at about 5 and had decided to go to the tourist information centre, as I had read that they could sort out homestays. So we were on our way us a hill, with bags in tow, when a nice looking guy said Hello, do you need a room? We both turned round in a comedy, ‘how did you know’ way and said well yes, in fact we do! He offered us a room for 10 euros a night, which was cheaper than the guide book said, and seemed a much better option that trekking into town in the rain! So he gave us a lift to his house, which was in a perfect location and showed us our little room in the house that he lived in with his mother and grandmother. It was lovely! All of the attractions in Jajce have keyholders from whom you have to get a key to see the sights. It turned out that this family were the keyholders for the catacombs, so we felt like they must be trustworthy people! So we wandered around the town, saw the catacombs, the castle and the old town (in about 3 hours, it’s very small!) We then went back to our little room where we had some of Stefka’s packed lunch for dinner. The next day, after a breakfast of Stefka’s packed lunch, we went to the waterfalls, which were pretty impressive, though pretty small I thought! The town was really nice and the surrounding countryside with its run-down buildings and sad looking houses was also beautiful. There were lots of houses that people had just abandoned, I assume that they had either been forced out or people had just fled to somewhere safer during the war and had never returned out of choice or not. We spent the rest of the day wandering, having a coffee here and a fanta there, and waiting for our bus to Sarajevo. The journey to Sarajevo was really interesting, it has the beautiful green mountainous terrain as the bus from Banja Luka, but also we passed through lots of towns which had obviously been hit really badly in the war. One town, Travnik, I saw an apartment block which has written ‘guerrilla 1989’ on it and it had huge holes where shells had hit it and was pockmarked with bullet holes. I was really fascinated by all these houses with bullet holes and would look at all the houses to see if they had any marks on them. But the more houses I saw, the more it made me think that those holes weren’t just marks, they were holes made by people shooting at houses where normal people lived.
So, got to Sarajevo and had booked a room in this guys house, so he picked us up from the station and took us to the house. We then headed straight out for dinner in the old part of town. Sarajevo is great, the old town is like a Middle Eastern bazaar, with cobbled streets, lots of little alleyways, short little stalls crammed with copper coffee pots, rugs and jewellery and mosques galore! Just a little side note for you Mum, the Muslim women here look a lot like their glamorous Arab equivalents, with heavy make-up, designer bags and lots of shiny jewellery in comparison to British Muslims. On our first proper day, we went to the national history museum, which was not as informative as we had hoped, though it did have a very good, though very sad exhibition about the war. When we left the museum, I just couldn’t help but look at all of the people on the tram and think, you had to live through that, you had to make a dash across the street with a group of people to avoid being picked off by a sniper. I just can’t even begin to comprehend how life must have been, how everyday must have just been terrifying and how just trying to do the most basic thing, like crossing the road, or lining up to buy bread would mean risking your life. We then went to a museum called the tunnel museum which was right out by the airport. For most of the war, Sarajevo was surrounded by Serb forces, there was a part called Butmir which was the last Bosnia-held part of the city which linked to the outside world. Between Butmir and Sarajevo was the airport runway. Despite being neutral and under UN control, to cross it would have been suicidal. A hand dug 800m tunnel was built under the runway in order to get supplies in and was able to keep Sarajevo supplied with food and arms during the three year war. The tunnel was build under someone’s house which again was full of bullet holes as were the houses around it. Despite being closed when we got there, the guy heard us an opened it up for us for 5 mins. Most of the tunnel has now collapsed, though you can still go through a bit of it. It was incredible to see, and incredible to believe that only 15 years ago people had to resort to this to survive, not just some abstract war that took place decades ago.
So, tomorrow we are going back to Croatia to Split. So sunbathing, island hoping and red wine next!!

From Ljubljana to Zagreb

In true traveller style, I am writing this on board a train from Ljubljana to Zagreb with absolutely stunning scenery outside!!
So, to carry on from Budapest... We spent four nights with our couch-surfer in Budapest. He was a really lovely guy, called Gy! He just gave us his flat and he stayed with his girlfriend, when he was there he recommended to us some good restaurants and then when we left he gave us a lift to the station! So yeah, he was really nice. We decided to stay an extra night because we had planned to get a night train to Ljubljana, but in the end, it turned out cheaper to get one in the day. Also we had a disastrous day trying to find an out of town market and then trying to buy bus/train tickets, so that day was kind of wasted. But all the other days in Budapest were fantastic, after I wrote that last entry, the weather became gloriously hot and sunny. We went to one of the oldest and most famous thermal baths and spent the majority of the morning there. They were glorious, we were truly pruney by the time we were finished. Though, I was slightly less impressed with the saunas they had. After Russia, they were just no way near hot enough for me!! But they had one fantastic room which was a steam room, but there must have been mint in the steam or something, so it left you feeling all fresh, it was lovely! We then watched the England Germany match and Tom got very upset! As we were heading back into town we stumbled upon a free classical concert in Independence Square. Everyone was sat on these hard folded cardboard stools, so we grabbed ourselves a couple of stools and sat down with everyone else. It was a Schubert concert, it was quite good, but I think that there is other classical music which I prefer. That evening we went up to Castle Hill to see, surprisingly enough, the castle! It was lovely because we got there at dusk, so the light was just lovely and then by the time we left they had put all the lights on illuminating the castle, so it was magical! The next evening, we had our first goulash experience! It was absolutely delicious and huge as well. We shared one gigantic portion between the two of us, very tasty. It came with huge chunks of bread and extra paprika paste and dried chillies to add in. The next day we went to the central market, where there were more peppers and paprika! We had our breakfast there and bought an obscene amount of cherries which lasted us throughout the day! We then wandered about the town looking for a new pair of shoes for Tom, as his big toe and little toe were protruding out of his trainer from separate holes! (I think he was convinced to get some new shoes when a woman looked at his shoe and pointed in disgust to her son!!) We then went back up to Castle Hill and after a packed lunch (with additional cherries) Tom went to a Futurist exhibition in one of the museums and I sat lazily in the sun. Following Gy’s recommendation, we went to a lovely restaurant, and although I didn’t get what I ordered, it was very good! We went on to a few bars after that, so a lovely evening! The next day was our last day, so we quickly went to the awfully named ‘Terror Museum’. Despite the awful name, it was actually a very good museum. It was based in the building formerly occupied by the Hungarian Nazi Party, where they held and tortured prisoners. It was a very good museum, very well laid out and with a really great modern presentation. Then after stocking up for the train, we got a lift from Gy to the station.
The train journey was STUNNING! I think that it was the best train journey I have ever been on! Those eight hours just whizzed by. The scenery was just so pretty in Hungary with all the little villages and babbling brooks and then when we got into Slovenia, these huge mountains and vast fields of green started appearing. I think it’s nice to get trains in the day so you can just look out the window and feast your eyes on the beautiful landscape. We got to Ljubljana at about 12 and had already booked with our hostel to get a free pick up from the station, which was great as we were both pretty tired. We couldn’t find a couch-surfer in Ljubljana as everyone seemed to be having exams, so couldn’t host us. But the hostel wasn’t much and was only for one night. The next day, despite an awful, hot night sleep, we got an early bus up to Lake Bled. Again, the journey was stunning, Slovenia is just such a lush country, and I love it!! Bled was fantastic, we dropped our stuff at the hostel and then spent a good few hours lying by the lake, tanning, swimming and generally having a lovely time. It was just so beautiful and the lake was the most amazing blue and so clear. We then climbed up to the castle, which was nice, but it was 6 Euros to get into the castle itself, so we didn’t bother and instead climbed round the back to get a better view of the lake and then climbed back down. We then rented a boat and rowed out into the island in the middle of the lake where there is a little church and more excitingly, it has this really tall tree which someone had nailed rungs to so that you could climb to the top and then jump off! So, I clambered up and then after a few nervous knee-shaking seconds, I threw myself off! It was great fun! That evening we went for to really lovely pizza place. Surprisingly enough, pizza is huge in Slovenia, I guess it is quite close to Italy. The next day I had planned on visiting the Vršič Pass, which I had read about and just thought sounded stunning. Though it seemed pretty difficult to reach from where we were and then get back to Ljubljana that night. Though, we were, well I was persistent, and we were planning on getting three busses to be able to do it! We got the first bus to a place called Kranjska Gora, which is a little ski resort place. We found a bus timetable and it all seemed to be feasible, but it did involve a lot of waiting around and uncertainty! But still we planned to go ahead with the plan. We wandered around in search of lunch, because annoyingly enough, we had left our packed lunch on the bus! When walking around, we found the river which was nestled in the valley of these two huge mountains; it was the most incredible ice blue and just stunning. So, we decided that this was pretty good and that we wouldn’t waste time with two more busses, but rather spend the afternoon there instead. We got back to Ljubljana in the evening, bought stuff for dinner and then headed out in the evening, walked around for a couple of hours in the old town with an ice cream, had a beer and then headed home.
And that was yesterday! So we have been busy little bees! We spent today walking around Ljubljana, went up to the castle, went to an outdoor food market and watched some more football with a beer. It is a nice little city, very small, but really pretty. Very very clean with lots of spotless stone everywhere and neat little bars running alongside the river. So now, we are on the train to Zagreb. Again, lovely Slovenian countryside that keeps distracting me from writing! So, yep, BIG fan of Slovenia! Ok, so next stop Zagreb, where we are couch-surfing with a couple for one night and then moving on to see relatives in Lipovljani tomorrow!
Photos to follow!! X x x x x

A journey best forgotten...

So, to carry on from last time; Kiev was lovely, absolutely scorching though! I had a lovely time wandering around and I visited all the churches, went to see The Defender of the Motherland museum and the big statue of ‘tin tits’ as she is known. I also went to some caves which are a pilgrimage site where there are loads of monks buried. It was pretty creepy, as the monks are just in glass coffins with a blanket over their bodies, and loads of women and men were rushing from side to side kissing all the coffins! But I have decided that I am going to go back to Kiev before my exams next year, so I can brush up on some Russian. It is such a lovely city; it had bits of Moscow, an almost Parisian feel to it and had a really friendly vibe. So Kiev I liked a lot! Anyway, so managed to get to Lviv no problem and Tom and I met at the Lviv national opera house, all very romantic!! We upgraded our accommodation and managed to get our own apartment for 35 Euros a night, so not bad! Unfortunately the warm weather didn’t follow me to Lviv, which was pretty cold to be honest! But Lviv was also lovely. The old town was gorgeous, cobbled streets, lovely buildings, outdoor cafes all over the place, markets galore and again just a lovely little place. Our first night we wandered about in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to the train station to buy our train tickets for Budapest. A simple enough task you would have thought... oh no! We were there for probably about 2 hours. We kept waiting in queues only to find that when we got to the front it was the wrong queue. We went to the opera house and then ended up buying tickets to see the opera for that evening. Well well, Ukrainian opera leaves a lot to be desired! It was pretty panto-esque, but it was fun! I enjoyed it, Tom thought it was crap though. We had a great dinner in this underground brewery of sausages and heaps of cabbage.

The following day was spent sat in a park planning our future plans, strolling around a market, drinking cherry vodka (only the one with lunch!!) and then sitting in a big square watching the football. As we couldn’t leave Ukraine without eating vareniki, we went to a restaurant which specialised in these culinary treats! They were nice, but I still rate Bapcha’s as superior.

So, then it was time for our overnight train to Budapest. For what I am about to write, please don’t think badly of me and Tom. We had no choice!! So there were 3 of us in the cabin, tom myself and Misha, a middle aged Ukrainian man. As the train departed, Misha was talking to me a bit, but then went off for a bit. When he returned, he had a friend with him, a younger guy about our age and with them they produced out of a hold all a 1.5 litre bottle of what he claimed to be 99% proof home made vodka. He asked us if we wanted a bit, and we couldn’t really refuse without being rude, so we had one drink. It was like drinking meths, pretty rough stuff. So we were chatting away and I was translating for tom. They kept saying to him that after three drinks, they would be able to understand each other. So we had one more drink and then said no more. But of course they wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I think we had about 4 shots. The rest of the evening I don’t really remember, but lets just say there was a lot of vomit. Oh and tom ended up wrestling the younger guy, Misha kept saying to me that he felt like I was his daughter and well it was a pretty accurate Slavic train journey experience!! So, we got to Budapest feeling pretty rough and got a taxi straight to our couch-surfers house. His girlfriend let us in and we crashed for a couple of hours. The flat is lovely, really high ceilings and a balcony and a lovely kitchen. It is also really close to the centre which is great. He popped round last night and said that he was basically leaving us the flat for the next three nights. So, we have just got this great flat to ourselves, which is amazing!! Budapest is . glorious. Everywhere you look there is something lovely to see. A beautiful building, cobbled old street, river... Absolutely lovely, we are both big fans. So far, it is our favourite place, despite the awful start. The weather at the moment is pretty crap, but were being positive!! x

The begining of my (and soon to be Tom's also) travels

So my journey Kiev, one that should have been so simple, was anything but! So, got on my train, all was swell, made friends with my neighbours, had my dinner, read my book, etc... and then at about 8 in the morning, when the train guy came handing out migration forms for Ukraine, he was asked everyone where they were from. I answered "from England." He gave me a pretty unfriendly look and then asked me whether I had a belorussian transit visa. Dumbfounded, i answered, no! What an idiot, I hadn't checked to see if the train went through Belarus. And we need a visa for Belarus. So he then told me to get all my stuff together and that i had to get off the train! It was awful, it even started moving and i had to run off!! I had a heavy rucsac and a big laudry bag full of stuff, so not what you would call lightweight, easy to handle luggage!! So yeah, then I was at some station and went up to the desk to ask how to get top kiev without a belorussian visa. The lady looked at me with shock and just said "i have no idea!" She then took me downstairs to the administrator lady to whom i explained my palava to! She then told me that i would have to go back to Petersburg. I asked about getting a visa somewhere and she said it was Sunday and wouldn't be open till Monday. I asked if there was anyway of getting to Kiev without a visa, she said no! Only then did I ask where i was, "Am i still in Russia?" "No, you are in Belarus". Oh my! So i was illegally in Belarus with pretty limited options! I then had a little think about what to do. I went back to her with my map and she showed me where we were, I had gone pretty much the whole length of Belarus!! Anyway, she then told me that if i got out of Belarus, i could get a train from a place called Bryansk to Kiev. So i went back to the first lady and she told me that if i hurried, i could catch a bus. So, me with all those bags, trying to hurry to the bus station, not the most appealing idea, though had to be done. That walk very nearly killed me, my poor muscles have never felt so much pain! So made it onto the bus. My next obstacle was crossing the border. I was really nervous that the militia would tell me off/arrest me for not having a belorussian visa!! Anyway, didn't even have to show my passport at the border, so all was swell. 6 and a half hours later, i arrived in Bryansk where i bought a ticket to Kiev and then another 6 hours later, i arrived in Kiev!! But I wasn't the only person to be chucked of a train that day... on the second train to Kiev, i was sat with an Armenian family, and they were all really nervous when they were filling in their migration forms. The Ukrainien soldiars came on and I didn't really understand all of what he said, but basically their address wasn't valid, so they had to get off. There was no fight or argument at all, they just got their stuff together and got off the train. It was as though they knew that they weren't going to be aloud into Ukraine. Anyway, I was so happy when we crossed the border, and many of the people on the train had Ukranien accents and I just felt great! I also felt like i had acheived a grat deal to be honest! I didn't break down into tears, i calmy sorted it all out (in russian no less!) and managed to get to Kiev on the day I was planning to in the first place. I got to see a bit of Belarus and some beautifull Russian countryside on the bus! At one of the bus stops, there was a guy whose engine was on fire... everyone was shouting and running about, i was pretty worried, it was really close and if it had blown up, it would not have been good! So yeah, I was hoping to write on the blog, "train was pretty uneventfull".... oh no!! First impressios of Kiev though... absolutely lovely!! It has some traits of Moscow that I love (like the metro) and some bits are very Parisien (i found a lovely little Montmartre esk area today and it just has this happy, much friendlier vibe to it than Russia. So basically, I like it a lot! Will report back soon!! x x x

catch up

Photo's (from the top)
Me (blonde!) dressed as Ukraine for Eurovision
Me and Chris at city day
Rain on city day
next 3 Our bbq
Chilling on our friend's roof
Dinner party for a friend's birthday
Church of Spilled Blood
Pigeons.


So, yes, I have been a bit of a failure with my blog this time, but in Petersburg, I feel like I am just living rather than experiencing new things all the time! So it feels like I have nothing to report! Saying that, I think this may be a long one as I am reporting on the whole of last month!
So at the beginning of May, I went back to London for ten days. Despite being stuck in Munich for a night, I got to London and it was lovely! I got of the tube and the trees were green!! It felt like spring was in the air and I felt like skipping up and down the pavement! I managed to restrain myself though. Tom didn’t actually know the exact dates that I was coming, as I had kept it as a surprise, though at the last minute, I sent him a text which was meant for Mum which said that I was leaving Petersburg! So I spoiled the surprise, but still it didn’t matter! So we had a lovely ten days, Tom still had exams, so I kept myself busy in the day doing a bit of work, seeing friends, going for bike rides, etc. We went to see Les Miserable’s as I had found some cheap(ish) tickets, so we went as an early birthday present for Tom. It was good, a bit cheesy, but Tom enjoyed it and had wanted to go for a long time. Mum and Dad came down for the day, as they had not been able to fly out to Petersburg because of the volcano. It was great to see them, we went on a canal trip, as that was one of the things I had planned to do with them in Pete. Tom then joined us and we had a look around a few photography exhibitions and then went for a superb curry! Then soon as I knew it, it was time to return to mother Russia. I had had such a nice time being back with Tom and being back in London, that it was pretty crap to have to go back! To add insult to injury, when I got to Petersburg, it became clear that my bag had been lost! After filling in a million forms, I was told that I would have to come back the next day to pick it up. Despite my worry and lack of trust in the Russian systems of doing anything, my bag did actually turn up!
But my return was softened by the fact that the weather had seriously improved while I was away. It had become lovely and warm seemed to be getting hotter and hotter! My friend went away for a week to Riga and Estonia and asked me if I wanted to borrow her bike! I was so happy she had asked me! So I spent that week riding about on her bike and finding various new parts to the city which was exciting. It was lovely and sunny and I could just ride about in shorts and a t-shirt and I felt so summery. So that was a brilliant week! My friend Chris invited me to go to an event called Night of the Museums, as one of his students had given him two tickets. The idea is that the majority of the museums in Petersburg stay open from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning. Despite our big plans to stay up and visit loads of museums, we only managed to do one! It was such a lovely evening though, and there were so many people out and about, that we just walked around for hours with a few beers. So it was fun, despite pretty much failing on the museum front!
I decided to be more proactive and do more things in the city, so the last few weeks we have all been doing a lot more things! One of my friends had a spare ticket to the opera, so I took up the offer and went with them to see Aida. It was four hours and 5 mins, but nevertheless, it was good. I actually felt quite tense and really got into it! Another evening, I had booked tickets for eight of us girlies to see Cinderella in ballet form. Everyone really enjoyed it and it was a great girly night. A fortnight ago, I got an e-mail from a friend from Moscow saying that she was going to be in Petersburg that weekend. So I rang her when she got here and invited her round to ours for cocktails. She came round and it was really nice to see her again. We had a few cocktails and then went on to a bar and in the end she ended up staying the night because in summer, the bridges go up and stay up from 1am to 6am, and she was staying with a friend on one of the islands. So she was pretty stranded!
Upon scouring the internet for ballet tickets, I stumbled upon and advert for a garage sale that was happening at the weekend. So we went along, and it was really good, I got myself a dress fro 100 roubles, which is about £2! A bargain indeed. That day, a big group of us went up to one of the islands equipped with a barbeque and lots of meat! So we set up camp and got the barbi going, only to be interrupted 5 mins later by a patrol guard who told us that bbq’s were forbidden and that we had to put it out! Spirits not dampened, we decided to find a more hidden spot and have it there. After about 20 mins of indecisiveness, we found the perfect spot and had a lovely uninterrupted afternoon. A few people even went swimming in the Neva!
Last week my friend from home was here and he managed to bring terrible cold wet weather with him. Up until he came the temperature was hovering at about 26-30 degrees and it was lovely, but this last week has just been awful! Nevertheless, we had a fun week together, not so much doing touristy stuff, but just chilling out together watching films, eating, going out etc. At the weekend though, we took to the city as it was St Petersburg’s birthday. So we walked amongst the throngs of other city dwellers and saw the various festivities on offer. We also went on a boat tour of the canals which run through the city. That was nice, bit nippy though. On Saturday it was Eurovision, so a couple of my friends had a party. We all had to dress up as a country, so of course I went as Ukraine. I dyed my hair blonde the weekend before, and wore a yellow dress with yellow and blue ribbons in my hair. So I looked both Ukrainian and Swedish! Chris went as Russia, he wore this hideous black fake ‘Giorgio Armani’ polyester t-shirt that we had spent hours trying to find in the market, tucked into black jeans with one of my gold necklaces! So he looked a treat!
And that is pretty much it! I have been keeping myself busy planning mine and Tom’s summer trip! It is all very exciting and I can’t wait to actually get on with it!! Ok so, will try to be better at keeping you informed!
Lots of love, miss you all x x x x xx

A Riga special edition...

So last Tuesday night, equipped with a packed dinner of kasha (Russian dinner-time porridge/gruel??) and some tvorog (translated as curd cheese, but it isn’t, it’s sweet??) juice and a pillow I headed off to Riga on the bus. It was to take 13 hours, and it did indeed take that long, but because of the pillow, I was absolutely fine. The policeman at the Russian border tried to give me hassle, but I talked my way out of it and flashed him a smile! So woke up in Riga the next morning and couldn’t contain my excitement to be out of Russia and into this lovely looking Germanic place with charming cobbled streets and dappled sunlight!

When I got the hostel in the morning, the dorm wasn’t ready yet, so I helped myself to a cup of tea, dropped off my bags and went for a wander. It is just a lovely city, it isn’t big at all, but it is just lovely to walk around and get lost in all the small meandering streets. I had seen in the hostel that Swan Lake was on that evening at the National Opera House, so I checked how much tickets would be, and to my surprise they were only about £4! So I bought myself a ticket for that evening! I was glad to get back to back to the hostel though, Riga was a lot chillier than St Pete and I wasn’t dressed for it! After showering and putting warmer clothes on, I went for lunch in a cafeteria style place and had pretty much a plate full of boiled potatoes and some lovely meaty sauce, I wasn’t complaining, it was cheap and filled me right up! I then went to the central market, which is apparently a must see for any tourist in Riga. (I found this out from my Russian guidebook, which was a bit rubbish, but invaluable in the end as it had a map, I got myself lost all the time!) So, back to the market, I was shocked to find that everyone there was speaking Russian. I just assumed that everyone would be talking Latvian. I will come back to this though. So I then bought my return bus ticket, which was apparently going to be a ‘lux’ version of what I had came on, but in fact was pretty much the same, maybe a bit less lux if anything! But anyway, it was a steal at only about £18, so again, I wasn’t complaining! I then walked through a lovely park to the other side of the city to visit the State Art Museum. I got there a bit too late though, so was told that as it was only open for another 20 mins, it would probably be a better idea to come back the next day. So I left and then went across another park (Riga is big on parks!) and went into a Russian orthodox church, which to be honest was hideous! It had neon lights especially for Easter, and they were especially tacky! After basking in the sun for a wee bit, I went in search of some food and found this amazing pelmeni (small dumplings, quite like ravioli) shop, which was incredibly cheap and you could get all different sorts of pelmeni. Mmm, so good! Then after downing a red bull, as I was pretty knackered, I went to the ballet. It wasn’t a stitch on the Swan Lake I saw in Moscow, but still it was pretty good, and I still got that giddy excited feeling when all the music starts each time. There were just far too many intervals and each time a piece would finish, there would be a pause for applause and it just went on a bit too long.

On Thursday, I made the most of the free breakfast and even made myself a cheeky packed lunch too! It was a lovely crisp morning, and I knew the sun would come out later, so after a wander around town, I visited the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. It was a fantastic museum; I spent about two hours in there. It was all just so interesting, and even though I didn’t know anything about it before, it was still very good and informative. I sat in the sun and ate my packed lunch after the museum and then went up to the top of St Peters Cathedral. It was pretty cool; I only then managed to get my bearings properly though. I saw a nice looking square from the tower and decided to go and sit there with my book. So that is exactly what I did. There were lots of little cafe’s, so I went into one and bought the most delicious little berry muffin and a cup of tea and occupied one of the tables outside for about two hours. It was just so lovely to sit there basking in the sun with my book. I had been handed a flyer in the street about some Latvian fashion event that was happening, so I went back to the internet to check it out, but it was an evening event and didn’t really appeal. So instead, I went to both the film museum and the museum of photography (they were both very small museums!). The film museum though had an exhibition on Eisenstein, one of the great Russian directors, so that was good and then in the photography museum, as I was the only person there I kind of got a little tour which was nice. There were some fantastic photos on exhibition, mainly of Latvian fishermen. In the evening I met up with a Russian girl who is a friend of my new housemate. Anyway, so I met up with this girl and we indulged in some cocktails! I picked her brains about the Latvian Russian divide and she was telling me that the whole city is pretty much divided in two. She is Russian, but has lived her whole life in Latvia and she speaks Russian and has Russian friends and knows Latvian, but is very reluctant to speak it. So there is some hostility there, but they just seem to get on with it. Wherever I went, I would speak in Russian and never experienced anything hostile. When I asked at the station whether they spoke English, she said no, but Russian was fine. Anyway, Daniela and I had a lovely evening, we went for dinner after the cocktails in a very typical Latvian place, which was yummy, and then wandered around town. We went to one of the cinemas to see what was on and managed to stumble into a concert of an American Cajun/country and western band! It was pretty random, and there were even some women at the back line-dancing! Very odd, but fun! After some more bars and drinks, I went back to my hostel to bed.

The next day, I had a leisurely breakfast and snuck out some more packed lunch. I headed back to the State Art Museum, which had this bizarre exhibition of these truly awful paintings, but I had a good time chuckling to myself at how dreadful they were! The rest of the museum was also pretty poor, but there was one room with these great little etchings, which I liked a lot. After leaving there, I retraced mine and Daniela’s steps from the night before as I had seen a few shops that looked really nice. Did a bit of window shopping and then ended up in this lovely little tea shop which was a little wooden gazebo with the seating upstairs all on cushions, so you could lounge to your heart’s content! So I sat with my book and then had to go and get some food and retrieve my stuff from the hostel to get the bus. The bus back was pretty uneventful, I was just so shattered that I was asleep for pretty much the whole journey.

After a long lie in when I got home on Saturday morning, I let everyone know that I was still alive, as contact home in Riga was minimal! I got a bit of work done over the weekend and caught up on my schoolwork. On Tuesday, Claire (our new flatmate) Jess and I went to IKEA and had a good laugh sitting in all the showrooms after a beer and meatballs in the cafe! It was a lot of fun, I had forgotten how much fun girls are, and we were just silly all afternoon! Last night, I cleaned the entire flat and washed the floors, so now no crap sticks to our feet all the time!

But mamma and papa, despite the Volcano in bloody Iceland, are coming tomorrow. So I’m very excited!

Anyway, I will report back soon. Lots of love x x x x x

So, this is going to be a biggie!

So, this is going to be a biggie!
It has been a busy couple of weeks, one of Jess’s friends arrived in the middle of last week and then my friend George came last Friday, so I have truly exhausted myself being tour guide, but I’ve had a great week. Last Friday, we went to one of our friend’s gig. He is in a punk band and was playing in this dingy little bar. It was a lot of fun, not really my kind of music, but still it was good. Afterwards we went to an after-party (yeah, we are living the rock star lifestyle!) This after party was in another bar across town and there were these two Belorussian guys playing. One of then had an accordion and the other a ukulele and they were absolutely incredible. I even bought their cd after the gig! I left shortly after they finished, as I had to go and get George at 6:40 the next morning. So after a very wee sleep I picked up George and we had a nap for a few hours back at home. When we got up, I took her for a walk around town, but it wasn’t a great day and was incredibly foggy! That evening I invited my friend Chris over and made a big pasta bake for everyone and after a box of red wine, we turned out kitchen into a disco and danced until about 4 o’clock. Chris left at about 12 though, I think it had all got a little bit too girly for him!
The next day George and I had planned to go to the Russian museum, but because it was pouring down, I think everyone had the same idea as us. So instead of waiting in a que in the rain, we went to the museum of erotica (George’s idea, not mine!!). Anyway, it was an awful ‘museum’ very distastefully located in an STD clinic, so definitely not recommended! After that we went for lunch in one of my favourite bars and when we emerged a few hours later, we found that the rain had stopped and the sun was even out! We walked home via a lovely little church, where there was a service going on which was nice. The next day we actually succeeded in visiting the Russian museum which was really nice. As I walked in I realised that I had actually been before (during the week that I visited St Pete after Kazan). But I didn’t remember much of it, so it was still very good. We had a great time in the museum, mainly being a bit stupid, taking photos and getting told off by the museum attendants! Afterwards, we enjoyed the sun by walking around town and taking in the Church of Spilled Blood in all its gold, gaudy glory. We met Jess and Hannah in this lovely little cafe which specialises in the most delicious pies, so we all indulged a bit too much. We then went up to the top of St Isaacs to get a view of the whole city. That evening, we treated ourselves with some amaretto and then went to a bar round the corner where a few of our friends were.
On Tuesday, George and I went to the train station to buy tickets to go to Moscow. I still didn’t have my passport (Russian beurocracy, don’t ask!) so our original plan of going to Finland for a few days was no longer an option. So we decided to do a whistle stop tour of Moscow instead! So we bought our tickets for the overnight train on Wednesday evening. We then hopped on the metro and went to Petrograd, one of the many islands of Petersburg. W visited the Museum of Political science, which was a pretty odd little place, but it was located in the actual building used by the communists and where Pravda was written and printed. We walked over to another of the islands, Zayachy, to see the Peter and Paul fortress. After this, we walked off the Trotsky bridge, which in mine and George’s opinion is the coldest place in the city!! So what better way to warm up then with a pot of tea in a bar!
After feeling guilty about not going to school all week, I went in on Wednesday for grammer and left George at the Hermitage. We met up in the afternoon and I took her to have an Uzbek lunch, which was very tasty and then did a spot of shopping! We got home, made ourselves a packed dinner and then walked to the train station to get our train. So complete with dinner and a Gin and Tonic (in a can!) we got on the train to enjoy an 8 hour journey. It wasn’t too bad, we had gone for sitting places, as they are cheaper, so it was a lot more uncomfortable than the sleeper carriages, but we were saving money! Most annoyingly though was that a lady had brought her cat with her and the little thing squeaked and meowed throughout the whole journey. At first George and I though this was cute, though it did get very irritating! So we got to a very sleepy Moscow at about 6 and after buying our return tickets for that evening (sleeper carriage this time!), we headed straight to a 24 hour cafe to get tea. After rejuvenating, we headed off to see the sights. I took her to my two favourite metro stations and then got off in the centre of town, where I took her though some back streets to then suddenly come out and find yourself being smacked in the face by red square and St Basils in all its splendour. She was suitable impressed and I was just so happy to be back in Moscow that both of us were just grinning like Cheshire cats! It was amazing, because it was so early, we had the whole place to ourselves. We then walked up though Alexander Gardens and up to the Lenin Library and then up to the Church of Christ our Saviour where there was a very impressive Easter celebration going on. We then went to the Novodevichy Monastery and walked around the surrounding cemetery. By this point, it was only about 11 and we were both knackered! So by accident, we both fell asleep basking in the sun at a bus stop! We then got the metro to Arbat and had lunch, which was really unimpressive, but did the trick for energising us! We then walked back down to red square and did a bit of window shopping and then ended up in GUM where we managed to fall asleep for an hour! We tried to go into St Basils, and usually students get in for free, so I just showed the women my student card, but these horrible women on the door wouldn’t let me in and shoved me out of the door after telling me that they had no time for idiots! So that was a failure, and George and I were too cross to argue with them, so we wandered up to see Lubyanka. After that, feeling thoroughly exhausted, we went for dinner in another of my favourite hang outs and then went to the train station to get the train home. It was so much nicer to have an actual bed on the way back, George and I fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow!
The next day, we got home at about 6, went back to sleep for a bit and then went to buy George’s bus ticket to Helsinki. For Georges last night, we all went out to this great bar and danced the night away and then the next morning George and I went to the banya and got rid of all the impurities of the last 10 days. It was amazing, again we were told off by banya bitches for not having flip flops, but that is all part of the banya I think! We took lots of goodies with us and had a sugar scrub, moisturising creams and of course some birch twigs to whip ourselves with! We went to this amazing burger place after and majorly overate, but we were very happy and full and sleepy so went home to watch a film!
And that is the end of that. I took George to get her to get her bus this morning and then had a very sad bus journey back to my flat!
Lots of love to you all... x xx x