Through Siberia and into Europe

Some stop...somewhere in the middle of Siberia.

Loco!

A little look at Siberia, through the train window.

One of our much loved, typical train dinners.

Onion factories in Moscow!

Warm up lunch during Moscow sightseeing day.

Long view over the Moscow river towards the Kremlin.

Icy walkway up to the Kremlin.

A gigantic cannon....

Just protectin' The Kremlin.

Look down one of St. Petersberg's canals.

Winter Palace.

One of the random hallways in the Hermitage.

A throne room fit for Glob.

A ninja turtle made this!

St. Petersberg swimming pool.

Down a street in Praha.

Outside of Prague's version of the Gastown Steam Clock, stupid tourists.

Dumplings!

Ethan!

Prague at night.

Dev and I finally managed to escape the clutches of Irkutsk the following day and by 5pm were on our way West through Siberia, past the Ural mountains and into a little town called Moscow. The 77 hour train ride was probably the most enjoyable travelling I've done the entire trip and the 3 days seemed to whiz by as quickly as the terrain outside.

Neither Devon or myself ever discovered if there actually was a dining car attached to our train, and for the most part, our days revolved around eating. Whenever our food stores began shrinking, we would decipher the Cyrillic timetables in order to find a lengthy stop, then dash out of the train to the nearest supermarket, buy more sausage, cheese, pickles and bread, all the while hoping that I had translated the name of the town correctly and that our train would still be there when we returned. Given that and simply how much time we had on there, I'm proud to announce I can read the Russian language, albeit I usually have no idea what the words meant, but it did come in handy for town names etc.

During the day we would rotate between reading, playing our nintendos, staring out the window at the snowy landscape or playing/fighting the little Russian kid who broke into our cabin every 20 minutes to say hello. Unlike our two previous trains, the carriage we were on was rather quiet and peaceful, most of it being made up of a group of families, which was a nice change from the stumbling drunks who want to talk to you at 3am. Our providnista (carriage attendant) quickly realized we didn't speak Russian and was actually quite nice and helpful to us, even entrusting us with her sacred door lock device during a long stop in Novgorod.

We pulled into Moscow at 6pm on the 7th and found our way into the depths of earth to have a try at the notoriously complex Moscow Metro system. With my new found knowledge of their alphabet, we were able to eventually make our way into the center of town and to our awaiting beds at Napolean Hostel. Within minutes of arriving, we had become intertwined with some other travellers and were out the door for a strange night of food, bowling and clubbing. Upon leaving the last establishment, we stumbled out into the -27 degree night and made our way home through the bizarre private taxi system the city runs (basically any normal citizen will simply pick you up for the right amount of money). Although cold for us, I'm sure it was much chillier for the fellow who we saw get beaten down then thrown out into the snow wearing only a pair of jeans and his own blood.

The Russians in general are a bit of a somber people, especially around tourists. They rarely smile or joke with you (aside from the ones who work directly for tourists) except when they have been diving down their Vodka bottles, which they do constantly and without abandon. The Russian women are absolutely stunning, while the Russian men seem like a bunch of degenerative, fighting, militaristic drunks, making for some strange combinations when you see them walking together down the street or in the bars. The corruption in the city is horribly visible in the black Mercedes, Audis and BMWs that drive around with blue sirens on, which basically means they've bought a "license" from the government that makes them invulnerable to traffic violations (meaning they can and do drive over sidewalks, through red lights and basically speed everywhere).

We enlisted the help of a Russian speaking Swiss hero, Markus, who had incredibly walked from Swizterland to Ukraine before finally getting cold and bought a train to Moscow, and toured through the city. Red Square was sadly a little underwhelming (was always much larger in my mind's eye) but the awesome Russian architecture, the Kremlin and the plethora of other Soviet style buildings were fantastic. We managed to get into Lenin's tomb while it was completely empty, aside from the stern looking guards who surround his body, and were able to spend a minute or so staring at the bizarre, waxy skin of Russia's holiest hero.

After two days of sightseeing around Russia, we grabbed a night train up to St. Petersberg which deposited us in the even colder city early the next morning. After quickly finding our hostel, we decided to take advantage of our only full day in the famous city and set out for a day of exploring. Following a 2km stroll down Nevsky street (which is apparently Russia's most famous street, unknown to us) we ended up at the Winter Palace/Hermitage. The Hermitage is one of the largest museums in the world and according to sources, holds the greatest value of items amongst all museums on the planet. The building looked deceivingly small at first, but once we were inside the two of us were literally lost for 3 hours as we stumbled through the endless maze of priceless paintings and sculptures. As with most museum experiences, we started quite pumped, analyzing each painting for a good 3-5 minutes, by near the end were simply speed walking through the corridors. We finished our tour of the city by walking over some of the famous canals, around a few of the massive fortresses and eventually back to our hostel, quite tuckered out.

The next day, after finishing some souvenir shopping, we jumped on a flight outta Russia and into the heart of Eastern Europe, Prague. After a joyous reunion with Tara, Ray, Michelle, Shin and Danielle, the 7 of us explored a bit of the city. Yesterday we did much of the same, with a visit to the Museum of Tortures, a stint on the bridge where Jon Voight fakes his own death in Mission Impossible, through the typical gothic buildings of what you would expect to find in a place like Prague and eventually went out for a huge, delicious meal (thanks pa!). Today is much of the same, perhaps with a little bowling thrown into the mix after dinner... Tomorrow morning we take a train and blast out of here towards Berlin!