Saturday 11th June 2011
A lie on, but still shattered. Out for breakfast at same restaurant, pizza and coffee again... Back at Godzilla hostel checked out and thanked the American telling him it was the best hostel e’d ever stayed in. Though his toilet paper was like sand paper. Our taxi friend was waiting outside, we noticed the front of his car had had a head on collision, which wasn’t too comforting. Handed him a Guinness Key ring from The Corkman to add to his souvenirs, he wouldn’t stop kissing it. Took us for a very hazardous drive to the airport, swerving in and out of cars. Made it there in 45 minutes compared to the 3 hours to get in. He did take a different countryside route which made us wonder where the hell he was taking us. Thanked him “spaseeba?” and went to sit in the airport at 12.30pm until we could check in at 4pm and fly at 7pm.... then 4 hour flight to London, Heathrow.
Moscow had turned out an unexpectedly good stop. Random non the less, but a very friendly, very clean, very scenic City, had had no problems at all after all the bad stories we’d heard about corrupt police and locals being unfriendly towards UK, which we saw none of. Sat in airport and had an orange juice which cost $10!! About 6 pounds. Checked in early around 2.30pm. Had a good meal at TGI Fridays where everyone was dressed like a moron. Flight was painless, though despite fact booked flight 10 months ago we were put in different row of seats and both stuck in centre seat with person either side... Food was lousy, and small one struggled to wake an old man to let him past to the loo. Landed in London and past through customs and passport very easily. Took the Piccadilly tube on the underground to Piccadilly Circus. Tube had two old cockney men chatting about Bruce Forsyth getting knighted (“course he don’t do that much work does he, there’s 12 shows i know but they double em up don’t they, they shoot em back to back he just changes his suit, so its only 6 shows for him...”). Walked through a busy Piccadilly and through Soho to the YHA hostel where a camp skinny lad checked us in. Went to bed, suffering from a headache, too much
Friday 10th June 2011
Lie on till around 10-11am. Walk back to Chocolatta restaurant, same as last night, this time got the order correct. Small one had a Margarita pizza and a Cappuccino for breakfast. Headed into the CBD, saw the Bolshoy theatre, then Red Square with St Basil’s Cathedral. Turned out Lenin’s tomb could not be seen on Fridays or Mondays, plus was closed off for some bizarre huge stage rehearsal involving lots of children dancing with prams? Entered the Kremlin through a big security check, where Tall one had to empty all the junk out of pockets and still the alarm went off. No one seemed to speak very good English anywhere, but were still friendly. Walked down the river and stopped and went inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Down to Tolstoys house, over the bridge to Gorky park for a very bad beer and a very bad sparkling water. Had been a long days walking and was shattered. Back through a sculpture garden and through Red Square where we saw people crowded round a man in a suit and getting photos. Someone said it was Putin... former President. Small one asked for a photo he started asking for 1000 rubles, said no, so he dropped frantically to okay 700.... 500!!.... 300!!!. It was not Putin, it was a lookalike... we hoped? Brought some shot glasses with Stalin on the front and walked painfully back, covered with thick dandelion like seeds, which floated thickly through the entire City (including inside restaurants). Stopped for a bad Turkey dinner, but a nice beer before getting back exhausted to the hostel.
Thursday 9th June 2011
Up at 4.30am. Packed and waited downstairs for minibus to airport. Was taken by a fat Thai man to sit on a street corner and wait for half an hour, so didn’t even see a minibus till 6.30am, when we were due to leave at 6.00am. Sat and watched a lot of very ugly lady boys and some very drunk German and Canadians wondering about. One lad was embarrassingly trying to check into our hotel with some forceful Thai girl, when he was not sure if 600 Baht was a good price she just grabbed his money out his wallet and gave it to the clerk.
We were then packed tightly into a mini bus and got to the airport around 7.30am. Checked into Aeroflot surrounded by Russian woman with very straight cut fringes and big men with shaved heads. Some started speaking fluent Russian to us as we looked on confused.
Had been worried about the flight as the Russian airline Aeroflot has a bad rep as do the Russian people. But the plane was very comfortable, the seats a bit old, but comfortable. Had two meals, both were pretty good and the staff were all very friendly. The plane did make some weird siren like noises when taking off and the air con when turned on sounded like a bad hissing air leak.
Ten hours later landed, the passengers were so shocked to have arrived saftley they all burst into spontaneous applause while tall and small one sat there looking bewildered. Went surprisingly painlessly through immigration, waited for ages for our bags, and not till 5.30pm did we get through customs, an hour later than we had told our hostel for our taxi pickup. Our pickup was waiting for a sign for Godzilla Hostel, he said he;d been there since 4pm. Drew out some Russian rubles from an ATM and followed this strange man tot he car park.
Were expecting an official Godzilla Hostel mini bus, but it was literally just his shitty, banged up grey old car, filled with dust and rust. The man must have been in his forties, but acted like a small child. Very excited when Small one handed him his Aeroflot sticker, and then in his car spent 5 minutes showing us all the tourist tat he’d collected and stuck up, from Californian Condoms to London Oysters card with a picture of William and Kate on?? He drove us in his socks and sandles and his orange jacket, Australian baseball cap. The radio was turned up very very loud and he scanned constantly for new stations, which became very tedious. He sang along to Boney M and Annie Lennox which was a bit bizarre, and kept pointing out logos and car stickers and saying “look, look at that it’s funny”....”yes is see it”.... “no look at that it’s very funny, look!”. Unfortuantley after telling us it was an hours trip to Moscow City Centre from the airport the traffic slowed to a painful crawl and it ended up taking 3 hours.... to say the least it became very tedious humouring this harmless, Russian man. It didn’t help that despite the four NO SMOKING signs, he puffed away like a chimney for the whole trip.
Landscape was pretty grim, overcast, wet, air full of fumes, skyline of dirty beige or white apartment blocks, old banged up motor cars, McDonalds and Subway logos written in Russian gobbled-e-gook. Some other strange sights we drove past were four men stood around a motionless lawn mower, a car almost swerving into us until we noticed that it was the passenger leaning over and steering not the driver, and some other flash black car weaving very rapidly left and right into different lanes (like some race car driver) but getting nowhere. All of this was of course laughed at by our childish driver, who also kept pointing out lots of girls he liked.
Made it to the hostel wondering what the hell had we come to Russia for?? The man left us alone, though did leave us a present of a Russian flag patterned ribbon and insisted we tied it to our bags there and then. The hostel itself was actually really nice, very clean, secure, smart with wooden furniture, well setup, lots of maps, free wifi, information. A strange man behind reception called out to us who turned out to be the manager or owner? He had a dodgy thin comb over thing and was American (From Nevada). It was quite a relief to have an English speaking person explain where to go, where to eat etc etc.
Shattered, went out for dinner. Most places seemed to have Russian speaking staff only and Russian menus only, which was fun. The place Nevada recommended had pictures of the food, so we could order by pointing to pictures like a child. The restaurant was full of very tall girls and lots of white fluff floating around. The food took forever to come, and finally our pizza arrived, finished that. Then five minutes later the milkshakes came. Finished them. Ten minutes later the vegetables and chips.... then a very long wait for the bill. Buy the bill listed about 10 items, when there should just be chips, veg, pizza and 2 milkshakes? Had a lovely time going through the bill with the no English waitress, one itme at a item, what is this?? Useless. Finally found out when we ordered our veg, we pointed to a picture of a bundle if mixed veg (which had a price under it and lots of small writing) it turned out that each piece of veg was 100 rubles each, not the whole mixed veg for 100.... that was a bit of a stinker. We left and went to bed.
A lie on, but still shattered. Out for breakfast at same restaurant, pizza and coffee again... Back at Godzilla hostel checked out and thanked the American telling him it was the best hostel e’d ever stayed in. Though his toilet paper was like sand paper. Our taxi friend was waiting outside, we noticed the front of his car had had a head on collision, which wasn’t too comforting. Handed him a Guinness Key ring from The Corkman to add to his souvenirs, he wouldn’t stop kissing it. Took us for a very hazardous drive to the airport, swerving in and out of cars. Made it there in 45 minutes compared to the 3 hours to get in. He did take a different countryside route which made us wonder where the hell he was taking us. Thanked him “spaseeba?” and went to sit in the airport at 12.30pm until we could check in at 4pm and fly at 7pm.... then 4 hour flight to London, Heathrow.
Moscow had turned out an unexpectedly good stop. Random non the less, but a very friendly, very clean, very scenic City, had had no problems at all after all the bad stories we’d heard about corrupt police and locals being unfriendly towards UK, which we saw none of. Sat in airport and had an orange juice which cost $10!! About 6 pounds. Checked in early around 2.30pm. Had a good meal at TGI Fridays where everyone was dressed like a moron. Flight was painless, though despite fact booked flight 10 months ago we were put in different row of seats and both stuck in centre seat with person either side... Food was lousy, and small one struggled to wake an old man to let him past to the loo. Landed in London and past through customs and passport very easily. Took the Piccadilly tube on the underground to Piccadilly Circus. Tube had two old cockney men chatting about Bruce Forsyth getting knighted (“course he don’t do that much work does he, there’s 12 shows i know but they double em up don’t they, they shoot em back to back he just changes his suit, so its only 6 shows for him...”). Walked through a busy Piccadilly and through Soho to the YHA hostel where a camp skinny lad checked us in. Went to bed, suffering from a headache, too much
Friday 10th June 2011
Lie on till around 10-11am. Walk back to Chocolatta restaurant, same as last night, this time got the order correct. Small one had a Margarita pizza and a Cappuccino for breakfast. Headed into the CBD, saw the Bolshoy theatre, then Red Square with St Basil’s Cathedral. Turned out Lenin’s tomb could not be seen on Fridays or Mondays, plus was closed off for some bizarre huge stage rehearsal involving lots of children dancing with prams? Entered the Kremlin through a big security check, where Tall one had to empty all the junk out of pockets and still the alarm went off. No one seemed to speak very good English anywhere, but were still friendly. Walked down the river and stopped and went inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Down to Tolstoys house, over the bridge to Gorky park for a very bad beer and a very bad sparkling water. Had been a long days walking and was shattered. Back through a sculpture garden and through Red Square where we saw people crowded round a man in a suit and getting photos. Someone said it was Putin... former President. Small one asked for a photo he started asking for 1000 rubles, said no, so he dropped frantically to okay 700.... 500!!.... 300!!!. It was not Putin, it was a lookalike... we hoped? Brought some shot glasses with Stalin on the front and walked painfully back, covered with thick dandelion like seeds, which floated thickly through the entire City (including inside restaurants). Stopped for a bad Turkey dinner, but a nice beer before getting back exhausted to the hostel.
Thursday 9th June 2011
Up at 4.30am. Packed and waited downstairs for minibus to airport. Was taken by a fat Thai man to sit on a street corner and wait for half an hour, so didn’t even see a minibus till 6.30am, when we were due to leave at 6.00am. Sat and watched a lot of very ugly lady boys and some very drunk German and Canadians wondering about. One lad was embarrassingly trying to check into our hotel with some forceful Thai girl, when he was not sure if 600 Baht was a good price she just grabbed his money out his wallet and gave it to the clerk.
We were then packed tightly into a mini bus and got to the airport around 7.30am. Checked into Aeroflot surrounded by Russian woman with very straight cut fringes and big men with shaved heads. Some started speaking fluent Russian to us as we looked on confused.
Had been worried about the flight as the Russian airline Aeroflot has a bad rep as do the Russian people. But the plane was very comfortable, the seats a bit old, but comfortable. Had two meals, both were pretty good and the staff were all very friendly. The plane did make some weird siren like noises when taking off and the air con when turned on sounded like a bad hissing air leak.
Ten hours later landed, the passengers were so shocked to have arrived saftley they all burst into spontaneous applause while tall and small one sat there looking bewildered. Went surprisingly painlessly through immigration, waited for ages for our bags, and not till 5.30pm did we get through customs, an hour later than we had told our hostel for our taxi pickup. Our pickup was waiting for a sign for Godzilla Hostel, he said he;d been there since 4pm. Drew out some Russian rubles from an ATM and followed this strange man tot he car park.
Were expecting an official Godzilla Hostel mini bus, but it was literally just his shitty, banged up grey old car, filled with dust and rust. The man must have been in his forties, but acted like a small child. Very excited when Small one handed him his Aeroflot sticker, and then in his car spent 5 minutes showing us all the tourist tat he’d collected and stuck up, from Californian Condoms to London Oysters card with a picture of William and Kate on?? He drove us in his socks and sandles and his orange jacket, Australian baseball cap. The radio was turned up very very loud and he scanned constantly for new stations, which became very tedious. He sang along to Boney M and Annie Lennox which was a bit bizarre, and kept pointing out logos and car stickers and saying “look, look at that it’s funny”....”yes is see it”.... “no look at that it’s very funny, look!”. Unfortuantley after telling us it was an hours trip to Moscow City Centre from the airport the traffic slowed to a painful crawl and it ended up taking 3 hours.... to say the least it became very tedious humouring this harmless, Russian man. It didn’t help that despite the four NO SMOKING signs, he puffed away like a chimney for the whole trip.
Landscape was pretty grim, overcast, wet, air full of fumes, skyline of dirty beige or white apartment blocks, old banged up motor cars, McDonalds and Subway logos written in Russian gobbled-e-gook. Some other strange sights we drove past were four men stood around a motionless lawn mower, a car almost swerving into us until we noticed that it was the passenger leaning over and steering not the driver, and some other flash black car weaving very rapidly left and right into different lanes (like some race car driver) but getting nowhere. All of this was of course laughed at by our childish driver, who also kept pointing out lots of girls he liked.
Made it to the hostel wondering what the hell had we come to Russia for?? The man left us alone, though did leave us a present of a Russian flag patterned ribbon and insisted we tied it to our bags there and then. The hostel itself was actually really nice, very clean, secure, smart with wooden furniture, well setup, lots of maps, free wifi, information. A strange man behind reception called out to us who turned out to be the manager or owner? He had a dodgy thin comb over thing and was American (From Nevada). It was quite a relief to have an English speaking person explain where to go, where to eat etc etc.
Shattered, went out for dinner. Most places seemed to have Russian speaking staff only and Russian menus only, which was fun. The place Nevada recommended had pictures of the food, so we could order by pointing to pictures like a child. The restaurant was full of very tall girls and lots of white fluff floating around. The food took forever to come, and finally our pizza arrived, finished that. Then five minutes later the milkshakes came. Finished them. Ten minutes later the vegetables and chips.... then a very long wait for the bill. Buy the bill listed about 10 items, when there should just be chips, veg, pizza and 2 milkshakes? Had a lovely time going through the bill with the no English waitress, one itme at a item, what is this?? Useless. Finally found out when we ordered our veg, we pointed to a picture of a bundle if mixed veg (which had a price under it and lots of small writing) it turned out that each piece of veg was 100 rubles each, not the whole mixed veg for 100.... that was a bit of a stinker. We left and went to bed.
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