Kazan 7.09.12-8.09.12

We arrived here in the afternoon and met Kate...have to say I think we were pretty out of it that night, still rocking as we were walking along or sitting. 

We knew next to nothing about this city apart from the 1.5 pages in one guide book between us.

Kazan is a new city, according to Kate they are rebuilding it as a third capital of Russian to be known as well as Moscow or Saint Petersburg. As Kazan is the Republic of Tartarstan, Russia of course we ate some Tartar food for dinner which included a famous dessert 'Chak Chak' which is a fried honey cake, but to me it tasted like stale rice crispy squares with honey.

The next morning we visited  the Kremlin of Kazan, before I start on this site less than one page on this city and I truly believe it deserves an entire chapter. Kazan is a beautiful place and as it happens turned out to be one of my most favourite places, it's a quiet city but it is also completely busy with all the changes and new buildings.
The next morning we visited  the Kremlin of Kazan, built by Ivan the Terrible on the ruins of the former castle of Kazan khans and has since been declared a world heritage site.
We had a lovely wander around and headed out to our next destination which was a monastery a little bit out of town, Kate's favourite place in Kazan. Aimee and Bec decided to boycott and go shopping instead so it was just Talitha, Alison, Kate and I. We headed out to the forest region outside of the city by bus and ended up the most peculiar and beautiful place. It was like a little town almost, with brightly coloured gardens and buildings we visited the oldest church in the area which apparently had the most incredible acoustics....Kate was right. She asked the priests to sing for us...
I cannot accurately describe the feeling I had but the sound of their voices just reverberated everywhere and shot straight through me, the most glorius voices in complete harmony. Every change in pitch and tone was crystal clear and it just ran through me, when they were finished I felt like I was glowing from the inside out.
I have found something quite beautiful about Russian Sunday service, they say their prayers they dedicate themselves and take their time however there is no actual service and the church is completely silent apart from the shuffling of little Babooshka feet. Walking into one of these places you can literally feel calmness wash over you, they have gone to extreme lengths to make sure that everyone can celebrate their religion however they wish...just imagining that once upon a time these churches and cathedrals were closed and people were worshipping in secret. Even Kate's grandmother during that time was baptising children in secret helping people continue to celebrate in a time when they really needed it.

Walking through that little place was just beautiful, it was definitely one of the most beautiful places I have been on this trip so far. Going back we stopped for the best Shasliks I have ever had in my life followed by the best bread I have ever had in my life!!!!! *mouth is currently watering just thinking about this*

This evening we had some delicious fruit blended tea and homemade cakes in a little romantic cafe in the city centre, they were absolutely divine!!! The man who owns the little cafe and makes the cakes is always there and is apparently all dressed up all the time looking dapper. We  visited the Kremlin again just so we could see it at night before we had to leave for Suzdal on the train, it's even more beautiful at night if that's even possible.

I'm very sad to say goodbye to Kazan and to our beautiful Kate.....it's a place I would visit again later on if I had the chance again

To Suzdal......

Look Mum we match!!!!!!

Onto Kazan 4.09.12-7.09.12

Well being on a train for days sure does give you the opportunity to think about things. There's something extremely romantic about being on a train, something to do with watching the world go by out the window...even more romantic is having rain pour outside as your toasty inside nuzzled into your blanket. Being rocked constantly is also a plus of being on the train, easy to get to sleep though we had to relive the first five hours because we immediately switched to Moscow time which is now behind Sydney as soon as we got on the train.

So something I was meaning to write about was our ever growing list of first world problems.

1. Lack of constant decent wifi access
2. Finding 'non-whitening' skin products-face wash and moisturiser
3. Explaining cold and flu symptoms in any language
4. Non sandpaper toilet paper
5. Drop hole toilets
6. Train toilets.....ewww
7. Non- English Menus
8. Lack of Facebook notifications (Talitha's nightmare)
9. Lack of phone reception

hmmm there's a lot more but I cannot think of any right now...

Arriving in Kazan this afternoon to hopefully ditch the cabin fever that I'm now convinced that I have.

I've avoided the dining car parties both all nights on the train, not by choice but because by seven thirty I'm ready for bed! Train lag could potentially be worse than jet lag only because your not just dumped in a new time zone and forced to adjust, we are told that we have to put our watches back 4 hours and then have to relive that 4 hours over again.....the days are very long. Thank goodness for reading, movies and music.......battery power!!!!!

One lovely little note I forgot to mention...Adiesya...a little girl who through sheer determination wanted to outdo on all fronts, burping, screaming, running and gross habits however she was the most adorable little thing running up and down the cabin, we even managed to speak some Russian with her....she was so sweet (sometimes). She would be in our cabin and you would just hear "ADIEYSA!!!" from her mum a couple of doors down. I think my favourite memory of her was when she just walked into our cabin door and we were mucking around making different noises she plugs her ears and lets out an almighty scream, one of those super high pitched ones. We were in hysterics and then you hear "ADIEYSA!!!" from down the corridor, she runs out down the hall and then silence for a moment followed by a second almighty scream at the top of her lungs......cheeky girl :)

Lake Baikal 3.09.12

An extremely lazy day on the lake for the three of us....we mulled around all day relaxing and doing what we had to get done. It was nice spending the day in our little chalet watching the world go by through our window, basically just watching the sun make it's way across the sky into a glorious sunset. The sun has been so warm today, it's either too hot in the sun or too cold in the shade.

Packed up tonight using the last of the internet access for a few days....another first world problem.

10 minute supermarket mayhem and then onto the train for 3 days....

Revelation

Just for all those reading finally have figured out how to use the Picasa program on my laptop properly and so prepare yourselves for a lot of photos on new and old posts.

Cheers all :D

Lake Baikal 3.09.12

This morning we woke up from our little comfy beds and went down to Russian porridge and tea...not really to my taste but not bad. I couldn't be more at home here in Russia though the language barrier can be difficult generally they appreciate the effort we put in.
We decided to take a 3 hour cruise on the lake today, we roped in Bart from the other tour group to give him a break from the over 40's. The girls and I bought some cheese, salami and tomatoes and had a little lunch on board.
After an hour we docked at a look out which also coincidentally we had actually passed a couple of nights before on the train as the tracks led straight through it to Irkutsk. Talitha and Bart braved the water and jumped into the freezing water from the shore.....they looked so cold!!!!!! We just dipped our feet in and were like NOPE!!! NOT HAPPENING!!!!!
Soaking up the warm sunlight we just relaxed for a while before getting back o the boat, it was really choppy getting back so it's definitely a good thing that we did not sit at the front or we all would have potentially gone flying into Lake Baikal for an involuntary swim.

This evening we went down to the 'beach' (big rocks) and hired a little hut to sit, have dinner and watch the sun go down together. Of course we had to feed the stray dogs that followed along and sat with us in the sunset....beautiful puppy, she followed us home and ended up waiting for us the next morning she was still there tail wagging with a goofy smile. Apparently she is a regular follower and even goes on hikes with visitors up into the forest.....

We enjoyed a quiet night in and low and behold amazingly we have all found that we have more room in our bags......master class packing skills apparently we have picked up along the way :) Yay more room to buy things!!!!!!

The sunlight dips out of sight from the mountains.......so glad we have two full days here, it's a stunning place.

Our New Best Mate

Lake Baikal

Irkutsk and Lake Baikal 2.09.12

We arrived early in the morning to meet with our new honcho Anya, she took us to breakfast for some much needed pancakes and then on a city tour. Irkutsk is not a huge city but really has that Russian feel that you all in vision when you think of this country, there are Lenin statues all over the city and old wooden traditional houses with intricate designs around the window arches. I really wonder how these houses have survived in -40 degree winters!! It was 5 degrees when we arrived and we were all shivering cold....even Anya was urging us into the tiny bits of sun that existed on the pavement to warm up even the  tiniest bit.

Finally the sun had decided to warm up the city and we had a coffee and doughnut break while we waited for our driver...and so the silent disco began, once in the back seat in went the headphones and up went the music...dancing to whatever was in our ears in complete silence with the driver wondering what the hell we were doing in the back, constantly checking his rear view mirror to check our level of sanity.
As we rounded a bend there it was....the deepest freshwater lake in the world stretching for 600kms, this body of water sparkling bright blue that completely freezes over in winter....incredible. We reached our gorgeous chalet just a little way off the shore line and Bec beelined for the front room with the most amazing view of Lake Baikal between the mountains. We all had an easy day and relaxed and caught up on some sleep and had an amazing meal cooked by our host.....home cooked goodness.

Tonight we Banya'd, we stepped into the furnace and tried to continue breathing.....what's that we need more steam? Cheers Bec, we all nearly passed out. Anya in true stereotypical Russian form, beat us with branches which was quite refreshing if not a little strange....we were in hysterics as she would join in with, "you will enjoy it..." with her deepest accent. All de-toxified we got out into the crisp air and quickly dashed to shower....we had a pretty chilled night in and got to know a Dutch boy who was with an older tour staying with us, Bart.

Irkutsk

Lake Baikal

Vodka, Vodka, Vodka.......giggles, bed!!!!

Ulan Ude 1.09.12

The first Saturday in Autumn.....freezing this morning but warmed up during the day. Sveta our honcho for our short stay took us to the BIG Lenin head in the centre of Ulan Ude, such a small city but it definitely has a lot of character and a story to tell. We also visited this huge outdoor museum with an unfortunate zoo that really had me upset but they also had to scale models of traditional houses in Russia prior to the soviet era, it was a beautiful place and the surroundings were those pine forests you see in the movies.
We visited Lenin Street, without knowing we had arrived on 'Education Day' even though it was a Sunday all the kids were out in full school uniform celebrating the freedom to learn, pony rides and performances and even later on that evening we saw fireworks and could hear a concert from our room.

In the afternoon we took ourselves to an Irish pub on Lenin street and had a snack and a beer, we were lucky to find ourselves aided by the interpreter who worked at the pub. He was very excited because he wasn't a waiter his sole job was to assist english speaking visitors, his name was Sava, he was so nice and he sat down and had a chat with us while we drank and were entertained by an extremely drunk homeless man and his dog who was apparently a regular out the front of the bar. The man attempted to serenade us with freshly plucked flowers from the nicely manicured flower bed nearby, he thought we were German at first and when we advised him otherwise lovingly shouted "I LOVE YOU!" . After our evenings entertainment we chilled out in our hotel room until 10pm when we were picked up by our driver for our overnight train to Irkutsk.........Lake Baikal awaits.