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to make matters even more epic, it is very cheap, there are no policemen or visa checks and the country has a tourism industry instead of a ministry of tourism and as it is the low season there is practically nobody about. Today we had a good walk around town and tried some local food. now to the weird part...
you may remember james and I trying to discover what Numismetics is...well the only other person staying in our dorm just so happens to be a numismatist...if you havnt checked by now, he collects coins. His name is Aldo and he is a crazy Italian sociology professor and collector of coins the world over. He compliments this with a brillient sense of humour, passable english and a mean cook (he cooked us dinner) and reminds me of Joey DaMio from Manowar. it has been one of the most fun days we have had so far, we just need to figure out now how to get to Bratislava.
The centre of Riga's old town
Aldo opening beers
Well we are almost at the end of our Russian adventure, and we have all had a great time. It has been snowing for the past 2 days and we have added to our list of epic things that we have been to see.
Firstly we have been to see the Hermitage which if you dont know is the second biggest museum and art gallery in the world, and yes it is very huge. We got to see their very impressive Egyptian, Roman, Greek and "assorted ancient" exhibition complete with juicy mummies and all. But more impressive was the art gallery. Now i am not one for art, i agree with the venerable words of Dennis leary "Art is just a bunch of swirls of paint which are very important to a bunch of silly rich people", but i must say even i was impressed. The had a huge collection of Rembrandts, Piccassos, Monets, Van Goghs, Mattisse and Degas, it was very cool and scary to be in a room with paintings worth several million dollars. Oh there was a Numismetics display on the top floor which became our goal for the day...we were really excited to find out what was in it...well the pictures will explain.
The next day we went to the Political History Museum to make up for missing the museum of the Revolution in Moscow and after putting on weird plastic shoes we delved into over 100 years of Russian history. On the way we encountered lots of crazy propaganda, including my favourite "Vodka is not your friend...the Soviet savings bank is," lots of trinkets and artifacts from the Russian and Soviet leaders throughout time, and a very enthusiastic museum curator who in a fanatical and eccentric way ensured we understood all about popular culture from the 60's. One of the highlights was Lenin's personal study and the balcony where he addressed the people.
On our final few days of travel we went to see the Aurora, the museum ship which fired the first shots of the revolution. The Blockade of Leningrad museum...funnilly enough about said blockade. The Cathedral of the Spilt Blood, which rivalled St Basils in Moscow and the Nevsky Moestary with its graveyard full of significant russians. Oh we also went to the Erotica museum to see the mummified remains of Rasputin's penis (why not), and because it was free...
Conversation between me and James:
"Hey James how do you think they run the museum when they charge no admission fee?"
"I dunno Pete, there must be some catch."
The museum turned out to be part of a working VD clinic...on the up side we got to wear plastic shoes again...we saw the penis...then left.
We have had a great time here, the police havnt bothered us and we have met some great people. We met a dutch couple Erik and Eva who taught us card games, as we taught them slang terms such as "tricksy wicksy" and how to make bad puns, they came to the Hermitage with us and came to dinner with us several times at a rather cool restaurant we discovered. They were great fun and kept us entertained on cold and dark nights which are long as we only get 5 hours of sun each day. They're heading off to Mongolia now but they may be going to Australia next year...we made some great friends and who knows we may meet up again.
Oh and we have a vampire staying in our hostel, but James found some garlic and he went away.
Us outside the Hermitage
James, Hannah, Eva, me and Erik playing arsehole and drinking coffee
James and I about to find out what Numismetics is
Discovering the exhibit was closed...the mystery continues...
Oh we bought some epic hats
Some social deviant leaving the VD clinic
Anyhow after arriving in St Petersburg we found that it was snowing even less than moscow and not taking into account the cold wind off the Baltic...a bit warmer. It is a lovely city, which reminded us of Paris, Geneva and even a bit of Amsterdam with its selection of canals. The hostel we are staying at is just off Nevsky Prospect which is lined with magnificent neo-classical buildings and really has a Parisian and European feel to it. Our first day we went out to see the fortress and its very beautiful cathedral where Peter the Great and all the czars since the 17th century have been buried. They had lots of museums including one about the Russian rocket program (complete with huge replicas of the Soyuz rockets.) After we got to take a walk along the battlements and get some amazing panoramic viws out onto the Neva River...which by the way is f!@#$%g freezing!
Today we went to the Ethnographic and Anthopological Museum...now i know what you are thinking...what that sounds really boring...well, it just so happens that Peter the Great had a thing for collecting medical curiosities in order to educate the backwards masses and he just happened to keep them here. Here is a rundown of the "Babies in Jars Room"
1. Various conjoined twins
2. Babies with missing or stunted arms and legs
3. Feti with more than one face and or head
4. Anacephalic babies...those born without a brain or brain cavity
5. Preserved heads and arms strangely adorned with lace because apparently that would make them LESS creepy
6. A random assortment of crabs, fish and two headed deer to break the monotony of the babies in jars??
7. A fetus without the top part of the fetus...
i could go on...James described it as "Creepy as fuck"...i have to agree with him.
Any way we still have lots to see here including the hermitage so there will be another update before we leave...SERIOUSLY WHY DID THE BABY HAVE THREE EYES!!!
We have had some wonderful adventures and enjoyed delicious 'pensieve baby' chocolate in the lovely city of Moscow, former capital of the USSR. We flew with Aeroflot from Armenia, who weren't anywhere near as bad as Peter had made them out to be! Upon our touchdown in Moscow i was extremely excited as I finally got to see it snow!!!!!! It was beautiful. We negotiated some aggressive taxi drivers (missing Armenia already...) and the highly efficient Moscow Metro and got to our hostel. The next day we met up with Peter's friend James at the airport, who is joining us for Russia and Belarus, and snowboarding in Slovakia.
Our first place to visit was of course, Red Square. We saw the absolutely stunning St Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin and Lenin's Mausoleum. Next we visited the State Museum of Russian History, and Peter and James visited the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. We also went to Novodovichy Cemetery (where lots of famous Russians are buried). Today we travelled out to the town of Sergiev Posad, to see the famous monastery of Saint Sergius and the beautiful churches there.
Meanwhile, we had been having to deal with an extremely obnoxious and irritating Russian guy in our dorm called Alex. Seriously, this guy was really weird! He would constantly walk into the room, open the window and walk out again. We of course kept closing it, because it was -3 outside!!! He would wander around muttering to himself, and he always was the last person still in bed in the morning, and would yell at people to shut the door and turn the light out. Apparently he'd been living in the hostel for the last two months, and thought he had the right to boss everyone around. We were getting majorly annoyed, and Peter eventually laid the smack down, yelling at him to stop telling us what to do and as James put it "scared the living shit out of him." It was really funny, Alex didn't know what to do and he kept saying 'is not my fantasy' (Wtf?) We think he had a thing for the receptionist. At least he's stopped being annoying now.
Next stop: St Petersburg!
Love Peter, Hannah and James
The first day we headed to Alaverdi, a lovely mountain town tucked away in a valley by a river...with a copper plant next to it. We caught an aging cable car used by the miners to the top of the valley (sorry mum) and then walked up to the Sanahin Monastery past staring locals, excited school children and a cow going through a bin...i lol'd. The monastery was lovely and in the cemetary i especially liked the practice of engraving the picture of the person who was burried there on the tomb stone.
the aforementioned cow
The Sanahin monastery and graveyard
Next we headed down the cable car and up the other side of the valley and away from the smokey reminder of the copper plant to Haghpat Monestery. This is another UNESCO listed monestery and the view from the top was breathtaking. We were greeted enthusiastically by the priest there who introduced himself as Father Azbek who not only spoke perfect english but had served in Australia and gave us a personal tour. I think he must have been getting a bit bored up there as once we had finished he invited us both back to the vicarage for coffee and chocolates. He was a top bloke and it was our first taste of the famous Armenian hospitality.
Us and the Father having coffee
The following day we headed up to Dilijan, which looks a bit like Switzerland in the Caucausus with rolling tree covered hills and a distinctly alpine feel. We visited the Haghartsin monastery nestled in the wooded hills, which would have been beautiful were it not being renovated and not swarming with workmen with powersaws. We then headed to Goshavank on the other side of town which is another monastery and town stuck on the top of a mountain. Oh and we met a girl who had been serving with the peace corps in the most polluted place in Kazakhstan. The temperature got to -50c and the river still did not freeze...oh and her hair had started to fall out and she'd lost hearing in one ear. See mum it could be worse.
We then caught several marshutkas (like a minibus but with a driver on speed) to Yeghegnazdor where
AFTER OVER 130 DAYS HANNAH FINALLY LOST HER CAMERA!!! she left it on the bus, we were sad but i finally won my 5 pound bet.
Anyhow...i got a bit off track...Yeghehnadzor...this was probably the most remote and back to basics place we have stayed. Most people did not have running water, grew alot of their own food and worked on a barter system more than with cash. Luckily we were staying wih a Canadian family who were heading up lots of projects in the town to try and improve conditions for people and all the money we spend on accommodation went straight back to the towns people. We probably were staying in the nicest and most modern house in town.
Our homestay team
Our first trip was a taxi drive out to Norovank which unlike the north of Armenia looked like the Juntland wastes from Tattooine. The monastery there was situated in a gorge and again words cannot express how amazing the view was. After we were done our taxi driver Sacha (who did not speak a word of english by the way) took us to a little cafe in a cave and bought us some of the local wine and some coffee. We were very greatful and a little confused but then after, he took us back to his place to meet his family and provide us with a lunch and a bottle of vodka with which many toasts we made. He then drove us home and told us to call him the next day if we wanted to go anywhere.
The Norovank Monastery
So the next day we called Sacha who arrived before we hung up the phone to head out to Gladzor which is the site of another monastery (yeh i know they have alot) and the ruins of the first multi-facaulty university in Armenia. Sacha surprised us again by stopping at his place to pick up a packed lunch he had made and we headed off to a region which looked alot like Northam. The monastery was lovely (although there were some fresh bloodstains there) and we then sat down and had lunch which consisted of cheese, bread, some green things, another bottle of vodka and some peppers. Sacha thought it was very funny when i downed one thinking it was capsicum and ran screaming for water to the car.
Hannah and Sacha polishing off the vodka
We polished off the bottle (at this point Hannah was getting a bit dopey and sleepy) so Sacha drove us home (he was ok). Instead of home he took us to his extended family's house so they could meet the Australians who must have been the talk of the town at this point. They were all very friendly and we were given lots of apricot products, walnuts, coffee and sweets and then sat down to look at the family photo albums. It was great fun and even thought we really couldn't communicate with them i think we both made some new friends. We really liked Sacha. It really was an amazing example of the hospitality that the people of this region show guests and these arent rich people, they are lucky if they make $5 a day but still go out of their way to welcome people who are willing to take time out to visit and learn about their country. Yeghegnadzor was probably one of our favourite places so far.
Hannah, Sacha and his family
Here's what we've been up to in and around Tbilisi since we got here! The first place we visited was Narikala Fortress, which is a pretty epic ruin situated on top of a hill in the centre of the city, with some awesome views. Getting up there was interesting... We got lost and couldn't find the proper path to get there so we ended up climbing most of the way, much to my extreme reluctance. We also did a walking tour around the city, visiting some beautiful churches and getting severely rained on.
The next day we took a marshrutka (mini-van bus) out to the impossible to pronounce town of Mtskheta, which was the ancient capital of Georgia and also the first place in the country to convert to Christianity, about 1700 years ago. Looming over the town on top of a hill here is the Jvari church, which is the spiritual heart of Georgia. Georgians are extremely religious- we felt quite out of place when everyone on the marshutka began crossing themselves furiously as we passed by the church. Jvari was really interesting, and the views from the hill were quite beautiful. We also visited the cathedral in town, and sampled some delicious lobio (spicy bean stew, served in a little clay pot).
Of course, we had to make a trip out to Gori to visit the birthplace of Comrade Stalin, and to see how the town had recovered after being the scene of bitter fighting between Russian and Georgian troops. The damage was quite evident in the centre of town- all the buildings had brand new doors and windows and there were a lot of bullet holes. Stalin is still very fondly remembered in Gori and slightly hero-worshipped; there are statues of him everywhere and the main street in town is 'Stalin Avenue'. We made our way to the Stalin museum, which was quite fascinating even though it was all in Georgian and Russian and we couldn't understand it. They had some cool stuff like Stalin's jacket and boots, his shaving set and plenty of good photos of old 'Uncle Joe'. We also climbed up to Gori fortress (which was somewhat easier than Tbilisi) and enjoyed the views all the way to the lovely Caucasus mountains.
Overall, we've had a excellent time in Georgia and it's most definitely been our favourite place so far! The food here is superb- we've tried khinkali (spicy meat dumplings), shashlik (barbequed kebab, but without the stick), chikhirtma (chicken soup with a chicken leg in it), khachapuri (pastry with melted cheese inside) and plenty of interesting new fruits, including one called feijoa which tastes like bubblegum. I think we will most definitely be back :) Our thanks to our homestay family (Eduard, Iryna and Andro) for being so awesome, and for providing us with huge delicious breakfasts every morning as well as Eduard's very own home-made wine!
Here are some photos for you:
Narikala Fortress
Us at the top
Jvari Church
Stalin Square, Gori
Stalin Avenue
Peter and Uncle Joe
Gori Fortress
At the top of Gori Fortress with Gori, South Ossetia and the Caucasus mountains in the background
Eduard with his tasty home-made wine
Ok one of the things i did not tell mum before i left home was that on my list of things to do whilst overseas was to be part of a civil disturbance...and what a stroke of luck, two days after arriving in Tbilisi there was a planned rally against the president "Misha" Saakashvili after he managed to lose half of the country to the Russians and for the protection of freedom of speech and freedom of the press after the opposition TV station was raided and shut down by soldiers. Oh and the date 7th of November set for the rally was important as the same time last year a rally of 100,000 people was violently put down by the police with tear gas and rubber bullets. So of course i had to go and have a look and be part of the action.
We started with a meeting outside parliament house where some 10,000 people had gathered to hear the various opposition spokesmen, leaders and a priest speak out against Saakashvili's regime. Most of it i did not understand other than they dont much care for Saakashvili and they really like Barack Obama and freedom. Oh and there was lots of yelling, voting on things and fist shaking (something i think is missed in politics in the west.)
The epicentre of the rally...with epic priest included!
You know who, you know where
There was a pretty good turnout
After the intial meeting we set off on a march to President Saakashvili's house to tell him just how pissed off we were. I joined up with Andro our host and another guest who is staying with us, Dan, a reporter from the USA and together with now a swelling crowd of 30,000 people we set off on our march under the constant but relitively disinterested eye of the Tbilisi municipal police...so far no tear gas in sight but several protesters with big flags did have gas masks oh and one guy i met had brought brass knuckles "just in case."
Anyway we all got to Saakashvili's house only to find that he had gone out for Japanese food but still had another lot of speeches (Georgians love to talk alot) accompanied by much fist waving, cheering and waving of banners and flags. There was a real positive vibe and everyone was very excited. Afterwards i had the privilege of pretending to be Dan's bodyguard whilst he and Andro interviewed the opposition leaders. It was very interesting, and they were all very positive about the turnout and the support they were getting and also keen to seek Barack Obamas help to help democratise what they see as an authoritarian regime (which i tend to agree with and have the badge to show it.) They do not want violence to undermine the country and are keen to have early elections.
Andro and I at the rally outside the President's house
One of the most interesting things we did was after the rally had started to break up Dan went around to try and find some other people to interview and happened upon an old lady named Svetlana. We asked he why she was there and she told us her story. The goverment had tried to sell a shop she owned to a private security firm and no one from the government or the media would listen to her as all the media are controlled by the government. So she had walked for 14 hours over 100km to come to Tbilisi to confront the President and demand someone listen to her. She had already been on a hunger strike and was now going to kneel in front of Saakashvili's house until he answered her. She said and i thank Dan for recording this "I can bear anything. I can be hungry or thirsty, but I can't bear when my rights are taken away." It was one of the most moving things i have heard on this trip and it really highighted to me how so many people in this part of the world just want someone to listen to them and give them what we in the west take for granted.
Dan's article made the front page of the Washington Times today! and i thank him for giving me the pleasure of listening to him give his interviews. His article can be found here http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/n
What i thought would be a bit of fun with some lulz to match turned out to be a very informative learning experience and was a day i will not soon forget. Oh and sorry for worrying you mum.
So it's 3am, Siberia! We're still in Poti, having safely made it past the border control, and it's way too late for any trains or buses to Tbilisi (400km away). Luckily, Muscha, whom Peter had the pleasure of sitting on, offered us a lift with his brother who was going to Tbilisi. We very gratefully took him up on the offer, and during a rather severe rainstorm we loaded our bags into his ancient little Lada and set off. Muscha's brother looked alot like the father from the TV series "Numbers" and with a steely look in his eye and an iron grip on the wheel, he set off for Tbilisi at break neck speed. Now, think of all the stereotypes you know of about Eastern European roads and the people driving on them- and triple that.
P
Hannah after a marathon effort at staying awake fell asleep promptly whilst i wanting to see the final moments of my life, decided to try and stay awake. There was driving rain, heavy fog, unlit and winding roads, semi trailers heading in the opposite direction, random livestock crossing the road, solemn crosses every kilometre or so, and Muscha's brother (whose name we never found out ) did not seem concerned about speed limits, roads signs, or lane markings, much like everyone else on the road (mum i dont think he was even concerned about slowing down on the gravelly corners). This was going to be an epic trip.
H
After a couple of hours, Peter finally fell asleep (he said it was less stressful) and I was awake. We passed through a very hilly region, where there had been minor landslides during the rainstorm; there were huge boulders strewn alongside the road, and mud everywhere. After a while we reached the main highway leading directly into Tbilisi (which was still only a two lane road) and we found ourselves stuck behind 3 trailers carrying new cars, travelling very slowly. Our driver proceeded to become very impatient and attempted to overtake all 3 of them- We moved into the other lane with a semitrailer coming straight for us, and slipped back into the right lane milliseconds before it reached us! Meanwhile i had decided not to be stressed, this guy was clearly experienced at driving on these roads, and he was Georgian so I figured he knew what he was doing.
At 9am we finally reached Tbilisi, and after having thanked our driver as best we could with our rudimentary Georgian we headed off in search of a taxi to take us to our homestay. We hailed one down, and proceeded to experience driving in Tbilisi. Here are the main things we noticed:
1. Nobody wears seatbelts- Peter tried to put his on in the taxi and the driver wouldn't let him
2. Lane markings are just recommendations here, nobody cares about them
3. These people are seriously creative- they can turn a two lane road into one with three lanes, with a fourth lane attempting to merge in!
Our taxi driver was a very friendly guy, who got us speedily to our destination, ignoring yelling drivers as he cut them off and sped by- we felt very safe.
P
We finally got to our homestay and my heart rate returned to normal and was cheerfully greeted by our host Andro out of a balcony. We met his parents Edward and Irina who made us feel very welcome and fed us the largest breakfast we have ever seen. We are looking forward to our stay in Tbilisi!
Our family in Tbilisi
As you know our ferry from Odessa to Poti was delayed by 3 days, and then our two day ferry trip actually took four days, much to our frustration, as we spent 2 nights floating off the coast of Poti, waiting in the queue of boats there for our turn to dock. So we are now in Tbilisi a week later then we planned! ah well.
But all delays aside, this ferry trip was some of the best fun we have had so far. I had heard a little of Georgian friendliness and hospitality before, but the people totally blew me away. Language was no barrier, everyone wanted to hang out with the 'Aftralians', have photos with us, and befriend us. It was awesome! Luckily, a few people on the boat spoke a little English, including Nick, a super friendly Georgian businessman who spoke it fluently, much to our joy. He quickly became our best friend, teaching us some Georgian and translating for us. We also made friends with Geghi, a energetic young Georgian guy who loved jazz and played the saxophone (see photo below) and who spoke no English but waved his arms around and mimed things until we understood, which was actually quite effective!
We were also introduced to nardi, a traditional Causasus boardgame much like backgammon. Much to Peter's confusion, i kept winning, beating him and all the other Georgians we played, because i kept rolling exactly the right numbers at exactly the right time, even though i didn't really know what i was doing... It was hilarious.
So when the ferry finally docked in Poti, we began the long process of getting everyone's passports checked and all the cargo unloaded (the whole process took from 8pm when we docked, to 3am when we left Poti for Tbilisi) All the while we were just sitting around; although Peter had to leave for about two hours to get our visas processed: here is his story.
"Get in" muttered the large Georgian border guard as he waved the hapless Australian traveller to the awaiting minivan. He felt overwhelmed with the surrounding behemoth Soviet dockyard with the background noise the constant industrial sounds of a port in the wee hours of the morning. He climbed into the mini van, 20 people into a vehicle that should have seated 8, he had to sit on the lap of a large russian man named Muscha, the rest of the passangers looking cold but relieved to be off the boat, laughed and the occasional "anglaiski" or "Aftralian" met the travellers ear. The driver, an old man in a v-neck pullover started the van and took off at break neck speed through the dark and empty streets around the port, heading to the border police's office.
At a checkpoint the van stopped and the large georgian guard turned around to the traveller and said "dollars, bankomat" and pointed at an ATM in the wall. upon buying some dollars the traveller returned to Muscha's lap and the van set off again. Dodging stray dogs, pothols the size of volkswagons, police cars and partying revellers the van headed down a dark street to the rear side of an unlit soviet style conpound, surrounded with looming walls, with large blue double gates. "We go now" muttered the guard and the traveller, Muscha, and two other russians joined the guard outside. As the traveller left the van a young man from the ferry grabbed his arm, "everything ok...it good" he said and gave the thumbs up, heartened the traveller left the van and called out "nakvam dis!" whislst those of the van laughed and called out "goodbye!"
The small group was lead into the compound, not a sound in the cold night air. The grey concrete building with broken windows and the door hanging on its hinges loomed above them and the traveller was lead inside up a dark unlit stairwell. At this time the words of the travellers father entered his head "they'll take you to a warehouse and machine gun you!"...then quickly left. they entered a long poorly lit whitewashed hallway with the lower part of the wall painted communist green. The words "Georgian Border Police" were stencilled on the wall a young man with a beanie stared at us from a lone coffee machine. Finally the group was led into the guard's room, it had rotting doorframes (like all soviet buildings), no furniture except a desk, a map of Georgia from 1962 and brown floorboards which echoed when the traveller walked in.
The traveller, Muscha and the two Russians sat down whilst the guard lit his third cigarette, "now we do visa" he said.
fin...
Long story short we got the visas which were very pretty...i think it was this event that really made me realise what a different place
we had finally arrived in...meanwhile hannah was eating salami sandwiches on a couch on the ferry :|
Here are a few photos from Odessa and our ferry adventure:
The Potemkin Steps
The sunny and beautiful port of Ilichevsk, Ukraine
Out on deck
Geghi with his saxophone
Us and Geghi...seriously he loved photos and the Australians
Me looking triumphant after beating Nick at nardi...notice the Georgians grinning in the background
As Nick himself would say... "Oh my God"
Peter trying new things...new grey square things that were suprisingly tasty
Me on land...finally!
Odessa
We were planning to spend only 2 days here as it was our port stop before Georgia however our boat was broken and so we were stranded here for a further 3 days. We saw the famous Potemkin Steps made famous in the Sergi Eisenstein film "Battleship Potemkin" (remember that one James?) and i made Hannah walk down them and then walk up them again. (oh the joy) after we visited the Opera house and the Belgorad-Dnestovski fort and a tour of the 3000km long Odessa catacombs. that was about all there was to do in Odessa so what did we do for the remaining 3 days? well...
1. Watched alot of Ukrainian TV
2. Played Pokemon
3. Wandered randomly through the town
4. Dealt with Vladlin our very excited Urkaineferry guy who kept calling me "Mr Piotor"
5. Listening into the kind of crazy people that seem to have assembled here...here's a quick summary of the best:
Funny: When we first got here we were very lost and we ran into a guy called Charles from the US who runs a business here in Odessa. He runs a bodyguard and security firm...and apparently has "guys" in Iraq and had some "stuff" confiscated he was sending to Georgia. Nice guy he helped us find our hotel.
Funnier: I was sitting in an internet cafe and overheard an American guy trying to sell a dodgy "earn $50000 a year by working from home data entry job" you knoiw the kind to some poor Ukrainian college graduate. Anyone who uses the words "trust" and "honesty" and "money doesnt matter to me" in a job description is a sleazy. And if you cant explain what you do in one sentence it is illegal. He kept saying he was making money in advertising but wouldnt say how. I loled.
BEST: We were having dinner in a restaurant and a middle aged English guy came in with some hot young Ukrainian thing and sat down and started talking. Now it was really funny because:
1. He pro-nounced every sil-ib-le so he could be un-der-stood...and he was trying to pick up somebody so it sounded like he was trying to hook in with a slow learner. Mum think oif the old dude saying veg-e-ta-bles. And he kept asking her if she was com-fort-ab-le
2. Kept saying "trust"
3. Thought no one else could understand him
4. Started saying how he didnt trust dating agencies but had a very good knowledge of how they worked.
5. Her name was "Victoria"...her name was not Victoria
6. And best! She said what do you do in Odessa? his answer was and i quote:
"What bus-i-ness do i do in O-des-sa? Well i do things in Lon-don which is what i do here. When we have more trust i will show you pic-ia-tures of what i do."
this means he is either:
1. a pornographer
2. Works for the department of revenue
Seriously i lolled...i will be enjoying my last day in Odessa now
ok guys some more photos from the memorable moments from our trip
Panzer Peter stepping aboard
Me in action (im inside under the front left hatch) note hannah enjoying the ride
Things that were epic!
The Reichstag
The Brandenburg Gate
The railway line out of Auschwitz (this was where the trains were unloaded)
In the underground salt Chapel in the salt mine
Celebrating Victory to the motherland in Kyiv
St Andrews in Kyiv
memorial to the firefighters who died saving the world
Reactor Number 4 (the sarcophagus)
Pripyat School...as it was in 1986 (except for the looting)
Level 4 of the school, it was very eerie
The ferris wheel that never turned
The highly radioactive moss that made the geiger counter go crazy...sorry mum i still havnt bought new pants
Radiation readings reaching dangerous levels as we drove through one of the highly contaminated zones
the swimming pool
inside the hotel
on the roof
John, Hannah and Simon after our awesome night out at the irish pub
In Russian, Chornobyl means wormwood.
Most of you know about the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, about how Reactor 4 at the nuclear power plant exploded on the 26 April 1986, causing fires and sending a huge amount of radioactive fallout into the sky (around 400 times more than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima), which drifted across Europe, causing serious contamination in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. 30 people were killed at the time of the accident (2 plant workers, and 28 firefighters) while some 6000 people have died indirectly in the time after the accident, mostly of radiation poisoning or thyroid cancer.
Now, i know what you're thinking. Why on earth are you going there? Isn't it really dangerous? Won't you be poisoned by radiation? Nope. The radiation levels in the area surrounding Chornobyl are now not much higher than the normal levels you are exposed to everyday (in fact you would get way more radiation from a chest x-ray). There are a few areas that were directly in the path of the radioactive fallout that are still highly contaminated, but we didn't go anywhere near them.
So, our tour. Our first stop was the 30km checkpoint, then we drove on past abandoned villages almost entirely overgrown by trees. We passed through the 10km checkpoint, and headed on towards the power plant. We stopped to get pictures of the sarcophagus which is protecting the remaining radioactive material left in the reactor (92% of it is still there!), we were about 100m away. It was very cool seeing it up close :) Then we drove on to Pripyat (where Call of Duty 4 was set!! :D) which was a major city of 48 000 people, just a few kilometres away from the plant. The entire city was evacuated after the accident, and has just been left to slowly decay. First we visited a school, which was really interesting because they still had a lot of the school books, posters and old newspapers from the Soviet era; however, they were strewn everywhere, the desks were all upturned and the windows were all broken, as most of the buildings have been looted and slowly destroyed by weather. Then we visited what was the town swimming pool and recreation centre, and then the best bit- the abandoned fairground. This was really eerie, as the fairground was due to open 4 days after the accident occurred and since then has just been left to rot. You might of seen a picture of the famous ferris wheel that never turned, well that's where this was. After the fairground, we headed to a hotel, where we climbed right to the top (Peter even climbed on the roof! Lucky i wasn't there) and got some great views of the city. That was the end of our tour, we headed back into Chornobyl for some delicous lunch and drove back to Kiev.
Last but not least, we met two very awesome guys on our tour who were escaping the drudgery of Brussels for something a little more interesting. John and Simon were great fun, we had a lot of laughs and were friends very quickly, and after the tour we all went out to the Kiev Irish pub for Kilkenny!! Yay!! (They had run out of Guinness...wtf?) Thanks fellas so much for the drinks, we had a great time and we enjoyed the dose of geeky conversation (which we really needed!!) Above are some photos of our wonderful day, and also some other photos from previous adventures.
Love to you all,
Hannah and Peter
Lviv was lovely, even though our hostel was hidden in an old soviet apartment block and took an hour to find. We had a look at the many many churches, the beautiful old town and climbed up castle hill for a panoramic view of the city. It was interesting to find out that the city was until 1939 Polish so it had a very central European feel to it.
10 things Peter has already learnt about Ukraine
1. There is no castle on Castle Hill...only a big radio tower
2. It is Ukraine...NOT The Ukraine
3. It is law here to wear stilletos if you are a female between the ages of 14 and 40
4. You must also wear a mini skirt no matter how cold it is
5. The number 7 tram no longer runs in lviv...taking the number 6 is not a sufficient substitute.
6. Borsch is not all that bad (see James i tried something different)
7. фйу хаф а странг алфабет
8. There are no road rules
9. Everyone is really friendly and will talk to you even if you dont speak Ukrainian
10. Omg they seriously play DOTA here...this guy next to me has a lvl 16 crynx
Anyway we survived Aerosvit airlines and are now in Kyiv. Today we went to the caves monestary and saw the undergroun entombed monks and the UNESCO listed monestary. We went to the great partiotic War Museum with its epic assortment of weaponry and 62m high titanium statue of victory bearing the old soviet emblems and 2 mobile phone towers standing on top of it. I also learnt that unlike the west you cannot just wander through a museum, you must look at everything so not to be disrespectful. Finally we went to the great churches and cathedrals that have made Kyiv so recognisable, they were amazing and had a really different feel to the churches we have seen so far...oh and we got really lost again.
So despite being in such a different place we have survived and tomorrow we are off to significantly lower my chance of having children...we are off to Chernobyl...
Our next stop was warsaw and we were immediatly greetedby the Palace of Science and culture. It looks a bit like the empire state building and was a gift from Moscow to Stalin...everyone hates it. After getting settled in our epic Communist themed room wewent to the old town which was really pretty and immaculately reconstructed after being leveled during the war. We checked out theWarsaw museum of history and then went to the Church of the holy Cross which has Chopin's heart inside on of the pilars. Next we went to the Chopin museum, Hannah was really excited, unfortunatly it was shut.
Things Peter Learnt: Because some guy in Brussels decided to give lots of new EU countries so fix their national monuments so they dont block climate change legislation everything is either covered in scaffolding or is shut.
So instead we went to the Polish Army museum. IT WAS EPIC! Along with a complete T55 tank they had a katuskya rocket lancher, lots ofother planesand tanks including a home-made tank from the Warsaw uprising. I was very excited when ifound a shell from "Dora" the biggest railway gun ever made...it was 80cm indiametre! Next we went to the Warsaw uprising Museum, which documented theuprising against the Germans in 1944,it was very sad especially as after all the fighting the Home army leaders were allarrested by the Soviets for collaborating. It waslike a maze though and we kept getting lost.
Finallywe headedoff to Krakow and on our first day headed out to Oswiencim more commonlyknown as Auschwitz. The whole experience is something neither of us will forget.we started off in Auschwitz I, which was the smaller of the three main camps that made up auschwitz as we know it. We took a tour guided by a lady that sounded like a vampire and saw some amazing things. The 90cm wide standing cells where prisoners were kept for days on end. the wallofdeath werethousands were shot and more shocking were the rooms of confiscated items. Whole rooms or shoes,brushes, glasses, and even human hair...they hada rollof cloth made of it,it was very disturbing. After we went out to Auschwitz birkenau,a camp 30 times larger than the first. This was where the crematoria were...of the 300+ wooden barracks oringinally there only 7 remained but they were huge and it was hard to imaginethe pain and suffering that went on in them. Of the crematoriums only ruins remained but they served as a powerful reminder of the industrial murder that happened there. The railway line still runs into the camp through the famous gates, and i think it is stillconnected to the main grid.
Things Peter Learnt: no lulz...serious business, it was very moving and sad
Today we went upto the beaufiful castle and hada look around and then headed out to the salt mines. Ranging between 68 and 350 metres under the groundare over 300kmof tunnels used to mine saltover the last 700 years and most awesome of all the miners have carved some very beautifulsalt statues all throughout the complex. There were Gnomes and dwarves,lots of virgin maries,the pope,and some breathtaking friezes of scenes from the bible including the last supper. It was very cool and i now want my own mine. After we actually had a pianist do a piano c\recitalin the mine and he performed lots of Chopin pieces...hannah was happy again.
Things i learnt: Getting hannah down 600 steps is easier than getting her up them...a lift is even easier.
Hey guys time for the long awaited update from Germany, looking at the three places we have visited this time around, Köln, Hamburg and Berlin.
Köln: Arriving from London...we went to the beautiful Kölner Dom, which we found out had the bones of the three wise men in a golden reliquary. It was the most interesting church we have been to and had some of the most beautiful windows, and mosaic floors not to mention some pretty epic relics and europes oldest crucifix. The next day much to Hannahs joy we went to the chocolate museum. Which showed the process of making some of the tastiest chocolate in the world and a whole museum on how it came to be and some of the cool chocolate products of the last century...oh and a chocolate fountain.
Things Peter Learnt: The 1976 Asterix toy that came in one of the original kinder surprises is now wporth 950 euro!
That was pretty much all there was to do in Köln, oh i also climbed the cathedral and caught 2 legendary pokemon...obviously these were 2 separate events...now to Hamburg.
Hamburg: After checking out the medieval rathaus which lied to us about tour times we went to MINIATUR WUNDERLAND!!!! the largest indoor model railway in Europe and possibly the world...it was the happiest day of my life...so far. It was over 900m2 in size and took up 1.5 floors of a warehouse in the harbour district. There were scenes from Hamburg, America, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Germany, and had over 1000 locomotives. The whole warehouse had a day night cycle so all the lights came on and it had a real pond for an ocean with moving boats! Other highlights were a sumo wrestling competition, a dragon in the mountain, a concert with thousands of little people, hamburg stadium and 2 people having sex in a bush :) it was so cool i was humming for hours. Next we went to the slightly less miniature but equally cool Ethnographic museum which had a cool collection of masks, and artifacts from the South seas...there be dragons...oh and hannah found the Indonesian god of heavy metal...i will post the picture later.
The next day we went for a cruise on the Alster lakes which was lovely and then spent the afternoon wandering the docks to look at some of the old ships and stumbled upon a large statue of Bismark. After a long day we retired and a large jolly german fellow in our dorm taught us some german.
Things Peter Learnt: Spongebob Squarepants in German is 'Spongebob Schwammkopf' which literally translates to 'Spongebob Spongehead'. The literal German translating for Spongebob Square pants is 'Spongebob viereckiger hosen.'
Finally berlin...IT WAS THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE! I finally got to drive my tank. We arrived in the little town of Fürstenwalde and got Karl the very cool cabby to drive us to the tank ground. I got into my T55 with Hannah perched on the back and got to tear around a field for a good 30 mins. The gear stick was a nightmare and i can now say i have stalled a tank! my navigator assured me it was because of 'russian technology', it was so much fun.
Our 2 days in berlin started with a walking tour which took us to the Brandenburg gate, the holocaust memorial, the site of hitlers bunker (is now a carpark) the Lüftwaffen building, the Gestapo office (which is a hole in the ground), museum island and checkpoint charlie. After we tried to go to the Pergamon museum which has the gates to the hanging gardens of babylon but to our disappointment it was closed for renovations and didnt even have any pokemon...blatant false advertising. So instead we went to the STASI museum and saw the rather scary array of listening devices for a country we leanrt had 1 spy for every 63 people!!! Today we went to the Reichstag, the east side gallery to see the longest stretch of the Berlin wall left standing, and then the Jewish museum...It documents over 1000 years of Jewish history and Ironically takes about that long to get through...it sounds terrible to say that by the time be got to 1945, we were glad to be done with it and leave.
Things Peter Learnt: You cannot find any atms in Berlin, and the underground maps are shit.
Until Poland, bye all, from hannah and peter
Here´s a quick photo update from the aforementioned places!
Peter and I at Mt Jungfrau in Switzerland (it was quite cold :p)
At the top of Castle Hill in Prague
Sedlec Ossuary, Kutna Hora (Czech Republic)
On the Danube River, Budapest
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Statue Park, Budapest (Peter with Comrade Lenin :p)
Schloss Schönnbrunn Palace, Vienna (summer palace of the Hapsburgs)
OKTOBERFEST!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok what has happebed up until now? Well after Prague we went to....OKTOBERFEST!!! which imight add was awesome! We went on lot of rides and due to some clever sneaking and some jolly good luck we snuck past the lines and got into the Hofbräuhaus, the most awesome beerhall at the festival holding some 10000 people, (with a very large proportion of Aussies) Many steins were had and we hung out with the ferals.
Things Peter learnt. If you go to the Hofbrauhaus and you wear underwear it will be torn off you and placed on a giant flying pig
Things Peter learnt before going there. see above
After this we went to Switzerland for 2 nights making a fun stop in Lauterbrünnen in the most awesome campsite ever as it was in a vally right under the Jungfräu, one of the largest mountains in Europe at 4100metres. The next day we took Europes highest cog railway up to the summit.This was very exciting as it was hannahs first time seeing snow, and my first time to throw snowballs at her. It was one of the best days of our tour so far, however we all got a little altitude sick. We were sorry to leave.
We then spent a cold and wet night in Heidelburg,but finally we arrived in Amsterdam! On the first night on the town we explored the red light distict amd the night life.
Things Peter Learnt. That Red light districts are...interesting
The next day we went to Anne Frank's house which was very interesting and after lunch went to a museum that looked at some of the more liberal tendancies of this wonderful city. :P .That night was had the final dinner for our contiki tour and then headed back to London the next day, going through belgium (in transit)
Oh whats that hostel man? are you trying to say something to me? well i cant hear you because my ears are still ringing from DRAGONFORCE!!!!! we went to see them last night and it was awesome...It was also Hannahs first metal concert, and we both had a great time...oh and as well as seeing a live performance of 'through the fire and the flames' hannah found 10 pounds!
We are now in Cologne and are looking forward to the next part of our journey.
Things Peter Learnt. Hardcore dancers are a bloody menace to society and should be put in camps.
Sorry its been a while!
So after we left Dubrovnik, we drove up the coast to Zadar, a major coastal city in Croatia. On the way we stopped in Split for lunch, which is where the Roman Emperor Diocletian built his massive retirement palace in the 5th century (i think?) Most of the palace and one of the world's oldest churches are still there, it's quite cool.
Zadar was just an overnight stop on our way to Budapest, and we were hit by more bad weather. It suddenly got very very windy... So windy that our tent pegs kept getting ripped out of the ground (again) and they closed the highway the next day, beacuse it was too dangerous.
Next stop was Budapest! We had one full day to explore this beautiful city, and saw the main sights- the castle, St Matthias' Church, the statue of St Stephen (the first King of the Hungarians). Peter and I were very excited because we had discovered a very unique attraction in Budapest- a place called Szobor (Statue) Park. Basically after the communist regime in Hungary collapsed in the 1990's, they had all these inspiring communist statues that were now pointless. So they moved them all outside of town into this park and made into a huge tourist attraction. It was really quite cool- however getting there was an adventure! Hungarian is the most impossible language in the world and when we got on the bus we thought was the right one, the bus driver spoke no English... Thank God he spoke German and we had the only person fluent in German on our tour with us! Anyway we got there, and it was totally awesome. The first statue they had was Stalin's feet (which were huge!) The rest of the statue of Stalin was chopped to pieces when he died. They had various other cool statues, and we took some very cool photos and bought some very cool souvenirs (Peter got a 'Best of Communism' CD :p). That night we had a scenic dinner cruise along the Danube River, showing us all the riverfront sights of Budapest by night. That was really nice.
Next, we were off to Vienna. The first night there we headed off to Prater, a famous amusement park. We went to a beer hall and had delicious schnitzels, then rode on some go-karts and bumper cars which was awesome fun. The next day we walked through the grounds of the Hofburg Palace (former residence of the Hapsburgs), visited a Holocaust memorial, St Stephen's Cathedral and the Mozart Museum. That night we got to go and see the Vienna Residence Orchestra perform some Mozart and Strauss which was really amazing.
After Vienna, we headed to Prague. The first day in Prague Peter and I visited the Museum of Communism, and took a day trip out to this town called Kutna Hora, to see the Sedlec Ossuary (a chapel filled of things made out of bones- pyramids, chandeliers and such). That was totally awesome, and the town was really pretty. The second day we headed up to Prague Castle, visited the cathedral where the tomb of King Wenceslas is (as in the Xmas carol) and saw the former royal palace.
That's all I have time for folks- my internets time is up. You'll have to wait to hear about our adventures at Oktoberfest!! :)
Love Hannah and Peter xoxo
