Estonia to Moscow by Train 2 April 2006
Our train was ready to board at 17.00. The cabin was very plush, soft sleeper is standard on this train, very cosy! We are sharing with a married couple, the lady is Russian and the guy is Estonia - they are amused to be sharing with us and are gob smacked by our RTW proposal. They speak little english but we manage to communicate effiently enough for them to rest our fears about border crossing scams. Russia is no longer the country of bribes, it can still happen occasionally however, the officals make life hard for the locals and leave the tourists alone. We were advised that maybe 5 years ago were where all our horror stories had originated - bribing was then the norm. They even 'phoned a friend' who spoke good english, he reassured us that the customs law of claiming all monies had changed since our guide had been written (the guide advises all currency needs to claimed else lose it exiting Russia).
The train journey was very relaxing. After we acclimatised to the size of our cabin (small!) the view could really be enjoyed. The scenery didn't change much we just lost the trees. It was 22.44 when we reached Ivanogod for border control, no problems but it was an intimedating experience. Boiling water is on tap at every carriage, free tea (eh gran n other tea monsters I Know, thats our kind of train!) and the toilets are good. Arrival was 11 a.m. Moscow time.
First impressions of Moscow are very daunting as people don't readily smile and avoid eye contact. It is a reasonable 6 C, the only snow left is stacked in dirty oily piles at the road side.
Mission #1, get the tube to our hostel. This could be broken down by countless obsatcles - no matter how simple the directions are or how easy it looks on the map, don't be fooled! The tube's in London are a blessing in comparision! Once we realized we were gonna get nowhere with everything written in English we set about translating our directions into cyrillic and we started getting somewhere (well almost!). On first approach the locals come across as hard faced but infact they are extremely helpful and warm. It took an hour an a half to find the place, we were to early for checkin so headed to find lunch we had not eaten since 18.00 the previous day - it was now 12.30!
The train journey was very relaxing. After we acclimatised to the size of our cabin (small!) the view could really be enjoyed. The scenery didn't change much we just lost the trees. It was 22.44 when we reached Ivanogod for border control, no problems but it was an intimedating experience. Boiling water is on tap at every carriage, free tea (eh gran n other tea monsters I Know, thats our kind of train!) and the toilets are good. Arrival was 11 a.m. Moscow time.
First impressions of Moscow are very daunting as people don't readily smile and avoid eye contact. It is a reasonable 6 C, the only snow left is stacked in dirty oily piles at the road side.
Mission #1, get the tube to our hostel. This could be broken down by countless obsatcles - no matter how simple the directions are or how easy it looks on the map, don't be fooled! The tube's in London are a blessing in comparision! Once we realized we were gonna get nowhere with everything written in English we set about translating our directions into cyrillic and we started getting somewhere (well almost!). On first approach the locals come across as hard faced but infact they are extremely helpful and warm. It took an hour an a half to find the place, we were to early for checkin so headed to find lunch we had not eaten since 18.00 the previous day - it was now 12.30!
posted by David at 2:14 am
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