About This Blog
On the 13th of October myself, and my good pal Michael Nelson, will be embarking on a journey starting in Europe, across into Asia, and eventually south to Australia.
Hopefully this blog will allow us to show our family and friends what we see along the way.
Enjoy.
One of our days in Krasnoyarsk was spent trekking round the Stolby Nature Reserve, about 22km in total, long old day. We bumped into a Russian guy and girl, who kindly offered to act as a make-shift tour guy. The nature reserve had these massive tall rock columns, and also loads of wild life.
Was quite weird trekking round a Nature reserve that has Wolves, Bears and Lynxs! Token picture of a cute Red Squirrel.
There were also some massive icicles that were beautiful. Interesting point, every year people in Russia are killed by falling icicles, so if you are here in winter, just watch out.
This is a picture of one of the rock formations. There were about 20 in total, all with names that seemed to vaguely reflect the appearance of the rock. This one in particular was called granddad, you can almost make out a face on the rock, if you squint...
We found this bridge in the city centre, where there was a dam and the whole area had been renovated. Newly married couples appeared to engrave/write their names on the padlock and then lock it to the fence on the bridge. Interesting sight, seeing hundreds of padlocks all along the bridge. Ah, young love.
Also in the city centre was a rather random, but pretty professional, monument to the Beatles. There was a big silhouette, and other paintings dedicated to the band. The love you give is equal to the love you take.
The next day involved a trip to the zoo, mainly because we weren’t quite sure what else to do... We had been told that the zoo was “one of the most compact in Russia”. Not really what you want to hear about a zoo. The zoo was crazy, and had some of the rarest animals in the world, some of which I doubt I will ever see again in my life. Snow leopards, Amur Leopards, Jaguars, Panthers, White Bengal Tigers, Lynxs, etc. Surreal.
This is just a quick shot of the front of our train. The inside, luckily, isn’t as Soviet-block-looking as the outside, and is actually quite nice.
We arrived safe and sound in Moscow. We explored alot of the city using the old, at first confusing, but eventually massively useful metro system. These trains got really busy any time after 4 oclock. Think we pissed off alot of commuters when rushing to get our first overnight train, due to hitting them with our backpacks.... opps.
This shows a panorama of Red Square, with St Basils Cathedral in the middle and the Lenin Mausoleum. The Cathedral is very beautiful, and very impressive. The Lenin Tomb is pretty weird, he looks just like a wax model, almost like the Russians could be playing a big joke on everyone... You have to go through massive security checks, and no cameras or bags are allowed in, yet the only fence next to the tomb is just a 2ft metal rope fence. Pretty sure if anyone really wanted to do anything, they could/would.
The sun actually came out on our second day in Moscow. The Cathedral looked even more impressive, with a background of clear blue sky.
Our first overnight train journey, probably something I'll never forget. Initially we met a great guy from Lebanon, who spoke both Russian and English, and wasn't shy with buying rounds of vodka! We also met a rather unsavoury character, who seemed cool at first. However it then came out that he had just been released from prison, on a murder charge... He then started demanded beer from us, as he was 'our guest', and became slightly more erratic. After that we quickly retreated to our compartment and waited out the journey while watching tv on the laptop, yeah culture. Alls well that ends well ay.
Bags packed, let's go....