A Blast of Wind in your Ear

As i am heading to Mongolia tomorrow (-18 there today) I will be off the air for the next couple of weeks..things are going well since we left Moscow..We first hit Novosibirsk following a 46 hour train ride…not a lot to see there but the nightlife was phenomenal…we had to leave after only one day due to the cost.. it’s interesting over here..the Irish bar is seen as being the cool place to go..when they hear that we are Irish they want to know if the bar looks authentic and if the Guinness tastes the same as at home…they are distraught if you tell them that the bar looks a bit daft and that the Guinness tastes like slop so in the interests of international relations we have to tell little white lies  

After Novosibirsk we got a train to Irkutsk..only 32 hours this time. Unfortunately this time there was no food being served on the train unlike the last.., and like idiots we didn’t have any..and had little money…so we could only afford one meal…..luckily some Russians stepped up when the hunger hit with a fair few shots of vodka…that knocked on the head the idea of consuming any food :). The people are very nice…they would give you the shirt off their backs..and want to  share everything…so completely removed from people at home..at the same time though, they can be very rough, shoving you out of the way in queues and trying to walk over you everywhere else.. In Irkutsk we took a trip to Olkhon Island in the middle of Lake Baikal..apparently the biggest freshwater lake in the world. ..finally some part of Russian is picturesque. It was magic..freezing cold but magic.. on the way to the island the bus was short on diesel so the guy stopped beside some roadwork’s, spoke to the guy driving a roller, took out a hose and then siphoned diesel out of the roller into the bus.. he then paid the roller driver…….

We have met 3 German lads… they are journeyman carpenters… they leave home once they have finished their apprenticeships to learn how carpentry works in other countries. They cannot return within 50KM of home for at least 3 years and 1 day. They dress like cowboys…see attached picture..

they are a great set of lads and the 5 of us are going to stick together for the next 2-3 weeks..should be fun.. they carry all their belongings in little bags..and that’s all they carry..it weights 8 kilos and that includes some of their tools…unreal…

We are planning now a 7 day tour around Mongolia with a company…we will be staying with natives and going hopefully to the Gobi desert..

I’ll give ye an update once we reach Beijing in about 2-3 weeks…till then

I thought it was about time I dropped a short note and told ye how things are going..so far it’s going pretty ok..I landed in Prague and met up with John (travel friend). From there we got the train to Warsaw, we then missed our connection and would have had to wait for the next train (the following day) which would royally have screwed our Russian Visa so we were left with the decision on how to catch up with our train…we grabbed a taxi to the airport, got a flight to Vilnius in Lithuania (Hearts Country) and beat the train there by 4 hours..man was it a rough town…the place was wall to wall bums…and filthy dirty…so a couple of 50c beers were required!!! We caught the train from there to St Petersburg..we shared with a Russian couple and their 20 month old child..who now knows how to “hi five” thanks to our little contribution in his upbringing..Tim had some English and wanted to spend the night talking to practise..he taught us a lot of useful Russian phrases and how to count…this has proved useful in a country where if you start a question in English they stare at you as if you are sh1t on their shoe.

St Petersburg is some place…after a night at the hostel we decided to walk around the city..the main street is about 3-4KM long and appears to have no speed limit….lads..the ladies are phenomenal…each and everyone looks like a model…and the worst part is most of them are on the arm of short, fat, balding, ugly Russian men (lee, there is hope for you yet!)…we must have walked 10K a day around the city taking in the sights….a couple of nights in the pub with the odd crazy Russian thrown in…quick tip…DONT MENTION GEORGIA…John did and the response was swift…the president of Georgia was described in some foul Russian which was later translated to mean the son of a black female goat..another night was spent in a pub called Mollies which apparently was the first pub in St Petersburg to be opened..ya got to admire Irish entrepreneurship…

Next we moved onto our current location…Moscow..not half as nice as St Petersburg and very much still looks in desperate shape when you go outside the city centre.. the Kremlin is pretty impressive and intimidating…..will be hitting Lenins tomb tomorrow…the whole country is mad..you can walk down the street at 9 in the morning and you will meet someone with a bottle of beer in their hand…beer is sold from stalls EVERYWHERE…in the evening you look out of place if you don’t have a beer in your hand as you walk along…it’s so hard to fit in over here!!!!!

The language is hard to understand but am getting there slowly…the Russians also have no concept of private space…then literally stand on top of you when queuing and its considered ok to shove them off…..all in all…we are coping admirably!!