Police & Security
Day 25: Vilnius
Our train arrived in Vilnius at an ungodly hour of the morning. We disembark and then try to figure out how we can get to our hotel. We had mapped out that a taxi would be the best bet, however we had no local currency, and the shops were all closed so exchanging it was somewhat difficult. Off in […]
Day 24: Saint Petersburg
And continuing on with our last (full) day in Russia!* (there is a good story about this at the end. It involves borders, bribes and Brits). We arrived at Kazan Cathedral. Like all active churches, we couldn’t take photos inside, but suffice to say it was much like St Petersburg itself: very Russian but oddly […]
Day 21: Moscow
[aside: still alive and still posting – just getting distracted with summer gardening] Even with the late night we were able to spring (or crawl, depending which one of us you ask) out of bed. We headed down for breakfast with Rodrigo and Jose – which turned into just breakfast with Rodrigo since Jose slept in. […]
Day 15: Irkurst
Today we were driven from Listvyanka to Irkutsk. The driver came by right on time and was also carrying the Canucks into town (it was much easier for them to hitch the ride at a reasonable fare than try the “public bus”, if you can call it that). Before leaving the night before, on the […]
Day 13: Lake Baikal – Rest Day!
We hadn’t planned to do anything today, as by now we were expecting to be feeling a bit tired. We were right! After greatly sleeping away the morning we went for a walk into town to explore the rest of the village and see a local art gallery. We walked up two of the 3-4 […]
Day 10-11-12: The train, the border and travelling to Irkust/Listvyanka
After saying goodbye to Ulaanbaatar on the eve of day 10 we boarded the train bound for our next destination, Irkust. Getting on the train was easy, we found our cabin (which we were sharing with the Chileans) and started to settle in. However trying to settle in resulted in a bit of a shock […]
Day 6-7: The Train to Ulaanbaatar
Friday (day 6), after 5 full days in Beijing, we had to get up bright and early to board the first leg of our Trans-Siberian journey. It was actually so surreal to be heading off on this epic cross-continent train journey that we kind of had to keep pinching ourselves to realize that it was […]
Currency Complexities
Beyond a shadow of a doubt I know why the EU was invented now! It isn’t for all of those ‘official’ reasons you’ve heard – it was because they all enjoy vacationing! And nothing complicates a vacation than dealing with many countries, each with their own set of coins and bills. Which brings me to our current situation… Distance […]
There are photography rules?
Derek and I enjoy many of the same things when we travel. Walking, exploring, markets, finding random street art, food, and of course, taking LOTS of pictures! (Our last trip together to BC netted about 2,000 photos for one week). With our television in the living room hooked up to a computer, and photos running […]
Rails Across the Curtain 