Train
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 22: Saint Petersburg
We finally arrive in St. Petersburg after what can only be considered a hot and horrible train ride. It makes us wish we did what the Chileans had done (which was take the bullet train between the cities, during the day). Oh well, at least this time our driver was present and waiting for us […]
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 19: Moscow
Admittedly it has been a little while, but rest assured we are not done posting yet. Apparently it takes a while to unpack and start to sort through 7500+ photos, but I digress… since we’ve just arrived in Moscow (at this leg of the journey). The adventure of not having our driver pick us up […]
Days 15, 16, 17 and 18: On the train – truly in the middle of nowhere
KM Marker 5185… When we first boarded the train, I am happy to report that we managed to find our birth with no major difficulties. It was one of the cabins towards the end of the carriage, #8 out of 10 to be exact. Amazingly we were excited at our future trek (this feeling would […]
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 […]
The dirty Hungarian phrasebook
I will not buy this record, it is scratched. When in on this trip, if I only say something this inoffensive I will be happy. For those of you wondering about the non-sequitur, enjoy a good skit. When at home communication is key. You need it in your job, with your friends, and to explain […]
So many things crossed off the list!
Awesome week!!! We got a lot checked off the prep list: Mongolian visas acquired! Whoot Derek! Hotel in Beijing booked (Soluxe Sunshine Courtyard Hotel) Hotel in Vilnius booked (Dvaras Hotel) Invite to China asked for and received Research on booking for train from St Petersburg to Vilnius started On the issue of the last item, […]
Rails Across the Curtain 
Day 20: Moscow – Metro Tour!
Today is the day where we had originally hoped to visit Stalin’s bunker. This hope was dashed as we found out a week or two before the trip that it was cancelled for some unknown reason (we later guess it may have had something to do with the May 9th celebrations). Instead we opted for a tour […]