Travel to Russia, Siberia, Irkutsk.

Woke up this morning after a really bad night's sleep. I had been really dehydrated during the night and had to keep getting up for drinks of water. I was gutted when I had finished all the water in the jug. I think Olga had filtered the water especially for us, and I didn't fancy giving the tap water a go. I still felt ropey, and couldn't manage any breakfast. I must of been really ill to leave my grub untouched. I finished off my packing and took some photos of the izba and Olga. I bet she was glad to get rid of us, as she could move out of her shed and back into her house. When I say shed, I mean it was as small as a shed, but super pimped.

Our driver came and drove us back to Irkutsk. The journey was uneventful this time, as we weren't stopped by the traffic cops. I arrived at my homestay for the night. I was parting company from Chris and Peter, as they were staying elsewhere. Peter gave me his number so I could contact them if I was still ill.

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Travel to Russia, Saint Petersburg.

The St Petersburg story continues at about 30 minutes past midnight (nominally thought of as "last night"). That’s when we got back to the cabin, set the wake-up call for 5:30 in the morning, and went straight to bed. That first day had been phenomenal, but was really exhausting.

The alarm went off as scheduled and we sprang spryly out of bed (if you believe that we should talk about some hot investments), got dressed and the carry-bag repacked for another day. We went up for a quick breakfast and headed off the ship again. We got through immigration quickly this time (everyone seemed to have been ashore the day before so the line went fast) and found the right place for our tour bus. All this was before the 7:00 AM departure time. And once again our bus was one of the first ones to leave (second today), but that got us ahead of the pack. But today is Monday and the local folks were also on the road going to their work.

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Travel to Russia, Siberia, Krasnoyarsk.

The first task of the day is to cross the border back into Russia. We're braced for the usual hours of hanging round when suddenly its all over and we're through. 30mins to leave Kazakhstan, 90mins to get into Russia - its the smoothest & quickest crossing we've had

As soon as we enter Russia the landscape is totally different. The Western Siberian Plain is still flat, like the Kazakh steppe, but there's no grassland, its all crops - giant fields of sunflowers, wheat, potatoes. The European style houses have gone and we're back to gingerbread cottages. The roadside cemeteries have gone and we now have onion domed chapels.

We head north, through the fields, to Barnaul where we cross the River Ob whose banks are full of locals sunning themselves. Its the world's 7th longest river, from Barnaul it continues north for a couple of thousand km eventually reaching the Arctic Ocean. We leave the river and head east to rejoin the Trans-Siberian Highway.

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Travel to Russia, Siberia, Novosibirsk.

We were in a 4-person cabin, but the other two people were travelling only overnight, so all the following day (until we got off the train mid-afternoon) was just the two of us, which gave us a bit more space (both physically and mentally) to relax. We were well prepared with food and tea bags (water is free from the samovar, which is such an evocative symbol of the train that in Kungar there is a monument of a samovar). I have found it helps to be strict with structuring the day, deciding on set meal times and what will be eaten, to prevent a collapse of discipline resulting in continuous snacking and frustration! I thought I would spend hours on end reading, and I did, but also spent a lot of time just looking out of the window. The classic Siberian landscape - hours and hours of trees passing by the window, with nothing breaking the landscape -
Through the train windowis mesmerising to look at and it is hard to comprehend the size of Russia. I looked out for bears, but I have never heard of a sighting of one from the train, so it was probably hopeless.

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Travel to Moscow, Russia.

Country/Town visited: Moscow, Russia
Date of stay: Easter, April 2010
Where you stayed: Petrovka Loft
Travelled with: Group of friends
Tour or pre planned: Pre planned

In April 2010 my partner and I with another couple did some independent travel in Russia. Russia is not the easiest country to get into and the process to obtain a visa is not the cheapest.  You’ll need to factor this into the length of time you’d like to stay. We went for four days but given the cost of the visa we probably should have gone for longer. 

With regards to the visa you need to get an invitation. You can do this in one of 2 ways, either ask your hotel/tour company to provide this or if they can’t/won’t, you can buy one online. We did the latter through –http://destinationrussia.com/russian_visa.html. It was a fairly easy process and we received our tourist invitation via email, shortly afterwards. Click on the following link to view the Russian Visa requirments. 

We then needed to submit this with our application, passport, application fee and visa fee at the Russian Embassy. The Russian Embassy in London was very specific as to when you can drop off and also when you can pick up, so make sure that you check times before making the journey. 

Red Square is one of the first stops for tourists visiting Moscow. The Square was the Soviet parade ground and still is a show of armed forces on Victory day. Red Square is used for concerts, large events and other festivals. Each year the largest military parade takes place on 9th May, Victory day. As interesting as all of that is, the main reason that people visit the Red Square is to take photos of The Kremlin and St Basil’s Cathedral. 

The Kremlin is on the UNESCO world heritage list. It’s a historical fortress and the largest in the world. The State Kremlin Palace is located within the walls. Check opening hours first as we tried to get tickets but missed out due to timing. The Kremlin is shut on Thursdays and tickets can be purchased from the ticket offices at the Kutafiya Tower and Cathedral Square.

St Basil’s Cathedral is the most famous landmark in Moscow. The colourful onion shaped domes are iconic.  The Cathedral is now a museum and a very popular tourist attraction.

Due to the suicide bombings earlier this year on the metro trains in Moscow we’d advise travellers to check the following Safe Travel site prior to travelling and always exercise caution. With that said the Metro stations are breath-taking and we would definitely say they are a tourist attraction in themselves. The ornate and detailed ceilings are definitely photo worthy so make sure you practice your low light photo settings on your camera before you go. 

Bolshoi Theatre is stunning inside, they hold Ballet and Opera. The theatre is the parent company of Bolshoi Ballet Academy, a world-leading school of Ballet.

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