Amsterdam

(Berlin - Amsterdam 577km/358 Miles)
Total distance traveled = 14,745 km/9162 Miles

By this point I was getting a bit tired of constant travelling. Although I was stopping in cities for a few days, I wasn't really resting. I felt that I needed to see as much of the cities as I could, so was constantly walking around seeing the sights. I had planned to visit other German cities, a couple of places in the Netherlands, and perhaps even Belgium. But at this point decided I'd rather take a more direct route and spend more time at home. I got a train to Amsterdam, and at the same time booked a ferry back to the UK - timing my arrival in Warrington with my mum's birthday.
I know that some people take a year out and travel a lot more than this, but I'm not sure I could do such a long trip. Maybe mixing in more relaxing beach destinations, or staying in places longer would help. Equally, perhaps it's my personality and other travelers don't feel like that have to try and see everything in one go.

Amsterdam didn't impress at first. It was busy, raining, and the first parts of the city I saw were the areas full of 'coffeeshops' and the red light district. As I wandered around looking for the hostel, I wondered why I'd bothered coming. It got better though.

The hostel was away from the squalor and situated near a nice park. It was modern and clean, but a bit big. What am I saying, it was massive. Easily the biggest hostel I've ever been to. This meant it had more of an impersonal hotel feel. Lots of the people staying there were in big groups (school, college, hen parties, stag parties) which meant it was les likely that you'd get chatting to strangers. Although I did speak to a couple of Spanish guys, a Scottish lad, and a Japanese guy, this was more from my efforts to talk to people rather than a friendly atmosphere bringing people together.

Away from the centre, there were some nice areas of the city and during my stay I found some quiet streets, nice little shops, and interesting architecture. There didn't seem to be as many 'must see', 'big' sights compared to the other places I'd visited on the trip. This meant I felt I could relax a bit more and take my time looking around over the three days I was in the city.

I visited the Rijksmuseum and saw Rembrandt's 'Nightwatch', Ann Frank's House, and the Van Gogh Museum (suprisingly it wasn't busy!). I also went out for a few drinks and sampled some of the wares at a couple of the coffeeshops.

I left Amsterdam by bus, and boarded a ferry in Zeebrugge back to the UK. The bus was full of drunk lads who had been on a stag night. Luckily the ferry was big enough to avoid them and I had a few drinks before my last night on the road (or should that be sea).

Not so many photos this time...
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Amsterdam/?albumview=slideshow

Berlin

(Brest - Berlin 699km/434 Miles)
Total distance traveled = 14,168 km/8803 Miles

I woke up in another country, again. This time I hadn't changed all my money. Thinking I might have to pay something at customs or crossing the border, I kept the 70,000 or so Belarusian Rubles I had in my wallet. There's a 'National Health Insurance' scheme which all visitors to Belarus are supposed to have. I'd heard a few travellers saying that they'd been told they had to buy this. Nobody mentioned this to me though (probably as I was leaving the country and it was too late), and so I was left with all these rubles and nowhere to change them. I don't think it's possible to change them anywhere except within Belarus, but 70,000 is only about £8 (1,000 yen) so it's not that big a loss.

After grabbing a McBreakfast, I headed to my hostel in Berlin. It wasn't really near the centre, but the city itself is quite spread out meaning I'd have to use the metro quite a bit anyway. The hostel itself was nice, but there wasn't much of an atmosphere there. I chatted to a few people on the first and third night, but generally everyone seemed to spend their time out in Berlin.

There was a lot to see and do in the city, so I ended up staying an extra night. This was also partly to get a cheaper onward train. During my time in Berlin, I visited...

A Dali exhibition - bit disappointing as most of the exhibits were sketches, not paintings. Also a bit expensive compared to the other exhibitions in the city.

The Bauhaus Archive - more interesting than I expected. There was a lot of information in the small, Bauhaus designed building. It helped to show how influential the movement was in modern design.

The German Guggenheim - exhibitions constantly change, the video one there when I visited was OK, but nothing to write home about.

Topography of Terror - A museum dedicated to the Nazis rise and reign in Germany. Very interesting and lots of photos/documents, but pretty heavy going. Not just the topic, but the length and number of texts meant that this felt like I was reading a badly written textbook.

The Berlin Wall - lots of different sites for this. The most interesting were a place where the wall and its 'death strip' had been recreated, and the preserved area with wall murals in the East of the city. Lots of photos of these murals in my gallery!

The Neu Gallery - One of the better galleries from my trip. Quite a range of different artists, lots of exhibits, and not at all busy. They linked a lot of the art to the historical background in which it was produced, which helped you to understand the artist's reason for producing the work.

I also went to a couple of weekend markets, the monument to Europe's murdered Jews, Brandenburg Gate, the site of Hitler's bunker, and lots more places. Berlin was really interesting, and it felt like there were a lot of different sides to the city. Unusually for me in a city, I felt I could have stayed a few extra days and still found more things to see.

Photos of the city...
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Berlin/?albumview=slideshow

Some photos of the graffiti/street art in the city....
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Berlin%20Graffiti%20and%20Street%20Art/?albumview=slideshow

Brest

(Minsk - Brest 345km/214 Miles)
Total distance traveled = 13,469 km/8369 Miles

As the journey was only 4 hours, I chose the lowest class. There wasn't actually much difference between the train and previous ones to be honest. Rather than having a lockable door there were extra beds along the side of the train, making the passageway a bit smaller. There were no English speakers though. Most of the other trips I'd found that people knew a little. This might have been a problem if I was on the train for longer, but equally it may just have been the other passengers and down to luck of the draw whichever class you're in.

I had no map of Brest, but my notes and sketches came through again. The city was smaller and so had slightly smaller streets and more green areas spread around the cities. Later in the day I also found pedestrianised areas with lots of outdoor cafes and restaraunts.

I couldn't find a hostel in Brest and so booked a hotel. It also made getting the Belarussian visa a little easier. It was nice to have a bit of private space for a change, but it did mean that I didn't really meet or speak to anyone for the 3 nights I was staying in Brest. The hotel itself was a bit grim from the outside. Imagine a massive block of concrete. All very 70's and Soviet. The room was better than I expected though.

The main sight in Brest was the fortress,. Originally built in the 19th century, it was the site of a major battle in WWII, when most of the buildings were destroyed. It was a massive waleld area with some monuments to the soldiers who defended the site, and a few buildings still standing. It was a change to find a historical site that hadn't been completely commericalised or restored. There weren't many people around, so I spent a bit of time wandering around on overgrown paths through buildings riddled with bullet holes before I went to the museum.

Brest was even cheaper than Minsk, and I had some problems getting my head around how little things cost. I ate in restaurants that were listed in my guide as the best in town (pretty swish places) and still found it difficult to spend more than about 10 pounds (1,500 yen). In fact, it made me think I should've stayed a bit longer in the country.

On the final day I bought a few small bottles of vodka to take with me and wandered around a bit more. I stopped in about 3 different coffee shops while reading, at one a tipsy Russian guy started talking to me (mostly in German) and offered to buy me a vodka. Amazingly, this was the first time this had happened. I declined though, not least because it was about 1pm. Still, he paid for my coffee.

I did have to go through customs when leaving Belarus, but it was much easier than I expected. No questions, no bag search, just a passport check. When we actually got to the border between Belarus and Poland guards came on board with sniffer dogs and a few questions for us, but it was still much less thorough than I'd expected. I had the cabin all to myself and a sink too. It was so comfortable that I slept through Poland.....sorry Poland.

More photos
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Brest/?albumview=slideshow

The entrance to the Fortress, complete with some nationalistic music being played on loudspeakers.

Minsk

(St Petersburg - Minsk 864km/536 Miles)
Total distance traveled = 13,124 km/8154 Miles

I arrived at the station about an hour before my train left as I was leaving Russia and entering Belarus. I had to get visas for both countries, and neither are known for being liberal so I was expecting quite a lot of paperwork and procedures. There was a sign outside the station for the customs office in Russian and English, but very few in the staion and all were in Russian. I eventually found the office with the help of a security guard, but it was closed. Slightly worried, so went to a ticket office to check what to do. Luckily there was an English speaking woman to help me explain the question. The cashier disappeared for about 10 minutes, then came back and basically said 'What's the question? you already have a visa'. So it seemed there were no procedures.
In fact, although they're seperate countries, there's no border control between Russia and Belarus. So I crossed the border without any checks on the train or in Minsk. Theoretically I guess it's possible to enter Belarus from and return to Russia without a visa, so long as you don't get stopped in the street by the police.

I was lucky on the train again in that I was sharing with someone who spoke pretty good English. He was a Belarussian who travelled a lot between the two countries with work, and so as well as chatting to me, he told me about places in Minsk, and helped me order the (free) meal on the train.

Arriving in Minsk, I found the hostel quite easily. It was dead in the centre of the city, in the shadow of the KGB building. It was another converted apartment, but not too cramped and pretty nice. The owner, Oksana, was very helped too. There was a German traveller (Franzen) and an Australian girl there when I arrived, then later a Japanese guy came for one night, and a Croatian too. I went out for a few drinks with the Japanese guy (Michihiro) one night too, it was nice to speak a bit of Japanese again!

The city was similar to Russian cities in that many buildings were new and Soviet style. The streets were wide and there were lots of expansive squares too. What differed was the cleanliness. I was hard pressed to find any litter or grafitti, and it was a lot quieter than I expected for a capital city. I'd planned the trip without knowing knowing much about the country, so I was pleasantly surprised. Everything was pretty cheap, and it was pleasant just to walk around the city and parks. There were unique elements too, like the proliference of Soviet symbols like the red star, or hammer and sickles. The functioning secret police is still called the KGB, and there's a statue to Dzerzhinsky (founder of the Russian Cheka - torn down in most other cities after the collapse of communism).

In the months before my visit there had been demonstrations, mainly fuelled by problems with the ecomony. The Belarussian ruble had been devalued by about 30%. This had made everything cheap for me, and people were desperate for foreign currencies too. Franzen spoke Russian and had a few friends in the city, and so he was able to change money at a higher rate (10,000 to the Euro, rather than 7,000). Oksana too was keen on me paying for the room in foreign currency.
I saw very few police over the first few days, then was surprised on Monday when there were uniformed police, military police, and undercover police around the city. There was some kind of event in the main square, and I guess a few officials - hence the security.

The city was a lot smaller than St Petersburg or Moscow and there were fewer specific sights to see, so my stay was more relaxing and I didn't feel like I had to rush around and see things. I hoped that Brest would be similar. It was around 4 hours away and I'd bought a train ticket for about 3 pounds! (400 yen).

Photos...

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Minsk/?albumview=slideshow

St Petersburg

(Moscow - St Petersburg 649km/403 Miles)
Total distance traveled = 12,260 km/7618 Miles

The trans-siberian railway stops in Moscow, but 'The Venice of the North' seemed a natural addition to my trip before leaving Russia.

I took another overnight train.It was the fanciest one yet,very new and clean with a tv in the room.It's a shame I didn't really appreciate these features, as I was asleep and wouldn't have understood anything on the tv anyway!

Arriving pretty early I'm the morning, I hung around the hostel for a while waiting to check in and took advantage of the free breakfast.The hostel was pretty nice but felt a bit cluttered and small compared to where I'd stayed in Moscow.

Heading out into the city I went straight to The Hermitage. A massive collection of art, which was a must see in St Petes.I whizzed through all the rooms pretty quickly, but it still took me about three hours!

I then headed onto The Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, which was built on the spot where Tsar Nicholas II was killed.It was pretty impressive inside, with mosaics covering all the walls.

Outside the church I ran into Georgia again.We had a chat over a coffee, then both went in search of an 'alternative' art area.It was similar to a lot of small attractions in Russia - hard to find, and hidden in or behind buildings.

The exhibition we'd planned to go and see (the best photos of the year) wasn't actually starting for a few days.Instead there was a pretty crap selection of exhibits including a selection of photoshopped pictures of a man on a turtle.

There was, however, a nice looking beer garden on the third or fourth floor. So instead of looking at art, we drank beer and laughed at all the arty-farty, posing types.

In the following two days I visited a Political History Museum, and Secret Police Museum. Both were largely in Russian but hd supplementary English guides. Although interesting, they were pretty heavy gong and at times it felt like I was reading a textbook. There were interesting parts though,and I'm lad I could visit the office where Lenin planned and made speeches from the balcony. I also went to a moden art gallery and The Russian Museum to look and pictures and rest my brain a bit after all that reading..

After all the sightseeing, I relaxed with a few drinks in the evenings. The New Holland complex with Georgia one night, and a few different places with a Mexican lad I met at my hostel (Raul) the other night. It seems to be a rule in Russia that bars should be difficult to find. While restaurants and cafes are on main streets and easy to find, bars are in squares with hidden entrances and often next to garages, wasteground,or unlit abandoned warehouses. It made for a feeling of achievement when we did actually find them, but I'm sure it won't help their profits much.

On the fourth day I had a bit of time for one last look around before I left St Petersburg,and Russia. When I arived at the train station I was a little concerned about what kind of procedures I might need to go through. There were signs fo a Customs Office,which I presumed I'd have to visit as I was leavig the country. The office itself wasn't as easy to find as the sign though. Eventually I found it, with the help of a security guard, but it was closed. Next I tried to ask a ticket sales woman. Luckily there was a woman who spoke English in the queue who helped me to translate. After a lot o faffing, I got a response of 'You have a visa, so there's no problem'. Amazingly, there is no border control or customs checks between Russia and Belarus despite them being seperate countries. So I hopped onboard and spent another night sleeping on a train. This time, on my way into a country I'd decided to visit on the basis that nobody I knw had been and I knew very little about it.

More photos...

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/St%20Petersburg/?albumview=slideshow

Moscow

(Perm - Moscow 1434km/891 Miles)
Total distance traveled = 11,611 km/7214 Miles

I'm slipping a bit with the blog! Maybe because it feels like there are a lot more things to do now im in the major cities in the West of Russia.

I arrived in Moscow at about 11am. The hostel seemed pretty close to the station,but there was no map on the website so I had to fiddle with google maps ad sketch a quick map for myself. Luckily it was very close,and my map was accurate enough to prevent me getting lost.

The hostel was more like a hostel this time,less like a converted apartment. On the first day,although I arrived early,I was pretty tired and didn't feel like trapsing around the city. Instead,I hung around the hostel. I did some (desperately needed) washing, and chatted to some of the other people around the hostel. I mainly spoke to the staff and Russian people there.

Viktoria is a member of staff there,but the hostel wasn't particularly busy so she had time to chat. She told me a few nice places to go in the city,how to get thereand how she taught English and this was only a side job.

I also spoke to Tamari and her daughter Asha (I guess she was about 6). I'm not sure exactly why they were in the hostel. Tamari didn't speak English and didn't seem to work in the hostel, but I never really asked why she was staying there... felt like I might be being rude. Anyway I did the usual games and picture drawing communicaton with Asha.

Later that evening I met Georgia again (Ulan Ude hostel). We went out to an Uzbekistan restaurant,had some random food (all pretty good),and caught up a bit. We had similar routes up to St Petersburg and so met quite a lot. The next day I went to the Kremlin. I didn't know much about it and only discovered just before going that it was a walled complex, not a single building. There were a number of churches, a theatre, the buildings used by the current government, a diamond exhibiton,and the main draw of the armoury (not as much armour as you'd expect - more a collection of valuable items). I also found time to go to Gorky Park,and a sculpture park (Including some communist statues).

The net day Georgia and I went and looked at the decorative metro stations. A lot of them have chandeliers, statues, and even a few mosaics. They're huge too, like big halls with pillars and marble. After that I went to a museum, then did a bit of souvenier shopping - bought a poster amongst other things, unlikely to get that home without it turning into a crmpled up mess!

On the third day I went to Novodevichy convent and cemetary. The convent is a UNESCO site, but I wasn't too impressed. It was expensive too. After I bought my ticket nobody checked it,so I wish i'd tried just walking straight in. The cemetery was much more interesting (there's a sentence I never expected to say!). A lot of famous and powerful people are buried there and their headstones and monuments are often very elaborate. I spent quite a long time wandering around with a Russian map hunting for graves. So now i have a selection of grave photos. Bet you can't wait to see those eh? They include Yeltsin, Khruschev, Eisenstein,and Bulgakov.

That took up most of my morning, so I spent the aftenoon looking around the Tretyakov gallery. I must be very uncultured,as it's apparently very famous but i'd never heard of it. It was ok,but didn't realy include alot of dfferent painting styles. There were quite a lot of portraits and landscaps from the 17th-19th centuries.They were ok,but a bit samey and I prefer more modern work.

After all that walking around I went to.....the ballet. Check me out! Maybe I am cultured after all. Another traveler at the hostel (Gregor) had mentioned that he had been to the ballet, and that it wasn't particularly expensive. The main Theatre, the Bolshoi,was closed for repairs but there were a couple of others still giving performances. I got the details of the youth group Gregor had been to see in a theatre next to the Bolshoi (I think they're actually connected and some performers may work in both) and asked Viktoria about how to get tickets. She mentioned wanting to go, so we arranged to watch Sleeping Beauty together.

It was the first time I'd been to the ballet,but it was fairly entertaining. Knowing the story helped,but i expected to be asking Viktoria questions. In fact we both got a bit mixed up and ended up checking parts of the story and performers who looked very similar! Not sure if I'd go regularly,but it'd be alright every now and then.

Afterwhat felt like a whirlwind of a stay in Moscow I just relaxed on my last day before I caught my next train. Another night train, this time to St Petersburg. It was the nicest one I'd been in on this trip. Didn't really matter though, as I boarded at midnight, pretty much went straight to sleep, then woke up when we were arriving in St Petes at about 9am the next day.

Lots more photos here, warning - lots of churches!

http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Moscow/?albumview=slideshow

Perm

(Yekaterinburg - Perm 380km/236 Miles)
Total distance traveled = 10,177 km/6323 Miles

No hostels in Perm. Well, none that I could find in guide books or the internet anyway. I wasn't keen on forking out for a hotel, so I looked for alternatives. A few years ago I'd joined a website called 'Couchsufing'. I wasn't sure if I'd ever use it, but after reading about the site I thought i'd see what it was all about. Basically, people who join the site can offer their couch (or spare bed/mattress) to travellers for free, or look for members who are offering a place to sleep. Members are organised by city and receive references and ratings from other members who meet, or stay with them. As well as offering a place to sleep, the site also gives the option to offer to meet for a coffee. This way you can help people around your city, without having them stay in your home. When I joined, I wasn't sure if I'd ever use the service, but I filled in a profile, added a few photos, and set my status to 'meet for a coffee' and 'couch not available'.

This seemed like a good time to try the site. I mean, if someone let me stay and we didn't get along I could still just go and stay in a hotel. With this in mind, I sifted through the site when planning the trip. I'm not sure how other members decide who to make a request to stay with, but I looked at a few (mainly superficial) factors....

* Do they look like a nutter in the photo.

* Do they speak English well enough for us to communicate.

* Do they sound normal in their profile write up.

....As I said, fairly superficial. I'd probably fail a lots of screenings if the same questions were asked of my profile. After looking through a few, rejecting nutter type photos, and the guy whose hobbies were 'shooting and hunting' (again probably normal in the middle of Russia, but added another element of risk in my mind), I sent requests to two people. One said they were away/busy on the dates I suggested, the other said OK. So I was going to a city in the middle of Russia where very few travellers go, and I was staying with someone I'd never met before, for three nights!

I emailed close to the time and Lana (the girl who I was staying with) said she couldn't meet me at the station at the time my train arrived. I wasn't too concerned about this and suggested I just hang around or wander around the city on my own. She said it was no problem for her friends to come and meet me though, so I'd be met by two more strangers...who I'd never even communicated with.

The city didn't look particularly appealing as I pulled into the station. After initially wandering the wrong way (no signs!) I found the exit, and two guys holding a sign with 'Hi David' on it, a bit like those you see at the arrivals department of airports. As a kid I'd always thought this was quite cool, but never going on business trips or hiring drivers meant that until now I'd never experienced it.

Illiya introduced himself and his friend Vladimir (bit more shy, and less English). They'd been put in charge of entertaining me until Lana was free at about 9pm. As it was hot, they suggested a 'picnic' by the river. By picnic, they meant a few beers and some crisps, but I wasn't hungry so that was no biggie. We drove down to the riverside and met 3 of Vladimir's friends sat by their car smoking a shisha/hookah (those waterpipe things that I associate with the Middle East/North Africa). Illiya was the only one with a good command of English, so he set about tranlating everything that they said. This continued for a while, then in the pizza restaurant where we went for coffee after. I felt a bit bad for Illiya, but he seemed to enjoy speaking English (he teaches English) and translated everything even when I said that he didn't neccessarily need to translate what was said if it had no relevance to me. The conversations ranged from my impressions of Russia and Russians, sports, Rope jumping (like bungee but the rope doesn't stretch), and a monkey that used to live in the pizza restaurant.

When I arrived at Lana's house (actually her parents, as she's living in China now and just back for the holidays) it felt a bit strange, but she was very welcoming and made me feel comfortable. We chatted for a while before I went to sleep, and I felt a little better with the whole 'staying in a strangers house' situation.

The next day we spent most of the day walking around the city, from her home to the old part of the city, a viewpoint, a military museum, parks, an opera house, etc. Lana knew a lot about the area from her family and wandering around herself, and told me a lot about the area. That evening I met her parents (they didn't speak any English, so when we needed to communicate Lana translated). Her father works for a television company (i think) and makes documentaries. He'd recently won an award for one of them. I think he was also involved in a magazine (which I would later be interviewed for!). Her mother made dolls and figures. I saw a few of them in the home. They were really good. They kind of remind me of stop motion animation figures, the kind I'd seen in an animated adaptation of The Tempest, or maybe A Nightmare Before Christmas. A bit dark, and fairytale-like.

The next day I visited the Perm 36 museum. A former GULAG prison camp. It was a pain to get there, and Lana suggested that it wasn't that great. But as this was the only reason I'd chosen to stop in the city, I still wanted to go and see for myself. I was driven to the bus station and helped to buy the ticket, before I was sent on my way for the day. I met a French Canadian girl on the bus going to the same place, so we managed to work out the correct stop and the right direction to walk the 3km to the museum once we got off the bus.

At the museum we team up with an Italian guy for an English tour, in order to spread the cost a little. There was some confusion at the start of the tour as the English guide didn't seem to understand our simple English quesitons about the tour. He seemed very nervous, but improved as the tour continued and was able to tell us quite a lot about the palce. The camp was interesting, but it seemed that the museum was underfunded and so wasn't as good as it could have been.

That evening, Lana's father interviewed me. It was for an article about foreigners visiting Perm, and so I expected questions about my travels. It was a lot more rigourous that I expected though, and went into topics like 'why did you move to Japan?', 'Why didn't you choose a job related to your degree?', and 'Will you stay in Japan forever?'. The kind of serious probing questions that I tend not to think about and don't really have answers to! It was quite interesting though. Again, my translator was made to work hard, but Lana dida great job of translating. I wonder if i'll get to see the finished article?

Overall, it was a lot better experience than I'd expected to have. The house and people were nice, I was given a lot more attention than I expected, I got a few home cooked meals, and I didn't encounter any nutters.

A few photos...
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Perm/?albumview=slideshow