Trans Siberian Travel report, Part 3

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Arrival in Moscow

We arrived in Moscow on the Jarsoslavl station; here I had to say goodbye to the VIVA group. They were booked in another hotel and were taking a different train back to Holland. (But I did meet two of them later on)

On the platform cabdrivers were touting for business and I took a driver who asked me 5$. Relatively speaking this is an awful lot (165 Rubles) but I couldn't care less, as all I could think about was my hotel room and taking a hot shower.
Unfortunately my shower had to wait a while as the taxi driver couldn't find my hotel. After a long search we finally reached a floor of a student flat that had been converted into a hotel.
The "hotel" itself wasn't geared for foreign tourists, after a long time somebody finally turned up to register me but then the other problem appeared: nobody spoke English.
After studying my passport for a while the owner/manager/receptionist disappeared into a room and returned with a Dutch student, who was studying Russian and was here on a scholarship. Only then could they explain me the rules & regulations of the hotel.

The Moscow subway (metro)

The Moscow underground is really brilliant. It's an extensive network of over 200KM long. Some old stations (very deep underground) are like palaces, really magnificent. The system is quite simple; above ground you throw a small coin (15-kopeck) into a machine and then you can go down.

It's a bit difficult at first to get an insight into the routing but if you have a map of the subway network it all clears up after a few rides and it's a pleasure to use the subway to get around town. Make sure to buy a colored map as each line has got it's own color; once you have that you should have no problems underground! Another reason for using the metro is to avoid the taxi drivers as they can be a pain! (Unless you show them $$$ then everything is possible)

A demonstration

While I was walking on Red Square I bumped into a pro Lenin demonstration. Jeltsin and his buddies want to put Lenin in a catacomb somewhere but these people did not agree; the felt very strongly that the Lenin mausoleum had to remain where it was.

A Russian man told me that two groups had found each other in this demonstration: the one group wanted to keep the mausoleum because they still believed in Lenin's' theories and the other group wanted to keep it because of the historic lessons to be learned from it.

Playing chess, parks and books

Playing chess is one of my hobbies and I spend long hours on the Internet chess server. According to our Western view all Russians play chess so I went out looking for parks where the game is played in open air. (In the train a Russian marked 2 parks on a map for me) but unfortunately I couldn't find anything in those parks, at least no chess players.
Like in China it's nice to just wander around, sit on a park bench and watch the people go by.
Although the temperature was only 5/6 degrees a lot of people were sitting there quietly, reading a book. This reading is one thing that struck me: in the parks, the subway you see a lot of people absorbed in their books and on the streets you see loads of bookstalls.

The Kremlin and Red Square

As I only had 1 1/2 day in Moscow I didn't feel like running around like an idiot from one place to another to see all the sights. So I didn't see many tourist places only the Kremlin and Red Square.

But there are enough beautiful things to see around the Kremlin as these pictures show.

Eating out in Moscow

Food, food one of my reoccurring topics. Never mind the stories: once you leave your Western values behind you can eat quite well in Moscow.
Of course the whole adventure of eating from foodstuffs in Moscow had something to do with it. If you had to do this day in day out you would get pretty tired of it all.
What I really liked is that they eat a lot of ice cream in Russia. It's only 5 degrees but everybody is queuing up for an ice cream; I saw (and experienced) this several times.

Meeting a travel companion

Saturday night a Russian friend of mine I met on the train, his girl friend and me went to see the 2 girls from the VIVA group. It turned out to be a very pleasant evening.
We all enjoyed the discussions between the Russian and his girl friend who worked for the news agency Tass; something he couldn't appreciate as according to him it was too much part of the old system. She from her side was glad to have a job at all.
A small minus with this Russian was that if you mentioned Holland he automatically thought Heineken, so I think I will send him a few bottles of Grosch (another Dutch beer) as a Christmas present.

A short walk in Moscow

Two cars in the streets of Moscow, left in the Kremlin, right in a side street.

I Think Pepsi Cola has an exclusivity agreement with Boris Jeltsin as the only Cola advertisement you see is of Pepsi Cola I didn't even once notice a Coca Cola sign board. And it was very popular considering the queue on the picture.

Here you have a photo I made on my walk through Moscow; a man and a boy trying to catch some fish, but it didn't work out for them.

Departure Moscow

Time passes fast in Moscow and unfortunately the time had come to get on the train to Berlin. From my hotel I walked to the Belarus (White Russian) station from where the trains leave in a Western direction. I got there 1 1/2 hour early (quite an exciting moment really; even though two trains leave daily for Berlin; you have to wait at least a week for a seat). As it turned out I needn't have hurried as the train departures are clearly marked on each platform and as I was holding a booked & confirmed seat nobody could steal my place.

Border crossing Russia/Poland

Again the carriage was put on another undercarriage. I detrained and found out two hours later that our train was due to leave from another platform. A tricky moment which turned out well in the end.

Poland

I don't have much to say about this part of the journey (I was night, so I didn't see much). The other passengers got out in Warsaw and nobody got in so from Warsaw to Berlin I had the compartment all to myself.

Border crossing Poland/Germany

Of all the border crossings I made. this was the toughest. The Germans wanted to check everything. In the compartment next to me two Polish boys had two bottles of Vodka too many and they couldn't/wouldn't pay the import duty so they were forced to empty the bottles into the toilet. (What an alcohol abuse!)

Berlin

I had booked myself a good hotel in the Western part of the city. I thought I deserved it after Beijing, train journey and Moscow). So I soaked for two hours in a warm bathtub, which was really great.
After that I went in to town. Went to the Bahnhof zoo first to buy a Dutch newspaper from the stand (all the other shops were closed). As they had no choice in Dutch papers I ended up with "de Telegraaf".

After that I went to Mc Donald's for some real greasy Western fast food and to read my paper.
The paper mentioned the new racism in Germany (they had just finished celebrating one year of united Germany) and to be honest this spoiled my mood.

Meanwhile it was already 10PM and when I heard African drums coming from a nearby square I went to look. Black and white were playing music together and dancing in the streets; I stood there and watched for at least one hour. After all the depressing news I had just read this was brilliant.
The next day I went for a long city walk. Even though Berlin in one city now it's easy to see if you're in the Western or Eastern part mostly because of the striking Western advertisement compared to the dreariness of the Eastern part
Berlin is prohibitively expensive... just the day before I was eating a smoked salmon sandwich for 0,20$ now I had to pay 3$ for a beer (OK the glasses were big but still...)

The end

Time flies in Berlin and now the time had come for me to board m train with destination Utrecht (Holland). Compared to the Russian trains this train seemed to fly over the rails (I had a perfect night's rest too). At half past eight in the morning a Dutch conductor asked for my ticket so I concluded that I had arrived in Holland by now. So I never noticed the German/Dutch border (is this a sample of 1992?)
I went to the bank to change my left over Rubles and it turned out they would only give me 1/3 of the actual value.

Meanwhile we've had a kind of reunion in Holland, looked at each others pictures (and ordered extra's) it was strange but fun meeting again after 4 weeks but everybody was there!

Travel Costs

The travel agent advertised a price of 1995 NLf (1000$) for the flight to Beijing, 5 night in a hotel, and the train back to Berlin. For the extra stop in Moscow I had to pay another 150NLf (75$) and of course a markup of 150NLf as a punishment for travelling alone. This and a few small extra's (visa for China and Russia and a travel insurance) brought the total paid to the travel agent around 2500NLf (1250$). Beijing was quite cheap for a very good meal in a restaurant you have to count on 7$.

The train and Moscow itself are ridiculously cheap as the market rate gives you an enormous amount of Rubles for your hard currency. (It need to be said that I didn't buy in hard currency shops as these give you Western value and quality for a Western price)

Once you experienced Beijing and Moscow, Berlin is very expensive. For a hotel I paid 140DM (75$). As I had no reservation I had to chose a hotel with an empty room; if you book in advance you can find something for 75DM (36$)
Money in Russia is a special story. I had bought a travel guide of a few years old and that gave a Dutch guilder as 3 Ruble 40; but this is an artificial rate because of the pressure of the world economy (must be the gang of 7) Now the exchange rate is governed by demand and the Ruble is now only 0,06 Guilder. Not knowing this I changed 100$ at the border and received 3336 Ruble in return. Quite a fortune if you know that the average wage is 600 Ruble a month and it made me feel very rich.

Life in Moscow is very cheap for us Westerners, at least if you do things the Russian way and queue up for a bite at a roadside stall or eat in a local restaurant.
There are a lot of hard currency shops and restaurants where you can eat and shop Western style but then you may as well take a caravan filled with Dutch food to a French camping site.
With the current exchange rate the black market is no longer interesting; officially you get 33 Rubles to the Dollar and on the black market 37. For this small difference it's not worth to take any risks.
Talking about money: In China they have thought of something different: they have special "tourist money" which is what you get when you change money. Officially you're not allowed to pay in local Chinese currency when you're a tourist but they are not very strict about it. Luckily I must say because when you pay with your tourist money they give you your change in ordinary money.

This is a small account of my costs for the whole trip (in US$)

1250, - to the travel agency
  75, - Return journey from Berlin
  20, - Reservation surcharge from Berlin
  25, - Excursion to the great wall, bicycle rental, sightseeing in Beijing
  75, - Food and Drink Beijing  
  15, - Food and drink on the train
  25, - Food and drink in Moscow
  75, - Hotel in Berlin
  50, - Food and drink in Berlin