Two Texans in the Snow! (aka "How We Almost Got to Visit a Russian Hospital")

The day after visiting the cat theater, we met Edward at the Metro station and headed out to the newly renovated Cosmonaut Museum, which Brian was especially excited about. We saw Gagarin's Vostok capsule (actually very spacious!), several models of orbiting spacecraft, landers, many engines and other space-related gear. Here is a pic of Edward standing next to (the stuffed) Strelka and Belka, the Russian dogs that went into space. It was here at this museum that we first started to noticed the pervasive stench of vodka permeating the air, particularly around men... and this was at 10am on a Sunday morning. According to my brother (and NPR), the average Russian consumes 18 liters of pure alcohol a year. Guess that explains the 3L bottles of vodka and the 5L bottles of beer we saw in the grocery store! (see pics)

That afternoon we headed over to a Christmas party thrown by Taryn, a high school acquaintance of mine who is now working in Moscow, and had some fantastic American-style Christmas cookies and Siberian Corona (a real brand of beer!). Here is a pic of a giant spinning Siberian Corona bottle on the side of the road (see pic). Since we were on an American food kick, Brian and I hit up Pizza Hut for dinner, incredibly thankful for their dual-language menu!

The following day we met up with Edward to head to Gorky park, an amusement park on the Moscow River that contains a test vehicle for the abandoned Russian space shuttle program. It was snowing a bit, but we weren't too concerned, as the mayor of Moscow has implemented a "cloud seeding" program this winter to ensure that Moscow doesn't receive any heavy snowfall, which apparently is much cheaper than plowing the streets (this program of course is inciting much consternation in the small towns surrounding Moscow).

Anyhoo, turns out Gorky Park is closed in the wintertime. But I did get a picture of "Crapdogs" (Edward insists it says "Stardogs"), the hotdog stand outside the gates, though (see pic), and could see the shuttle from afar (see pic). Since our trip to the park was unsuccessful, we took a minor detour to a fantastic Georgian restaurant in a boat on the river... and it was here that my love affair with Khatchapuri (a Georgian cheese bread) began! (see pic) The following week I would end up braving the -27C temperatures to return to this restaurant (it was so cold the entire river had frozen) just of the for another taste of the Khatchpuri. :)

Throughout the day, the snow had continued to fall, accumulating on the ground and snarling traffic. The sidewalks were beginning to get a bit slick, but I suggested to Brian that we take a quick jaunt over to Red Square so I could see St. Basil's in the snow. Turns out that was not such a smart idea. Brian's legs went straight out from under him while crossing the street, and he landed smack on his back and head in the middle of the road. I quickly shuffled out there and did a ridiculous policewoman impression trying to get the traffic to stop while Brian tried to limp out of the road. I'm sure it was quite a sight! Somehow his tough noggin' survived hitting the pavement, but he had back spasms the rest of the evening and the next day. We debated going to the doctor, but he decided to tough it out. Now I see why the guidebook recommended boots with cleats!

We were pretty much apartment-bound the next day while Brian recovered, but I did venture out and finally got my picture of St. Basil's in the snow. (see pic) The headline in the newspaper read, "Unexpected Snowfall Paralyzes City". I'm just glad Brian wasn't paralyzed, too. :)

It's all Cyrillic to me!

Even though we had my brother around most of the time, Brian and I would have been well-served to learn a bit more Russian than we did. Our Russian vocabulary consisted entirely of "please" (puzhalsta), "thank you" (spasiba), and a thumbs-up sign. :) Of course, one of the toughest parts is suddenly being faced with a completely foreign script. Street names, metro stops, menus... everything is in Cyrillic, especially in Moscow (St. Petersburg gets more tourists, so English is a little more common). Still, it was certainly easier to decipher than the Asian languages will be - a good warm up for Thai in January, haha.

We were able to pick up a few tips, which helped us to be able to read some signs and names - these may also help in deciphering some of our pictures. Some of the letters are similar to English: A, b, K, M, O, T - and a C is usually an "s" sound. Some are similar to Greek: Г = G (gamma), P = R (rho), П = P (pi), and Ф = F (phi). The rest mostly just require memorization - the few we learned were И=i, B=V, H=N, Л=L, and Д=d.

These are pics of some familiar US brands we came across; it's a pretty neat feeling to actually look up and comprehend a Cyrillic sign! Brian was SO excited when we saw the Cinnabon - we had been standing in a blizzard, waiting for Edward to pick up some visa paperwork, and it suddenly appeared to us across the street like a vision. AND - it had wireless internet! Best cinnamon bun we ever tasted. :)

привет Россия! (Hello Russia!)

We arrived in Moscow in the evening and somehow managed to locate my brother Edward in the large Paveletsky Station (this is where his large handlebar mustache comes in particularly handy!). He helped us get over to our rented apartment, just across the river from the Kremlin and Red Square. The next day, Brian, Edward, and I ventured over there in the deceptively balmy weather (oh, if we had only known what was to come), and got to see Red Square all decked out for the holidays with a giant tree and skating rink (see pic). Even Lenin's Tomb had some small Christmas trees out front!

One of the buildings on the square was undergoing renovations, but no fear - a fabric facade was hung around the building so we would know what we were missing, haha. (see pic)







We walked through St. Basil's (aka "The Candy Building"), popped in GUM (the upscale shopping mall), and then made our way over to the Kremlin. The highlights definitely were seeing the Tsar Cannon (40 tons) and the Tsar Bell (216 tons), the largest cannon and bell in the world, respectively (see pics). Sadly, the bell cracked during a fire before it ever was rung.







After the Kremlin, we headed to Old Arabat St., a pedestrian shopping boulevard. Here we had sweet condensed milk blini for lunch (see pic) - these became one of our staple meals, as blini stands are everywhere and we could order just by pointing!






The next day we got up early and headed out in the snow flurries to Izmailovsky Weekend Market. Here I found a handpainted set of 'cat lady' nesting dolls (see pic) that I tried unsuccessfully to bargain for, so I enlisted my Russian-speaking brother to get me a deal. I'm not exactly sure what happened next, but it involved the babushka yelling, some laughter, and no price reduction for me. Sigh. Apparently she told Edward that the "discount" he was asking for was equivalent to the price of a cheeseburger - and "this is art!!!" As you can see, I bought the dolls anyway. :)





We grabbed more blini for lunch, and then made our way across town to the renowned Moscow Cat Theatre, a fast-paced show with clowns, dancers, and 120 'trained' cats performing tricks (see pics). Most of the cats are rescued strays, and (as was apparent in the show), cats cannot actually be trained - they will do what they want, when they want. But if one cat wasn't behaving, it was just removed and replaced with another cat who would perform for treats. I personally think that my own kitty Ginger could be a star, but sadly she's a bit pudgy for a lot of the apparatuses, haha.

That evening we headed over to my brother's apartment, where he made us a traditional Russian dinner of mushroom pelmeni (dumplings) and vegetarian Borscht (plus some homemade eggnog!) (see pic). It's no Italian pastries and pizza, but I could actually get used to this Russian food...

Italy Wrap-Up

Despite the disappointing day at the Amalfi Coast, overall we enjoyed our time in Italy and wouldn't mind returning again someday. Here are a couple more pics, one of the ceiling in the Map Room at the Vatican, one of a fountain in the Vatican, and one of a cute little Fiat.








Our favorite things:

1) The pastries (especially Meringue con Panna!)
2) The gnocchi and street pizza
3) The pleasant weather (except for the one rainy day)
4) The ancient history
5) The cute little cars
6) The bustling plazas in the evening, full of people mingling and strolling through the neighborhoods

Things we could have done without:

1) Dog poo all over the sidewalks
2) How the Italians like personal space - YOUR personal space
3) Seat-less toilets (although I guess I should be glad they had more than just a hole in the ground!)

How to end up lost and stranded in the rain with very little money and being forced to pee in the Sea

The following day we planned to head to the Amalfi Coast, which we were both looking forward to and had heard was absolutely gorgeous. The guidebook recommended taking the SITA bus from Sorrento, since it ran fairly often and was able to adeptly maneuver around the curvy 1.5-lane Amalfi Coast Road. But in keeping with our typical pattern, we arrived at the station right as a bus was pulling away, only to be told that since it's not tourist season, the next bus wouldn't be for another hour or two. As we're walking out of the station, we're approached by a cab driver who offers to take us to Positano (the first town on the coast) for "15 Euros, 1-5... cinquanta". Having just bought all-day bus tickets, we were hesitant, but decided to go for it since who knows when the next bus would have come. So we take her up on the offer and arrive at the bus stop in Positano... which she points out, but then keeps driving another mile or so steeply DOWNHILL from the bus stop to drop us off - where suddenly the cost becomes "50 Euros, 5-0... cinquanta" (about $75) - apparently cinquanta is the Italian word for 50, not 15. (Important Lesson: Learn Italian numbers before negotiating cab fare.) We begrudgingly paid the fare, she peeled off, and we were left standing at the bottom of a ghost town (everything had closed for the season in Positano) with little money left in our pockets, staring at a steep uphill to where the bus stop should be (see pic of looking up at Positano). We finally found an open internet cafe and were able to find a bus map that showed a closer stop, but still a long way uphill. We climbed up to the stop (see pic looking back down at where we had been) - I'm sure a bus had probably just come before we got there - and waited almost an hour for the next bus, during which it started pouring down rain (see pic).

We finally got on the bus and had planned on stopping at a few other towns to walk the coast for a bit, but decided to head straight to the main town of Amalfi due to the rain. We walked around the town for a bit, but the weather was not really cooperating (see pic of dark clouds over the coast)... and it turned out all the public restrooms were closed for the season. Brian was forced to discreetly pee off the end of the dock into the sea while I distracted with some ultra-touristy photo-taking moves in the other direction. Then we went back to the bus stop and waited another 45 minutes for the next bus... which we watched drive right by us and continue on its merry way without stopping to pick us up. :( So another hour in the rain, and we FINALLY were able to get on a bus back to Sorrento. Sadly Amalfi Coast, you are not our friend.

The next day the rain had moved out, so we checked out of our B&B and got back on the Circumvesuviana train north to Ercolano in hopes of climbing Mt. Vesuvius this time. We arrived at the station to find that the one shuttle of the day was leaving at noon - we had about 45 minutes to spare! When we went to pay of course, suddenly the fare chart on the desk was whisked away and we were quoted a much higher price, but at this point in the season they were the only game in town so we took it. We were joined by a male Japanese traveler who we ended up having lunch with later on. We got to the drop-off point for Vesuvius and were told we had about 55 minutes before the shuttle would leave - which is about enough time for a marathon racer to run up to the top and run back down... and we had all our luggage (our 25-lb backpacks) on us. It was tough, but we made it up to the top (see pic), and looked into the smoking crater. We were also able to see the coast and Pompeii down below in the distance (see pic). By this point we had about 10 minutes to get back down the volcano, so we ran like a Pompeiian, and luckily enjoyed a better outcome than they did, making it back to the shuttle just before it pulled away.

That afternoon we walked down to Herculaneum, also destroyed by Vesuvius, but better preserved than Pompeii. It was a vacation 'resort town' on the coast, unlike the middle-class working town of Pompeii. We actually found these ruins to be a bit more interesting, despite the area being significantly smaller than Pompeii (see pic of ruins with Vesuvius in the background, and a pic of one of the decorated walls). That evening we returned to Rome on the high-speed train and prepared for our flight to Moscow the next morning!

Making our way from Rome to Pompeii and down to Sorrento

After 4 days in Rome, we boarded the high speed rail down to Naples, and from there got on the Circumvesuviana line (a clunker of a train, covered in graffiti - see pic) down to the Pompeii Scavi stop. Our plan was to visit Pompeii, then catch the bus up to Mt. Vesuvius in the afternoon. After having the worst food we had in Italy (outside the entrance to Pompeii, what should we expect), we made our way through the ruins for about 2 hours, using the rented audioguides and the Rick Steves Pompeii Walk that we printed off the internet.

Most of the artifacts are now in the archaeological museum in Naples, but they do still have a couple of the plaster casts at the site (see pic).

We didn't see a whole lot of tourists until we got to the brothel - which was teeming with giggling Japanese travelers. See the picture of one of the brothel "bedrooms" - comfy, eh?

When we finished at Pompeii, we went to catch the bus to Vesuvius only to find that the one bus of the day had just left (this seemed to be the theme of our next few days of traveling!) - apparently in the "off season" a lot of the transit shuts down. (We actually came to wish we had rented a car for this part of our trip.) So we got back on the Circumvesuviana and headed further south to Sorrento, where we waited a couple hours until we could check into our B&B, which was hidden in a grove of citrus trees - these trees also line the streets of the city. Once we got checked into our room, Brian promptly managed to cut power to the whole B&B by putting the heater on turbo mode - whoops! That evening we ventured out to the main square in town, and just happened to catch the Sorrento tree lighting (see pic), which consisted of Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me" being played on repeat for about 15 times in a row before the tree was lit. No Christmas music or anything. The Italians started cussing every time the song would start again, and it was good to see that despite the language barrier and cultural differences, we all shared a universal hatred of Randy Newman music.

When in Rome...

Well, we got about 4 inches of snow today in Moscow (despite the mayor implementing a 'cloud seeding' program to spare the city of snow this winter), which is nice since we rarely see snow in Texas, but tough since the only footwear I have here is sneakers. So I'm going to hide out in our apartment for a bit and post some more Italy pics (the sun went down about 6.5 hours ago anyways, around 4pm). Here are some more of the oddities we encountered on our travels through Italy:


Thirsty? These water fountains are scattered through the city of Rome. They are always on; to drink from them, you plug the end of the faucet and the water shoots out through a smaller hole in the top of the spout pipe. (Alright, so maybe we tried to drink out of the faucet before we saw someone do it the "right" way, haha.)





Another interesting thing we discovered immediately is that Italians will park their cars anywhere they will almost halfway sort-of fit. They mostly drive tiny little cars, and we saw them on the sidewalk, double parked in the middle of the road, behind trees, pretty much anywhere they could wedge them. They seemed to have an unusually large number of scrapes and dings too... made me glad we didn't rent a car!




In Italy you don't have to worry about guys leaving the seat up since public toilets have no seats!







Poker anyone?









Local Typical Food?! Just what I was in the mood for! (from the Amalfi Coast)






And here is the strangest port-a-potty I have ever seen, located on Mt. Vesuvius. Just pull the handle and all your unsundries are whisked away by the conveyor belt!

Journey to Rome

Well, so we're actually in frigid Moscow right now, but due to a lack of reliable internet in Italy, I will start from the beginning of our trip. We departed November 25 - Austin to DC to Rome, overnight, arriving at 7:45am on the 26th. Jetlagged and exhausted, we managed to get on the train without validating our tickets, got on the tram going the wrong way, stepped in dog poo on the sidewalk (apparently Italians have not yet discovered the concept of "dog poo bags"), pissed off 2 Italian women by asking directions, and finally arrived at our B&B in the Trastevere neighborhood after about 2 hours of being lost! But at least we avoided having to take a cab and being ripped off by an Italian cab driver, which happened in the next segment of our trip.

After dropping off our luggage, we headed off for lunch, where we discovered that 1 kg of pizza is a whole helluva lot! (It's ordered by weight in Italy.) Then we took a guided tour of the Vatican, which is now selling billboard space around the main plaza to fund renovations. There is one billboard visible in the picture (Italian Telecom), but there are more around the sides that are even more gaudy. Don't worry though, they're all God-sanctioned. :) The Sistine Chapel was fantastic - I've wanted to see it ever since reading "The Agony and the Ecstasy" in high school - but of course, no photos were allowed.

The next day we went out exploring historical Rome, visiting Largo Argentina (with thousands of cats that take sanctuary in the ruins), the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and Capuchin Crypt, which is made from bones of over 4000 monks donated between the 1500s and 1800s (see picture). In the evening, we wandered around our neighborhood (Trastevere) - it's a fantastic local neighborhood with shops, restaurants, and lively activity. The weather was great too - 60s every day.

The following day we took a guided tour of the Colosseum (see pic), Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. We had lunch in the Jewish Ghetto at a local place called Sora Margherita - no English was spoken, and we had to become "members" to eat there. They chuckled at Brian's name when we got on the list, and kept referring to him as "Life of Brian". :) We had a fantastic meal that included the famous fried artichokes (see pic). It was later this evening that I fell in love with Merengue con Panna (2 meringue "buns" with creme in between) from a local pastry shop... these proved to be my downfall at pretty much every pastry shop we passed from then on out in Italy! I wanted to get a picture, but they always disappeared into my belly by the time I remembered.

The next day we got up early and took the train out to Toffia, Italy, about 1.5 hours north of Rome, where we met Sally and Guido in the old medieval village for a cooking class with Convivio Rome. This is olive country, and the village is on a hill surrounded by olive groves in every direction (see pic). We made pumpkin risotto, melanzane alla Parmagiana, and Guido's award-winning apple cake, using local produce and cheeses. After the meal, we headed to the Annual Olive Oil Festival at the monastery in Farfa, where we sampled local olive oils, breads, and cheeses. We pretty much had to roll back to Rome that evening!

I guess I'll stop here for now... maybe tomorrow I will post some pictures of some of the stranger things we've seen in Italy, including the conveyor belt toilet, and then continue our travel tales as we ventured south to Sorrento.

FAQ - Choosing Destinations

Well, so I'm sitting here staring at a (mostly) empty closet and a (mostly) empty kitchen, hoping that (mostly) + one more day = a packed clean house by the time we leave for Italy tomorrow morning. I've been meaning to update the blog a bit more, but it seems every time I turn around there's another cat fur tumbleweed on the floor to be swept away or an item I've forgotten to pack. And the 'real' packing - in the backpack - hasn't even started yet, because I decided on a whim to order a new pack yesterday and get it overnighted here... crossing my fingers it will actually get here today and will work out.

Anyhoo, gotta get to the point, because there's a ton more packing and cleaning to be done. I thought I'd make some notes about how we chose the destinations we are planning to visit since that's one of the questions I've been getting a lot (some destinations are still tentative further along into the trip, though).

Italy: Our original plan was to stop in Stockholm, since that was a logical stopover destination on the way to Moscow. Turns out Stockholm is pretty much cold and dark and depressing in December, though. So we decided we had to find a warmer place, still at least sort of on the way to Moscow. So we chose Italy! We were going to stick to Rome and Pompeii (we recently saw a tv show on the brothels of Pompeii and wanted to check it out for ourselves), but then a coworker of mine said the Amalfi coast is the most beautiful place she's ever seen, so bam! it's on the agenda too. Which also meant we backed up our departure date from TX by a day... and are now leaving on the busiest travel day of the year. Ah well.

Russia: My brother is living in Moscow, and can't do a whole lot of research in December since the archives are closed, so we decided to freeze our butts off and visit him. :) I've been reading Fifty Russian Winters and A Russian Diary to get some background before we go.

Galapagos: South America was originally not on our itinerary at all, but I sat next to Lance Tarrance (one of McCain's political advisors) on a flight recently, and he raved and raved about the Galapagos - and he's been around the world a time or two. So we decided to take a little southern detour down there between Christmas in the US and heading to Thailand.

Southeast Asia: It's cheap, relatively safe, and there's a well-worn backpacker circuit. And everyone who has been to Thailand has said it is fantastic. :)

India: Brian has been here once before for a wedding, but I really want to see the Taj Mahal, the International Museum of Toilets in New Delhi, and the houseboats in Kerala (Brian has a coworker who knows people). Plus they have a lot of vegetarian food!

Dubai: This area has very little recorded history or culture, but due to the recent influx of oil money, the country is creating its own identity as a land of luxury and lavish extravagance. Everything has been built to be bigger and better here, so it should be fascinating to see. Hopefully I can use my hotel points for a free stay in a resort on the artificial island Palm Jumeirah (shaped like a palm tree - see picture).

Cairo: Gotta see the pyramids, plus we've never been to Africa.

Eastern Europe: Turkey is at the top of Brian's list of places to see, and we may be able to meet up with my brother and a couple friends in the Ukraine next summer. Also, Eastern Europe tends to still be a bit cheaper than western Europe.

Alright, I just saw another cat fur tumbleweed roll by, so it's back to cleaning and packing...

FAQ - Budgeting

Well, now that news of our trip is spreading, we're getting a lot of questions concerning logistics, so I thought I'd address some of them here. Probably the most common question of course is, "Did you win the lottery? Are you rich?" :)

As much as we would like to be able to say we just hit the Powerball jackpot, no such luck here. Brian and I have worked hard to live well within our means, buying a 900sf 1936 "fixer-upper" house, keeping our cars for many years, and not buying things we don't need. Unfortunately the consumer culture in the US leads many people to become prisoners to their possessions, which is especially lamentable if it ends up keeping someone from their ultimate goals and dreams. But if you want to travel, it can definitely be done, and the great news is, it doesn't have to be expensive!

Let's take South Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, India), for example, which is where we will be spending a good chunk of time during our trip. The average cost of living per day runs about $20, including a room in a decent guesthouse, and round-trip flights over there from the US are around $800 right now. So a 6-month sojourn could be had for under $5500 ($3600 cost-of-living, $800 flight, ~$1000 incidentals (visas, vaccinations, travel insurance, gear, transportation)). That's less per month than just my rent ever was here in Austin!

On our trip we are planning a couple splurges to more expensive areas (one week in Italy, 2 weeks in Russia, and 8 days in the Galapagos), but the majority of our trip will be spent in much less expensive areas (namely South Asia and Eastern Europe). We also will be using the hotel points we have built up with our reward credit cards, and should garner enough airline miles along the way to get a few of our later flight legs for free. So hopefully you won't see us panhandling on the street corner upon our return... but then again, there's that saying: "Why live in a $200,000 house when you can live under a $2 million bridge?" :P

So What's the Plan, Stan?

Our tentative itinerary (November 2009-July 2010):

• From Austin to Rome and Sorrento, Italy for a week
• Then to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia (to visit my brother, who is currently living over there)
• Back to TN to visit my family for Christmas
• A quick stop in Austin to change out winter wear for warm weather gear
• Down to Quito, Ecuador, with a week in the Galapagos Islands
• On to Bangkok, spending 6+ weeks circuiting through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia (so cliche, I know) :)
• Then to New Delhi, India, hopping south to Kerala
• Dubai (where we will hopefully have enough Hilton hotel points for a nice stay!)
• Cairo
• Eastern Europe (Turkey, maybe Ukraine... things are still up in the air this far in advance)
• Paris (I told Brian we have to stop here for at least a couple days since it's the "City of Love" ...which might be useful for rekindling after spending 8 months together 24/7, haha)
• Finally back to Austin

I'm sure there will be changes depending on circumstances, family situations, our likes/dislikes, etc., but this is our "Susan has to have a plan" Plan. (I'm just one of those types!) Life has a crazy way of screwing with even the best laid plans, it seems, though. But hey, our plane tickets are one-way, and we're just purchasing as we go along, so Universe, go ahead and throw some curveballs our way! (If you're listening, Universe, I didn't REALLY mean that - I was just trying to make a point about how I can be flexible if I absolutely HAVE to be.) :)

So that's the plan, Stan!