SiMonica’s Voyage

BIG NEWS! – we have uploaded tons of photos, so you can check them out now.

The side trip to Mari’s wedding in Finland went by in what felt like a dream due to the endless daylight. That feeling was also exacerbated by the lack of sleep during our time there – the first night was passed on benches at the domestic terminal of the Helsinki airport, the second in a super soft bed at the Sokos Hotel in Oulu, and the third was filled with wedding festivities. Helsinki was pleasant to stroll around for the afternoon, people were friendly and the architecture was modern and interesting. We ate some very tasty Karelian tarts, one with small fish – maybe sardines? – and one with turnip.

After our 3 hours of sleep at the airport and the 5:30 am flight to Oulu, we arrived at our hotel hoping to be able to check in, even though it was only 8 am. Unfortunately, our room wasn’t ready so in the two hours we had to wait, we covered most of this city – the largest city in Northern Finland. Oulu, which is located at a latitude of 65 degrees (130 kms south of the Arctic Circle) boasts many “northernmost” things, like the northernmost Holiday Inn, the northernmost Botanic Garden, I think also the northernmost museum for something. We lucked out with our timing of this visit as the weather was beautiful – I don’t even want to imagine how dreary it is when the sun doesn’t shine for more than a half an hour in the winter. The next day we caught a bus to Mari’s hometown of Haukipudas, where the wedding took place. We arrived at the bus stop and were supposed to call for a pick up, only to face a predicament unique to this country where everyone has a cell phone – there are NO public phones. Luckily the rest stop manager let us use their phone, for a fee of course, and we were picked up by Mari’s brother. The family had rented out this summer retreat type of place where the wedding took place and out of town guests were able to sleep. Unfortunately we had to catch our flight back to Helsinki at 8:30 am the next day, so we didn’t end up sleeping until the taxi to the airport. The wedding events started at 8:00 pm with a wild mushroom soup, then all the guests went outside for the ceremony. Mari came down to the “altar” and the short and sweet ceremony was held in Finnish and English.

The dinner was amazing – a first course of tagliatelle alla ragu (a Bolognese specialty made by Daniele’s mom), baked salmon cake, salad, a large bowl of bread filled with sardines (an enormous version of the Karelian tarts we had in Helsinki), lox, reindeer served with lingonberries, mashed potatoes, boiled new potatoes, and strawberries served with a fresh cheese made with the first milk of a cow who had just given birth – it tasted really good anyhow. The cake, as well as all the other food, was made by Mari’s mom. A white cake with whipped cream and cloudberries… Just when you think you can’t eat anymore, you have to try something with cloudberries! The nights carried on with dancing, karaoke, beer, whiskey, gin long drinks (Finland’s official drink of the 1952 Olympics), sauna and midnight sun. It was uncanny to go outside at 1:30 am and it could be 4 o’clock in the afternoon, then to see the sun’s rays pouring into the karaoke dance room at 3:30 am! Just when Simon and I were starting to feel drowsy at 6 am, the friendly Finns decided that in order for us to stay awake for our 7 am taxi pickup, we would all change out of our fancy clothes and play a game of molkky, which is like a cross between bocci and skeetball. The whole night was a ton of fun, and we managed to sleep most of the next day on the various modes of transportation that took us back to Tallinn – the taxi, the airport, the plane, and the ferry.

Our crazy sleep pattern worked in our favor for the rest of the weekend as the Estonians also celebrate St. John’s day and we were invited to a party near Parnu on Saturday night. It was a full-on barbecue with live music, a bonfire, karaoke and good people. We arrived back in Tallinn yesterday and have continued our trip down Simon’s memory lane. We’ve visited his school, where the guard was kind enough to let us in and even let us into Simon’s old classroom, his apartment building and the courtyard, his grandparents’ apartment complex, and the offices where his parents’ worked. We also took a drive out to Vääna-jõesuu, about 30 minutes from Tallinn along the coast, where Simon would spend the summers. He even jumped into the rather chilly (“frickin’ cold” in his words) Baltic Sea, for old time’s sake.

We’re off to Kiev on Wednesday!

Sorry for the delay in our blogging, but we didn’t have easy internet access in St. Petersburg. I’m writing this post from Tallinn, Estonia, Simon’s hometown.

We had an exciting time in Moscow, taking in the tourist sites of Arbat Street, Red Square, the Kremlin and some museums. We spent several evenings strolling around town in the seemingly endless light of the sun. We were taken out by Simon’s third cousin who is a “Businessman” in Moscow. When I asked him what he did he started off by explaining that the type of business that people do in Russia is very difficult for Americans or Europeans to understand. Whatever it is that he does, he and his wife live the good life in Moscow. (We found out later that the company he co-owns has some alcohol factories and he is also involved with real estate development. While the bulk of the alcohol his company produces is just for distribution to vodka companies in Russia, they do produce one vodka that is for export only. The brand is called, For Real Men, or something like this). We were driven around at breakneck speeds in his comfortable Lexus and had some amazing desserts at a restaurant Simon and I doubted we would have been let into otherwise in our traveler outfits. At this restaurant we were surprised by a visit from Maya, who now holds the record for visiting us on our trip (she had also met up with us for Melbourne and Dunedin, New Zealand).

Ball makes an appearance with St. Basil’s onion domes in Red Square

June 6th was celebrated Russian poet Alexander Pushkin’s 208th birthday. We marked the occasion at the hip cafe Gogol where there were readings of his poems. Here are Simon and Sonia posing as Pushkin and his wife.

A station of the impressive Moscow metro system. I was surprised to see how preserved and intact all the Soviet/Communist symbols were on buildings and decorations such as this. The Russian Imperial symbol of the double headed eagle has made a comeback though, on buildings in the Kremlin and on the currency.

We took a side trip to Yaroslavl for an overnight, where we visited with Simon’s family friends and met up with the teacher who organized the exchange I did to the city in 1997, as well as my Russian “sister” from my host family. It was great for me to see them and do a nostalgia walk around town. It was infinitely more pleasant to take in the sights in the summer mild weather and light than in February. The city seemed to be a bit more wealthy now than when I was last here. Talking to Alyona, my host sister, she said that a number of people her age are now becoming quite successful working in real estate development. We stayed with family friends of Simon, who lived a bit outside the center of the city. Life there seemed a bit more like I remembered it. Simeon, the friend who we stayed with, took us on great walking tours of the different sites of the city. There is an incredible amount of churches for a city this size (approx. 700,000 pop.).

Here you can see people lining up to get their fresh milk.

And here is the dog of the people we stayed with, he was amazing.

Tyoma, seen above, had no tail, so in his energetic romps around the courtyard he looked like a very small, furry cow.

On our return to Moscow, we were whisked away to Sonia’s parents’ apartment in Chernogolovka, 1.5 hours outside of Moscow. We had a very relaxing time there, eating what I think was the best food we’ve had since Italy. Sonia’s mom grew up in Tbilisi, Georgia and was able to cook some amazing Georgian dishes for us.

Here’s Simon basking in the aroma of the khachapuri, Georgian bread baked with cheese inside.

With our pants noticeably more snug, we returned to Moscow and met up with Mauro and Kerstin, the couple we’d met traveling in Vietnam. We heard about their Trans-Siberian experiences and Sonia and her friends guided us for a lovely walk around the city. On our last day in Moscow we went to see the sculpture park of the New Tretyakov gallery, where they have the remaining statues of Lenin, Stalin and other soviet figures and symbols. There is also an interesting collection of various Russian sculptors.

Sonia cooked us a wonderful meal of seafood pasta, which we all enjoyed – especially Mauro, who is from Palermo. We then boarded our train for St. Petersburg and with full bellies, enjoyed our last Russian night train experience, sleeping on the very new and fancy looking train.

We spent four days in St. Petersburg and I got to meet some of Simon’s relatives on his father’s side. We were given a tour of the city, which, even though it didn’t start until 10 pm, we saw most of the city in daylight until we stopped for a drink at 12:30. We had an exceptional visit to the Hermitage as a friend of Simon’s grandfather works there, so she not only gave us free passes and a guidebook, but also took us around to the highlights of this immense collection.

Simon blending in with the walls in the Hermitage. He wasn’t on the phone the whole time, don’t worry.

Aside from the amazing collection of European art, I especially enjoyed the ancient art of Siberia, the Caucuses and Eastern Europe. Unfortunately is collection is nowhere near as well curated as most of the museum, but pieces are incredible.

We were feeling a bit lazy, and I had a cold for the first few days, so we didn’t see as much as we felt we should have. But I still think we saw a lot. We took a boat trip out to Peterhof, a place 30 minutes outside the city which has amazing fountains and gardens. Walking around this city, I felt a bit like I did in Italy, where there is so much beauty in the architecture and layout of the city that I had no need to go inside museums or churches to see more “art.”

A view along one of the many canals that goes through the city.

The Peter and Paul Cathedral.

Bringing our travels in Russia to a close, we took an early train to Tallinn yesterday morning. Roma, Simon’s uncle, prepared a great last dinner for us of red caviar, herring, salad, cold cuts and cheese, and vodka. Volodya, Roma’s brother, and his son Mitya were also there and it was a great send off. We also got to see some amazing photos of ancestors of Simon’s family, Simon’s grandmother and baby and childhood photos of Simon’s dad.

Here’s an amazing image the patriarch of Simon’s paternal grandmother’s family, the Braginsky’s. He died in 1913 at the a age of 105, and served the full 25 years in the imperial army. This photo is from 1904.

Now you can see where Simon gets his facial hair from.

After an uneventful departure from Mother Russia, we entered Estonia and arrived in Tallinn yesterday afternoon. David, Simon’s childhood friend who had moved from Tallinn to Israel and is now back in Tallinn, is hosting us and took us around old city last night. The weather is rather cold and rainy here, but it should get better over the next few days. Tomorrow we’re taking the ferry to Helsinki and we’ll spend a night in the airport before flying up to Oulu for Mari and Daniele’s wedding. Then we’ll head back to Tallinn for several more days of sightseeing and reminiscing for Simon.

Simon and David at the train station, home again.

Sometime in the afternoon of our second day on the train from Irkutsk to Moscow, we passed kilometer marker 1777 (counting up from Moscow) and thus left Asia behind us. The rather demure obelisk which showed us the border and announced our change of continents was photographed and it’s funny to think about how when we were flying out of Istanbul for India, we crossed the bridge over the Bosphorus to get to the airport and on the Asian side of the bridge we were greeted with a huge “Welcome to Asia” marker. It’s odd to be able to change continents while staying in the same country. I’m quite overwhelmed to think that we entered Asia over 7 months ago, and to think that we’ll be back in the States in one month. The Trans-Siberian part of our trip was really the only thing that we were certain about when planning the trip two years before we even left. While I was extremely excited to board the train in Beijing and travel through the countryside, I think Simon was more impressed by entering Russia.

From Beijing to Ulaanbaatar we went from the rocky green cliffs and hills of China into desert and then steppe. Leaving Mongolia it was more steppe and then entering increasingly more habitable climates with trees and grass and other vegetation. Siberia was actually very lush and green and alive. I had this mental picture of vast artic tundra, even though I knew it would be different in June, I still pictured freezing cold winds and snow like in Dr. Zhivago. Going through Siberia from Irkutsk to Moscow, it seemed like endless birch tree forests and gradually there were more pine trees. You could see the arrival of warm weather as the plants growing in the gardens were considerably farther along the closer we got to Moscow.

Boarding the train in Beijing, May 26

Travelling through Inner Mongolia, China

Simon washing the window at our first station stop in Mongolia – dust from the Gobi had accumulated

Travelling through Mongolia

More desert

The short time we had in Mongolia was a lot of fun. The National Park was beautiful and at the ger camp where we stayed there were several other travelers who had been heading toward Mongolia from Russia. The next day we had to head back to UB in order to catch our train to Irkutsk. Luckily we had an afternoon there and we met up with my brother’s friend who has been living in Mongolia for the past two years. Despite all that we’d heard about the horrors of Mongolian cuisine, we went to a very good Mongolian restaurant and had a great meal of lamb ribs and peppers cooked with hot stones, buus (dumplings filled with meat or vegetables), and a tasty dish of chicken wrapped in bacon. We stopped by the Natural History Museum and were extremely impressed with their collection of dinosaur skeletons, fossils and eggs.

Our ger

Simon rides

Lamb ribs, yum!

On the ride from Ulaanbaatar to Irkutsk, there were only three people making the voyage – me, Simon, and another American woman. The provodnitsa (train attendant who keeps the toilets cleaned and the hot water hot) took a real liking to Simon and his charms. We thought at first she just really liked him, but then she asked us if we could possibly take some blankets and pretend that they were ours when we crossed the Russian border. Apparently the train workers really can’t be importing ANYTHING from Mongolia. The ride itself was much more tranquil than we had imagined, but it was very relaxing.

Anya, our provodnitsa/blanket smuggler

We arrived in Irkutsk at about 7:30 am and bought our tickets on to Moscow to leave two days later. We had planned to buy the platskart (open carriage) tickets, rather than kupe (a step up with closed compartments) as the ride to Irkutsk was so uneventful we thought we would like to experience some humanity, even if it would be for three days and consist mostly (as far as we’d heard) of sweaty men with sweaty socks and lots of vodka. Unfortunately, those tickets were all sold out so we had to go high class again in kupe. (It turned out to be a fine decision as we had some very interesting compartment mates on the was to Moscow). What was crazy was that the tickets from Irkutsk to Moscow cost more than if we’d gone back to Beijing and then bought a direct ticket to Moscow from Beijing. Ah well, Baikal was worth the stop.

We hopped in a taxi which took us through the center of the city to the bus station, passing by beautiful wooden houses and interesting brick buildings. At the bus station Simon had to deal with our first unfriendly Russian encounter as the ticket saleswoman was extremely rude. She was a rather massive woman with a fair amount of gold teeth and when Simon asked about the tickets to Khusir – the main town on this island of Olkhon where we were to spend the next two nights – she said they were sold out and we’d have to go the next day. Simon asked her if she was sure there were no more seats and she replied asking if he expected her to kick people off the bus who had already bought tickets. Simon said no, and asked if there was any other way to get to this island. She replied we could go to MRS and Simon asked what that was. The golden toothed matron then launched into a tirade of “why should I know how to get there? It’s not like any tourist has ever taken me there before” to top it off, with Simon still standing in front of her, she then turns to her fellow tickets sellers and starts yelling about how all these tourists, they come and ask all these questions, what do they think this is a tourist office? Even though my Russian is extremely limited, I got the jist of the exchange so Simon stepped away from the counter, rather stunned. We took out our guidebook and luckily they mention this MRS place as where we can get a ferry to the island. Simon buys the tickets and we’re off. It was a four hour bus ride to the ferry and then we were left with finding our own ride on to the town. As there’s only one road from the ferry to the town, Simon asked several people on the ferry if they could give us rides. We lucked out with a friendly truck driver who was hauling several tons of lumber for a building site. We hopped up into the cab of this huge truck, Kamaz, and Simon was filled with delight. Apparently it’s been his boyhood dream to ride in one of these trucks. While it wasn’t the fastest mode of transport, it was definitely exciting and the views of the lake and the surrounding mountains were great as we were up so high.

The view from the side mirror of the Kamaz

We enjoyed the banya that night as well as the hearty Russian food (with pickles in about every dish). The next day the weather was beautiful, although a bit cold, and we rented bikes and went across to the other side of the island for a view of the huge expanse of this lake. We biked through steppe into pastures and then into beautiful forests. The ride was pretty tough going as it was all on dirt roads or paths and steep enough at several points where we had to walk the bikes. It was worth is though as on the way back we flew down the hills, luckily staying in one piece.

On the other side of Olkhon island

Olkhon Island

Snow at the Olkhon ferry dock, June 2, 2007!

The next morning we had to head back to Irkutsk and woke up to rain. The rain turned to snow and we were glad we lucked out with the weather the day before. We picked up some provisions at the grocery store and got on the train which was to be our home for the next three days. The provodnitsa on this train was not so friendly, but helpful enough. We had our compartment to ourselves for the first afternoon and then we were joined by a woman of 60 and a 25 year-old guy who works as a railway car mechanic. First off, I should say we were joined by two officers of the MVD (Ministry of the Interior). We were peacefully eating some snacks and drinking some vodka when Simon decided to read the label off the second bottle which we’d purchased in Irkutsk. The bottle we were drinking from had been opened several nights before when we were hanging out with two Quebecquois in Khusir. As Simon is reading the humorous story on bottle, in walk these two officers who ask for our documents and tickets. One of them then informs us (Simon only really as this is all in Russian) that it’s against the rules to drink spirits (anything over 12% alcohol) on the train, unless you’re in the dining car, or simply have your door closed, as we found out later. He gestures to our glasses which had been prepped for the next shot and to the bottle that’s almost finished and asks if it’s vodka. The bottle Simon was reading from was still sealed. He must of thought we had incredible tolerance as we were clearly sober after just two shots, when he saw an almost empty bottle. He says that we’ll have to pay a fine of 500 rubles ($20) and how he’s being nice by only giving us one tickets even though we were both drinking. He takes Simon away to pay the fine, but leaves me with all the vodka. Simon came back after about 10 minutes and described how they took him through 6 different carriages to get to their “office” where Simon asked to see the law stating that you can’t drink alcohol. (There were beers for sale on the table of our compartment, of course). The officer found that in his bag, but couldn’t seem to locate where it said how much the fine should be. He’d conveniently left that folder back in Irkutsk. Simon asks how is he supposed to know that it’s 500, he could be making that up. The officer then says something about how it should be 1400, but he’s only taking 500. Then Simon asks if can’t they agree on a lesser sum, to which the officer asks how much, Simon counters with 250, and the officer says ok then, we’ll save some paper, at which point the other officer puts away the ticket notebook. Bribe paid, Simon proceeds to say how it’s ridiculous to give tickets for drinking vodka on the train (since everyone knows that that’s what most people are doing all the time) in Russia, to which the second officer rhetorically asks where does Simon think he’s headed? The first officer was more sympathetic to our needs, and said that we should either drink in the restaurant car or simply close the door to our compartment.

Back to our actual comparment companions, the woman, Ludmila, was extremely friendly and sharing of all her culinary delights. She was on her way to Novosibirsk to get her visa for Germany, where she was going to visit her daughter and son-in-law. The guy, Pavil, was originally from Omsk, but had moved to Zema three years ago to work as since it’s so remote they pay better. Ludmila had worked and lived around Yakutsk region (just below the artic circle) and had since retired to the warmer climes of a town near Zema, where it’s only -30 celsius in winter. She also told us about how her husband at one point was a long distance truck driver, and when he’d be driving around in this region he’d often be caught in snow drifts and would have to wait 2-3 days to be found by a helicopter. One interesting exchange was when Ludmila was talking about how she loved Germany and the customs there, and when she would return to her town in Russia she would tell the members of the Party what they could do to improve their town. She said that she was a member of the Party, to which Pavil asked, “what party?”. The Communist Party of course, as she said, “I can’t walk backwards.” Aside from the treats of Ludmila, we subsisted on cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, hard salami, bread, tea, nutella, cookies, jam, and then some hot food that babushkas and other women would be rather covertly selling out of duffel bags at various station stops. We had some extremely tasty piroshki, pickles, fish, bliny with cottage cheese, and some type of triangular shaped meat and onion filled pastry.

Southern Siberian countryside

Freight train at sunset

We did a lot of sleeping on this train ride

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Moscow and were greeted by Simon’s friend. The metro ride to her aparament was quite a trip as it felt a lot like we were back in Brooklyn and riding the Q train out to Sheepshead Bay – but the people in Moscow are a bit more up with the fashion times. Having been to Moscow before, 10 years ago with a high school trip, so far people seem much more wealthy and are dressed like they could be in New York or London. Due to the time zones “train lag” we had a mellow night last night and are now getting ready to walk around the city. We’ll be heading to Yaroslavl (the city where I stayed for most of the three week trip in 1997) and will meet up with the Russian teacher who set up my high school exchange. Then we’ll spend a few more days in Moscow before taking a quick hop (one overnight) train ride to St. Petersburg – or “Peter” as everyone refers to it here. By around the 17th we’ll be on our way to Tallinn, Estonia, Simon’s birthplace! We’ll be hopping up to Oulu, Finland for a friend’s wedding, then back down to Ukraine, where we’ll see Kiev, Khar’kov (where Simon’s dad was born) and finally Odessa, where Simon’s maternal grandparents grew up. And, as I have probably mentioned before, we’ll be back in Boston on July 5th.

We arrive in Moscow, warmly welcomed by our friend Sonya

This is just another short update to let everyone know that we’ve made it to Moscow in one piece with all of our luggage intact. Since our last post from Mongolia, we crossed 6 time zones and travelled about 6000 kilometers on the train. We made a stop in Irkutsk and stayed for two nights on an island on Lake Baikal. After that, we returned to Irkutsk and spent the next 77 hours on the train. It was very beautiful and even snowed a few times along the way and we had wonderful compartment mates. We’ll recount our the stories of our adventures soon.