We shared the compartment with only one person who was Chinese and the conversation was scarce. He had a really friendly face and we managed to understand that he was from Shanghai. He showed us on the map where we would have to go and explained how much the food would be if we would have wanted to order.

On the train were almost exclusively Chinese people except for a Danish family which we overheard boarding the train.

When we woke up we enjoyed the scenery for a while before we packed our stuff. We arrived on time to Shanghai Railway Station and went directly to the metro and bought our tickets. The Shanghai Railway Station was pretty impressive as well, with a lot of people everywhere. I find that, just like in Beijing, people here walk pretty slowly. I don't know if it is because I have longer legs or what but I would almost go as far as to say that people here walk as slowly as in Mexico!!

We arrived at our hostel after having to look for it for about 20-30 minutes. We got a good room with our own bathroom and went down to have breakfast.

Lots of love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

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A mix of grandeur from Imperial days, communist style architecture, modern sky scrapers, commercial centers and a maze of narrow alleys, Hutongs, with some delightful courtyard architecture, that is what you will find in today's Beijing. The 15.2 million inhabitants of Chinas capital (maybe not all of them) are frank, uncomplicated, helpful, friendly and every where to find.

We arrived early in the afternoon on the 5th of October. Apparently the Chinese had a week long holiday because of their National Day, 1 October, (in 1949 Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China on this day) and according to our Lonely Planet "it is not a great idea to arrive in China or go traveling during these holidays as things tend to grind to a halt". Well, we hadn't much of a choice and just stuck to our original plan.

Our hostel "Red Lantern Hostel" turned out to be a pleasant place right in the Zhengjue Hutong, northwest of the city center. The hostel had a delightful inner courtyard, good service and a friendly welcoming atmosphere. We had really cozy beds (much better than the train bunk beds) and a nicely decorated room.

We made ourselves at home and freshened up a bit, before we went off in search of food. Very quickly, we didn't have to have to walk long, we found a restaurant that appeared good to us and we walked inside. Fortunately, the menu had many photos and even some translation in English. We ordered a salad, vegetables, rice and squid. In the center of our table there was a hole with a grate or grill covering it where they put glowing coal and we could prepare our squid. Yummy!!! Apart from the food we ordered, we got tea, an appetizer, melon and ice cream. The food was delicious and of really good quality, and the prices were ridiculously low. We paid 30 Yuan (almost 4US$ or 2.90 Euros or 26 SKr) per person.

After our delightful dinner experience, we walked around in the close by hutongs, the typical traditional Beijing neighborhoods with narrow alleys. There are lots of shops, like the hole in wall types, stalls, people passing by on bicycle, walking, chatting, buying and selling. In particular at nightfall the hutongs seemed to come to real life with a big huddle of people with noises and odors coming from all directions. It is exciting to walk through the hutongs, there is always something new to explore.

The next day we had planed to get up early to see the Forbidden City but since it was pouring with rain we decided to take it easy. A bit later in the morning when the rain stopped we went off to visit the Temple of Heaven. A paragon of Ming Design, the Temple of Heaven, set in a 267 hectare park, originally served as a vast stage of solemn rites performed by the Son of Heaven, who prayed here for good harvest, and sought divine clearance and atonement for the sins of the people. We walked around the park and with us thousands of Chinese. We saw the Round Altar, Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, the standout complex with a triple-eaved umbrella roof mounted on a three-tiered marble terrace. A neat place!!

Afterwards we walked around a bit.................

.....and we then headed for Tiananmen Square where there seemed to be even more Chinese. It's national holiday week, you remember? The world's largest public square, Tiananmen Square is a vast desert of paving stone at the heart of Beijing. In the square, you stand in the symbolic centre of the Chinese universe. The square employs a conventional plan that pays obeisance to traditional Chinese culture, while its ornaments and buildings are largely Soviet inspired. Mao’s Mausoleum (the Chinese Chairman died in 1976) can be seen here as well.

At night we met with Emily, the Australian girl we did a climb excursion with in Peru and who now lives and works in Beijing. We also got to meet her flatmate who is of Chinese origin but grew up in Singapore and got her higher education in Australia. Thanks to her Mandarin knowledge, we could order the drinks and food we wanted to without using the otherwise so typical sign language. We paid 16 Yuan (US$2.10 or 1.50 Euros or almost 14 SKr) each. Can it get any cheaper?

The next day looked great, blue sky, few clouds and refreshing winds. The Forbidden City was on our agenda and we got up early to be there before the crowds. That was what we thought at least. We took a bus, got off at Front Gate, walked pass the Tiananmen Square and passed through the Gate of Heavenly Peace to eventually get to the Forbidden City. It is Beijing's top tourist site which for 500 years was off limits, thus the name. It was home to two dynasties of emperors, the Ming and the Qing, who didn't stray from this pleasure dome unless they absolutely had to. When we got there the site was full of Chinese and Western tourists alike. We strolled through the different gates, courtyards and buildings and saw the Three Great Halls, the heart of the Forbidden City, build in the 15 century and restored in the 17th century, and the Imperial Gardens, a classical Chinese garden of fine landscaping, with rockeries, walkways and pavilions. The whole complex is a true exhibit of the grandeur of Chinas Imperial days.

After Beijing’s top tourist site visit, we walked through Beihai Park, which lies northwest of the Forbidden City. It is a beautiful Chinese garden type of park with a huge lake in the centre and a perfect place to stroll around, enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and to watch calligraphers practicing characters on the pacing slabs with brush and water. The site is associated with Kublai Khan's palace, the navel of Beijing before the creation of the Forbidden City. Kublai Khan, who reigned over China as emperor of the Yuan dynasty, was grandson of Genghis Khan, the Mongol conqueror.

There as in all the other tourist places, Chinese tourists/visitors are really busy taking photos of all the different tourist attractions with them posing before it. At one place some Chinese ladies even wanted to take a photo of me next to them. So I did some posing together with them. Funny thing!!! I guess they think we Westerners look quite exotic and it's a cool thing to have a photo side by side.

After the park, we carried on to walk through the hutongs until we got back to our hostel. On our way back we had probably the best tasting dumplings ever at a tiny local restaurant. I guess I don't have to tell you how cheap it was.

The day after we had organized to go on a trip to the Great Wall at Mutianyu. Hugo and Beatrice, who we shared the compartment with on the train to Beijing, and a couple from Peru joined us. We left early at 6.00 am and got to Mutianyu before 8.00 am. We were lucky there were hardly any people that early and we climbed up our way along the wall to the different watch towers. The weather was perfect, the surrounding beautiful and the atmosphere breathtaking (not just because of the endless seeming number of stairs we walked up and down). We had four hours to walk around and were totally exhausted at 12.30 pm when we headed back to Beijing.

At night we went to Liyuan Theatre to see a Beijing Opera performance. We had been trying to get tickets through our hostel for several days and were lucky to get some on our last night in Beijing. The place turned out to be really touristy but the performance was ok. We saw some nice acrobatics, beautiful costumes, fascinating face paintings and listened to the vigorous song.

The last day in Beijing, we were busy with packing, surfing the internet, emailing, updating our travel page etc.

Then we left for Shanghai our next and maybe last destination on The Big Trip 2007.

Lots of hugs,

Sabrina and Fredrik

PS: We have been really slow with updting our travel blog. Sorry!!! We will try to catch up.

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There were sooo many tourists and at least half of them seemed to be Swedish. We shared compartment with Hugo and Beatrice a Swedish couple who were on a trip with the transsiberian down through China and Vietnam until Christmas.

The train ride went fine, as did the boarder crossing, and we arrived on schedule in Beijing. Exciting!! We took the subway to our hostel that we had booked from UB. Hugo and Beatrice hadn't booked anything and went with us to check the place out.

The week is marked as a national holiday and one of the worst times to arrive in China (since all the Chinese people are traveling) but there was absolutely no problem at all. We took the subway to our hostel "Red Lantern House" which is pretty central for Beijing and which turned out very affordable and nice.

Lots of hugs,

Fredrik and Sabrina

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Our hostal in Ulan Bataar (UB) was more like an apartment converted into a guesthouse. We had a fairly large room but with a bed as hard as a rock. It was many times worse than the relatively comfortable bunks on the train. Luckily there was also a couch in the room and we could make ourselves comfortable there. We went out to change some money (Togrog) and found an exchange office just across the street.

UB has around 800,000 inhabitants and is pretty grey and shabby. Many still live in gers (tents) or shacks. The Mongolian law allows anyone to put up a fence and call the land his/her own (15 x 20 m per person) and you see fences everywhere. It's far from being a beautiful city and we didn't do much sightseeing as we spent almost all our time in the Gobi, but it definitely has it's own atmosphere. We managed to look around town a bit.

We also went to see UB's temple. Gandantegchinlen (Gandan) Khiid is Mongolias largest and most important temple. It was built in the mid 19th century and survived the russian religious cleanout in the 1930's.

We also ran into Walter and Walter again. The Austrian guys, father and son, from the train and Irkutsk. We met by chance at a small cafe and chatted a bit over a cup of coffee. It's a small world!

Lots of Love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

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We left UB early the morning of the 26th. We just had to stop for some additional supplies, Gas for the stove, matches and, last but not least, water. Pretty good to have in the desert I've been told. :-)

Gobi was the destination. The name is Mongolian and means desert and is a vast region occupying much of southern Mongolia and a large piece of northern China. By some definitions, it encompasses desert lands stretching more than 3000 kilometers in a broad arc from the Tarim Basin in western China to the Da Hinggan Mountains on the border to Manchuria and from the centre of Mongolia to the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

The tour was planned so that we would drive between 5 and 8 hours per day and then eat and spend the night with Nomad families in their "gers" (tents). We would have the possibility to take one shower in a village that we would pass on the way after about 3 days.

We stopped at a "Sacred Stone" a holy place consisting of a blessed pile of rocks where you are supposed to walk around it 3 times clockwise while making a wish while for each lap adding a rock on the pile.

After about 10 minutes drive from Ulan Bataar we left the paved roads behind us. We were amazed by the beautiful countryside and we stopped a couple of times to take photos. -"Bairat, STOP!" was the command. Our driver, Bairat, who by the way always had a smile on his face, didn't speak much English, but that he understood. J

ust before sundown we arrived at the camp where we were to spend the night. The sunset was incredible as was the (full) moonrise. We had Mongolian tea (a kind of salty goat milk) and ate dinner, consisting of small mixed pieces of mutton and rice, together with the family while our guide, Saga, explained about the local customs and translated some questions for us. The family really made us feel welcome and we had a great first night in the Gobi. We went back to our ger, which they had warmed up for us by making a fire in the stove. The fuel was cow dung...

We slept like babies and since it was so cold in the morning nobody would have wanted to get up unless half an hour before it was time, our hosts lit the stove for us. That was great! Breakfast was fried bread and tea. We paid our 4000 per person before leaving (3.5 USD) and said goodbye.

The program for the day was to drive another 300km through the wilderness, and stop on the way at the "Mud Cliffs" for dinner. First we stopped at an old temple in the middle of nowhere.

We bumped in to our first herd of camels and called -"Bairat, STOP!" to check them out. Later we would see camels from time to time as we made our way through the gobi.

When we arrived at the mud cliffs we walked around the area. There are many crystals scattered around on the ground and the dirt is in shifting tones of red, brown and yellow.

We then had lunch on top of the plateau that makes out the cliffs. We cooked inside the van which is a good way to avoid the sand and ocasional winds but maybe its not the safest way to cook.

On the way we saw some mirages, it really looked like lakes in the middle of the desert, but in the end there was just more desert. In the evening we arrived at Dalazadgad village (1450m above sea level) where we arrived late at night and had some difficulties to find the tent in the dark after that all of us had had our showers at the local "bath house".

Since we were in a "village" we had an electric light in the tent, but no heating so it got quite cold. We had our rice and mutton (Soya meat for the vegetarians again) in our own tent and went to bed.

After a breakfast of crackers and tea we played some football and packed ourselves in the van again.

We drove about 300km on bouncy roads to the Ice valley or Yolyn Am (Vulture Canyon), without ice now because of heavy rains earlier this year. Wildflowers line the banks of the gently flowing stream. It was beautiful and we truly enjoyed the scenery and also managed to photograph some of the many "Pikas", squirrel-sized members of the rabbit family with little round ears, who pop in and out of their burrows all around the place.

We then had a little pick nick lunch before we went straight to the next stop to save one day and to be able to fully enjoy the "Sand Dunes" where we spent two nights. After leaving the valley we had a nice ride through some beautiful terrain. We asked our driver to stop a couple of times and just enjoyed the views.

As the sun started to set we had still not reached the campsite. We encountered a group of camels and took the opportunity to strech our legs and get a couple of nice photographs of the animals.

The place is called "Khongoryn Els" and is a spectacular line of sand dunes (180km long and 12km wide) in a valley squeezed between mountains. The highest dunes are some 200 meters. It was more the desert that we had expected and it was nice to not have to get up as early and bounce around in the car all day. Emma had a cold and spent the whole day in bed and Dee, who seems to only need a couple of hours sleep per night, was up before sunrise anyway. Orna, the family's daughter played with us and Sabrina and I went on our first camel ride through the desert. Dinner was pasta and vegetables for all (Dee and I were tired of the mutton and had decided to become temporary vegetarians).

We also made a new friend. The lovely daughter of the family named Orna. She played with us and showed us how to treat the animals. Also she showed us what to do if you drop a candy on the ground. First you whipe it off on the goat and then you let the dog lick it and, abra cadabra, you can eat it again...

Saga went with us on the camelride which started at a neighbouring nomad camp. We drove there and rode the camels back to our camp. On the way we met Dee who had went on a walk to the dunes.

The following day, after the tea and crackers, we drove to Bayanzag, better known as "Flaming Cliffs". It’s a red-tinted badlands famous for dinosaur fossil discoveries that began in the 20's and continue to this day. On the way we stopped in a small village for some food.

At the Flaming cliffs we walked around a bit, enjoying the grand views and the nice weather.

The night we were lucky enough to experience a real ger inauguration party. The tradition is that when a couple gets married, the groom’s family gives them a ger and the bride’s family provides the furniture. We met the lucky couple and sat with the groom and his brother in law who, waiting for the bride’s family, had started the celebration with our guide and driver. We were offered "Mongolian vodka" it’s the rest liquid from yoghurt production, mixed with vodka. It has a really "goaty" taste. The other drink we were offered was "Mongolian beer", fermented mares (horse) milk. The third was the normal, Russian style, vodka. Our guide and driver was drinking the "beer" mixed with the Russian style vodka from big bowls (1,5 liters or so). The Mongolians are very bound by many traditions and our guide helped us so that we would not offend our hosts. We had many difficulties to gracefully decline the beverages and in the end I had to drink 4 shots of vodka and 2 silver bowls of the Mongolian Vodka. After that they started passing around the big "milk bowl" again. The only way not to have to drink it was to sing three songs. Our driver and guide sang beautifully together with the others, traditional Mongolian songs about their lands, parents etc. Then Dee got the bowl and started to look a little bit nervous. She started with some local Dutch song which everybody enjoyed and nobody understood anything of. Then I think she sang some Christmas song and finally "Allstar" from the firs Shreck movie. She happily returned the bowl and it was passed to me. Now I had had a little moment to prepare so I started with the obvious choice, the Swedish national anthem. It worked. Then it got a bit harder, but since they wouldn't understand a word anyway, I sang a lullaby. For the last one I had a really tough time figuring it out, until Sabrina got the idea and we sang a Swedish birthday song together and I got rid of the smelly milk. Now Sabrina was up. She wasn't prepared at all and had to think for a while. She started with a German Christmas song, "Oh Tannenbaum" and then after much thought, "Alle meine Entchen". For the last one she chose "Schneefloeckchen", or rather a quick version. We got out of there before they could serve us any more food or drinks. Puhhh.

The next day we started the final part of the tour. We had seen a lot of animals during the trip but especially during this last day did we really see many. We saw Gazelles, Buzzards, gophers, dessert mice, camels, horses, goats and even a dessert fox.

To sum it up, Gobi is great!!!

Lots of Love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

PS 1 The toilets were quite special. A huge hole in the ground with two stones, planks or something to stand on while leaving a gap in between for your "business". Check it out!

PS 2 We will upload some more photos shortly!!

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The train was full of tourists again but not as many as the first train and we didn't see as many Swedes this time. We got to share our compartment with a really nice couple from Germany, Teresa and Stefan. Teresa is 7 months pregnant and both have travelled all over and lived in different countries working with "Doctors without borders". I guess you can imagine how incredibly interesting it was talking to the two of them the whole way to Mongolia.

The train left at 5.43 in the morning and was scheduled to arrive in Ulan Bataar at 7.30 in the morning the day after. The funny thing is that there was another train that left Irkutsk (also headed for Ulan Bataar) about 8 hours before our train but scheduled to arrive just 25 minutes before us! I think its a cheaper one and more locals take it so the Russian customs want more time looking through that one. Anyway, the trip was beautiful.

It was great to see the Lake Baikal and then to see the scenery change as we came closer to Mongolia. The sunrise was beautiful and it was great to see the first "gers", the traditional Mongolian nomad tents and the animals in the countryside. It all went superb and we enjoyed the ride.

We arrived in Ulan Bataar on schedule and were picked up by somebody from the hostal. All of a sudden Emma was there! You remember, Emma? We shared compartment with her and her boyfriend Robert from Moscow to Irkutsk. Now they were planning to go for a 9 or 7 day tour of the Gobi desert and needed more people. We decided to think about it for a little while and to meet up again as soon as we had installed ourselves at the hostal and taken a shower.

Take care for now,

Fredrik and Sabrina

PS We will upload some photos shortly!

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We arrived early in the morning and walked for 20 minutes from the Train Station through the rain and dark to our hotel.

Luckily we could access our room already and we had a nice breakfast (buffet). We took a long shower and had a nice rest after which we went out to try and find an internet cafe. It was still raining and cold and we were quickly quite wet. After a few hours of walking around without finding an open internet cafe we went into a nice restaurant. We managed to get something to eat and dried up. We then finally found our internet cafe (with the help of a very friendly local language student), called home and sent some e-mails.

In the evening we met two Austrians, father and son, Walter and Walter, who we had met already on the train from Moscow. They had booked a tour with a german speaking guide the following day and we decided to go with them. They were coming from "The Russian Tea House" which they could recommend and we went there for some tea and traditional "Blinis", russian pancakes. Yummy.

The day after we packed ourselves in a van to do the tour. It consited of a drive with the four of us, our guide Olga and the driver (who's name most probably could have been Ivan).

The first stop was at an outdoor museum ("Taltsy Museum of Wooden Architecture") showing different traditional houses and the way of life in Siberia during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Buildings include farm houses, a Church, a Chapel a School and an eye-catching watchtower.

The second stop was the natural museum (Limnological Institute) where we could learn a bit more about the local geography, flora and fauna. They kept local fish as well as a couple of the endemic "Nerpa seals" in tanks.

After the museum we arrived at Lake Baikal. We were hungry and luckily our guide had booked a local restaurant there. We had "Omul" (a cousin of salmon and trout) endemic to the lake, wrapped in hash browns and filled with sourcream. We drank "Mors", cranberry juice, which normally is accompanied by vodka (but not this time). The meal was a true delicacy.

The third stop was the village of Listvyanka right at the lake, which by the way, is the deepest lake in the world with its 1,637 meters. That means its the largest freshwater lake by volume (23,000 km³), containing approximately twenty percent of the world's total surface fresh water. People didn't really know that much about Lake Baikal until the Trans-Siberian railway was built between 1896 and 1902. It was however quite impressive and a beautiful sight.

The fourth stop was at the local skiing slope from where we had some beautiful views.

The fifth and last stop was at a supermarket. We bought some food for the train ride to Mongolia and were amazed by the range of stuff they had.

We had a great time in Irkutsk and lake Baikal and would love to be able to come back one day. Maybe in March to experience the Siberian wintertime (when it's not too harsh). For those who like running (Nick and Kirsti?) we also heard that in March they have a Marathon on the lake. That would be a challenge!!

Lots of Love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

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Outside, waiting to get on the train, we met a couple of large groups of Swedes. We got the impression that there were many foreigners, actually more than Russians, who were going with the train.

We shared our cabin with a very nice Swedish couple, Robert and Emma, who were just starting an approximately 9 month long trip through Russia, China, South-East Asia and hopefully Tibet too.

The Cars
We were traveling in the last part of the train, the Russian cars where all passengers with destinations in Russia were. Food was distributed (some crackers, sausage and tea for breakfast and a small lunch box for lunch) only to these passengers. These were also the oldest and most worn down cars but as it turned out, with the best heating! The first night I was sweating like a bull even though I slept in shorts and a t-shirt. The second night I was a bit more clever and slept without the blanket and it was ok. And as we traveled further east it got a bit colder and soon the temperature in our car was perfect while others were complaining about the cold. Other cars were the Chinese, a bit more modern, cars with a lot of staff. Then there was the first class cars, which I think also were in the Chinese part of the train.

Food
We didn’t know what to expect food wise, so we had bought some food before getting on the train. Some bread, marmalade, nuts and dried fruits, water, and some fruits. When the train stopped the first time we picked up some juice, cookies and bread and with the lunch boxes we didn’t manage to finish everything before getting off in Irkutsk. At many of the stops food was available in many forms or shapes, dried fish, pastries, cookies, fruits, bread, or entire meals.

Stops
The train was pretty punctual. There was a timetable on the wall detailing all the stops with minute precision. To our surprise the train kept quite punctual and only at the end was it a little behind schedule. The stops were very precise and always between 15 and 23 minutes. Some people almost were left behind at a station with a 15 min stop as they had to wait in the kiosk queue. It was really interesting to watch people and just see everything that was going on. The stops were about every three hours or so and the highlight of the day.

Hygiene
There were no showers but we had two bathrooms in our car. There was a sink and it wasn’t too difficult to keep clean and relatively fresh.

Activities
We played some board games, read a lot, talked more, looked out the windows, took photos here is some of what we saw:

Then we ate, slept and generally just enjoyed each others company. It was great! The time flew and all of a sudden we were in Irkutsk!!!

Bye for now and take care!!!!!!!

Love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

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We have now (18 Sep) spent 5 days in Moscow and it’s time to carry on our eastward journey. But before let me tell you what we experienced in the Russian metropolis.

To our surprise, the hotel we booked through our travel agency had a really good standard with nice rooms, TV (some international news channels), quite good (English speaking) service, Internet access, big breakfast buffet and so on. By the way, it has so far been the most expensive hotel on our whole trip, 1.200 Kr (130 Euros or 180 Dollars) for a double room with breakfast buffet. Since we were dead beat after our train ride from St. Petersburg to Moscow and adding the terrible weather, it rained cats and dogs, we took it really easy the first day. We had a solid breakfast, took a nap, watched TV, explored the hotel, used the Internet, called home etc. The only productive thing we managed that day was to pick up our pre-booked train tickets to Irkutsk and Ulan Bator from the Leningradsky train station. We took the metro and after some disorientated moves at the station, we found the office from where we were supposed to pick up the tickets.

The second day well rested and to some extend acclimatized, we were ready for Moscow downtown. The weather hadn’t improved too much, the sky was still covered in grey colors, so we decided to go to the State Tretyakov Gallery, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world, with a fantastic collection of Russian icons and other pre-revolutionary Russian art. The museum was a big hit for both Fredrik and me. As Western European one has seen fine arts from countries such as Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, the US, the UK but Russian art somehow has never come to our sight before. We rented an audio guide and found it most interesting to listen to the different interpretations of and histories behind the paintings. Unfortunately but not that surprisingly, we were not allowed to take photos inside the museum so you have to come and see the Tretyakov Gallery for yourself.

After the museum, we strolled around. We walked through a park where we saw at least 6 couples of brides and grooms with their friends and family posing in front of reflex and video cameras. We also discovered a piece of art which made an impression on us. Close to the park we found some “iron” trees decorated with masses of spring locks. Each spring lock had two names and a date engraved, probably two beloved ones hoping or wishing their love to last forever. Cute!!!

From the park we carried on walking towards the Kremlin. By the way, Kremlin is the Russian word for "fortress", "citadel", or "castle" and refers to any major fortified central complex found in historic Russian cities. We crossed a bridge from where we had the first views of the stately Kremlin, the apex of Russian political power and once the centre of the Orthodox Church. It is not only the kernel of Moscow but of the whole country. It’s from here that autocratic tsars, communist dictators and democratic presidents have done their best and worst for Russia. We decided to visit the Muscovite “fortress” the next day and kept walking along its high walls through the Aleksandrovsky Gardens, along the “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier” where we stopped and took photos. The Tomb contains the remains of a soldier who died in December 1941 at Leningradskoe sh, the nearest the Nazis came to Moscow.

We kept walking in the hope to get to see the Red Square which lies outside the Kremlin walls. It was once a market square but during the centuries it has been a place where the occupants of the Kremlin chose to congregate, celebrate and castigate for all the people to see. To our surprise, the Red Square was fenced in and guarded; we could not get to it. We found out that there was an International Military Tattoo taking place, where 47 military bands from around the world would come together and perform, inspired by the Edinburgh’s Military Tattoo. What an amazing thing we thought in particular thinking of the location, Red Square. Wow!!!! We got some tickets for the next day or I should better say night. Fantastic!!!!

After a walk through and a short break at the GUM shopping mall, housed in a beautiful 19th century building with elegant and pricey shops, we finished our downtown trip for the day with dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Yummy!!!

The next day we were ready for the Kremlin. We were lucky, after having bought the tickets, we got in right away. We passed the Trinity Gate Tower started to wander around a bit until we heard the sound of a loud whistle from somewhere. Obviously, we had entered into an out-of-bounds area and the Kremlin police informed us “nicely” to stay out of there. There were no signs however, that could tell us where the out-of-bounds areas were. From time to time we heard the whistle and then we knew. We felt like dogs on training!

Eventually, we made it to the main attraction of the Kremlin, the Sabornaya Square with its beautiful, ancient cathedrals, palace and bell tower. The Assumption Cathedral was built between 1475 and 1479 and is the focal church of pre-revolutionary Russia. It is the burial place of most heads of the Russian Orthodox Church form the 1320s to 1700. The Annunciation Cathedral, built in 1489, was the royal family’s private chapel. Both cathedrals contain some stunning icons. No photos, sorry!!!

After a quick lunch break, we made our way to the Armory, a numbingly opulent collection of treasures accumulated over time by the Russian State and Church. We were above all impressed by the Faberge eggs, jeweled eggs made by Peter Carl Faberge for the Russian Tsars between 1885 and 1917, the joint coronation throne of boy tsars Peter (the Great) and his half-brother Ivan V with a secret compartment, baroque style horse coaches and gilded, gem covered jackets. Brilliant, in the full sense of the word!!!

Then at 7.00 pm we made our way to the Red Square to see the Military Tattoo. The view from the galleries was spectacular. We had St. Basils church, the towers and wall of the Kremlin right in front of us and thousands of Russians around us waiting for the music spectacle to start. Little by little it got darker and the illumination of the Red Square went on. Fantastic, what a view! The military bands started their show. We saw dancers from Ukraine, Danish, German and Russian military bands playing their drums and trumpets and others juggling their rifles to the music. There were Italian standard-bearers throwing their flags into the air and a huge multicultural bagpipers group with Australians, Canadians, Scottish and English played in full tones on their pipes. All together 1500 musicians and dancers came together who entertained an audience of about 40.000 people. And we were in between!!! What an amazing experience!!

The following day we visited St. Basil's Cathedral. Rising from the slope at Red Square's southern end, this crazy confusion of colors and shapes was created between 1555 and 1561, replacing an existing church, to celebrate Ivan the Terrible's taking of the Tatar stronghold of Kazan. Its design is the culmination of wholly Russian style that had been developed for building wooden churches.

The same day we allowed ourselves a real splurge at the Pushkin Café, the queen mother of haute russe dining, with an exquisite blend of Russian and French cuisines. Delicious!!!

Our last day in Moscow was filled with packing, buying food and getting ready for our Trans-Siberian train trip to Irkutsk, mailing home CDs with our digital photos, loading up photos on the internet etc. At 19.30 we got picked up by a taxi (we shared the taxi with a Swedish couple we met at the hotel who had the same destination) to the train station (Yaroslavl Station) where we waited for the train that should take us to Siberia.

Before I leave you here, some words about the Russians or the Muscovites. Apart from very few exceptions –like the receptionist in St. Petersburg whose shining teeth we never saw -, the Russians are very friendly people, always willing to help, for example, when you are lost in the street or need some translation help with the Russian menu. The only Russian words we really learned are “spasiba” (thank you), “pazhalsta” (you’re welcome), “dobraye-utra” (good morning) and “dasvidanya” (goodbye), somehow it works. The funny thing is, people in the street kept asking us things (actually, we have no clue what they were asking) as if we were locals. Somehow we must have blended in quite well with our grey outfits and bum bags. The only thing that was missing to make the look perfect was to have a cigarette in one hand and a beer bottle in the other.

That’s all for now, dear friends, but there is more to come in the next reports.

Big hugs and kisses,

Sabrina and Fredrik

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At around 06.00 am we arrived in Moscow at Leningradski station. We were considering getting a taxi but Vladimir told us that they would charge us a fortune and that we better take the Metro instead. He even volunteered to show us the way. Rodney got picked up directly at the station by somebody at his hotel and would be continuing shortly to Yakaterinenburg and on towards China so we said goodbye.

Vladimir paid for our metro tickets and took a long detour just to make sure we didn’t get lost. He left us his number in case we would run into any trouble or have any questions and we said goodbye.

It was dark and rainy when we got of the metro at Vladykino. We wondered around for a long while, asked a couple of people for the way and eventually found our hotel. It was really nice and we got access to our room immediately. We had a large breakfast, had a shower and took a long rest.

Take care everybody!!

Love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

Train from St Petersburg to Moscow remains copyright of the author fredrik_p, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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12th of September
After breakfast we went for another session at the internet cafe. Then quick lunch and on to the Hermitage museum, finally! It is grand and we can definitely recommend it to anyone who visits St. Petersburg. The building itself is fantastic and filled with interesting sculptures, artefacts from Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Greece and all corners of the world. If you are still not impressed it houses a large collection of western art which include for example Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens, Rembrandt, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Cézanne, van Gogh, Gauguin, Picasso, and Matisse. There is much, much more to see however, including for example the Russian imperial regalia, an assortment of Fabergé jewellery, and the largest existing collection of ancient gold from Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

Quick dinner consisting of sushi at the "Banzai" restaurant. Still no local food, but at least we got some Russian caviar in the makis :-) Then we went to see the ballet Giselle at the cosy hermitage theatre. Two very enjoyable hours for about as much as a Russian state pension (2500 rubles, but i think the average pension is actually even lower than that). We took a taxi back to the hotel and the negotiation about the prize was hilarious. We tried to get it for 400 until we realized we were 10 rubles short and tried to get it for 390. After a long discussion the taxi driver said, "-Ok, 350 then!". DONE DEAL!!!

13th of September
The last day in St. Petersburg we spent packing and checking out and then on to an internet cafe for a longer session to burn our photos to CDs and to upload some photos for you guys. At the hotel they told us they could not help us send anything other than printed material (!) so unfortunately we haven’t managed to mail them home yet. We went for a quick lunch at a cafe and then we went back to the hotel to get our bags and get to the station. We found the train and got on all right without any problems.

More about the ride later!!

Lots of hugs!!!!

Fredrik and Sabrina

St. Petersburg (2) remains copyright of the author fredrik_p, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The fortress was established by Peter the Great in 1703 on a small island on the Neva River. It is the original citadel of St. Petersburg and the fortress contains a number of buildings including the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where all Russian tsars from Peter I to Alexander III are interred (and a couple of imperial martyrs).

We walked around, took a couple of photos, enjoyed the views and eventually made our way back to the hotel. On the way we had a look at the Warship "Aurora" which houses a museum and permanently lies in the Neva River close to our hotel.

We had a good rest at the hotel which lies north of the river while the City Centre lies on the southern side. We then walked to the northern part of the centre and had dinner at a fancy Italian place (the closest restaurant we could find). The food was good but pretty expensive. We walked through a lovely park on the way home. It looked beautiful in the afternoon sun and it was filled with statues. The day after, we found out looking at the map, that it was the "Summer Garden". We had a nice walk home, crossing the Neva River and seeing the sun setting behind the Peter and Paul Fortress. That night we slept like babies!!

10th of September
Ready for some serious sightseeing! After the breakfast buffet (well, I have had better, I can tell you that much) at the hotel we took the metro into town. The plan was to walk up the Nevsky Prospekt, probably Russia’s most famous street and an essential St. Petersburg experience. We had some trouble with the direction when leaving the metro station but then managed to get on the right track. It’s pretty packed with people and one has to be alert. We saw the statue of Catherine the Great, walked through the "fashionable" (mom, don’t go to St. Petersburg for shopping) arcades of Gostiny Dvor, one of the worlds first indoor malls, built between 1757 and 1785. We entered the still used "Kazan Cathedral" and took some sneak photos (as you are not allowed to take pictures in there). We visited the "Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood". The name refers to the blood of the assassinated Alexander II of Russia, who was mortally wounded on that site on March 13, 1881. Construction began in 1883 under his son Alexander III, as a memorial to his father. Work progressed slowly and was finally completed during the reign of Nicholas II in 1907.

We then walked to the Winter Palace and looked around the "Dvortsovaya ploshad" one of the most impressive and historic spaces of the city. We stood next to the Alexander column, 47,5 meters high and raised in memory of Alexander the I commemorating the 1812 victory over Napoleon. The Winter Palace houses the Hermitage, which is one of the largest museums in the world, with over 3 million works of art (even though not all are on display at once). It is one of the oldest art galleries and museums of human history and culture in the world. The vast Hermitage collections are displayed in six buildings, the main one being the Winter Palace which used to be the official residence of the Russian Tsars. We looked around the outside and decided to dedicate some more time to visit the following day or the day after. We went for an hour to an internet cafe and then had dinner at the "Face Cafe" a really good place with delicious European-Asian fusion cuisine to very reasonable prices. We then walked quickly (almost ran) home to avoid the dark.

Bye for now, dear friends and family!!!

Fredrik and Sabrina

St. Petersburg (1) remains copyright of the author fredrik_p, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We even found our bunks, even though we needed to ask 3 different people. The wagon was divided into compartments but still open in a full isle. Each compartment had 2 bunks over 2 benches (which could also be covered with a "mattress"). There was a small table between the benches and across the isle were two seats with a table between them. The smaller table across the isle could be folded down so that another bed could be prepared. We had the 2 upper bunks and shared the space with 3 other people, none of whom spoke any english. Tea was served and after a couple of hours people started making themselves comfortable and so did we. Then the lighs went out and it was time to sleep. Luckily we had our headlamps and could read some more before sleeping.

Then at about a quarter to 12 the lights were turned on again and the Latvian border personnel came to check our passports. That took about 30 minutes and then the lights were turned off again. 12.45 (actually 01.45 local time but we didnt know that at the time) the lights were turned on again and now it was time for the real deal. The russian border control. First somebody came and wrote down our passport numbers. Then a couple of minutes later a woman in a fur hat (like in the movies) came and wanted to see our passports, entry cards and visas. She was accompanied by two colleagues, all pretty grim and serious looking. They spent several minutes examing my (Fredriks) passport, first normally, then they got out the blacklight, then they whispered a bit, turned the pages, examined the stamps etcetera. Finally they almost reluctantly turned over the passport. Pfff... I dont know if it was that they had never seen such a handsome guy before. ;-) Then the customs officers came and said something in russian. I just tried to give them my passport again but they didnt want it. Sabrina just said -"Niet", no in russian. Then they managed to say something like - "baagaaashhh". Ahhh, they were wondering where our luggage was. We pointed and that was that. They snooped around a bit, looked in some hatches and on a shelf and that was it. When all that was over with we could sleep until 6.30 our time (7.30 local) when they turned on the lights again. Grrr...

At 7.30 (8.30 local time) we arrived in St. Petersburg.

As it was sunday morning the station wasnt too crowded and we managed to take a metro to our hotel. We have found out that it is more difficult to read russian than we thought. The weather was spectacular (even though its a bit colder than Riga. Maybee 15 degrees) and we walked the last bit to our hotel. Its called Hotel St.Petersburg and fits exactly what we had expected. We will show you some photos and you will probably understand why.

Take care!!

Lots of love,

Fredrik and Sabrina

Train to St. Petersburg remains copyright of the author fredrik_p, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Riga is the capital of Latvia, has over 700 000 inhabitants and is situated on the coast of the Baltic Sea. It is the largest city in the Baltic states and its Historic Centre has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also famous for its extensive Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) architecture, comparable in significance only with Vienna and Saint Petersburg.

The first thing we did was walk straight through the city to the train station to by the tickets to St.Petersburg. We had some slight difficulties but nothing worse than expected. From there we walked around the Old Town, just strolling around, getting to know the place a little better. At 18.00 we met up with Kerstin (my aunt) and Ann-Britt a friend of hers. They were in Riga for a couple of days and had just been to a Spa to get some manicure and such. Together we went to the Skyline Bar on the 26th floor of the Reval Hotel Latvija (fancy pancy hotel). We had some drinks and among other things tried out the Black Mojito made with the local "Balsam" liquor (like Jaegermeister). The views over the city were spectacular as was the sunset. Later we went for dinner at the Slavu Restaurant (typical food) in the Old Town. The food was expensive, dry and tasteless. The best thing was the blankets we got, so we could sit outside!
Then we went for more drinks at Velvet, popular with tourists and the nouveau rich. We sat at the door so we didnt see the gogo dancers until at closing (2.00 am) some girl came walking by our table in her underwear and we didnt know what to think!

The next day (6th) we had breakfast at the hotel and then we went to meet Kerstin and Ann-Britt again just, to have coffee and say goodbye. We did some more sightseeing, some parks, the Dome Cathedral, St.Petersburg Church, House of Blackheads, lots of medieval architecture and Art Nouveau buildings.

In the afternoon we also went to the Central Market, originally built as a series of Zeppelin hangers during WWI. We bought some fruit and enjoyed watching people. We went to a cosy tea house right in Vermanes garden where we sat among the cushions and rested for a while. In the evening we went to the cinema and saw the Bourne Ultimatum which was not too great.
We strolled around some more and then finnished off with dinner at the great restaurant DaDa with interiors inspired by the Dadaism.

On the 7th we slept long and then went to the Occupation Museum, dedicated to the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Latvia. The various exhibits display the atrocities committed against the people of Latvia and the systematic destruction of their nations sovereignty. After about two or three hours there we went on a lunch break at the Medieval restaurant Rozengrals. Excellent food and atmosphere! We then spent another hour at the Occupation museum again before going to a cafe and then to an internet cafe. We had dinner closer to our hotel, at Kaptaina Enrico(?) which had great food, better service and a very nice vibe. It also had some very random swedish decore, a hockey shirt from Brynas and a poster for Husqvarna chainsaws...

Today is the last day in Riga and we will just take it easy, write some mails and get ready for the long trainride to St.Petersburg (12.5 hours with the night train). Wish us luck!

Take care!!!!

Lots of hugs,

Fredrik and Sabrina

PS. Have a look in a couple of days to see the photos.

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In Koping we had lunch with my grandmother Marie (eating out about everyday). We watched photos and spent as much time as possible with our family. Of course we also had to prepare for the next leg of the BIG TRIP.

On Monday the 3rd of September we went to Stockholm, spent the night at David and Karins place again and ate at David and Johannas. Wow, incredible how Matilda has grown!!!! Then on tuesday the 4th we took a ferry to Riga, in Latvia. It was pretty small (for a Cruise ship) but it was nice and there were hardly any people on it anyway. We had a nice dinner buffet, listned to the Bulgarian band, saw the obligatory tacky dance show and went to bed. We slept like babies and woke up just in time to make the breakfast buffet. Yummy. An hour later we landed in Riga.

By for now!

Fredrik and Sabrina

Short visit to Sweden and cruise to Riga remains copyright of the author fredrik_p, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Teicheinweihung remains copyright of the author sabrinakam, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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