Saorrento

Six weeks, seven countries and twelve cities later, our tour to Russia the long way round has finally drawn to a close. It has been the most incredible experience and I am very glad to say there isn’t any one thing that stands out well beyond the others, there were so many magical moments of our trip: seeing snow and wild Elk in Golden Colorado and dining out with Jon and Julie who we both had a fantastic time with; the neon extravaganza of both Las Vegas and Times Square in New York City; the climb to the observation deck of the Empire State Building; seeing Phantom of the Opera on Broadway; my first rail trip in England going out to Bristol and the Eurostar voyage to Belgium; pub crawls and luxury dining in Belgium; hiking through the snow in St Petersburg to various World War II monuments; getting up close to Soviet and German war machines and other various relics of the Cold War at a number of Museum exhibits; travelling from St Petersburg to Moscow by second class rail, with snowy landscapes out the window; cruising down the Rhine river in Frankfurt past the many vineyards, medieval styled castles and villages. These are just a few of the highlights, simply put; ‘The Long Way to Russia’ has been an EPIC adventure!

What’s next? Well this trip has wet our appetites for so much more travel; I personally would love to see a great deal more of Colorado during the ski season as well as re-visit Frankfurt and spend time touring about Germany. Things like a Route 66 road trip in the United States, a month long stay in Germany and other Euro Road trips are just some of the ideas buzzing through my head for the near future.

Of course then there are also new exotic locations such as the likes of Egypt, Antarctica and Dubai which are pretty high up on the list of new places too. So if nothing else, WATCH THIS SPACE!

Frankfurt has been a breath of fresh air after our 11 day tour of Russia. Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed my time in both St Petersburg and Moscow; I could spend a great deal longer further experiencing the history and culture of Russia, as well as the approaching minus degree Celsius temperatures, however, for a first time visit, a change of pace was definitely welcomed after the 11th day. Little things like having to carry your passport around you at all times whilst in Russia slowly became more like having a ball and chain around your foot. The heightened sense of alert you had to maintain; watching out for pickpockets, and being prepared to mime what you are after to non-English speaking people became quite exhausting to think of (though I must stress we did not see or experience any pick pocketing). It was nice to finally be rid of all these things and just relax a little.

We checked into our hotel just after 5.00pm. Immediately after checking-in we looked up the tours on offer at Green Line Tours conveniently located across the road from the Savoy Hotel where we were staying. The tour group boasted many tours ranging from full day excursions to brief half day ones held in the afternoon. Tours featured river cruises, wine tasting, tours of gothic castles and other city based trips. Given that Tuesday was now next to gone and we were due to leave for the airport at 7.30pm on the Thursday, Michelle and I booked a day tour going from 10am-7.30pm for the following day and a 2hr city tour for the Thursday morning. With our tours booked and the sun well and truly gone there was little more to do than to have dinner, finding an Irish Pub only three doors down from our hotel. We both felt like we were eating dinner at midnight and although it was only 8pm in Frankfurt we kind of were since our bodies were still on Moscow time, some four hours ahead of Frankfurt.

The next morning we headed straight out for the tour shop across the road to begin our day tour of the Rhine River. The Rhine is one of several prominent rivers running through Frankfurt. This particular river system is host to some magnificent gothic styled castles and a number of vineyards running parallel either side of the river. Our tour included a guided coach tour to the Rhine where we then boarded a riverboat making our way up the Rhine. The tour also included a restaurant lunch and wine tasting.

Due to the approaching off-season, where even the Germans try to flee the country during the winter months, our tour group was relatively small consisting of about four different country groups, 11 people in total. Amongst them were four Aussies, Michelle and myself, along with an elderly couple from Melbourne. A very nice couple Michelle and I befriended from the island of Samoa, two couples from Dubai which were also a delight to talk to and last but not least a middle-aged business man who could only speak Portuguese.

Unfortunately for him, no one else on the tour spoke Portuguese, including the tour guide. During lunch, which we had before the river cruise, the Portuguese man downed four glasses of Red wine within thirty minutes. The rest of our group sat back in amusement, finally all agreeing that since he can’t understand a word of English he may as well just sit back and enjoy himself. On the river cruise our tour group was joined by three other tour groups, where the Portuguese found some fellow people he could communicate with. In celebration of his new found comrades he had two stines (1ltr mugs) of beer. Needless to say when it came to the wine tasting at the end of the evening he had his head buried between his legs not even capable of facing the sample of wine before him.

The Rhine looked even better than advertised on the brochures. The water was a dark blue and the hilly landscape on either side was full of vines ripe with fruit. Perched every couple of miles along the hillside were castles, each and every one unique with its own splendor design. Also along either side of the river were bustling rail lines with both electric passenger trains and diesel powered cargo trains shunting through into the hillside tunnels and out into and amongst the small near-medieval styled villages at the base of the escarpment.

The only thing amiss with the day was the level of foggy haze between the river boat and hill side didn’t play too nicely with photography, with each and every snap taken requiring dramatic enhancement through Photoshop.

After the Rhine river cruise which ran its course of two hours we made our way to the bus which took us to our final stop; wine tasting. I had been good all day, saving myself for the tasting, hoping to go back for seconds and even thirds, sampling the whole of the vineyard. Unfortunately this was not to be.

I can tell you right now, my number one purchase for the next adventure overseas is going to be a compact laptop. I am currently somewhat squashed up, having my chair back as far as it can go to compensate for the passenger in front who has put their chair back – I can only just get the laptop screen upright and just millimeters off having to suck in my stomach to fit the laptop infront of me. The Singapore Air flight from Frankfurt to Singapore whom yours truly is currently on has so far been pretty comfortable. Almost limitless video on demand covering a pretty broad selection of TV shows and movies. The service is very good, though with everyone else on this flight asleep but me it makes it very easy for the hostess’s to keep up with the regular scotch n’ coke requests. The TV panel in the chair is pretty impressive; it comes with Video in ports to plug your laptop video feed into it and use it as another screen, there is also usb, cat-5 and 240 volt power on the armrest. Though unfortunately the power on the armrests don’t work on most of the chairs, yes, the kind hostess even checked the empty seats for me. All I will say is the future of flying is looking pretty cool! Where was I?
Yes, typically on wine tours and particularly tastings that I have done in the past, one approaches the tasting bench and points at particular bottles of wine and the server will pour a quarter glass for your evaluation. If you’re lucky, the server behind the bar will know their wines and suggest a specific order to sample them in and provide a brief summary on the life of the grape you are currently tasting. Although the wine sampling in this particular instance was carried out by a German woman who definitely knew her wines the wine portions themselves were not that generous, measuring to just over a quarter of a shot glass each, with one sampling of each wine per person.

I found the wine itself to be mediocre. Although I do not question that the quality to be far superior to that of Australian wine (the host assured us that her wine had no added sugar, which I learned is responsible for the nasty headaches that some people (fortunately not me) get from their third or fourth glass) my Australian pallet just did not appreciate it fully and I found the wines on the most part either too bland or too naturally sweet, there was no middle ground. One wine did impress me however; although it tasted more like an alcoholic fruit drink than wine. It was more in the genesis of it that impressed. The wine called ‘Ice Wine’ founded in Germany exists now in Germany, Canada, New Zealand (and two other places I cannot recall). What is particularly unique about this wine is how it is produced. On the first frosty winters morning of the season where the temperature is a perfect minus seven degrees Celcius, the grapes are harvested. During this temperature the grapes are frosted over by a thin layer of Ice. The harvesting process for this particular wine is done by hand. At the very same time the grapes are picked in the dead calm of night well before sunrise the barrels of grapes are rushed down the slope of the vineyard into the refinery where the grapes, still in their frosted state are crushed. In this state only pure grape juice is processed. To put it another way, it takes 12kilograms of grape to make an ordinary bottle of wine, for Ice Wine however, since all you get from a grape is just a drop or two of pure grape juice, 80 kilograms of grapes are required to make a bottle. Once the morning breaks it is all over, that is the Ice Wine harvest for the year. An entire years vintage of Ice wine harvested in just one night. When the morning sun hits the vines, the icy layer around the grape will melt away turning it back into just an ordinary grape for what in comparison is just ordinary wine. This makes the wine very unique, and the fact that it also has a potentially unlimited shelf life (requires re-corking every 20 years), it is a collectors dream.

So the tasting part was a bit of a letdown but I did learn a lot about the wine process and keeping wines. Such as, white wines once open, provided that they are refrigerated will last for two or three weeks. If storing wines, ensure that you either store the bottle with the nose down (so the cork is always completely submerged) or if laying on its side make sure you rotate the bottle 180 degrees every six months (something I plan to do as soon as I get home) and obviously, keep out of direct sunlight or keep in a wine fridge.

By the time the wine tasting was over our Portuguese friend had stumbled outside for some fresh air. The whole way home on the coach he was passed out in the front seat.

The next day we did a city bus tour around Frankfurt. The city itself is rather impressive, like most European cities (although somewhat self inflicted) it too suffered its fair share of damage during World War II. Even back then Frankfurt was considered the financial capital of Europe. Today Frankfurt is a dazzling clash of both modern and historic architecture side by side. The city itself, from what I observed at least is almost as popular for its adult shops and strip clubs as it is for its many wondrous cathedrals. Although the strip clubs that I observed seemed to be all located on one street which makes them far easier to avoid than the many cathedrals around the area. I had to laugh at one of them though, the location of the most prominent of strip clubs the ‘Dolly Buster Center‘ I thought was rather apt; for right next door to it was McDonalds. So children, line up here for your ‘happy meal’ while your parents go for their ‘happy moment’ in the building next door!

In less than an hour of being in Frankfurt walking around the streets I fell in love with the place. I can’t pin point exactly what it is that captivated me, I believe it to be more a combination of things; the mish-mash of classical and modern architecture, a electric-tram system running through the city, the Rhine River just on the other side extending outwards to gothic style castles and quaint medieval style villages. This city has it all, all within walking distance or a brief drive. I definitely want to come back to Frankfurt and take a lot more time exploring what this city has to offer.

So far Moscow has been equally as welcoming as its counterpart to the north, St Petersburg. The following morning after our arrival the night before we awoke early, today was going to be a long day; we had two tours booked. First was a metro tour, which involved the guide meeting us at our hotel and then walking from our hotel to the closest metro station and showing us about various station stops helping us become familiar with the key transport of the city. Later that evening the same tour guide will take us on a night city tour of Moscow. We opted to do this as we both figured it would be the safest environment to take photos at night. From prior experience after doing a single tour both Michelle and I were usually quite buggered in the evening, suddenly the idea of doing two tours in a single day didn’t seem like such a great idea.

However before all that was breakfast. It has to be said, it is healthy for me to be on holiday, be it a work trip to Sydney or a holiday abroad, these are the times I have the healthiest breakfasts. First course; fried tomato with herbs, egg, sausage, perhaps some hash browns and baked beans with some freshly squeezed orange juice. Second course; a bowl of assorted fruits including apricot, pair, banana with strawberry yoghurt drizzled on top, and on occasion to finish it off a cup of coffee. This usually sees me through usually till early afternoon if not till lunch time.

Since St Petersburg, one thing Michelle and I have now realized is that in some sense we over-did the tour bookings. At the time we had read a lot of horror stories about tourists getting about in Russia, so for us, the tours were a ‘worst case scenario’ contingency, worst came to worst we would at least have safe guided tours. What has actually happened is that during our free times we’re happily going off on our own and visiting museums by ourselves and seeing the sites without feeling the need for a guide at all, so when it came to our first two tours in Moscow, we both looked at them purely for their instrumental purposes. Tour one, for helping us acquire a 20 pass metro card (for about 300 rubles, approx AUD$10), and tour two for its ‘wheels’ in getting about all the popular night time photo sights. All the tour guide talk in between (the bits we chose to tune in for, the keyword ‘soviet’ got my attention every time) was just icing on the cake.

The metro passes we acquired in the morning tour I am proud to say have had a significant workout since. The metro system in Moscow in many respects is similar to London’s but with a few advantages; one, unlike most other city rails there are no zones, all of Moscow metro is one zone, London has about 7. Secondly, the underground stations are like museums themselves; some are pre-World War II and others post, all uniquely decorated in marble, some with large statues of solders in memory of battles previously fought, others celebrating various trades and traditions unique to Russia. All were spotless and well maintained. The metro lines themselves were mighty efficient with trains coming every two minutes, and during peak between every 30 seconds to a minute apart. Even with all the metro signs written in Russian, I still believe this metro system to be the easiest I have ever been on.

After our morning tour of the metro system our guide dropped us off in Red Square. Surrounding Red Square were a huge assortment of souvenir style markets, each tent selling various Soviet and Russian knick knacks. Feeling quite proud that we did the majority of our shopping already in St Petersburg (the cheaper of the two capitals; Moscow is the third most expensive city in the world) we decided to have a brief look to see what the richer city had to offer. To our great disappointment we quickly discovered that we had been had in St Petersburg with the exact same items on sale in Moscow for 300 rubles cheaper. I’ve since ascertained, between a larger population and many more souvenir shops to compete with competition have brought down the prices to a low. So there’s a travelling tip for you, do your entire souvenir shopping in Moscow.

A few days later we caught the metro all the way out to Victory Park, a monumental museum to the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War (this being the war against Nazi Germany in World War II). Proudly featured at the main entrance of the museum lies an obelisk, the height of which is exactly 141,8 meters; 10 cm for every day of the War. The war monument in its entirety; the museum featuring an array of exhibits from fine art to the tools of war, including a collection in the thousands of ‘Iron Cross’s’ worn by Nazi troops to the outdoor grounds featuring Soviet and Nazi armourments in the form of Tanks, Helicopters and Fixed-Wing crafts was all very proudly presented and when one looks back through the history and the origin of the Patriotic War particularly along the Eastern Front you can see why Russia is so proud; in the midst of near annihilation, the Soviet Union came out on top.

It almost makes me regret that I was not an observer of those times (yes, I chose my words very carefully there), the politics between governments, the double-sided deals between such great powers. It has been fantastic to say that I am here in Russia right now, seeing what is left, what remains of what many would undoubtedly exclaim as an end of an era and tracing back the origins to the Great Patriotic War to the very beginning.

It On June 22, 1941, Germany broke its non-aggression pact with the USSR and began an invasion. According to the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler’s own autobiography ‘Mein Kampf’ the war was out of necessity, acquiring new territory for German settlement in Eastern Europe. He envisaged settling Germans there as a master race, while deporting most of the inhabitants to Siberia and using the remainder as slave labor.
Stalin, realizing that the non-aggression pact wouldn’t last forever proceeded to mass develop and ready legions of tanks and infantry, only he didn’t expect Germany to break the pact so soon, needless to say, the Soviet Union was somewhat prepared to defend the Mother land.

The Soviet army on the eve of the German attack had significant power, on paper. On June 22, 1941 the Red Army and Navy had over 4.6 million people, 23,000 tanks, 18.700 planes, 910 ships and cutters.

The Soviets were prepared for winter warfare and on December 5, 1941 reinforcements from Siberia attacked the German lines around Moscow, supported by new T-34 tanks and Katyusha rocket launchers. The exhausted and freezing Germans were routed and driven back between 100 and 250 km (60 to 150 miles) by 7 January 1942.

The Germans introduced forced labor across the occupied territories of the USSR. A working day was 14-16hrs long. The population was not supplied with clothing, shoes or the means to stay clean. The bread ration was 200-300 grams per day. But these official food rations often were violated. Over 4.1 million people died of starvation, infectious diseases, hard work and lack of medical supplies.

Ultimately, bit by bit, like a game of Chess between these two Superpowers, the Red Army forces knocked down the pawns in its path and in the years ahead and won back the Mother land, forcing the Germans to retreat further and further back. Finally, upon the assault on Berlin where the Fuhrer himself admitting defeat took his own life, the war was one. The city’s defenders finally surrendered on 2 May. However, fighting continued to the north-west, west and south-west of the city until the end of the war in Europe on 8 May as German units fought westward so that they could surrender to the Western Allies rather than to the Soviets.





Russia has been an eye opener; never before have I stood in streets with such history, visited museums with such fresh ‘larger than life’ monuments of an era only foretold to me (and people of my generation) from Hollywood films and (for those fortunate by their Grandparents, sitting on their knee and be told stories of a lifestyle which today many of us take for granted.

The snowy haul to Moscow
If you haven’t already realized by now dear reader snow is something that I am easily excited about. Having seen snow only once (in my life) for a week whilst skiing in Australia before this trip, I have now seen it multiple times in different countries and it is fantastic. Unlike the locals I am not as yet put off by the slushiness occurrence that happens after snowing, it is still rather magical to me.

We are currently travelling by train from St Petersburg to Moscow, and the outside view for lack of a better word is spectacular; we have passed a number of snow lined forests, villages and streets buried in snow with dim light glowing from the windows and smoke pouring from the chimneys, it is incredible to see.

The railway yard leaving St Petersburg was also rather extensive, it seemed to take forever to finally leave the compound, passing various war torn buildings and rail lines and engines that had long since been discontinued.

I am eagerly looking forward to Moscow, but I have been warned that it is a lot different to St Petersburg. For one, the population is incredibly larger, and that alone produces its own problems. Law enforcement is a lot more strict; in the metro stations random passport checks are done on both tourists and locals (yes, Russians have both domestic and international passports), and in earlier reported cases, most dating back to 2004 some police officers would for no reason confiscate a tourist passport expecting the tourist to pay a bribe to have it back. In addition, pick pocketing in metro areas and around various tourist attractions is also a high risk.

As an initiation to Moscow we have arranged an ‘on foot’ tour in the morning to introduce us to the metro system (and hopefully purchase a week long ticket) and various other parts of Moscow. Two hours after that tour we start a night tour which is a more generalized city tour. The photographer in me whom especially likes to take night photos will be seizing this opportunity (with a Russian speaking guide) to do so, as I am not yet too sure just how much roaming the streets at night I want to do in Moscow, let alone with a camera and a tripod – it couldn’t be more obvious that I was a tourist even if I had a flashing neon sign saying so in Russian.

Aside from having to be a bit more travel conscious, which we initially treated St Petersburg with also, I am looking forward to a new landscape, new tours and a different perspective on historical significance. I will however miss the extreme low minimums and maximums that St Petersburg had on a daily basis, Moscow from the looks of the forecast is a lot warmer, with a maximum of around 14 degrees and a minimum of 6. I’d say there was a very slim chance of us seeing snow in Moscow.

The epic tale of this journey started just over seven months ago, and like all good tales involves a girl. During an initial meeting [December 30th at the Broken Hill Pub] (some might call it a first date) after all the small talk and flirting banter had subsided hypothetical plans for a trip to Russia were being sketched.

Russia was an adventure both of us had wanted to do for quite some time, although given the political nature of the country it wasn’t exactly a destination either of us felt comfortable doing alone. So year after year, trip after trip, Russia was left undiscovered, until that very night. That night I had found a traveling buddy, and although I didn’t realize it at the time, I had also found love.

Over the coming months the Russian adventure was shaped and molded; like a kid playing with play doh unsure of what to make… we knew we wanted Russia in the trip, but we didn’t know where to start or what the journey would involve. The adventure transformed from a Trans Siberian journey across Russia, mainly due to financial constraint, to just visiting St Petersburg and Moscow, to including Las Vegas, New York and London. A round the world fare was then determined.

It was at this point in time that we were getting serious with our travel plans; the next obvious step was to establish dates and look into flight availability. The trip in its entirety was about six weeks long, it then occurred to us that that’s a long time to be traveling with someone you have never traveled with before. Not wanting to compromise our Russian experience with the wrong companion we decided upon doing a smaller scale trip to ‘test the waters on first’ before committing ourselves to Russia later in the year. So in the month of May we tested out those waters in Vietnam.

In many ways Vietnam was a mutual grounds for both of us, namely because it was a place neither of us had been to, whilst offering a nice balance of relaxing atmosphere and exciting things to see and do. We both took particular interest in the Vietnam War, which lead us to a number of war related museums and tours including the Chu Chi Tunnels network that ultimately lead to the demoralization of the US forces invading at the time.

Our two week tour of Vietnam was a conglomeration of one fantastic experience after the other; having stayed at Ho Chi Minh city and then traveling up to the Old Quarter of Hanoi, visiting the various museums of war and history, getting into the thick hustle and bustle of street activity through to enjoying a relaxing cruise on a junket in Ho Long Bay. There was no question upon our return from Vietnam, it was time to get serious about Russia.

It was around this time that we both approached our employment for time off. I was a bit skeptical at this point as to how easy it would be for me to get time off, given that I was requesting six weeks and that it would mean I wouldn’t be available to go to Sydney for the annual Visual Impact Image Expo that the company participates in every year. To my complete surprise, my boss asked if I would mind calling in to visit our main distributors in Phoenix Arizona; Golden Colorado and Antwerp in Belgium. My leave was green-lit and with three new exciting destinations added to our list.

Three months later, with little more than 42 days to go, the adventure ahead is becoming seemingly more real. All flight and accommodation reservations have been booked and paid for.

This is actually my third international trip for the year; the first of these being Vietnam in May, the second, just around the corner being Singapore for 4 days in August to celebrate my girlfriends birthday, and the last of these being the epic round the world adventure setting off 11 of September for six weeks.

I really don’t quite know how I have managed to pull it all together; to save the money required whilst doing one trip after the other, with no prior savings, in the middle of a recession no less! I am consciously aware that I am living life very tightly financially to make these three trips work out, and truth be told it has become far too tight for comfort, but it will be all worth it. (special thanks to Mum and Dad advancing me some travel money for the trip) In a way this trip is rather symbolic; my last harrah before knuckling down, repaying debt and saving for the future; for future adventures and investments alike.

2009 is definitely the year of travel for me.

I am hoping that this upcoming round-the-world experience provides the much needed inspiration that I am desperately in search for. I want 2010 to be a new chapter in my life, a new beginning. Up to this point I have been living a life of dreams and recklessness, and although it has served me well and I have numerous stories to my name, I feel I have somewhat out grown that spir-of-the-moment lifestyle. I am now in search of something more definitive, complying to a plan… I am ready to start growing up and begin shaping my future.

To the dreams that I haven’t yet made happen, watch out – you’re next!