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I got visas on the brain

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

There are those that say that you travel to discover the truth about yourself.  If that is the case then it is probably time to accept that getting to departure points on time, if that time is early in the morning, is a major weakness.  With each breath showing prominently in the frozen morning air we are running down ul. Timiryazeva with about two minutes to cover the final couple of kilometres to the bus station.  It seems unlikely we will make it.

A good portion of the blame for this can be attributed to one of the most ridiculous traffic jams I have ever seen.  All the trolley bus had to accomplish was a left turn off ul. Lenina and we would be in plenty of time to find the correct shuttle to Olkhon.  But trying to get across Dzerzhinskogo everything ground to a halt.  With traffic from every direction somehow all in the intersection at once there was suddenly nowhere for anyone to go.  This Gordian knot only pulled tighter as any time an inch of space appeared those nearest would rush to fill it instead of being patient and letting the one or two vehicles out that would unravel the whole mess. [read on]

Blowing up the kitchen.

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Being in a city for only a few days you are really only trying to build a slight impression of the place.  For Yekaterinburg that would be unfinished buildings.  Most strikingly was what I assume was supposed to be a communications tower.  Instead of one aerial thrusting upwards there were many strands of concrete reinforcers forming a bamboo fence like crown.  Also impressively on this particular structure was some of the graffiti.  Not in itself but more from where it was being right at the top of this maybe thirty story structure with only a very rickety metal ladder up the side to climb.  For a city supposedly showing off its new found mineral wealth it was not doing a very good job.  Perhaps the highlight was getting halfway down the central city river walk only to have the path end and end up scrambling around rubble and through collapsing buildings to break through back onto the street grid.This river walk had sucked us in with the promise of perhaps the most inexplicable monument ever.  Richard was as excited as I think I have ever seen him.  In his words ‘a rendering of something I’ve spent half my life at.’  What else could elicit such emotion from our implacable companion than a twenty metre long stone Qwerty keyboard.  Recessed into a grass bank and with two sullen types occupying the number keys it was magnificently improbable.  The look on myself and Arnika’s faces mimicked the bemusement shown on our host’s face that morning when he got asked to locate it on a map for us.  We jumped around the keys for a while spelling our names and the like.  The teenagers glowered at us.

 Keyboard monument

Humour I suppose. [read on]

The great river.

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
The thing is that, despite all previously documented troubles, Kazan is a really great place and I am really glad that the route was able to be influenced away from the usual stop in Perm to include it.  ... [Continue reading this entry]

Church overload in the Golden Ring.

Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Today we leave Moscow for the Golden Ring towns.  Even though many of the stops along the way are going to be major cities it still feels as though this is the end of the easy part.  The further east ... [Continue reading this entry]

The Artist and the Dictator.

Thursday, May 7th, 2009
One of the most prevalent questions encountered so far has been Moscow or St Petersburg, which do you prefer?  As the title of this post alludes to one is based on the premise of beauty and the other power.  One ... [Continue reading this entry]