Estonia and Russia
Well it's a bit late but I thought I'd write a bit about Estonia and Russia.
Estonia was cool. I caught a bus from Riga (in Latvia) and was planning on getting off in Parnu but I had some communication issues with the bus driver which meant I didn't get of at the right stop and ended up having to wait another two hours until we got to the capital Tallinn. I hadn't really wanted to see Parnu anyway, I was just going there so I could head out to an island the next day so I wasn't too fussed about the stuff up.
I spent one day in Tallinn and went on a walking tour around the city which was cool. Tallinn has wireless internet access all over town. It's a very progressive city but I heard that after they removed a Russian monument (which caused a riot among the Russians who live there and the native Estonians in Aprilish) there were also a lot of attacks on their internet system originating from Russia. Moral of the story: don't piss off the Russians.
The next day I went out to an island off the coast called Saremaa which was quite nice. They had a few sites to see: a castle in town and then some old fashioned windmills not too far away. The most unique thing I've seen for a while though were the meteorite craters they had on the island. The largest one was about 100 metres in diameter and had a little lake of water in the bottom of it. I'd never seen anything like it before. I also walked around a bit and saw a few of the smaller craters there.
From Saremaa I headed back to Tallinn for another day and then it was time for an overnight bus ride into Russia. Despite my expectations getting in and out of Russia was no hassle and I think the only reason they still make visitors go through the very beureacratic (not sure about the spelling) visa procedure is so the government can get a bit of extra money.
I started in St Petersburg and had timed my trip well in the fact that it was just coming up to the solstice so it never got dark. It was sort of twilight between 1 and 2 am but that was it, it´s really strange to be walking around after 11 or 12 and it´s still light. I went on a walking tour of St Petersburg which was pretty good and I went to a museum called the Hermitage. Apparantly it´s really famous (I hadn´t heard of it before going there). It´s an art museum (which I didn´t realise before going there either) so it only has paintings which aren´t really my thing so I didn´t spend too long there. Luckyily entrance was free for students and luckily I have my brothers student card!
Estonia was cool. I caught a bus from Riga (in Latvia) and was planning on getting off in Parnu but I had some communication issues with the bus driver which meant I didn't get of at the right stop and ended up having to wait another two hours until we got to the capital Tallinn. I hadn't really wanted to see Parnu anyway, I was just going there so I could head out to an island the next day so I wasn't too fussed about the stuff up.
I spent one day in Tallinn and went on a walking tour around the city which was cool. Tallinn has wireless internet access all over town. It's a very progressive city but I heard that after they removed a Russian monument (which caused a riot among the Russians who live there and the native Estonians in Aprilish) there were also a lot of attacks on their internet system originating from Russia. Moral of the story: don't piss off the Russians.
The next day I went out to an island off the coast called Saremaa which was quite nice. They had a few sites to see: a castle in town and then some old fashioned windmills not too far away. The most unique thing I've seen for a while though were the meteorite craters they had on the island. The largest one was about 100 metres in diameter and had a little lake of water in the bottom of it. I'd never seen anything like it before. I also walked around a bit and saw a few of the smaller craters there.
From Saremaa I headed back to Tallinn for another day and then it was time for an overnight bus ride into Russia. Despite my expectations getting in and out of Russia was no hassle and I think the only reason they still make visitors go through the very beureacratic (not sure about the spelling) visa procedure is so the government can get a bit of extra money.
I started in St Petersburg and had timed my trip well in the fact that it was just coming up to the solstice so it never got dark. It was sort of twilight between 1 and 2 am but that was it, it´s really strange to be walking around after 11 or 12 and it´s still light. I went on a walking tour of St Petersburg which was pretty good and I went to a museum called the Hermitage. Apparantly it´s really famous (I hadn´t heard of it before going there). It´s an art museum (which I didn´t realise before going there either) so it only has paintings which aren´t really my thing so I didn´t spend too long there. Luckyily entrance was free for students and luckily I have my brothers student card!
Also went to a museum which was founded by one of the more famous Tsars (can´t remember which one though) it had one room full of babies/feotuses with deformities in jars. He started collecting them so they could be used for education but now people just go there to look at them (like I did).
From there it was onto Moscow on, by far, the most comfortable overnight trip I took. It was 3rd class but I had a bed and sheets and everything so it was great. Had a bit of trouble finding my way to the hostel (Moscow underground is the busiest one I´ve ever seen - much worse than London) but made it in the end.
Spent some time at the red square and saw Lenins mausoleum and his body, although I think it looked like a wax model and refuse to believe that it was really his body. I also went into the Kremlin but there´s not much to do there. At the red sqare is St Basils Cathedral which is the coolest looking church I´ve seen throughout Europe (and, as anyone who´s been through Europe knows, you can´t help seeing a fair few over here). It has heaps of towers and the whole facade is covered with different colours. I really can´t describe it well enough so you´ll just have to look at the pictures to see for yourself.
Some of the underground stations in Moscow are fantastic - they were built during the Communist era when spending money on fancy public buildings was ok while the people were starving. The oldest stations are the most elaborately decorated. The decorations ranged from marble panels with carvings on them to paitings to scultpures to mosaics and even a few stained glass windows. Again, check my pictures if you want to see them.
Sorry that this post has been so late in coming, I will try to be a bit more up to date in the future. Pete!
posted by pete @ 3:00 AM
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