Well, let’s just say I’ve been pretty lazy with keeping up with the blog over the last 2 months, but I’ll try to catch you up. After we scaled Mt. Kilimanjaro, we went on a few day safari through 4 national parks in Tanzania (Lake Manyara NP, Serengeti NP, Nogorongoro Crater NP, and Tarangire NP). This was a blast because we were able to see literally hundreds and hundreds of animals, but the “budget safari” definitely lived up to its name as we the door on my side of the SUV would pop open every 5 minutes, we got stuck in a riverbed for a good hour (in the middle of one of the parks with wide animals roaming around… we saw lions like 5 minutes before), and our SUV ran out of gas on the way back home on the last day and the guy had to bum 10 bucks off me for gas. The experience was amazing none the less and Erin and I were able to get a pretty good laugh as this craziness was happening (when we weren’t worried about being eaten). After the safari we took a ferry over to Zanzibar where we hung out on the beach for a week or so. The beaches there were gorgeous, Stone Town (the capital) was really fun, and we were able to meet a bunch of cool travelers to swap stories and just hang out with.
After a few nights in Nairobi, Kenya to catch our flight home we left Africa. Our layover was in Amsterdam and we were able to extend for 5 days to check out that city. Amsterdam was a lot of fun. We rented bikes one day and just rode around checking out the beautiful city, went to the Ij brewery to sample some real good beer, and walked through the red light district so Erin could window shop the prostitutes (only half joking, but this is a quick recap). Finally after 4 and a half months we got home in the middle of July. Our trip home was a blast as well. It was great to get home and see our families and friends. We made quick trips up to Ohio and Buffalo to see as many family members as we could (we hope to see the rest around Christmas), and back in Virginia it was great to catch up with everyone (well not everyone… again we hope to see everyone else around Xmas time).
While we were back home, our plan for the second leg of our trip changed. Before we left in February, our plan for round 2 was to fly to Thailand to teach English and travel around southeast Asia in our spare time and come home around February 2012. After thinking about it at the beach in Zanzibar, we decided that we would rather be home for Christmas this year. Because we would only be gone 4.5 months instead of 6, we really couldn’t find a worthwhile teaching gig in Thailand, so we decided to scrap the whole teaching idea and just travel around until Christmas. We started out thinking about just traveling around SE Asia the whole time, but this seemed like small area for the amount of time so our scope slightly broadened.
Last Tuesday we flew to St. Petersburg, Russia to take the Trans-Siberian Railroad through Russia and Mongolia and end up in Beijing, China. Along the way we’re going to hop on and off the train to check out various cities for a few days each. After getting to Beijing, the plan is to go travel through China a little bit, but then our plans are kind of up in the air. Right now we’re either thinking of heading to SE Asia from China and working our way through Burma and Bangladesh on our way to India, head to Tibet and Nepal on the way to India, or some hybrid/new idea that we’ll figure out along the way.
So far, our trip has been amazing. We got to St. Petersburg around 11am last Wednesday, and, after catching up on a few hours sleep in the hostel, we took off to check out the city. St. Petersburg is one of the most “European” cities in Russia and kind of reminded us of Amsterdam with a bunch of canals running through the city and awesome architecture everywhere. After walking around for a while, we were pretty thirsty, so hit up a Russian microbrewery. The beer was pretty good, but we were so jetlagged we could only hang around for one. The next day we were able to hit a lot of the city highlights. We first went to the State Hermitage which is a huge art museum. Erin opted against the audio guide in exchange, choosing rather to listen to my witty commentary (a lot of lousy Russian accents and Communism jokes… at least we saved some money). Next we walked over to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood which, despite the rather graphic name, is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. Erin and I both literally gasped as we walked in. The interior of the church is covered from floor to ceiling in really cool murals. The last thing we did before we left was climb 230 stairs to the top of another church in the city to check out the view of the entire city from the top. That evening we caught a night train to Moscow.
Our Trans-Siberian adventure will be made via the third class cabins on the train. We chose to do this for two reasons: to save money, and to get the chance to meet more people (both Russian and other travelers) along the way. Third class cabins are basically a regular train car, which, instead of being broken into little rooms with either 2 or 4 beds (1st and 2nd class), isn’t broken into any rooms and is just lined with bunks. I didn’t really know what to expect on the first train ride, but it was fine. A little cramped, but totally cool. We didn’t get a chance to meet anyone more than a few hellos (still working on our Russian), but this was probably because everyone went to bed pretty soon after the train took off and we arrived to Moscow at 6am.
Once we got to Moscow, we again crashed for a few hours (still pretty jetlagged at this point) and then went to check out the city. Erin really wanted to go to the All Russian Exhibition Center, so after picking up our train ticket to Mongolia, we headed over. The Exhibition Center is this huge park with 15 or so hugely extravagant buildings built in the 30’s to represent the power of the Soviet Russian economic system. Today, the buildings are surrounded with carnival games and state fair-esque rides. The whole thing is super cheesy and pretty much sums up the rise and fall of the CCCP. Lenin must be rolling over in his mausoleum (he wasn’t… we saw him the next day). After grabbing a quick bite and a beer (you can just walk around with a beer everywhere in Russia… they even have stands which sell draft beer and after getting off trains/busses we’ve definitely seen locals hitting these stands up as early as 7am), we took the metro to Red Square to walk around for the rest of the night. The metro in Moscow is awesome. You never have to wait more than 3 minutes for a train, regardless of what station you’re at, and the stations are amazing architecturally, as well. All the stations are different, but we saw some with murals, chandeliers, mosaics, stained glass, and statues. It was really cool. The next few days we spent hitting all of the tourist sites, going through the kremlin, checking out St. Basil’s Cathedral, walking along the Arbat, and walking around many of the other amazing churches/monasteries/cathedrals spread throughout the city. It was crazy to think that just a few decades ago exactly where we were standing (Red Square/ the Kremlin) evoked fears into many Americans, because we had a blast and experienced nothing but hospitality from our Russian comrades. Hopefully, a few decades from now (or sooner!) our kids can travel to Iraq or Afghanistan and say the same thing (thanks Matt).
The next stop on our trip was a small town about 4.5 hours from Moscow called Suzdal which we bussed to. Suzdal is a small sleepy town along a windy river which although its population is only a few thousand, has over 30 churches. It was a capital city during medieval times so the majority of the churches are from the 13-15th centuries. The whole town looked like it could have been made by Disney it was so picture perfect. Everyone in town was extremely nice, especially the old lady who ran our hostel who helped us call other hostels (using a lot of sign language – she spoke no English) along our route to help us make reservations (clearly haven’t done that yet). We caught a bus after 2 nights in Suzdal to Vladimir where we had a train to catch the following morning. It didn’t take long for not making reservations to bite us in the ass though as we had to spend the night in the Vladimir train station (actually not as bad as it sounds… there were a few train station attendants making sure everything was above board and that no hobos were around).
After we woke up we had a 6:45am train from Vladimir to Nizhny Novgorod. We hopped on the train ready to sleep for the 3 hour trip, but couldn’t find our beds. Turns out we jumped on the wrong train (still not sure why the attendants checking our tickets let us on). Luckily the train went to the same place and arrived at the same time, we just had to sit in chairs rather than lay in beds (Erin managed to sleep the entire trip regardless). Today we walked around Nizhny all afternoon, checking out the kremlin, a few churches, and their main drag. The gorgeous town is along the Volga River and is at the top of this huge hill, so we definitely got a work out. We needed one, because tomorrow we take our first long train ride… 45 hours on the way to Tomsk. We’re having a blast so far, but already miss everyone back home. We can’t wait for the rest of our adventure though!
Runaway Bride... and Groom 