Fleecing

We just got ripped off by a guy in uniform, and no, I'm not talking about certain specialised clubs here in Moscow.

When you arrive in Russia, you have 3 days to register your visa with the authorities. We knew it had to be done, and the hostel here in Moscow took copies of our passports and visas to register them.

What we didn't know was that we would be given a "stub", a piece of paper proving that we'd registered. Nor did we actually know about the 3-day limit. So when we were asked by a policeman and his interpreter outside the Kremlin why we didn't have the stub when it was later than 1pm on the day after we arrived, we told him that the hostel was registering it and the stub just hadn't reached us yet.

You might be wondering why the policeman said it needed to have been done by 1pm on the day after arrival, when we have 3 days to get it done. It's because he was setting the interpreter up for the phrase "Well, now there is problem..." The interpreter even had a piece of paper printed out which had the dubious deadline on it. Then he took me aside from Triny and told me that we would have to be arrested, go to the station, get the embassy involved, and the eventual fine would be 3000 roubles each. On the other hand, he said, there is a non-protocol way to deal with it.

End result was a 5000 rouble (£100 ish) cash "fine", and a promise on my part not to talk to anyone about this "unofficial" solution.

It's a bit annoying, because he was playing on my ignorance of the laws about the deadline for registration. Mind you, he also had our passports in his hands and a van load of mates behind him, which seemed to qualify as an instant position of power. I'm trying to look on it as just one of those things.

We are know back in our room trying to decide whether we go out and get some dinner now, or wait until later when our stubs should hopefully have arrived.

Warsaw pictures

Here's a couple of photos from Warsaw. The rest are here.

Warszawa Calling...

It’s that time again. Let me tell you what we’ve been upto in Warsaw…

After countless games of eye spy we arrived in Warsaw at 19.00 on Monday. After a while of wandering around the station trying to find an information point or place to buy bus tickets, I gave in to Pat’s taxi habit so we could get to the office before it closed to pick up keys to our apartment. A grumpy driver took us to the Old Town which was strangely very quiet for a tourist district. Our apartment turned out to be just off the Old Town Square – a top location. We dropped our bags off and went to the local deli to get groceries. Dinner that evening turned out to be a take away from Pizza Hut, which is very unlike me. However, that did include vegetables which was more than the local shops were offering!

The next day we turned the apartment into Widow Twankey’s laundry and popped out for sight-seeing in the afternoon. We wandered around the oldest parts of the city and were really surprised to find out that due to the destruction during WWII this was only 50 years old and was salvaged from other cities. We also saw lots of monuments dedicated to Poles oppressed by the Russians and Germans. So it turns out that the Poles are a religious lot. I couldn’t believe how many churches there were over such a short distance. We saw many nuns and monks walking around and Pat reminded me that the late Pope Jean Paul II was Polish.

Later on we walked down to the university area to an internet café we’d read about. Like many buildings, it looked shabby and dubious from the outside, but was really contemporary and cosy on the inside. We spent a few hours in there checking our emails, facebook and updating the travel blog. The hot chocolate in there was amazing – just like liquid chocolate. I couldn’t help feel sorry for anyone from there who asked for the sorry substitute that the UK calls Hot Chocolate. Afterwards, we wandered ‘home’ passing lots of students and academics on the way. We enjoyed a quiet night in, making the most of the apartment.

The next day we were up early and spent the morning lounging and packing. We made a visit to the Jewish Museum which was very thought provoking. We heard and saw chilling accounts of life in the Warsaw ghetto. Before the war Poland had the greatest Jewish population in Europe, which was wiped out. I spent the rest of the day thinking about what I’d read and seen.

On a happier note, we sent postcards from Warsaw after a quick spot of afternoon tea – not very Polish but never mind. Pat was trying to buy stamps and bus tickets from the post office and the counter staff were giving him the run around, telling him to go to the next counter and closing it before he got there! He got there in the end after a little old lady stepped in to assist.

We got to the station and boarded the train for Moscow at 16:20. We were delighted to find another cosy cabin, not too dissimilar to that of the Frankfurt to Prague train. There were 2 passport checks last night at the Polish/Belarusian border. The Polish check was straight forward, the Belasrusian one was a bit more complex. About 4 Belarusian officers got on the train, took our passports and goods declaration forms, checked Pat wasn’t smuggling anyone beneath his bed and returned our paperwork ten minutes later. All that for just sitting on the train to go through. Soon after that, at Brest, the hour long procedure of moving the train to Russian tracks took place. The whole train as taken into a work shed where engineers conducted the works. Pat was watching what was going on and said it was like taking your car in for an MOT. While all that was going on I was reading about Belarus in the Lonely Planet guide and was, amongst other things, very amused to hear about the fruit loop President Lukashenka who has ultimate say over everything, including international law…..Glad we’re just passing through…

That brings me to today. We’re still on the train and were expecting a Belarusian/Russian border guard visit which hasn’t happened. Not to be caught off guard again, we set the alarm for 5.30am but for nothing. We’ll see what transpires when we get to Moscow in an hour or so……

Observational scatterings

A few thoughts:

- I hate no-smoking trains. I'm in Eastern Europe, for God's sake. I should be able to stand in a hospital surgery with a cigarette on the go.
- Jesus. The hot chocolate I'm trying to drink at the moment is like eating lunch. It's almost solid chocolate.
- Begging in Prague seems to involve a lot more discomfort than it does elsewhere. The two beggars I saw were on their knees and elbows on the cobbles, heads down so they couldn't see anything other than the pavement, hands outstretched as if begging for alms, not moving for hours.
- Warsaw's Old Town was actually built in the 1950s, from bricks that came from surrounding historic towns that hadn't been demolished during WWII. Those towns now have almost no historic buildings left. Almost feels like cheating on Warsaw's part.

More to follow. It's like an occasional series. Maybe.

A message from Czech Republiky

This is the first of these blog things, which I’m writing on the train from Prague to Warsaw. It’s just past 11am and we’re sat in a 6 seat comfortable cabin with 2 Czech guys who are busily chatting to one another. You wouldn’t get that on the Reading to Paddington line!

We arrived in Prague on Saturday morning at 9am after getting a sleeper train from Frankfurt, which was an experience. A cosy little cabin where Pat had the lower bunk and I was on the top one – all mod cons, including secure doors and sinks we couldn’t figure out how to work easily! We were impressed! We pulled out of Frankfurt station, watching the night scenery before going to bed. At 5.50am an announcement was made letting us know that passport control was about to take place after the stop at Dresden, so we wearily got dressed. Ten minutes later there was a knock on the door and a German guard checked our passports. We went back to bed thinking that that was it, but were woken up by another German guard knocking followed ten minutes later by a Czech guard. I didn’t bother getting out of bed for those! Breakfast was served at 8am and we got off the train an hour or so later and I managed to persuade Pat to get the Metro rather than a taxi to the hotel!

The hotel was in the Pankrac district to the south of the train station and central area, just 10 minutes on the tube and short walk. We dropped our bags off there and headed on into the centre to do a spot of sight seeing in the Old Town area to the east of the River Vltava. What a lovely place - beautiful buildings everywhere you looked, but very touristy. We had lunch in a little café where I tried ‘stinky’ cheese, a local delicacy. Not bad – thought it had to be better than the ‘head’ cheese on offer. Pat had a cheese and ham toastie (unsurprisingly) and was disgusted to find ketchup in it! Got back to the hotel at 2pm to check-in, shower and have a snooze. That evening we went back into the centre for dinner and watched England lose against South Africa in the rugby world cup final. Boo.

On Sunday we had a lie-in and carried on our sight seeing to the west of the Vltava around the castle and cathedral. Again – lots of beautiful buildings and tourists! By fluke we got ourselves to the castle gates for 12am in time to see the changing of the guard ceremony which was amusing. The serious guards marched to a trumpet fanfair and tune not too dissimilar to the Thunderbirds theme tune! Guess you had to be there! Afterwards we hopped on a tram, just because, and went to try and get into the Jewish Cemetry but decided not to as we didn’t have enough cash and they weren’t accepting cards. Oh well. It started to hail so we decided to go to the City of Prague Museum, which we had the money for. We wandered around exhibitions of prehistoric man in Prague (not very unique) and city history upto the 19^th century. There was one good exhibition with paintings of the city by 19^th century artists. Before leaving we sat in the lobby and were earwigging a group of English girls who had just been looking at a model of the city. I was horrified to hear them trying to work out “Are we in Prague or the Czech Republic?” We left shortly after that, pretending not to be English.

Following a recommendation by Fatih, we had dinner in the Imperial Café. The previous night, we had walked to Garden in the Opera, another of Fatih’s favourites, but decided not to go in as it appeared v. posh and we turned up in combats and fleeces. Still, one out of two’s not bad! The café was lovely – great food and very pleasant décor and atmosphere. And I managed to get a traditional veggie Czech meal. We sat in the smoking section, so Pat was happy! He had a local speciality called Hulasky made from cabbage, bacon and sausages and I had dill soup with a poached egg and an Imperial hot chocolate with orange, which came with chopped up bananas. Yummy. I also asked for a serving of dumplings which the waiter was bemused by! How embarrassed was I! I had read about them being a traditional food and seen them on menus with meat, so was determined to get some. They went very well in the soup, by the way!

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel via a supermarket where we stocked up on snacks for today’s journey. I had trouble finding a small bottle of wine with a screw cap so made do with a bottle of fizz! Not bad eh. Spent the rest of the evening using the free internet access in the hotel and uploading photos from the past few days. Hope you’re enjoying those.

So this morning we were up early and left the hotel after breakfast. We sat in the central station waiting for the train and trying to use up as many Czech krona as possible, not wanting to add to the numerous GBP and euros still in our wallets. We’ve been on the train for just over two hours now with pleasant scenery of Czech countryside going by. That’s enough typing for now. Pat has returned from his cigarette quest and I need to find the loo after all that coffee in the station………

Piccies

Here are some of the photos so far (there's more here, by the way):

We're off!

Yesterday morning we said goodbye to a few people at Reading station, and 24 hours later we pulled into Prague station. The threatened cancellation to the train from Paris to Frankfurt didn't materialise, so we made it into Frankfurt with enough time to change platforms before jumping on the sleeper service to Prague. I'm glad that's the only time we have to catch connecting trains for a while.

Now for a couple of days of being tourists...

Testing

This one's for Jem and Nick (and Jess, Margot and everyone else on the show):