Russia
So I decided to take the 13 hours overnight train to Moscow, not St petersburg, it had to be Moscow. But rember this is not a travel blog, this is a feelings blog, so here is the story...
Why Moscow? It all begun with a girl I met, it was a gift from Russia to me, delivered to Egypt, kind of funny story. In a beach kind city we (my brother Jimmy, Alberto and Jorge) went out and I overdrunk vodka, finally went to bed, but we had booked a whole day snorkeling trip in a boat, great idea! only that once I stood in the boat, at 8 am, I went to the boat's rail to throw up! I ended up in the board, covered by a towel and shaking, then a Russian girl ended coddling me, then taking me to her hotel and introducing to me the russian country, something I never knew! (long story short). this moscovitan girl gave me the desires to visit moscow, and only 4 years later I could go.
Well, I took this train to Moscow, I wlked a lot, a lot in its streets, I felt completely strange, just as I like! I totally didn't understand all those old russan ladies in the shops, just as I like! I was a nice spring trip, few days but I felt like I was done with Moscow as a tourist, so I went back to Helsinki but I can say I made it! (and of course, I met again this russian friend, which is now, a nice friend!)
Saint Petersburg
October 2012
Santiago, a Colombian friend who suddenly and by luck got an European tourist visa (Colombian need a difficult visa even for traveling as tourist) quited his job in Colombia and took off to Europe, was traveling in Europe, I bought him a cheap ticket Berlin-Stockholm, he managed to reach Berlin and come to my place in Stockholm.
For working reasons, I lost my flisht to Helsinki, so I bought a ticket in the Stockholm-Helsinki cruise for Santiago and me, and after working till 2 am and going to work again in the morning, I ran and made it to the cruise to meet Santiago. Leaving Stockholm's arqipielago is always impresive, and the night in the boat will remain in Santiago's and my mind. [thats another story :)]. Anyway, we made it to Helsinki, at 10 am We went by bus to my job, evem I had been there about 7 times, I never stop watching through the bus window, While Santiago sleept in the bus seat. [This story would go in the 'Finland' chapter]. Anyway, it had always been my dream to visit Russia, and more after I visited Moscow some months before, so I planned to take the 20eur Russian mini bus to Saint Petersburg on Friday night, comming back on sunday, somebody in the Moscow train toldme about those buses.
While I worked, Santiago booked the bus. We jumped in the bus that will lead us 6 hours later in Russia, and I was happy. I wanted to take a picture of my bus, with the Russian writting sign, that most of the people wouldnt understand, I enjoyed Santiagos company in a trip that I would anyway do by myself.
We talked a lot with Santiago, and I kept constant contact with Camille, who understands all my thoughts. After the Finish and then the Russian border control and the double checking and surprises in front of our Colombian passport, we were in Russia, at 3 am the bus dropped us in the middle of saint petersburg, where we realized where we were, and Friday night and all, we went to search our hostel, a cheap hostel that a Russian Couch Sourfer had recommended.
We walked the streets, I inmediatly realyzed that people was friendly, staring at us and even talking to us, this never happened in Finland, a strange drunken guy called Basili even proposed to find the hostel with us, but after 20 minutes of his drunken chat and his desire for taking to some hostel are he knew, I got angry and I started searching the hostel by myself, I had the address and the indication, " 50 meters right the metro station and across you will not miss the 'light hotel' sign, the door code is 15a in the building number 15", they didnt mind that the metro had several exits and the problem is that in Russia, a building can comprise the whole block and many doors, even inner squares and more doors. It was very cold and it was 4 am, I found a door that looked like a hostel door, despite it had many undesifrable sings in russian, none said 'Hostel' anyway I tried the 15A code and clic! the door oppened! a fucking rotten old building, we went to the 4th floor and we found a nice hostel, I got proud of myself for finding it and we got 2 beds and warmness, all we wanted was to sleep.
Next day we went out to walk the streets and meet our couch surfer host Naya. Before that we were cold and happy in the sunny city, we found a lunch place where some girls nicely sold us Bosch soup and cold creppes. We ate in the window looking to Nevskiy Prospect Street. Santiago felt sad for eating creppes in Russia, I felt happy because I got a typical soup and the very typical creppes in a normal restaurant. I would like to had found a cheaper and working-class restaurant anyway.
In the city that the great Dostoevsky described so well, We met Naya, a smyling crazy girl, who took us to the main spots in the city, we walked and joked and smiled and took pictures, There was a just married couple walking the city and taking pictures, a sad scene for the humble of their dressing and the coldness and the grey spots in the sunny day, Naya promised a Halloween party at night, so we went to slug neigberhoods to find her custom, beautiful walk in streets we'd never found, I bought a fake moustache and nothing Santiago, he was saving every cent. I also bought a Coffee and shared with them.
Saint Petersburg
October 2012
Santiago, a Colombian friend who suddenly and by luck got an European tourist visa (Colombian need a difficult visa even for traveling as tourist) quited his job in Colombia and took off to Europe, was traveling in Europe, I bought him a cheap ticket Berlin-Stockholm, he managed to reach Berlin and come to my place in Stockholm.
For working reasons, I lost my flisht to Helsinki, so I bought a ticket in the Stockholm-Helsinki cruise for Santiago and me, and after working till 2 am and going to work again in the morning, I ran and made it to the cruise to meet Santiago. Leaving Stockholm's arqipielago is always impresive, and the night in the boat will remain in Santiago's and my mind. [thats another story :)]. Anyway, we made it to Helsinki, at 10 am We went by bus to my job, evem I had been there about 7 times, I never stop watching through the bus window, While Santiago sleept in the bus seat. [This story would go in the 'Finland' chapter]. Anyway, it had always been my dream to visit Russia, and more after I visited Moscow some months before, so I planned to take the 20eur Russian mini bus to Saint Petersburg on Friday night, comming back on sunday, somebody in the Moscow train toldme about those buses.
While I worked, Santiago booked the bus. We jumped in the bus that will lead us 6 hours later in Russia, and I was happy. I wanted to take a picture of my bus, with the Russian writting sign, that most of the people wouldnt understand, I enjoyed Santiagos company in a trip that I would anyway do by myself.
We talked a lot with Santiago, and I kept constant contact with Camille, who understands all my thoughts. After the Finish and then the Russian border control and the double checking and surprises in front of our Colombian passport, we were in Russia, at 3 am the bus dropped us in the middle of saint petersburg, where we realized where we were, and Friday night and all, we went to search our hostel, a cheap hostel that a Russian Couch Sourfer had recommended.
We walked the streets, I inmediatly realyzed that people was friendly, staring at us and even talking to us, this never happened in Finland, a strange drunken guy called Basili even proposed to find the hostel with us, but after 20 minutes of his drunken chat and his desire for taking to some hostel are he knew, I got angry and I started searching the hostel by myself, I had the address and the indication, " 50 meters right the metro station and across you will not miss the 'light hotel' sign, the door code is 15a in the building number 15", they didnt mind that the metro had several exits and the problem is that in Russia, a building can comprise the whole block and many doors, even inner squares and more doors. It was very cold and it was 4 am, I found a door that looked like a hostel door, despite it had many undesifrable sings in russian, none said 'Hostel' anyway I tried the 15A code and clic! the door oppened! a fucking rotten old building, we went to the 4th floor and we found a nice hostel, I got proud of myself for finding it and we got 2 beds and warmness, all we wanted was to sleep.
Next day we went out to walk the streets and meet our couch surfer host Naya. Before that we were cold and happy in the sunny city, we found a lunch place where some girls nicely sold us Bosch soup and cold creppes. We ate in the window looking to Nevskiy Prospect Street. Santiago felt sad for eating creppes in Russia, I felt happy because I got a typical soup and the very typical creppes in a normal restaurant. I would like to had found a cheaper and working-class restaurant anyway.
In the city that the great Dostoevsky described so well, We met Naya, a smyling crazy girl, who took us to the main spots in the city, we walked and joked and smiled and took pictures, There was a just married couple walking the city and taking pictures, a sad scene for the humble of their dressing and the coldness and the grey spots in the sunny day, Naya promised a Halloween party at night, so we went to slug neigberhoods to find her custom, beautiful walk in streets we'd never found, I bought a fake moustache and nothing Santiago, he was saving every cent. I also bought a Coffee and shared with them.
when I was working in Stockholm, I went to work in Finland, there, Santiago and I jumped in the Helsinki-Saint Petersburg bus that will lead us 6 hours later in Russia, and I was happy. I enjoyed Santiago's company in a trip that I would anyway do by myself.
We talked a lot with Santiago, After the border control in Finland and Russia and the double checking and surprised faces in front of our Colombian passports, we were in Russia, at 3 am the bus dropped us in the middle of saint Petersburg, where we realized where we were, and Friday night and all, we went to search our cheap hostel.
We walked the streets, I immediately realized that people was friendly, staring at us and even talking to us, this never happened in Finland, a strange drunken guy called Basili even proposed to find the hostel with us, but after 20 minutes of his drunken chatting and his desire for taking us to other hostel, I got angry and I started searching the hostel by myself, I had the address and the indication, "50 meters right the metro station and across you will not miss the 'light hotel' sign, the door code is 15a in the building number 15", they didn't mind that signs are in Russian and the metro had several exits and the problem is that in Russia, a building is the whole block and many doors with the same number, even inner squares and more doors. It was very cold, 4 degrees and it was 4 am, I found a door that looked like a hostel door, despite it had many undesifrable sings in Russian, none said 'Hostel' anyway I tried the 15A code and clic! the door oppened! a fucking rotten old building, we went to the 4th floor and we found a nice hostel, I got proud of myself for finding it and we got 2 beds and warmness, all we wanted was to sleep.
Next day we went out to walk the streets and meet our couch surfer host Naya. Before that we were cold and happy in the sunny city, we found a lunch place where some girls nicely sold us Bosch soup and cold creppes. We ate in the window looking to Nevskiy Prospect Street. Santiago felt sad for eating creppes in Russia, I felt happy because I got a typical soup and the very typical creppes in a normal restaurant. I would like to had found a cheaper and working-class restaurant anyway.
In the city that the great Dostoevsky described so well, We met Naya, a smiling crazy girl, who took us to the main spots in the city, we walked and joked and smiled and took pictures, There was a just married couple walking the city and taking pictures, a sad scene for the humble of their dressing and the coldness and the grey spots in the sunny day, Naya promised a Halloween party at night, so we went to slug neigberhoods to find her custom, a walk in streets we would had never found, I bought a fake moustache, that was all our custom dressing.
We jumped in an old dirty mini bus, the girls were shame of it, but we told them it was same than Colombia, I noticed it was same, but with Mongolian faced people, cyrilic writing and unknown streets. Before entering the building we stopped at a shop, where a drunken old man aborded Naya, she said she will explain later, we bought 3 liters of wine and some eggs, onion and tomatos for colombian style eggs I wanted to cook next morning, she also spoke friendly to the cashier, outside, with the old man again, she told me they were lovers and she was the messenger.
The building, an old (1950??) building with asfalt non tuned stairs, and a beautiful single-girl appartment. Smoking wasn't banned at all, and more girls started to arrive while naya started cooking and they prepared the "glieg" (or something like that) a hot wine with apple, and off we drank it all. Naya was cooking, smoking and getting angry if I helped, the girls started preparing their and our customs and the night seemed promising, hot wine got over and 2 more bottles of wine, we ate a delicious kind of pastrige perfect for our hunger, we then went out towards the party place.. we walked about 45 minutes and it was very cold, but they arranged some wine in the way, we all happy and shouting, Santiago confessed He doesn't like drunken stupid people, but I didn't care. The promised place was full and a long queue to get in, so we went to a low profile street, in the way we meet 3 more girls, young and extremely hot and happy... Craziness in the streets and the problems begun to be also promised...
We went to a second bar, full, and there was a horse tettered in the door (%#&^??), Naya and some girls went in but we were stopped and pushed out by the bouncer, (She had the apartment keys where all our luggage is) We couldnt miss the apartment key holder Naya.. but she went out soon and we went to another bar, paid 100 rubles and got in a crazy 3 levels place. Then chatting, little dancing and some vodka, of course. hours later no idea why but she came with the news of some friend of hers delivering a baby just in that moment, so she will go to support her and come back in some hours, Santiago and Me said, no fucking way, we go with you, discussions, confusion and fear of getting lost in Russia without our bags and passports, but we were packed in a taxi with another girl and we went home, I cooked my eggs for all three and they were delicious, then we went to bed, Naya came back hours later, I couldn't sleep much due to the tabaco smell and cat's hair in the bed, it was uncomfortable, so I got up at 10 and took a shower after searching for the gas heater myself in the dirty apartment and I was again very hungry.
We finally said goodbye and thanks and went out, I realy knew the way back to the center and we had a map and much hunger. This day I was chatting with Santiago, walking and eating. At night we meet another couch surfer called Victoria, pretty and nice, coffe shop style girl, it was very cold, so we drunk a coffe and cake, we also book our 20 euro bus ticket to Helsinki and at 9:20 we jumped in the bus. double border control and questions about why 2 Colombian are crossing the border to Europe and 9 hours later we were safe at home in Helsinki
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