Friday, June 17, 2011

So I married Susar Lee

Since Vic has never had long hair in his life (mainly because of work), he decided to grow his mane until we got back to Canada and he had to start working again.

This is how my hubby looked when we got married (in August 2010).


This is Vic about a month before we left for our great adventure (when I started calling him Fluff in light of his fluffy hair).


This is about a month into our trip, when Vic had to start borrowing hairbands and accessories off of me in order to keep his hair away from his face (he had to wear it inside out because it was too "shiny").

Brown hairband from H&M ($4.95 for package of 3) 


And now........it's official!!!!

Vic's First Ponytail!!!!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Biker's Butt

We take a bus from St. Petersburg and cross the Estonian border and arrive in Tallinn, its capital city.   As we enlist the assistance of a local Estonian to make our way to our hostel in the old town, we are thrilled to find out that many of the locals (especially the youths) speak English.  After over a month in Russia and China, this is a very good thing. 
Being in the old town of Tallinn is like being in a dream and waking up as Cinderella.  It is a perfect little medieval town surrounded by an old wall, with cobbled streets and pretty pastel coloured buildings with a large clock tower in the town centre.  Many of the people working in the restaurants even dress in medieval styled clothing, adding to the 14th century feel.  We spend 3 nights in Tallinn, exploring the old town before commencing an 8 day bike tour through Estonia.  We had booked a self-guided 470 km bike tour through the western islands of Estonia where each day we would be riding according to a set itinerary with all of our accommodations pre booked.
Just as we never fully thought out what it would be like to sleep on a train for 4 nights, we also hadn’t fully considered what it would be like to bike 470 km for 8 days after doing virtually no exercise for almost 2 months.  The first day is gruelling.  It is a 60 km bike ride and thinking that it will take us around 3 hours to get to our destination, we leave Tallinn late in the day.  Not anticipating going against a strong wind for the entire trip or following directions that are completely wrong, we find ourselves travelling at slower than walking speed for parts of our journey and in the middle of our ride, finding ourselves in rural Estonia asking a farmer’s wife for directions (contrary to my previous comment, rural Estonians do not speak English and after a lot of pointing and hand gesturing, we proceed down a dirt path in the direction we hope will get us to a main road).  With only 10 km left on our first day, quads burning, we end up sitting in the middle of a road for 30 minutes (without one car passing us) before setting off and getting to our accommodations at past 9 pm at night.  Thank goodness for being in a country where daylight lasts until 11 pm.
The next day, our legs and knees aching, me and Vic look at each other and again ask, did we really agree to sign up to bike 60 km a day for 8 days straight?  But fortunately, our toughest day end up being that first day.  We learn not to rely on the maps that we are given and use google maps instead (Estonia is the only country in the world that has free wi fi EVERYWHERE) and as the wind turns in our favour, we find our bike rides getting progressively easier as we complete one of our days in only 3 hours. 
With the exception of day 3 where it rains, the rest of our rides consist of sunny days, biking on lovely country roads, music pumping in our ears, picnic lunches and the world at our feet. 

Friday, June 3, 2011

Venice of the North

Inside the Hermitage
St. Petersburg is called the Venice of the North for good reason.   It is an absolutely lovely city decorated with beautiful Baroque styled buildings and encircled with a number of canals.  Each piece of the city was meticulously laid out from the outset, with Peter the Great hiring a French Architect to assist in the planning of the city in the early 1700’s.  

St. Petes is a wonderful blend of the old and the new as it houses the largest art museum in the world (the Hermitage) as well as being the most westernized city in all of Russia.  We spend three days in this blissful city, walking around its beautiful streets; spending an afternoon at the Hermitage looking at great works of art, watching an opera at the famed Mariinsky Theatre and taking a day trip out to the Russia countryside to see the Summer Palace.  It’s a amazing end to a fascinating country.

Mariinsky Theatre

Summer Palace

St. Petes

The Longest Train Ride EVER

I’ve wanted to the Trans Siberian railway for a long time, thinking it would be a great experience to ride the world’s longest and most famed train ride.  But when booking the tour for our trip, there were many things that we never really thought about.  Like what we were going to do for entertainment on a 4 night, 3 day train ride.  Or that there would not be showers.  Or that we would be hanging out with foreigners who desperately needed a shower in a train that had no showers.  All these seemingly obvious questions came to light on our train ride from Beijing to Ulaan Baatar when me and Vic looked at each other and realized, did we really sign up to do this for 4 nights in a row?
But when the time finally arrived to ride that 4 night, 3 day train ride from Irkutsk to Moscow, I had a very good time (I specifically say ``I`` here as this sentiment was not shared with everyone as some people got cabin fever and others were stuck on carriages that had no English speakers at all and were bored senseless).  With a couple shots of vodka, a laptop full of entertainment, our jolly Aussie travel companions and a deck of cards, I learned a Greek card game, met some new travellers and got through 17 episodes of the first season of Lost. 
Moscow Metro
We arrived in Moscow at 4 am Moscow time, but are used to a different time zone (had to move time back 5 hours) so it still feels like 9 am to us.  We check into our hotel and then spend the morning doing a city tour and then walking around for the afternoon.  Moscow is a really cool city.  In Moscow and St. Pete`s, as part of the communist regime where all people are considered equal, it was believed that common areas, should be made aesthetically pleasing for all to enjoy.  Thus, in pursuit of this vision, their metro (subway) is the most beautiful in the world with stations adorned with crystal chandeliers, gorgeous frescos and marbled walls and floors.     

On the next day, we spend the day exploring the Kremlin before hopping on our very last overnight train to St. Petersburg, completing our journey on the Trans Siberian Railway.
St. Basil's Cathedral