Day 6 - Farewells
Yesterday Mon wasn't feeling much better, a little perhaps but still not quite up to our planned schedule. I'd gotten a message the night before from Masha however as the girls had gotten together and bought Mon a belated birthday present which was very sweet. As such around lunchtime when Mon was feeling well enough to make the trip we went down to the nearby Starbucks and met for some coffee and quickly caught up with the girls again.
Mon has a writeup and a picture of her presents over at: http://kawaii-mon.livejournal.com/613656.html so I suggest checking that out.
On the way back we decided to stop in at a little grocery store and pick up some supplies for the train trip today, it was a really tiny place and we had to cram in around everyone else but we managed to pick up a few things that didn't look too scary and pay without any questions we didn't understand. We mostly just got bottled water and snacks, but our dinner tonight will be packaged noodles in mushroom and beef flavours, so fingers crossed that it's somewhat edible. XD
On a side note, Russia is a weird place for alcohol, I've never been anywhere where it's so easy to buy beer. It's literally sold at almost every street vendors stall (and there are a lot of those). It's not much more expensive than the bottled water for the cheaper kinds either, so I have to wonder about their public drinking laws. I haven't seen anyone actually drinking it in the street, but I have to imagine if it's sold so readily that it must be vaguely acceptable.
We spent the rest of yesterday in the hotel enjoying the couple of channels of TV that come through in English and laughing at the few that don't. The Russian concept of redubbing is bizzare, it's like they literally just spin down the volume dial on the English audio and speak over the top because watching the Flintstones you could hear the start of sentences as they fade out, then a second later the Russian audio will begin. Way too distracting to watch for any length of time. XD
The other downfall of staying at the hotel for 2 days has been living off the Hotel food, it's less than fantastic and as soon as it goes cold begins to become very inedible. As such I've mostly survived on sandwiches, french fries and overpriced drinks from the bar. Still, surprisingly we're well under budget. Go figure.
I would have thought the Australian name of Heinz Big Red Tomato Sauce would have gone down well in Russia. XD
So today we're heading off to Volgograd, unfortunately our hotel does not have internet as far as we know so we may have very limited access for the next 3-4 days. If you don't hear from us don't panic, it just means we haven't been able to find an internet cafe or free wireless signal. We're rolling on through to Smolensk on Feb 7th and apparently that hotel has internet access.
Mon is feeling much better today thankfully, so hopefully we both stay in good form and enjoy the rest of our trip.
Anyway if I don't speak to you all earlier, wish us luck in Volgograd!
Mon has a writeup and a picture of her presents over at: http://kawaii-mon.livejournal.com/613656.html so I suggest checking that out.
On the way back we decided to stop in at a little grocery store and pick up some supplies for the train trip today, it was a really tiny place and we had to cram in around everyone else but we managed to pick up a few things that didn't look too scary and pay without any questions we didn't understand. We mostly just got bottled water and snacks, but our dinner tonight will be packaged noodles in mushroom and beef flavours, so fingers crossed that it's somewhat edible. XD
On a side note, Russia is a weird place for alcohol, I've never been anywhere where it's so easy to buy beer. It's literally sold at almost every street vendors stall (and there are a lot of those). It's not much more expensive than the bottled water for the cheaper kinds either, so I have to wonder about their public drinking laws. I haven't seen anyone actually drinking it in the street, but I have to imagine if it's sold so readily that it must be vaguely acceptable.
We spent the rest of yesterday in the hotel enjoying the couple of channels of TV that come through in English and laughing at the few that don't. The Russian concept of redubbing is bizzare, it's like they literally just spin down the volume dial on the English audio and speak over the top because watching the Flintstones you could hear the start of sentences as they fade out, then a second later the Russian audio will begin. Way too distracting to watch for any length of time. XD
The other downfall of staying at the hotel for 2 days has been living off the Hotel food, it's less than fantastic and as soon as it goes cold begins to become very inedible. As such I've mostly survived on sandwiches, french fries and overpriced drinks from the bar. Still, surprisingly we're well under budget. Go figure.
I would have thought the Australian name of Heinz Big Red Tomato Sauce would have gone down well in Russia. XD
So today we're heading off to Volgograd, unfortunately our hotel does not have internet as far as we know so we may have very limited access for the next 3-4 days. If you don't hear from us don't panic, it just means we haven't been able to find an internet cafe or free wireless signal. We're rolling on through to Smolensk on Feb 7th and apparently that hotel has internet access.
Mon is feeling much better today thankfully, so hopefully we both stay in good form and enjoy the rest of our trip.
Anyway if I don't speak to you all earlier, wish us luck in Volgograd!