Riga, Latvia to Krakow, Poland

After our 5 day time spent in St. Petersburg, we were off to Lativa. We had heard Riga, Lativa was a lovely city filled with cobblestone streets, beautiful canals and lots of night life....perfect for Michelle's 25th birthday! We celebrated with full style and even hit up the amazing sky bar that had an incredible view of the city. Happy 25 was done right with a full night out on the town including meeting so many new friends along the way. What a cute little European city to bring in a quarter of a century!!! We decided to stay a bit longer in this party city due to the bus to Krakow, Poland only left on certain days. However, we didn't seem to mind and spend our days by the canals, exploring the city sights and outside a bit, and of course hitting up the night life one more time before moving on. We stayed with a great host who was actually was free-lance stair designer and also was active in a band that played music similar to stomp. Quite an interesting guy with a carefree and loving life attitude....a great host!!! Thanks Kris! Poland here we come.....perhaps not the speedest way possible but we arrived in Krakow nevertheless. The bus took 21 hours....yikes!!!!!!!! We are still not quite sure what that bus driver was doing besides going round and round in circles. When we boarded the bus it was a full ride which left Michelle and I snuggling up to strangers....hope they liked our bobbing heads after a few sleeping pills! However, by the end the two of us and two Kiwi boys were the only ones left on the extremely long bus ride....I take it that everyone else just had enough and the crazy foreigners were the only stupid ones to actually consider this a travel option! But it does add to another travel story....trains, boats and buses! Krakow, Poland was a beautiful city with a nice town square where we stayed....even had a room with a view! Michelle and I made friends with our New Zealand guys to became a traveling foursome around the city. The greatest highlights were the excursion to Auschwitz, the concentration camp. It was certainly one of the hardest things to witness when the reality of the history stands you in the eye. At moments, there are times when your heart just aches for the people that had to suffer through this life occurrence. The camp was so large with remains from everything from shoes, eye glasses, suitcases, and wooden bunks from the people who died there. I could not describe the horrible conditions and the overall sense that comes over you when touring such a moment in history. A experience that will certainly not be forgotten.... On a lighter note, we found a wonderful bagel shop and I ate the most delicious perogies ever!! Yummmm....Polish food! Before heading out of the city we took a tour of the salt mines which to be honest wasn't anything to brag about. But loved the city and had a few wonderful nights out on the town. It is now off to Czech Republic (by train this time) and working our way to Oktoberfest!

Back to the Western World

Train rides, Moscow, St. Petersburg, bus rides, and Latvia.........that has been my itinerary these past weeks. I know, I know, my blog enteries have become obsolete and apologize to all my readers. Well, I am back in action sitting in an oven of a internet cafe writing a summary of my lastest travels and adventures. Where to begin is the question..... After leaving the gers in Mongolia which turned out to be a wonderful trip with a group of great people who touched my life in such a meaningful way! It was time for the big train ride...the Tran-Siberian here we come!!!!!!

Four nights and five days were spent in lovely Russia train. We actually lucked out and only shared our 4 berth cabin with 2 German guys for one night and then had the entire place to ourselves. We shared a train cart with a large Kazakistan family who were basically smuggling in clothing from China to sell. The kids only entertained us for so long until we had enough of "Hello, Hello, Hello"!

We had a cute Russian train cabin attendent who think loved us by the end of the journey (except for his lack of maintence on the bathrooms we loved him too!). We made friends with basically the only other backpackers on the train, two French guys. We occupied ourselves with lots of books, sleep and beer.....a great adventure overall and an in actuality went by soooo quickly!

Welcome to MOSCOW.......wow, I definitely experienced a bit of reverse culture shock the first night there! I was back in the western world and to look out over a sea of people with other than black hair left me in a bit of confusion. The food stores were western again, everyone looked like a foreigner, and I could read again (after memorizing the Russian Cyrillic alphabet). Michelle and I stayed with a Russia girl, Victoria, who was actually also hosting a guy from California doing an internship in Russia, Max. Little did we know that we would be traveling with Max for 10 days which was fantastic! The first night we got to Moscow was a huge celebration in the city for Moscow days....fireworks and all just for us!! hahaha. I have to say the best thing in Moscow was the circle of people that we were welcomed into. Among them were a Phillipino diplomat, Derick, his Russian girlfriend, Marina, and an Indonesian diplomat, Ai. Dinner, drinks, and great conversations were among the top things that happened in Moscow! They welcomed with open arms and sent us off in true style with a toast! We did do sightseeing and walked around the city to see the famous St. Basil's Cathedral....simply beautiful. Max, was definitely a wealth of information for us and was basically a walking Russian history book so had a tour guide + history buff all in one. The city is a combination of old and new with winding streets and cobblestone streets at some points and large stores and offices in other sections. Oh, another memory not be forgotten was my lovely run in with the Russian police....we were warned about this but didn't think I would witness it hands on. Max and I were stopped by them so they could see our passports and legal registration. Well, I guess I need my train ticket proving when I arrived in Moscow however, they never gave me that back.....ooops!!! Good think Max did some fast Russian speaking and got the bribe down from over $200 to $40. We slide them the cash and ran.....how crupt!!! Time to move on by night train to St. Petersburg......three Americans (Max was part of our travels now) moving to see more of Russia!