Moskou-Omsk-Irkutsk

Hey everybody!

Because we're meeting a lot of people and many of them would like to follow us, we will write our stories in English. We'll deliver a new story every week (if possible off course) and will be taking turns in writing them. Enjoy!

Last monday we went to further explore Moskou. But first we met four guys from London in the hostel who were also going to the Kremlin, so we went together. They just came back from a week long climbing expedition in the Caucasus Mountains, we were impressed. The skin on there faces was very dry, so everybody dove into my Blistex (It burns!!). We walked to the Pokrovsky Kathedral, the church part is only open on sundays for the mass, so we visited the exposition in another part of the building. It was like a maze, very awesome. (We will try to upload a video we made.) Everything was richly decorated and colorfull. After the cathedral we went to the Kremlin, whitch resembles a fortress. We got in with a huge discount, many thanks to our youth card. Vladimir Poetin resides in the Kremlin, but we didn't see him unfortunately. We did see a lot of Russian citadels and a 'necropolis'. After that we walked through the secret, but actually not that secret, garden. We enjoyed the sunshine, the weather was not that nice until then, and the amazing view. Afterwards we went back to the hostel to dress up and go to a bar. The guys taught us a drinking game, Ring of Fire, kind of similar to ' Kingzen', a Dutch drinking game. We had a lot of fun! The next day woke up early (not that big of a challenge after drinking good Vodka, instead of the cheap headage vodka we normally drink in Holland) and went to the trainstation. I got my softshell out of my bag and Janneke went: 'Ohhhhhh noooo.....' and looked at me with big eyes. She left her jacket and vest in the hostel. Lukily there was enough time for her to go to the hostel and back to the train station. Well.. Enough time.. She ran as hard as she could through the metro station, on the streets, on the stairs of the hostel etc etc haha. But, nevertheless, we sat comfortably in the train by the time it was leaving. In the train we met some 'gezellige' Dutch people. The landscape changed from a whole lot of forest to a more open view. At night the sky was really clear, if you opened your eyes in the middle of the night you could see a sea of stars. After two days we arrived in Omsk, where we met Svetlana on a bus, a very nice Russian girl. She helped us get to the hostel, after visiting her home and petting her Oriental cat Lucas. Also spoke to a very poor factory employee, who had the lifelong dream of going to Australia. The next day a guy from the hostel, Dimitri, showed us around in Omsk. We walked trough very beautiful parks and beside the river, saw a lot of weddings and met up with Svetlana and Sveta, a friend of hers. She invited us to go to a birthday in a bar. 'Off course we are coming!' So we have spend the night with a large group of very nice (and a little drunk) Russians. We joined in a great tradition: whenever the birthday-boy raised his glass, you had to stand up, shout really hard and put your glasses together. At one point, a glass actually broke. Little fact: Project X parties are called 'Maaskantje' in Russia. After that, it was time to go in the train again. We met Sebastien, a guy from Paris, with whom we will go to the Baikal lake in Irkutsk. He was happy to see us, because he hadn't spoken English (or any language for that matter) for two days. He travelled in the third class, instead of having a cabin of four it's a 'cabin' of 60. He invited us to have a look, so we went there and met a lot of great Russian families (specially Sergei, Natasha and their son Nikita..). Girls braided our hair, we drank home made wiskey and tried to communicate with everyone. The atmosphere was warm, cosy and the made us feel very welcome. This morning we got out of the train in Irkutsk, said goodbye to everybody and went to the place that we are staying at. Alexandr, a friend of a friend of Maud (my friend) is hosting us, nicely done! Well, that was it for now. I wanted to keep it short, but that's actually kind of hard (especially for me haha). Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it!

Kisses and hugs,

Fleur