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Weekly Mini-updates from 2009-06-28
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
The first week of travelling, as seen through twitter.
- http://is.gd/1hd1y Wandering the hallways snapping photos, waiting to go out in Omsk to stretch our legs. Started Ma Jian’s “Beijing Coma”. #
- Just finished reading my second book; being on a train for this long is like existing in a vacuum. Nothing to do but relax. A world of good. #
- http://is.gd/1gAqR Enjoying some coffee after being woken by the Pan-Russian Loud Eating Contest; my revenge shall be swift and slurpy! #
- http://is.gd/1gaRm - passing by small towns with ramshackle housing leaning at angles that seem to defy physics. “How we decide”= great read #
- Sitting in the train’s restaurant cart sipping on Hoegaarden(!), having just left Kirov. Having a good time. #
- Reading, watching the Russian countryside and nibbling on some fresh caviar a cotraveller brought from home. #
- http://is.gd/1fC5X - somewhere northeast of Moscow. Slept well. Now for the pressing question: what to do for 3 days in a small, small room? #
- 5 minutes until take off (or rather -forward), in the train coupé with two seemingly inanimate Russians. #
- http://twitpic.com/8hiyj - reading and browsing; drinking and lazing. About to head to the train station. Spirits are high, yet mellow… #
- Verbose travelogue available at http://bit.ly/V3SWO ; Photos from St Petersburg at: http://bit.ly/FGKv ; Moscow here: http://bit.ly/MBRUA #
- Three meals, a thousand drinks, coffees, juices, smoothies and teas later, we part ways with the Coffeemania people and head to Mayakovska. #
- Sitting at a coffee bar trying all sorts of smoothies and teas, watching the world latte art championship on ustream.tv #
- Walking around Moscow getting pampered by the Coffeemania girls; aeropressed some Aricha at one of the shops. #
- Michael Jackson just died. Shit. Meanwhile, we’re off to Coffeemania here in Moscow for some geeking around. #
- Just got back from Tinkoff, a brew pub. Mediocre beer, service, and the toughest piece of lamb Ive ever had the displeasure of trying to eat #
- At the Pushkin museum. A large, almost kitschy greatest hits from the Acropolis through Italian Renaissance. #
- Sitting at a small café off Red Square, drinking lemonade. And beer. It’s still raining. #
- http://is.gd/1cOSS - about to leave our hostel and start our first day in Moscow. Weather seems chilly; nice change from St. Petersburg. #
- We’ve arrived at our (run down) hostel in Moscow. Directions given were conveniently indecipherable, so it took a while to find it. Sleepy. #
- Our conductor is selling beer on the sly! This train trip just improved. Can’t see any other foreigners here. #
- We’re on the train to Moscow, about to depart the station. Our cart has about 50 sleepers, and is warmer than hell. #
- The Hermitage is opulent, gilded and heavily focused on “Madonna and Child”-motifs. Saw: http://bit.ly/SKq38 - an impressionistic favourite. #
- 50 minutes was overly optimistic. A grand total of 3 hours start to finish. Time to get arty. #
- Standing in line outside the Hermitage. Again. 50 minutes in and about halfway there. At least the weather is nice. #
- At kafé Tbilisi, a Georgian restaurant. Great food, great wheat beer. Another great day in StPB. #
- http://is.gd/1a50j at an internet cafe, getting updated. Mostly on bills! The Hermitage museum had a queue the length of a soccer field (..) #
- http://is.gd/19lFb - relaxing in the palatial apartment of our hosts after a few hours of light sightseeing. I could kill a beer right now. #
- We’ve arrived in St Petersburg, and were met by Robert, a relative of Michael. Great weather! #
- Just made our inaugural on-the-road aeropress. Didn’t quite nail it, but it beats airport coffee! #
- http://twitpic.com/82ojf - at Torp airport, bleary-eyed, eating a paltry breakfast. Last night spent playing ghetto scrabble with Knut. #
