It's 10:00 PM and I'm in St.Peterburg

I have decided to make an anachronical entry into my blog. I should start by talking about my time in Moscow but given I will be experiencing more of that city tomorrow, I thought it best to stop with St. Petersburg first.

I took a night train from Moscow to St.Petersburg tonight (and I am taking another one tonight to get back) and was pleasantly amused by the comfort and great sleep (albeit it short) I received from sleeping on the train. Upon my arrival in St. Petersburg, I discovered I made two vital mistakes... I hadn't prepared for cold or rain (given it was blazing hot and humid and sunny in Moscow) and I wasn't prepared for the cyrillic alphabet or speaking Russian. But resourceful as I sometimes am, I percevered (although a bit cold) and saw St. Petersburg in all its splendour (and lower points).

First off... breakfast with coffee... I needed that... Okay, next, a trip to L'hermitage. Although there usually is a long queue to get in, I discovered that if I acted like the Russians (and skipped in front of the line) while pushing my way to the ticket booth, I got my tickets quicker and got lots of respect from the ticket booth attendant (and some surly looks from the Japanese tourists but hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em). Pleasant discovery: if you are a student, you get in for free at L'hermitage! Okay, you are wondering what l'hermitage is. Well, apart from being an amazing architectural masterpiece where the kings and queens of Russia poured fortunes (and many Russian lives) into the construction of this palace within the city, it also contains one of the most exquisite European arts collection with plenty of Picasso's and Riopelle's to pass around. After an amazing morning viewing these pieces, I took a walk over the Neva river (brrr.... Cold wind from the Finish sea.... brrrr) and visited Peter's fortress which was to be used to defend Russia against the Swedes but never actually got used (other than emprisonning political prisoners during the Bolsevik revolution). Back to l'Hermitage and off to find lunch... Cafeteria? Why not?

Well, I was not very well received... English is not liked in some parts of Russia... Or maybe they thought I was American? I got my food (and I didn't see any spit in it). Then off to Petrodvorets, Peters palace away from the city. Only problem is its 29 km away from the city centre. Lonely planet talks about this nice double decker bus you can catch from in front of the Baltic Station. Well, lonely planet dates back to 2002. After 15 minutes of frantically trying to find the stop, I asked one of the security guards to help me out. Although he didn't speak English, he understand what I wanted to do. He walked in front of the station and pointed to this yellow minibus... I asked: "Petrodvorets?"... He said "Petrodvorets". Okay, so I get in, I ask the bus driver the same thing... He says "da". Okay, good. I ask how much. In broken English, he says: "three". Three roubles? Can't be... 3 USD? Maybe. Well, I figured out it was 30 roubles, about 1.50 CAD. Ok, not bad. So I join the ride. But how will I know when to get off? As we drive around in the minibus, we start carrying more and more people. Soon, there are people standing in the minibus. It's been around 50 minutes drive... Yikes. Did I miss it? I ask the old man sitting next to me: "Petrodvorets?". He says "da". Okay, good. 2 minutes later, he points and says: "Petrodvorets". Bus driver stops, looks at me and I say "spasiba" which is thank-you in Russia.

As I stare in total amazement at the gardens of Petrodvorets which puts the Versaille gardens to shame, I start to wonder... How the heck am I going to get back to the city in time to catch my night train? hmmmm.... After spending some quality time in the Garden, I head back to the main road... There is a bus stop, good... But all the bus stops are in Cyrillic letters... not so good. I ask the first bus that comes along: "metro?" (thinking that I can find my way once I hit the subway map). He looks at me incrudely: "da" as if of course. Okay, good. I take out some roubles to pay... He starts yelling at me... I think he wants me to pay later. Okay, I go sit down. I see he has the same conversation again with the next person. He seems to be the only bus driver that wants to get paid when you leave the bus, not when you enter it. Okay. Well, we get to our metro station, 1 hour later. Okay, metro stop... This should be a breeze... Well, it actually wasn't so bad... I had to make out the cyrillic letters but I found my stop on the map and figured out which line to be on. And once on, I count the stops (7 in all) until I get to my final destination... Phew!

Now, let's find a place to eat. I'm getting hungry. The lonely planet recommends this quaint russian restaurant on a side-street. I have a bit of a hard time finding it (all the street names are in cyrillic as well as the restaurant name) but finally fall right into it. There is a live band, good. A cute Russian girl comes and sits me down, good. She doesn't speak a word of English, not so good. I ask for the English menu... She looks at me strangely and comes back with the menu, a bit hesitant. I open the menu, a bit hesitant but see everything is translated into English, good. I smile and nod. She returns the favor. I get a bliny (stuffed pancake) and an espresso (to enable me to write this blog). Life is good. I'm tired, lonely (I miss my Jessica), lost and in a strange country where I do not speak or even read the letters of the language. But I have eaten and I have found my way and I have seen beautiful things today. I survived another day while travelling.

Germany wins and Munich parties

... Sam and I arrived safely in Munich on Friday after a connecting flight in London. Joerg met us at the train stop close to his work and we came back to his place to relax a bit before going out to a free party with a few of his friends. After sleeping in a bit on Saturday since we came back quite late on Friday, we made our way back to Munich and Sam went sightseeing while Joerg and I met up with Elisabeth for some bier in the bier garten. It was great to see some old friends from Nantes and to walk around in the sun in Munich. We met up with Sam a little later to see the football match between Germany and Sweden (first round action). The game was actually in Munich so there was electricity in the air as kick-off started. We watched Germany convincingly beat Sweden 2-0 and went to the main square in Munich to see the festive Germans chanting their countries name. I even participated in the action tying a German flag on my back. Joerg translated a few of the chants like: "Swedish football players are better at making furniture"... spoof on Ikea, a swedish furniture retailer. We finished the day in a park in a bier garten with some sausage cold salads... a good day :)

Last day in Ireland and off to the World Cup

Well, I returned the car just in time to catch our bus back to Dublin. I thought it would be fitting to give you the top 10 reasons to check your blood pressure before driving in Ireland:

10. Roundabouts everywhere (I mean everywhere) so you get leg cramps after a while (from shifting up and down)
9. Once you get on secondary roads, bi-directional traffic can be a bit tricky as they are really only one lane roads
8. Most road signs are written in gaelic and some in English. One-way roads are almost never incidated on sign-posts. Makes for very tricky driving for tourists. I wonder how many get into accidents a year?
7. Divided highways are few and far between and passing lanes seem to be a novelty in Ireland
6. Tractors actively participate in the flow of traffic making for interesting log jams
5. There are 10 million cars for 5 million citizens on a small island. You do the math.
4. The main roads (primary) go through small villages which means bottlenecks every 20 minutes
3. Related to point (3), speed limits are never actually broken because everybody knows there is no point in getting to where you want to quickly because of traffic jams in small villages
2. If you like to play with faith, risk the lives of your passengers and yourself by crossing O'connors pass in the Dingle peninsula (but the view is amazing)
1. The scenery is breathtaking so it makes up for all the slowdowns along the way

I hope you all get to enjoy Ireland driving one day :)

Along the rugged coast of Ireland

Sam and I went on a road trip with our rented car along the rugged coast of Ireland. We made it out to see a few castles, a plethora of cute villages and even got to see the Moher cliffs! They were wonderful (even if it was windy, raining and cold... but hey, that's a touch of Ireland for you). We got lost and saw some great cliffs because of that (it's getting lost great!). The sun even came out towards 5:00 PM! All in all, a very nice travelling day. Ireland certainly has a lot of charm and beautiful natural outcrops. We will be staying in Galway tonight and then driving down to Killarney but also doing some cliff sight seeing on the Western-Southern cliffs of Ireland.

Driving on the left side of the road, and living to tell the tale

Well, Marc, you will like this one. I'll always remember our crazy trips down the road leading to the school while driving Franky T's parents car... on the left side of the road. We'll, driving on the left side of the car is not so crazy here in Ireland. What is crazy is letting a Canadian drive on the left while trying to remember how to drive stick shift. Great fun! After picking up the car, we went to pick up our luggage at the hostel and drove down this narrow stretch of road. When I found a parking space, I tried to reverse only to find out I had NO IDEA how to reverse. Embarrassing? Yes, a tadbit. I went in the hostel and asked the receptionist if she knew how to reverse Irish cars? She laughed and told me she had the same problem when she moved to Ireland. She went inside and after a few minutes of wigling, she found out how my particular car (A german Opel) reversed. It's all very complicated and I will have to explain it later to you over a pint (or maybe two!).
This morning, Sam and I went to visit the Blarney Castle, another very popular Irish landmark. The area around the castle is absolutely breath-taking and things were simply improved by a sudden mistyness which appeared from nowhere. Straight-out of a fairytale. We went up the narrow steps to the top to see the entire village from atop the castle. We walked around as the sun broke through the clouds and it felt very warm for the first time in a while.
Our trip to Galway was also interesting. We decided to drive through the mainland, going through Limerick and stopping at this small village along the way called Adare which is supposedly the wedding picture capital of Ireland. It was voted the most quaint village in Ireland in 2000 and we soon found out why. The houses lining the main drag had tatch roofs and everything was immaculately kept. Everyone was friendly and the sun was shining bright. I felt like a leprechaun was going to jump out of side street with a pot of gold. But none did so we needed to continue our way.
We drove through Limerick which wasn't that impressive and made us wonder why all main roads need to go through the city center, especially when there is only 2 way roads leading in and out (it took us well over an hour to traverse 10 km in and out of Limerick). But we remained patient and made our way past beautiful villages and rolling green hills. We arrived in Galway shortly after 7:00 PM and found our hostel which is very well situated, has huge rooms and is staffed by very friendly people. We ate a fish and chip at a popular fish and chip joint called McDoguah's. And to finish off the night, we had a couple of pints of Beamish whille watching Tunisia lead Spain (Go Tunisia Go!).
One last thought: last night, Sam and I went to listen to some traditional Irish music at Sin E, a local pub in Cork. THe music was great as well as the ambiance (small pub loaded with people and choice of beer). It felt very much like home and was calming in its own way.

In God's Country...

I am sitting in Cork, Ireland. After arriving in Dublin a few days ago, I am strangely longing for Nova Scotia. Everything about this place, from the streets, to the people, to the towns to the valleys reminds me of home. If I was to recommend a place for Nova Scotian to visit so that he would feel right at home, I would think of Ireland in a heartbeat.

Dublin is such a vibrant city with almost as many bars as in Halifax and fiddlers all over town. There is also so much history here. Yesterday, we visited the Jail were they sent most of the Irish dissidents from the Dublin area during the Easter rising. We learnt about the tragic events leading up to it and the resolution which divided the country. The United Kingdom is so good in dividing and conquering their countries. We spent a lot of time walking and taking in the streets. We also visited the Guiness brewery (but I still think the one at Keiths is better!). We have drunk a lot and have watched many World Cup matches. It's great to be in Europe to enjoy the atmosphere.

Tomorrow, we rent a car and visit the West of Ireland. It reminds me of the Nova Scotia coast. The weather is also similar (rain, clouds, sun, rain again!). Exams are done and I think I did quite well (with the exception of my first exam) but I believe I passed my program. I shall know by July 1st. It's nice to be seeing some new sites but it makes me miss my home as well. It will be nice to visit Cape-Breton again this summer and see my friends and family in Nova Scotia.