From Russia with....

For pictures from the trip click here.

Being a real history nerd (I even read "The Rise & Fall of the Soviet Empire" and "War & Peace" for the occasion), I have always wanted to make the trip to Russia. But after a lot of inertia and dilly-dallying around Anna and I finally took the plunge and decided to do it through the dreaded "tour" - my first ever. There are lots of things that put me off tours - stranger-danger, reduced freedom of what you can do, and the fact that tours typically do things on the cheap. However, helping us along in making the decision (apart from the fact that we were being slack and saw that we would never get there otherwise) was that Deb & Carl's flatmates Matt & Liv were going to be on the same tour. This proved to be a god-send, as it meant that we could pretty much drop the rest of the tour and go and do our own thing - which was just as well too as there were a few members of the tour you did your best to avoid (Top of that list was "The Chad" - take the most loud, obnoxious, and rude Queenslander you can think of, times that by ten and then you have "The Chad"). Also, the tour company we were with - Beetroot - was a tour with a lot of freedom. They effectively only organised your visa, accommodation, transport, and walking tours - and apart from that you were free to do what you wanted.

Our first destination was Moscow. Being in Moscow was definitely my favourite part of the trip. It is just full of history, both Communist and pre-Communist. It was great to just be in places like the Kremlin and the Red Square and visit Lenin's Mausoleum (a weird experience). In Moscow there is also a real mix of architecture - some grand old Mansions mixed with very square Communist blocks.

This was in complete contrast to St Petersburg, which most people seem to prefer, but for me it felt much more European (reminded me very much of Copenhagen) and not as Russian as Moscow. There is little of the Communist touch there and the history and architecture is more from the Tsarist times - which was also interesting. We also got a little bit of "culture" in St Peters, going to a very entertaining Folk show (including some impressive Cossack dancing) and to a Ballet performance of Cinderella - which, I have to say, will be something I only do in Russia.

In between Moscow and St Petersburg, we also had a night in Novgorod - which is the oldest city in Russia. It was here that we had a fascinating tour, where the guide not only pointed out the sites and history of Novgorod, but talked openly with us about living in Communist and post-Communist Russia. She also gave us a real feel for some the contrasts in Russian life - where you can buy staples like bread (and vodka) for next to nothing, but a simple 2-bedroom townhouse can set you back $1m US dollars.

One of the unexpected highlights of the whole trip was the food. With the benefit of doing some research, I had found a couple of highly recommended restaurants in Moscow. The first was Café Pushkin - pretty much universally recognised as the place to eat in Moscow. It is situated over three floors of what must have been an old Mansion, with stunning interior (including shelves of century-old books and clocks) and top-class service. And just as good was the food - the most memorable being the best Borscht (beetroot soup) I have ever had. We went there the first night we arrived, and it was so good we return again on our last day! The other restaurant was Shinok, a Ukrainian restaurant whose feature is a glassed-off inner farmyard with live farm animals and a resident Babushka to tend them. And being Ukrainian we also had to have Chicken Kiev - which isn't the chicken stuffed with cheese and ham we get at home, but with a garlic and herb sauce that was delicious. And though these two were the best, they set the scene for the whole trip we where we really enjoyed the food. If you are prepared to pay a bit more (and avoid any recommendations from the Tour company!), you could get food second to none.

We also did our best to sample some of the local produce - namely the infamous Russian vodka. One memorable night saw the four us leaving a very cool arty club in Moscow at 4.30am in the morning and getting a lift in the back of a guy's Lada to our hotel. They don't really have taxi's in Russia, locals just drive around and if they get flagged down will negotiate a fare for where you want to go - this guy didn't know what he was bargaining for as we squeezed into the back in our vodka-induced state. But we were most appreciative when he got us back to our hotel (after much pointing at maps) as we had no idea where we were going.

We also had a couple of good nights out in St Peters. One was at the Tinkoff brew pub, where I took on their all you can drink "buffet" and just managed to get my money's worth. Though not an inspiring arrange of beers, they were some of the better ones I had on the trip (the unfiltered weissbier being the best) and the brewpub itself was a pretty cool place. On our last night, after a close call with a very strange bar with lots of people in fancy dress, we went to a club that was in an old bunker from WW2 - and that also had "face control", which we managed to get our way through.

It certainly was an interesting and fun trip and I would recommend it to anyone. Maybe not the easiest place to get around, but well worth the effort.