Far Flung Forays

I Can Pronounce LJUBLJANA

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Todd

This post will conclude the events in the Slovenia trip and will be followed up by a thoughts post. Half of it was written on the plane and the other half a week after getting back so it will be disjointed like normal!!!

Chris walking around Vipava

Wednesday morning I woke up and my tummy wasn’t super happy with me. We had a short (20m, 3000k ft elevation) day in store. We first rode to Pradjama Castle which is a castle built into the side of a cliff at the entrance to a cave. A robin hood (depending on your opinion) owner of the castle stayed there for a year while under siege and used a secret entrance via the caves for supplies. The castle and audio tour were actually more interesting than normal. At the castle we could tell we were on the Slovenian “tourist trail”. We saw a couple other cyclotourers including a break apart tandem.

Predjama Castle

Cave and castle combined

We then went to Postonjana Caves which is a large cave system and had a tour. It involved a train ride a couple of kilometers into the cave and about an hour walking around. It had been a really hot day and when we exited the cave some clouds had rolled in which was pretty awesome. We have been informed that we are in the third heat wave of the summer. All I know is that it is super hot.

The cave was actually pretty cool

I am not sure what this sign meant, but I tried to emulate it

Chris hanging out in a museum

We walked around town and failed to find a grocery store after seeing a sign for one in 400 meters. Chris picked where to eat via the Internet and we had a really good meal including our first craft beer. My eating is still screwed up so I wasn’t hungry, but managed to still eat.

Stuffed squid

The next morning we had breakfast and started our ride into Ljubliana, our last destination in Slovenia. I felt a lot better cycling than the last two days and Chris and I ended up in Ljubljana a few hours ahead of our estimated time. When we stopped for our mid ride machiatto it was served with a mini beignet by a women who had been to Lakewood, CO racing motocross. I wanted an entire plate of the beignets, but figured that it would be way too much coffee if it ones one per beignet…

Lubljana Castle

The inside of the castle is very much redone to try to separate tourists from as much money as possible

When we got to town we realized we didn’t do as much elevation as we had planned so we ride to the top of the hill in town which housed the castle. The castle was pretty cool, but had really been outfitted with a lot of modern structures to facilitate separating tourists from their money. At this point Chris was getting pretty hungry and my stomach was still in the never hungry mode. We grabbed some lunch at a spot just off of the open air market. Ljubljana has an old town area with old buildings and cobblestone streets, most of it is closed to cars. It has a bunch of shops and restaurants and is a pretty nice city. A couple months I hosted a couch surfer, Ana, from Ljubljana who goes to college in Iowa and Chris and I stayed with her and her mom for a couple days.

Riding up to the castle

It was great to have other people to talk to and they were a really interesting family. Ana’s mom, Nada, has done 23 Ironman and her father was the first Slovenian to summit Everest without oxygen. We went on a bike ride with them and spent a couple evenings talking to them and their friends. It was one of those experiences that makes traveling worth while and that you don’t get if you stay in a hostel and just talk to other travelers. Also they had internet that was like 7.3 times faster than the next fastest we had (Grandma Cuder was fresh out of internet) which probably made them think we spent way more time on the internet on average than we did the rest of the trip.

When we went back downtown the first night we went to a craft beer bar and I can safely say that Slovenian craft beer is not very good compared to Boulder’s, but it was a nice break from all the wine we had been drinking. We had a hard time picking dinner (read I had a hard time picking dinner), it was the first meal in a long time I was actually hungry for, but couldn’t make up my mind where to go. The place we (I) decided on was lackluster, but it happens.

The following day we went for a bike ride with Ana and Nada and then back downtown. We sorted out our train ticked and somehow for $72 we got two tickets to Vienna with bikes. Half the distance on the way to Maribor on the same train cost $160+. The ticket lady seemed like she enjoyed her job (dealing with foreigners getting international train tickets) and really hooked us up. We then went and had a way better meal than the first night.

Our last day in Slovenia Chris and I went on a casual bike ride, packed everything up and took the 6 hour train to Vienna. We grabbed about $15 work of beer and groceries (read meat and cheese) to make it through the train ride which we didn’t have anyone sitting next to us except for the last couple of hours.

Chris leaving Slovenia

We then rolled in the the Le Meridian around 11pm and they wanted us to park our bikes outside, we weren’t having it so we ended up with our bikes in a back hallway, at least they weren’t in the kitchen like at the Bristol. We then went to conquer the free minibar and found it was free because it was super lame.

Look closely, we found this really out of place in a palace

The following day was our last day of the trip and we were planning on grabbing bike boxes and seeing Vienna for a day. I wanted a more full day of seeing Vienna than Chris so I set off early and he met me an hour or two later. We saw a lot of impressive old buildings and clothes and jewels and swords and unicorn horns and other assorted items that were worth a lot of money.

Vienna!!

Saukraut

I discovered this dead guy somewhere in Vienna while roaming without Chris

When we went to grab out bicycle boxes from the store that was holding them for us they were closed. We then realized it was a national holiday so everything was closed (calling 5 other bike stores confirmed this). We then decided on buying the really expensive bike boxes at 530am at the airport and packing there. It was going to be a slightly stressful morning, but we had a full roll of duck tape imported from the US. We got the 445am train to the airport and found out the bike boxes were huge and shitty. We did pack them up and went to check them (I was taking both the bikes since Chris was traveling longer) and were met by some not so happy to see us British Airline contract employees. They decided to let us check the boxes and only charged us $85 for the second, not the $150 they were suppose to (mine was free). When I got to customs in Philly after a layover in Heathrow the bikes didn’t show up which was a relief because it meant I didn’t have to manhandle two bikes. They also didn’t show up in Denver, WIN. I think I was one of the few people that thanked American for losing my luggage so I didn’t have to transport it home.

How my bike box arrived home, no bottom. Bikes were in great shape!!!

It was a great trip and really different than any of my other ones

Chris and I were pretty happy we were not on this group cyclotour

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged backpacking, beer, bikes, Cycle touring, Cyclotouring, ljubljana, Slovenia, train, Vienna | 1 Comment

Slovenia has WINE and MOUNTAINS

Posted on August 25, 2015 by Todd

Chris at an alpine lake a couple thousand feet up from Grandma Cuder’s

I have found that traveling with someone and on bikes I have a lot less time to make blog posts since most of them previously were written on transportation and in the off hours of the day.

We left grandma Cuder’s and did a really popular hike up to an alpine lake. A lot of the alpine areas have huts that are served by cable cars to resupply. It is kinda nice being able to get a beer at the top of your hike. It seems like there is a mountain hut passport system where you try to get your passport stamped. About the same time Chris and I noticed that the sky was getting a little dark and we decided to head back since the afternoon was calling for 80% showers. We headed back to grandma’s, grabbing a radler on the way.

Alpine dairy where Chris and I bought a pound of cheese for $5, half sheep/half cow’s milk

Chickens at the dairy!!!!

Lunch

When we got there more of the family had arrived and they had run inside and grabbed some pear grappa, juice, and cups so we could do some post hike shots and juice. We then transitioned to bikes and started powering our way to Bovez, 9 miles away. The ride started to look pretty ominous and about 15 minutes before we got there it started to dump on us and right after we got to the hostel it started to hail. We were soaked, but pumped to miss the hail.

The Soca River, a crazy colored river

Bovez is a pretty cool touristy town and it appears that a lot of the tourists are outdoors people and less “general tourists” like Bled. That night we went and hung out in what we discovered was the potato festival.

Potato Festival

The next day we were all on plan for an 8am start when Chris’s bike tube broke after being pumped up. He changed the tube and we headed out to town and then discovered it was flat again, so he changed it again and we headed out to wine country via Italy in what turned out to be our longest day yet involving a little less than 60 miles and 6000 ft of climbing. The route took us through where Italy surrendered in WWI, an area with a lot of trenches and mountain fighting positions. We then continued along a ridges that separates Italy from Slovenia and grabbed lunch in Italy for lunch. English did not get us very far at lunch compared to 10km away in Slovenia where everyone speaks it. We ended up with pizza because the one page of the real menu was in Italian and the four pages of the pizza menu was in Italian and German. After the meal I declared that I was done with pizza for the rest of the trip. When we left the restaurant a Swiss guy stopped his car and asked us for directions, we gave some to him, not sure if they were right.

We were running on empty before we ran into the lunch restaurant, fun dip time (imported from the US)!!!!

Looking back at the mountains in Slovenia

Chris and I then dropped off the ridge into Italian wine country. Wine country greeted us with two things, a flat tire for Chris and crazy blast furnace hot like wind. Chris expertly changed his third tube of the day while I sat in the grass looking at grapes. We struggled through the hot weather, using almost all of our water to a gas station outside of our destination, Dobrovo(this is one town name that we can’t tell the difference between how we pronounce it and locals do, but no one has any idea what we are saying and we have to write it to be understood). After a little tired decision making travel talk we decided to go to the wine cellar under the castle and taste some wine (we are back in Slovenia).

The aftermath of Chris and I tasting a few wines

Slovenia has a few wine producing areas and mainly produced dry wine grapes with 70% being white and 30% being red. In the store wine costs 2-15€ a bottle. About 20% of the wine produced is considered table wine and the other 80% fits into higher categories of wine. Most of the wine they produce is not exported, but about 15 wineries do export to the states.

While we were tasting wine one of the servers had a disaster with a bunch of wine glasses and some Austrians came and asked if they could join our table. We of course said yes (not that we could have said no because they already say down). I was not in the mood for company for some strange reason, but Chris was delighted to have someone other than me to talk to and they were pretty funny.

I feel like this is an answer to a lot of questions, Smart? No.

We then cycled a few more miles to the winery that we were staying, Stekar. They had a pool. It was hot. They had a pool!!!! Needless to say we checked in said we wanted to join them for dinner and went for a swim. The winery had a great view and a great dinner.

Nothing like staying in a place with a pool after a being drenched by sweat. I didn’t tell Chris we had a pool, he was happy…

Wine and pasta

I felt great, but had some GI issues and woke up the next morning pretty dehydrated. I forced some food down and we got on the bikes for what turned out to be the hardest day for me since I was pretty drained, but a super easy day for Chris (38m, 3k vert, 3 hours peddling). The route brought us back into Italy, through a town with cobblestones, and then over some ridges to another wine valley, Vipava Valley. We tried to stay in some tourist farms there but failed which turned out to be a good thing since one of the ones we looked at turned out to be up a 1000+ foot steep climb.

Cobble stones in Italy that would normally be my jam, not this morning 😦

We went to the one restaurant in town open for lunch and then to the tourist information center that also ran wine tasting. Chris and I tasted 11 wines and bought a bottle for a total cost of 8€. While there we got some beta on the ruins of the castle overlooking the town and headed up. A lot of what they call castles are bot castles in my mind, just fancy houses, but this one use to be a real castle.

We attempted to get dinner at the one open restaurant in town. Two hours after we ordered we were brought one of the three things we ordered and two we didn’t. I had wasn’t really hungry and was eating because I should and Chris was pretty irritated about the entire experience so he negotiated and we are and paid for the one ordered and bounced.

Vipava wine tasting

View from the ruined Vipava castle

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged backpacking, bovec, cyclo touring, Cyclotouring, Slovenia, soca, stekar, stekar wine, vipava | Leave a comment

Staying at Grandma Cuder’s in Slovenia

Posted on August 8, 2015 by Todd

This is continued from the last post.

Black risotto with squid

We got up early this morning, cooked eggs, ate salami, and headed out to ride the highest pass in Slovenia. We stopped and walked down a pretty cool gorge 3 miles into the day and then continued to the town at the add of the pass (we did go over the steepest road to date). After a lunch of gnocchi we started on the 11km 9% average grade pass. I felt really good and it was an awesome day cycling. We have discovered that cows still wear cowbells in Slovenia and Austria so you will be cycling up a pass and hear cowbell (which either motivates you like people are cheering you on or taunts you like hecklers at a cyclocross race) which is pretty awesome.

The route isn’t always roads…

1/4 of the way up the pass

Almost at the highest pass in slovenia

We then descended to the first town and discovered the next town (where we were planning on staying) didn’t have a market so we stocked up on food to cook dinner. They had wine on tap and in bottles so we were planning on getting a beverage for the evening. We said we didn’t have a bottle and asked for the tap white wine and the lady came out and filled a 1.5l (48 ounce) plastic water bottle. With that size bottle we were worried it was going to be expensive. We were wrong, $3.08… When we descended 4 more miles and got to the place we were staying we started talking to a man just wearing purple boxers (small gut). We learned he owned Cuder where we were staying, but he got his daughter, Tara, who spoke better English and we talked to online. We were told that yes she booked us a room, but we were staying in a village 7km away with her aunt. Traveling you never know what is going to happen so we said ok and got to talking with her. Her eyes lit up when we said we were from “America” and they got saucer size when she found out Chris lived in New York City. She said maybe she would see us the next day and then told Chris when she wasn’t working… We then started peddling the 7km to the next house with very vague directions, which we discovered has a pretty steep 2 mile hill to finish with.

Road to Grandma Cuder

Grandma C must entertain a lot

Yellow jackets all over. Drinking a grapefruit radler before I shower

We were looking for 16 Lepena. Lepena has a #8, #11, #12a, #12, #14, #15, #16, and I didn’t check the last place’s number, spread out over 2 miles. We get their and there is grandma, aunt, and daughter. We discover that we will be staying in grandmas house and grandma will be staying in the guest/vacation cottage with her daughter and granddaughter. They were excited to see us and that we were from America. Aunt the offered us some grappa shots which is exactly what you want with sweat still oozing out of your pores after a solid climb so we of course said yes. Via translation grandma asked if we wanted coffee so of course we said yes (sweat still oozing)…. It has been a pretty awesome/friendly unforeseen turn of events, not to mention the view from the table outside is killer.

This post doesn’t have the pictures from my camera and it is late so I will include them on the next post some of these photos may be blurry due to sweat… Also some are from the previous post

View from grandma Cuder’s

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Alps and Bikes, Loving Life

Posted on August 8, 2015 by Todd

It has been a few days since I have last posted mainly because we have been having such a good time I didn’t want to spend the time writing a blog post and this post is going to be uploaded later because we are currently in Grandma Cuder’s house in Lepena (a town we and my map app didn’t know existed), but I’ll get to that later. This is a pretty long post.

Chris and I left Logarska Dolina on Wednesday and after a lengthy conversation with our waitress (she was really hitting on Chris) started on the two mountain pass route through Austria to Bled. The waitress who went to school in a town we would be passing through said we should do the low route and that is how she drove between the two places, partly because she was afraid of her car breaking down in Austria because her German isn’t very good (hindsight the car breaking down is a valid fear, but I’m sure her German was great). We hopped over a couple mile 8% climb into Austria and amazing views including your alpine field of dandelions from The Sound of Music. After a quick decent where the car that past us smelled like they burnt out their brake rotors we started up the Austrian pass. The Austrian pass had great German engineering with all the switchbacks banked and was really popular with motorcycles. We then had the two big climbs behind us and continued 40 more miles to lake bled with a few short punchy climbs (18%, ect) for a total of 4:40 peddling.

Last view of Logarska Valley

Chris relaxing in Austria post pass

Welcome to Austria, you get to go downhill now

Mineral water refill on our way into Bled
, tastes like metal…

You know you have a steep climb when this is what your route looks like

I love castles

Bled is Slovenia’s main international tourist area. It is comprised of a castle on a hilltop over looking a late with an island (Slovenia’s only island/not fact checked) with a church on it. It is basically “the image” of Slovenia. It is also a super touristy town where our hostel was 25€ compared to 28€ for the tourist farm including 2 meals outside Slovenj Gradec. We bought a couple bottles of wine and put them in the hostels freezer to get cold and headed to the castle (I love castles). It was a rather steep entry fee of 9€, but we still went in and grabbed a glass of wine at the restaurant (stiff pours). We then went and “socialized” at the hostel and went to bed.

We had a lazy morning the next morning and rode to Lake Bohinj, the next lake up the valley. We decided to ride the opposite way we planned to get the climb out of the way in the morning. Chris and I have Garmin bike computers that don’t have maps, but you can upload a special file that has your route and it will let you know if you are on it or not. Mine is named Bertha and I have not turned the sound off on it (Chris wisely has) and its nickname is bitchy Bertha, because it yells at me when I do something wrong (frequently). Chris powered up the ~5 mile, 7%+ climb and I finally got my legs halfway up after not feeling strong to start (Chris best me by 3+ minutes, he did draft a tractor…).

Lake Bled

Church in Bled

I got some air in my tires here!

Chocolate on the way to lake Bohinj

We stopped for a coffee/hot chocolate/pastry at a chocolate shop and then arrived at the lake. This lake was larger and had the mountains coming down to it. We then head on the gravel path around the side of the lake without a road and picked a place to swim and discovered the lake was unofficially clothing not optional outside the main swim areas. After a swim and short nap we continued on Chris’s route which then turned into a technical mountain bike trail (oops). We hit the road, grabbed lunch and quickly rode back to town.

We cleaned up and went back to the castle where we had made reservations for dinner the night before (no castle entry fee with reservations). We got a table at the castle wall on the cliff overlooking the lake and there was a small wedding with live classical music going on. This dinner is a departure from my normal traveling budget/mindset, but it was really good (3 courses and 2 glasses of wine each was $90 total).

We then went back to the hostel which wasn’t the best lodging choice I have booked, mainly because it was super hot all night (be Garmin said 84F). We did meet someone win a CU tshirt (Denver native) and someone that went to nursing school at CU Denver there. We had a 4 bed dorm which we shared with 4 girls going to med school in the UK. I also was forced to take my first and so far only cold shower in Slovenia there.

I will ill finish the rest as the next post, have to upload more photos and super slow internet .

Chris’s mapped “road” to lake Bohinj

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alps, bikes, bled, Bohinj, castle, castle hostel, Cyclotouring, logarskar Dolina, Slovenia | 2 Comments

Cycling to Logarska Dolina

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Todd

Sunset over Slovenj Gradec

Day two cycling was another successful day. It started with breakfast consisting of two

Sunset chasing team

types of homemade prosciutto and half pork half beef salami. Most of the stuff on the table minus the coco puffs and butter was made in house including the flour used in the bread.

The bee hives at the farm

Logarska Dolina

We did not set any getting ready records and started our ride around 930 with downhill for 3 miles (Chris didn’t peddle at all). About an hour into our ride we turned west and started heading up a gradual incline into the mountains. The scenery started to change from rolling hills to real hills/mountains. There was a bike path to start, but a lot of the bike paths (especially in town) are a pain since they are on the sidewalks and cross the street randomly. I think about 20% of the time we ride them going in the wrong direction… We have a lot of waypoints logged into our Garmin cycling computer which creates a trail to follow, but doesn’t have a base map. Chris did all the work making the maps but there are some slight irregularities in our route like going on the on ramp right off the off ramp to cycle on the otherwise of the sidewalk. The maps also don’t tell us when we hit dirt and we had our first good climb of the trip, 8% for 6km, but were rewarded with sweet views on the decent and cold pizza on the summit. We had been carrying this pizza for 2 days and boy was it tasty (and my panniers became a pound lighter).

We then headed to Logarska Dolina which is a 8km long valley surrounded by jagged mountains and we were staying in a hiking lodge halfway down. We grabbed a beer and then went to see the waterfall at the end. We discovered that we really were tired and called it a day after walking uphill 10 minutes to the waterfall. We had a lackluster of assorted meats and French fries and then rode down the valley to try to watch sunset which we discovered you couldn’t really see so we grabbed a beer instead.

Slap is Slovenian for waterfall

Posted in Slovenia, Uncategorized | Tagged Cycle touring, Cyclotouring, Logarska dolina, Slovenia, Slovenj gradec | Leave a comment

We did not get lost in Slovenia, yet

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Todd

Vienna from the junior penthouse

Bike box re packed by TSA

Lipizzaner horses in Vienna

I am in Slovenia, 6km outside Slovenj Gradec, about 1-2km up a damn step hill. The only reason the steep hill matters is because I am with my buddy Chris Wehrly riding bikes. I have also discovered that in the past traveling alone and using public transit there is a lot more time to write blogs.

Rewind

I had the pleasure of attend Jared and Tina’s Sangeet Thursday night and Katy was awesome enough to drop me off at the airport at 515am the next morning with my bike in a lovely box. I would have put a lot less tape on the box if I knew TSA was going to open it, but it arrived unharmed in Vienna (thanks to Paul Creme’s packing tips. Chris and I then built up our bikes in the airport and made a detour to the Trek store to purchase some much needed peddles… We then checked into the Bristol Hotel and got upgraded to a junior penthouse (they stored our bikes in the hallway next to the kitchen, can’t have bikes in a 550€ hotel room).

Lunch

The next morning we caught the 8am train to Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia (80K people). We discovered that the grocery store closes at 3pm on Sunday and even though it looks like it is going to rain it doesn’t always rain. We ended up staying with Jesna and her roommate Dan which we connect with via Couchsurfing. We grabbed dinner together and talked a ton. It was petty interesting that Slovenia hasn’t been a country very long and a lot of their cultures and traditions are regional and not really based off a country boundary. We got home about 10 minutes before it started dumping out which was great.

When I woke up the next morning it was still raining, we slept out the rain and got up at 830 and started cycling around 1015. We picked a realitivily flat path with 4-5k feet of elevation gain over 52ish miles that followed an established cycling trail near a river for the first 2/3 then we cut south towards Slovenj Gradec. After riding bikes for a few hours we stopped for some coffee, lunch, and a beer. In Slovenj Gradec we stopped in the tourist information center which is run by the government and they give you like 9 ounces of maps and information each time you stop in. It is a little much since we are on bikes so I make Chris carry it all. I was joking that the tourist farm we are staying at was at the top of a hill and it turns out that I was pretty right and it sure was a steep one. They have cows, pigs, a greenhouse, make their own flour, ect.

Tourist farm Jesnik

So so far the trip has been awesome and our next day riding is basically all uphill….

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bicycle, bikes, Cycle touring, Cycle tourkng, Cyclotouring, Maribor, Slovenia, Vienna | 1 Comment

Russia is a County of Possibilities, Everything is Possible

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Todd

I have no idea what this sign is for, but 23 years of something looks like it is related to Soviet times

Russia is a country of possibilities, everything is possible is what Roman told me in the car and it kind of fits. It alludes to the fact that people in Russia can change their socioeconomic status and to the fact that money can make things not normally allowed possible. I had a great trip overall and I really enjoyed St Petersburg. Some Russian stereotypes proved to be true, others not so much. The rest of this post is going to basically be my thoughts on St Petersburg and Russia in general. I was able to meet up with four Russians through couchsurfing.com in the evenings to hangout and I also spent a good amount of time talking to my tour guide and his girlfriend. Below is a brief description of each person I hung out with and what I am going to refer to them as to avoid typing their names 30 times.

You are not allowed to have any fun in this park

Leisan(L): female engineer, travels a bunch, speaks perfect English, 31ish, from Siberia. I was the first American that she met that had a real job.

Natalya(N): 26yo linguistics PhD candidate, tutors English, from Siberia, vegetarian, used to be vegan. Very proper.

Katya(K): 24yo English teacher, went to the most liberal university in Russia, spent a year at the University of Tennessee, walked across Mississippi in two months, Russian Hipster

Roman (R): 25yo, tour guide like, interrupts, isn’t wrong, knows his stuff, likes facts, from SPB

Larissa (LA): Roman’s girlfriend, teaches accounting, also a guide, would fit in in Boulder, free spirit, wants to talk about America.

Eva (E): 26ish yo, used to work in facilities management now works as a producer for educational videos

Appearance of Russians: the movies made me expect all men over the age of 40 to be overweight and that was not the case, Russian men overall were more fit then depicted in movies. I was surprised that I found The average Russian women in SPB more attractive then the average Swedish women, but Swedish women were definitely more physically active.

There was what I would consider fashionable dress, lots of boots and scarves. I also live in Boulder so that statement doesn’t mean a lot.

Russian language: I was expecting the language to be a very “hard” sounding language like German, but most everyday conversations were generally soft and pleasing to the ear.

SPB only got 3 hours of sun (when clouds weren’t covering the sun, not when it wasn’t night out) in December.

Old Soviet 5 story apartment building

The architecture of the historical center is very 19th century European, but interspersed are soviet style buildings, mainly replacing buildings destroyed by the siege of Leningrad, not ones knocked down to be rebuilt in the soviet style (which happened in some areas of Moscow). Driving out of the city I saw your stereotypical areas that had 5-15 soviet style apartment buildings clustered around each other which R says appear in every Russian city. SPB bloomed from 1 million to over 3 million people before WWll and there wasn’t enough housing so the kommunalka became popular where basically a family would have one room and then there would be a shared kitchen and bathroom. The Soviets counted over 600 palaces/mansions in the city when they took over and turned a bunch of them in kommunalka.

Ugly Soviet style shopping/office building

During the 50s and 60s Gorbachev started building 5 story apartment buildings (they were the cheapest) and then in the 70s the nine story buildings become more popular. Once the Soviet Union collapsed you could then assume ownership of where you were living for a small registration fee. This means that just about everything built before 1992 consists of individual condos and not managed as apartment buildings.

Toilets in Russia typically cost 20r (62r=$1) to use, resulting in me always using them in museums before I left, just in case.

Pay for use Porta-Pots

Smoking as banned in bars/restaurants in the past year and the person I was hanging out with was amazed that people were actually following the rule

I thought that there would be a lot more smoking in Russia than there was. A pack of cigarettes costs ~60r, but not a lot of people smoked. Eva said that a decade or two ago Russians were on the verge of smoking and drinking themselves to death and there is a movement to be healthy and exercise. A cheap bottle of vodka still costs 120r, but most people were buying the 300r bottles that I noticed.

This is an awesome amount of beets!!! I guess borsch requires a lot

The feeling on what they called “crisis” varied. R and LA viewed that Crimea and eastern Ukraine are really Russians that became part of Ukraine only when the borders were drawn. L was a little irritated that Crimea is now part of Russia just because now Russia has to support it and wouldn’t every poor country want to become part of a rich one. Ukraine has cut off trading, water, and power to Crimea and since Crimea does not border all the supplies have to go by ferry and barge and during the winter the Black Sea is not the calmest body of water. Overall they consider it a war and do not deny that Russians are fighting there.

While I was in SPB Boris Nemtsov was assassinated in Moscow. It caught international headlines, but no one in SPB mentioned it or talked about. It was like it didn’t happen and I did not see anything about it on TV (not that I saw a lot of TV).

It was interesting the different opinions of the media. L’s parents live in rural Siberia and are pensioners that spend a lot of time watching state sponsored TV and believe they know exactly what it going on in the world. N believes that the Russian press is free to publish what they want and does not distort the truth. A couple people did not follow the news at all.

I think sign wants you to use car seats

Since the ruble has collapsed there are varying opinions on the prices of things. N says that things in the grocery store are more expensive and her favorite food that she used to mainly eat is now three times the price. K doesn’t really notice a price increase. L thinks that food is slightly more expensive, but the prices in the bars and restaurants have stayed the same, the owners absorbing the cost increases.

Metro Station

The subway in SPB is really easy to use and has some pretty great architecture. The subway is really deep underground, with the deepest station being over 275 feet deep. What it means is that there are really long escalators that take up to five minutes.

The most boring job ever, watching the escalators. There are video cameras on them to keep down the tomfoolery

The hostel I stayed in was Soul Kitchen and it was by far the best hostel that I had stayed in. I was in an eight bed dorm, but the first two nights I was the only one in it, and the next 3 nights there were only two other people in it. It was situated on the second floor in an old row house on a canal.

Landing outside the hostel

Overall the trip to Russia was great and my visa is still valid for three more years.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bye Bye Russia, Hello Stockholm

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Todd

The bottom word is pronounced cafe

This morning I headed out for breakfast with hot chocolate and a croissant dipped in it in mind. The issue is that none of the places j have had breakfast at opened at 8. I picked the place I had a drink at last night, Biblioteka. I ended up with what closer to an American style hot chocolate, but it was still good. It was a dreary morning, around 34*, misting, and cloudy, the weather you think when you you think of Russia in March.

I then took a cab to the airport, which only took like 25 minutes, instead of the one plus hours I was told to expect. I got stamped out of Russia without an issue and now have 11 full pages and 9 empty ones with 6.5 years left on it.

Can you find Stockholm?

This was the only plane ride where the entire plane clapped when we landed. Did they know something that I didn’t?

I was at my hostel less than an hour after my plane landed. I then went to go to the Vasa Museum which is a warship built in 16??, that capsized 1km into its maiden voyage and in the 50s was raised, basically intact. It is a pretty impressive ship and with my limited time in Stockholm, the main thing I wanted to see. I was in a slightly grumpy mood by the time I got there because I couldn’t find a place to buy a public transit ticket until I was halfway there (most people get tickets via text message, not paper ones). I also stopped by the liquor store to see if they have mini bottles and while there I think a guy accused me of stealing and had me empty my pockets, it irritated me.

Bikes!!!! SPB had a few bikes, but I don’t think it is the safest city for riding them

You have to pay for most bathrooms in Stockholm. That means if you see a free one try to use it

I then walked around old town, but still wasn’t in the best of mood. My nose has been running nonstop for the past two days and just Sudafed wasn’t working so I took a Benadryl too and I think it made me drowsiest than I anticipated. I finally found a beer bar and on my second attempt going in a chair. A few beers and dinner cost me more than my three most expensive dinners in Russia combined. When I got back to the hostel it was a pretty hopping place, but I was tired and not feeling super social so I packed my bag and accidentally fell asleep around 930. I was staying in a four bed dorm and it was nice that two of the girls were already internetting in their bunks too. I did not have the most restful night sleep because I kept waking up to check what time it was to make sure I didn’t over sleep… Overall it wasn’t the best day in Stockholm, but Stockholm is a pretty cool city, just really expensive if you want to do anything.

Old town Stockholm

Dinner, Swedish meatballs

Beer list

Notice the amount of detail in the picture of the worker

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged arlanda express, backpacking, Russia, saint petersburg, st petersburg, stockholm, Sweden, Swedish beer, vasa museum | 1 Comment

Wandering Around Saint Petersburg

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Todd

A soviet building in SPB

Last night was an uneventful night after the hockey game. I got back around 11pm and tried to post a blog, but it got deleted when I was just about ready to submit it so I gave up and went to bed. Friday is my last day in SPB and is going to be a day around town. The only issue is that the sights I want to see are scattered around the city.

I started with quiche and hot chocolate for breakfast. This hot chocolate was really small and had two toasted marshmallows along with a glass of water. I drank some of it with a spoon. This style of hot chocolate and a croissant would be the best breakfast.

Yummy, yummy, yummy, the richest hot chocolate ever, you needed the spoon once it cooled down a tad

I then subwayed to the other side of “downtown” SPB and went to a monastery. This is different than most of the other churches I went to because it was an active church and I was the only tourist around. I then walked through some cemeteries the monastery is known for. I then decided to bag a palace I hear was really good because I had already been to four and started walking to the northeast part of downtown. Before I went I stopped at a grocery store and grabbed a yoghurt with roe in it. I almost threw up, it was disgusting, imagine all sweetness and tartness of yoghurt being replaced by salt and flavor pockets of very fishy roe. What a waste of 45r (62r=$1). I quickly recompiled myself and found the closest trash can and began my walk. The decor was a mix of old architecture mixed with soviet style buildings (replacing buildings destroyed in the siege).

I ended up at Smoly(sp) Institute, formerly a girls boarding school that was then the Bolshevik headquarters for a bit and is now the SPB seat of government. I then went to an impressive cathedral next door and walked up the bell towers which have a great view, enhanced by it being sunny for a second day in a row (please note the only two days I did not put on sunscreen).

Smoly Cathedral

Each class of kids playing has a different colored vest on

Small power plants dot the skyline. There are a ton of power plants located within the city

Typical intercity power plant

I then started the walk to the metro station and took a shortcut through a park. Spy movies always show people meeting in parks, that is stupid, they are all walled and gated and they try to trap you by hiding the exits, everyone of them, the worse place for spies to meet. There were a ton of mothers and grandmothers walking strollers around the parks. One thing is hey know how to dress kids warm, the strollers have an attic child bag and they all have snowsuits on.

Decked out to run in the muddy park

I went for the pastry option for lunch since I annex to grab an early dinner, 5pm, before the ballet. I was not sure where I was going at this point so I took the subway to the center and once I decided where I was last the connecting subway station so I walked across the river and saw a new island. I then went in the tower of St Isaac’s Cathedral (I had a ticket from another day but it was miserable out and I was cold and wet so I didn’t go up). It gave another good view of SPB.

I then went to the ballet. I have to admit I can’t tell the difference between a good ballet and a bad one. My stall had 7 older ladies in it including one behind me. I used my bad posture and leaning on he railing to try to become as small as possible. I did clean off some mud on my sneakers before I went!!!! The ballet was interesting, but I am glad I ended up at a shorter one, 1:40.

I then went to meet another couch surfer, Eva, for a drink. This meeting’s conversation seemed more “date like” then my previous meetings, but it was still an interesting conversation.

I would not like America if they gave is non alcoholic beer

I then went back to the hostel, are some chocolate and did a little research into what to do in my afternoon in Stockholm tomorrow.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged backpacking, Mariinsky, Russia, saint petersburg, smoly institute, st petersburg | Leave a comment

Adventures by Minibus and Hockey in Russia

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Todd

The back view of Catherine’s Palace

Thursday morning I was headed to Catherine’s Palace, a suburban summer palace 30km away. My journey got off to a rocky start when I got off at the wrong metro station and I realized that I forgot my hockey ticket so even if I am running late coming home I can just got straight to the game.

Minibus, not the right one…

I finally got to the right metro station and found a minibus (36r, 62r=$1) that is going to my destination. When I asked the driver if it went to where I was going I got the look in the states that is the “are you speaking Russian” look but in this case was the “are you speaking American” look. He let me off and pointed a direction. I ended up at a train station. I was a tad frustrated and to to it off since I was so far from my last wifi my phone’s GPS was saying I was 6 miles away, oops. I found a man at a bus stop and asked him by showing him the words of where I was going he did a set of definitive hand gestures and it got me started. I then showed it to a kid after 8 minutes walking and the eleven year old said follow me and then said go straight until the road ends and turn right, win. It only took me 2.5 hours instead of an hour to get there. I would associate it with user error.

There are impressive parks all around, but they are a lot less Impressive on the winter

Catherine’s Palace is huge and is in a town, Pushkin, that was occupied by the Germans. The palace was basically destroyed and then the interior rebuilt after the war. The main reason people come here is to see a room completely covered in amber, called the amber room. Normally in the summer individual tourists only have 2 short time slots they can visit and group tours have all the other tickets and during those times you get a guided tour. Since I am here on the off season, I can visit anytime during their opening hours and without a tour. It also means they don’t have maps, just an audio guide. It was a pretty sweet place, but it was nice having half the rooms to myself.

Park bey wen two palaces

I then contemplated lunch, but continuing with my theme or failing at lunch walked through a park to another palace. This one is not heavily touristed (read I was the only one in the entire palace and had about 14 women making sure I didn’t break any rules) and had unrestored rooms which were interesting to see.

Restored palace room

Unrestored palace room

I know had to try to find my way back to St Petersburg. Using my map app that still showed me miles away I saw what I thought was a church I saw on the way in and went there. I did stop and spend 20r on two fresh donuts, more like beignets, with powdered sugar. I then hopped on the same number van/minibus I used to get there. I navigated successfully and it was a short trip. At the hostel I talked to someone who attempted the same trip and he was “very tired” because he got lost and it took him two hours to get back from the palace.

All cops like McDonald’s

Instead of going straight back there was one more museum I really wanted to see and that was the Siege of Leningrad museum. When I got there a women who spoke 43 words of English took me under her wing, showing me the three windows to go to, took me to the cost room, told me to fix my hair because it was all jacked, and made sure to show me where the toilet was. I was only able to spend 1:45 there and could spent longer. When I grabbed my coat from the same lady she studied my number, even though my coat was the only one in the room.

I then regrouped in the hostel and went to a trendy place, Zoom, for dinner. I was hoping for a quick dinner, but alas I was a few minutes late getting to the playoff, potential series winning game between SKA and Torpedo (please note I translated that from Cyrillic myself). I have a front row seat where I have a sweet view of 1/2 the rink and a crappy view of the other side. The seats don’t come up to the glass in this arena. On your seat are two boom sticks and the atmosphere is pretty crazy. One end of the stadium is the fan club with flags and drums which leads the cheering. Fueling the crowd are $3 beers. I grabbed one along with a hat (700r, my first souvenir) during the second intermission. I did make it on the jumbotron as the most crazy fan (or the person sitting next to two women who were crazy fans, you pick). Almost all they songs they played to pump up the crowd were American songs. At the end of the game a bunch of boys came in front of me (read literally climbing in my lap) trying to high five the players and get sticks. It was an awesome 2 hours.

Hockey fans

A guy has blood everywhere so he gets a bag of ice

Kids in my lap at the end trying to high five players and get sticks

Posted in backpacking, saint petersburg, ska, st petersburg | 2 Comments