2 days, 3 nights, and 4 timezones

There's just something about a train. Seeing the world rush by at ground level is so much more real than the God's eye view you get flying.

60 hours on the Trans-Siberian took us from Moscow, through the Urals, the Siberian plains, and finally to Kemerovo, Olya's hometown. A first class ticket bought us a cabin to ourselves, and almost exclusive access to a the "toilet," which is best left in quotation marks and undefined. But the food was great (if you're into Mayo), we slept fine, read books and watched movies and passed the time.

The big towns we passed were unmemorable, but the view was lovely. We saw the great plains the Mongols used to terrorize, and beatiful black & white Birch forrests peppered with cute wooden dachas.

By the end we were tired and stinky, but hadn't killed each other - a testament to the strengh of our marriage! :)

    

    

- Piero

My first LOMO shots

Got my first roll back from the new LOMO camera. I like the vignetting effect it gives! A bit grainy, but I think that's due to the film I used... Or maybe that's just film in general! :)

    

Gothic Wonderland

In Moscow we've chosen to stay in one of the city's famous Seven Sister buildings. Built during the Soviet era, they were meant as 'cities within the city,' complete with groceries straight from the communal farms and residents ranging from average folks, to heroes of the revolution. After the fall of communism, the buildings were redone as standard apartments and hotels. Our building, the Hotel Ukraina, has been thoroughly remodeled. It's gothic and delicious. Despite some spotty service, we're both really enjoying it. And the views are spectacular!

    

Hello, Moscow!

The train to Moscow was modern and comfortable, but neither of us slept a wink. It's hard when you're shaking up and down, with snoring strangers in nearby bunks. We should do better on the trans-Siberian, since we're getting a cabin all to ourselves.

On the whole, we like Moscow better than St. Petersburg. Beyond the Kremlin, with its many beautiful medieval churches, the city has an urban, big-city feel. It reminds me a lot of Sao Paulo, with its gritty gray skyline and the bussle of cars and people. The best news is that the mullet epidemic hasn't spread this far south yet!

    

    

Goodbye St. Petersburg

It's not you baby, it's me. I mean these past few days have been fun, what with us exploring the Peter & Paul fortress together, and watching ballet at the Mariinski. (tutus! tutus!) But we both know it's time we go our own ways. Meet new cities, have new experiences. But don't worry about me, baby, Moscow has been calling to comfort me on the phone. I think I'll go down and stay with her for a while, but I'll call you, okay?

        

Hunting the LOMO

After days of stalking through St. Petersburg camera shops, we finally tracked down an elusive LOMO camera, lurking in a stall by the church of the spilled blood.

The LOMO is a rugged, simple-but-reliable Russian camera from the 80s, that is enjoying a revival amongst photographers. It's built like a tank, oozes personality, and takes quirky, strongly vignetteted pictures.

After a little haggling by Olya, it's finally in my cold, grubby hands!

    

Humans are overrated

I mean they're nice and all, on a one-on-one basis. But get two million of them dressed in cheap-but-oh-so-revealing Chinese clothes, bake them in the sun for a several hours, then cram them all into the same park and you'll get an idea for what it's like to visit the Peterhof in the summer.

The Peterhof is Peter the Great's answer to Versailles, and is even more wild and ostentatious, if you can imagine. The real challenge was taking some photos without huge crowds in them!

        

To the Hermitage!

Finally, the Hermitage! The mother of all museums, the Hermitage delivers. The collection is wonderful, but the real attraction is the palace itself. Opulent chambers in every style, gilded roofs, rooms made entirely of malachite. We took in as much as we could before our feet gave out, and of course we only scratched the surface. We'll need another full day if we can work up the courage.

    

    

Breaking the Law

All major Russian venues have an official "full price," and a "special price" reserved for Russian citizens, typically a third as much. Olya gets all nervous, but she's been smuggling me in places as a Russian! I just nod and say "Szdrasvoytie." At one point the Law confronted me in Russian, but before I could bumble it, Olya jumped in and saved the day, cool as a cucumber.

Invasion of the Euro-Mullets

As civilized people, we know it can be shocking to travel the world and encounter primitive cultural rituals. But nothing could prepare us for the barbarity of the euro-mullets. All over Europe we've encountered this horrible display of hair-itude. What's worse is that the brutal mulletizing ritual is often performed on innocent women and children. Oh the humanity!

Back in the USSR

Well, Russia anyway. And technically it's my first time. But anyway... We arrived this morning in St. Petersburg. Our first experience was a bit rough. To save the $80 cab fare we schlepped our ginourmous bag to our hotel in buses and crowded metros. And the hotel itself was quite a shock. A buzzer let us into a dank, abandoned looking, smelly hallway. But then up a flight of stairs, through a thick metal door, and voila! Into our spare but clean "mini hotel."

From there, to the streets! St. Petersburg hits you with crowds of poeple, gorgeous, colorful buildings, and skankily dressed women. (Is that a word? It should be.) The main passtime seems to be walking up and and down Nevsky Prospect, which we did, until we got to the unbelievably picturesque "Church of the Spilled Blood." Here she is:

Music to kill by

Went to see "Play! A videogame symphony," at the Stockholm concert hall. Turns out performing classical arragements of famous video game music is a great way to get lonely, pimply geeks out to the symphony...yay!

I kid, but actually it was tremendously entertaining. They had all the classics, like Final Fantasy, Mario Bros, Battlefield (our favorite) and Halo (a bit flat.) And during the performances they would show brief clips from the game, to great applase from the euro-nerds. We definitely got our money's worth.

The Vasa Shipwreck

What a sight! We knew the Vasa shipwreck was a "don't miss" stop in Stockholm, but we were still unprepared for how magnificient she truly is.

Built in 1628, she set to sea on her maiden voyage, and proceeded to immediately sink in front of all the spectators and dignitaries, taking 50 sailors with her to the ocean bottom.

In 1961 the Swedes lifted it and restored it. She had been under water for 333 years. She is now the world's only surviving 17th-century ship, and is proudly displayed in a beatiful museum built all around her. Read more

More than any museum, the Vasa display really brought the past to life for us.

    

The feet.. the feet... the feet are on fire!

One full day of walking around Stockholm and our feet are in agony. We are pathetic computer-bred worms. Two months of this will either kill us, or make us stronger. My money is on "kill us."

On the upside we've been jogging every couple of days, which is a really fun way to explore new cities, and burn off all the herring.

    


             

The King & Queen of Sweden

Had to do it.

The Kingdom of Glass

Ever wondered where all that IKEA stuff comes from? The entire country is basically an advertisement for Swedish Design, which would be fine if we didn't mentally associate it with cheaply made furniture with one-too-many-dowels per box.

The same is true for the Kingdom of Glass, Sweden's famed glassblowing region. We visited Kostas, Orrefurs, and other well known houses. To be honest we found the presentation a little Disney, and the work a little IKEA. Kostas actually had gazeebo'ed brass band entertaining the tourists. :p

To be fair we saw some pretty original work here and there, and the quality of the glass and crystal is top-notch. Maybe we're just jaded like that...

    

- Piero

The Agony of Defeat

...or at least of a tying with little Trinidad 0-0. Go Trinidad!

What's up with all the bugs, anyway?

Hit the road today, headed for Vaxjo and the Kingdom of Glass. The road is stunning, and Sweden in the summer is even greener than Seattle. But it's also buggier. I mean WAY buggier. There's a crust of dead bugs half an inch think on our headlights and windshield. If we're ever in a car crash out here, the forensic team will be able to determine how long we've been driving by measuring the bug depth. Ewww... I'll spare you the picture and instead share the joy of the open road.

Rune to the rescue

Today we met Rune Svensson, a Gothenburg native. And not just any native! Rune used to be the head of Volvo's logistics group. His love for his city was evident as he drove us around and proudly showed us the sights.

Rune took us to Volvo headquarters where we saw the engineers lounging around a beatiful park and bay. Turns out the bay was Rune's project, and it really adds life to an otherwise bleak industrial landscape.

And at the tip of the park is a white lighthouse named... you guessed it... Rune Lighthouse. How cool is that?

- Piero

Volvo is in da house!

This morning we went to the European Delivery Center and picked up our spankin' new V50. It's sweet! Olya is very happy as you can see:

    

I say "our Volvo" but technically it's Olya's. Well at least for I get to drive it because Europe is scary and I am very manly. It's true, here's proof:



After getting our car we took a tour of the Volvo factory. Robots with laser beams. Friggin' awesome. No photos allowed tho so I'm bit bummed.

Back in town we explored Gothenburg some more...

    

- Piero

Now this is what I'm talking about!

Just arrived in Gothenburg, Sweden. Jet-lagged as hell. Could barely keep our eyes open as we stumbled into a little local restaurant. And POW! here comes an amazing meal of smoked fish. I think we're going to like Sweden.

   
        Smoked Salmon                                         Fish Soup

Just days away now!

We're getting more and more excited about our sabbatical! We leave Seattle on Tuesday and we're furiously packing and preparing for our big adventure. Two months abroad!! This is our first major trip since our wedding last September. And now, two months in Europe & Russia. What a journey! Our plan:

Sweden

• Fly to Sweden, and pick up a new Volvo in Gothenburg. We're doing the European delivery thing, and the sales person kept telling us "you'll feel like the King and Queen of Sweden!" He was such a sleazeball by the third time he said that I wanted to throttle him, but the deal with Volvo is simply unbeatable. We'll save $7k by picking our new car out in Europe and having it delivered to the US later.
• In Gothenburg we'll meet up with Rune Svensson, a friend of a friend who has generously offered to show us around town. We spoke with him on the phone, and he was so incredibly friendly and welcoming.
• From Gothenburg we take a three day road trip across central Sweden. Should be fun taking the V50 out for a spin! We're not sure where to stay or what to see yet (ideas welcome.) And then onto Stockholm, where we'll spend a few days exploring and stuffing ourselves with herring.

Russia

• St. Petersburg! We start our trip in Russia's old capital on the Baltic Sea. This is my first trip to Russia and I'm really excited to see it! It will be the second commie country I visit in under 6 months; I'm going for a record! The stamps look cool in my passport anyway. ;) St. Petersburg should be awesome. Walter tells me it's really fun. I'm psyched for the Peterhof and learning more about Russian history and culture.
• Onto Moscow! We're taking an overnight train from St. Petersburg. Olya keeps trying to scare me about Moscow. From the sound of it I'll be pickpocketted while still in the train station. Then on the way to the airport, the cabbie will swindle me and take me for a ride. I'll be beaten and mugged in the hotel lobby. And of course I should not really set foot in the beautiful metro stations, I'm not man enough to survive that.
• From Moscow we take the trans-Siberian to Olya's hometown of Kemerovo, in central Siberia. We're both super psyched about the long train ride! The trains are really beautiful and we're traveling first class, so not really roughing it. It's 3 nights and 2 days, and they have a dining cart and showers and everything. I hope to take some great pictures along the way, though the train hardly ever stops...
• In Kemerovo we're meeting up with Olya's brother Oleg, who was so nice to us at our wedding. I'm psyched to see where Olya comes from, and get to know Oleg a bit better.

England

• After Russia we fly back to London, where we'll stay with my sister and her family. We'll probably need a break from the travel and the trains and all the exploring. So we'll take it easy and just hang out with friends. Hopefully we can hook up with Gautam & Radhika and have a good time. Our main goal there will be to eat amazing Indian food!

France

• Finally we get to Paris, our main destination! We're staying in Naim's parents' place, which is small but centrally located. It's right by l'Eglise de la Madeleine and la Place de l'Opera. We have a whole month in Paris to just enjoy life and decompress. Croissants shall be eaten and museums explored.
• From Paris we're going to take a 3 day weekend in Normandy with my old friend Nadine, and her boyfriend Pierre. I'm so excited to get in touch with her again, I haven't seen her since she lived in Seattle 6 or 7 years ago! And I hope we get to see the WWII beaches and memorials. Dad tells me they're incredibly moving.
• One of our main goals while in France is to hire a pretty model to pose with some of Olya's knitwear designs. She has some great stuff queued up for her new business, Knitizen.com. It's my first time trying to photograph a model though, so I'm unsure how it works. I'm reading up about it, and I bought a light reflector shield and a good flash. But I still worry I'll feel mildly ridiculous asking our girl to "work it" in French. :)

Well, that's the plan so far. It's such an amazing trip it's hard to believe it's happening. We both feel really really lucky to have this opportunity. It's going to be hard to be away from friends and work for so long!

- Piero