Utah - Maob-ulous

Always up for an adventure (in case you're wondering, I like to travel), it didn't take much to for Jenni to convince me to spend Memorial Day weekend in Moab, Utah. You might be asking yourself, why Utah? or better yet, why Moab? or even where's Moab? Well, for me, it was the location suggested and planned out by Jenni. For her, who ever really knows...

We flew in to Salt Lake City on Friday night and spent the night a few blocks away from the Mormon Temple in downtown SLC. In order to feel like spending the night in SLC was worth our time, we did a Temple drive-by in the morning before embarking on our 4 hour drive to Moab in the south eastern part of the state.

We headed straight to Canyonlands National Park. First stop was the visitor center where Jenni found out what we should see and I learned the difference between a mesa and a butte. Since I'm sure you all are dying to know, I'll fill you in... a mesa is wider than it is tall and a butte is taller than it is wide. I taught Jenni my new factoid and then persisted to test her on this throughout the weekend (I'm hoping she'll forgive me for this soon).

How do I describe Canyonlands? Well there are a lot of canyons filled with... mesas and buttes. We drove around and did a few short hikes to see all the sites that Canyonlands had to offer. Apparently, the guides in the visitor center suggested the same itinerary to just about everyone that asked because we saw the same people at every stop.

On Sunday, Jenni and I tried our hands at mountain biking. While I do in fact own a mountain bike, it has never been ridden on a mountain... or even off road. The one and only time I went mountain biking (about 12 years ago) I can't say I really enjoyed it all that much so I have to admit that I was a bit nervous. My anxiety increased when we met up with the rest of the group and I was the only one with essentially no mountain biking experience. When Jack (a 65 year old retired doctor) started making his bike bounce as if on a trampoline, I was about ready to turn around and head back to the hotel. However, once we got going, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was enjoying myself. This is not to say that I wasn't afraid for my life everytime a rock stood in the route, but I did think about actually taking my own bike off road (maybe). The hardest thing was just watching where I was going because the scenery was so beautiful that you could easily find your eyes and mind wandering. Fortunately, our guide, Brian, gave us ample time to stop and take pictures.

Monday morning we decided to start the day with a hearty breakfast before heading to Arches National Park. Unfortunately we chose poorly. We went to a coffee shop that served bland, dry bagels (me) and chocolate oatmeal (Jenni). It was really the lure of the chocolate oatmeal that made Jenni want to go there but it turns out that it is just really dry oatmeal mixed with chocolate syrup. I think Jenni would agree that it was not the highlight of the trip. But it did give us the energy we needed for a couple of hikes to see some of the most spectacular naturally occurring arches we've ever seen. I think we were both disappointed when it was time to head back to Salt Lake City for our return flight home.

Russia - Random Tips & Observances

I just got back home and have somehow found some energy to write one last blog entry. Jenny and I made note of quite a few tips and other things that just seemed to stand out but never seemed to make it into another entry so here they are for your reading pleasure.

1. I've often heard the phrase blue-haired old ladies but I've never really seen an old lady with blue hair. Here in Russia, they have purple-haired old ladies and they actually have purple hair. The first time I saw this I figured it was a fluke but quickly learned that this is a respected style.

2. Both the Lonely Planet and Frommer's are out of date. For example, Lonely Planet mentions that there are a plethora of internet cafes, but after going seeking out two in Jenny's book and four in mine, we found all but one has closed. The St. Petersburg in Your Pocket guide that we got at the hotel proved much more useful than either guide.

3. It is in your best interest to not only look both ways before crossing the street, but to run while doing so. Cars tend to speed up when they see you.

4. Near the Kremlin in Moscow it costs 15 rbls. to use the porta-potty. I recommend walking a block and using the bathroom at the Ritz Carlton for free. It much more pleasant and had running water.

5. In search of a quick, tasty bite to eat? Jenny's favorite (and I liked it too) is Tepemok. They serve up a tasty bliny (pancake) filled with your choice of savory or sweet fillings. Best yet, they are cheap and reliable. Yum yum good.

6. Women really like their nylon s here in Russia. I'm not sure I've seen a single girl over the age 12 go bare-legged. Whether they are wearing a skirt, shorts or capri pants one thing is certain, they will have on nylons.

7. Before going to Russia I highly recommend learning the Cyrillic alphabet. This will be pretty easy for those of you that were in a Sorority or Fraternity or studied math or engineering as it seems to be a hybrid between the Roman and Greek alphabets. Not only is it fun to try and read signs while wandering the streets, it becomes extremely important in trying to find the restaurants listed in guidebooks or read the maps they provide since they always translate everything phonetically into English. Unfortunately, restaurants and street signs don't always do this. You will also find quite a lot of English words are used by translating into Russian... for example finding and internet cafe requires you to look for "ИНТЕΡΗΕΤ ΚΑФЕ".

8. Watch your step while walking in Russia. Men spit quite a lot here. Perhaps it is all the dust in the air from all the construction.

9. Book your trains before heading to Russia. Not all holidays are posted in the Lonely Planet and trying to get a last minute ticket on a holiday weekend can prove difficult and costly.

10. For women in Russia, it is definitely fashion before function. Almost every woman you see is wearing extremely high heals everywhere. I'm not just referring to going to work, we saw them in museums, parks, shopping centers, etc.

11. The sidewalks are extremely uneven (making the women wearing high heals even more impressive). I think Jenny and I each tripped a dozen times a day due to this. Hopefully when they finish reconstructing all the buildings, they will start working on the roads and sidewalks.

12. Man-purses never really took off in the US but nearly every guy here (ok, maybe only 10 %) carries one with pride. I'm not talking about briefcases or camera cases either, these are truly man-purses.

13. I look Russian... and so does Jenny. At least all the people that attempted to ask us questions on the street seemed to think so. We would just stare blanking at them and smile and they usually got the hint. When that wouldn't work, we'd add in a shrug.

14. Vodka might be the drink most associated with Russia, but beer is the people's drink. No matter what time of day, you will see men (and sometime women) walking down the street, beer in hand. Sometimes a beer in each hand.

15. If you don't like beer, you can buy a can of Gin & Tonic. I never actually saw anyone drinking this (although we did see an empty can next to a guy passed out on the metro) but billboards were everywhere.

16. I highly recommend showering in the evenings. Some of you may prefer morning showers, but by the end of your first day walking around Russia, you will most likely convert. By the end of the day we were always covered in dust (did I mention there is a lot of construction here?) and smelling of smoke (everyone smokes in Russia) and I can't recommend lying down in clean sheets like that.

17. Bring a big memory stick for you camera because they allow you take pictures everywhere. For an extra couple of rubles, you can take pics inside museums and palaces, even at the ballet during the performance. They only seem to forbid tripods.

18. They sell the oddest things on the trains to the suburbs. If you are looking for band-aids, needles, passport covers or socks, look no further than the suburbs train.

19. "Meat" is good. I recommend the "meat" bliny (pancakes), "meat" pelmini (dumplings), and "meat" pies. This mysterious "meat" can be found in just about anything and tastes delicious.

20. These are a few of my favorite road signs for your enjoyment.

Russia - No Hydrofoil for Us

The ballet, Cinderella, was not what I expected. This is not to say that I didn't enjoy it, I just expected a more-classic version since we were seeing it at the Mariinsky Theater. Instead of the mice, Jaques and Gus, this Cinderella was guided by the four season (not the singing group, but rather winter, spring, summer and fall). The theater itself, was a bit run down, but at least this time we were able to see the prince find his princess at the end.

Ever since my cousin Jason sent me a list of must-sees in Russia, I've been looking forward to taking the hydrofoil to Petrodovets (aka Peterhof) . In fact, I've been wondering exactly what a hydrofoil was. Unfortunately for us, the hydrofoils don't start going to Peterhof until next week. I guess we beat tourist season by a week. We spent the next hour or so trying to find another way to Peterhof. Jenny's guidebook indicated that there are a lot of buses that will take you from the main street for about $20. But all we could find were tours that ran 1,800 rbls. (~$85) in english or 1,300 rbls. (~$60) in Russian. So we continued on to the Baltisky train station to take a suburban train. Turns out the only train wasn't scheduled to leave until 4:00, but there were supposed to be buses and Marshrutkas (mini-vans). After a little searching we found the right marshrutka and it only cost 100 rbls total (~$2 each). A much better deal, although, we were never confident that we were on the right marshrutka until we pulled up in front of the palace.

The palace at Peterhof is quite amazing. It is surronded by golden fountains (unfortunately they don't start running until May 31st) and is situated on the coast of the Gulf of Finland. I looked for Finland, but I couldn't see quite that far. The park surrounding the palace was quite nice as well if it weren't for all the little bugs. I didn't see them, but they saw me and had a feast.

Today we went to Catherine's Palace in the town of Pushkin. This time we were able to find and take a suburban train. The train trip itself, made the day worthwhile. People came on to sell us bandaids, needles and socks and a gentleman sat next to us and played the accordian. Jenny made friends with the Russian woman sitting across from her. She gave Jenny a coin and pointed out sights through the window. Too bad we don't speak Russian and had no idea what she was showing us. She tried to find it in Jenny's tour book, but it wasn't listed so I guess we'll never know what she so badly wanted Jenny to see. At least she was able to tell us when to get off because we never would have figured this out on our own.

We walked to Catherine's Palace from the train station and were pleasantly surpised by how short the line to get in was. That is, until we realized that this was just the line to get into the park. The line for the palace was quite a bit longer. In fact, we had to wait well over an hour and just made it in before the cutoff (they only let individuals in from 12:00 to 2:00, after that it is reserved for tours). The palace was much like all of the others we've seen with the exception of the amber room. This is a room where all of the walls are lined with amber stone. Although it is the only room that you are not allowed to take pictures in, they did nothing to stop Jenny from photographing from just outside.

After making our way through the palace, we meandered through the park for a while. We saw the pyramid where Catherine the Great buried her favorite dogs... what she did with the others is anyones guess.

We made a quick stop at Pavlovsk before returning to St. Petersburg. Pavlovsk is another park & palace about 4 km further south. It is supposedly one of the most exquisitely landscaped parks in all of Russia, but I hope this is not true. There was nothing "landscaped" about it. They seemed to just cut down a bunch of trees to make a path.

In a few hours we will head back to Moscow and then back home. I will try to write one more time, but just in case, thanks for reading.

Russia - Happy International Labour Day!

We have been having a hard time finding inexpensive train tickets for our return trip to Moscow because of the holiday. We kept asking the consierge which holiday, but she didn't know. Lonely Planet mentions Victory Day on May 9th, but nothing on May 1st, but according the section on Belarus it is International Labour Day. I'm guessing that Russia must celebrate this too since they are a nation. The real question is, why don't we get this day off in the States? We're a nation too, right?

We had to go to the train station to purchase train tickets for Saturday night since the ticket center that the consierge uses is closed today for the holiday. She wrote down the information that we needed, but without the help of a friendly Russian, we would have failed for sure. Even with her help, we ended up on the slowest overnight train (12 hours) arriving in Moscow at 2:00 PM. It was either this or pay 12,000 Rubles each for an 8 hour train. At least, we will get to see some of the country-side during the ride.

After our adventure at the train station, we took the metro to Vasilesvsky Island. This is just across the Neva river from the Historic District of St. Petersburg. We walked through the Menshikov Palace which is free the first Thursday fo the month and attempted, against Tracy and Andy's advice, to go to the Museum of Anthropology & Ethnography. The attempt failed because the museum was closed for the holiday.

We walked around the tip of the island and made our way to the Peter & Paul Fortress. There is a small beach there and much of the town was sunbathing along the river, including men that really shouldn't be wearing speedos and women that really shouldn't be wearing bikinis. Once inside the fortress it was really no surprise to find it under construction. We were still able to go inside the Cathedral, which was fabulous in all it's golden glory.

After leaving the fortress we walked across a few bridges and found ourselves near the entrance to the Summer Garden and this time it was open, and there were May flowers. The Summer Palace isn't really that impressive, especially after the last few palaces that we've seen, but we took pictures all the same.

We had a delicious lunch of Georgian dumplings (something between a ravioli and a pot sticker) and are currently killing some time until our scheduled evening entertainment. We will be taking in the ballet Cinderella at the Mariinsky Theater.

Russia - St. Petersburg is Under Construction

It is day two in St. Pete's and one thing is becoming very obvious... the entire city is under construction. We started off the day at the Russian Museum. It took us a few minutes to find the entrance since the entire front of the building is covered in scaffolding. We did find our way inside but were escorted throughout the building by the sounds of chisels and hammers. The museum itself was fairly nice, but I think at this point I've seen all I can take of Russian artists of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries for this trip.

After leaving the museum, we made our way towards the Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood. This looked a lot like St. Basil's in Moscow and we regulary called it St. Basil's 2 for simplicity. The gruesome name is based on the fact that this is the spot where Czar Alexander II was murdered. Unfortunately the church was closed as many sights seem to be on Wednesdays in St. Pete's, so we settled for some pics of the outside and moved on.

Our next stop was the Summer Gardern and Summer Palace. However, these were closed as well, not because it is Wednesday, but rather because it is April. Apparently they are waiting for the May flowers to come in before re-opening to the public. Perhaps we'll try again tomorrow.