A seven day train ride across Siberia

We are getting ready to board the Trans-Siberian express in 2 hours. We are not sure if we will have internet anywhere along the way, but we do stop in three days for a two day  break. So, this could possibly be our last post until Monday! One thing to note.. we have stocked up on the necessary provisions!! 

A day in Vladivostok, Russia

We started the day conversing with a very nice guy who is in training to be the hotel operations director at our hotel...named Ruslan Kior, who was enjoying practicing his english skills with us.  He is a member of an english club here and also belongs to the local Toastmaster's club.  We were trying to arrange a guided walking tour of the city but  since we are out of tourist season, none were available. But, he pointed out some interesting attractions for us to see so we headed out on our own.  The first stop along the way however, was to get proof of the hotel that we originally booked.  We still couldn't believe our eyes and wanted to make sure it was as horrific as we thought.  Yep, it was. We were told that it USED to be a 5 star but now a 3 star hotel. Look at this piece of crap....

We walked along the pedestrian path down to the sea.  Many stops along the way with great opportunities for picture taking.

These guys were doing a photo shoot for a coffee machine. 

Obviously this place is hopping in the summer.  There are plenty of food and knick-knack vendors, this one was selling Russian Nesting dolls. 

Russian Nesting Doll   Want to know the heritage of these dolls? Click here.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matryoshka_doll

There is also a beach but from the looks of the lifeguard chair not sure we would be jumping in for a swim anytime soon.  Most of the area was closed today but we enjoyed the walk nonetheless.  One of the most unique cafes was the Coffee Bus.  We think every town should have one these! 

Pictures from the Harbor Walk

Next stop on our walking tour was the Vladivostok Fortress. This battery was constructed in 1880. Being the eastern seaport for the whole of Russia, this city was strategically important for incoming shipments from other countries. If it ever fell into enemy hands, it could choke off the entire country. Thus, Russia has always seen the need to defend it and that's why this fort was originally built.  Of course it is non operational today. This city was actually closed to tourists up until 1991 because it was the home port for the Russian navy's pacific fleet.  

While we were scoping out where we were going to eat dinner, we came across this beautiful  Russian orthodox church. It is the Temple St. Blessed Prince Igor of Chernigov.  There was a young woman inside praying and she was actually weeping.  Andrea just wanted to give her a hug. 😥

Not too far from the church was a long shopping promenade.  Lots of clothing boutiques, electronics, beauty supplies, some pubs and...............a 

Panda out for a stroll.

We came back to the hotel to rest up before dinner and found this note on our desk.  

This requires an explanation:

The Trans-Siberian railroad that we are catching tomorrow, operates throughout the system on Moscow time. Problem is, there are SEVEN time zones that the train travels through so that wherever  one is, the station clock time, all arrival times and all departure times will be expressed in Moscow time regardless of the local, real time. During the planning of this trip, Bill had a hell of a time synchronizing the times for hotel stays, transfer pickups, etc. between the "real" time and Moscow time but was pretty confident he had it nailed down. Knowing that our train left at 7:10 p.m. Vladivostok time tomorrow evening, we just wanted to be triple-sure that we had the departure time correct so we asked our buddy Ruslan at the front desk to confirm the time. His response: Train leaves at 12:10 p.m. Thus ensued a debate on when, amongst a span of seven hours, does this train actually leave. Finally, he suggested we go on our walk and he'd make some inquiries and let us know. When we returned to our room later on, this letter was there. Bill was pretty proud that all along...he'd out-analyzed the locals on the matter and that indeed...the train left at 7:10 p.m.

We ended the evening with one of our best dinner meals yet.  Well, to be honest, its been our only dinner since Sunday when we ate on the plane.  After a brief beer stop at the Russian version of the Munich Hofbrauhaus, 

We headed over to a recommended restaurant called Supra for typical Georgian style fare.   We ordered a lot of items that mostly involved bread and lamb.  Here is one of the first breads we ordered. It looked like a weapon!

 

The second bread which we think was desert,  involved stirring a raw egg with some cheese; it made a paste that you dipped the bread  into.  

Of course all of this went well with a good red wine pairing! 

Overall, it was the best DINNER yet!  Tomorrow: Prepare for the Trans-Siberian!

Into the Land of Incomprehension: Post for Wednesday 4/26

After slowly getting acclimated to the extreme jet lag, we awoke on our last day in Seoul ready to move north to the real first segment of our four segment journey around the world...Vladivostok, Russia. Also very hungry. Seems that we never got around to eating dinner the night before because of the jammed-packed itinerary into downtown Seoul. We have a 1 p.m. departure on Aeroflot so we decided to get on over to Incheon International Airport early in quest of a big ol' sausage-biscuit. Not.

 There were a few U.S. fast-food places at the airport but the menus were customized to the Koreans...meaning no sausage-biscuits. Accordingly, we settled for platters of gravy-covered cutlets, rice, soup and bibimbap with an egg on top. Pretty damned good. Here is some of it before we devoured it:

Got to the gate with no problem after spending our last 5000 Won on three Dunkin' Donuts...also devoured...and got our first taste of the Russian style of customer service. Rather than a courteous overhead announcement of the boarding procedures, a lady stood in the middle of the gate area and yelled "get in line to get on the plane". Two hour flight north to Vladivostok across the Sea of Japan but well east of North Korea. We tried to get a glimpse of North Korea to the west of our plane and may have seen a few mountain peaks but frankly, we were glad to get away from the Korean peninsula in light of the tinderbox situation there.

We had arranged and prepaid a pickup at the Vladivostok International airport for the fifty minute ride into the city. Upon exiting the customs clearing area, there he was holding a sign with our names. Big Russian dude with Micheal Jackson sunglasses who spoke no english and driving a clunker but hey, it worked. Speaking of the airport...it was a real head-scratcher why they put the airport so far away from the city with nothing but flat, gray, frozen tundra in between. Here's the Airport as we pulled into the gate:

After a hair-raising drive into the city during rush hour, we pulled up to the most awful looking building we've ever seen...looked like mortar shells had been hitting the concrete exterior for the last few years and old, dead vines enveloping the building. Bill knew it was the right place from the internet pictures (enhanced, obviously). After lugging all our luggage to the reception area, the nice, young Russian lady informed us that we no longer had a room there but alas, we had been moved to their "sister" hotel...much nicer and only a few minutes away by foot...up the hill. We protested that there was no way we were going to walk there with all our stuff so a taxi was called and after much Russian conversation with the driver about who was going to pay, off we went. By the way, as we left the lobby the nice young Russian lady yelled to us in her best broken english and laughing: "Welcome to Russia"!!  Alrighty then. No clue why there was a problem with the room but we're not complaining...nor trying to understand it.

All's well that ends well...as the "sister hotel" was MUCH nicer, an upscale Russian chain and according to the nice young Russian lady at the new hotel..."we give you nicest room in the hotel".
Certainly not as new or modern as the Seoul quarters, but a nice suite with a fabulous view of sunset over Amur Bay, backwaters of the Sea of Japan.

We bought four big beers in the lobby bar and settled into our room for the night. We decided to forgo dinner since we did not want to be wandering around this strange city at night searching for a place to eat. So, tomorrow we'll venture out and see what Vladivostok has to offer. Goodnight, comrades.

This is an odd post but we couldn't leave this hotel without sharing.

This is the panel to operate the commode! Controls for the temp for the heated seat, the spray force of the bidet,  the spray force of the pulsating cleaner, water temp and directional spray controls, a dryer mode, deodorizer, cleaning air bubbles, it even has a senior mode! Not sure what that means, maybe it propels you off the seat when you've finished your business!! Of course it automatically flushes too. What will they think of next!!

Mastering the transportation system in Seoul.

After a great night of sleep and no affects of jet lag we set out to tour Seoul. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt at the airport so it was easy to catch the train located in the station at the airport. We took the  high speed non stop train and it felt like we were moving at warp speed. Fast and right on time! This is the train arriving into the station.

It was 45 minutes into Seoul from the airport. We enjoyed free wifi and very comfortable seats! 

Getting out of the train station and to our first stop, the bus station, was a bit of a challenge. Signs are in English as well as in Korean but very difficult to understand. After quite a hike and a little frustration we finally made it out of the station. This is the scene when we came out of the train station.  

 Our first order of business; taking a bus tour of the city to see the highlights. We had envisioned an open air type bus with someone  narrating on a loud microphone. You know, like every other big tourist city has. But this bus was enclosed with each seat having headsets. While it was somewhat interesting, we would not do it again. There was a lot of stop and go and unless you got off every stop you didn't see much.

Bill reviewing the route map.

Thrilled on the bus tour!

Seoul's version of a food truck......

We opted for a big bowl of noodles and a beer at a local shop. 

A stop along the way was  the Seoul tower.  We did not get off the bus to tour but it is a national landmark and built on the highest point in Seoul.  Supposedly, it has breathtaking views.  The grounds were covered in blossoming azaleas. 

Next stop, the Changgyeonggung Palace.  This palace was built in the 1400's to serve primarily as a residence for elders of the royal family to live.  For more on the palace, follow this link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changgyeonggung

These two beauties took a selfie with us and we  just had to take their picture.  A lot of people were dressed in costume to tour the palace.  Who knew that was a tradition, sorry we didn't know about that! 

Of course we couldn't go to Seoul without a visit to the Hard Rock Cafe for Andrea to purchase a pin to add to her collection.  

The pin

By this time we also needed a cold beer! 

The Hard Rock is located adjacent to the 123-story Lotte World Tower.  It is 1821 feet tall and is the worlds 5th largest building and the tallest in Korea.  It was just completed in December of 2016 and just opened to the public in April 2017. 

For all you kiddos following this blog, the park outside the tower had the biggest lego land we've ever seen.  There were some really cool designs and it is  free to the public. 

After a very long day, we got back on the train and headed back to the hotel.  Seoul was a very interesting, very populated and a very clean city.  There is no trash and no smoking anywhere (there are special smoking booths located on the street corners for people to smoke in).  Everyone is also very helpful and we felt very welcome.  It was a quick tour and we are glad we took the time to spend a day here. 

As a side note:  While reading this blog, double click on any picture you want to enlarge. 

Greetings from Seoul.

At 4pm Sunday EST aboard this Boeing 747 we departed  Detroit, Michigan; destination Seoul,  Korea. Our seats were on the upper deck.










Here are some flight stats:   It took us 25 1/2 hours to get here from the moment we left Atlanta until we landed in Seoul.

The 747 first class accommodations or should we say mini suites were very comfortable. The seats reclined into a bed and we both had our own private compartment.

Appetizer plate 

Dinner

We had a great meal of typical Korean fare which included lobster, eel, caviar and some items  we have no idea of what they were, tasty, but questionable! Andrea did not eat the seaweed soup. 🤢



It was a great flight and the Korean people are so polite and very welcoming.  Just for a frame of reference , it is currently 10pm Seoul time, 9am Atlanta time.  Jet lag is setting in. Looking forward to our city tour tomorrow. Good night! 😴 

AND We're off!

Our scheduled LYFT driver arrived right on time at 5am and whisked us away to the airport with ease. After a brief encounter with security (Bill was questioning their procedures) we made it to our gate in plenty of time and left a stormy Atlanta for a short flight to Detroit.

 A little bumpy along the way but once we got pass the rolling storm clouds it was smooth sailing. Now, it's just a waiting game. Only six hours of sitting in the Delta Crown until our Boeing747 takes off. Thank goodness for complimentary 🍷 and 🍺 and  🍹 and good eats in the Delta Crown Room. See you in Seoul!