Red Square madness

Red Square isn't exactly a quiet place, but it was all action there yesterday. I wasn't sure what to expect really, but I definitely was not expecting a big sports showcase complete with music being blasted from speakers and what appeared to be a military band. Basketball, tennis, volleyball, wrestling, and gymnastics were all on display. There was even a timed sprint competition that anyone could enter. I knew I wasn't in New Zealand when I saw the line of people waiting for their turn had about 50 people in it!

We joined a free tour starting from Kitay Gorod which made its way to Red Square. The tour was brilliant and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Moscow.

We met the group at the monument to Cyril and Methodius, who were apparently the founding fathers of the Cyrillic alphabet. The wreaths at the bottom of the monument were laid there as part of Slavonic Literature and Culture Day, which was held just over a week ago.

Churches and cathedrals were often paid for by individuals and as the story goes, the greater the sin, the bigger and fancier the church you have to build in order for those sins to be forgiven. And so Ivan the Terrible built St Basil's Cathedral.

The interior of the cathedral is incredibly breathtaking. When you look up at the ceiling, the combination of dizzying heights and bright colours leaves you speechless and feeling humbled to be in such a beautiful place.

Lenin's mausoleum recently reopened after being closed for several months due to repairs. We didn't manage to visit the mausoleum because of the crowd and the limited opening hours, but I will definitely get there before my time in Moscow is up.

The Russian State Historical Museum is on Red Square. In a giant red building that you just can't miss. The collection on display is extensive and while not as glamourous as the Fabergé eggs at the Armoury (more on that another time), it is definitely worth a visit.

My highlight was this giant globe from the late 17th century, which only showed about a quarter of the North Island.

A trip to Red Square wouldn't be complete without a trip to GUM, the most luxurious and over the top shopping mall I have ever seen. Unless it is coffee or ice cream, there isn't much I can afford in there. There's nothing wrong with window shopping though, especially when the architecture (both inside and outside) is as beautiful as it is.

Wontons and Bruce Lee

Nothing can really prepare you for stifling humidity and 30 degree heat when you’ve just come from Wellington where the high has been less than half of that. Nevertheless, we had a day in Hong Kong and we were going to make good use of it!

Being on the11.59pm flight out of Auckland and having my amazing travel pillow on hand, I managed to get what vaguely resembled a decent night’s sleep.

We caught the airport train to Hong Kong Island and the free shuttle from the station took us to our hotel. The Ibis couldn’t check us in yet but they happily took our bags.

So out we went. Armed with a tourist map. Written only in Chinese. Apparently the hotel didn’t have any more English ones. Luckily the streets signs were all in English.

We somehow made our way to the Peak Tram without getting horribly lost and we didn’t even take any wrong turns! I bet the Hunk won’t believe me, but it’s totally true. Just ask Charlotte.

The tram that goes up to the Peak Tower is a bit of a touristy gimmick, but at 125 years old it’s really quite awesome. At times the incline became so steep that I felt like the back of my seat was the only thing stopping me from falling backwards.

The view from the top was amazing, but boy were we starving! We decided on a place called Mak’s Noodles which turned out to be delightful even though it was one of the only food places open on the Peak before midday. My craving for wonton soup was finally able to be satisfied.

Their bowls are a little bit on the small side, but the portions are surprisingly filling. I slurped down my noodles with glee. The soup was delicious and the wontons were just right the size.

No longer hangry, we spent our afternoon being tourists and finding touristy things to do.

We rode the mid-levels escalator, which starts near the bottom of town and works its way up past SOHO. Brilliant if you have tired feet but still want to explore.

We found a temple called Man Mo just around the corner from our hotel:

We saw some interesting dry food stuffs being sold:

And some interesting macaron flavours. Now I am a big fan of cheese, it's my favourite food group but I'm not so sure about this:

In the evening we took the Star Ferry to Kowloon. The ferry comes every 10-15 minutes and only costs about HKD2.50, which is less than $0.50! We wandered along the promenade and even found Bruce Lee!

I would have liked to have spent more time shopping and exploring, but we were both too knackered for that by the time nightfall had come. We have a day in Hong Kong on the way back though, so there's still time to shop.

Besides, if Charlotte's run in with the flight attendant on the way to Moscow is anything to go by, we will be needing all of the rest and brain cells we can get.

Flight attendant: Tea or coffee?
Charlotte: Tea, please
Flight attendant: Black or green?
Charlotte: White
Flight attendant: Huh??
Charlotte: *blank stare*
Flight attendant: We have black and green
Charlotte: With cream please?
Flight attendant: *blank stare*
Charlotte: *blank stare*
Me: I think she would like black tea with milk, please.

Planes, trains and automobiles

There is nothing like a good obstacle to mark the one month countdown to the start of a trip. This week has seen a couple of problems and I’m hoping that there won’t be any others. We were lucky enough that they were only minor glitches and that we were able to resolve them - it wasn’t quite as painful as a Steve Martin movie.

Aside from our main flights (Auckland-Hong Kong and Hong Kong-Moscow), planes are not the preferred mode of transport. I’d rather take trains when I am overseas, especially in Europe because they are just so much better than the trains in New Zealand. I grew up with an impressive electric train set (more for my dad’s enjoyment than mine) and always wanted to go on the ICE train that they have in Germany. I finally managed this at the end of 2011 from Frankfurt to Amsterdam via Cologne and it was glorious! In Italy I made use of the fast Frecciarossa and Frecciargento trains which were very similar to the ICE and took less time than a plane to get from city to city once you take into account the time spent milling around plus the time spent getting to and from the airport.

We do have one flight booked though, UTair flight 718 from Tallinn to Moscow, which has turned out to  be a bit of a nuisance this week.

The only train available between Tallinn and Moscow is the 34 which leaves Tallinn at 5pm and doesn’t arrive in Moscow until after 9am (about 14 hours once you take into account the different time zones). Given that sunset in Tallinn will be at 10.40pm and sunrise in Moscow at 4.45am, it seems like a lot of wasted daylight hours.

Using Skyscanner, we found a direct flight that was cheaper than a compartment on the 34 train and only slightly more expensive than a regular seat. Scheduled to depart Tallinn at 2.45pm and arrive in Moscow at 5.25pm on our penultimate day, this flight was perfect.

It was perfect until I got an email on Monday telling me that the flight had been cancelled. UTair had automatically rebooked us onto a flight for 7am the following morning and while our flight out of Moscow is scheduled to leave at 8pm, we didn’t really want to risk it. Who knows what could happen on the day, ideally I would like to get home again! Besides, we have a non-refundable room at a fancy hotel booked for the Saturday night.

From what I could tell, the only way to change our flights on the UTair website was to cancel the rescheduled flight and book an entirely new one.  I could have tried the call centre, but they are based in Moscow so that call probably would have cost me an arm and a leg. The annoying thing about this is that we are happy with that flight but just want it a day earlier!

Luckily I was able to get a full refund for the first flight (although I am still waiting for the money) and even though it is just over a month and a half out, the cost of the new flight was only $20 more than the original one. It could be worse, it could have been completely non-refundable.

The bus to the Tallinn airport only starts at 6am which means we will now have to sort out a shuttle in order to make the 7am flight. Sigh. One option is to sleep at the airport, but we have already paid for our hotel and I guess it’ll give me a reason to get up to see the sun rise over the Old Town.

The other issue I’ve had this week involves the Russian Railways (RZD) website and my ANZ credit card. 

Trains are awesome, but boy do the Russians make it difficult for a foreigner to book tickets! We were able to book our St Petersburg-Helsinki tickets on the Finnish Railways (VR) website, but not the Moscow-St Petersburg ones. RZD has an English version of their website, but that doesn't extend to their online booking system. If you want to book tickets directly through RZD, you have to do it in Russian. I think intermediaries are a rip-off and I try to avoid them at all costs, so I was determined to make the RZD booking system work.

There are several step-by-step guides on the internet on how to navigate the RZD booking system including the ones published by Valigia Pronta and The Man in Seat 61. These guides made it pretty easy, plus learning to read Cyrillic is helpful even if I don’t understand what most of the words mean! As long as I get to the right train station, onto the correct train, and into the women's toilets rather than the men's, I will be happy. 

I followed the instructions in the guides and created an RZD account. All was well, I managed to find the high speed Sapsan train that I wanted and entered our personal details (surname, first name, passport number):

But then came trouble. Neither my ANZ credit card nor ANZ debit card would work. It kept coming up with a weird error message even though my credit card had worked on the UTair website. Charlotte’s credit card is also an ANZ one so I didn’t even bother trying hers.

The hunk kindly lent me his ASB credit card, which worked. The RZD payment page took me through to an ASB security portal which asked me to verify some of the hunk’s details like his birthday and card limit. After this, the payment went through. I think this means that ASB has a more flexible security system in place, but it is making me wonder if I should apply for a credit card with another bank to take with me in case I have more ANZ-related issues while I am away…