Dosto-prima-chatyel-nosti: Tim and Jodi Godfrey

Everything has been ticked off. @ Sydney, Australia

2007-01-21T15:45:00.000Z

#0
Sunday 21st of January 2007
Sydney
Jodi and I decided to travel to Russia and study Russian in November 2006 after Jodi was awarded a scholarship to that end. The plan was to travel during the summer holidays. That plan was thwarted by Jodi's two brothers announcing their engagements and subsequent plans to wed during that time also. Consequently, we pushed our trip back into semester one. My family on the other hand has been great. Seeing as though we were going to miss first semester, we decided to extend our trip and take in a bit of Europe.
THE PLAN: 6 weeks studying at St Petersburg State University, 4 weeks in Moscow and surrounds visiting missionaries and orphanages, 5 weeks travelling home, going Moscow-Warsaw-Krakow-Lwowek-Karpacz-Prague-Cesky Krumlow-Budapest-Zagreb-Dubrovnik-Bari-Rome-Madrid-Leon-Santiago-Cambridge-York-London ... HOME!

Houston, we have lift off. @ London, United Kingdom

2007-01-23T21:59:00.000Z

#1
8.30am Tuesday 23rd of January

Tim: The title of the blog is the Russian word for 'the sights'. We'll be sharing a few of the sights we see, here on this blog.

I am sad that I didn't start the blog earlier. So much of the journey has already happened. We decided that we were going to travel to Russia in November when Jodi was awarded a scholarship. Since then there has been itinerary planning, budgeting, shopping, researching, christmas, bookings, weddings, visas etc. My sage wife Jodi commented to me as we landed in Heathrow that time kept going, faithful as ever.

Jodi: A week ago we didn't know where our visas were, whether someone was picking us up at Heathrow, if we'd have enough money. God has been very generous to us, through our friends and family. When I hopped on the internet yesterday morning, our Brisy friends in London said they'd come to the Airport for us and I found $500 in our account, a scholarship awarded to Tim by his uni for overseas study!

Tim: Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to us making it off our land girt by sea.

We left Sydney on schedule, arrived slightly ahead of schedule, and were picked up by our very generous friends Matt and Ellen Gregora, without incident. We're off to a good start, so stay tuned!

Inch of Snow Brings London to a Standstill @ Riga, Latvia

2007-01-25T22:55:00.000Z

#2
Thursday 25th of January
Riga, Latvia

Yesterday Jodi and I were woken by the pleasant surprise of an inch of snow over London. Somehow an inch of snow wreaked havoc with the London train and tube system. We had planned to go into the city and do a walk that took in most of the sights. We got to the platform and waited for half an hour or so before a train came. It was funny, I still had to ask someone standing on the platform where the train was going because I didn't understand the PA address. Half the challenge was the accent, the other half was the unfamiliar train station names.

The train conductor had a most interesting manner on the phone. He openly confessed over the PA that he had no idea what was going on, and that he apologised ahead of time for the delay and could everyone please be patient. The train was stopped at a platform and there was another train going in the same direction as ours on a platform over from us. The conductor announced that the other train was going to leave first, so people might as well go on that train if they wanted. There was a mad rush out of our train across the platform and into the other train, but Jodi and I decided to stay put and just wait until our train got going. About 10 secs after the other train left the conductor came on over the PA and mentioned in a casual tone, "Alright we're going now. Mind the doors." It brought to mind, by its contrast, the message that gets played on Brisbane trains: 'doors closing, please stand clear'. They made up for it though by playing stern warnings at the platform that instructed the passengers to 'Mind the Gap! Mind the Gap!...' It was reminiscent of the announcements made to the public in the film 'V for Vendetta'.

After our sociological musings on the public transport we made a start on all the ususal tourist stops: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliment house etc. There are magnificent large statues and monuments everywhere! Parliment house is impressive as well. The arches into some of the entrances must be three stories tall. I figure that there are people out there who know who all the people are who are depicted in the reliefs of the architecture. I don't think I could actually concentrate long enough or be interested enough to find out who the statues are, but I think it is cool that each one is probably a saint or a bishop or someone important from antiquity. I commented to Jodi that in my opinion the British know how to do monuments a whole lot better than us Aussies. When we reached the other side of the Thames and looked back Jodi said, "They know how to do parliment house better too!"

We saw the London eye, The Tower Bridge, and The Tower of London on our travels. One highlight was the Tate Modern Gallery of Art. There was one exhibit that had a lot of abstract work in it, including a few pieces by Jackson Pollock. I am sure modern art is like Jazz, in that I need some education to appreciate it. With that disclaimer, I still reckon that it was a lot like what most people are apprehensive of when they think of modern art. The highlight for us though was a slippery dip that was 5 stories high. That's what Australia needs next to that big tapestry of Blue Poles! That would bring the punters in!

Another highlight for us was a series of faintly abstract pieces depicting important or interesting events in Englands history. They were just on the walls on the way into the Tower Hill Tube Station. Isn't it interesting what things stand out to us.

Today we flew to Riga from London. It is such a relief to be out of London! Riga is cheaper, smaller and a whole lot less overwhelming! It doesn't feel like the capital city of a country. We have spoken with a few people who are very warm and friendly. Walking down the street though, we get a lot of wary looks. We went to the corner store to buy some food for the next two days, and the store keeper followed us around the whole shop! I don't know if she always does that or if I look particularly criminal, who can tell? I wonder as well if people in the street look at us because of our packs (it is the middle of winter here and the only other tourists we have noticed here are a bunch of English men who are presumably on a Buck's night (aka week) bender), the look of us, or because of my hair.

Jodi said that she has read that 50% of Latvians are native Russian speakers. Latvians don't like speaking Russian though, according to the women on the plane. Jodi's Russian has come in handy for us a few times already though. When we were in the grocery store that I mentioned earlier we bought a tin of tuna. There were no tins of tuna in ring pull cans, and we don't a have a tin opener with us, so I was looking around to see if we could buy one. I tried chirades with the checkout woman, which failed miserably, so out came Jodi's Russian. I thought I heard Jodi ask the woman if they had anything we could open the tin with. The woman at the counter called out to another staff member who came and took the tin away. When the tin came back there was no tin opener in sight, but the tin was open for us. How's that for customer service!

Riga looks like a reasonably old city, shabby and beautiful at the same time. It reminds me a bit of Asia, and Jodi has said a few times how similar it feels to Poland. One thing I have noticed is that there are not many tall buildings around. London was the same, and apaprently most of Europe is like that. It makes things feel different,m in a good way. We catch a bus to St Petersburg tomorrow night at 7pm, so we take the chance to have a look around the city before then.

Riga For A Day @ Riga, Latvia

2007-01-26T15:17:00.000Z

We made it to Russia @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-01-27T17:32:00.000Z

The picture here is the view out our college room window. A great vantage point for checking the weather and current affairs.

Russia @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-01-31T21:58:00.000Z

Hello there from Icy Russia! We arrived here Saturday morning after a long trip by bus from Riga. Since then we have suffered from a bad cold and slight culture shock. The last 5 days have been filled with a mix of difficulty and light.

It's hovered around -10 degrees here. We were excited in Riga to hear it would be this cold but to experience it is something else altogether! Inside is well heated but to venture out takes preparation.

A couple moments of colour: On the way home from uni on Monday, on the bus, a girl started giggling at us because I was explaining some Russian grammar to Tim. She then sparked a conversation with us in broken English. She was very delightful. Soon, the lady next to her joined in. We were warned back in Oz not to make a racket on public transport, but these ladies seemed to enjoy the interaction.

At lunch today we sat with a guy in my class from the States. He and his wife are Christians and invited us to go to church with them on Sunday. They've been living here since August and have met people at church who work with Street kids and orphans.

You'll be proud to know that "McLeod's Daughters" has made it all the way to Russia!

Thanks to those who have emailed. Glad you've enjoyed the photos. We can't upload photos onto uni computers so you'll have to hold on a little longer before we can show you snow covered St Petersburg. The sun's been out the last couple of days, it's very pretty.

Andy V, we thought you might like this! @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-02-02T21:55:00.000Z

University: Learning Amidst History @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-02-06T17:12:00.000Z

Jodi: here are some pic's of the University we're studying at, "Smolny College". The three-spired building is the church in the middle of the Uni square. The college is also famous for being the building where Lenin and his cronies planned the 1917 October Revolution!

We've settled in well now. Much more in the know about public transport. Met a whole stack of missionaries at church on Sunday and were invited to one German family for cake (which stretched into supper). They work with orphans here and gave us a lot of insight about the situation here in Russia. Today we met with people from 'OM'. We're going to watch the rugby with them on Sunday. (Yes, that's how we're spending our 1st wedding anniversary!)

Classes were overwhelming at first but have become more comprehendible. We are staring to enjoy the other students there and follow the lessons better.

We'll actually celebrate our anniversary by booking a flash hotel, spending Friday at the Hermitage Museum (Probably the biggest collection of art in the world - it would take about 3 years to view all of it - a 24 mile long tour!), and having dinner at a nice restaurant where we hope they will speak a little English and have fine (ie, polite, warm and helpful) "Western" service!

Wedding Anniversary @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-02-09T23:00:00.000Z

#5
Smolny College St Petersburg, Russia
Monday the 12th of February 2007
One happy year of marriage already! We decided to celebrate a little early because it suited with our timetable better. We booked a bed and breakfast in the city centre, right near the Ermitage. It took us about half an hour to find the hotel because there was no sign on the building, and no number on the apartment for us to find the printed street address.

We spent a large chunk of the day wandering around what is perhaps the largest art and history museum in the world: The Ermitage. We really enjoyed the building itself as much as any of the art. There were two standout exhibits. One was the 'modern' art exhibition (~1900, guys like Picasso, Matisse, Monet) and the other one was a hall that had been done to look like the Sistine Chapel.

The museum is what used to be the Royal Family's Winter Palace. One of the Empresses (Catherine the Great I think) was so impressed by what she had seen in the Sistine Chapel in Italy that she commissioned a bunch of tradesmen and artists to reproduce it in the Winter Palace. We had a lot of fun walking through the hallway working out which stories from Genesis were depicted in each scene. It got as far as Moses striking the rock during the exodus, and then jumped to Jesus. Oh well. We had a great time and will probably go back ('coz it's free for students!)

Jodi
We found a great Greek restaurant round the corner from the B&B, with, thankfully, a menu in Russian, English AND Pictures! (We don't know our Greek food even in English!) The staff were so friendly, enjoyed practising their Engligh on us and talking us into joining in the Greek dancing. (They failed, by this time we were way too full to spin around like that!) If you haven't already, take a look at one of the dishes on offer. We made a bit of a collage of our year while at the restaurant, reflecting on our experience of marriage so far. It was really good to remember what we'd achieved (and want to do different next year!)

Sunday stroll in the sun @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-02-11T19:58:00.000Z

Sunday we went to church, turning up about an hour and a half late, I think that's a record for us! Then we invited ourselves over for lunch to an American family, the father of which studies with me (Jodi) at uni. We found mince, kidney beans, etc, etc and made what we consider, excellent Russian Mexican! We enjoyed it because it was only the 2nd time we'd had red meat since being away (the first being at the Greek Restaurant - beef, not aborigine!).
Nice sunny day for a Wedding, and only about -12 Deg C. It's amazing how much warmer that feels than -20!
That evening we hit the local casino, watched the 6 nations rugby live (but we couldn't see a thing because their cable wasn't working so they streamed a picture off the net.) The Irish lost. It was weird being in a room full of Englsih speaking people we didn't know. Their's obviously a little Irish community here! Walking to the metro, we saw fire twirlers, the "Church on Spilt Blood", built on the spot where one of the tsars was murdered by terrorists and an ice sculpture of a bar (if you're going to do ice sculpture in Russia, make it about alcohol!) People were warming up their kopek coins and sticking them to the ice-stool.

Tim: I have been meaning to say since I arrived here that here there are new cars that look like 1963 (?) EH Holdens! They are the 'Volga 3110' just in case you want to order one. And it is not Volvo, I spelt it correctly, Volga (named after the river presumably). I got a reasonably good photo of one recently and I will upload it soon. If they were available in right-hand drive, I tell you what, I would buy one for sure!

Za Zdorovie! (Cheers!) @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-02-13T23:07:00.000Z

#6
Friday the 16th of February 2007
St Petersburg Russia

Great Day

Yesterday Jodi and I had a great day. Only the day before Jodi had been saying that she was feeling a bit disappointed and homesick. I think God heard her and turned on corker of a day to charge us back up again.

It all began on Wednesday actually, as these things do. Jodi and I met a Polish woman, and she and Jodi made plans to go to a restaurant called the idiot on Wednesday night. Meanwhile I made plans to go to a Banya (I'll get to what a Banya is a bit later...) with one of classmates, a Frenchman called Ullrich, and an American named Alex.

After classes yesterday Ullrich, Alex and took the metro to where we going to go to the Banya. When we got there though it was closed, and I learnt some more french. I was thinking that this was going to turn into a saga. "Because everything does in Russia," I was saying in my head. The man at the Banya told us where there was another Banya only one metro stop away, so we began to make our way there. Outside the metro where we arrived, we asked an old babushka where to go and she gave us directions. We foundn the place and tentatively went in.

I heard that a Banya might be roughly translated as a bath house, the main element of which is 'the Parilka, which gets so hot it makes the Finnish sauna look like a warm room,' according the Lonely Planet guide. The guide goes on to say 'after a burstof scaldign steam is released from the burning rocks, everyone stands up, grabs a tied bundle of Birch branches (veniki, and beats themselves or each other with it.

When our trio of the UN arrived at the banya, we tentativley made our way in. There were two to choose from: the common banya or the luxury banya, which was private. I voted for the common banya (I wanted the authentic experience) and the gaurd showed us the way because we obviously had no idea where to go. On the way up the three flights of stairs he said to one of his friends,"they want to go to the common banya!"
"The common banya" he replied. "Why?!"

We got to the 'front' desk and made quite a modest spectacle. There were no change spaces left at that moment, so we were asked to wait. We sat down and drank beer (which is permitted and common) while people asked us where we where from. When we answered that we were from France, Australia and America we received an amused response.

The cashier is in the change room and is an old man with a newspaper for his cash register. When you pay he lifts open the top page, puts your money in and rummages around for some change. We stood there and rented our sandals, towels and Veniki while naked Russian came and went, looking at the curiosity before them.

We stripped down and in the first room, which obviosly was the changeroom, and leads into the washing room. Here I decided that the banya really is a bath house. For those of you who know it, the washing room was not to disimilar to the bathrooms at Burrabudine and about twice the size. There were benches upon which men sat and washedthemselves from basins, and then they went to one of the four showers against one of the walls and rinsed off. Then the Parilka...

Well it was not nearly as bad as it sounds. Sometimes the room did get EXTREMELY hot, so hot it hurt any bare skin (which there was no shortage of). The Veniki beating was not painful (there are to many leaves left on the branches to allow it to become painful. You couldn't hurt someone if you wanted to), and one friend had told me that some old man would probably want to beat me and show me how to do it. I did have the privelige of one old guy starting a converstaion and showing the ropes a bit. I got the most attention out of our little UN because of my hair. It was a great experience and I will leave it there because I am running out of time.

After the banya I went to The Idiot to meet Jodi, who was there with two friends: Sofi a Polish woman, and Danyella a German. The Idiot is famous for being a favourite restaurant of Tolstoy's. It was in the basement of a building in a very beautiful part of town. The walk there was great, and included going past St Isaac's cathedral. The Idiot has great ambience, and feels a little like Bilbo's house from Lord of the Rings because the ceiling is low and rounded. Everone who orders something gets a complimentary shot fo vodka, including me who ordered a water!

After a little while we were joined by two German friends (whose friends are whose originally is never quite clear), two men named Florian and Oliver. We had a great time, all of us, talking about where we come from and what we study etc. All we needed was some more Russian company. As an aside, Jodi and I haven't made any Russian friends yet, maybe not even any acqaintances!

Florian suggested, I don't know why, to go to a club called MOD. We all went along and found a slightly grungy but friendly place with an avant garde band playing. I went to the bar to buy a drink but couldn't get the bar tenders attention. So I asked the next to me if I was doing it right, or if there was something else I was supposed to do. He got the bartenders attention and I ordered. After that he started a conversation with me and introduced his friend. His name is Chris and he is German, and his friend was Arturo from Latvia. I think a few of us thought it was pretty funny that no matter where we go, we have so far only met foreigners!

Last thing for the night was the trip home. Oliver asked if we would like to split a 'car' with him. We walked out to the street and waved down the second car that came along. It was not a taxi, probably just some guy on his home who is happy to make some money on the side. This a pretty normal mode of 'public' transport in Russia. He was happy to go far enough out of his way to drop us off for an agreed price. Everyone was happy! We hummed through the nearly empty streets of St Petersburg in his little Lada and got home before curfew. All done. Great day hey!

We have put a picture, among others, of an American family that we have been hanging out with. They are Dave, Brady and Hazel Rainbow. Pretty cool last name hey! We met Dave at uni (he and Jodi are in the same class) and he invited us to church. He is responsible for my banya misinformation. We spent a great afternoon with them drinking beer and coffee while there daughter opened a package that she had been sent for her birthday. As usual with kids, Hazel was much more enamoured with the packing styrofoam than with anything else.

Plenty more stories to tell and photos to show and not enough time. I am looking foreward to being able to tell you more in person some time!

Today's explorations @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-02-17T19:25:00.000Z

A great day of exploring today. We woke up way to early and met a couple of, yes, that's right, Americans (We thought it would be Russians) to visit a childrens home together to lead a bit of a Sunday school. The home was really nice, filled to the brim with puzzles and games. The kids, all dressed in 4th hand clothes, were very excited to see us and very affectionate. One boy, 'Slavo', adopted Tim for the entire morning, attaching himself to his lap. He was very sweet, had a short temper and we quickly realised the limits of our Russian when we were trying to explain to him that when he finished his origami boat, he wouldn't see the tear in the paper! All 15 kids were around 5 and I wanted to bring them all home! About 80 children live in the orphanage, aged 4-13. I was so saddened, thinking about them growing up in an institution, however safe and comfortable.
We spent the afternoon walking around the city, without agenda. experienced for the first time Russian "bliny" (pancakes). They lived up to their lofty reputation. The coffee did also - it was crap again!!! We made snow angels in the summer gardens, wanted to make a snow man - we thought it would be fun to make a winter wonderland in a park named after the heat! - but the snow was too dry. Briefly visited the Engineers castle, fulfilling a promise to Tim's lecturer to take a photo with his Griffith jacket on in front of something scientific and official looking. Engineers get a castle here - in true Russian grandiose fashion.

Cathedral Central @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-02-22T23:14:00.000Z

#8 Thursday the 22nd of February 2007
St Petersburg, Russia

It has been quite a week. The last time we recorded our trip we had started a great weekend. Well things didn't slow down much through the week. As Jodi said last time, we spent Saturday wandering around St Petersburg. On Sunday friends of ours from Australia, Nathan and Ellie, arrived in St Petersburg after traveling all the way across Russia on the Trans Manchurian Railway. (You can find a record of their trip on this site as well. It is called 'Overland Adventure Nach Deutschland.) We had a hard time finding their hostel, but had fun walking through the snow. Sunday was the last day of a festival called Mas-la-nitsa. It is a festival to say farewell to winter and welcome spring. During the fesival they eat bliny (Russian pancakes) and at the end they burn a female scarecrow kind of looking thing that represents winter. When we arrived at the hostel, the manager told us that there were some festivities on at the park. So we went down to see what we could see.

There was a big snow fight where a mob of people layed siege to a 'fort', where women with brooms defended themselves. There were lots of people sliding around on various apparatus, and there was music here and there. It was joyful and populace and by far the most 'Russian' thing Jodi and I felt like we had seen. From memory, the four of us wandered around a bit and had tea together, and that was the day.

On Monday we went to uni and had Nathan and Ellie around for dinner in our tiny college room. We invited a French friend of mine and his girlfriend around as well. We had many laughs about different things, including Ullrich quoting a bunch of Italians about their time in Russia ('More than enough!'). His english was amusing at times as well. Getting 'tomorrow' and 'yesterday' confused, Nathan and Ellie had 'just arrived tomorrow'! Nathan did say they made pretty good time...

Tueday we wagged uni to see the sites with Nathan and Ellie. The weekend had been pretty warm, but not Tuesday. It was too cold too stay outside long enough to walk anywhere, so we only got to see two of the three things we wanted to see. We went to St Isaac's cathedral first. The view from the top is great! The building itself is absolutely massive, and very opulent. We found a mosaic of St Peter that we thought resembled Billy Conolly. The picture is here somewhere. The inside of the church has lots of mosaics and paintings and is made almost entirley out of marble. For me there seemed to be a confusion about what the purpose of the building was. I think it was built to honour a few people and religion was the vehicle to do that at the time.

Anyway I have run out of internet time so I will finish this later.

The week continued...by Jodi @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-02-24T20:20:00.000Z

I'm just about to go meet another 2 australian missionary couples for afternoon tea but will sqeeze in some more stories before it's time to go.
After St Isaac's we saw another church building, shown in the photos, called the church on spilt blood. You may recognise it as something you would think of when thinking of Russian churches. It was built over the place where Tsar Aleksandr the somethingth was murdered by a terrorist bomb and for the first 15 years of its existence was only used for mass sung for the late king - very extravagant! The inside was beautiful, almost completely covered in mosaic, but we way prefered the quite, humble, colourful church we entered in Riga (that one was free also!) Churches turned into museums just don't keep their transcendent atmosphere. We went back to Nathan and Ellie's hostel where (drumroll...) we met and conversed with our first Russian who didn't speak English. It was very fun and rewarding, and as we polished off a bottle of vodka, I think we proved the man in the banya right, the conversation did flow a little freer! She was amazed at Tim's level of Russian after 3 weeks (he's better than me after 1 semester at uni! We arranged to meet up again and went over there for pancakes and conversation yesterday. We met more Aussies there and have arranged an international gathering at the banya tomorrow.
At uni on Thursday, they had another maslenitsa celebration and invited a group of kids to danceand sing for us. It was very fun. You can see a photo of Tim, who was coerced into joining in.
We're at that point in the trip where it's all going too fast and we want to stay!

BIG Weekend! @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-02-27T17:49:00.000Z

Whew!
Sat: We finally met a great Aussie couple, Helen and Maurice who work with Wycliffe (A linguistics and Bible translation organisation). We went to their place for afternoon tea, and, as has become our habit, stayed for dinner also. They spent 25 years working in PNG and have now come out of retirement to work here. Talk abot culture shock! They send their greetings to the Calder family. We also met there another Tim and Jo couple from Oz. We walked to the gulf (and ON the gulf) together. Cars were having races around a track they'd cleared on the ice - photos to come!
Sunday we went to church again, out for coffee with a very arrogant, western-centric guy from the States (they're not all like that, I assure you!). We met him at church and invited him to a cafe down the road and suddenly he bacame the quintessential westerner that all the Russians complain about - loud, English speaking, complaining about absolutely EVERYTHING! It was a good reminder to us to keep looking out for what we enjoy and can learn from Russian culture and to get over what we can't.
That evening our hostel friends hired a private Banya (bath house) which included a very hot sauna, a freezing cold pool, a spa bath and a few showers, one which you stood inside and the water shot at you from all sides. It was very fun and relaxing. We drank beer and ate dried fish and enjoyed being wet AND warm!
Monday after class, we went over to Dave and Brady's (our American friends) for dinner. We ate and played with their little girl and talked so late that we stayed the night. It doesn't matter what meal we turn up for, we seem to score the next one also!!
It feels warmer at the moment, hovering below zero. I think it'll definately be time for some snowmen soon. So far the snow has been too powdery.

Russian experiences @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-03-02T22:52:00.000Z

A very warm 1 degree at time of writing. Here's a few snapshots from the last few days...

There is a national change shortage in Russia. 500 rubles is worth about $22 and you should see the look on a cashier's face when you try to pay for something worth $10 with a 500. "Don't you have anything smaller?" Wanting to avoid this onthe way home this afternoon and only having a 500 in my wallet, we decided to catch the metro home (for which we had tickets already) instead of a bus (which costs about 50c - way to much change trouble). The walk to the metro, which we, for some reason (we must have been really enjoying eachother's company) thought took 25 mins, actually took close to 50, much of which was over very slippery ice due to the "warm" weather. Finally making it into the metro station we relaxed, glad that we would be home in the next 40 mins. as a train arrived, about 4 men in black coats came and stood near us. I asked Tim to put his arm around me so it would cover the zipper of my backpack. as we got in the train, they surrounded us and sqaushed in close. I pushed hard and popped out the other side, grabbed Tim's hand and pulled him out too. After it was all over, one guy gave us an innocent dirty look, like, "what's all the pushing for?" Thankfully, they were completely unsuccessful, all our outside pockets just had dirty hankies and gloves. They didn't think them worth pinching. Then when we got off the metro, we decided to buy something so we could get change because we thought we deserved a bus home rather than a walk. we went into the shopping centre and, lo and behold, there is the biggest supermarket we've seen in Russia (don't be fooled, though. it was still about a quarter of the size of the one I worked in in Gulgong.) Getting excited, we started putting things in our basket like corn flakes and washing powder and 2 min noodles. May as well do the week's shopping while we're here. Got to the counter, remembering that I only had the equivalent of $20 in my wallet. So we watched carefully as the total grew, and only left the washing powder behind (the clothes can wait!) which left just enough money for 2 bus tickets. Walked outside, jumped on the first bus which had written on it a street we recognised and sat down. The bus left and headed the WRONG WAY down the street we knew, in around all these other streets we'd never seen and then I heard someone ask, "stop at the metro please." We were back at the shopping centre without a cent to our name, got off the bus and walked home.

On a much more encouraging note, we just had lunch with an Aussie lady from Canberra (Natasha Allitt or Ablott, we can't remember - she sends her greetings to Andy and Anne Grant!). She works with HIV orphans, mostly babies aged up to 4. It was excellent hearing her work and sharing ideas. Orphans here get split between age groups which means they never interact with kids other ages and when they turn 5, they get moved away from everything they know into a new orphanage. HIV/AIDS kids have an extra stigma. Hardly anything is understood here about the disease, carers often wear gloves when working with the kids, and they are never adopted or fostered. She has built relationships with orphanage directors and carers and has quite a raport. The group of volunteers which she runs, play with the kids in the orphanage, become responsible for a group and then follow kids up when they get moved or sent to hospital so they can maintain some constancy of relationship throughout their life.
One more week here. Please pray that we can meet the people we're trying to (including my Aussie lecturers Russian friends) and that things work out smoothly getting to Moscow and living there a month.

Last week in St Pete's @ Saint Petersburg, Russia

2007-03-09T20:46:00.000Z

It's been so long since we had internet access that our week has mushed into one. In Russia, you say that you have 'Kasha' (or porrige) in your head. We met with my Aussie teacher's friends and sooo enjoyed their company that we wished we had contacted them earlier. I think it would have totally changed our impression of Russians. My teachers here, though Russian, are generally cynical about Russian people, but Aleksandr and Natasha were warm, generous, interested in us and really interesting. We hope to meet more such people in Moscow when we arrive on Monday or Tuesday.
We finished a book I found at a Lifeline book fair, by an Aussie ABC correspondent who was in Moscow during the fall of communism. She writes such compelling stories not just of political intrigue but of the ordinary everyday experience of it - the food shortages, the 2000% per year inflation, The shock of going from just turning up to work and it not mattering what effort you put into it, to waking up in a capitalist, competitive society; the almost absolute power of the mafia; and the constant desperate optimism being dashed as one shonky leader after another abused their power or failed to fulfill their promises. The 20th century was one long longing for utopia, no matter the cost. "Russia: Which Way Paradise" comes highly recommended.
Our week has been a series of goodbyes, seeing people one last time. It's been special acknowledging the friendships we've made here.
Tomorrow night, we're off on a daring adventure to Petrozavodsk, 500km north of Peter, then to Moscow to hang out with YWAM and orphans.
Thanks to those who are emailing, we love hearing from you!

(Mis)Adventures @ Petrozavodsk, Russia

2007-03-11T16:39:00.000Z

Tim: Our 'adventurous' trip to Petrozavodsk officially qualified for "mis-adventure" status. It is amazing what hindsight does to your restrospective plans for a trip. We accidentally bought tickets that left late Saturday night instead of Saturday morning but decided to keep them because the other people we were going with pointed out that it would mean we would arrive early Sunday morning and could come home late sunday night and avoid spending money on accommodation. When we arrived in town at 7am, not a thing was open. It was funny, we found one cafe that should have been open except that were closed for a special session of cleaning. We went down to the lake to eat breakfast and wait for a cafe to open. Supposedly the population of the city is 280 000, but it seemed way smaller than that. Eventually at around nine o'clock a cafe opened. We had fun in there talking to the waitress. A french woman in our a little entourage (who spoke the most Russian) asked emphatically: "If you have only one day, what things do you absolutley, definitely have to see or do in Petrozavodsk?" The young waitress replied a little shyly, "there is nothing to do in Petrozavodsk." Oh well, that's it, end of story. We might as well go home I guess.
Actually, Petrozavodsk is better known as the departure point for a famous island called Kizhi Island, except during winter while the lake is frozen, the ferry doesn't operate. Seeing as the waitress was so certain that there was nothing to do in town, we went over the road to a hotel and asked there about things to do. The woman there was great. She was easy to understand and very friendly. She recommended going to a nearby bookstore and buying a map that had the locations of the local musems on it. We took her advice and went to the book store which wasn't open. In the time we had waiting for the bookstore to open, we made an a-class snow-woman. A German friend named Daniella had bailed out on us at the last minute so we named the snow-woman Daniella as her proxy. All the snow in St Pete's had melted too quickly and suddenly to make a snow sculpture, but there was still about a foot of snow in Petrozavodsk, so we were very glad we got a second chance to make a snow person.
We bought a map and went to a fine arts museum in town. It was a reasonably small affair, and modestly priced as well. The first woman to greet us took our tickets and ushered us into the first section of the museum which displayed Orthodox Icons. She was very sweet and gave us a guided tour of the whole section. When we got to the folk artefacts section, there was a wooden thing that looked like a coat of arms or something (it was free-standing). I looked up the English word for it and it said 'distaff'. Bugger, I don't even know what a distaff is in English. Turns out it is something used for spinning wool by hand. Look it up in Wikipedia if you want to know more, that's all I know. Anyway, the art in the gallery was really beautiful. Mostly it was pieces by modern Russian artists. Some of the pieces were so beautiful I just wanted to sit in front of them in a comfy couch with a cup of tea. Heaps better than tele.
After the museum we had lunch in a Karelian restaurant. (Petrozavodsk is the capital of a region named Karelia). That was some of the nicest and most 'authentic' food we have had in Russia so far. We were not in a hurry to get anywhere because we were in short supply of things to do. Eventually we made our way to the lakeside again to look at some sculptures. The definite stand out was a sculpture depicting two people casting a fishing net. After that it was back to another to cafe to drink hot drinks and pass the time reading Russian Newsweek. In one article there were some statistics on opinion in Russia about Intelligent Design and Evolution. The sample population was 64 people. Nice work guys. Did that take your WHOLE lunch break to conduct that survey? Our train returning to St Pete's didn't depart until 4am the next morning, so after stopping at a local grocery store for supplies we went to the train station to settle in for the night. A fun day with a few interesting conversations and fun stories, but a misadventure none-the-less because of lack of preparation and understanding of how things would turn out.

PS: captions for the photographs. They should be mostly self-explanatory. Jodi and I you know, the woman with the spectacles is Adaline, the French woman, and the other woman is Liz, an American from Florida. The white looking character who looks like they have a thorax and abdomen is the snow woman depiction of our friend Daniella.

Moscow - Some fun answers to prayer @ Moscow, Russia

2007-03-14T00:20:00.000Z

1. We are alive and well in Moscow!
2. We are staying with 2 Russian women and a Brazillian lady - very fun - and lots of practice for our Russian
3. We have a full schedule ahead with 3 orphanages, a babies home and a baby hospital to visit. These guys have been desperate for volunteers and were stoked with our level of Russian, so it feel so good to be useful and needed.
4. Despite fears of otherwise, our visa registrations were worked out without hassle.

We were told last night that the baby hospital (for abandoned, not sick children) and the baby home aren't allowing foreigners to visit. Please pray that we can while we are here. Only one of the girls with YWAM is allowed in. It would be great to help her cuddle and wash and feed. I so long to be able to do that here (and maybe sneek one home in my jacket!).

Orphanage visit @ Moscow, Russia

2007-03-17T21:26:00.000Z

This time the photos are served before the stories. I've added some more photos above so have a bit of a brouse. Here is the orphanage we visited on Saturday. It was a celebration of women, following women's day. The girls were so beautiful. Alena, sitting next to Tim was particularly sweet. Oh, it pains me so much to visit and know the statistics. (Only 10% of these children will go on to healthy, successful lives). May there be someway we can contribute to changing that.

Kremlin @ Moscow, Russia

2007-03-18T20:32:00.000Z

Spent the afternoon after church wandering about the city centre...

+15C! @ Moscow, Russia

2007-03-20T18:12:00.000Z

We got our own private tour with our new Russian friend, Natasha, yesterday. Saw Red Square, St Basils cathedrial, the outside of the Kremlin and the inside of a really expensive coffee shop in "GUM" (pronounced goom), the Moscow State Mall. Moscow won our hearts yesterday. No slush at 15 degrees, it's all gone. And wide open spaces in the centre, perfect for a $1 Maxibon (and they say Moscow is the 3rd most expensive city in the world!), a park bench while watching the world pass by. At one such world-passing-by moment, an old toothless man came and offered a free history lesson. We learnt about part of the Kremlin wall being made from the original Napolean-destroyed stones, how the monument before us used to have the names of the tsars and was replaced by the great communist leaders, how (and it all get a bit vague here...) they mummified Lenin's body, how half his brain was green mush and how they used parts of other dead guys to replace worn out body parts. Maybe just another consiracy theory, folks, but he did have the pictures to prove it. Tim took him aside to see the pictures alone so I could finish my tuna sandwich without gagging.
We watched the changing of the guard. Watched as an old woman tried to get the attention of the guard to get permission to put flowers on the Eternal Flame memorial. She placed one step too far and the guard hit the end of his rifle hard on the ground. Another guard came over to guide her back past the line. She was apparently asked to wait till the guard changed and then was gently ushered over to the memorial to lay her flowers.
Didn't see Lenin (or any one disguised as him) as he was asleep for the afternoon and only comes out in the morning. Did see the bust of Stalin guarding over his grave which I found disturbing.

Today we went to the Babies' home, for children up to 4. Took a group out for a walk. I played with Ada, a 12 month old little girl from Chechnya who giggled everytime she was kissed or cuddled. One little boy announced that his mum was visiting today. She arrived as we watched them play in a pile of left over snow. Apparently about 3/4 of these kids have living parents. 100 children live in the orphanage about an hour's bus ride from Moscow. Those we saw either run and hugged anything that moved (we were swarmed by cuddles) or took so long to make eye contact or interact. It was so heart breaking. The director explained that the children are well cared for here, but the workers don't have anytime to give individual love and attention. "Please come back anytime, thank you so much," she said. Any one want to come over and cuddle some kids? Tim and I checked out the local real estate and dreamed of living next door, visiting daily, building a good rapport with the staff...

Warning: Rambling Ahead @ Moscow, Russia

2007-03-28T08:55:00.000Z

4.46 pm
Wednesday the 28th of March 2007
Moscow, Russia

Tim: I feel like not a whole lot has happened in the last while. In the last entry Jodi mentioned that we went to an orphanage for children up to five years old. We visited there again today and got to spend two hours cuddling litlle kids this time. It is encouraging to see that the staff there are lovely. I think that most of them really like working with the kids and love them as much as they can. Today was un-noteworthy, and we had a good time. One of the groups of kids that we took outside for a walk were all about 6 months old. Maybe it is misleading to call it a group or a walk. We took four 6 month-old kids outside and sat in the sunshine. Apparently it was their first time to be taken outside....

Otherwise life here has been pretty quiet. We are staying in a particularly un-picturesque part of the city, which is also a fair distance from the city. Consequentially, it takes ages by public transport to get anywhere. With those as a sufficient deterents, if one is not careful, one can spend days on end without even going outside. I mean, why would you? As evidence to that said truth, Jodi and I have been doing a lot of reading. That's been interesting. I read a Russian 'classic' called The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgarkov. Apparently it is an allegory and I think my lack of modern Soviet History knowledge precludes from enjoying this particular book, on the grounds that I have Buckley's hope of understanding it. It was almost as weird as George MacDonalds 'Phantastes', from which I also felt a certain exclusion. So what if CS Lewis likes it?! Accordingly I have chosen to sail in more predictable, if still unfamiliar, waters and have started reading a political biography of Vladimir Putin.

On Sunday just gone we went to church with one of the women we are staying with. We had been invited especially, because her younger sister was celebrating her engagement that day. In Russia egagement provokes a public ceremony. Afterwards we shared some quality time with the family. It was interesting, there was the uncle named Sasha, who evidently had experience speaking with foreigners. He had gained this experience at his workplace I think. Although he had this experience he had little interest in talking with me. His wife on the other was enjoying talking to us, but was speaking very fast and using a broad vocabulary. After a period of converstaion, Sasha would mildly chastise his wife for not speaking in a way that I could understand, pointing out that I had said 'yes' and 'okay' at the right times, but obviously hadn't understood much. Despite his perceptiveness, he wasn't interested in talking with me.

Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of Vivi, the Brazilian leader of the team of YWAM that we are staying with. Today we bought our tickets for the train to Warsaw. Now we need to get our transit visas. On Friday we will be going to the Australian Embassy for a Down Under Club. We're looking forward to that. And we are thinking about skipping Rome and going on a train journey to Cinque Terre and then on through the south of France to Spain instead. That's all there is for the moment.

Special Birthday Celebrations @ Moscow, Russia

2007-03-29T20:32:00.000Z

Thursday, we spent the day at the orphanage celebrating a birthday. We ate way too much food, played games, gave presents. The girls loved Tim. They laugh at his Russian, enjoy his persistance in chatting with them. It was a very special time. Then we went outside, and hung out with other kids. Tim played a great version of soccer which resulted in yet another knee injury. Every boy over about 14, and many younger, take drugs and are very hard. The younger ones are very sweet and it was tragic to hear the stories from Vivi and the girls about how much the older ones had changed in the last few years. It seems impossible to get through the teens without bowing to the pressure of those who share a room with you.
Other sad stories. The young boy next to Tim in the hood has been adopted 3 TIMES, and then been sent back, when his adoptive parents found him not as he expected. The last time, he was so traumatised that he didn't eat for a week. Vivi said that about 1000 kids get adopted by Russians every year. 800 will be returned to the orphanage. One girl we met had developed schizophrenia after being sent back at 13. Another was warned that if he didn't get better marks at school, he would be returned. He's back at this orphanage now and still works hard at his homework, hoping his 'parents' will take him back.
A common form of punishment here is being sent to a mental hospital. They can be there for up to 6 months. Their heads are shaved, they are given drugs to keep them calm. It is a terrifying experience for them. When they return, they are addicted to the seditives and struggle to sleep or settle back in.
Our ideas are starting to become more concrete about possible future plans here. If these stories have made you angry too, please think of how you can change these kids' lives.

Easter party @ Moscow, Russia

2007-03-31T17:58:00.000Z

This is another orphanage out of Moscow. Took us a bus, 2 metros, another bus and a taxi to get here. Needless to say, these kids are almost forgotten, very poor and bombarded us with cuddles when we arrived. One boy who loved soccer took a shining to Tim, who ignored his sore knee to kick a ball with him. We sang, watched a skit, had an Easter party and chased bubbles.
Now I'm exhausted and feel impatient with my Russian. It's so difficult to chat sometimes. I look forward to maybe one day having the chance to get to know these kids and invest more in their lives.

An afternoon in town. @ Moscow, Russia

2007-04-01T19:04:00.000Z

In order:
Old Arbat (the street name, old, pretty and lots of tourists and people trying to seel them things. For some reason hundreds of Uni aged students walked the streets with cheers and bubbles.)
The Russian Museum at Red Square.
Lenin's Musoleum, also red square. We were to late to visit him personally. He watches over a major, expensive shopping centre which you can see in the reflection. A significant clash of cultrure and worldview.
Tim and I outside St Basils, Red Square.
Tim, Red Square.

VNDKh @ Moscow, Russia

2007-04-03T21:40:00.000Z

This is a massive park full of sculptures, fountains and pavillions. Set up under Stalin to show off to Russia and the world the great technological and economical successes of the Soviet Union. The pavillions used to be full of cars, washing machines and other treasures, far beyond the reach of the average Russian. Most of the goods were made simply for the expo. Now it's a bit of a home expo, with a theme park on the side, complete with Karaoke.

Our last visit at the babies home @ Moscow, Russia

2007-04-04T14:54:00.000Z

This is Sasha. We played with him for about an hour. He scratches and bites when you cuddle him, but by the end of the hour, had warmed to us enough for Tim to help him ride the tricycle.

10 girls and snow come to stay @ Moscow, Russia

2007-04-10T00:10:00.000Z

Auschwitz @ Krakow, Poland

2007-04-12T21:14:00.000Z

21:30 Friday the 13th of April 2007
Krakow, Poland
#? (lost track a while ago)

Tim: Since our last entry in which we made our last trip to the babies' home, two significant things have occured: ten girls from one of the orphanages came to stay for a week where we were living, and we left Russia.

On Sunday the 9th we celebrated Easter at a Russian Protestant Church that one of our hosts, Natasha, attends. Afterwards we had lunch with her family again. You may recall this is similar to previous adeventures we had with them, except that this time we had lunch at their house instead of Pizza Hut. And that made all the difference. Jodi commented afterwards that one of the few experiences she definitely wanted to have before leaving Russia, was to have a meal at home with a Russian family and it was granted to her on our last Sunday in Russia.

On Monday Jodi, Natasha and Vivi went to pick up ten girls from an orphanage to bring them home to stay for a week. We, luckily or unluckily I don't know, were only there for two days of their stay. They did each others' hair and nails, played cards, watched movies etc. I took a few outside to kick a ball around for a while, largely because I was going stir crazy inside.

On Tuesday we caught a train at 10pm in Moscow bound for Warsaw. We had a three berth cabin all to ourselves. That made the trip very comfortable and pleasant. At the Belarussian/Polish border we carried two cartons of cigarettes with us for one of the train staff who was evidently importing cigarettes and vodka into the EU. We same him carrying a few things backwards and forwards between the cabins. You may recall I mentioned how cheap cigs and alcohol were in Russia. Presumably it is the same in Belarus. The train staff are not allowed to carry duty free things across the border so they give them to the passengers instead. My main regret is that I was too cheap to bribe: a single block of chocolate which probably cost a dollar.

Our first stop in Poland is in Krakow (kra -KOOV) staying with friends of Jodi's, the Chachulskys. The have been wonderful hosts to us so far. We got to their place fairly late on Wednesday night and spent Thursday looking around downtown Krakow. The difference between Krakow and the Russian cities we visited, Moscow and St Petersburg, cannot be overstated! I was looking at the map on this site when I put in Krakow as the location, and thought to myself how far west it is. It feels like it too! This brings up very profound and perplexing conundrums for me peronally which I might elaborate on at another time, patience permitting. We had a great day downtown with the oldest daughter of our hosts, Sandra. We participated in consumerism so successful, for us that is, as to be unimaginable in Russia: we had good, well priced coffee in the first cafe we walked into, and I bought a book that I was looking for (A Brief History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson) in the first bookstore I went into for the normal price, AU$15.

Today we went to Auschwitz and had a good time. More on that later probably. One highlight was the bus trip home. I went and asked the guide of a tour group ( we were there on our own) if any of the rank of buses waiting nearby were shuttle buses back to the bus stop back to Krakow. He said not to worry about it and that we could get a lift back to Krakow in his tour bus and didn't even ask us to pay a bus fair. Thanks mate!

Tomorrow we are off to 'The Salt Mines' which another, much more Polish name that I can't remember. One visitor compared the global vist-worthiness of the salt mines as equal to the pyramids in Egypt. That sounds exciting! I'll let you know how it goes.

That's all for the time being. Please send us some mail. Word from home has been sparse!

lots of love
Tim and Jodi

Wieliczka, Poland @ Wieliczka, Poland

2007-04-14T20:19:00.000Z

The salt mines in Wieliczka: I don't think they lived up to one persons recommendation of the being of equally equally astounding qualitiy as the pyramids of Egypt, but they were good and we had fun. The guide was classic in her scripted humour. The only person I can think of who might deliver her jokes better is the cosmologist Stephen Hawkins (you know, the wheelchair guy). We had trouble finding public transport home but made it eventually safe and sound.

All the carving and sculptures were done by miners. I find that pretty amazing. It was also all done before the days of television. Maybe they had more time on their hands. The church in the mine took something like 60 years to make and was only done by three men, not concurrently with one another but consecutively. That, in my mind, is patience. If I was the first guy I think I would struggle the last guy: "Does he have the skills, does he have good taste, does he share a harmonious vision for the completion of the church...?' These days you can get married in the church. The motivation for building underground chapels was the danger of working in the mines. The miners wanted to be able to pray and say mass underground.The guide said that one in ten of the employees died in accidents in the mine.

Zakopane, Poland @ Zakopane, Poland

2007-04-16T22:29:00.000Z

Zakopane is a little town of 30 000 people, in Poland but near the border with Slovakia. Jodi and I went to this particular town to see some of the countryside and go hiking. The first day we were there we missed the last cable car trip to the top of one of the mountains, so we looked around town and had a nice dinner instead. In retrospect we were glad with the way things turned out. Had we gone up the cable car, we might have been guilty of trynig to do too much.

The next day we set out to hike to the ski fields by foot. The plan was to walk to the bottom of one of the ski lifts, catch it to the top and then catch the cable car down to the bottom. There were some nervous moments and imaginings of treacherous snow drifts, while we were at the bottom talking to the National Park info guy. We didn't understand all that he said, just that there was still snow at the top of the mountain. We didn't know if we were going to make it but we set out to try anyway.

The walk was long, but not impossible. We reached snow at about 1100m elevation (where we started was 900m maybe) and a rest point for lunch at 1200m. We walked over to a nearby lake which was unfortunately still frosen over. It made me glad I hadn't tried to hike to a more distant, and also more famous, lake further into the National Park. The walk to the chair lift after the lake was arduous, especially so because we were already quite tired. Continuing our run of successes unimaginable in Russia, we were able to buy a one ride ticket for the lift at the bottom of the lift (which we had been told we would be able to do before we started hiking, but in Russia that would have counted for nothing). At the top we watched some of the skiers for a while and had hot drinks in the chalet at the top of the mountain. (Jodi was proud to have her photo taken driking coffee at 2000m altitude). Jodi was totally stuffed, so I continued on to the nearby summit and Slovakian border alone. I forgot to mention: I have been to Slovakia. Unfortunately I didn't get a stamp in my passport for it.

We made our way down the mountain in the cable car and took our tired selves back to Krakow. A hugely enjoyable and surprisingly successful little trip.

Jodi: I think it's very, very important to mention that the hike was about 9 km in total, more than half walking through snow, up hill. And, to add to the old cliche, we weren't barefoot, but the "waterproof" boots bought in oz , we discovered, probably only meant that your feet don't get wet when walking through the rain. I can't tell you how relieved I was to reach the lift and have everything work out. There's no way I would have made it back,walking with wet feet through 9k's of snow!

Lwowek Slaski, Poland @ Lwowek Slaski, Poland

2007-04-21T19:56:00.000Z

For those who don't know, I lived in this little village 7 years ago for a year. In an old German castle (now in Polish territory) is a mission run by an Aussie couple. They run a campsite, collect 2nd hand clothing and furniture from Holland and Germany to give away to the poor in the area, feed around 30 poor children lunch every day and are in the process of setting up a museum to increase tourism, and thus employment, in the area. This was my first time back. As with most small towns around the world, the thing that changes most are the children. Kids that were born when I was there were now nearly 8 and, of course, didn't remember me. We had a wonderful, and for me, sometimes emotional week of catching up with old friends, remembering old stories and hearing about what's new. Following our busy week of tourism in Krakow, it was relaxing to be given out own flat in a 500 year old castle and spend the days reading, drinking tea and dusting off the long neglected Polish. It was fun going to youth group with the kids that were only 6 when I was here, meeting the spouses and children of good friends, looking at wedding photos and walking around the surrounding hills , finding old ruins, a cemetry buried by years of neglect and vines and beautiful views. I felt at home here, as I did 7 years ago and occassionally let a prayer slip that maybe one day, we could live and work in Poland. The land and people are so beautiful, warm and inviting.

Prague in Spring @ Prague, Czech Republic

2007-04-25T18:46:00.000Z

It's been fun on this trip to see how God has answered fleeting prayers that we didn't even take very seriously. Accomodation with Russian girls in Moscow, cheap and simple postage procedures (sending no longer needed Russian textbooks and thermals back home) and a lift to Prague! A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned, half joking, to God that it would be cool to get a lift here. Only 3 hours drive from Lwowek, It would have taken a total of 24 hours to get here by public transport. Then, a couple of days ago, old friends, Tomek and Gosia offered to drive us into the city, find our camping spot and hang out with us for the day.
Prague lives up to everything I'd hoped it to be. Cobbled, winding streets, beautiful, coloured buildings, rivers and bridges. We spent the day yesterday wandering and getting our barings, setting up the tent just a couple of kms from the centre of town and then coming back in after saying goodbye to our generous friends to walk the streets at night and eat dinner. And you can tell we're in the west now - a good coffee for $3 is so incredibly easy to find. Stay tuned for photos...

Four countries in one day. @ Graz, Austria

2007-04-29T17:14:00.000Z

So much has happened since our last blog! We are in Croatia now, but first our trip here.
We gave ourselves the challenge in Prague of only spending the money we got out at the beginning of the week. We didn't want to get out money again just before we left, be charged by the bank and then lose money again when we changed it to Croatian Kunas. This meant keeping our tourism to free sights (easy to do in Prague) and eating a lot of bread and jam and 2 minute noodles! we succeeded with about $2 left at the end of the week which we saved for a loaf of bread for the train early Sunday morning. One thing we didn't envisage was Saturday afternoon after our morning of wandering, the local grocery store would be closed. No worries, we thought, we had 2 minute noodles and some cereal and powdered milk. We would last till our 4 pm stop over in what we thought would be the capital of Slovenia, Lubljana. We caught the train at 6am the next morning, slept for a couple of hours, crossed the border into Austria and stayed glued to the window as we wound through striking mountains, medieval castles and green, green meadows...

4 countries cont. @ Zidani Most, Slovenia

2007-04-29T23:55:00.000Z

If we thought Austria was beautiful, then Slovenia was enchanting. Quiet, shy almost. Sun shining through clouds in just the right way on a hill with an old church, surrounded by towering lush jungle-like mountains. Rivers, with water so aqua. Our stop, it turned out, was at Zidani Most, not Lubljana. And Zidani Most is not a town, it's a bridge (Most means bridge in several slavic languages). A beautiful, old bridge, but at 4pm, our camera was running low on bateries and we were hungry! Having spent our last $2 on a coffee of the train, we had the choice of either a stray $5 American note or ATM. We thought the former was perfect because we could spend $5 worth on groceries and it would see us through to the next day, the latter would have been an act of desperation seeing it costs us $5 to get us money out and we were only spending 2 hours in Zidani Most. Alas, however, Zidani Most was a charming, one-pub town with no ATM or change office. So, we made some milk for afternoon tea, looked around and enjoyed the peace till our train arrived to take us to Zagreb. We spent a few hours in Zagreb, bought dinner with our newly aquired cash, ate with an Aussie girl we met on the train who was friendly and a little stressful and then settled in for the night in our sleeper cabin and rode to Spilt.

Ancient Sea-side City @ Split, Croatia

2007-04-30T16:32:00.000Z

We arrive in Split, on the central coast of Croatia at 7am this morning, 25 hours after leaving Croatia. A group of old men accosted us at the station asking if we needed a room. We started a negotiation process with one gentleman and learned that we could stay with him and his wife for $35, in a double room, sharing a bathroom with the family. We agreed, making sure it was close to the water because our ferry to Dubrovnik tomorrow leaves at 7am. He assured us it was very close, easy walking distance and we agreed to go with him. He then took us to the nearest bus stop and told us to buy tickets! I thought we were within walking distance! By this time, the man had captured our imagination and fancy so we stuck with him. He told us his son spoke English and Tim asked if he had many children. He didn't understand so we tried Russian and Polish, which, we had discovered through bargaining are very similar. He looked at us confidently and said, 'When we get to mine home, is shower, mapa and key to room.'
We caught the bus, not too far and arrived at his flat, on the 5th floor, without a lift (tough with heavy back packs!). We paid, showered, and wandered down to old town for a coffee and our beloved jam and bread. Split is centred around 1700 year old Roman palace ruins, which have been filled with markets, cafes and boutique shops. We bought a great coffee by the water for $2 (we love Croatian tourist prices!) and then meandered through the palace, Diocletian's retirement home.
We catch a 'cruise' tomorrow for the bargain price of $20, 9 hours to Dubrovnik where we will camp a few nights before heading off to Italy. The ferry goes around the Islands of the Adriatic coast before stopping in Dubrovnik at 4pm, enough time to find our camp site and have a quick look around. We can't wait to share the photos!

The View From the Ferry Split - Dubrovnik @ Korcula, Croatia

2007-05-01T11:45:00.000Z

We saw some famous Islands: Hvar, Korcula. Nice trip.

Nothing to do by the seaside @ Dubrovnik, Croatia

2007-05-02T23:57:00.000Z

We played around taking photos during sunset, over dinner, on our one sunny day in Dubrovnik. It was very peaceful.

Rain @

2007-05-03T17:17:06.000Z

Tim: We traveled from Split to Dubrovnik by Ferry. The views were great and we met an enjoyable Australian couple (named 'Muncey'and 'Emma' in case you doubted there authenticity) .We got here on Monday, which was Mayday, so not everything was open. Fortunately for us the camp ground we were going to was open. It turns out Muncey and Emma are staying in Dubrovnik for almost the same period we are, but they are returning to Australia this weekend, while we have a few more adventures left.

Dubrovnik is a resort town, which was contrary to (my apparently ill-informed) opinions. There is really only one tourist attraction here: the Old Town. This is not to down play at all how cool the old town is, but the rest of the town is just a town. The coffee has continued to brighten our trip though. They really know how to make coffee well around this part of the world. We spent the first day tending to washing and having a look around. We woke up at 10am, ate breakfast at lunchtime, and watched a pleasantly peaceful sunset before turning in for the night. We woke to the steady patter on the tent of rain. Despite this we went ahead with our plans to look around Old Town with our friends Muncey and Emma. Coffee and Ice-Creams ensued. The wall around the city has great views and was definitely a highlight for me. We took a leisurely walk home around the coast. When we got home Jodi really felt like a cup of tea, but we had no apparatus for boiling water. I went and introduced myself to a nearby couple of campers if they had anything I could boil with. Unfortunately they didn't, but it turned out they were aussies as well, and had a great time (without tea) talking late into the night. Apparently Griffith in NSW was (and maybe still is) the mafia capital of Australia. The woman said that she has seen Ferraris driving down the street in Griffith with L plates!

Unfortunately the rain has persisted today, and according to the BBC, doesn't look like clearing before we leave. Apparently we are also in for more inclement conditions in Rome. On a positive note, Muncey and Emma said that we can have their ponchos that Emma's Mum gave them because they won't need them because they're going home. Thanks Guys! We didn't feel like packing up all our stuff tomorrow in the rain immediately prior to our departure so we packed up today and relocated our residence to a more permanent (and water-proof) residence. The rain has given a subdued mood to our stay in Dubrovnik but we are enjoying ourselves, and just enjoying hanging around. I might not end up getting into the Adriatic Sea though. Too bad.

I will put photos on soon, and some of them are alright too. But Jo has nicked off with the camera right at the moment.

Rome was seen in a day @ Rome, Italy

2007-05-06T14:29:00.000Z

Tim: It may not have been built in day, but we saw what we feel are the important things, in a day. If we didn't see it, it probably wasn't very interesting anyway. We arrived in Rome without trouble and walked from the train station to our accommodation, which is conveniently close. There are no staff permanently at the accommodation, so you nominate a check-in time and they meet you there then. Apparently our check-in time of 7am was too early, because check-out is at 11am, but they didn't tell us that. So we put our packs into left luggage and went to look at all the 'old stuff'. The ruins of the Roman Fora are little understandable without a guide of some sort. 'So what is this pile of rubble?... Ah I see. And what is this other pile of rubble?' etc. That is not to say that we didn't enjoy it. I just like taking the piss. The colosseum was much more self-explanatory.

At 11am we went to check-in, but they had double booked our room. So they paid the difference and we stayed in a more expensive place down the corridor. The rooms were fine but nothing to write home about. After we dropped our stuff off we headed out for lunch. We couldn't find either of the places we were looking for but had lunch in an enornous park called Villa Borghese. In the morning when we were near the colosseum I saw some peddle powered carts and thought that looked like a good way to see a lot of the city in one go. So we hired one. I think they are the best thing since sliced bread, and Jodi can't complain because she lets me do most of the peddling. It wasn't clear to us where we were and weren't allowed to go, so we just went anywhere. Some streets looked like they had been closed to cars for the day, but then occassionally we suddenly ended up in traffic. We were even sitting at a set of lights once. We didn't get stopped by the police though. I think it was a roaring success. Jo had fun too.

After a short rest and returning our transport we went to St. Peter's Basilica. It is massive! Absolutely enormous! I wonder how much it cost to build. It was finished some time near 1650. For more details go to wikipedia.org or interact.cornerstone.edu.au and look for a thread called Les and Carmels Excellent adventure on a forum called the dunny door. The sun and clouds were obliging and we got some great photos.

We are running a competition. There is a photo attached to this entry of Jodi amongst a big crowd of people on the Spanish Steps. For those of you who don't know what the Spanish Steps are or what they look like, it is a photo of a lot of people sitting on some steps. The first to post a comment to this blog entry, correctly describing where Jodi is in the photo gets a souvenir of their nomination from one of the countries still left on our itinerary.

The 300km homestretch! @ Vernazza, Italy

2007-05-11T05:56:00.000Z

We travelled from Rome to Cinque Terra and stayed in a tiny village on the north western coast of Italy. The name of the area literally means 5 lands, 5 little villages hugging the cliffs on the mediterrenean. It was beautiful and we were tired, so we spent most of the day sitting by the water, eating gelati, reading. We arrived in the evening and were told that the tourist info would be able to to help us find a place so we went straight there and asked about accommodation.´
`No´ was the reply.
No what? No accommodation available, no, you can´t help us, no, you don´t understand our question?
Is nothing available?
Well, I don´t know, I´ll have to call someone.
She called, found a bed and breakfast that was way about our price range. We told her thank you very much but we´ll stroll the streets looking for a place with 'camere' written by the door.
It was a great idea, adventurous, interacting with the culture. The only problem was that the only person who answered there door was a lady who said, 'No room.'
We decided that I (Jodi) would sit in the square, enjoying the view and watching the people go by (and our stuff) while Tim walked around the steep village knocking on doors. He came back, not too long later, with a very confident, 'I have been successful' walk and announced that he had found something - a single room, he would sleep on the floor. It was also way above our price range, but we weren´t to know that this was the going rate in Cinque Terra. If anyone´s thinking of going to Italy, go to Croatia!

Stayed one night, missed the last train to Milan so stayed in Genoa a night and caught the early morning train to Milan the next day, bus to airport, plane to Madrid, metro to bus station, bus to Leon and a short walk to our hostel. phew!

Leon, Spain @ Leon, Spain

2007-05-11T06:20:00.000Z

We really like Leon. It´s a smallish old town with friendsly people who don´t speak english. We´ve spent the day finding info about the walk to Santiago (which, we discovered, is 300kms away from here, not 200!), washing, coffee, enjoying staying in a place two nights instead of one because we don´t have to check out by 10!
So from here we probably won´t have heaps of internet access. We´ll be walking an average of 23km over 13 days along a track over 1000 years old. http://www.santiago-compostela.net/ is a site with information about each stage with photos if you´re interested.
Please pray for safety, not too much sore feet or other muscles and for rich experiences along the way. Thanks

Day One @ Villadangos del Paramo, Spain

2007-05-12T02:51:00.000Z

Friday 11th of May
Weather: fine and a little hot
Dsitance: 22km
Start: Leon
Finish: Villadangos

We left late because we were posting stuff in Leon. That worked well. Many thanks to Hannah who wrote a short note in Spanish to help us explain our intentions to the staff at the Post Office. We missed our turn (because of discrepencies in the map) for the new path of the Camino, which is away from the road, and followed the old and still in use path along the road. We are both really tired but didn't feel like it was too hard. The Albergue is nice and we are starting on our Spanish Book.

Bloody Hard Work! @ Astorga, Spain

2007-05-13T02:45:00.000Z

Saturday 12th of May
Weather: fine and a little warm
Distance: 27km
Start: Villadangos
Finsh: Astorga

I woke up and could hardly walk. My right foot is killing me, and nothing else hurts. Jodi's blisters were making life difficult for her too. It was nice to get away from the road today. We passed some really beautiful countryside today. It wasn't spectacular, but we loved it. A bit like the difference between women that you would describe as stunning or beautiful. At one town we stopped to chuck out anything we could afford to do without. We were struggling and we needed to lighten our load. We even chucked out the Polish packet mix dessert and our hot chocolate. There was some grieving but we don't regret anything.

Up the Mountain @ Rabanal del Camino, Spain

2007-05-14T02:39:00.000Z

Sunday the 13th of May
Weather: winding and active. 'lively'
Distance: 19.5km
Start: Astorga
Finish: Rabanal Del Camino

The incline was so gentle that we didn't feel that we earned the altitude that we achived (somewhere between 1300 and 1500 metres). The town is pretty, the albegue is good, and the weather was great to watch. We had a great lunch at a place that had a fireplace and was called 'Cowboy House'. Jodi got a pilgrim stamp there to prove it.

Snow! @ Molinaseca, Spain

2007-05-15T02:32:00.000Z

Monday 14th of May
Weather: Think of Scotland
Distance: 27km
Start: Rabanal del Camino
Finish: Molinaseca

We splashed out and stayed in a double room and had dinner at a restaurant. We left at 7am in the morning (the earliest start we have yet achieved) in rain and wind, and had breakfast in a town called Foncebadon. While we were inside enjoying our breakfast it started snowing outside! For the rest of most of the walk we were walking in fog until we descended from the mountain. The 'standard' trip was 32km but we decided to do less and for the next few days we will be stopping at towns that are 'halfway'. Hopefully it will be easy to get beds because there might a few less people in these towns (not that we have had any trouble).

Cacabelos Albergue is the best one we have seen yet @ Cacabelos, Spain

2007-05-16T02:24:00.000Z

Tuesday 15th of May
Weather: Fair and Temperate
Distance: 25km
Start: Molinaseca
Finish: Cacabelos

Walked through Ponferrada and ran into our friends from England, Martin and Hannah. A somewhat unremarkable day. Had a nice rest in a little wood by a creek. Jodi wandered off while I was buying lunch and we couldn't find each other for a while. Fuentas Nuevas and Camponaraya were the stereotype of what I thought Spain would be like before I had ever seen it.

Brazilian Albergue @ Vega de Valcarce, Spain

2007-05-17T00:50:00.000Z

Wednesday 16th of May
Weather: fair and temperate
Distance: about 25km
Start: Cacabelos
Finish: Vega De Calcarce

Got in the earliest we have so far and have just been sitting around chatting. We wanted to get here early so we could rest well for tomorrow: we start the day with a long steep climb.

Perserverence has its rewards @

2007-05-17T14:12:00.000Z

Thursday 17th of May
Weather:
Distance:
Start: Vega Del Valcarce
Finish: Fanfria

There was another big hill to climb today, but this one was much steeper than the last. The views on the way up were great and the hill didn't wear us out as much as we thought it would. We got to our planned destination and decided that we didn't like the look of the Albergue (it was at Alto Do Poio), so we decided to press on to Fanfria. The Albergue there wa great and we payed a bit extra to stay in our own double room instead of the dorm. We met another aussie from Brisbane that we met there. We also made the worst dinner that we have had on our whole trip. We will post the recipe on the blog if anyone is interested.

Fantastic Lonely Forests @

2007-05-18T14:21:00.000Z

Friday the 18th of May
Weather:
Distance:
Start: Fanfria
Finish: Calvor
After walking down the mountainside to Triacastela, we had a choice to either take a short route that was more hilly, or a longer route that was flatter. Also, there is an old and famous Monastery along the short route. We decided to take the hilly route because it was shorter and also means a shorter walk for tomorrow. The forests and hills were enchanting, especially so because we were all alone.

Loooong Day @

2007-05-19T14:26:00.000Z

Saturday 19th of May
Weather:
Distance:
Start: Calvor
Finish: Portomarin
The first town that we walked through is a common starting point for pilgrims because it is the last town on the Camino that is more than 100km from Santiago. It was a nice town. The countryside was nice today. We were very tired by the time we got to Portomarin. We stayed in the Municipale Albergue (we have been the last few nights) and a had a good value 'Menu Peregrino' at a local restaurant. We splashed out and bought some 2and1 shampoo and conditioner for Jodi.

Walking With Walter @

2007-05-20T14:33:00.000Z

Sunday 20th of May
Weather:
Distance:
Start: Portomarin
Finish: Palas De Rei
Spent all day walking with a high school art teacher from Austria named Walter.

Wet Day @

2007-05-21T14:35:00.000Z

Monday 21st of May
Weather: Drizzly
Distance:
Start: Palas De Rei
Finsh: Ribadiso
Made a very late start from town because we had to wait for the shops to open. It was wet enough to make it worthwhile buying a rainjacket for Jodi. The Albergue here is said to be one of the most beautiful on the trail, and it is very nice.

Perserverence pays again @

2007-05-22T14:39:00.000Z

Tuesday 22nd of May
Weather:
Distance:
Start: Ribadiso
Finsh: Lavacolla
We

The Final Stage @

2007-05-23T14:41:00.000Z

Wednesday 23rd of May
Weather: varying, drizzly
Distance:
Start: Lavacolla
Finsh: SANTIAGO
The vibe in town was a bit anticlimactic. Picking up our stuff from the Post Office was fun and we got some strange looks. We also got to meet the famous 'Pura' from Western Australia. More about her later...