A Baltic boating adventure TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 11/19 - Page 76 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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It was several years ago. Not included with the recent uptick in horrific events.
edited to add: I found the date was 29 Dec 2013. There were also metro bombings in Moscow in 2010 and Minsk in 2011.
Ah yes, now those I remember. I was assuming (wrongly I guess) that it was something recent, as sadly there seems to have been so much happening recently along those lines over this side of the pond.
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This sounds like a bit of a stressful morning, especially with your driver not being particularly communicative. It would have made me very nervous, as I'm not used to the trains and have a NEED to know what's going on.
It was certainly not as stress free as I'd have liked....
Goodness, the Russians are very strict and picky about some stuff (e.g. which door of the train you can enter), and then negligent with the scanners going off for everyone. A bit scary! I'm thinking I would be a nervous wreck, never knowing what to expect.
Goodness, the Russians are very strict and picky about some stuff (e.g. which door of the train you can enter), and then negligent with the scanners going off for everyone. A bit scary! I'm thinking I would be a nervous wreck, never knowing what to expect.
You're right about them being very particular about some things and I suspect that's something to do with their culture, but you're right about them being lax on other things - I hadn't thought of that.
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Sunday 12 June – part three: this is boring with a capital b…
We got woken up an hour into the journey, as we were coming into our first stop at Chudovo. I couldn't believe how people literally walk across the tracks to get to the train. That would just never happen at home.
As we carried on, the day seemed to get more and more misty and murky. It wasn't looking good...
About halfway through the journey, the weather got a lot worse, and it started to tip with rain, as we approached our second stop of the journey and the last one before Moscow - Bologoe. It seemed to be situated on a lake, from what we could see.
The scenery was now exceptionally boring, and I mean with a capital b. There had been no cow sightings, and frankly there had been no sheep, pig, horse or anything else sightings either. It seemed to all be forest. No doubt deep in there a bear or two lurked, but we had no sightings of them either. I will be honest, at this point, I was thinking today was going to be something of a bust, and I did wonder what we were doing. Yes, I'd always wanted to visit Moscow, but not with the main sights closed and it tipping with rain.
At least they came around to sell souvenirs, and I was able to get a fridge magnet with the train on it as a momento of our very boring journey. It was 200 Russian rubles, so I handed over 500, and the girl didn't have change. She looked at my other notes and as they were all either 500, which was what she'd already got, or 100, she told us she'd come back with change. Here's hoping...!
Thankfully, she was as good as her word and my 300 Russian rubles change came back a little later.
Outside, something amazing was happening. The rain had stopped, and first we spotted a tiny bit of blue in the sky...
... and then it spread and something bright appeared in the sky. I think it could be called the sun, but sssh don't say it too loudly, just in case we scare it away!
With the change in weather, and the fact that we were further through our still relatively dull and boring journey, my mood started to improve. Now all I needed to make me really happy was a you-know-what sighting, but so far, there was no sign of that happening.
About 10:00am, we did the restroom stop, which was at the end of our car, and it was fine. Yes, it's an interesting experience using a restroom on a high speed train, but it's no different to say on the Eurostar between England and France or the Shinkansen in Japan.
We then passed what looked like a massive lake...
.. and it was here that it started to dramatically cloud over again. Ugh!
Soon we were starting to come into the outskirts of Moscow, at least that's what we thought, given we only had about 25 minutes of our journey left. However, it did seem to sprawl in a very odd way. One minute you'd have loads of buildings, like any city, the next you'd have some open space. Not what I expected at all.
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Weather effects our moods so much more greatly on vacations, I think. No exception here! In any event, the photos are still worthwhile, interesting actually! The one with the town is cuter than I imagined. And people walking across the tracks is indeed nuts!
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Weather effects our moods so much more greatly on vacations, I think. No exception here!
Definitely!
Quote:
In any event, the photos are still worthwhile, interesting actually! The one with the town is cuter than I imagined. And people walking across the tracks is indeed nuts!
I'm glad I took the photos, and the only problem with trip report writing as you go is that you do get the raw emotions as you feel them at the time. If I went back later and wrote it up, I'm sure you wouldn't get as much of the frustration and boredom coming through in my writing.
I'm glad I took the photos, and the only problem with trip report writing as you go is that you do get the raw emotions as you feel them at the time. If I went back later and wrote it up, I'm sure you wouldn't get as much of the frustration and boredom coming through in my writing.
Oh I wouldn't say it's a problem about TR writing, I'd say it's a benefit! How else would you remember those emotions if you don't write it down right away?
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Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
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I'm thinking I would be a nervous wreck, never knowing what to expect.
It wasn't looking good... 
It was 200 Russian rubles, so I handed over 500, and the girl didn't have change. She looked at my other notes and as they were all either 500, which was what she'd already got, or 100, she told us she'd come back with change. Here's hoping...! 
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