Choose another map, showing:

• Greenland
• Eurasia
• Eurasia, Africa & Pacific
• The World

Other entries in Moscow

The most goppin hostel in the world

We arrived in Moscow at 8am on saturday morning, after a failry good nights kip on the train, to bright sunshine!!   We had earlier been speaking to a Russian guy called Valery (as in Karpin - all those champ man lovers), as he was in our cabin on the train.  He offerred to show us round Moscow later with his girlfriend if we wanted, so we accepted (meaning we dont have to pay for a tour this time).  We arranged to meet at midday at the Kremlin metro station.

But before we went off sight seeing, we had the task of finding our hostel/hotel that i had booked when we are in the UK (thanks to the NSK fax machine).  We managed to find the place pretty easily, even though it is miles out of town and took about 45 minutes.  On first impressions, we thought it looked a tad grubby as it was situated on 3 floors of a big apartment block in South-east moscow.  We booked ourselves in and registered our visa's (pain in the arse thing that every foreigner in Russia has to do) and trudged off to our room.  Now Anna was already grumpy, as her mosquito bites itched like hell and she could hardly open her left eye due to one of them......but when we saw the room, she actuallycried!!!! ha ha ha ha.  I nearly wet myself laughing trying to persuade her that this wasnt the worst hotel in the world.  The shared bathroom was flooded,the toliet was minging, and the room was like something from the dark ages!  Nevertheless, i persuaded her that it wasnt as bad as first seemd and that we should go and meet our new friend Valery just to get out of this place!!

We arrived at the Krmelin metro station 20 minutes late, and couldnt find Valery for the life of us. Turns out there are three Kremlin metro stations next to each other, serving different coloured lines.  When we finally met up with Valery and his girlfreind Katarina, they went off to buy us tickets to get in to the Kremlin - as it costs 2 quid for Russians to get in and 20 quid for tourists!!! sly bastards.  We got to the turnstiles and, myself obviously being far to gorgeous to be Russian, the bloke started asking me questions in Russian.  So i turned out my entire Russian vocabulary, "da" meaning yes, "nyet" meaning no, and "spaseeba" meaning thanks.  Needless to say, this didnt stick with the tosser on the turnstiles, so i had to go back and buy a full price ticket....

We finally entered the Krmelin (after i got shouted at by another Russian Policeman for no reason), and to be honest, i was reallydissapointed with the place!  I got the impression from what i had read about the place that it was huge and spectacular. Well, it really wasnt.  Basicallyit is just a few funny looking russian style churches where the Tsars (Kings) were buried and the government buildings.....great..... I could have had not one, but TWO family feasts from KFC for the price I paid to get into that place!!!

We then went to the Red Square, which was refreshingly impressive and free...I hope to uploadsome photos soon.  Red Square is also home to Lenin's Mausoleum...meaning you can pay to go and see Lenin's preserved body, as you can see Mao Tse-tung in Beijing and Ho Chi Minh in Ho Chi Minh!  Unfortunately, were too late to see this, and the likelihood was that we wouldnt get too see it as they have crappy opening times.  But then i suppose, i dont really care about seeing a dead body that much!

After picking up my train tickets to Irkutsk in Siberia, we headed off to get some food at a mongolian barbeque called Olki-Palki.  Basically, you just fill a bowl with all of the raw ingredients you wouldlike for your meal and then take it over to these blokes wh\ith a hot plate and they cook the beast up for you using two big sticks.  The food was tres good if not a bit expensive.  We finished eating at about 7pm and were cream crackered, so we made our way back to the hostel and proceeded to watch really crap tv until we passed out.  Oh and this gave me the chance to wash my clothes for the first time in two weeks!!!  God knows how 4 pairs of pants lasted 2 weeks!!

Both me and Anna got the impression we dont really like Moscow that much, so im a bit miffed that i have another 2 days here before getting on a train for 78 hours.  Anna however, is flying back to London on Sunday, and i think she is happy after staying in this shit hole......

P.s.  I have some bad news - I wont be travleiing to Novosibirsk to see the Liger (half tiger, half lion), as the train tickets would have cost about 100USD more and the cheapest accomodation was 130 USD per night.  If i was minted, then i would have gone, but unfortunately i am on a bit of a budget, so maybe next time!?!?!

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "The most goppin hostel in the world":