Russia bound!

Sorry for the lack of posts, we've not been good about posting new pics and blog lately since all of our internet time is inevitably trying to sort out logistics. We spent about 5 days in Krakow doing just that, and it seems it never ends.

So, preparations for Russia have been difficult to say the least.
Just getting to Russia without going through Belarus is likely to drive a person mad. Belarus requires a visa. Its expensive, and needs to be arranged in advanced (no purchasing visas at the boarder) Trying to figure out which trains avoid it was tricky.

Not to mention, a few weeks ago, we had thought we had found a good Russian tour company who would buy our tickets from Moscow to Ulaan Bataar for us, but as the days progressed realized the service we expect in the States is NOTHING like the rest of the world, and had to give up hope that they would be able to do it for us. In reading how fast those ticket sell out, we decided getting to Russia ASAP would drastically increase our chances of getting on the train we wanted.

So, we left Krakow and took a train to Warsaw. That seems simple. It was simple. Get on a train at 1:30am and arrive in Warsaw at 6:30am. At 5:00am I wake up to see a few people exiting the train at a stop and start to panic that we have missed our stop. Despite the fact that our stop is in WARSAW- the end of the line. A person thinking clearly would say, "This is not Warsaw because the train has not completely stopped and we are in the middle of a cornfield!"- but no, I was convinced. As I ask people (none of which speak English) I conclude that nevermind that there are cornfields as far as the eye can see, WE ARE IN WARSAW! We need to get off! Brent wakes up to my "we need to get off!!!" grabs his stuff and we jump off the train as it begins to move toward Warsaw. Once we get off and get a clearer picture of the situation its desperately obvious I had made a HUGE mistake. We were in a farming village far removed from civilization. I started to cry. Three men were on the train platform. Brent asked if we were in Warsaw and they all pointed to our train as it disappeared out of sight. We "asked" when the next train may be (they know no english and we know no Polish) they pointed at the train currently sitting there and wrote 7:45 on a piece of paper. I sat on the bench and cried as Brent tried to console me. We would definately miss our 7:23 connection. We sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. We had spent all our polish currency, since we were leaving Poland that day, and so even if there WAS a train we could not pay for it. All of a sudden the train behind us started to pull away!!! What!?! 7;45?! it was 6:30! I ran after it trying to push a button for the door to open, ...it screeched to a halt. We jumped on. We didnt know how we'd pay for it, or where it was exactly going, but it was taking us away from the cornfield, and thats all I cared about. When the ticket guy came around, I gave him our tickets from Krakow, and he punched it! What luck! So we rode all the way to Warsaw.

However, following in the same theme, the train we were on did not stop at the stop we needed. Bt the time we realized it we were two stops beyond our stop, and with no currency to buy a metro pass, we decided we would try our luck with giving ourselves a free ride back to our stop. We didnt get caught, but had to spend the night in Warsaw. We left the next morning with our original ticket (which could be used the following day!) .

What a fiasco! I am a freak!

So, from Warsaw we went to a tiny town in Lithania called Sestokai and from there to Vilnius, Lithuania. We stayed two nights in Vilnius, and then left for Riga, Latvia and then from Riga to St Petersburg. PHEW! We are tired and spent, but glad we made it here finally. We spent today purchasing our tickets which leave Moscow on the 8th, arriving in Mongolia on the 13th. That should be quite a ride.

Tomorrow- The Hermitage Museum!

Researching Asia in Krakow, Poland

Have been in Krakow for about 6 days now. Found a great hostel with free internet and a really nice big kitchen. So nice to be able to cook a nice meal. Using the free internet to accomplish a bunch of "to-do's" we have concerning the next few months. We are finding out quickly that travel through Russia, Mongolia, Central China, and Tibet is not going to be easy.

Spent a day at Auschwitz/Birkenau. A truly eye-opening, life-changing experience. Hard to contemplate how horrific it all was.

Planning to leave Poland tonight. We've spend 8 days now in Krakow, which is the longest we've stayed in any one place so far. Taking the night train to Vilnius, Lithuania. Spend a day or two there and then on to St. Petersburg, Russia!

Oh, BTW, we made it into print in Germany! Weeks ago, a German journalist interviewed us (very briefly) about our Greece sailing trip as well as how we hooked up with the boat. See link below (helps if you can read German!).
http://www.spiegel.de/reise/fernweh/0,1518,496768,00.html

Saving $ in Slovakia

Continuing north, we decided to lay low in Slovakia. We've been camping in cheesey auto-camp places to save money....an attempt to make up for the huge China visa expense. We are in northern Slovakia, near the Tatras mountains. Beautiful rugged mountains, but have been ruined with too many gondolas, electric trains, and general over-tourism. In fact, in general, Slovakia is a very beautiful country, but it seems the people/government have decided to capitalize on it a bit too much, without any thought to mantaining a "nature" experience. Too bad.

Our budget is back on track and we are now planning our travels to Poland.

Congratulations Jason and Kelly!!!

Chasing the China Visa, Montenegro, Serbia, Hungary

First off, we had done lots of research previous to attempting the application process and felt we shouldn't have a problem. Afterall, we successfully got a Russian visa, and those are supposed to be harder to get.

So, as I mention in the previous blog, we had already tried the China Consulate in Podgorica, Montenegro. No luck. The voice in the intercom said we must be Montenegran citizens.
After Zablak/Durmitor we headed to Belgrade, Serbia, hoping they would do it for non Serbs. Of course, none of this info is online. You must just go to the embassy in person and ask. Forget about trying to call ahead and ask - you'd be lucky if you can figure out how to call across the street, let alone another country. Even if you did discover the secret to using the local phones, the language barrier makes it impossible.

So, after a horrendously long bus ride, we were in Belgrade, Serbia. We head straight to the China Embassy first thing. Amazing how loud and unorganized it was. People shouting and shoving. After waiting "in line" (the Serbs know nothing of the concept of waiting your turn in a line), we were asked by a Chinese Embassy employee, "where is your invitation letter?". What invitation letter?! None of the requirements we've read say anything about an invite letter. Come to find out, they also wanted a copy of an official residency card and proof of employment from the Chinese citizen who is doing the inviting. Wow. We turn to my friend Guang in Portland, who has a brother living in China. Generously, they are willing to help (thanks again Guang). In the meantime, while communicating with Guang (every email/response takes a day) and waiting for his brother's documents, we decide to try our luck with another embassy....this time Budapest, Hungary. Who knows, perhaps each embassy has different requirements. But we can't simply take our time getting there because we've found that embassies only accept visas 3 days/week and we are nearing the end of that week. So, after a night train ride, we are in Budapest, Hungary (same country in which we started the trip over 3 months earlier). We head straight to the China embassy. Long-story-long, we apply (without all the invite stuff), and they accepted our application! The embassy guy charged us an extra fee which he called an "American special treatment charge". He was smiling, and I think may have even winked at me while saying it. We also paid a small fortune to get the visa processed that same day, instead of the typical 6 day waiting period. We were happy to pay it. What a headache and a relief to be finished.

So, now we have both our Russian and Chinese Visas in our passports....all ready for Asia!

Zabjak/Durmitor NP, Montenegro

Been looking forward to writing this blog, cause this area is one of my favorites. I'm a bit late, we were actually in Durmitor starting 7/3/07.

We left Kotor (which was great, highly recommended) and headed to Podogorica (the capitol of Montenegro). Or mission....to find a wedding card for my good friends Jason and Kelly and try to apply for a Chinese visa at the China Consulate. Found a card! Wow they make those things hard to open...all sorts of folds and ribbons. As for the visa, we went straight to the consulate and the woman on the intercom said nope, sorry, can't do that here. Perhaps Belgrade, Serbia.
We considered staying in this town until we looked around and the cheapest hotel we could find was for $45/person....way over our budget.

So, we moved on to Zabjak, a small mountain town just outside of Durmitor National Park. I was there 10 years earlier and loved it and always hoped I'd make it back there some day. The place has changed some over the years....it's definitely more of a tourist destination now. We stayed in a woman's spare room and prepared for our hike into the park. The plan, a 4 day loop deep into the park around Bobotov Tuk (the highes mountain). The only problem, no stove fuel. If you've followed the blog in the past, you know we have a homemade pop-can alcohol stove. In some countries, alcohol is treated like a controlled substance and you can only buy small quantities at a pharmacy. In others, you can buy a big bottle of it over the counter. In Zabjak, neither cases were true. We couldn't find it anywhere! People look at you funny when you ask for a liter of the most flammable liquid they have. I did find kerosene and nail polish remover (acetone), but after doing some trial runs with my pop-can stove, I found that kerosene isn't flammable enough, and acetone is too flammable. Seems like a big hassle to find fuel, but camping just isn't as fun when you can't cook. After two days of looking, we got a tip that the local hospital may have some alcohol. At the hospital, a nice woman gave us a bottle of ethynol (close enough) for free. We were on the trail headed up into the park an hour later.

A few hours up the trail, we ran into the same goat herder I had met years earlier. Pretty weird. His hands are still twice the size of mine. It looked as though his main source of income had changed some over the years. Now, he makes $ by one of the following methods:
1) Scaring backpackers who pass by into staying in one of his guest huts, telling them they will get a ticket if caught camping in a tent (officially, camping is not allowed in the park, but that doesn't stop everyone from doing it).
2) Bringing you milk straight from his goat's tits (warm, good, and gross all at the same time) and yummy homemade cheese made from the same milk. At first you think he's just being kind and welcoming, until his incessant staring as you finish the last piece of cheese tips you off to his true plan.
We said goodbye to the man, 1 euro poorer and scared we were about to get sick from the milk and all the unknown nasty that accompanied it in the mug.

We found that the only other people in the park were Czechs. Now,the thing about Czechs (well, atleast the male anyway) is that they love to get naked and swim in the mountain lakes. The problem with this is, the mountain lakes were not prestine beautiful lakes, but nasty cow-toilet watering holes. This didn't stop the Czechs. Leah and I watched with amazement....Leah especially considering they were butt naked. I think she got a peep show everyday of the trip!

On day 3 we did the mother of all climbs. Close to 1900ft elevation gain in 1.5km! This took close to 3 hours to complete. 3 hours to hike less than 1 mile! If that wasn't tough enough, no water sources were expected for the rest of the day (or the following morning for that matter), so we (Leah mostly) carried 3.5 liters of water up the mountain....a lot of extra weight. We made it, and were greeted by cows at the top....very weird.

Overall, I'd say we had a fantastic time in the park. I took a million photos, which you can see on our Flickr link. The lack of water and the official no camping policy (which made us feel like we had to sneak) was a bit of a pain. I'm happy to report, the pop-can stove ran like a champ!

Breathtaking Montenegro

Here we are in Montenegro. We took a bus to Kotor and were met at the bus station by a man that offered us a room. We are usually more receptive to these types of offers, since they usually have a certain authentic quality to them. This time we wanted to make sure to stay in a place that we liked, since we had seen pictures of Kotor, and knew we would want to spend some time here. On total faith we agreed to go see his room, he said it was a 4 minute walk. He led us through the bus station part of town, and then we started to approach this big wall area. I thought it was a shortcut to his room, since it looked like a fortress, but as we walked I realized that people live and have businesses in this fortress! It was called the old city, and it is completely walled in with huge fortress walls. He led us to a rock house on the inner perimeter that backs up against the mountain. It was a neat room with cooking facilities, and felt really comfortable. We agreed to take it. Turns out it was close to everything we wanted to do in Kotor.

That next morning at 6 am (its much cooler then) we climbed the fortress up to the top. It had breathtaking views of the fijord and the mountains. Absolutely amazing, and with lots of history. The next morning at 7 am we started climbing an old road that supposedly snaked into inner Montenegro. We will never know if thats true since after about 3 hours of hiking, I would not go on. Every 5-10 feet there was a spider web that stretched over the trail with HUGE tiger looking spiders hanging out in the center. I have never considered myself girly or nervous around wildlife, but these freaked me out. Their bodies were the size of two dimes and with their legs they reached ghastly proportions. Brent agreed to humor me, and we decided to hike around to the valley behind the fortress instead and hung out there for the rest of the afternoon- spider free. I picked berries from a tree which were really sweet, a nice treat for later that day. The next days were relaxing and enjoyable, just hanging out in the quaint little town.

Next "not-so-relaxing" item on the agenda- Getting our CHINESE VISAS!