Moscow + Only Orange

MOSCOW
So, we arrived in Europe, Russia, Moscow. When we arrived at the train station, we were going to get fetched by the owners of the apartment, but they could not find us and where not at the platform as promised. They also did not call us (we had a Russian Sim-card) or maybe they didn't want to find us but anyway we stood there waiting for 2 hrs. So we had a good impression of the Russian people who are travelling on Friday afternoon. A lot of them had beer or other drinks in their hands. We had a Central located apartment opposite Starbucks, a luxury grocery shop and a delicious ice-cream salon. We had 4 days in the city and they went fast, every day was different. My father found that Moscow had not changed a lot, like Beijing or Buenos Aires. But still not a lot of people speak English, no English signs in the Metro, not helpful to assist. The city is beautiful with great history, many statue, different types of buildings (old new - red, blue, gold, green, pink) and museums. We went to many sight seeings such as Arbat street where we saw a lot of graffiti on walls

The prices were like in Australia, R15 (Euro 1,5) for an apple and a jar of jam costs 200 Russian Roebel 200 (E 40/R 40). The weather was sunny but sometimes it rained for 3-5 hrs and then it was sunny again. We went to the Red Square, the St Basil's Cathedral, but because of the holidays on the 12 of June the main square was closed for preparations and rehearsals of a play. We were planning to go to see the change of the Guards and we had 1 hour from to take only 3 stops incl 1 swap of underground line, but this was not enough. We reached the first station, where we had to change lines, we asked people, but nearly nobody speaks English and everything on the sign boards is in Russian script (Cyrillic), it was rather challenging. Some people pointed out to take the escalator and than we were standing outside iso on the platform for line 1. We had to go in again and pay again and came via 3 other platforms again at the exit and were standing outside again. Because of all the in and out into the underground racing against the time, we did not have time enough to look at the beautiful ceilings, the old sculptures and the many big statues in the subway. It was almost like a museum.

When we only had 15 minutes left till 12.00 o'clock we decided to take a Taxi. On the street you only have to stand there and many cars will stop for you and ask where we want to go. These were illegal people who drive around to make some money. No English either, but "Kremlin" they understood.
We arrived 2 minutes too late at the change of the guards, but some American tourists said it was not so 'dramatic' as described in the guide-book. We also went to see the St. Basel's Cathedral. It was a beautiful, big, tall, colorful cathedral. We walked a lot to see as much as possible of Moscow and besides that the metro/subway was not for us with all the difficult writing. Most of the people we met on the streets in Moscow were not very helpful. Only the younger students could speak English and wanted to help us. The other spectacular thing we did is taking a river cruise around Moscow and we past old building, beautiful parks and the Cathedral and Kremlin again. Now we saw it from the other side. But most interesting of all was the historical Museum of Russia. The museum had many rooms with displays of the old history of Russia, the Tsar, the Russian Revolution, the WWI and II and many other things. Because the rooms were full of interesting statues, paintings, old furniture, weapons, flags, guns, dresses etc we had not enough time to see everthing. Also there were no visitors in the museum, we were the only ones!?????

The last day we were in Moscow we saw the first European soccer game Netherlands - Denmark in the Manhatten Restaurant with all the Dutchies living in Moscow. Unfortunately there was no party afterwards because we lost. We were ready to support them live in Ukraine........

ONLY ORANGE

We got on the train (by Metro and this time it went smoothly). There were more Dutch supporters going to Kharkov which is close to the Russian border. We slept in the train and arrived the next morning in Kharkov, UKRAINE!!! While we were driving to the apartment the owners -two builders- showed us the cosy center of the nice town with 1.5 million people. We arrived at our apartment, which was not really a normal apartment, but very dark and with a massage table in the middle and mirrors around. The paintings were with romantic couples on it and the curtains were made from see-through satin. We had a strange feeling, but the owners where very friendly and went out of their way to make us feel welcome. All with a translator, because English again was not spoken. It was also very central so after leaving our suitcases there we went to the FanZone to prepare ourselves for the game Holland - Germany. Slowly the whole city turned into Orange and everywhere there were Dutch Orange fans. There was even a snackbar on the market with 'broodje kroket' (a Dutch traditional snack). Soon the Fan Zone was crowded and after the performance of the famous DJ Armin van Buuren we walked for more than an hour in the Orange Mars to the Stadium. It was a big happening and the Ukrainians all came to see us and take photographs of all the crazy Dutch fans. We sang many Dutch songs and we walked with the drummer and a trompet player. This way we could not loose eachother in the crowd and it was also much fun. Every 15 minutes everyone kneeled on the ground with their right hand on their chest and the trumpet player (Lucien Vroomen) and the Drummer (Herman Coenen) played the National Anthem of Ukraine. Many people in the audience started singing and many of them started crying hearing their Song and appreciating the Dutch fans playing it for them. It was like we thanked them for organizing the game and being the host of the games. In the stadium the party was on....we could stand next to the famous Orange Indian and the man with the Cup. Everyone around us was cheering and singing and the fans were going crazy. But on the field it went wrong. Steven was in tears of  course and on the way back a lot of the Orange fans supported and comforted him because there were not many kids in the stadium. We arrived late and slept long to forget the scores.

Steven and dad tired of the game

After 2 days we went to the Orange Camping. It is really an orange camping with many orange tents where all the 1000 fans sleep. We thought we would get a small orange tent but luckily we got a large family tent where all the suitcases fitted inside. There are many many things to do and my favourite was on the small beach going into the lake.


THANX

You don't just see zebras's in Africa

Loes