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

6 days in a "choo - choo"

6 days in the Trans Siberian express ( choo - choo ) form Beijing to Moscow.

I cannot believe it is June already. This means we are half way through our World Trip.  It has gone so fast! We   have left Asia and arrived in Europe - Russia/Moscow.  

 We have been in China for 2 months and remember this was my fathers choice, but I am certainly coming back to Beijing to learn more Chinese and to enjoy the fast and confusing life. The Chinese are so kind and helpful. There are many things to do and to discover. We have already done so much, but we're not finished. We loved eating noodles with chopsticks and with the locals. We felt very safe, never a moment of
unsafety. I will also miss all the sports we did, every early morning exercising with Steven and to see the people doing tai chi Mom will miss her weekly Pilates class on Wednesday and I miss playing hockey with my friend Sean. Before he left for London to go and study he lived in the same complex as us. Steven will miss playing soccer with Sunny who also became a friend he visited to play and ate Chinese traditional food (cooked by his Sunny's grandmother). By the way..the Chinese also play a different type of soccer; it is a small heavy piece of rubber with feathers on top. You stand in a circle and without running you keep the feathers in the air and 'pass' on to the other players. And then we had our last lessons of Ping Pong. We have improved a lot!! I LOVE PING PONG. Thank you Teacher Chen!.

Thank you everyone in Beijing for helping us and to make us feel  Welcome. Xie Xie to Sunny, Lihaiyan and Haipeng, Daya and WTP, Audrey , Mei and Jean Pierre and of course Juune and Pieter. 

The 2nd June came fast and we left Beijing with the Manchurian Trans Siberian Train- K19.

We have been in this train for 6 days non stop. It was a special experience to sit in a train for so long en see so many different landscapes passing. The total distance between Beijing and Moscow is almost 9000km and we are passing 7 time zones. Luckily the time in the train was always the same on Moscow time. Every day I wrote something about my highlight of that day.

2012-06-02 / Saturday


We were very excited to go on the train, but we were more scared if they would weigh our baggage. Readers don’t forget we are on a WORLD TRIP!! and therefore have 4  big suitcases, 1 hand luggage each and 3 bags of food for 6 days. For a  minute we freaked out that we had to leave luggage behind or hand in our food. What a luck..........YAAAAAAAAAAAH the scale WAS BROKEN and we could pass.  We had 2 rooms with each 2 beds, a little table, storage for our things and a large mirror.  We had no shower, but a bucket and a sponge. At every end of the corridor there was a toilet and a kettle of hot water . After three corridors you had a restaurant where you could eat and drink.
Steven and I were very quick in organizing our little house, cleaning, unpacking and hanging our Map up on the wall ready for school. We fell asleep very quickly because of the rocking/moving of the train.


2012-06-03 / Sunday 


We met some interesting travelers on the train who were going to different places in Russia. 2 Auzzies from Melbourne (and what a coincidence that I was wearing my Melbourne T-Shirt), 3 Belgiums , 2 Austrians and Adele from Beijing. It was fun to hang out with them and hear their stories and adventures, their thoughts about the China and about the Russians. 

 2012-06-04 / Monday - Crossing the border with China and Russia.

We were woken up by 2 strict Russians who where knocking on our door very loud. They had to see our faces, because they were checking to see if it was the same person as 
in our passports. They checked our luggage too. We had to change quickly into our clothes and were sent outside for 4 hours like all the other passengers on the train. The reason was that they were swapping the wheels for much bigger wheels, because in Russia the train tracks are wider then in China and the train's Restaurant  was swapped for a Russian restaurant. Meanwhile we went to the old Russian village, bought some bread and fresh fruit and had a nice get together with our friends from the train. 

 

2012-06-05 / Tuesday

This morning we didn’t have mom teaching us, but Mr Peter, one of the Belgium friends we met on the train. He taught us about World War I,II & the Cold War. It was very interesting (learned a lot). Unfortunately they left the train in Irkutsk. In the afternoons we read a lot and when we stopped at a station (max for 23 minutes) Steven and I quickly cleaned the windows of the train so we could see and take pictures. At one station we were halfway doing the window when a Russian woman snatched the newspapers from our hands and took the bucket of water out of Steven’s hand. Cannot believe it;  The lady just snatched it away from us!!!!!!!!   I still don’t really know what she said because she was talking half English half Russian but I think she said:

“No,Njiet....(Russian)....not....do.....(Russian)....in....go.....of....train....now.....no....are...stupid (Russian).

She nearly pushed me off the ladder, I . was very cross. Steven said I looked as red  as a tomato. I also felt that way. 

2012-06-06 /  Wednesday

There were many people going off the train, we were the only ones in  the corridor (a corridor has 9 compartments). Our view had changed from rice fields to mountains with snowy top and large forests with pine trees. Then we saw green grass with bright  yellow flowers and a enormous lake - Lake Baikal, the biggest sweat water lake.

Sometimes we past a village with a lot of small wooden houses and also we went over 2 long bridges. We heard that the poor people from Russia live here in concrete houses and the rich lived in wooden houses. 

2012-06-07 / Thursday

We finished all the bits of food we still had left. I read a lot out of my book, Jane Eyre. I am nearly finished with my book. Mom and I know how to read in Russian by now having seen all the posters and billboards in Cyrillic letters. They don’t have 26 letters in the alphabet but 32. Not all the letters are the same, for instance the "P" is an "R" and the "H" is an "N". That night we ate in the restaurant of the train and it looked old fashioned but now again in fashion. I had a delicious salad, so the food was not old fashioned. Meanwhile we looked outside and saw a beautiful church in shiny gold and blue. Also we saw a grave yard with blue fences around the grave yard and many blue crosses. The blue stands for heaven.

2012-06-08 / Friday

Last day in the train. It was cozy in the train since it was now raining for the first time since we left Beijing. Unfortunately the six days went by very quickly. We had school in the mornings, reading in the afternoons, we chatted and made friends, we shopped in the little stores on the platform, prepared small meals for the family and listened to music and saw a movie on my laptop. Black Butterfly -about the story of Ingrid Jonker (a writer of poems during the Apartheid in South Africa). First I thought it would take very long on the train, but it went by very fast and we could have stayed a few more days enjoying the moments in the train. Our first impression of Moscow was high flats and lots of graffiti.

до свидания [desvidanja]
Good bye (for now)


Loes

Terracotta Warriors

Finally we went to see my mother's highlight ............ Xian (Terracotta Warriors).

Early morning we went to the train station, 1 1/2 hours earlier than our departure. This was a good thing since there were many many many people waiting for the same train. Steven and I stood quickly at the check-gate waiting for the gate to open and it became more hot, sticky, noisy and when one hour was over there was a loooong line of about 1000 people. WE WERE THE FIRST IN THE LINE. Then the train staff game to open up and check all the tickets and they opened not our gate, but the gate NEXT TO US?!?!?!!? Anyway, the train took only 3 hours till Taiyuan (500km south of Beijing). A friend of ours Mr Penterman picked us up and we went straight to a steak house. Mr  Penterman ordered for us, lovely Chinese tomato-soup for starters and for main we had DONKEY steak!!! Steven and I didn't know what it was until Steven finished his plate. I did not eat a lot (luckily) because I am not such a big meat eater. The next day we visited a very old and nice Chinese town Ping Yao. Here we cycled through the little streets and visited old houses and shops. This is what my mom remembered from her visits in China in the 90ties. I now also understand what she was telling me all the time about how Beijing had changed. It was lovely seeing a town riding on a bike, saying Ni Hao to all the people.
In the evening we took the night train to Xian where we had our first experience sleeping in a train.
It was nice, but dusty and the toilets were (again) just a hole in the floor with a terrible smell. Dad didn't sleep well because he has hay fever, we loved the motion and the bunk-beds.
In Xian station there was a lady with a sign with Steven's name on it. She did not know Steven was a boy of only 12 years old (Steven made the booking with the Guest House via internet) and she had to laugh....smart boy!! Smart boy!!

Steven was picked up

                                                         Diningroom in train Xian to Beijing

He booked us in a great  guest-house with lots of sun and very central with very colourful curtains and tables. (They also had 2 files of MOVIES!!)  But we first went  to the Terracotta Warriors, because that was our reason to visit Xian. The Terracotta Warriors is an army of guards made of clay (terra) backed in a hot oven (cotta). The First Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the an important Qin Dynasty had them made to protect him in his grave (210-209 Bc) so the army could protect him in his afterlife. It was only discovered in 1974 by a local farmer who was digging a well to water his crops. And guess what..............WE MET HIM!!!. He only visits the museum some times because he is now old. After he discovered the Army the government took over his farmland and gave him money every month for it. He is only getting rmb3000 per month and that is very little if you see all the visitors and shops and all the money they make. The Warriors were also very interesting and ALL DIFFERENT, some where from the north of China and were tall and slim, others were short from other areas of China. There are more than 8000 warriors and there are many more soldiers still to dig up. The place where the Emperor himself was buried is not yet open and they did not dig him up yet. So, many treasures still to be discovered. Our guide said that there will be work for another 100 years to find everything which is still buried. The visit was very exciting especially for MOM she loved  it!!

The man in the middle is the local farmer who
discovered the Terracotta Army

That night Mom and I went to a beautiful  Music and Dancing Show while eating Dumplings. The food was very tasty and the music and dances were all from the Tang Dynasty. The dances were very colorful and the music was soft and slowly played with instruments that were very old and Chinese. All was about the nature, animals, birds, blue skies and trees. But if you look now China doesn't have many blue skies and trees are not easy to find in the cities. So also not many birds and the animals in the Zoo look very unhappy. The next day we went cycling on the old wall of Xian. It was 13 km cycling(4km cycling without rain and 9km cycling in the pouring rain). We could see the houses and how the people in Xian lived. That night we had to go back to Beijing and hopped in the night-train again and fell asleep straight away. The next morning we nearly overslept, because we thought we were arriving at 9:00, but instead we arrived at 7:00. there was someone who woke us up 10 before 7:00. So we quickly got ready in time.

On Friday 1st June it was Children's Day!! The Chinese celebrate that, but we didn't really celebrate it, because my mom says "Every day is Children's Day" it is true. Steven went to a party with his friend from soccer.

On Saturday 2nd June we are leaving with the Transiberian Train to Moscow. We are in the train for 6 days and than arrive in Moscow. Staying in Moscow for a few days and leaving with the train again to Ukraine and than to ..............

Xie Xie and Tai tien (good bye)

Loes

Steven...Steven......Steven!!!!

Mom, Dad and I had a few fantastic happy weeks......... but not Steven, he had a sad/horrible few weeks..and this last week was not his best week at all. As you all know Steven was lost in Beijing a few weeks ago, well read further because it has gotten worse!!!!

STEVEN......LOST.......DAD'S.....BRAND NEW.........PHONE.......

IN...........THE.....................................................................................................................

TAXI  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes I know it is terrible for this (the ones who have been reading my blog since the beginning of the trip) is the 2nd time this happened. 
In Argentina my dad put his phone in his bag through the scanner of the Casa Rosada and when it came out on the other side it was missing from the bag.

 ....Here is what happened......:

On a sunny morning Da Ya - a friend of ours here in Beijing - organised an interview for us with a local Magazine. This time it was not us interviewing them, but they wanted to interview us about our journey (totally exciting!!!!). The interview was in Chinese and Da Ya translated everything. They made it into a great party with milkshakes and delicious fruit teas. When we came back from the interview, we went with the taxi back to Beijing and Steven was playing games. We paid the driver, got out and when Steven paid he forgot to give back dad's phone. I was the last one out of the taxi and checked, but there was nothing on the seats. So our theory is that Steven must have dropped dad's phone on the floor. We always get the slip from the taxi driver, but not this time and therefore could not phone him. Off we went again to the local police station to report the lost phone. The officers did not speak English, but where all very nice and helpful.

Meeting friends.

While we where waiting at the police station I met a friend who worked at the Silk Market. A market where they sell everything (clothes, glasses, shoes, watches etc) and you bargain till 1/3 of the price.While I was chatting to her she taught me how to bargain and gave me very good bargaining tips!. She was at the police station, because a customer wanted a product of her shop and she said " NO " because the price was too low. The customer pushed her and this she reported to the police. For her and for the Chinese it is a big thing to be attacked like that because there is not a lot of crime here in China. The punishment for crime here is very big so people won't do anything wrong. 

So, 2 days later I visited her at the Silk Market to test my bargaining skills and bought a lucky golden kitten (which all the shops have in the windows). Also Steven needed new shoes, since with all the walking we did, his shoes had many holes under his feet. 

 

Panjiayuang Market. 

We also went to another interesting market where Audrey took us (a friend of us who lived in South Africa). Now it was much fun, because I knew how to Bargain. First I bought my first 'glasses'. The specs are with glass and are very much in fashion here. Some girl are even wearing glasses without glass, just a frame. Afterwards we walked over the big market where they sold products from old Chinese coins to Buddha statues to big Chinese cupboards and when walking back we saw someone trying to put a Chinese cupboard in a Riksja. It was very nice to see how all the different shopkeepers organised their own little stores and at the end they loaded all their statues and items on their little bikes and went home. 

Great Wall of China

The Kreeften on Great Wall at Mutianyu - China

...and YESSSSSSS, we finally went to the Great Wall of China. I was so excited to finally get up the wall which I only looked at in books or Wikipedia but in REAL!!!. 

We took the public bus to Mutianyu where the Great Wall is not so touristic. We had to get up very early and the drive took 2 hours. Then I saw the mountains and the wall. Of course we did not take the cable car but climbed the steps up to the top. 

I was the first one up, first I was running up the stairs, but after half an hour I was starting to get exhausted and walked the steps. Steven was the last one up, because of his ankle. He got an injury the day before during soccer training. We found a nice spot to have our picnic on one of the 1000 watch towers the Wall used to have. The view was not very clear, because of the smog (also here in the mountains) but you could see mainly trees and mountains. When there was danger the guards used to make a fire to warn the Emperor in the city. While we were having the picnic I gave my family a presentation about the Great Wall of what I researched. The Great wall was built more then 2000 years ago, was 6400 km long and 4-5 meters wide with steps and watch towers. There used to be 1 million guards keeping the Empire save from enemies coming from the north and the west of China. After we had the picnic we walked some time over the Wall and guess how we went down again? There was a giant SLIDE all the way through the forest down into the valley where we started the walk up. Weeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhh back down in 15 minutes only. Our bus was already there and we hopped and slept on the way back for 2 hours.

Haha look at dad flying through the curves
 " GO DAD "

Ready, steady GO!! down the slopes of the Wall.         

Next week Xi'an and the Terracotta warriors

(Thank you Marga for the tip on blogging)

Xie Xie Loes

People, Animals & Temples

These 2 weeks were very interesting, because I learned a lot about the people and their believes, how they treat and take care of their animals and historic buildings.

Beijing Zoo: We went to the Beijing Zoo to mainly see the Giant Pandas. The Panda's are the national animal in China, it is very big and furry with white with black. But the panda we saw was not black and white, but more grey with black. It did not take a bath for sometime. The Pandas eat bamboo for 14 hours every day and the rest of the day they play on swings and slides and they sleep. Most of the other animals in the Beijing Zoo we saw at 'their real homes' a few months ago in the Kruger National Park. There was so much difference between the Zoo animals and wild free animals. In the Zoo the animals all looked sad and were dirty, alone, not a lot of green grass/plants to eat and play in. In South Africa in the Kruger National Park there is green everywhere with rivers and trees and bushes where they are free!!!! The rhino was the animal that I wanted to take out of the Zoo the most. It was lying under the one little tree on hard ground without any grass, very skinny and dirty all alone.
Us/tourists came to look at the Giant Panda while the locals looked at the peacocks!!!??  They seemed to love that bird with its feathers all showing off. Steven and I was strange since for us it is very normal to see a peacock, because it walks sometimes through our garden and on the road near our house in Hout Bay.

Temple of Heaven: is a big complex of religious buildings. It was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for ceremonies of praying to Heaven to get good crops. There are many temples with a large park around it. The temples are all made from wood with beautiful colours with many different patterns. The blue color stands for the sky and heaven, the red color is the color of the Emperor and the yellow color is sometimes gold paint and means sun.


Summer palace : When the Emperors were hot and tired in the Summer they often went  from the Forbidden City to their Summer Palace in the north of Beijing city. Here they had a large garden with a lake. They also used it to invite kings or important people from other countries to impress them. It was a pity that many buildings were a little old and the paint was ugly and scratched. The website said it is painted every 12 years, but it looked much longer ago. Maybe because there are so many people every day. Also the entrance fee is a little strange. You pay to enter the Summer Palace, but then you must pay again and again every time you wanted to go into a temple or special part of the Palace.

Lama temple/Buddha: It was a temple  that most of the Lama Buddhists visit. Lama Buddhist is a branch of Buddhism and Buddhism is a believe or religion of many Chinese. With Buddhism you believe in Buddha and The moment- Now and not Tomorrow). To great or pray to Buddha you have to burn 3 incenses and kneel and bow tree times in front of his statue. The Llama temple had the same colours as the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. There were many statues of Buddha and gold, you could also see the Monks pray in their orange dress/coat.



Bike Riding : On a partly sunny day we went with friend's Jean Pierre, Juune and Pieter to ride a bike. Not just normal bike riding no we went on a tandem. Around lake Hou Hai with old Chinese streets and colourful shops. We had a break at a beautiful old Chinese tea house, where we drank old tea (Pu-er) as a local in special pots and cups. You have to put the hot water from the kettle in a teapot whit the tea branches, then after 1 minute you put the tea in a glass teapot from where you put the tea in the little cups. We loved the traditional way of preparing and drinking the tea. The tea tasting and drinking of old tea is the same as the wine tasting in South Africa. Some tea is special and cost more than a bottle of special wine.

Ping Pong  : Ping Pong is the national sport in China and everyone plays it. To me Ping Pong looked easy, just hitting the ball from left to right (BORING). My dad wanted us to try a lesson and after 3 times of asking I finally did take the Ping pong lesson with Steven...........WOW IT WAS DIFFICULT.  It wasn't at all what I thought. You had to hold your racket in a specific degree, move your waist from left to right and I had to bend my knees, because I was to long and the Chinese are all shorter than I am. After 2 lessons I liked it because it was tricky. Steven is very good in Ping Pong and liked it from the beginning. We  are both doing Ping Pong since 2 weeks now on Sunday and Wednesday for an hour and we get homework from our teacher.


Xie xie  Loes