Never knowingly taking the shorter route

Ok, I’m now in St Petersburg. Currently waiting to be let into the hostel at 11. Least we have a place to stay. We hadn’t really thought about it til we opened the guidebook on the train and saw that booking ahead was strongly advised in summer. Oh well, it seems to have worked out.

Anyway, Berlin was really nice. I had a fantastic time there. In the morning we saw loads of the local sights, including going up a massive tower to look over the whole of Berlin. For lunch we had sausages and schnitzel. In the afternoon it was hot so we walked around the zoo, which is basically a big park, then in the evening we had a meal in a local pub with really nice beer. I had goulash. On the Tuesday we went to the Reichstag and wandered around a fair bit.

Later we boarded a train to St Petersburg. It was pretty soviet - all velvet and musty-smelling. For the most part there were only us and a middle-aged couple from Winchester on the carriage, so we chatted a bit. The train went through Poland and Beleraus. When we got to Orsha in Beleraus we were told that there would be a one hour wait while we were shunted around. We all got off - then as we were taking pictures they shunted the carriage off with all our stuff in it. We were then told to go and wait somewhere. Eventually they shunted it past us and then the other way then past us again. Cue four very English people striding up and down the station platform like fools. Definitely Englishman abroad. Eventually we clambered over the tracks to get on the train then sat around for another hour waiting.

Eventually we pulled into St Petersburg, and though a contrivance of taxis with the other English and a metro we managed to get where we were going. Emily has already been chatted up by a drunken Russian, so things are pretty much as we expected. It is pretty disconcerting not being even able to pronounce the words, but we’re surviving.

I’ve put some photos up too.

Well, I’m on my way and in Berlin. I left Brighton at 3:50 yesterday and arrived in Berlin at about 8 this morning. We’ve found a youth hostel and we’re about to head off to see the sights.

The journey was pretty easy, really. The Eurostar was excellent, I’d definitely recommend it. We paid an extra 10 quid each to get a meal on it and were presented with a pretty nice three course dinner with rolls and as much to drink as we wanted. And the seats were in a formerly first-class carriage, so they were huge. Unfortunately at Brussels station there was nothing open, no bars or cafes or anything, so we just sat playing cards for an hour, then got on the sleeper to Berlin. I found it a pretty reasonable nights sleep, though Emily didn’t fair as well.

Anyway, internet running out. More later or something.