My new toys!

I have always loved film cameras, and over the past two years I have obtained several film cameras, most of them the Lomo brand, so not the old authentic film cameras, but none the less, still film cameras with the lovely film finish.
While travelling through Russia last year though I stumbled across a large flea market in Moscow and found an amazing stand selling old soviet cameras, and I saw many cameras that had been remade into 'LOMO' branded cameras like the LC-A and Lubitel, as well as loads of other brands I had never heard of. Unfortunately I was backpacking and loading up my pack with heavy cameras was just not an option, so I took notes of the ones I liked and knew that the internet would help me find them, and finally I got my hands on some!
Welcome to my camera family, the Fed 3 and Fed 4. Complete manual cameras from USSR, built like Russian tanks and personally I think they are stunning cameras! Both are in great condition and I can not wait to give them a whirl! Although I think it will take a while to get used to them.
Here are a few snaps of the new cameras in all their glory!

From Russia with love...Moscow (July 15-18)

St Petersburg surprised me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from Moscow. Was it going to be the same as St Petersburg, or was I in for a completely different kind of city?

We left St Petersburg which we had all fallen in love with and boarded our overnight train to Moscow. We had a little trouble when buying our tickets, but again we had a visit from a travel fairy and she saved the day and us make our purchase. So we had our tickets, found our big, soviet looking train, located our carriage and got on board. We all had small beds that were not long enough to lay to full extent, it was 28 degrees with no air conditioning or windows and we were the only foreigners on the train. Sounds bad? Well to be fair once we got going it wasn’t to bad, had an amazing sunset out the windows (at about 1230am) and then slept and woke up in Moscow.

Arrival in Moscow and we were all wondering what is it going to be like. Wishing for something like St Petersburg but at the same time hoping for a new city for adventures. Upon exiting the train station we were greeted with the city that is Moscow. Big, loud, grey and intimidating, not quite the same as St Petersburg. So we got a cab, paid way too much but we got to our hostel safe and sound.

Over the days we were here, we literally did the same thing, walk for hours, look at amazing sites and take in the city. Although it wasn’t the same as St Petersburg, it was still just as fun.

We saw Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and it was stunning, ventured to a park that was home to a bunch of old, abandoned carnival rides, wandered through random streets, saw the Kremlin, Red Square and St Basil’s Cathedral which were all just as amazing as the pictures in books, and rode the extremely confusing metro. Also we were lucky enough to get into Lennin’s tomb and see his body, which was creepy, but cool. And nearly forgot we also went to Izmaylovo Market, which are the biggest open air markets in Europe. They sold everything there, Russian matryoshka/babushk dolls, fur hats, wolf skin (complete with head and feet), old postcards and money, army helmets, soviet style cameras, war memorabilia and every kind of tourist trinket ever made. Then a separate section of the market was a giant flea market and the crap people were selling was mind-boggling. I don’t know how they think that someone might want to buy their old handkerchief or placemat, but they do and they literally will try to sell anything. But what they lack for in their products, they make up for with their character. Some friendly, smiling and posing for the camera, while others have faces that tell a story of a hard life and hide at first sign of a camera. The markets we definitely worth the visit!

Although the city itself may not of been as pretty as St Petersburg, it still had its charms, beautiful attractions and Red Square is amazing (especially at 2am when there is no one there!).  

After abusing my body (and bank balance) for majority of my trip so far, I decided Moscow was going to be a bit quieter and I would only go out once, so I avoided heading out until Saturday night, which we had planned to be a decent night out, and that it was. The night kicked off at a bar near our hostel where we got 3.3l tubes of beer and got to work on them, as well a sheesha (which the guy asked if we wanted anything special in there to make us feel funny and dizzy, but for our safety we declined). The crew started with 5, and soon became 10, with a decent mix of nationalities; Australian, Danish, Irish, German, Brazilian and French. The night was going fast and before we knew it, it was midnight and we had heard that getting into clubs after midnight could be a problem, but we thought give it a try and see what happens. Luckily we got there and had no problem getting in, as well as the midnight lock outs they also have ‘face control’ which literally means if they don’t like the look of you or how you are dressed then you wont get in. 

We enter Propaganda to be greeted with loud music, crazy lights and hundred of people partying. The night was a typical night of dancing, drinking etc but the one highlight for me was waiting at the bar with Tom (Danish guy) and a big, bald Russian coming up and putting me under his arm around me and telling me we must have a drink together. So me, Tom, Divok (not sure if that was his name but its what it sounded like) and two of his girlfriends lined up some vodka, threw them back and got our beers and were about to leave. Then he was like 'no you can’t leave, not yet' and we thought sh*t, have we got ourselves into a situation now, is this guy a pimp and now he wants us to take his girls, or is he going to rack up a massive bill and then leave it with us? Luckily our quick panic was washed down with another shot and we realised that Divok was just a nice guy, interested in us (as he had never met either an Australian or Dane) and wanted to show us a good night in Moscow, oh and the girls weren’t hookers, it was his girlfriend and his sister. We drank with him for a substantial amount of time and had more vodka then I care to remember, and when we decided to call it a night, we asked him how much we owed him for our share of the bill, and his reply “nothing, you paid for it with your company. I have a lot of money and I had a lot of fun, so you not pay me, your money is no good here” so we hugged it out said our goodbyes, scraped Ben (one of the other guys in the group) off the ground and got into a cab home, feeling already worse for wear. So jumped into bed around 430-5am and fell asleep instantly, unlike Tom who apparently got naked in his room, did some sort of dance around the room and then took a pee on someones bag and fell asleep, and had no recollection of it the next morning.

So Russia is now over, which is sad but at the same time exciting as tomorrow I will be in Beijing, a city I expect to be the polar opposite of Russia.  Russia has been amazing. After hearing horror stories of people getting mugged, police pulling them up and wanting bribes, border crossing nightmares, getting ripped off and all the kind of jazz, I was half expecting at least something bad to happen, but it didn’t. I felt just as safe as any other city I have been to. If anyone is considering going to Russia, do it. Don’t be put off by these stories, the cities are amazing, the people are lovely (although knowing a little Russian definitely helped) and it is just an amazing place! I love Russia!

Things learnt in Moscow, Russia:

• Russians still believe heavily in chivalry. Girls expect doors to be opened for  
   them, be allowed in first to places, chairs pulled out etc.

• Moscow was not always the capital of Russia, it was, then it was moved to St
   Petersburg and then back to Moscow in 1918.

• The metro is not the easiest to navigate

• Moscow has more billionaires living in its streets than any other city on earth

Ferris Wheel

Love locks (when people get married they write the name and date
on a lock and lock it to these tree like sculptures on a bridge

A more crowded lot of locks

Matryoshka dolls at Izmaylovo Markets

Jimmy and the hat man at Izmaylovo Markets

Matryoshka doll

Russian character at Izmaylovo Flea Market

Old cameras at Izmaylovo Market (was hard not to buy any)

Street meat at Izmaylovo Markets

Guard at the Kremlin who looked 16

Russian babe

Russian stud

The boys in Red Square

Me in Red Square

Jimmy's amazing tan mark

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Car with Kremlin in the background

Historical Museum in Red Square

St Basils Cathedral 

One of Moscow's metro stations

The calm before the storm

High rolling

Jimmy and Ryan and our train

Moscow sunset

Just cruising

St Basils Cathedral 

St Basils Cathedral 

Possibly my new favourite city - St Petersburg (July 10-14)

I really didn’t know what to expect from St Petersburg, or Russia in general. I was thinking it was going to be rather grey and soviet, cold and bleek, inhabited with unfriendly people and not tourist friendly. I couldn’t have been further from the truth.

After reading and hearing from many sources that Russians could be rude and unhelpful, we were slightly worried as once we were off the bus in St Petersburg, we had no idea where to go. All we were equipped with was a crappy google maps print out only covering about a 200m radius of our hostel and some basic Russian. Luckily though, a travel angel appeared and guided us on our way to the metro and enlightened us with directions to where we were headed. Without her it may have been a lot worse. This was the first of many friendly Russians we met.

We arrived at the hostel without too much drama, and checked in but couldn’t get into our room as it was 5am and the people were obviously still asleep. So the three of us had to curl up on the couch and try add some extra hours to the 2 we got on the bus.

Eventually we rose from our broken slumber and decided time to explore. So we loaded up with our cameras, rubles and photocopies of our passports and set out to be tourists. We walked for about 20 minutes down Nevsky Prospect, the main thoroughfare of St Petersburg, and were amazed. Beautiful buildings, clean streets and weather in the high 20’s. We literally spent the whole day wandering the streets, taking in the scenery and visiting a few historical sites. And not to mention enjoying the bluebird weather!

The first site we saw was the Russian Museum, an old, huge building home to the largest depository of fine art in Russia. Then we made our way down to the impressive Hermitage, which it is said that if you spent a minute looking at every piece of art in there, you will be in there for 11 years. Then we headed to St Isaac’s Cathedral, climbed to the top for an amazing view of St Petersburg, and then checked out the inside of the cathedral which was like nothing I had ever seen before, especially the 11tonne pillars (which actually weren’t that big, they were made from some crazy heavy marble). And then my favourite site for the day was The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood (interesting name I know). This building was amazing; it was what I had expected to see in Russia. Colourful, drop shaped roofs, detailed architecture and just an overall impressive structure, which of course now there are a million photos of. Inside was just as impressive with the whole inside of the church was covered with mosaic artwork that would of taken years to do. Besides these few we also saw a bunch of other buildings and sites, but if I went on listing them all you would get bored. So we ventured back to the hostel, chilled and got some much deserved rest and an early night.

The next two days I may as well tie into one paragraph as they were similar days. We spent the days literally walking 10-15kms around the city just taking it in, people watching, being tourists and falling in love with the city. On day two we planned on doing a boat tour around the rivers and canals. Didn’t go too well and we missed the boat and then the other trip we were going to do was full. So fail on that part. In the end it probably worked out better as day two there were two one hour periods where it poured, and not just your everyday bearable rain, but hardcore pouring rain that caused us to take refuge in one of St Petersburg’s many archways. So day two was not to successful but still enjoyable. Day three we did the boat tour originally planned, except James got the tours mixed up and we went on one that we didn’t really want to, and had a speaker blasting Russian at us the whole time so we couldn’t hear our headsets, but still was nice chilling on a boat cruising round St Petersburg…hard life! Then the afternoon checked out some more sights (including an extremely long hour or so walk to see one building, The Holy Trinity Cathedral) ate some Russian pancakes (which really are just the same as crepes) and a sneaky beer or two.

Jimmy and I out front of The Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood

The roof of The Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood

The Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood

Inside St Isaac's Cathedral (each green pillar is 11 tonne)

The Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood

The Hermitage

The Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood

The Hermitage

St Isaac's Cathedral

Nevsky Prospekt

Statue of Alexander (I think)

A monkey wearing clothes

Holy Trinity Cathedral

Hermitage

Another impressive building

Nighttime antics from nights two and three were rather enjoyable nights. Night 2 we were just having a few beers at our hostel and were thinking of maybe going for a quiet drink somewhere so we were fresh for a big Wednesday night, but this plan soon turned to sh*t. Our hostel receptionist finished at ten and decided she wanted to go for a drink and we all thought oh why night, few quiet beers with the Russian can’t hurt. The few quiet beers turned into an impromptu pub crawl and vodka shots. First bar we went to looked so sketchy, in a little back alley and a tiny door saying Feelin' Good. There was barely anyone in there, but we soon made friends with a table full of Russians who were only too happy to share some conversation, and vodka, with us. One guy who was in the army (and took a liking to Ryan) provided some entertainment and good stories.   

Then the next bar we moved onto, Mishka Bar was a tiny little bar just of Nevsky Prospekt and were greeted with some random vodka shots to kick start the night. This also kick started the dance floor and soon enough the group was regulating the dance floor and were making friends with the locals. A break dance battle between a Swedish and a Russian guy was one of many highlights to Mishka Bar. Final stop for the night was some random little bar that was really intimate and rather cool. I only stayed there for a bit as my exhaustion had kicked in and I called it a night around 3am.

Night three, a very good night. It kicked off at the hostel with a few beers and then a few drinking games, followed by some vodka of course. Heading to Mishka again just for some free shots and a beer. Then we moved onto another pub/club not far away, and again, more free shots. The night started getting messy from then on in. This club/bar was pretty chilled but we met a fair few people and a couple of birthday girls, who James quickly stole their limelight and claimed it was his birthday too, which it wasn’t, and I think maybe even managed to get a free drink from too. So we drank and chatted (and James bit) with our new friends and then encouraged them to join our posse and come party with us. The next venue (which from memory was the last one) was fun. Multi level club/pub, old soviet feeling to it, exposed staircases, rough cement walls and filled with Russians. So we all got drinking and within 30 minutes, we all seemed to disappear and go our own ways. I met random locals, male and female all who were really nice and interested in where I came from, my travels etc. They told me their stories I told them mine, by the end of it I had a bunch of new best mates. Again we tore up the dance floor, dancing to English tunes and also some Russian tracks too. The Russians loved our enthusiastic dancing to their songs, and our attempt to sing along, even though we had no clue what was going on. Ordering my drinks in Russian paid off, with the bartender thinking it was cool that I tried to learn Russian and gave me a beer for free. Think I called it a night around 430am and it was broad daylight. The sun literally never goes down, it starts getting dark around midnight and then is completely light again by 3am, its mental and really confusing when you’ve had a few

.

11:45pm and still daylight

Shots to start the night

The gang

Me, Ben and Sushu being special

The Scots and James biting the Scot

Now James biting a Russian

The gang

Shots

The Brazillian, the Scot, the Australian and
the Russian, very multicultural

Our final day in St Petersburg a few of us ventured via hydrofoil to Peterhof Palace, which was amazing. Over the top? Just a little, but still it is an amazing palace! The grounds were immaculate, the location (on the water) was beautiful, and the palace and its 532 fountains were truly amazing! Hopefully the photos can do it some justice! We spent the whole day exploring the grounds, soaking up some sunshine and aweing at the Palace. The ride home though was not so enjoyable.

We missed the hydrofoil and didn’t want to wait another hour for one, so we opted for getting a cab to the metro and then getting the metro back to our hostel. So we found cabs easy enough and we heard the station was only 2kms away, so after we were in the cab for 5 minutes we started questioning where we were actually going. We drove for ages, and at times we were in the quietest, sketchiest looking areas I think I have ever seen, and the thought crossed my mind, we are going to be taken somewhere and robbed, and I wasn’t the only one thinking it. Our driver looked like an army reject, and the driver of the other cab had jail tattoos and reeked of vodka, so we had definitely chosen two legit looking lads. So our journey continued dipping in and out of suburban Russia, Russian ghettos and Russian motorways, and with some erratic driving, we were all thinking ‘where the f**k are we going’. After more then 30 minutes, he finally pulled over, and to our delight in a busy street right out the front of the metro, and then we realized our instructions we gave him were wrong, we said metro, and should of said train. Oh well what can ya do, we’re all alive and well.

So next stop, Moscow. Have an overnight train from St Petersburg leaving at 1140pm and arriving around 6am. A sleeper train with Russians…should be interesting.

Things learnt in St Petersburg, Russia:

• It doesn’t get dark there

• Smoking indoors is still allowed

• All the girls there wear stilettos, all the time, and can even navigate cobblestone roads 

   and gravel with them on

•  Russia apparently celebrates New Years twice a year

• Vodka really does taste better in Russia

• The roof of The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood is painted by hand, and holds around

   5,000-6,000 at one time and is the tallest Eastern Orthodox church in the world and currently

   the largest operating Orthodox Church in the world.

• The Russian word "sad" has nothing to do with emotion or mood. It is the word for "garden”.

• Russia's Cyrillic alphabet contains 33 letters, 2 of which have no sound, but the 2 with no

   sound do have names and are important for grammar.

• There are over 100 nationalities throughout Russia

• People on the metro stand facing you and really close which is slightly akward.

• You can’t drink the water

• That I love Russia

Peterhof Palace

Peterhof Palace

Peterhof Palace

Red Squirrel

One of many fountains in Peterhof Palace 

A building within the grounds of Peterhof Palace 

A Russian lady admiring the sea