And again.. With a little bit more time.
Today we spent our second day in Beijing.
We got up REALLY early this morning and went to a place where some busses were supposed to the part of the Great Wall that we wanted to see. We wanted to go to the Simatai part as it is not as reconstructed and not as touristy as some other parts. Well but the problem was that there was no bus. THE book was wrong, our bible was wrong! Holy Lonely Planet.
An Australian couple (also staying at our hostel) wanted to go to the same place, same as 2 Americans who actually study in Shanghai. All of us went to the Long Distance Bus Station by metro from where some minibusses were supposed to go the Wall. On the way there some man started talking to us, and finally we agreed, he took us there for 80Yuan (~8Eurpo) (~100km) (both ways). Though we werent totally sure wether we might actually get there or not it was a nice 2hours ride with some excitment on Beijings highway and countrystreets (Ha is that a German word..).
We went up with the cable car cuz we only had like 3 hours there and the way from the cablecar station up to the wall was still pretty far and exhausting. It looked beautiful, those mountains with the big wall on it.. Really impressive. I cant believe how they made it.. The, who has not climbed the wall, is not a real man. Mao...

Though I found this picture in the Internet we did see that man there.....

Well, this is sort of what we saw!!!!

Yesterday we just walked around in Beijing. Wanted to get the visa for Vietnam but we decided to get it either in Nanning or Kunming as it would take almost 2 weeks due to some Chinese holidays. Also we probably wont go to Cambodia but to Laos instead as everyone (really everyone!) we met said that Laos is one of the most beautiful countries they've ever been to.
Tomorrow we will go to see the forbidden city, the summer palace and some more stuff you gotta see when you are in Beijing.
We are staying in a nice hostel, in a dorm with 3 others.. A Spanish, a Norwegian and another German.. The German lady is so funny, gotta say that.
Everyone here rides a bike, no matter what he needs to transport. 3 armchairs, tons of hay, anything is possible here. And people really dont pay respect towards any sort of authority, that is at least what it seems like.
Oh and yesterday 2 Chinese girls started talking to us. They were nice, wanted 'to improve their English'. They were Arts and English students. They had an exhibition that day so they asked us to come. We went with them and they showed us their pictures, they really were great. Then they wanted us to buy some (of course) but we didnt. Instead they gave us a calligraphy symbolizing luck as a present (before we said that we werent gonna buy something). They were so nice!
Last night I also met a friend who I got to know last year in Thailand. Jaume from Spain. Its cool to see him again. We are gonna go out tonight, lets see if Beijings nightlife will be good to us!!!!

Our lovely conductor on the first night!!!!! Nastarovje!!!!

Moskva - Transsib - Beijing

We finally got to Beijing this morning. The train was great. We shared our little 4 bed cabin with 2 Czechs who were really cool. Other then us the wagon consisted almost only out of Chinese people who were so much fun, especially this one old man (who is actually 2 years younger than Franzis mom- he seemed to be so old). He kept talking to us in Chinese and was happy when we tried to repeat some words.
It was nice to see how the landscape changed. First there were many forests and it all looked really like fall but then it slowly changed into a flat desert.. Inbetween we could see lake Baikal.. So big..
We met Ben from England who speaks some Chinese which was pretty impressive.
Our plans change every minute. We got the idea about going home from Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, that would mean that we wouldnt end our trip in Thailand but also travel thru Malaysia and maybe.. Who knows..
Oh and Dima, the one who took all the pictures of us in Moskva, made a song for Franzi and me which sort of goes like .. Franzi .. i Franzi...... Its fun. Haha.

Tonight we'll take the train.. Oha..
Guess what, my friend put the pictures I was trying to put up here on another website where everyone can look at them. Check http://www.pmhost.de/jonas/franzi/moscow.zip !! Those are all the pictures I have.. Haha.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Russian skirts.
No matter how cold or how hot it is, you can always see some more or less pretty girls walking around in a super-super-super short skirt with high heels that it seems to be art when she is able to walk in them.
Make up.
Blue eyes, red lips. What can I say more?
Beer.
No matter what time it is, you can at least count to 5 when counting people with beer cans in their hands. At 9 am in the metro, at 5 pm in the pool....
Porridge.
No matter where you are, everywhere you get porridge for breakfast. Its great, I will start having it for breakfast once I'm back.
Russian logic.
Don't count on timetables, prices or meeting points. Whereever you go, nothing is like it seems to be. Paying 40Rubels in the Internet the first time we had to pay 79 the sencond time, same same, same old game. Setting up a meeting point in one of Russians busy metro stations is not always a good idea. Though sometimes it can be easy.
Metro.
Those long and high escalators. Who ever went to Praha knows what I am talking about- though the ones here are even higher. In St Petersburg we were at this one metro station where we stayed on ONE for more than 3 minutes. Without walking in the opposite direction. Thats cool.
Hats.
The police men and the marines and soldiers and all those officials wear those really funny hats that are so big...
Former Soviet nostalgy.
Went to a park yesterday with lots of buildings from the former Soviet Union. It was impressive, with lots of statues and hammer and sickle symbols everywhere. Inside one of those buildings there were shops with Nike, adidas and some other brands, there were loudspeakers everywhere with horrible and really old popmusic coming out.
...................................................................................................................................................................

Prospect Mira.
Got back from St Petersburg today in the morning, took the night train to Moskva.
Stayed in St Petersburg for one night at Yuras house, also a guy from hospitality club. He was great, it was fun to be around him. We went to the Ermitage (or however it is spelled) which is supposed to be the biggest museum in the world with more than 1000 rooms. Its been really huge and I liked lots of stuff.. I discovered my love towards sculptures and barock paintings. Oha.
At night some of his friends came to his house and tried to talk in Russian with us. Nastarovje. I cant believe it, we've been here now for more than a week and did not drink any Wodka at all so far! Just beer. Sibirian crown. Thats nice.
Franzi is feeling a little sick, that sucks. But nothing to worry about, she will be fine. Tomorrow we will take the transsib train and have some time to chill there. SEVEN DAYS. I cant imagine how its gonna be.
Before we went to St Petersburg we stayed with Helen, such a lovely girl. Her family was so nice and so was she. Together with her friend, Dima, we went to a concert of a Fusion Art band. The next day we went to another huge museum (also supposed to be the biggest on the world), also with Dima and his friend, Dima. Franzi and I were so happy, we found the perfect Dates! Franzi i Franzi i Dima i Dima. I Helen. :)
Later we went to some cafe-restaurant with them where we had some good food (Franzi didnt like it so I got to eat hers) and good beer. Twa something biva. We learnt to order in Russian.
Monday we just went downtown Moskva and chilled at the Kreml. And in an Internet cafe. As you might have noticed. Took the train to St Petersburg at 1 am. It was cool but if I imagine to stay in a train like that for one week... Oh well we will see. I got my book with more than 700 pages. Dostojewski, St Petersburg flair.
Later today we will go to some former Soviet square something.
So far I really like Russia. People seem to be really rude and unpolite, they never say sorry, excuse me, thanks, hello or goodbye (I'm talking about people you see on the streets, not the ones we stayed at). But if you ask them something they really try to help you. Not with a smile or any friendly expression on their face but they dont care about difficulties.
So many people here drink beer, everywhere, anytime.
The people we stayed at.. Oh I cant believe how friendly everyone was. Anna took us to the station to buy the train tickets, helped us and told us about where to go and where not to, what to buy and what not, she was such a sweetheart. Helen, the 2nd girl we stayed at, was also great. We spent quite a lot of time with her which was great. She cared about us and I really hope that we will stay friends. I already wrote something about Yura, the guy in St Petersburg we stayed at. He was so cool too, being with him and his friends.. Alex, where we stay at right now, seems to be really nice aswell... His flat is also really cool, especially the bathroom! Maybe I get to take a picture of it!
I will try to put up some real pictures once we get more time in an internetcafe.
Everyone, hope everything is fine in Germany and wherever you are.
Enjoy life!!!!!!!!!!

Damn my friend just told me that you need a password to look at the pictures! I dont want to post it here as it is a photoblog from a russian guy.
Oh well..

More pictures :)

hey everyone........
We're still in Moskva, going to st Petersburg this night. I love it, and the people we stayed with so far are the nicest people ever.
Went to a really nice museum yesterday with Helen, the girl we stayed with for the last 3 nights, and 2 of her friends. Afterwards we went to a bar and had good food..
I'll try to put up some pictures!

Beautiful St Basil

Our beloved Metro. The story is about the grey and the red one.

Kreml' - saw it today

St Basil

-----------------------found these pictures in the Internet but they really show what we saw (or experienced in case of the metro, haha) -----------------------

MOSKVA - MOCKBA

Got here on wednesday. Early in the morning at the airport where my sister and my best friend took us Franzi and I were waiting until we heard my name, someone asked me to come back to the security check. Everything was fine, it was just because of 2 lighters i had in my backpack as presents. Had to take them out and put it in my handluggage (hae??? you can take lighters with you in the plane but not in your real luggage??). Got to Moskva after 3 hours of sleep. Had to take the bus to the place we wanted to meet the girl we were going to stay at, which was sort of hard- everything was in Russian and the way people paid was kinda weird. But we made it, with the help of a guy who sat next to us in the plane. A Russian who studies violin and cello in Germany.
We went to a park to wait for Anna, the girl we were going to meet. A girl from St Petersburg talked to us, she was nice but in the beginning a little creepy.
We met Anna and another host from France, Vincent, both were so nice. We went to her place and she gave us food and drinks. She told us the way to the citycentre where we wanted to go. We went to see the Kreml and everything which was really nice..........For our way back we took the same bus but in the opposite direction. Thats what one should do right? Well not the two Franzis. We stayed in the bus til no one was in there anymore but one lady who went inside the drivers cabin where she went down and dont know what she did. Dont want to know. After a while the bus stopped and the driver started smoking and talking to some people outside, looking at us once in a while. He came inside and started talking, we showed him the name of the street we needed to go to, he just shook his head. We had to leave the bus and walked thru dark and late moskva. It was already after 12 and the last bus and tram would be at 1. But hey, dont count on Russian laws. We almost ran to some metro station which was sort of far away. When we got there some guy told us where we were and which tram we had to take. We were desperate, it was late and we were scared of not getting the next tram to the place which is not that far from Annas house. Before we left we told her to be back by 12 as she had to work the next day. She is such a good person, so nice and caring. We felt sooooo bad!!!
Anyway we managed everything (hey, whats our name?), got out at metro station UNIVERSITET and asked some people and 2 cops for the way back. And we found it. We got there at 1.15 am and she didnt seem to be mad at all. She is so nice.
Yesterday we got up at 7 and went to register. We went to that adress and were standing in front of a big house. Nothing looked like there was a place to register. We walked thru the whole house and asked people but no one knew about it. After a while we left and asked some security men who were standing at the opposite side of the street. They didnt speak english but they got the word 'registrar'. Told us that they open at 10. Though we havent found it before we believed in the good things, went for another walk and came back at 10. We entered into some flat (it really looked like a flat) and it actually was the place to register. They didnt speak english but it somehow worked, had to leave the invitation and some card there and had to return at 12. Of course we had to pay 500R (around 15Euro) before.
We got back and really got the stuff back. We walked to the city centre, Franzi had fastfood chinese noodles (a little gross). Sat down at the Kreml and enjoyed the sun. We ate, looked at beer drinking people and ate. And sat, and ate. Good. Enjoyed life. People drink so much beer here. Who is always talking about beerdrinking Germans??
We kept walking and took the bus to Annas place at night. And this time it worked. We were in the bus, and later we were the only people inside. The bus driver started talking to us. She was so nice, trying to say some German phrases. Wie heisst du? Exkursion? ....... So cute. And as we wanted to get out she told us to wait and gave us some chocolate! Such a nice person...
Back at Annas we got some more food and she showed us pictures of St Petersburg. We probably will go there on Sunday night, we will try to get the tickets tonight.
I just checked some people at hospitality club there where we might stay at. Itll be cool.
Today its so cold here. I am about to get a new (new? dont even have a real one) jacket but then.. What should I do with it once I'm in southern Asia? The daily problems... But serious, its like 7 Degrees!!!!!!! We're freeeeeeezing. And I dont want to think about St Petersburg being even further north... Oh well. We want to experience Russia so we got to freeze.
I dont have anything else to talk about right now.
Maybe we can put up some pictures sometime. Actually I will try something now.
Bye!!!

Ya Franzi, I stole it!!!!!!!!