Crossing over

Hello from Asia! I’m writing this in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, but will probably post it from China. We have had a nice first two weeks of our latest adventure – mainly getting here. We left Germany on 29 September – taking the train to the port town of Rostock, where we spent the evening before getting the ferry to Helsinki and Tallinn at midnight. Matthias was sick with a bad cold, so that put a damper on things (at least for him), but the ferry ride was nice. Unfortunately, we had unwittingly booked the connection from Helsinki to Tallinn too close to actually get out of the port and see the city, but since we arrived there at 6am, it was raining, and Matthias was feeling poorly, it probably wouldn’t have been great sightseeing anyway (but since I did get off the ship, Finland gets added to the list, right Jen?)

We arrived in Tallinn around noon and found our cushy hotel near the train station and old town. The weather cooperated somewhat and we were able to walk around the old town checking out the sights. Lovely city!

The next day, our train for Moscow left at 5PM, so we had time to walk out of town to a nice park and back through the old town. We only booked seats on the overnight train to Moscow, which was probably a mistake, but the time passed quickly enough and we made it without too much hassle (or too much sleep!) Our hotel was outside of town, but the metro in Moscow is pretty good, so we found it easily enough (once I figured out how to recognize station names in Cyrillic letters!) Actually, I was once again amazed at the metro in Moscow…not just because the stations are beautiful, but because of the HUGE crowds it handles. We had to go to the train station the next day at rush hour and we were literally carried along with the sea of people. (I would have taken a picture, but I was afraid of being pick-pocketed!) I mean, if/when we have these swarms and bottle-necks in NYC, people get crazy – but I think the people of Moscow are used to it. No pushing or shoving, just marching along with a sense of “what can one do?” And I think it’s like that every day. I would kill myself!

But after the crowds, some rain, and confusion trying to locate the station and train, we grabbed some delicious fast food and got on our train – into our first class compartment. YAY! Okay, first class just means that there are two beds, but it was exciting nonetheless. We were on the train for four days and five nights to Ulan Bator. The scenery was pretty awesome – especially nice because it was fall and the leaves were changing. Not that it was the most spectacular that I’ve seen, but it was also fun to go to the dining car and meet fellow travelers (not as many as I expected, though) and to get off at the stations and buy food on the platforms. We reached Lake Baikal on the third day – also lovely, but by that time we were ready to get off. Just had to get through 6 hours at the Russian/Mongolian border crossing and the next morning we were there.

Ulan Bator is an interesting city – what I believe to be a cross between a Russian and Chinese city (but I haven’t yet seen a Chinese city, so I don’t know yet.) We stayed here for four days, but didn’t take a trip to the countryside (a cross between Matthias’ cheapness and my laziness – maybe we’ll be sorry some day, but the weather seems a bit cold for camel riding or sleeping in a felt tent with fellow backpackers.) But we have enjoyed our time here, eating cheap food and seeing the sights, including the huge market, selling everything from chicken (live and butchered) to fashion boots. Always a highlight for Matthias, we are looking forward to more markets across Asia. So, I’ve got to get to bed as our train for Beijing, which crosses the Gobi desert and Great Wall, leaves at 8AM.

New links to photos on the left!