Big Changes

November 27-29th--I write to you from the port city on the island of Naxos, five hours by ferry southeast of Athens. The sun is shining (although it's a cool 60 degrees F), the waves are crashing a minute from where I'm sitting, and life is good.

After updating the blog Tuesday night, I went out to a sports bar and met a trio of English guys in Athens for a vacation. I hung out with Matt, Duncan, and James until late at night, as we followed some people to an Irish pub on the other side of the Acropolis. If you're reading this, guys, thanks again for the drinks and the good conversation. I'm serious about the Chicago thing.

Trying to act out how lost we were at 3 AM.

Wednesday morning and afternoon I took a three hour walking tour around the center of Athens with maybe the worst guide in the history of the world. He was only a year older than me, had been living in Athens for 6 months, and did not know how to tell a coherent story for the life of him. And oh Lord the bad jokes. "That's such a bad joke. Gotta love bad jokes, though."

No, I don't, Mike. He also had an annoying habit of referring to almost everyone in history as a "badass". I actually stepped aside for a second to write down this quote so I didn't get it wrong.

"He was so badass they imprisoned him because he was too badass, let me put it that way. You know the movie V for Vendetta? It's kinda like that..."

Aargh. Despite all that, the tour was only 5 Euro, and I got to get around and see some of the sights.






After returning to the hostel, I headed down to the flea market with a plan. I wanted to buy a cheap guitar.

I've been missing the ability to play music lately, and since I won't be taking any more plane flights until the end, I thought I could buy a guitar and then resell it at a market in Morocco. I wandered around a little bit in Athens till I found a tiny little shop filled with antiques and a couple instruments. He showed me a nice looking classical acoustic guitar and asked 100 Euros for it.

And then I haggled for really the first time in my life. After 15 minutes or so of complaining about my student budget and how I had seen this and that at other stores, I got it for 70. Not bad, and hopefully I can get some of my money back at the end.

I took the Metro to the port of Piraeus, 20 minutes away, stopping on the way to buy a coconut stick candy from a street vendor, which immediately became my new favorite food.


At Piraeus, a cramped, dirty little port city, I found the office and bought my ticket for 27 Euro, then grabbed some food from a bakery and got on board. The ferry was really nice and spacious, even a little luxurious. I played guitar out on the deck, slept, and wandered around. We got into Naxos around 11:00, and I fought through a swarm of people telling me about their cheap rooms (I think it gets a little desperate here in the off-season) to walk down to my hostel, which is really a cheap hotel.

I made a reservation for a dorm room for 9.50 Euro, but the sleepy looking older Greek man I woke up put me into a big single with a double bed, promising that I'd pay the same price. He was welcoming and accommodating, and that bed was magnificent.

This morning, I woke up to this.


It's time to relax and explore Naxos.

The Beard Poll!

Hey guys--

I forgot to add something to my site news update. I have a pretty scruffy beard right now, and I can't decide if I want to shave it in celebration of reaching the southlands or not.

So it's up to you. Check out the most recent pictures, send a comment or an email, and I'll either shave it all off or keep it till the end. You decide my fate...

Site News and Book Reviews

Hey guys--So there are a ton of new posts and pictures now, so I hope you'll give them a look. Also, I've added some links on the side, sites I've been using a lot while I've been here.

Since Prague, I've read two books, You Shall Know Our Velocity and Putin's Russia, and I wanted to mention my impressions of both.

First of all, is not a new book, as I said earlier, but in fact 5 years old--I just hadn't heard of it. It is really wonderful, and immediately jumped onto the list of my favorite books. It's incredibly nuanced, funny, touching, and life-affirming, with a ton of really modern questions. The story, about two guys trying to go around the world in a week and give away $38,000, is also really involving. If you're at all interested, please read it. I've been reselling the other books I've read, but I'm keeping this one.

Putin's Russia is quite simply terrifying. While the journalist author exaggerates some points and stumbles into a few contradictions, it is honest and unflinching. I had no idea that things were as bad as they are in Russia now if even half of this book is to be believed. Rampant corruption, misconduct, authoritarian leanings, etc. There are countless stories since 2000 that made me a little sick to have given my money the government for my visa. Human rights violations, racial violence and purges against the Chechens in Moscow, environmental abuses, military misconduct everywhere--it goes on and on. If you're interested in modern Russian politics at all, you have to check it out. While, again, some of it has to be taken with a grain of salt because of the bias, there is simply too much concrete fact to ignore. Russia's still much closer to the USSR than it might seem.

People Who Don't Get Mad When I Speak English! (Update--Metro Pictures)

November 27th--I barely got out of Russia.

That's a bit overdramatic, but it was tense for a few minutes. I started out the day by taking some pictures in the Metro. The Metro stations in Moscow are incredible, many of them like museums in their own right.




Then it was 30 minutes to get to the northern-most station to catch a shuttle to the airport. This took another 30 minutes, and the ride took 40, cramped and shoved against many other travelers as the rickety shuttle lurched through horrendous traffic. At the international airport, it was much calmer, a calm that was shattered when the Olympic Airlines people said I didn't have a ticket.

Now, I had double-checked my reservation the night before, and I was good to go with a confirmation number and email and everything. However, the woman at the desk said that it's not usually possible to reserve flights to and from Moscow with their system, so I had somehow slipped through the cracks and gotten screwed. There was a reservation, but it was never paid for, even though I gave all my information.

Luckily, the flight was not crowded, and she was able to cancel my original reservation and get me a new one. Customs and passport control was an anti-climactic breeze, and I was on my way.

The flight to Athens was 3 hours, 40 minutes, and we made up an hour on the way.

I got to the hostel without incident and sat down to catch up on the blogging. It's more of a party hostel here, with lots of loud Americans. I don't really like it--similar to the hostels I stayed in in Amsterdam and Munich, it's geared to a different type of traveler, I think. No worries, though, because I'll be taking a ferry into the Greek Islands tomorrow. The weather, while not too warm, is certainly mild, and there are leaves on all the trees again!

The Most Ridiculous Day of My Life

November 26th--I thought long and hard about the title for this post. I thought back through my life, through all the crazy coincidences and funny things that have ever happened to me. And I decided that what happens later in this post was, indeed, the most ridiculous thing ever in my life.

I started off by going to an English bookstore to get a good map, then headed straight down into Red Square, stopping off at the Bolshoy Theatre. And then I got hit with the off-season blues...

Aargh! Restoration work!

More progoganda--my amateur translation: Moscow golosuet za Putina! The bear with the flag on the left side of the poster is the symbol of United Russia, Putin's party. He's not up for re-election, but he heads the party, so all the candidates coming in are associated with him.

It was a rainy, cold day, but the miserable weather didn't do much to dampen the enjoyment of the day, because it didn't get to be much more than a drizzle. I continued down into Red Square proper.

Karl Marx checks out Moscow

Through the gate into the Square, with the Christmas tree and village in construction in front of St. Basil's Cathedral.

The wall of the Kremlin, adjacent to Red Square.

Lenin's tomb. Closed, unfortunately. Check out the snow under the trees!

You know this one. It's on all the postcards. St. Basil's Cathedral up close.

I ponied up the 200 rubles (~8 dollars) to go into St. Basil's and take some pictures. It showcased an interior and artwork several thousand years older than that of the similar cathedral in St. Petersburg.


There were mosaics and murals from the 15th and 16th centuries on, often cracked or faded, but impressive to see. The pictures didn't really turn out, so I decided not to post them.

Then it was on to the Kremlin itself and the museums and cathedrals inside. I was also interested in the famous Armory museum, but tickets didn't go on sale until 1:00, and it was only 12:00. I contented myself with the other main square area in the Kremlin, which took an hour and a half to cover.

The enormous Tsar's Cannon.

Inside the buildings were tombs, gold facades, and an exhibition on priceless works of porcelain, all very cool to see, especially the tombs. They didn't have a guide, and there were no signs in English, so I'm not sure who exactly was buried there, but there were about 30 marble coffins with gold crosses on them, dating back to 1341. I wondered if the actual remains were still inside.

I went back to the ticket sales office, where a fat, old, cranky woman almost yelled at me again when I didn't speak Russian (what is it with these people? I have such a nice face!). However, she sold me the Armory ticket and I walked down to the other side of the Kremlin, taking these pictures along the way:

So much of the architecture is monolithic and imposing here. I mean, it makes sense, given the whole Soviet mentality, but it still seems a little overdone.

When I got up to the Armory, I was a little confused about the entrances, so I kept walking a little bit and took this picture of the city:

This will become important, because it delayed my entrance to the museum by maybe five minutes. I walked back down and got in line, then got into the anteroom ten minutes later. There were two entrances, one guarded by Russian military men and a metal detector. Before I could approach the desk and ask where to go, I turned around and saw Jerry Seinfeld.

I wish that I was clever enough to make this up, or convincing enough to make you believe it without proof, but I'm not. Jerry Seinfeld was standing there in the Kremlin Armory in a sweater and glasses, looking around.

I approached him, disbelieving.

Me: "You're...you're Jerry Seinfeld!"

Jerry: (nods, giving a small smile)

Me: "This is the last place I would have ever expected to see you."

Jerry: (smiling, stepping forward a little) "And I you!"

So then I stood there and had a conversation with Jerry Seinfeld. In Moscow.

I was so flustered I didn't even ask him why he was there, but I think it must be to promote his new movie, Bee Movie. He asked me about my trip, and said he had tried to do the same thing when he was my age, but "failed miserably". He also told me it was essential that I get into the guarded exhibit, separate from the rest of the Armory. He was gracious, patient, and very easy to talk to. He introduced me to his friend Elizabeth (a Northwestern alum, a film major--any ideas who she is?) who took our picture.


Better pictures have been taking of both of us, but it was amazing nonetheless. In fact, just after Elizabeth took it, a guard came over and said we weren't supposed to take pictures.

I really enjoyed talking with him, and after he said goodbye, on his way out, I kept thinking of things I should have told him and asked him. Ah, well. I'm still in shock that this actually happened. If I hadn't dithered around outside, I would have been in before he came out.

The separate exhibit was an extra 500 roubles ($20), but Jerry Seinfeld told me I had to see it, so...

It turned out to be absolutely worth it, a once in a lifetime thing to see. Inside were huge chunks of gold the size of my head, the most incredible jewelry I've ever seen, and the crown jewels of Russia.

Of course, you couldn't take pictures, and I don't think I can come close to describing it. Diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, on and on, all arranged in delicate and ornate pieces or sitting in cases raw. And the crown jewels themselves are unbelievable--I almost wouldn't believe you could put that many precious stones on something. Millions of dollars of ore and jewelry in the same room, like nothing I've ever seen.

And then came the Armory, which was full of seemingly all the treasures of Russia from the last 400 years. 20 or so ornate carriages, suits of armor, bejeweled weapons from swords to spears to guns, dresses, chandeliers, gold and silver plates, Faberge eggs, 400-year old Bibles covered in gold. My memory can't even contain everything I saw there.

Now, what I said in an earlier post about the wealth of Russia going into cathedrals and palaces goes double for all of this, and the circumstances of the creation of a lot of the treasures are probably suspect on account of that, but it was really like stepping into a treasure cave, and something I'll always remember. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed, or the whole post would be those pictures.

After the Armory I decided to cool off a little bit, so I went to a cafe and read The Moscow Times, an English language paper. There's some fascinating stuff going on in Russia right now that I wasn't aware of. First of all, opposition viewpoints are being stifled right and left in favor of Putin's administration. An opposition leader was jailed for 5 days for speaking at a demonstration, and the municipal governments are being loaded with dull pawns.

Corruption is rampant, and, oh yeah, political candidates are assassinated and the story appears on page 4. Seriously. A minority candidate from the provinces, but still. Pretty different attitude towards the process. Putin is due to step down as President next year, but is trying to find a way to circumvent the Constitution and stay in power. I've been reading a book that's changed a lot of my perceptions of modern Russia, and it's worth paying attention to.

After the cafe, I went back into Red Square, because everything looks cooler at night, then went along to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.




After that I took the metro to a well-known lookout hill above the city, Sparrow Hill, where there was a huge ski-jump facility and a hot dog stand that I took advantage of.



Then it was time to head back to the hostel, cruising the souvenir shops along the way. The advantage of traveling with a small bag is that I literally don't have room to buy souvenirs, which saves a ton of money.

Back at the hostel, I met an Australian couple who are in month 11 of a 12 month round-the world trip, which made me feel small and insignificant--and yet excited that there are people doing things like that in the world.

I dodged a couple weird Russian guys walking around in their underwear (incidentally, most of the tourists I saw in Russia were in fact Russian) and made my way to bed, ready for travel to warmer climes on Tuesday.


Here are a couple random pictures I took that I couldn't fit in otherwise:

Communist symbols still displayed prominently in the Metro.

This kind of stuff is how I figured out the Cyrillic alphabet. I've never been so glad to see corporate imperialism...although translating the sounds, it comes out more like "TGI Frahidehz". I think.

St. Petersburg to Moscow

November 25th--A long day of travel, bookended by cool buildings.

Since my train only left at 1:05, Sebastian and I went up to a cathedral and convent complex to the north of the hostel in the morning. It was really interesting, but was all closed (Sunday) and being ripped up with reconstruction in the front.

The hat!

As we walked back down to the train station, we started seeing police officers everywhere. In the fifteen minutes it took to get to the station, we saw maybe 100 officers. We were briefly stopped by one, but he let us go when we didn't speak Russian. Also, we walked past two policemen who turned and stared at us for 50 yards down the street.

Neither of us had any idea what was going on, and it was disconcerting. You're supposed to be reassured and feel protected by the police, but they made me feel extremely uncomfortable, as we got suspicious stares from many of them.

Later I learned that there was a political rally that day, and 12 people were arrested. Fairly large numbers of people protested Putin and his increasingly authoritarian government. In any case, I missed it, as i got on this fairly awesome looking train and went to Moscow without really any hitch.

We went through all kinds of small snow-covered villages and enormous forests. The change from urban to rural was incredibly quick.

And when the train stopped in Moscow, I was dumped into a city much larger than I had somehow imagined. My guidebook says that the metro system transports over 8 million people a day. That's an insane figure--that's the entire city of Chicago getting on the metro every day.

I had tried to find an English map in St. Petersburg, but none of the stores had one, so I was in the same position of finding my way around with a Russian map. However, it was much easier because I've started to be able to read the Cyrillic alphabet. No formal study, just looking at things, comparing them to the English, and making connections. I don't know all the characters, but I know enough to find street names that have been given to me in English, find certain businesses, etc. It's a cool feeling.

For instance, one of the ones I figured out early on was "restaurant", which is "PECTOPAH". The "C" is an "ess", the "P" an "r", the "H" an "n". That's the only one I can do with an English keyboard, but you get the idea. A lot of Russian words have Germanic or Romantic roots when you translate them into our alphabet.

As I stepped out of the metro station near my hostel, I saw these buildings:


And then, right across the street, a building that doesn't even belong in reality, but a comic book or Gotham, the Stalinist skyscraper.


The building is infinitely more impressive in person, the top lighting up the low clouds and glaring down at all the people below. I wish I had had a tripod or a better camera to get a picture.

After some confusion and reorganization at the hostel by the mostly MIA manager Ivan, I settled into a room with Oscar, a talkative ex-Marine from New York, Ross, a hippie from North California with huge dreadlocks and a Russian wife who hadn't paid his taxes in 8 years, and a diminutive Russian who dressed in all black, spoke no English, and hogged the hostel's one computer, playing obnoxious techno remixes while saying nothing.

It's life in Moscow, what can I say.

Moscow Note

Hi everyone--

I only have time for a quick post to say that I spent a great couple nights in St. Petersburg and successfully got the 8 hour train to Moscow. The language barrier is pretty huge here, and I think I'll need to devote most of my time to getting around and organizing how I'll get out to Athens on Tuesday. I may update, but it's unlikely--I have almost all of my main St. Petersburg update done, but I'll probably have to go back and do most of Russia from Greece.

Incidentally, I'm 11 hours ahead of the west coast here, so that means I'm almost completely on the opposite side of the earth from, say, San Francisco. Crazy. Leave some comments or let me know how you're doing via email, I'll pick everything up in the next few days.

--Kraqton

St. Pete's

November 24th--Pictures galore.

I know it's a lot, but I just kept seeing cool stuff to take pictures of. St. Petersburg is enormous and incredibly decorative and torn up and dirty at the same time. I've heard that it's the most European Russian city, and I can see where that comes from. At the same time, there's a distinct Eastern flavor in the street vendors and the people on the street. I've never seen so much fur in my life.

The first thing that I had to do in the morning, however, was get my train ticket to Moscow for Sunday. I talked to the hostel people about it, and they wrote down a note for me to give to the ticket people. Feeling like an idiot, I went to the train station and went up to what I was pretty sure was the ticket window.

If you're looking for an old, surly, overweight woman who can destroy you with a withering stare, come to Russia, because they have absolutely cornered the market on them. First was the woman in the consulate in Paris, and in St. Petersburg I've had run-ins with at least four or five of them.

The teller was one such beauty, and I started to say something, stopped, then pressed my note up against the glass, smiling hopefully.

She started shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

"Nyet, nyet..."

I didn't know what I had done wrong. I tried to say that, but then she just chattered away in Russian as she grabbed a piece of paper violently and started to write on it. She wrote three train times and presumably prices underneath them, muttering the whole time. I heard something like this:

"Russianrussianrussian nyet, nyet, russianrussianrussian nyet..."

I asked if I could pay for one, and she angrily shook her head and jabbered again. I pointed at the one I wanted several times and took out the money, then she jammed her finger against the glass and said "Second class". I nooded enthusiastically--yes, great, cool. I think I even gave her a thumbs up.

She sighed loudly, rolled her eyes and said, "Passport". I handed it to her and she got me the ticket, for less than she said she would. I walked away, victorious and bewildered. Russians....

I've found that Russians hate it when you don't speak Russian. The city is amazing, and has been a ton of fun so far, but many of the people frankly couldn't be less hospitable.

For the rest of the day I just walked around town as much as I could. I'll try to just put up the pictures, with captions as needed. If I think of a story in the middle I'll jump in.

The view outside my hostel. Fussen was better...

Political advertisements (propoganda) before the upcoming Duma (municipal government) elections. Putin controls almost all media in Russia, and the ads for his party United Russia are omnipresent.

Cathedral modeled after St. Basil's in Moscow and built in the 19th century.

Incredibly detailed mosaics covered the walls vaulting up to the ceilng. One of the most impressive examples of fine workmanship and artistry I have ever seen.

See those figures?

This is how detailed every figure was, composed of little tiles. Because of the height of everything, a foot was the closes I could get. Sorry, Anna.

Enormous impressive square.

The Neva, the main river in St. Petersburg, frozen over. I turned a corner and saw it and knew the canal picture I took the night I arrived was nothing...

For some reason, I saw maybe 20 bridal parties by the river. They were all celebrating with champagne and taking pictures by the river. Masses of people--it was nuts.

The cathedral and complex in the center of the city.

So I figured out why Russia is a traditionally poor country--they put all their money into amazingly ornate, often gold covered cathedrals and halls.

A rather terrifying statue of Peter the Great, who apparently had a tiny head and chicken legs.

A weird sport that involves throwing a long metal bar from behind the yellow strips at wooden blocks on the ground. ...That was pretty much it.

Bizarre-looking ship. When I approached, I found out why--it was never a boat, but is instead a restaurant, hotel, and athletic center created to be on the river like that. Weird.

At the Soviet rocket and space museum.

On the walls of the center complex, looking back over the Neva.

This is a monkey in a snowsuit. Seriously. I had to get this picture on the sly, because he and his friend were employed by a guy who charged for you to have your picture taken with them. I felt real bad for the monkeys, because I can't imagine they had any idea what was going on in this crazily-cold place.

This is going to be funny to me for a long time. It was over the public toilet at the center complex. I just have no idea who would even think of trying what it's forbidding...

A beautiful mosque.

The cruiser "Aurora". This one was a big tourist trap, which didn't stop me from buying a hat at one of the places near it. It's a real Soviet Army hat from the eighties, and my head will never be cold again.

After getting back, I went out with Sebastian again. Our first stop was an Irish pub so I could get something to eat. The waitress was Russian, but spoke good English, and she was wearing a shirt I've seen many times in America, and always rolled my eyes at. This time, though, it was hilarious. Multiculturalism at its best.

"Everyone Loves a Drunk Girl"

After the pub, we took advantage of the public-drinking laws and took our drinks down to the memorial to the Heroes of the Revolution, where an eternal flame burns. A ton of the old Soviet stuff is still everywhere in Russia. The memorial was pretty, of course, but more than that, it was warm. As we passed a bank, the sign outside said -7 degrees Celsius, or the coldest I've experienced so far on the trip.

When we got to the memorial, we met three Russian teenagers who were hanging out drinking as well. They talked with us for a while through the one who knew English. They were hilarious and rowdy. I only remember one of their names, a nickname for the big guy--"Maleesh", or "Small". That's what I think he said, anyway.


We moved on to a club near the hostel, where I met the MC. He was from Ukraine, and we talked about Russia a little bit. I said I thought it was a little bit more dangerous than America, and he interrupted.

"Can you be killed in the street for your mobile phone?"

Um. I stuttered for a second, surprised and saddened by the deadpan, honest way he said this, then admitted that no, not in most places. It was a big wake-up call.

I finally went back, needing to get to sleep before the 8-hour journey to Moscow on Sunday.