Orthodox Moscow

Orthodoxy has been undergoing a huge revival since communism fell in 1997. It is roughly estimated that approx 27 million Orthodox Christians were persecuted and killed in the former USSR between the 1917 Lenin Bolshevick Revolution to the middle of the cold war in the late fifties. Many monasteries were closed but are now open, back with the faithful and undergoing restoration.

We visited four major monastic centres in Moscow. The first photo shows the Holy Trinity St Sergius Monastery in Sergei Posad (pop 200,000, approx 70km from Moscow). This monastery was founded by St Sergius of Radonezh in 1337 and is the most visited by Russians and Orthodox abroad. It consists of several churches which contain the relics of many saints that we saw: St Sergius, St Maximus the Greek, St Moscovitz, St Filaret and St Innokenty. The second photo is typical of Russian Orthodox Iconostasis (icon screen in front of alter) - lots of gold, lots of detail, lots of work! The third photo shows the main cathedral and bell tower of UNSECO protected Novodevichy Monastery, approx 5km south west of the Kremlin: built in 1525 by Grand Duke Vasilli II in thanksgiving of Russia's defence of Smolensk (a city near Poland) from the Polish. Just next to Novodichy is a monastery where all the rich and famous of Moscow and Russia (ministers, actors, academics etc) are buried - we visited the grave of the late wife (Raica) of former President Gorbachev. The fourth photo shows the Cathedral of the Seventh Ecumenical Council in the St Daniel (Danilovsky) Monastery: the oldest in Moscow, approx 6km south of the Kremlin, founded by Prince Daniel of Moscow in 1303, closed by the communists in 1930, handed back to the Church in 1988 and now the adminstrative centre and residence of the Russian Orthodox Partriarchate headed by Alexei II. We were lucky to be shown around by Fr Iosef and venerated the relics of St Daniel in the church in the photo and those of St Georgy, another martyr of that period. The bottom photo shows the large all-male Donski Monastery, approx 7km south of the Kremlin, founded in 1591 by St Tychon (whose relics we visited) and is also protected by the Russian Army as the site which protected Moscow from Mogol invasions in the 16th and 17th centuries (hence the tanks in the photo!).

We noticed many Russian youths (twenty to thirty) coming to light candles in the city churches and yes, the Russian Orthodox Priests are still awesome 7 foot giants with huge beards! The chanting is as captivating as ever and the services as long as ever!

I see Red

STOP PRESS: please note that the ABBA blog ("We Want ABBA") has been updated.

Moscow is big. Russia is bigger. We are overwhelmed. Our feet hurt. Paul bought new sneakers. Even without its former USSR states, Russia covers 17 million square kilometers (Australia covers 10 million). Moscow now has almost 10 million people and is officially Europe's largest city (in population).

First thing that hits you about Russia and Moscow is how imperial it is, ie, it still has big traces of red! The building in the first photo is actually our hotel (we stayed on floor 28 out of 29), converted from one of many "Stalin Scyscrapers" that dot the city.

Red Square is.. well... red! In the second photo you have the red walls of the 1150AD Kremlin (walled city of the old and new government) all around you, Lenin's red and black marble mausoleum (we waited 2.5hrs to see the preserved Lenin in a glass coffin - he looks like wax and has a golden "colonel sanders" beard!!!) and red with every other colour onion domes of 1561AD St Basil's (built by crazy Tsar Ivan The Terrible to "show off" and not actually a real Orthodox Church!). In the third photo is the other side of red square with the rest of the Kremlin, the red 1883AD Russian Historical Musuem and the not so red GAM old markets building that now houses the ritziest capitalist shopping centre in the city. The fourth photo shows you only part of the interior of the Kremlin which houses palaces (Old Tsars and Putin's house), the Senate, the 1489AD Annunciation Cathedral, the 1508AD Archangel Cathedral, the 1511AD Dormition Cathedral, three other churches, the magnificent Armory Musuem (collections of Russian antiquities from the royal Tsar "glory box"), the fabulous Diamond Fund (or Treasury, containing several kilos of diamonds, the world's largest flat diamond, even more kilos of gold and the largest chuck of platinum in the world) and even the largest bell in the world (202 tons and never rung). The Kremlin could easily take three days to visit and we did it in one and almost collapsed!

The Moscow subway is its strength. You never wait more than one minute for a train! It is always full of people. The trains are preshistoric but travel at warp speed! The metro has highly decorated stations (like a musuem, with marble, mosaics of Lenin, bronze statues of happy comrades, stained glass, art deco chandeliers, two have won USA New York architecture prizes). The folks in the country are generally friendlier - we met many "baboushkas" (grannies), who helped us out more than the city people!

The Russians in Moscow are exactly like the Greeks in the 70's and 80's: they cannot speak English, do not like tourists, use their heads to show you directions, grunt to speak, drive crappy cars (Russian built Ladas) with no seatbelts, taxis try to rip you off, public servants take breaks and keep you waiting and cars do not stop at the pedestrian crossing (there is only one in Moscow!).

We also visited Victory Park (a huge outdoor avenue, plaza, tower and semi-circular museum) commemorating Russia's victory over the French in 1812 and the Germans in 1945. The highlight for us was watching the Bolshoi Ballet of Tchaikovski's "Sleeping Beauty" - what a show!

The other aspect of Russia is its monasteries and churches - look at the next blog.

Land of Lakes and Islands

On the night of 22 July, our car C3PO and ourselves slept overnight (13 hours) on the massive 2500 person, Finnish "Viking Line" ship from Stockholm to Turku (top photo, Finland's oldest city, 750 years old!). From Turku we drove to Finland's capital Hellsinki (pop 560,000, founded 1550AD). Finland is 338,000 sq km (7th largest European country, two thirds France) with only 5.2 million people. It has 187, 888 lakes, 98,050 islands, is the official home of Santa Claus, was founded by the Swedes in 1155AD, became an independent republic in 1917, joined the EU in 1995 and adopted the Euro in 1999. The Fins are generally blond and blue-eyed and it takes time to get to know them. Their English is good, prices are expensive but cheapest amongst the Scandinavian countries. Helsinki is more imperial but the Fins do not like Russia and avoid visiting. Sites we visited included: the 1952 Olympic Stadium, the 19th century white and gold Lutheran City Cathedral, the largest Western European Upenski Orthodox Church (only 2% of the pop are Orthodox), the Esplanadi (cafe lined boulevard), outdoor harbourside markets and a harbour cruise to the UNESCO protected Swedish built, 1748AD fortress on the island of Suomenlinna. Naturally, all the lifts and elevators that we used in Finland were KONE! Finland is also home to Nokia. We left our little car at 16,080km in Hellsinki for a 9 day rest as we headed to Moscow on the Russian "Tolstoy" train!!!

Amazing Find

Here is an amazing find! This woman is wearing Agnetha's sunglasses! Yes, the very same ones Agnetha wore on tour to Australia with ABBA. We met her at Herman's, an amazing all-you-can-eat vego place with views of the Old Town in Stockholm.

She refused to sell them to us!

We Want ABBA (updated)

WE WANT ABBA! WE WANT ABBA! WE WANT ABBA!

Where is Abba in Stockholm? Much to our absolute amazement and disgust, there is no clear, obvious outward sign that Abba ever existed in Stockholm. There are no tours, no special museums, no cheezey Hollywood style tours of where they lived, worked or played, no anything! Instead, we had to extract details from online websites from Australia and Holland (No 1 and 2 fan countries). Why is Sweden ashamed of their biggest economic export ever? The top photo is the only public display of Abba in the city and it is pathetic! It is a small room inside the Swedish Music Musuem but it does display one of Benny´s original pianos (which we touched and licked!!!). The second photo is our major discovery! It is the archipelago island of Viggso, 90min boat ride from Stockholm, where Benny and Bjorn wrote the majority of all Abba songs in a little cabin (we have video footage of the cabin)! It is also the place where Bjorn still lives! John was ready to swim to the island when the 12deg water stood between him and a heart attack! The third photo shows the "Abbey Road" of Abba - it is the original Polar Music recording studio where Abba recorded most of their songs (it is now a legal office). The fourth photo is the former house of Stig Anderson, Abba´s manager and inventor of the word "ABBA". The fifth photo shows Stig´s grave, roughly 2km from his house and both are on the island of Djurgarden (he died in 1997, aged 66 of smoking and drinking). The last photo shows us having coffee at Benny Anderssen´s! It is the cafe and hotel that Benny owns and opened in 2003. According to our investigations, Bjorn and Benny still live in Stockholm, Agnetha married her stalker and lives on a lake in southern Sweden and Frida in Switzerland. Why does Sweden and indeed Stockholm not put on a more "public" display of the world´s most favourite group since the Beatles???

STOP PRESS: the last photo (just added 26JUL) is the former admin headquaters and factory of Polar Music International, the record company that Stig used to actually press vinyl for ABBA's records in Europe.

24,000 Islands

Sweden (pop 9 million) has 24,000 islands and like Bjorn, we want to buy one! The capital and largest city, Stockholm (pop 1.8 million) occupies 14 of these islands. The city is fabulous. It is clean, classic, classy and cold, even in summer! Sweden is 450,000 sq km (almost France) and was established as an independent kingdom by King Gustav in 1523. It joined the EU in 1995 but decided against the Euro. Stockholm was founded in the 13th century and is 15% immigrant (mainly Iraq, Turkey and Pakistan). The old city (Gamla Stan, top photo) is full of Swedish Rennaissance architecture and tourists! The 1923AD Stadthuset (Town Hall, second photo) is a main tourist site since it hosts the Nobel Prize Banquet every year. Other sites we visited: The 1754AD Kungliga Slottet or Royal Palace (largest in the world with 608 rooms!), 1306AD Storkyrkan Church (where Nobel winners give their speech), artsey Sodermalm, the Swedish history museum (that tells the tale through corpses found over time) and the famous Djurgarden, a wonderland Swedish "Centennial Park" complete with ammusement park, musuems and the huge "Skansen", an open air musuem (opened in 1891) of 151 replica Swedish dwellings over the ages. Finally there is the city´s crowning natural beauty - its Archipelago of many islands (bottom photos)! Paul and I spent a whole day travelling from Stockholm to Sandhamn and back via a few thousand other islands. Along the way we saw many villas of the rich and famous including the late Mr Ericsson! John swam in Sandhamn in what felt like 12 degrees and now understands why the Swedes live in Greece and the southern Balkans in summer! Distance travelled so far: 15,722km.

The Fjords Are Alive With The Sound Of Music

We are back. For the last 6 days we have been singing our way through the echoey Norwegian Fjords, without internet access and yes, they are more spectacular than the Austrian Mountains in the Sound of Music!!! We have travelled 2,389km roundtrip from John´s cousins outside Oslo (bottom picture), on 9 ferries to see 10 major fjords and cruise the entire length of three of them: Naeroyfjorden, Geirangerfjorden (photos 2, 3, 4 from top, both of these are UNESCO protected) and Fjaerlandsfjorden (fronting Jostedalsbreen, continental Europe´s largest glacier that we licked!).

The Norwegian fjords are simply stunning. They are literally flooded canyons/valleys of water, cut by glaciers during the last ice age (30 million years ago) and surrounded by cliff steep mountains. The longest and deepest fjord is Sognefjorden (which we visited by road), 204km long and 1,308m deep. We also saw many waterfalls - 9 of the world´s 20 highest are here! Another highlight was the Trollingsten Road (top photo): 7km of absolute hairpins rising 1,500m past an old stone bridge that the famous "Troll" lived under and yes, Paul let out his Billy Goat call as we past! The goats are still chasing us!!!

Our final conquest was the incredible Preikestolen or "Pulpit" rock which is a sheer edge rock platform with a 600m drop straight down into Lysefjorden (photos 5 & 6 from top). Suffice to say that my dive earned me douze pointes!

Here are some comparisons between the Danes and Norwegians as we bid farewell to them on our way to Sweden. The Danes: enjoy speaking English, are very friendly, dress very well, love their royal family, are very literate (lots of bookstores in Copenhagen), pay too much for cheap wine and 0.5L beer (20AUD & 12AUD resp) and have late running trains! The Nords on the other hand: speak even more English, are friendly only once they get to know you, dress down, do not speak much about their royals, are also literate, pay even more for wine and beer (30AUD and 15AUD resp) and do not have many trains. Both countries have lots of immigrants from Pakistan and Turkey and surprised us with their roads - there are hardly any freeways, roads are narrow two lane and it takes ages to drive anywhere since speed limits are low (80-90km) and no one overtakes because of automatic speed cameras everywhere! Distance travelled so far: 15,137km (equivalent of Sydney - Singapore - Athens in a straight line!!!).

Thoring Out

Welcome to the land of Vikings and the Cold! On our way to Oslo, Norway from Copenhagen, Denmark, we stopped at Goteborg (second largest city in Sweden, top photo). Goteborg is a port city with red-brick buildings but not too well laid out and unexciting.

Oslo (pop 550,000), Norway's capital and largest city is a different story. Norway was founded by the Vikings in 793 and the modern Norwegians claim that they invented skiing! Norway became independent from an old Swedish alliance in 1904, stayed neutral during WWII, was occupied by the Nazis in 1940 and voted against joining the EC. Oslo (when it is sunny, 100 days or so per year) is a refreshingly outdoor city, well laid out with a nice harbour (with darling harbour style eateries), main boulevard and some offbeat sites: one is the expected viking ship museum (third photo shows unearthed ship built in 820AD, used for the funeral of a high ranking female politician!) and the other is the 200 sculptures, by GustavVigeland, comprising the human body, displayed in an open air park called Vigelandsparken (bottom photo). Oslo is also home to the bizzare painting "The Scream" and has a 1299AD castle (second photo). We stayed with my first cousin Peter Golfin (from Orange) and his wife Hege in a little town nestled in a valley, 40km from Oslo. ironically, Norwegians are very green, recycle everything, are one of the most literate peoples in the world but they still eat baby seal and whale!!! Norway and Japan constantly exchange title of the most expensive city in the world - a 0.5L beer here is $15AUD compared with $0.75AUD in Poland!!! When we were here, the sun set at around 11pm - Oslo is above the UK and level with the bottom of Greenland!!! Distance travelled so far: 12,731km.

Frederick or Christian?

Every male child in Copenhagen (pop 1.8m) is either called Frederick or Christian!!! But there´s more to Denmark than this! It is the land of Hans Christian Anderson (who is in the Guiness Book for the second most translated author behind the Bible!), Jorn Utzon (who designed the Opera House), first country in the world to legalise same sex marriages in 1989 (Paul and I saw two men wheeling a pram, one dressed as "the mother") and of course, Prince Frederick and our very own Princes Mary of Tazzie!

In the top photo are some amazing sites: the 19th Century Tivoli ammusement park (that inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland), no less than three palaces (one used for Parliament, one the winter residence of the royals and the other a storehouse of their possessions!), Christianhavn (a hippy / drugs harbourside suburb that pursued independence in 1971, second photo), Stroget (the longest pedestrian mall in the world - except that trucks are allowed in each morning!!!), Frederikskirke (church with world's third largest dome). The Danes also have a special seating section at the very front of their trains called "the quiet class": we used trains to get from our shoebox hotel to the city and were "told off" for talking too loudly in the middle of peak hour - boy, give us a break!

In our spare time we also visited three countryside castles: Frederiksborgslot in Hillerod (third photo, most grande, built by King Christian IV around 1600 and coronation site for all royalty from 1671 to 1870), Fredensborgslot where Fred and Mary live most of the time (fourth photo) and Kronborgslot in Helsingor (not shown). We finished our stay with a few litres of freshly brewed beer at Carlsberg / Jocabson brewery (last photo). Distance travelled so far: 12,061km.

Last Two Polish Stops

As we exit Poland we travelled via Torun (top pic - pop 170,000) where you can see the other leaning tower (no not Pisa!) which was built, as punishment, by one of the Knights Templar who had failed his vow of celibacy! As to why he built it with a lean - you can decide for yourselves. Torun is also the birthplace of Copernicus and the city is famous for its all red-brick buildings.

Next we stopped at Szczecin (pop 420,000) which is located on the Odra River & Dabie Lake and is an important port for Poland. There is also a channel to Berlin (completed in 1913) used for goods transportation. Szczecin was bombed by the Allies in 1945 and almost 65% of the city was destroyed. Nowdays this city is very industrial with the port taking pride of place. In the bottom pic you see the church of St. Peter & Paul which was built between 1425-40 over the original wooden church used for mass baptisms by Bishop Otto in 1124. Total distance travelled to date: 11,396km.

Living City Museum

Warsaw (pop 7.1m) is the capital and largest city in Poland and a living historical musuem! It was established in 1313 by a Slavic King, disappeared off the European Map (along with Poland - Prussia, Serbia & Hungary shared control) from 1795 to 1918, was levelled by bombing in WWII, rebuilt by 1984 and now shaking off the last vestiges of communist influence it left behind in 1989 (second photo from top). Warsaw is big and flat. Its roads are huge, it still has the huge Soviet style concrete apartments (in the distance) but the most impressive feature is the completely re-built old city (top photo). During WWII the city was 85% destroyed and 50% of its 1.2m population killed. Prior to WWII, there were 400,000 jews living in the city - after WWII only 100 remained, the rest killed in the camps. There is very little left of the Jewish Ghetto but there are many monuments scattered through Warsaw's suburbs that tell the story: the Jewish cemetery where 250,000 killed in the war are buried, only one piece of the original 3.5m high ghetto wall (bottom photo), the station where Jews were deported to Auschwitz (5-6,000 per day), the heroes of the 1944 uprising and only two original ghetto apartment buildings are left - complete with bullet holes. Other interesting sites visted include: Chopin's tomb (heart only!!!, body is in Paris) inside Holy Cross Church, Presidential Palace, University, St John (first church in Poland 13th Century) and the birthplace / musuem of Marie Curie (who invented Radiography, discovered Radium, Polonium & the only person to win two Nobel prizes!). Distance travelled so far: 10,868km.

What Were They Thinking?

The Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz were actually three camps located near one another: Auschwitz I (built in April 1940 in Oswiecim, approx 60km from Krakow, all buildings intact), Auschwitz II - Birkenau (in Brzezinka, 3km from Osweicim, much larger, half the mens buildings and the gas chambers / crematoria are now in ruins) and Auscwitz III - Monowitz (in Monowice, 10km from Osweicm, opposite the metal factory as seen in Schindlers List, nothing is left of this camp or the factory).

Paul and I took an extensive 4 hour English tour of the two camps. Auschwitz was built to hold Polish political prisoners but in 1942 was greatly expanded to become the official site for the "Final Solution". The camps literally became death factories. It is estimated that between 1940 and 1945, a total of 1.5-2.0 million people were executed from 27 countries all over Europe with approx 90% being Jews. The site was chosen because of the central railway junction: 5-7,000 people came in by train each day (70 to a carriage, 7 days average trip, no food or water) and approx 85% were lead 400-600m direct to the gas chambers, executed, their hair cut, jewellery / gold teeth removed and incinerated. Hair was made into cloth, gold melted down and the human ashes used to fertilise surrounding fields. Paul and I saw mountains of original hair, suitcases, shoes, toothbrushes, showbrushes, combs, shaving brushes and sadly childrens clothes. It is estimated that 600,000 children were sent to these camps and the Russian Red Army only found 600 alive when they liberated the camps on 27 January 1945. What were the Nazi's thinking?

Kraking Good Time

Krakow (pop 758,000) is Poland's third largest city and very interesting. The 900 year old Wielicka Salt Mine, approx 10km from the city was a thrilling introduction. Paul and I descended 135m (800 steps) underground and visited several cavernous rooms (along 2km of passages) filled with sculptures from the salt. The top photo shows an entire cathedral sculpted from the surrounding salt - even the chandelier chrystals are solid salt. Poland is covered in salt mines and it is a very important industry.

Krakow is very European, a little old but still grand: The Old Town has the largest medieval plaza in Europe (Rynek Glowny, almost one by one kilometer!), The first Baroque Church in Poland, The Oldest Alterpiece in Europe (500 yrs old), a fabulous Royal Palace and Castle and the Cathedral that Pope John Paul II served in as bishop before he became Pope. Poland is even cheaper than Slovakia. A three course meal with drinks is $10AUD per person!!!

Ten Thousand Kilometers And Counting

Graz in Austria (top photo) was our stop travelling from Ljubljana to Bratislava. Like most Austrian towns it is very picturesque, surrounded by mountains and very green. It also has a bizzare stained glass window in its main cathedral depicting the scourging of Christ with Hitler and Mussolini looking on - what was the artist thinking!!!

Bratislava (pop 450,000) is the largest and capital city of The Slovak Republic (Slovakia) and eager to westernise and embrace tourism. It is a city of contrasts. On one side of the Danube is a very classical European old town (1291 Fransiscan Church, 1421 Town Hall) and on the other rows and rows of huge concrete apartments (a legacy of the communist years). Communism ended in 1989 and Czechoslovakia split into the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993, both joining the EC in 2004. Bratislava is also very cheap - a three course dinner with drinks is only $15AUD per person. Beer is still 75 cents per half litre. We gobbled down traditional dishes such as bean and cabbage soup, potato pancakes tuffed with pork and gallons of beer. Exactly 39km out of Bratislava on our way to Krakow in Poland our Citroen C3 (lovingly named C3-PO) clocked up 10,000km - what a milestone!!!