I’m kind of hating Moscow at the moment. I got here yesterday, completely whooped from taking the overnight train from St. Petersburg and not really sleeping. I had an interesting battle with the taxi drivers who wanted to charge me 1800 rubles which I knew was exorbitant. I called my hotel and they said they’d arrange a car but it would be 1700 because it was their personal taxi and no, 1800 rubles wasn’t even close to a normal price. I finally got them down to 1300 which wasn’t much of a bargain but what the hell. I was exhausted and in pain. I have to thank the staff at the aquamarine hotel who allowed me to check in super early so I could eat and pass out. I couldn’t manage to do much beyond sleeping and trying to book a room in Ulan Baator and… Eating. I did make it out long enough to find a cool little store where I bought some roast chicken and some beet slaw concoction along with (finally) a bottle of vodka. HOORAY FOR VODKA!
I spent rather a lot of time feeling like a total traveling failure and berating myself for not going out and doing something cool or at least well, outish.
I decided that the only way I’d see anything here was to book a tour. I have to admit that trying to navigate a metro in Russia is something that kind of terrifies me. This is, of course, unreasonable because the worst that could happen is what? I could be lost for hours and hours and have to pay a million dollars to some Russian mafia taxi driver? This doesn’t seem like fun but given the fact that I’m going to freaking China, which will be even more confusing, I have to suck it up and venture forward.
I spent rather a lot of time feeling like a total traveling failure and berating myself for not going out and doing something cool or at least well, outish.
I decided that the only way I’d see anything here was to book a tour. I have to admit that trying to navigate a metro in Russia is something that kind of terrifies me. This is, of course, unreasonable because the worst that could happen is what? I could be lost for hours and hours and have to pay a million dollars to some Russian mafia taxi driver? This doesn’t seem like fun but given the fact that I’m going to freaking China, which will be even more confusing, I have to suck it up and venture forward.