Russian winter driving

There are so many videos of Russian roads. So, there are some more videos made by us, experienced bad roads drivers. Don't attempt to it in your good roads.
 

Bad weather in Kotlas

Driving in Russia during winter

  

Good weather in Gulag

Small drift at 2:20

  

Windy at Novosibirsk  

Special atention at the dancing ice on the floor



Stallin's Gullag and Yekaterimburg

We had recovered for the Perm party not so early, so we take the road to Yekaterimburg, the road is not so long, but we take a long different road to visit one Gulag.

A Gulag was the concentration camp in the Sovietunion. Gulags were used as a prisons for regular criminals. But there were also a big amount of political prisoners, the people who disagree the soviet way of thinking. The Gulag we visited was only for political prisoners.

 

Gulag’s Barracs

Inside

Shalamov picture in the Gulag

The life in the Gulag was so hard because the cold conditions, poor alimentation and the forced works. Prisoners were forced to works until they die.

Gulag worker

Gulag ofices

So many in Russia

When the visit was over, we had a very long drive to Yekaterimburg, almost 10 hours of random roads.

 

Rear traction + No ESC = bad combination

Finally, we arrived to Yana’s home, nice girl, she lives alone, she’s only 19 and she has travelled a lot yet. She offered us a great dinner and when we were installed, we went to her friend’s home with the Yekaterimburg metro. We had some Vodka shots, shared our stories, lots of laughs: we had really nice evening and we come back home to have rest.

 

With some friends

Really nice home

Permusic

The road from Kirov to Perm is as usual, sometimes good, sometimes bad, frozen, snow… And that day we had no sun, so no good visibility.

 

Russian roads in winter

We had arrived to Perm, a big city, on the beginning of Urals. That city, and region given the name to the Permafrost prehistoric era as Cristina, our Perm host, told us. To be honest, the city has nothing special to see. We saw one exposition of ice statues. It’s full of big soviet buildings and the usual factory to produce the hot water to provide the heating for all the people in the city.

 

Ice ship

Perm Skyline

Some hours later, we have finished the city tour and we came to Cristina’s home. She shares the flat with two friends, and, once more, they will celebrate a party for us. So Ilja took his guitar and after some dinner, we began to play Russian and Polish songs. Cristina also studies polish, so she knew a lot of Polish songs. Then, more friends arrived, so with two guitars, many voices and some lazy Spanish percussion, we have performed a long concert.

 

The Band

Spanish castañuelas

The party was long, and we were speaking about the situation of students in Russia. They begin University at 17 or 18, as in Europe, but it looks to go faster. Young people left their homes and come to the city to do their studies, so they emancipate from their homes before Europeans do. Almost all of them have to work in at least one job for 4 hours to pay the rent. Young people are aware of all the occidental fashions, anime, sport cars, music, and etcetera. The internet is a brave new world to expand the occidental shows, but this is not an obstacle to their own culture and modern fashion, which is self-preserved, because a simple reason, they are proud of it. Something to think about it.

  

 

Perm old town 

Stalin exile and Kirov people

In our way to Perm, we decided to visit the small town where Stalin was exiliated until the revolution, accused of robbery and conspiring against the Tzar. It is a very small house, and he shared with one mother and her children.

 

House protected by the Soviet Union

It’s 300 rubbles per person to get in, but with our student cards, we get a reduced price. It’s really a living room and that’s it. There is also a book only in Russian that explains his time on the house and the preparation of the revolution.

 

Stalin looks defiant to the police in the picture of the capture

Before leaving the town, we bought ice cream and yogurt. We ate them in the surface of the frozen river at -10º C. It is not a bad idea to eat ice cream at that temperature: you hand remains clean because it isn’t melting.

 

Soviet ice cream

The road to arrive and leave the town is fully covered on snow, and we had to cross a frozen river. There is a floating bridge crossed by trucks and the locals. Not many polish cars over there.

 

Floating bridge

We realised our assumption: it’s better to drive on the snow than to drive in the frozen asphalt, just be very careful with the brake and the steering. Nice driving moments. But we saw we will not arrive to Perm, so we decided to change our sleeping destination, we decide to stay at Kirov. It takes more than 6 hours to arrive.

 

Road singing

When we arrived to Kirov, another small city, with many museums, we met Jana, our couch host, she came with his boyfriend, and we went not to his home, but to her friend’s home, who finally host us. They are between 20 and 25 years old, and they are so friendly to host us and spend the night with us sharing our stories. The entire group make a long walk in the town, explaining all the interesting places on it, the museum, the university (where they all study), another museum, Main Square with Lenin statue, many churches and different bars. We have spoken about movies, football, Russian cars, and Kirov story. Great night, good beers.

Kirov meeting committee

Everybody we have found until now is so great, we can’t believe it.

The Shine, Kotlas version

 

Searching for bears

Mixed road feelings to Kotlas: sometimes the road is not so bad, and sometimes the road is the frozen hell. Kotlas is the northern city we will be, and it can be noticed by the white forest. Temperature is not so cold because of the good weather, sun is shining.

 

White everywhere

At 7pm we arrive to the city of Russian Father Frost, Santa Claus or the way you want to call it. We don’t stop, it’s late and we want to arrive to the house where we have the couch, 50 km away. But we receive a call, Svetlana, our Couch Host. She was in the town, and she saw us. We stopped and we meet her and her ten years old daughter, and a friend of them, who speaks English. We decide to visit the Father Frost Theme Park.

Classy entrance

  

It’s close to the closing time, and the guys in the entrance say is too late to visit Santa. But they tell there is a guy from Spain that comes here to visit him. Waw! They come from Spain? Here? What? So they call Santa and he will wait for us. Santa is a good guy after all, he has thousands elfs working for him all the year without any holidays and work contract, but Santa appreciates the long distance travel to visit him.

We have to run on the ice just to arrive before Father Frost leaves (where?). We enter to the wood building, it’s warm, nice and with some black disco lights. Our white things on the clothes are shinning. He speaks only in Russian and thanks our visit. He is good with the protocol stuff. We’d token some pictures with him and we visited the rest of the museum/exposition of Father Frost.

 

Meeting with the Honourable Majesty Father Frost

The exposition is… so simple, or really speaking, low quality. It has an aura between sordid and decadent. But in this an isolated area, there are not so many cool things to see, so it works for the children. And we are told that is a very popular place in Russia: all the train tickets for Night Year Eve are sold out two months before, just in one day. Also Putin was here:

It’s in Russia, made by Russian people, for Russian people. So they are proud of it. The rest doesn’t matter. Just a place to be happy with the kids. And the same for the rest of things. They know the low quality of the environment (roads, houses, museums, …), but it doesn’t matters, it works.

After the Theme Park, we travelled to Kotlas, 40 minutes to do the 50 km, probably it’s bad road but is fully covered on snow. Svetlana’s home is an old house. Made by Stalin, for people. They were designed to be temporal wood houses, until the concrete buildings arrive. But they are still on use. They have to improve and repair everything in the house all the time, it’s falling apart. Not a living place, more a surviving place. Reparations are expensive, and the money is not abundant. Despite of everything, the kindness is infinite. We had a very good dinner, and sang some Russian songs. Then the day was over. Or not.

Svetlana lives with her daughter, but is not divorced; the husband sometimes sleeps in the house, sometimes in the mistress house. Normal stuff. And Svetlana didn’t tell to their husband about us, and when he realised she was not alone in the home, he was not happy. Not at all. So he went to sleep to the other house, but we feel unquiet, because he was really drunk, and he was really big. On the midnight, when we are all sleeping, the Husband knock the door: once, twice. Again. We were awake for the noise, but nobody opens. Knock again. Finally, the husband opens the door and entereed to the house. He checked if everything was OK (also known as: Svetlana is sleeping alone and the two travellers are in one separate room), smashed some furniture with his food, and left again. After we tranquilised ourselves, we slept again in our room.

Next morning, great breakfast with Svetlana and her daughter. No comments about the smashed furniture. Everything is fine. This is Russia she told. Everybody is very kind, but when men get drunk, they are angry and dangerous. Don’t mess with an angry drunk husband.

The knowledge for that night was: no more couch surf with families.

Vologda 35

After a few kilometres of Saint Petersburg the roads are getting worse. The Real Russia begins. The road ‘till Vologda is full of pot holes and the low temperatures and the ice doesn’t help.

 

Road full of dancing ice

After 9 or 10 hours we arrived to Vologda, small and nice city. This type of city looks nicer than the big ones. You can find everything in an easier way, there’s not important traffic jams.

 

Vologda

It was 22^nd of February, the day before the celebration day for Red Army, so everybody is preparing for celebrating it next day. Everybody is happy. We found Russlan home quite fast, he comes out to help us with the bags. His home is nice and warm. One living room one sofa, one TV, and the kitchen hasn’t have any separation wall, and one toilet. No more rooms. Living room, in Russian homes means LIVING room. We will sleep in the worst sofa/bed ever, but that’s OK, we are so tired because of the long way.

Russlan called his friends, we meet Sergei, who was, like all the people that we have meet, very open and friendly. Some jokes and beers and then, Sergei told us he is part of the family of the most famous Russian Cosmonaut, Uri Gagarin.

Then, a little walk on the night to visit the city. We walked on the river, because it’s frozen. When the winter comes, a new big flat road comes to the city. This river is used for the kids to play, to ski, and to make the baptism.

 

Baptism “pile”

Russlan explained us he was baptised some years ago. The process consists on wait in the long queue, because there are a lot of people who want to be baptised. They are waiting only with a swim cloth, and when the turn is arrived, they go to the water by the stairs and they submerge three times. Then all their sins are over. Where is the problem? It is done in winter at -35º C. Russlan wait for 3 hours till his turn, only with a swim cloth. After that, he was several weeks with problems in his fingers.

One other thing that may be surprising is that all are already married and already divorced. They are 27 years old, and were married at ~20s. They live fast, don’t hesitate on taking decisions, it’s the usual way.

After one short and surreal night, hearing several ring tones, we were wake up by one girl, who gets in the house, and begin to clean and prepare the breakfast. Later we were told that the girl was the wife of one of Russlan friends, and she will prepare the food for the 23^rd celebration day. It’s the way it works. She entered to the house, saw two strangers sleeping in the couch, introduce herself and begin to work. Fast and easy going!

We visited the town with Russlan as a tour guide, and we say good bye to him and his friends. They were really nice.

 

On the way to Kotlas



Saint Petersburg is cold and warm

Cycling in Riga at -8º C

We left Riga at 10am, jump in the car and drove to Russia. Before getting there we had to pass through Estonia. Bad roads again, but the distance was short. On the road we found some curious ice sculptures.

You can do almost everything with ice at -10º C

Then, the border to leave Estonia. Problem. Silly system alert: you have to go to a big parking lot, officially pay 5 € (to get out of Europe!! Is that legal?), then they let you know when you can leave the parking lot, and go to the border control. Passport control. More problems. Two handsome and smiling young guys are trying to go to Russia with European passports: one Polish passport and one Spanish passport. Too suspicious, they make us wait 30 minutes without any additional information. Then, a man appeared with a dog (who was shaking because of the cold). Ahhhh, we understand, we are suspicious of drug traffic. The dog inspected the car and left it after 10 seconds, the man tells the dog to keep searching, the dog insist: “no drugs man!” Finally, everything OK, and the woman that rule the border (they were only women, besides the man with the dog) said we can continue.

We reach the Russian border, more waiting. But this time better, just slow Russian procedures, light car checking, more waiting and after Ilja told the trip to the Russian border officer, she told us it was not a good idea. More waiting, then, after 2 hours, we can go.

Masha worried about us

So in front, we had 7 hours of driving at night in Russian bad and freeze road. We had to stop every 2 hours to remove the ice from the front lights, they were covered with ice and we couldn’t see anything. Temperature was -14ºC, and the washers of the windscreen were frozen, so we couldn’t clean the windscreen, after 4 hours, it was full of salt and dirty, so we had to stop to clean it with drinking water. Problem: when we throw the water on the windscreen to clean it with a piece of paper, it becomes frozen in two seconds, so it was impossible to clean it, but there was no more option than continue to Saint Petersburg. Finally, we got to the house where we were going to sleep, they were waiting for us awake. They even had some dinner prepared for us. We ate and hit the bed immediately, it was too late.

BMW in St Pete

Next morning, we did some tourism in Saint Pete, nice churches, frozen rivers, frozen everything. We bought a Russian SIM card and now we have internet in our phone, but only where there is 3G signal. Saint Pete, is the most European style Russian city. The Hermitage Museum is huge, and we were able enter for free with our student ID. Even when David’s student ID is actually a teacher ID, and it is already expired. Great!

At night, we came back to Masha’s home again, we prepare some chicken with mushrooms and meet her boyfriend from Kamchatka. He explained the way they fish and prepare the Russian caviar. Hard work, old style. We share our stories and have a really nice night.

Ilja and David representing an ancient battle in Turkmenistan

Poznan parking and Riga night

We arrived to Poznan at lunch time (Catalan lunch time). Tomasz and the rest of the Polish Baikal Support Team joined us in a quick meal. The Subaru will remain in good hands in Poznan until we come back.

BMW prepared to go

Finally we are in one single car, the BMW. We left quite fast, since we wanted to reach Riga that very same night, but after 3 hours of Polish east roads we desist. Just one call and the night was arranged in Warsaw, easy. Dawid showed us his new shared flat, he just moved in 4 days ago, packs and bags were still all over the place, so two new backpacks on the floor for one night will fit in perfectly. Only -4º C in the Warsaw night, regular clothes on, no problem at all.

Next morning moving towards Riga. Polish north east roads are not so good like in the west side, and the cold, wind and ice makes the trip a training for driving in bad and nasty conditions. The border to enter Lithuania is just a regular border, no one stopped us, besides the bad roads and the ice: the speed was reduced to 70 km/h. Impossible to control the car in these conditions, trucks, crazy drivers and ice everywhere. After several hours, a new border to Latvia, no problems either. And Latvian roads become better, much better, the speed increases again and we reach Riga at night. 

Embassy street

We meet Konstantin, the boyfriend of one Lena’s friend, at the embassy street (note: the Austrian embassy has a big nice building, next to it, there is an identical building, the Spanish embassy, but this one is shared with two more countries: Greece and Uzbekistan, maybe Italy will join the building in a few days, for sure, Germany embassy will pay the rent).

Konstantin invites us for dinner in a big restaurant in Riga, some beers and then take us to visit Riga at night, we end in a Cuban bar, and drinking for the health of Fidel. Then we went to sleep, but not before we eat something at home again. 

Viva la Revolución! 

Konstantin guide tour

On the next morning, great breakfast and we say goodbye and spasibo to Konstantin, he was really nice.

Konstantin's Breakfast

From Castellbell i el Vilar to Metz to Berlin

Just a few kilometres between Castellbell i el Vilar and Berlin, to meet Ilja. On the way, too many big, straight and well done roads, Highways and Autobahn. We probably will miss that. After one hour of traffic jam due to Belgian holidays, we arrived in Metz to sleep at Gerard’s new home, we share a great dinner courtesy of Sophie, and good memories from our last adventures.

Gerard cheated on Fresnel and bought a new car

On the way from Metz to Berlin we had another stop to have second breakfast with Cata and Suri in Bonn. Then, moved to Köln airport to leave the unexpected traveller Eve since she had to come back to Barcelona and, just like the good roads, I will miss her..., or maybe more.

Subaru packed ready to go

After long and boring drive, I finally arrived to Berlin Ilja’s home. We had a great dinner with Lena and Ilja, then the final checking to start the trip.

Tired of 2.000km straight roads

Preparing the BMW

Siberian dress code

A quick example of the amount of clothing that (hopefully) should be enough...

Lived from South Europe

Lived from North Europe

Think yourself as a penguin