St. Petersburg, Russia, Asia Today started out like a lot of other days on this trip. I woke up at my hostel, had a quick bite for breakfast, got ready, and went out to start exploring a new city. I met a group at 10:45am for a free walking tour in front of the Hermitage museum. I met our tour guide Anastasia, took a few pictures, and she started giving her spiel about the city. We took a short walk…
St. Petersburg, Russia, Asia Today was mostly a travel day. I took my time getting my stuff together this morning and left Matreshka Hotel around noon. I had to get a couple of metros to get to Leningradsky train station, but eventually I found it with plenty of time to spare. I got the high speed Sapsan train to St. Petersburg. It took about four hours and was a nice ride. I had a seat in a group of four…
Moscow, Russia, Asia Today didn’t start out too well, weather wise, but it got nicer in the afternoon. It seemed like a good reason to check out some indoor sights instead of staying outside in the dreary coldness. I started out with the Kremlin Museums. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, because it wasn’t really like any other museum I’ve ever been to. It wasn’t one big building that housed a lot of artefacts. It is the churches that are…
Moscow, Russia, Asia I was absolutely exhausted last night, and my hotel room worked a treat for that. I have the smallest room ever created, but it still has all the amenities that I could ask for. The strangest thing about the room is that it’s an internal room, without a window. After I uploaded my blog I passed out and didn’t wake up until 8:45am. It was awesome! I had breakfast at the hotel which was the first cooked…
Moscow, Russia, Asia Today was an incredibly long day. I tried to go to sleep around 12:30am but never fell asleep. I just laid there in my bed, annoyed for two hours. So I finally got up at 2:15am, got my stuff together and headed out at 2:30am. I got the train to the airport at 2:56am, which arrived at Terminal 1 at 3:19am. It turns out that Terminal 1 isn’t even open anymore, so I had to get off…
Amman, Jordan, Asia Today was another relatively quiet day in Amman. I got up to find out that the UCONN women won the NCAA tournament last night, so both UCONN basketball teams are champions again! I saw this happen in 2004, but never really thought I would see it again. Very impressive! I went out for a bit today to check out the sites but there really wasn’t much to see. I saw the Citadel and the Roman Amphitheater. Neither…
Amman, Jordan, Asia I got up at 4am today to watch the NCAA National Championship game. It might sound ridiculous to get up that early, but UCONN was playing Kentucky and there was no way I was going to miss that! It ended up being well worth it too when UCONN won their fourth championship in 15 years! What a great start to the day!! After all that excitement, I packed up my stuff, grabbed a quick bite to eat…
Wadi Musa, Jordan, Asia Today was a very cool day at Petra. It started out with an early wake up call, and breakfast at the hotel. I got the 7:30am shuttle to Petra and started walking in at about 7:45am. This is the best time to go because there were hardly any people there, and it wasn’t too hot at this point. It was much more comfortable than starting a hike at 2pm. I hiked up past the tombs today,…
Wadi Musa, Jordan, Asia Today wasn’t as big of a day as yesterday, but it was still pretty good. I decided that since I did so much walking yesterday, I would start out a bit later today and go on a smaller trek. I caught up with some stuff I had to do this morning, had a good breakfast at the hotel, and then headed over to Petra at about noon. This was terrible planning on my part of course,…
Wadi Musa, Jordan, Asia Today was absolutely incredible! I got to visit Petra for the first time, and it did not disappoint. I started out this morning at El Rashid Hotel and had a quick breakfast and moved my stuff back up the hill to Rocky Mountain Hotel. I couldn’t check in, but I left my bags and walked down to Petra. It was about a 25 minute walk through Wadi Musa to get to the visitor center. I bought…