I am back from the Amadeus Tolstoy....

[land lover]

So my leopard skin blouse and spandex capris won't cause to much attention as long as I where heels........;) I'd be game if I was 20, lol.

 

It's amazing how fashion is so univeral now......and jeans have just taken over. The internet and express delivery have made everything available to everyone.

 

So I should not bother to bring a skirt?

[Coral]

So my leopard skin blouse and spandex capris won't cause to much attention as long as I where heels........;) I'd be game if I was 20, lol.

 

So I should not bother to bring a skirt?

 

Too funny (first comment)!

 

We had a ballet at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg that we were told to dress "smart casual" and that there were many steps. Everyone dressed up for this (skirt, jacket and tie).

 

There was also a show in Folk Show in Moscow that people dressed up for.

 

People also dressed up for the Captain's dinner on the ship.

 

I brought 4 skirts and ended up not wearing any of them. I skipped the ballet at the Hermitage and the Folk Show in Moscow.

[land lover]

4 skirts?

 

I will only be taking one, but no heels.:)

 

Did you end up staying in the cities and not go back for lunch on the ship?

[Coral]

4 skirts?

 

I will only be taking one, but no heels.:)

 

Did you end up staying in the cities and not go back for lunch on the ship?

 

One skirt will be fine.

 

For the most part, no, I didn't stay in town except one night in Moscow. Our schedule didn't really allow for too much of this.

 

For example - Catherine's Palace and Peterhoff (in St. Petersburg) are quite a bit out of town. We did these 2 seperate mornings - and then spent those 2 afternoons in the heart of St. Petersburg. So in these situations it was not possible. There was one night that people stayed when we were going to the Hermitage theatre at night but I didn't go that night.... I think there was one afternoon that I should have done it in St. Petersburg but it was the first day and I wasn't thinking or didn't have a feel for where things were at that time.

 

In Moscow, we only spent 1.5 days there. The first day, we left for touring at 1 pm. That afternoon I skipped an art gallery to go to Red Square and then rejoined with the group and there was another group who wanted to go to Red Square so we left the group and went there that night. We then had dinner and took the metro back. The following day, we had lunch on a boat while we were on the Moscow River (I think that is what it was called) - it went up and down the river and we saw sites like Gorky Park and the Kremlin from the water -- so we didn't go back to the ship.

 

Yes, Moscow and St. Petersburg were very rushed. Even the small towns, we were not given that much extra time.

 

Theresa

[AliceS]

Lori,

 

We were in Russia on a cruise and found many of the young girls to be very punk. Bright red and pink hair, high heals, short skirts. Others were very plain and drab. No matter what I picked from my closet, they would know that we were tourists. We kept it comfortable and understated. We had guards with us on tours, especially to Peterhoff. It was a holiday there and it was crazy.

[2travelers]

Hi Theresa: It's me again! Just wanted to ask you about internet connections on the ship. From what I have read, there is no internet on the Tolstoy. I am so used to the convenience of buying internet minutes, I will miss that terribly. I asked about phone use on this board and got a ton of responses. The only thing that has stopped me from buying an international mobile phone is the cost per call from Russia -$8.95 per minute (and you have never spoken to my daughter). My husband works with someone who has an international phone that is .79 per minute only if it says "roaming" - once you see the signal for satallite the call is back to $8.95. Did you see folks using calling cards and was there enough time to stop and make a call? Did you see any internet cafes, and were passengers given enough time to stop and use them? Was anyone using those international phones? I am thinking of the convenience of a phone - but once I get home I start thinking of the phone bill that awaits me :eek: I have gotten a ton of info here but still can't decide which way to go. Since you have just come back from the trip I figure you must have the most up to date info. on staying connected.

Hope you are over you jet lag and have only great memories of this trip. Four weeks to go.

Ronnie

[Coral]

Hi,

 

I also looked into a phone and nixed it. I was told $9 a minute from the few places I looked. The Australians were doing a lot of text messaging with their phones - they were able to add that to their plan for a minimal cost.

 

Someone had a Cingular work phone and had to use it to call home when their credit cards were stolen to get the local bank number to call about their debit card being stolen. They thought the calls were also costing them $8 plus per minute. They only used it because their wallet was stolen.

 

There is no internet on the ship. There were 3 places/opportunities where you could use the internet from what I could tell (and I looked). The first was the Hermitage (St. Petersburg). At the end of the tour, we were given 30 minutes to shop or take pictures outside. I did not use it at that time - I wasn't sure that is what they were there for (verses maybe a museum lookup) but it was an internet area. Not sure what the cost was. The only people I know who used this was those who stayed later (Australians) to explore the Hermitage on their own.

 

The second place was at Mandrogi. There is an postal center type building and they had 2 computers in the back room. The cost was extremely minimal. They also had phone cards there. There was a 30 minute card which they sold for $5 which translated to 2 or 3 minutes for a call to the US. I didn't understand the minutes and used up my first one talking to an answering machine. I bought one more and was caught up quickly and then bought 1 or 2 additional cards for $15 or $17 which gave me 6 minutes each to call the US (they took rubles or dollars). You buy a phone card from the counter person and there are 2 phone rooms you can use with instructions on using the phone cards. The only trick here was knowing the country code for the US which is "1". I think their phones in their post office were programmed to call the phone card number of the phone cards they were selling. I picked up the phone and then a voice said "enter the 8 digit number" and I entered that and then the voice said "dial the country code and then area code and then number"....

 

The 3rd place to use internet was Yarolsavl (I had to look at the date of my emails to see what city we were in). The guides told us where this was (right across from where our buses stopped). We had 20 or so minutes to go to a market street or use the internet and I used the internet. Again, the cost was minimal. I don't remember the exact cost but I want to say a ruble a minute. I think I said 15 minutes to use the internet and it cost 20 rubles or something like that. I had no problems using the internet here but some people did - their websites were in Russian and they couldn't get to an English version of the website. My guess is my email website is only English verses Yahoo is in 100 different languages and bringing up Yahoo on a Russian ISP/computer will bring up the site in Russian.

 

There is a phone on board the ship - there was a sign on the front desk but a notation that it is very expensive to call outside of the country. I couldn't tell how much it was because each card equaled 30 units or 60 units and I didn't know how long a 30 unit call would last calling the US (maybe 2 minutes like the one in Mandrogi).

 

I really didn't see people using calling cards (outside of the ones in Mandrogi). One could make time to use them if they wanted to. If you are going to proceed this way - realize that a 30 minute card could possibly translate to 2 minutes for a call to the US. If you speak to the guides or CD - they could point you to a place to make the calls. They were pretty good at answering questions such as "where is the closest ATM", "where is the next port with internet".

 

I think I am caught up with somethings. I hope to tackle a review and pictures this week and next weekend. Yes - good memories. I was speaking to a friend today and was thinking that a couple of years from now, I won't remember that I disliked the food but will just remember the places I saw. I really wished we had more time in St. Petersburg and Moscow but I also cherish visiting places that I would not have ever seen along the Volga if I had just done a land trip. The local people were so nice - we were warned in Moscow that locals can come across as rude as they are really rushed but we found them quite the opposite. We asked several people questions as were navigated through the Metro and everyone was very helpful. The guides were excellent. It was a good trip.

 

I hope this helps some. I struggled big time on staying in touch with home. I told my mom to email me daily and she got mad because after Yaroslavl - I never had another chance to email her back. We had some issues going on at home (a death in the family right before I left) and I just had very minimal contact with home to deal with these issues.

 

Theresa

[Benita]

There is also an internet station at the underground shopping mall in Moscow, just outside of Red Square. Very inexpensive.