Russia tips

IN ADVANCE sort out your Visa. Takes around 3-4 weeks and costs around $150. Highly beaurureucratic. Much easier to use a dedicated Visa company (CIBT) and pay the small premium for it. Otherwise, risk standing in long lines and stressing it won’t be done in time.

LEARN a bit of Russian. Or at least the Cyrillic alphabet. Will make life a lot easier

GET THERE by flying into Moscow with BA from Heathrow. Surprisingly quick flight (4hrs) and good times. Two airports. We landed into Domodevo. Custom lines are long, so get to front of plane and be prepared to wait. Easiest way into Moscow is with the Aero Express. Follow signs for it (the only ones in English). Buy your tickets for around RUB200 each and it takes 45mins. Once you arrive into xxx station, get used to the subway. Tickets are standard prices RUB28 per journey. It’s fun and very quick for getting around as traffic can be a nightmare and getting a cab is daunting. No official cab system unless you organize through your hotel. “Stab” cabs as they’re affectionately known are basically guys in their cars working for extra cash. No doubt they’ll try to rip you off, so agree the fare first - it’ll be expensive whatever happens so take cabs only when required and the subway more often

STAY somewhere central within walking distance of the Kremlin. Although it’s very very expensive. We used points and stayed at the Park Hyatt, which somehow crazily normally commands $800 per night

VISIT the Kremlin and go to the Armory. Buy your ticket for this on the west side of the Kremlin, but check in advance as there are set visiting hours. Particularly visit the Diamond fund – buy tickets for this in the Armory. Go visit Lenin’s tomb. Entry is free, but lines start early in the morning from 9:30am. We came back a bit later around 11:30am and hardly had to wait. St Basil’s cathedral is also here. That can all be done as part of one visit. For another visit go to the church the other side of Patriach’s Bridge and eat at Art Strelka (see below). The Pushkin museum is here too although we didn’t get a chance to go

SHOP at GUM. An amazing building next to the Kremlin but every designer under the sun. Although save actually buying anything until you come home. Stupidly expensive prices

EAT At Café Pushkin. Very traditional and expensive local restaurant (opening a restaurant in NYC in Fall 2011). Café Margarita. Another local place, but much smaller, cheaper and has local music students playing fun sing along tunes. Art Strelka. A trendy place on the river serving really nice dishes and great views. Drink at the top of the Ritz at O2 for great views of the Kremlin.

GET to St Petersburg by train. Most trains go from Leningradsky to Moscovsky station. We took a fast day train which took around 4hrs and cost $150 per person. Another option is to take the night train which will save on accommodation and take 8hrs.

STAY in similar fashion to Moscow. Somewhere central in walking distance to the Hermitage and Nevsky Prospect (main street). Again, very expensive. We used points to stay at the W which normally costs around $400 per night.

VISIT the Hermitage – ideally get a guide which will pass the lines and show you the most interesting bits. We paid RUB4,000 for 3hrs. Peterhof was the King’s old summer estate and you can get there on a 30min hydrofoil ride from in front of the Hermitage. Really pretty gardens and lovely to walk around and relax in. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral/Fortess was where Peter first landed and built his fort which is interesting to see. Yusupov mansion shows the decadence of the Russian elite – each room has a different theme and they even have their own theatre. The Vodka museum is a fun side thing to do to learn a short history about vodka and to try a few different brands. St Isaac’s Cathadral is huge and you can climb the 200 steps for great views while the Church of the Savior of Spilled Blood looks like it’s from a candy store

EAT at Idiot which is a cosy local place.

Every day i wake up and thank the Lord i'm Welsh

Hi All,

Well, it’s been a long old winter. Last week the temperature shot up to almost 70 degress…for a day…and now it’s back down to 35. For you Brits, that basically means that it went hotter than a British and then colder than a British winter within 24hrs!!! Crazy crazy!! At least the sun is shining and Em and I are taking a well deserved trip to Mexico in a couple of weeks. I just hope those drug lords keep their gun battles well away from our stretch of beach!!

Sorry to harp on about the cold here, but it really is a shock. I guess I arrived on the cusp of winter last year and so thought it was all exciting. The Boxing day blizzard here was fun, but now I’m simply over it. You’d have thought with all this body hair, that I’d be able to withstand a drop in temperatures, but in actual fact, I deal with it by throwing my toys out of the pram!!!

Thankfully the cold has at least brought on 2 of my favorite pastimes. Skiing and Driving.
Went on a couple of day trips to “Hunter mountain” just north of the city. Pretty fun, but too small a mountain so spend any more than a day there. Amusement was brought by a colleague drinking his way up on the bus, forgetting his ski jacket, wearing aviators, no helmet, push a guy over on his first run and then do a jump and smash up his collar bone on his second run. Fortune favors the brave hey?!
I’ve been lucky enough to take out a couple of Porsches this month. The first, a bright orange 1968 ‘911 was fun but tough. Kind of nuts to think it was 40 years old. The second was a much newer 911 Turbo. The fastest thing I’ve ever driven and makes this wooshing airplane noise when hit 4k revs. Suffice to say I felt like a kid in a toy car. Except that it wasn’t a toy!!!

Em and I drove up an hour north of the city to the Hudson valley region. Really is a beautiful part of the state, with pretty villages, restaurants, bridges etc. No doubt we put on a few kilos from the food and had a very interesting time in a place called Cold Spring – my mother would have loved it here with all the antique shops. I think we brought the average age down to about 65 and the locals were either extremely nice or extremely rude. On the nicer side was a Welsh lady called Leonora who got very excited to hear I was from just down the road from where she grew up! We spoke in our put on Welsh accents for at least 15mins!!!

Which brings me on to the subject line. March 1st is/was St David’s Day. A day for all to celebrate leeks, daffodils, rugby, sheep and anything else myself and my fellow brethren are proud of being Welsh. Or to paraphrase the great Josh “Shippo” Shipman – “It’s the only country where you can have a good meal, have sex and make a woolly jumper all from the same animal”!!!

So a Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant Hapus to all of you and I hope to hear from you soon!!
(And hopefully I’ll be seeing some of you too. A small chance I’ll be coming home in mid April)

Jamie

PS The first photo is from Burn's Night. After a few glasses of wine, i got up and did the William Wallace monologue!!
And if you hadn't worked out the second one, it's a picture of me holding a real life brain. It stank and was surprisingly heavy!!

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Hudson Valley

Within a couple of hours drive/train of New York is the Hudson Valley. Lovely villages based along the river as it snakes up through New York state.

A lot of the villages are easily accessible by train. Or there are various routes one can drive. Here are some of my recommendations

Cold Spring
A very cosy one street village about an hour from the city. Heavy on the antiques and some interesting characters
STAY at the Pig Hill Inn – a bed and breakfast run by Vera. Prices are reasonable, location is excellent and breakfast is yum!
EAT at the the Riverview – website looks a bit naff, but the food is excellent
VISIT all the antiques stores on Main St. Particularly The Country Goose run by Leonora who’s Welsh and great fun!!

Milton
Didn’t see much in the town itself, but a great place because of where we stayed
STAY at the Buttermilk Falls Inn and Spa – beautiful place on the river with cracking food, cosy rooms, a spa, gym and best of all – animals! Llamas, sheep, swans, ducks etc etc
EAT at the Artist’s Palate – a 10min drive into Poughkeepsie. Excellent new American style food

Other things to do/visit

Culinary Institute of America – one of the premier cooking schools with various onsite restaurants
FDR – Very interesting tour of the home, library and museum of FDR
Walkway over the Hudson – A purpose built footbridge giving excellent views of the river
Rhinebeck – Pretty town a couple of hours north where Chelsea Clinton got married
Storm King – Massive outdoor sculptures. Can either walk, ride a bike or take the internal bus. Take a picnic
Dia Beacon – Art gallery with some interesting exhibitions
Newburgh waterfront – Nice restaurants on the river, but little to see in the town
Dominion House B&B – Cute place to stay. Pretty reasonable price