Holiday in Mongolia

It's a rainy day today in Mongolia; perfect for blogging. For this leg, we booked a tour through a company. We were hoping it wouldn't be too large of a group we were traveling with, and it turns out the "group" is just the two of us! Our guide, Anu, is awesome, and making the experience very special.



The view from our hotel in UB

We arrived in Ulaanbataar on Sunday and spent the day sightseeing in the city. We went to Gandantegchenling Monastery, which is actually 10 temples located on the same grounds, and the National Museum. We learned lots about the form of Buddhism practiced in Mongolia, which is the same as is practiced in Tibet, as well as the history of Mongolia. Ghengis Kahn has many statues in his honor throughout the country, and a large part of the museum is devoted to him.

The next day we left for Gun Galuut Nature Preserve, where we will stay until Friday. We are staying in a traditional ger, or yurt, without electricity.



Our ger



A row of gers


The ceiling, decoratively painted

It's very peaceful here, though there is much to do. Today was supposed to involve horseback riding to a nearby lake, but the weather isn't cooperating. We got caught in a downpour while on a hike on our first day here, and even though we got soaked, it was a great time. Yesterday, we rode on a yak cart to a local family's ger and made lunch, noodle soup, with them.


The yak cart



On the way to the ger



Anu and Jay eating the noodle soup we made


Alison makes "perfect" Mongolian noodles, according to the family



The baby likes the soup! We asked Any if she had seen the movie Babies, and how accurate the Mongolian experience was. She said that the only thing out of the ordinary was that the family had a cat and chicken, and most families don't. She said it's typical for parents to tie the babies to a bedpost so that they don't get into trouble!




It's hard to believe the trip is coming to an end so soon!


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99 Hours

One leg of the trip we had been looking forward to for a very long time is taking the Trans-Mongolian Railroad from Saint Petersburg to Ulaanbataar, Mongolia, and then a week later onto Beijing. The Saint Petersburg-Ulaanbataar leg is 99 hours long; what do you do on a train for that long?



If you guessed drink Russina vodka, you are correct! We lucked out and got a 4 bed cabin to ourselves, which was good because it was cramped quarters for two of us. The views were spectacular, and we had lots of time for reading.










This is the official Mongolia/Russia border.


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Mother Russia

We spent a day and a half in Saint Petersburg, Russia, before boarding the Trans-Mongolian Railroad. We were excited to see all the beauty the city had to offer. Unfortunately, the State Hermitage Museum is closed Mondays, the one day we had to explore. We did get to see some beautiful architecture, and relax before our epic train ride.

Probably the strangest sight we saw was a bear cub in a touristy part of the city. There are locals who have these exotic animals, we also saw a snake and two monkeys, and they charge tourists to have their pictures taken with them. It was sad; the bear cub was very small and kept on a leash. That was one photo op we definitely passed on.






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Local shout outs...

Traveling for so long has made us miss some of our favorite local businesses! Here are a couple shots for them!!



Yeah it was hot in Berlin, but why not rock the Boloco winter hat!



Our favorite local newspaper getting in on the action in Berlin. We hear they have the best editor around?






These two are tough to see with an ipod camera, but this is in Potsdam, Germany. It was taken in one of the gardens at the old summer residence of one Frederich The Great.






The only place it was actually cold enough for me to wear the hat the whole time: the Swiss Alps on top of Mt. Schilthorn. An old James Bond movie from the 60's was filmed up there, too.




View of the Charles Bridge in Prague!



Same bridge, but it looks so much cooler in a beanie!!



And of course our local shout outs would not be complete without mentioning the best beer store in the world. Ok, maybe we havent hit every beer store up, but I think it's safe to say Barb's Beer Emporium is the best. This pic is from a beer garden in Prauge.



This was taken at the Pilsner Urquell brewery in Plzen, Czech Republic.

We miss you guys!!

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Praha

We are in Prague! This city is absolutely beautiful, and we're taking full advantage of being outside before we're cooped up on a train for 4 days. We went to an art nouveau museum, a castle, fancy gardens, and the famous Astronomical clock.There is also really great beer here, which ironically, is all we have pictures of.






























Hey, there's no beer in this picture, I dont know how it got in there!

Hey remember that time...

...we were on a farm for 2 weeks with no internet? Yeah, that was fun. We spent those weeks WWOOFing on a family farm in Germany. For those of you that arent familiar with WWOOF, its an organization that links farmers with volunteers who work on the farm in exchang for room and board. They made a lot of the food they ate, and had sheep and alpacas they used to produce wool. It actually was one of the best times we've had on the trip so far, and here's a wrap up of what we did:

•ate food that was new to us. Our hosts raised most of the meat we ate, which included rabbit and sheep liverwurst. They were things we'd never try on our own, but for the most part it was good! We also picked lots of berries--cherries, strawberries, raspberries, and some that may have been currants, but we're not sure. A couple of days after we'd pick them, there'd be fresh jam made from them.

•sheared alpacas. Every 3 years, alpacas are sheared and the wool is used for yarn and bedding. Our visit coincided with 5 of the alpacas' shearing. They do not like being sheared, so Jay had to help hold them down while they got their haircut. Here's a before and after shot of the same alpaca, Willie, and one of Jay helping with the shearing process.









•took care of newborn ducklings. The same day we sheared alpacas, 3 baby ducks were born! We took care of them for the rest of our time there, and today they're 3 weeks old! Here's Jay with two of them:



•made honey. We helped our host family make honey for the first time. We got to watch the honey collection process, and wear bee suits! Unfortunately, we have no picture proof that this took place. Before we left, the family gave us the first jar of honey made at their farm, and we can't wait to try it.

•renovated an old GDR building. Being in eastern Germany was really fascinating. The farm we were on had been used by the GDR for large-scale farming. Consequently, there were lots of old, crumbling buildings on the land. We got to help knock down a wall in one of them that our host family is renovating. Its interesting to see whats left from the old government and how much was just abandoned.



There are lots of other things we did during our time on the farm, like taught kids to felt, referred to gloves as "handshoes" and rode 30 km on our day off for ice cream, and went to a Mozart concert in a 12th century church. Overall it was a great experience; we were sad to leave! If anyone ever needs a WWOOF farm recommendation, we have a good one!!
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Fun at 5000 feet

Sooo we wrote this before we left Switerland, and didnt have internet for a while, so our timetable is completly messed up. We are posting it about 2+ weeks late, but here you go!

Today we left Switzerland. We got to see some amazing scenery that we sometimes can't believe was real. We made it to the top of the Schilthorn one day when it wasn't cloudy and got some great pictures.











And proof we were really there:



We went on some great hikes during our visit, and one thing we couldn't get over was the way animals graze on the side of such steep landscapes.









Overall, Switzerland was surreal in its beauty. Now we're on our way back to Germany to work on a farm for 2 weeks. Thank you Mountain Hostel!



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