Massive report- trip to Volgograd

I'M BACK IN MOSCOWWWWW!!!!! Pheewww...3 days in Volgograd seemed like forever. Here is my lil report on my Volgograd trip.

Day 1
2 specially rented coaches for 1200 Euro each have long awaited us, causing chaos and traffic jam along Volgina Street. Started our journey to Volgograd at 1030 am. The 15 hours journey was almost too onerous to bear. Unlike those highways in Malaysia and anywhere in the world, Russian roads were all old and bumpy so we could scarcely move! Imagine having to travel at only 60km/hour for a 900 km journey! Making matter worse, it hailed and guess what, Russia does not have a proper rest house or to be exact, proper toilet on highways! They were 20-30 metres deep holes dug and surrounded by some old planks without proper flushing system and were extremely stinky! Having the thought of those places make me wanna puke, seriously! Reached Volgograd or formerly known as Stalingrad city at about 0145 and checked in the "Gastinitsa turist" 3-4 hours later, yeah, thanks to the "efficient" russian workers! Gastinitsa=hotel in russian, but it looked more like the roadside motels and we had to squeeze into the small room with only 2 single beds to fit the 3 of us (Irise, yonglin and I)! Went to bed at almost 7am so we had a great view of the sunrise.


Yonglin and I in the coach

Toilet built during the 1900's! haha..

Sunrise-at my hotel room's balcony

Day 2
Woke up at 11am. Though it was only 4 hours of sleep but we felt as though we had slept for 4 years! Perhaps those not-so-comfortable motel bed still beat those upright seats in the bus! The bunch of us gathered at the hotel lobby and set off for the centre for lunch. One thing that we loved was the low standard of living! That is one of the best things in Volgo, apart from the friendly outskirts' residents. A 'Combo meal' with a chicken burger, 2 pancakes, a regular sized french fries, salad and a cup of english tea costed only 100 rubles! (Note:RM 1=7.3rubles)Cheap isn't it? We will never get such cheap meals in Moscow! Rushed back to Turist hotel and got ready for the opening ceremony of the 2nd Annual Intervarsity Sports Games a.k.a VolGames '05 at 1530. It was fantabulous, the VSMU (volgograd state medical uni)students really put in much effort to make the opening ceremony such a success. We were entertained by performances- Wushu, Taekwando, Choir, Gymnastics. My running event would be held on the final day so we were supposed to be RSMU's(russian state medical uni)supporters, but on the way to the other stadium, which was some distance away, we got lost and were stopped by 3 polices. As a result, we missed all the events for that day. Sigh, what a disappointment! As for the dinner at the VSMU campus, in short, I've eaten the worst meal in Russia. EVER. The roast chicken was NOT chicken. It's like a cooked chicken that tasted raw with a layer of red uncooked flesh in between and they gave out a terribly unbearable bad smell! The mutton was all burnt and tasted like charcoal. The curry chicken was okay and the dessert was not inviting at all. All in all, the whole meal was S-H-I-T! Walked around the centre and left for hotel at 2230. ZzzZzzz....


All of us on the "samasolskaya street", Volgograd

Mamayavskii's monument

Opening ceremony of the VolGames'05

Taekwando by the students of VSMU

Day 3
Woke up at 1000 to have a taste of the stay-cum-breakfast but we were later than the scheduled time and so, NO FREE FOOD! Had some student-cooked-Malaysian-food and thank god we did not eat the lunch provided. 80% of those who ate the curry chicken rice had stomach upset and diarrhoea! We cheered for our basketball team. They were really good but the referee was biased, d*mn him! If not for him, we would have gotten a gold instead of the silver! Anyway, my running event was the closing ceremony and we were the silver medalist! Hurry, congratulate me!!!! hehehe...At 1900, we had a cruise along volga river, it was awesome though the supposed-to-be dinner on the cruise turned out to be a tasteless fried rice on the coach! Left Volgograd for Moscow at 2300 and reached Moscow the next day at noon.


Track games' athletes

The area beside the turist hotel, Volgograd

Cruise along the Volga River

From left: rayyank, minyuen, eileen, me, lingtze, yonglin and yanhan

minyuen, lingtze and I in the ship