Arrived in Uzbekistan!

Here I am ! Tashkent, in Uzbekistan!
The long way from Ukrainia to Tashkent was long and tiring. I began to do some videos of the corner of the train windows to make a super great movie of the travel and... and it became so much boring... train train train... I will probably delete these videos..!

In a same time, I put my camera in the deepest place in my bag when I saw the look of the first train controller on my device. The way until Volograd was long. Arrived there, I took immediately another night train to Kazakhstan. Police/Custom Control in the middle of the night. They woke me up slowly and sweetly shake me strongly until I realize completely what was happening. Bribe time with a 20euros bill which went directly to the controller pocket... and because of it, I had no problems with my kazakh visa (anyway, I shouldn't have problems with my visa which were conform but not for him).

I arrived in the morning in a station that I don't remember the hieroglyphs name and, it's the time to change train! I meet Erik (not my dad, another one), a german guy who were doing the same travel than me but he was going to Pakistan! We reached a train station in the middle of nowhere (several hours far from Shymkent) and the next train was leaving at 5am! In waiting for the train, we met with happiness a band of five drunks kazakhs guys! They were quiet aggressive and turned around us. We moved from the station but those vilains followed us! With our big lugages, we couldnt walk very quickly and a guy run until us to tell us to come back with a domineering ton. We kept walking and crossed the street to the only building which seemed to be opened. It was a little hostel, and as soon as we get into it, they stopped their little game. We have been quickly kicked from the hostel (we must pay a room if we wanted to stay inside!), then we stayed on the stairs all of the night!! Finally, we took the train to Shymkent, arrived there on the end of the morning and we said goodbye each others. From Shymkent, impossible to find a train to reach Uzbekistan but I found a bus which was going there.

Anyway, as the time I arrived in Uzbekistan, I liked the country which is extraordinary, even if Tashkent is not the most beautiful city of this planet, it is charming. It's horribly hot, the atmosphere is quiet heavy and there is a strong humidity. To sum up and do some generalities, we can meet two kind of Uzbeks people :

- The ones who want to eat all of your money because you are foreigner.
- The ones who are super welcoming, friendly, smiling and who invite you to their house to introduce you his wife, who will cook for you as well, for ten person and you are alone.

I will not develop so much on it but just to explain a little bit :
With the first ones, you should to act like a stupid person who don't understand anything, negociate the price of the taxi before entering inside it, go to ask some help to the police (just saying you are lost or whatever) and show them that they are superheroes for you, before they go to you for another reason (some free money).

With the second ones, it's always astonishing to be invited like a sir by people you met just 5 minuts before. In searching for my Uzbek host family (couchsurfing), I met the neighbor on the stairs. Two minuts after, I was in his living room, eating meat, soup, fruits and drinking tea! :)

Sorry to not upload pictures and videos but at this time, I can't use my SD card. Also the connexion here is always so slow, but I will put many pictures on a next article (soon)!

Tomorrow, I will put another article about the next episode of the travel. The good bad news of chinese embassy (GIMME A FCKING CHINOOSE VISAAAA !!!!! GOD POSEIDON OF THE MOOSE HELP MEEEEE!!!!) and also, the worst day I had in this trip (it should exist one at least) but it finished magically tonight! :)

I'm going to a new host tonight and if he has a internet connexion (not common in uzbek house!) and that's not too slow (even less common!), I will upload many blastouflailles (sounds like a french word)!

Sorry about all of the english mistakes but I have no time to correct it, I should meet my new host quickly because it's almost 11pm here! ;)

On the road again..!!

And it's now my last day in Warsaw! But before the explain of the itinenary I'll take, I should give you some new informations :

I have a big problem with my chinese visa. Whatever the city, Berlin or Warsaw, being french, I could not ask for a chinese visa. Anyway I wanted to make this visa in Astana, in Kazakhstan but after some research, I got the same answer : Impossible to make a chinese visa in Kazakhstan, and in a global way, impossible to make a visa in a country which is not mine!
Impossible ?! Not really !

In fact, it exist some rare countries where we can do a chinese visa without any nationality problems. For example, it is good in Hong-Kong but it need that I take a plane to reach over there and for two reasons, I can't do it :
1) That is not the purpose of this travel (no plane!).
2) That is not the purpose of this travel (from Hong-Kong, I will not have crossed China... It's quiet near to Korea).

The solution is Uzbekistan !!! I read many things about it is possible to make a chinese visa in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan without any nationalité restriction. So I'm thinking about going to Uzbekistan for the next days (after cross Ukrainia, Russia and Kazakhstan).

The good points in this change of itinenary :
1) I should be able to get a visa : which means, no plane to Hong-Kong or for to France!!
2) Tashkent is really close of China and Kazakhstan.

The evil bad fucking really nasty not good so much ugly points :
1) Make a visa for Uzbekistan
2) My Kazakh visa is only for one entry... I need two entries.
3) This make me lost a lot of day, and it change all of the plans with Stefan, my kazakh friend.


To sum up, here is what I need to reach the border of China :

1) Make a visa to go to Uzbekistan
2) Cross Kazakhstan to go in Uzbekistan
3) Make a chinese visa
4) Make a new Kazakh visa to reach China.

Stefan already plan his holidays in considering I will arrive around the 12th of July in Kazakhstan (which is possible actually if I don't go to China after!!), so Stefan and his friends go across Kazakhstan without me and we will maybe meet in Almaty (next to the chinese border) in more or less ten days (the town where he's doing his studies).


So I'm leaving Ukrainia tonight to benefit of a free night in the train. I will be in Kiev early tomorrow and in an vigorous state! And that's what I need to cross Russia and Kazakhstan. I will certainly not give news for several days (3, 4 or maybe 5 days max) until my arrival in Tashkent, but for sure, if I find an internet access somewhere, I'll write some lines on the blog! ;)

I hope to be in Tashkent on the 15th of July (in four days).

N.B : The video of the modern art museum of Warsaw is really long to upload on youtube, I'm gonna to upload it later, when a better connexion will be around me! :)
N.B² : I found a little picture of the first travel day with my carpooling fellows, then if you are interesting about seeing their head, look at the first topic!

Bisous à tous et à très vite! ;)

The life in Warsaw

It's been several days that I spend in Poland. I enjoy those moments of relaxation before leaving Poland to continue this long roadtrip.

Today, topic about tourism, alcohol and cooking, which show the last few days I spent in Warsaw. Tomorrow, I will post a topic about the planning of this roadtrip (problems with chinese visa, impossible to get it in a country which is not mine!).
Anyway, I am now in Warsaw where Konrad has hosted two lithuanian girls who cross all of the Europ by hitchhiking. We visited the town all together, then they left Poland the next day to Berlin.

Look this video in HD, fullscren! ;)

You can see in the video above, the concept of vodka-bar. They are really famous little bars in Poland, where you can stop two minuts to eat something quick and drink a vodka !

The next days, I visited a modern art museum. I think that I wasn't enouth modern and enouth polish to understand completely the sublety of those artists (you will see by yourself in the next topic, I made som pics/videos! ;)).

By the way, I saw again Sylvia (that I met in the train in Berlin) to drink the vodka we must drink together! The vodka we drunk wasn't a shot... it was a 600meters glass (yes, ok I exagerate but still it was big!!). Karmila, her friend, went quickly to bed and we kept talk in that bar. She's a very talkative person but I like it. If I don't talk, she can talk even if don't answer her questions!! And no, she doesn't take drugs! ;)

Later, I met the neighbor of Konrad, with who we did some crazy parties! Yersteday, Konrad invited him and his girlfriend to eat. I said him that I could cook something french and then, I cook crêpes !! It was basic but still very good : cheese, ham and egg!
For the first dish, I made guacamole (with nachos!). I'm not sure if it's french, actually I really think it is not but anyway! :-)

Not difficult to cook but really good !! :)

Everybody enjoyed the food, they asked me the recipes and everything!

But all of this is nothing comparing to the beauty of what we cook with Konrad just before! And to prove it, here is a little video :

Look this on fullscreen! ;)

Planning for tonight : I will meet again Sylvia in a bar-dance-club-vodka-something!

Planning for tomorrow :

1) Embassy to take my passeport and visa.

2) Meet my new host Paulina! I will sleep one night at her accomodation before leaving for Ukrainia! She's living with 5 roomates, 4 girls and one boy (I can not complain! ;)) in a big flat really good situated in the center of Warsaw! :-)

Kiss! See you here tomorrow for the next topic! ;)

Woke up at 5am and let's leave the city "GLASTFLÜNDER AAAARRRRR", or something like that! I was not able to pay a train ticket with my VISA card, it wasn't accepted in the machine. Anyway, I went to the train and waited to see what will happens without ticket! Finally,I avoid the control in buying food meanwhile the controller checked the passengers tickets..!

Finally in Berlin, I fastly came to the chinese embassy. After a quick way on the subway, the administratives troubles were waiting for me :

- Suscribe to an international health insurance.
- Book hostel for all of the period I would like to stay in China (otherwise, it's a letter from a chinese host, writed on chinese!).
- Proof of how I get in China
- Proof of how I leave China.

Anyway... After few hours and half of the requirement in my possession, I waited for the long

queue to reach the visa office. The girl there, make me understand quickly that it was impossible to get a chinese visa in Berlin, because I wasn't german (only the french people living there can).

Really disappointed, I decided to go back quickly to Warsaw to go to the Russian embassy the next morning. This time, I bought a high speed train ticket, to not get in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere...! Completely exhausted, legs and shoulders dead, I rested on a chair, sent a text to Konrad to tell him I will arrive in Warsaw on this evening, and finally fall asleep for several hours.

I went to the train around 6pm and met two persons completely crazy as I never met before : Sylvia Polska and an ex-prisoner pedophile rapist polish (from now, we will call him pedolish).

When I arrived in the cabin, Sylvia was saying goodbye to a ginger homeless sorcerer german friend of her. When we begin to talk together, I was thinking she was crazy... but quickly, we talked a lot and laughed a lot. After 30 minuts, I was really impressed of her personality, and a very accomplice atmosphere came in the train. It was like we knew each other since a long time, that was my feeling.

Beside, Pedolish tried to trap me with his sensual posture in inviting me to sleep at his house. He told me about it was his father's accomodation => "it's messy but I can clean" but Sylvia was already trying to take care of me, then..

 In Warsaw station, she absolutely wanted to give me something. In taking my bag as a table, she cut her bread to give me half of it! :)

We talked during all of the travel, about nothing and everything. Then, she called all of her friends to find somewhere we could sleep together "as brother and sister" to keep talking together. But after two or three hundred of calls, she told me she couldn't find a solution to stay together.
The plan was that I go to the accomodation of her pregnant friend, a little bit far from Warsaw. But my phone rang, it was Konrad who tell me that if I want to sleep at his accomodation tonight, there were no problems. We gave each other our numbers and she drove me until the bus station. We decided to plan another time to drink the polish vodka she wanted to make me discover.

The center of Warsaw is beautiful, very colorful. I suspect the European football coup to be responsable of all of those colorful ambiance that I saw, but anyway, the town is splendid.
A lot of things make me think about Paris (roads, signs, buildings etc..). Every time I needed some help, polish people seemed really involved to help me, smiling most of the time. The only caution I could heard about Poland is to no talk to drunk polish guys.

Anyway, I found without difficulties the way to get in Konrad's accomodation, because of the help or Sylvia and of the detailed messages of my host.

Konrad Werys

(the pic is not mine, it's his profile picture)

Great accomodation, he welcome me with a beer and a pizza! We talked much that night, I don't know exactly the name of his job but he's a kind of magnetic resonnance engineer and work on scanner machines in hospitals (bones scan, lungs scan, MRI scan etc..) which works with magnets!
I don't really know what he's exactly doing with thoses machines but it's looks cool!

Konrad helped me to find my way to go to the embassy, near the street KRAWSKUNIOVSZ-GRAZYNALUVKY!!!!!

This morning, he drove me at the russian embassy before going to work. Very encouraging, they tool my passport right away, no problems at all! The visa will be ready on next tuesday, then at this moment, I will leave Poland to reach Ukrainia.

At the time, I am near the embassy where I found a place to eat something which cost me 5 zlotys (a bit more than one euro), and write that article. I have bunch of pics and videos but I can't put everything here : I will make a video with everything on it ! ;)


This afternoon, I'm going to the biggest commercial center of Poland to visit it... but mainly to buy socks!!! In fact, I forgot to take sockets in my bag then it's an emmergency case!


Tonight, Sylvia wanna meet me in the center of Warsaw to drink polish vodka as polish people usually do! I will invite Konrad to join us, he finish his work late.

Planning of the next days :
- Enjoy Warsaw (visit of the old warsaw, important places etc..) 
- From the 8th, I will meet Paulina, ma new host, until the 10th (passeport ready!).
- Check trains and bus which cross the little part of Russia I wanna cross to reach Kazakhstan.


N.B: The best invention of the world www.couchsurfing.org
N.B² : I wrote this article yersterday but didn't have time to translate it in english, then all of this is about yersterday! ;)

See you !! ;)

At the time, I still not visited Warsaw and here is the reason :

I heard about I could do my chinese visa in Berlin, in one day if I pay an extra fee about +30€. Really excited about that idea (it usually take one week), I decided to do a quick outward journey on tuesday evening to do my chinese visa the next morning.

In taking my ticket to go to Berlin, I saw the price of the ticket could be divided by four (20€) if I was going on the little road (with plenty of change) Instead of taking a high speed train, I chose the economic option!

The bad point is that at the german border, the train had stopped in the middle of nowhere at 00.30 am... and no more train before 5h30am...!!

A german girl thought that I was lost and a bit desesperated, she was right. She called her boyfriend and asked him if they could help me! That's how I slep that night, without any request, in the house of this lovely german couple! :-)

 

 Caroline is a mathematics and geography teacher (in Germany, teachers have to teach two things), and Michel begin as a dentist.

 

Michel cooked a little plate for me, we drunk a beer, and two... and...

...we talked until 3am...!!

It was a royal host ! They gave me german cakes and a bottle of water as well, for the road!

When Michel went to bed, I checked some informations on internet about embassies. I also found Konrad, a polish host (expert of couchsurfing => Sleeping at people house) on warsaw, to sleep two days later..!

On the way to reach Warsow

The road was long and tiring!! I didn't sleep very much the night before leaving, and the two others drivers neither. Anyway, we didn't have enouth energy to reach Warsaw, then we stopped in a little german city where I had 5 minuts of wifi!

We reached Warsaw in the morning (after a 3hours napcat) and then, I tried to find my guesthouse to let all of my stuff and go to the Russian embassy to make my transit visa. The embassy is only open the morning and lack of luck, it is close on wednesday! In other words, I should wait until wednesday to begin the administrative papers to make my visa. It's ashamed, I'll cost me two days of waiting! :'(

Anyway, here you can see my package :

no sleeping bag, just a thin cover but it's feathers inside!

 

Since that pic, my tent is completely attached to the bag (it was moving a lot!)

  

Looking for the guesthouse in Warsaw!

update :

Carpooling Fellow!

See you soon! :)

First step, unexpected plan

The plan about this travel is to do Paris-Seoul without plane (because plane is too mainstream). To reach this goal, I should cross the following countries : Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, China and finally, Korea in taking a boat from Qingdao to Incheon.

The blue lines are the road that I plan to take. In green, it is alternative ways that I will take depending of the situation in Warsow, capital of Poland.The dot (red or green) are the place where I'm going to stay more than one day. But because that kind of travel is full of problems, of unexpected things, the itinary will probably not be the one I planned! :-)

The first step of this travel was about to go to Kiev, Ukrainia in carpooling for 100€ with 27hours of non-stop driving (in relaying). The problem is that the owner of the car is really hesitant, he could leave France on 11th or 15th and he still doesn't know (the ad was about to leave initially on the 6th!).

Then I found another carpooling (50€) in direction of Warsow, in Poland. It will be a little bit less close of the Russia border than if I go directly to Kiev but anyway!
The goal in Warsow is to obtain the russian visa which I don't have on my passport to reach Kazakhstan. Little unexpected thing : This car will leave on this monday then it remains only two days to prepare everything so.... let's go!!