Россия, здесь мы приезжаем! (Russia, Here we come!)

In just less than 12 weeks, I’ll be drinking Vodka (and eating Caviar apparently), in a Russian tour group, over the course of 7 days from St. Petersburg, through Novgorod and finally to Moscow.  I’m sure it’ll be great, and I’ve been checking the weather for Moscow recently, and they’ve been enjoying 21º Celsius temperatures, which may even be warm enough for shorts.  But we’ll see.  One thing I’ve learnt about the world (in my vast travels), is that the brisk 15-18º (almost sweater weather) in Australia is perfectly fine for shorts and a T-shirt in the UK.  Going by this logic, I’m going to stock up on thongs (no, not flip-flops), as I might just enjoy it.

When in Russia, I guess!

The tour we’re going on is the Vodka Caviar 2008 tour run by Top Deck Tours, which seems to be jam packed with included food, outings and theatre/circus tickets, though it’d definitely want to be for the cost.  But, all in all, it looks to be great fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing parts of the former Soviet machine.

We’ll be travelling around in a “modern air-conditioned bus”, and the group usually consists of about 20 people (of which 16 I’m expecting to be Brits).  I’m hoping for a fun piss-up, but I hope its not like all these Contiki Tours I’ve heard about friends doing over the years, I think I’m getting too old (hell, I am 25 now). Soft, I know!

The last thing we had to do in preparation for the trip was get the Visa organised, which as always was an annoying process (the two visa applications and postage cost (just over £40) almost £150, but amazingly enough, the website told me we’d have the passports back on the 20th of June, what do you know, they turned up on Friday night.  Perfect timing.  A little too perfect perhaps.

Shannon looks around suspiciously…..Шпионы, они всегда наблюдают

Similar, except mines got a hologram (how very 2008)

I needed to send a friend an SMS back home (Australia) the other day, and my phone had run out of batteries, again, though I did forget to charge it the night before.  That was when I remembered Web2Msg.com, which allows you to send free SMS messages to any Australian mobile phone (or cell, if you roll like that).  The best thing is, there’s no signups required, no annoying popups, and no forced advertising in the sent messages.

So, if you’re a bum, and you can’t afford a mobile phone battery, or credit for your prepaid phone, give it a go!  And best of all, it’s a feat of .NET programming.