A Day Trip to Pisa from Florence

Published by Johnny Ward on February 12, 2013

Like I mentioned in my post about things to see in Florence, Pisa is easily accessible as a day trip from your base there, which is certainly the best plan. I had planned to sleep in Pisa but after arriving there you see that there’s not much else aside from it’s very famous wonky tower.

How to get to Pisa from Florence:

Very easily my friends. From Florence train station, buy a one way ticket to Pisa (about 7 euro ($9), and takes around 80 minutes). Stamp your ticket and jump on board.

The trains run around every hour or so, there’s no need to book in advance.

From Pisa train station you can walk to the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it takes about 20 minutes and it’s a straight shot right out the main entrance of Pisa train station.

All the guide books will point you towards Campi Dei Miracoli as a secondary sight to see, in addition to the tower. It’s a nice Italian square, but nothing that you haven’t seen one hundred times around Italy. Great ice cream vendors though.

Anyways, on to the main event.The Leaning Tower Of Pisa. As you walk from the station, eventually when you’re almost upon it you take a left and there it is, sitting askew surrounded by a thousand tourists pretending to hold it up or push it down.

To get access to the tower’s grounds is entirely free, all your cheesy pics are free. If you want access inside the tower it’s around 17 euro ($21), groups are restricted to 40 people at a time and there’ll most definitely be a queue, probably more than an hour, certainly if you’re there in the summer. Personally, I gave the inside a miss – the whole point of me being here was to see the tower leaning, something I’ve wanted to see since I was a kid. If you’re in the tower (combined with the ticket fee and time wasted waiting) you don’t see anything!

The Cathedral next door to the tower is nice too, and well worth the 2 euro entry if you’re fresh into Europe, if you’ve been round the European backpacking trail, it’s just another ‘church’. It’s amazing from the outside though.

However, your eyes will be constantly drawn back to the tower which continues to sit over 4m from the perpendicular, pretty amazing actually. And Italy has gifted me another item from my bucket list. Off to Lucca next (which you can combine in one day trip from Pisa, read the post on Lucca for details), happy travels!

Tags: europe, leaning tower, pisa, train, travel

Getting from Russia to Kazakhstan: Omsk to Astana

Published by Johnny Ward on May 01, 2012

I don’t like to follow people’s paths, I always have a burning desire to blaze my own trail, to find my own way to when I subscribed to taking the Trans Siberian railroad from China to Russia, 1/3 of the way around the world, I knew I had to do something a little different.

3rd Class on the Trans Siberian train

So rather than taking the normal route from Omsk all the way through to Moscow via a serious of rather non-descript Russian towns and cities I thought I’d try to freestyle my way to Kazakhstan instead.

After searching on internet for a way to get from Russia to Kazakhstan I couldn’t really find anything so it was time for a little adventure! There is a train that runs from Novosibirsk to Astana, Kazakhstan’s new capital city but it’s far from ideal. It only runs once a week, and with the restrictive 30 day Russian visa that can mess up your whole trip, also from Irkutsk to Astana, via Novosibirsk looks like madness to me. I’d have to go north, north, north just to go south.

So I looked at the map, saw that Omsk was the nearest biggest city near the Kazakhstani border and headed straight there from Irkutsk. I figured I’d work out a way to get to Astana from Omsk once I arrived.

After 41 hours on the train, I got off in Omsk train station, wondering around the parking lot trying to speak English to people, enquiring about a bus to Astana wasn’t proving fruitful. Not a word of English was spoken and when someone finally worked out I wanted to go to Astana he was trying to charge me $500 (payable in Euro) to drive me the whole way there, eehhhh cheers mate but I think I’ll give it a miss.

Finally a fat, stumpy Russian cab driver started shouting ‘autubus, astana’ repeatedly, it was the best offer I’d had, so after a spot of negotiating I jumped in his taxi and paid the $13 prearranged fare. Overpriced for sure, but what choice did I have?!

After blaring out some Europop on full volume and him (unsuccessfully) trying to convince me to have sex with some Russian girls finally he pulled into a run down station 30 minutes late, it was about 11am. Time for another game of charades with the ticket agents.

Astana, astana, bus, Kazakhstan.. Repeat in the vain hope that they understand and that buses do infact go there. Then some angel of a lady grasped the concept I was trying to convey, wrote down 21.20 on a piece of paper followed by 967 Rubles. Awesome! Looks like im on my way to Kazakhstan! I had to wait around the station for 9 hours, and the run down bus was another 15 hours but I knew I was finally on my way, and now here I am, in Kazakhstan, recounting the stress about buying a ticket.

So here’s how to get from Omsk to Astana:

There are two buses from Omsk to Astana, one leaves at 6pm the other at 9.20pm
The journey takes 15 hours
The bus costs 967 rubles ($33), plus 193 rubles ($6.50) for your backpack. $40 total.
From Omsk train station to Omsk bus station, it’s about 20km and cost me $13 in a taxi
I bough the ticket on the same day, but the 6pm bus had already sold out.

That’s it folks, so there are indeed buses from Russia to Kazakhstan, every day you can take the bus from Omsk to Astana, I’m off to try to stop myself from doing Borat impressions every 5 minutes, it’s proving to be quite a struggle. Happy travels!

Tags: astana, bus, omsk, train, trans siberian

Tuesday’s Travel Rant: Late Trains and Buses

Published by Johnny Ward on April 17, 2012

Pulling into Bangkok HuaLampong train station, on a night sleeper from Chiang Mai, 4 hours late for the third consecutive time – I finally had had enough, travel rant time. What I don’t get is why trains across the ‘developing world’ (I hate that term, but to simplify things I’m going with it right now), pull into their stations consistently late. When I refer to consistently late, not only do I mean that they are late 100% of the time (which they almost invariably are) but what perplexes and frustrates me in equal measure is that they equally late every time.

Late again? You must be f*cking joking...

For example, this bloody night sleeper from Chiang Mai is due in Bangkok around 7.00am. Anything before 8a.m and I’d be pleasantly surprised, however they pull into Bangkok around 9.30am every single time they run the journey. Every single time. And the same can be said for buses and trains throughout South East Asia, and Africa.

So I’d like to address whatever genius organizes theses schedules, if your time states 8pm-8am and you run the journey every day BUT the train/bus pulls into the station at 11am every day then change your f*cking schedule.

You know you’re not gonna arrive at 8am, the driver knows it, everyone in the departing and arriving station knows it. Why keep saying you will arrive at that time?! It makes your transport look unreliable and it pisses off your customers, namely me! Say you arrive at 10am, and when you arrive at 10am then you’ve got it right, imagine that! Amazing. Or, on the off chance that hell freezes over, you might once arrive at 8am and you know what? Everyone on the train/bus will be delighted they made such good time. Not stop bloody lying to me, change the schedule and don’t be a retard. Thanks.

Tags: rants, train, travel rant, Tuesday's Travel Rant

What Visas You Need to Get in Advance to Take the Trans Siberian Railway

Published by Johnny Ward on April 12, 2012

I’m almost in Beijing already, from there I’m gonna jump on the train to Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, and my trans Siberian train adventure will have finally started.

It took quite a lot of work, and a fair chunk of cash, to get all my papers in order to take the train so I thought I’d just share with you the visas you need to get in advance before you embark on a similar journey.

Visas you NEED before you take the Trans Siberian train:

China: Getting a Chinese visa is a constantly changing environment and the difficulty level is directly correlated to the current political situation within the country (read: Tibet). That being said, I got my Chinese visa in Bangkok a couple of months ago without too much stress however I hear the rules have changed again.

Currently you can get a Chinese visa in almost every foreign country, whether you’re a resident there or not. You need a print out of a flight into China and an onward ticket showing you leaving China. You also need 3 days hostels booked when you arrive.

If you have all this, a single entry 30 day Chinese visa costs around $40 for most nationalities. Citizens of the US half to pay around $120.

You can pay more for express visas (same day or next day), normal time frame is 4 working days.

Mongolia: Not difficult at all. You can apply in any foreign country, all you need is your passport, an application form and a passport photo. Visa costs around $40 and, if you’re nice, is available the same day. Failing that, 3 working days.

Russia: An absolute nightmare! Strictly speaking you must apply in your country of residence which means you may have to post/fed-ex your passport home. I had to do that, back to Ireland, then process the visa, then fed-ex it back here. My American friend had to do the same. There are rumours that it can be applied for, as a tourist, in Hong Kong and Jakarta, Indonesia but it’s a gamble.

Depending on your nationality you need a letter of invitation, a sponsor letter, medical insurance, 3 months recent bank statements, a passport photo and confirmed dates. You can get a 30 day single or double entry.

With all my fed-ex charges, and the actual visa fee ($140), I spent almost $300 and took 20 days to get my Russian visa – hard work, but certainly worth it.

Visas you might want to add in to make the trip even more awesome:

Kazakhstan:

After all the hard work for the Russian visa, I got a double-entry, allowing me to visit another country so I thought I’d pop into Kazakhstan. The visa take 5 working days, costs $40 and requires a passport photo, a written letter explaining your intentions, and an application form.

You can apply in any foreign country, I got my Kazakhstani visa in Bangkok no stress at all.

Belarus:

If you’re going from Beijing to Moscow then Belarus would be a great country to visit at the far end. One of the only countries in the continent that require a visa, if you want a look at how the former Soviet Union looked, then this is your chance. And because of the visa, you’re likely to be one of only a handful of tourists.

The visa isn’t difficult to get, but it is difficult to find a country with a Belarusian embassy, certainly in Asia and South America. Make your way there and apply next door, in Lithuania. $40 USD.

3 visas minimum, 5 if you want to make your trip different from most others. It takes the best part of a month to organize all these visas so base yourself somewhere awesome while you organize it (I did mine from Bangkok, Thailand although doing from home would be easiest). It’s not cheap, and it’s not easy but the trip that it allows you to do is a once in a lifetime chance. Happy travels!