Transiberian Railroad

So here is the biggest update.....




Most people probably don't think taking a train through an entire continent exists anymore. Well....let me inform you as my husband did with such eloquence on Saturday night. We took a stroll to the Ritz Carlton down the street from us. That's right, the Ritz is in our neighborhood!!

Side note: There was a birthday celebration for a 1yr old at the Ritz Carlton. Wow. Apparently a child surviving his/her first year is a big hoopla. Not only did we learn about the birthday tradition, the wine shop was having a buy one get one free special. So, we walked out with 4 bottles. Good wine at a decent price is hard to come by these days. Inexpensive: $30. The times have changed since Patrick wanting to buy $10 jug wine that would last for months :) Actually I'm pretty sure if it was available, he would buy it, but it's triple the price here.

Ok, back to date night. We had a wonderfully large plate of sushi and decided to hit up the Moroccan bar we discovered on our hill. It's in the basement, you take off your shoes, and you can get your own private room. The floors are heated here, so no biggie to go barefoot. You can get a hookah pipe for $10 and a decent bottle of Temparnillo. I love Temparnillo.

This is where we can chat about life for 2-3 hours and be completely left alone and no hassle from a waiter. I will provide a photo later. Pretty cool. In Korea, they have a buzzer on every table so that all you have to do is push it, instantly a waiter is at your table. This relieves a lot of crowd surfing for service.

As we were talking about how well we have been doing saving money and it's really tempting to stay another year so that we can get the most experience out of Korea while earning extra moolah. Not a bad idea. Here it comes: Patrick wants to take 2 months off in September if we agree to work it out with Pagoda and work through August.

Maria: Why?

Here it comes. Patrick: How do you feel about taking a train all the way to Moscow?

Maria: Huh? Why would I want to go to Moscow? Do people still take trains?

Patrick: Wouldn't it be fun?

Maria: Do you want to visit Russia?

Patrick: Not really.

Maria: Then why would we go?

Patrick: To say that we have taken the Transiberian Train.

Maria: You want to take an extra month off so that you can say you took a train to Russia.

Patrick: Yup. Then we can head over to Paris and then fly home.

Maria: Can we fly home and have a layover in New York.

Patrick: Yup.

Maria: All I heard was Paris and New York. Done deal.

This is how we negotiate. Sometimes it's easier to hear what we want to hear :)


All joking aside it sounds pretty cool. Not a usual vacation trip and it would be cool to see Mongolia again. Who knows if we can arrange it, but it would be an experience. Do you think we could get a travel agent to put a package like this together?