Un monde à entreprendre

Nous sommes finalement arrivés à la capitale Sibérienne Irkoutsk avec un retard de 5 heures… Un train de marchandise s’est renversé, emportant avec lui la moitie de la voie. Du coup, à 2h du matin et par -8°C, il n’y avait personne pour venir à notre rencontre. La gare d’Irkoutsk n’ayant pas de wifi pour pouvoir joindre notre hôte, nous avons envisagé de dormir sur place…C’est un gamin qui nous a décidé à rechercher une connexion internet. Il réveillait continuellement les voyageurs s’ils ne lui donnaient pas quelques roubles. Benoit a finalement trouvé le seul russe du coin parlant anglais et disposant d’un accès internet. Nous avons enfin sauté dans un taxi direction : ange du couch surfing : Anastasia.

Celle-ci nous a accueillis comme des princes dans un appartement 5 étoiles. La douche a été comme une libération et le sommeil plus que réparateur.

Les transports en communs mis en place par la ville vous emmènent partout pour la somme dérisoire de 10 roubles (20c). Accompagnés d’Anastasia, le premier arrêt est le musée des Décembristes, ces exilés politiques du régime Tsariste. La prison ou la Sibérie ? Ils ont choisi la Sibérie, et ils ont eu raison. Bon, à l’époque la vie était indéniablement plus difficile... Vous avez remarqué que je n’ai quasiment pas parlé du climat pour le moment... Le centre ville d’Irkoutsk dans lequel nous avons passé l’après midi est une splendeur. Le travail du bois pour les maisons individuelles et de la pierre pour les édifices collectifs est remarquable. Les couleurs vives du bleu au jaune que l’on retrouve dans les constructions contrastent avec la blancheur de l’hiver. Par ailleurs, la nature du sol pousse les vielles maisons en bois à s’enfoncer, leur donnant ainsi un aspect inhabituel. Le lendemain, nous avons complété notre visite de la ville par des églises orthodoxes. Le soir, Anastasia nous a initié à un jeu de carte Russe qu’il nous a fallut plusieurs heures à comprendre. On suspecte d’ailleurs une tricherie monumentale…

Nous avons passé la matinée suivante au consulat Mongol. Ils sont pas très regardants mais le visa est couteux : comptez 50€ délivré en 4jours. On est même tombé sur une employée qui parlait Français...Mini bus pour Listvyanka l’après midi. Et là…C’est l’extase…Le village minuscule borde les berges gelées du Baïkal. Le lac est immense, calme (appelé la mer Baïkal par les otoctones) et ses eaux cristallines. Sa superficie (600 par 60 km) est comparable à la Suisse et la profondeur maximale avoisine les 1700m. Devant nos yeux éblouis par la réflexion du soleil sur ce miroir sans défaut se trouve là, 22% des réserves d’eau potables de la planète. Il faudrait être blasé pour rester insensible à ce paysage sublime du mariage de l’eau, de la glace et de la montagne.
Nous partons pour une balade dans les forêts enneigées avec Niko, un voyageur Allemand de 28 ans rencontré dans le bus. Lassés des routes toutes tracées, nous marchons à l’aveugle à travers les bouleaux et les sapins en direction des hauteurs. Panoramas et shoots de folie du haut de la colline. L’environnement magique nous amène enfin là ou nous somme partis : à l’aventure. Nous rejoignons les bords de l’eau pour la gouter. En février, l’épaisseur de glace sur la quasi-totalité du lac atteint le mètre. En novembre, les 4 petits degrés nous poussent gentiment à renoncer à la baignade…Nous regagnons le village au travers de pentes abruptes à par endroits enneigées. Nous goutons à l’Omoul, un poisson fumé devant nos yeux qui se révèle extrêmement savoureux et rentrons à Irkoutsk.

Reveil 6 heure pour attraper le minibus de 8h pour l’ile d’Olkhone. Nous rencontrons un couple Suisse/Allemand qui a eu la même idée que nous. Malheureusement, le chauffeur nous demande d’attendre pour qu’il puisse remplir son véhicule. Résultat départ à 10h30. Les paysages traversés laissent un sentiment de froid intense. Les villages de maisons de bois en ruines, en partie fantômes laissent présager un avenir incertain. Après 5h de trajet sur les routes puis les pistes tracée à travers des Steppes Sibériennes, nous prenons le shuttle pour l’ile…Il fait froid. Une heure plus tard on rejoint le village. Départ à la nuit tombée avec l’idée de tester tente et sac de couchage (12kg sur le dos). Marche dans la neige avec pour lumière la lune et une lampe frontale. Il fait froid. Campement dans la neige sur les bords du Baïkal. Alors qu’il neige, nous mangeons pain et fromage à la chaleur d’un feu mérité, puis regagnons la tente en quête d’un sommeil réparateur.

Alors que Ben lutte, je m’endors au fond du sac de couchage au bout de 3 minutes. J’ai enfin retrouvé le sommeil. En revanche, le réveil est rude. L’intérieur de la tente est complètement gelé. Les coutures thermocollées n’ont pas résistées aux très basses températures... Nous empaquetons notre sac le plus vite possible pour éviter que la glace ne l’envahisse. Il fait froid. Départ pour une demi-journée de marche en forêt. Le sol sableux et la neige ralentissent notre progression. Les 4 couches de vêtement et l’effort parviennent à nous réchauffer en dépit du temps nuageux. Après le pic nique du midi au bord d’une falaise surplombant le lac, le soleil revient. Dans cette partie du monde comme en montagne, le temps change à vitesse grand V. En 5 minutes maximum, les nuages gris/noir s’en vont. Il fait bon ! Le seul point réellement très négatif est l’absence du respect de l’environnement. Les touristes laissent leurs détritus partout. Bouteilles de vodka, boites de conserves, sachets plastiques, bref il y en a pour tout les goûts. En plus de cela, ne possédant pas d’infrastructure pour récupérer leurs ordures, les locaux enterrent leurs poubelles. Les tas de terre se fond légions. Les détritus, mal ensevelis, ne sont pas à ce moment de l’année, complètement cachés par la neige. Certains endroits de la forêt sont complètement dégelasse.
Arrivés au village de l’ile en fin de journée, nous décidons cette fois à camper à proximité en raison du bus matinal du retour. La culture shamanique est très présente dans toute l’ile. Des totems ornés de bandelettes de tissus multicolores nous indiquent la présence d’un haut lieu du shamanisme. Nous nous décidons donc à planter la tente sous leur protection. L’endroit somptueux est situé sur une crête avec vue sur le lac. Nous ne savions pas vraiment si nous avions le droit de camper à cet endroit et montons la tente le plus discrètement possible. Il est 6h, la nuit tombe, le vent se lève. Il fait froid. Je m’endors une fois de plus instantanément (à 6h30…). Ben révise ses cours d’espagnol sur son Ipod. Réveillés au beau milieu de la nuit à cause du vent nous peinons à nous rendormir. Il fait très froid. Le réveil matin de 7h est un calvaire. Le manège du rempaquetage est le même que celui du matin précédent, en plus violent. Le vent et le manque de sommeil rendent la chose très pénible. Nous rentrons à moitié affamés sur Irkoutsk, en rêvant de l’orgie de pirogui (sorte de raviolis russes) qui nous attendais chez Anastasia. Bon gros dodo…

Le matin, la ville est complètement blanche. Comme dans une fourmilière, les employés municipaux et les habitants s’activent pour déneiger les routes et les trottoirs. Passage au consulat Mongole pour récupérer les visas puis visite du musée d’architecture Talsti qui lui n’a pas été déneigé…Situé à 60km d’Irkoutsk, il présente l’évolution des habitations Sibérienes aux travers de reconstitutions grandeur nature très instructives. Nous regagnons ensuite Irkoutsk en stop pour être à l’heure pour notre entretient skype avec le second entrepreneur Christopher (voir profil suivant). Après une overdose de pirogui, nous faisons nos adieux à Anastasia et partons pour la gare en direction d’Oulan Oude (voyagez minimum en 3 classe et pas en 4eme !!!!!!!) puis du bus pour Oulan Bator.

A few days before reaching Mongolia, Christopher sent us a message telling us that he had to fly to Paris for business purposes and that we would not be able to meet him in UlanBataar. We therefore scheduled a Skype video call from Siberia to Paris in order to talk about his experience as an entrepreneur in Mongolia… I guess this is what we call globalization, right?

In spite of his Belgian nationality, Christopher has never actually lived in Belgium. As his parents were working as diplomats, he has luckily spent a huge part of his life travelling the world, especially in the ex-USSR countries, as well as Asia and Africa. He graduated from Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom, and has since been working in many different countries, mostly in Asia (China, Japan, Mongolia, Hong Kong). Based on his international experience and the knowledge he acquired abroad, he made up his mind in order to decide in which country he wanted to settle/invest, based on the main followings points:

· Political stability of the country (i.e. real democracy)

· Under developed / developing country (as these are the countries in which the growth rate are the most important)

· Possibility to invest on his own name (i.e. no restriction for foreign investments)

Considering this, and evaluating the different markets, Christopher shortlisted a few countries and decided that Mongolia was the one presenting the most benefits, as China has strong needs for minerals that Mongolia has in big quantities (i.e. gold, copper, uranium).

Even though Christopher felt into travelling when he was young, entrepreneurship was not a path he had chosen long ago (he describes himself on his personal website as being an “accidental entrepreneur” http://www.degruben.com). Christopher arrived in 2004 in Mongolia, where he started to work for an American real estate company. He spent four years working there, until he decided that he had to work differently. Indeed, he did not fancy the way some of the business and its clients were handled. Quitting his job made him lose his Mongolian visa. The only possibility for him at that point to get another one was to create his own business; which led to the creation of M.A.D. Corporate Services (MAD stands for Make A Difference). Following the creation of M.A.D. Corporate Services, he decided to start a sandwich business (roughly based on the same business model as Subway) with an initial capital of USD 20.000. He therefore set up two businesses… in order to get a visa!

He trained himself as being a founder and a CEO of a company with the sandwich business, and after around 6 months, he decided to actually do something with M.A.D. Corporate Services. As aforementioned, Christopher wanted to do business in a more transparent way than it was usually done in Mongolia. He thought that transparency and honesty were values that not only would help to make this country a better place for business, but were also values that clients would look for. Big foreign companies are usually very reluctant to pay bribes as it could potentially damage their reputation, and overall Mongolia is changing which makes this approach to business more and more sustainable. The fees paid by his clients are always fixed fees for example as he does not want the interests of his company to be in conflict with the interests of its clients (i.e. with a floating fee, Christopher may be looking for bigger offices than actually needed by his clients in order to increase the amount of the fees).

Christopher first started to produce a few clean reports for international companies on the Mongolian market. Thanks to his growing reputation, he won new clients, and decided to start another activity for M.A.D. Corporate Services. He started to create business plans and developed market studies for his clients. As they were happy with the quality of his work, they asked for help to start their business in Mongolia. Christopher would for example help them to find offices to rent, write the work contracts for them or help them with the administrative paperwork. Helping companies to get implemented in Mongolia and listening to people around him, Christopher realized that they were no relocation services company in the country. He therefore decided to expand his services to include relocation. He now owns the only relocation services company in Mongolia, and is currently considering expanding in China (in 2011) as he feels that there are interesting market opportunities. As a matter of fact, it appears that Mongolians and Chinese do not trust each other, and therefore a person like him who would be neutral could work as a broker between the two counterparts. His business currently employs 8 people and should reach 10 or 11 in 2011.

When he looks back at his experience as an entrepreneur, Christopher does not regret having chosen this path as it taught him a lot from a business perspective (i.e. it helped him to understand all the underlying between all the aspects of a business and to think to all options before making a decision) and gave him more freedom than he ever had before in his career. He however believes that this is not something that everyone can do as you have to be ready to live with risk, especially in Mongolia where the assets of your company are your own assets. Living as an entrepreneur therefore leads you to accept working without a safety net. It involves a great sense of responsibilities as you are somewhat not only responsible for all the strategic decisions of your business, but also responsible for providing a salary that will allow your employees and their families to live.

He therefore advises people who want to create their own company, and in particular abroad to be sure to have a great idea to start and to be sure that you are ready to work hard as the learning curve will be sharp. The second advice (I like that one) is to start spending other’s money before you start spending yours. That basically means that you should probably start working for someone in the country in which you want to start a business in order to feel the market and make the first few mistakes in the country at someone else’s expense. A funny anecdote he told us was that you do not sign a contract or make an important decision on Tuesdays in Mongolia, which is a good example of things not to do that you only learn once you are in the business. As he has seen many people who did not have enough money to wait for their business to be profitable, he advises not to spend all your capital at once, but to keep a safety mattress which would allow you to overcome the first difficulties and make your business sustainable.

Thanks a lot for you time Christopher, and thanks a lot for lending us your apartment (and what an apartment!) for a few days. It is a pity we did not have a chance to meet in person, but I am pretty sure we will fix this sooner or later.

Benoit

Having scheduled and postponed the appointment twice, we finally managed to meet Yann in the Australian coffee of Moscow. We have found in this bar a very friendly and outgoing entrepreneur, who not only made us discover some Russian specialities but also told us a lot about him and his 4 years experience as an entrepreneur.

Yann arrived in Russia around 10 years ago, after having spent almost 3 years in Uzbekistan, as a lecturer and as vice president of the Alliance française in Samarkand. He had formerly performed studies in the faculty of languages, studying mainly Russian, Bulgarian and other similar eastern European languages. He was sent in this town as part of his cooperation during his military duty, and made quickly his mind up when he had to choose for his destination as he had already traveled a lot in the region and knew he wanted to live in this area of the globe for a while.

Married to an Uzbek/Tatar/Russian wife for 10 years and deeply in love with the culture and the country, he first found a position in Moscow in the Club France (which has now become the CCIFR). He worked there for a little bit more than 2 years, helping French companies in Russia and expanding the number of members in this network. He was then poached by the CEO of the local subsidiary of an American company specialized in relocations services. After once again a little bit more than 2 years in this Company, the local CEO changed, and he therefore decided in 2006 to start his own business of relocations services. Being experienced in the real estate business and having developed his network in Moscow for the past 6 years, it appeared to him quite natural move to create his own company. However, he never planned on being an entrepreneur as he would have wanted to pass state exams to work in a diplomatic mission. He only saw a great opportunity and was pushed in this direction by his friends and above all by the co-founder of Wellcome Abroad relocations. The business expanded very quickly as well as the services provided which now not include only home search but also Immigration services (visa, registration) handyman services, tenancy management, temporary accommodation, Internet and Sat TV installation, etc. mainly for French-speaking expatriates as the core of Yann’s network is made of French people. His company now employs 10 people as compared to only 2 in 2006, and his currently investigating in expanding internationally (ie. Ukraine, Kazakhstan).

Standing back on his experience, his main regret is that it did not start earlier his own business as the opportunities were much greater couple of years before he started. He would of course do it again, as he sees Russia as a land of opportunities for people who understand and like this country. As he said, everything is possible in Russia. Everything is easy as long as one is ready to pay for it. Yann would probably not have launched a business in Europe as he believes the administrative system and the tax rates (he currently has the option between paying 6% of his net result or 13% of his turnover in Russia) does not encourage to be an entrepreneur.

If he had to advise people who would like to follow his path in entrepreneurship, Yann would tell you that he recommends it, but one should take first the time to understand his motivation in doing so. You have to love the country in which you want to settle, and you have to understand and like the people who are leaving in this country if you want to be successful. Therefore, he would advise everyone to take the time to spend around a couple of years in the country chosen to actually feel it and build a network. That is key to a well adjusted life as an entrepreneur.

Thank you Yann for your time (and for an excellent dinner), and good luck!

« Don't be silly… Of course you do! » (Dr Sheldon Cooper)

And one more time, Sheldon illuminates us with a simple fact: you have got to like trains (For those who do not understand, check out The Big Bang Theory). These magnificent beasts of steel, capable of pulling hundreds of tons of raw materials, commodities and of course humans have always been my favorite way of discovering countries (that and walking randomly in the streets, but we will come back to that later, probably in Beijing).

In long distance trains, it feels like time stops for a while. One can cross so many different cities, beautiful landscapes and weather conditions that you feel like living a few stories within a couple of days only. Taking a train is also an opportunity to meet people. Have you ever noticed that you would very rarely speak to your neighbor in a plane, whereas in trains conversation would often engage? (Well at least outside Europe, I could not say the same thing in France for example and in any case in France the recurrent topic would be the strikes…). It is the best chance you will ever have to actually meet some local people and not only run into them. You can share a lunch together, try to communicate, laugh ( a lot) or simply admire the landscapes. If you do not feel comfortable in your sit, you always have the opportunity to go and walk a bit around, or even to stretch or work out a little bit. You have time to catch up on your readings, to dream a little bit watching through the window, or simply take advantage of a sit and contemplate the country you are visiting.

In the transsiberian train from Moscow to Irkutsk we had all of this. We decided to travel in the so called third class (called platskartny). I could not describe it better than a couple of pictures, so please check them out below. Two adorable Babushkas took care of us very gently during the whole trip. As I said above: lots of laughs (they did not speak a remote word of English of course), huge amounts of tea and dozens of soups. Something I forgot to mention about Russia so far is their love for tea (chai). They drink tea ALL THE TIME. In the train you would find a big fountain of boiled water available at all time for tea and dehydrated soups (mainly noodle soups).

Everyone (including us, but not enough, of course) brings incredible amounts of food to share in the train. We heard a lot about vodka drinking in the train… beside a couple of drunken, I must confess that I was quite disappointed. We allowed ourselves once to eat in the quite comfortable but not foreigners compliant restaurant wagon (no menu in English and no English speaker in the staff) where we had a better than usual dinner (soups only so far). Nothing extraordinary though… We decided then to buy food at one of the numerous stops in the local train stations to refill our stomachs (we got some delicious kind of breads stuffed with potatoes).

Other things to mention: the train is absolutely f***ing warm. We remained at all times in our pair of shorts, covered with a T-shirt only and a pair of flip flops. Every 12 hours roughly, the train is reloaded with coal which seems to be our heating commodity. Without shower in the train I can let you imagine the feeling after 4 days and nights in there…

Pictures and movies are not really allowed in the train, and therefore we had to trick a bit the provodnista (stewardess who is responsible for one entire wagon – you really do not want to mess with her as she can make your trip a nightmare) to make these few shots.

The last funny thing that needs to be pointed out is the time issue. As the train crosses 5 time zones between Moscow and Irkutsk, no one seems to know what the actual time is. Some people keep their watches at Moscow time; some others try to adjust to local time which creates a big confusion. As a result, everybody sleeps when it feels like sleeping. Days start early and seem to finish very early as the sun goes down every day a little bit earlier. If you add that up to the feeling of being in a sauna and the fact that the so called mattresses are everything but comfortable, you almost necessarily end up tired (I slept well the first night, worse the second one, badly the third one and barely slept the last one… I could feel pain in basically all positions I tried). But that is the charm of this train… We remained stuck in the same train station for roughly one day because the train before us overturned. That is yet another occasion to meet more people and talk…

We are still stuck currently as I am writing this post… and we are supposed to arrive at destination in 2 hours where our host is supposed to wait for us. Jeez, I have no idea if and where we are going to sleep tonight…

Benoit

PS: Update, we made it to Irkutsk. Thought we would sleep in the train station as we arrived around 1.30 am and no internet working around. Fortunately we received some help after one hour and managed to reach Anastasia's place around 3 am. Anastasia THANK YOU !! (I like trains but trains stations not so much...)

Brief overview of our three last days in Moscow:

Friday: Alexei and his friend Dima were kind enough to show us the city with a mean of transport we would never have thought of using in Moscow: a bike! So here we are on the roads of Moscow, riding a bike which is far too small for Yann and has only a front break which barely works for me. We discover on the way yet another way of making fraud. Train station this time. As you would get controlled when you exit the station for the local trains, the trick is to get off the line, jump down from your platform (yes, you are on the rails at this stage), cross the few railways that separate you from the station, jump to the platform and exit the station by another door. We have done it with daylight and it is already a bit dangerous, but we also seen people during this during night time in a curve. The funny part is that once again, no one seems to care (controllers/police) about people not paying for their tickets.

Beside the visit of the city (and the closed office of where we were supposed to register our visa… but that is another story), the real discovery of this day was the discovery of a different way of riding bikes: fixed gear biking. I guess most of you have seen these keirin races on TV with these strange bikes with only one gear and no break (you have to go backward to break).

Well these guys decided one day their brakes were useless and started turning their bikes into fixed gear bikes and since then only ride such kind of bikes in Moscow. Alexei and Dima (thanks again for taking us on this great tour guys! We have not seen a single bike in the whole day except for ours as riding in Moscow is to the least dangerous as cars do not consider you as being part of the traffic) are huge fans and even participate to special races (which was the case on Friday). (Learn more on http://www.fixedgearmoscow.ru – yes it is in Russian, but I am sure Wikipedia knows for the general concept) We went to the starting point and the finishing point of the race and ended up discussing with the first guy who brought this into Moscow. Very interesting evening were we got to meet a few more nice people, including our guide for the next day: Yura!

Saturday: We agreed to meet Yura around 1pm for an express visit of places we did not know in Moscow. We have randomly seen an old TV tower in Moscow, a couple of great churches (I am amazed by the decoration and style of the orthodox churches), Moscow city (which is the new business center of Moscow –absolutely no interest from my point of view), and we ended up in the evening at the State University of Moscow, which is not only a HUGE piece of building but a beautiful one. From there we had an incredible view of the city by night.

We then headed to our meeting with our first entrepreneur (summary of the interview to be published soon as it is currently being validated. All we can say right now that it was a very pleasant meeting !). After that (remember we still have no phone) we struggled to find Yura. Some friends of him that we met 2 hours earlier walked 45 minutes in the cold night to take us to Yura's apartment. We were immediately offered to stay there for the night and have a few beers. We were both very pleased and very surprised that during the last 3 days, so many people that we did not know at all spent hours and hours showing us their cities, taking care of us and inviting us. We would have plenty of examples, but overall we would like to thank all these people who have been so kind to prove us all the extent of the Russian hospitality. Guys you are all welcome home when (if?) we go back to France! On this night I also discovered another sport: slackline! Yura is a huge fan as you can see on this video http://vimeo.com/15953363. It comes from France, but I had to find about it in Russia…

Sunday: Nothing extraordinary except we woke up very early to see a military parade for which we had no invitation and visited the National Art Gallery. We did see a lot of Russian people making a demonstration in the main street of Moscow.

That's all folks! Tomorrow evening we take the Transsiberian train for the next 4 days. Next post on next Saturday to the best then!

Benoit

PS: This post was prepared before we actually left Moscow but the internet connexion of Alexei's neighbor decided we could not post on that day ;-)

After a quite boring flight from Nice to Moscow (I love as much Germans as I find their beers tasteless) we landed in Domodedovo airport on time. A little bit of stress at the visa control where a nice lady was staring at her screen with a smile, pressing for I do not know which reason what I guessed was her arrow down on her keyboard for the hundredth time. Maybe she was actually playing Tetris as Yann said…
We withdrew our first thousands Rubles and were then ready to get the shuttle bus to the closest metro station where we were supposed to meet our Couchsurfing host for the next 5 nights. As planned we waited in the closest McDonalds. Good news: a Big Mac is called a Big Mac in Russia. Bad news: even ordering a Big Mac is complicated as no one seems to speak a word of English…

Alexey finally showed up after 2 hours as he had to work later than forecasted (which is actually cool as we had time to credit our Skype account as we do not have a Russian sim card so far) an there we went a yet another not-public-but-not-private-bus in which the person who is sitting behind the driver becomes his personal assistant. The bus is doing his usual tour, except there is no actual stop. Just waive and the bus driver will drop you off immediately. To finish with the transports in Moscow, we took the metro on the next day. It is a pretty normal metro that you can expect in any capital, except for one thing: fraud is a national sport. There is a guard at every entrance, and an alarm rings every time someone jumps over the fence. The guard would then whistle and… that is it. No running, no calling for someone… only whistling. Strange (after a small discussion with Alexey while I am writing this, the guard HAS to whistle otherwise she will get fined because she did not call the police…)

Our first priority was to find a transsiberian train ticket to Irkutsk. After we realized we could not make international purchase with our credit card without a phone, we went to the train station were Alexei kindly helped us to purchase them for a decent price in 3rd class (75 EUR each for a 4 days trip). Departure is planned on Monday 8 around midnight.

We then took a metro to the Kremlin where we discovered that both the Red Square and the Saint Basil’s church were closed (the whole Kremlin area actually). We therefore decided to walk to the first ring of Moscow (there are 4 rings in Moscow) and make a small tour. I have no idea if actually make it to the first ring or to the second ring, but one thing is for sure we did walk a lot this afternoon (around 7 hours). We ended up visiting the amazing cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Lots of gold in this very recently fully rebuilt cathedral (2000), and a different way of praying to discover (I need to find out where the Hell they hide the chairs, as they were none in the whole room).



The night felt down as we ended up our visit, and as the rain had almost stopped (I forgot to mention that it was raining all day long) we headed back to the Kremlin which was finally opened. Even though the church was still closed, we were able to go through the Red square which happens to be one of the most beautiful square I have seen so far (if anyone from Nancy is reading: yes, it is better than the place Stanislas).


To conclude: a huge thank you to our host and guide Alexey for helping us !



That’s all for the day… Talk to you later, we need to sleep

Benoit
PS: By the way, the time difference with Paris is 2 hours.