From Russia with lots of Love!

Moscow & Yekaterinburg

Mid July 2009

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_GoldLOWQWell after almost a year of planning, the Trans-Siberian trip has started. Twelve people are recruited and we are going by train from Moscow to Hong Kong! I will document this trip and make it my second work to be on the market! Since my main interest is to make a good documentary of this trip, i don’t have the time to concentrate on Photos too much, but I will try my best, here are the first few pictures from Moscow!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_TransBookLOWQGetting prepared on the plane to Moscow!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_ToiletSanta50mmLOWQBefore I even get on my plane, I get a call from John Tanner that he missed his flight. Awesome! He worked his way around it though, and still managed to get to Moscow. We all got in at Night was were happy that everyone made it. Getting through customs was a mission, i had to wait for two hours, while this drunk man was cutting the line while drinking Vodka… I knew at that moment, that i entered a country where Vodka is sold at the price of water and i will be seeing drunk people throughout this trip!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_MichiBuyingBeersLOWQI tried to convince Michael for a long time to come on this trip. He didn’t want to come since we would be a big group of people. But last minute he changed his mind and was ready to rumble in Moscow!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_LeninTrainLOWQWe flew into Moscow without having any train tickets. Our Russian Guide, Kirill, who also joins this trip and writes for a Russian Skateboarding Magazine, told me we would be fine buying the in Moscow, on the next day that we arrive.

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_BuyingTicketsLOWQIt took around two hours to buy all our tickets to Irkutsk!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_LaurenceBallingLOWQLaurence worked for a half a year to afford this trip! So hyped he made it!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_HavingTicketsLOWQKirill is the man! We all got tickets now!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_MoscowStreetViewLOWQThere are some streets with 16 lanes in Moscow!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_CatesInMoscowLOWQDan Cates made it too!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_DanCatesLOWQand already twisted his foot on the first hour of skating on a two month trip!

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35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_MichiReadingLOWQSince i am the only filmer on this trip, whenever i am filming with someone the others get to relax, read books, eat, enjoy Moscow.

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_ZvereffDCWinnerLOWQDan Zvereff joined our trip aswell! After skating Victory Park, we went to this small double bench spot, where out of nowhere a Russian DC car pulled up and told us that they are having a Game of Skate contest.Zvereff, Danny, Tanner and Kirill and Elisey joined and Zvereff beat Danny by a hair!Zvereff won, so he got a coupon to choose a pair of DC shoes from the DC store. Since I am the only guy on this trip without a shoe sponsor, Zvereff told me he would pick me a nice one… It ended up being a nice joke, since he got a pair of Dc’s looking like the D3s.One of the Russian DC dudes filmed the game of skate, check the link here: http://www.skateboarding.ru/video/russian/353/

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MediumFormatPatrikWallner_Moscow_KirillRedSquareLOWQKirill Korobkov. He told me that he has been to Red Square a bunch of times, but never taken a photo of himself there. First time for everything!

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35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_JohnTicketLOWQTickets being checked while Michael gets some snacks for the trip…

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35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_WindowViewLOWLOWQOur first train ride was one of the longest ones. I loved it though! 31 hours wasn’t enough to check out everything…

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_YekaterinburgTrainStLOWQAfter a day and night and full day on the train, we arrived! We tried to get a Taxi to our Hotel, and realized that we have entered into Siberian territory, when one Taxi driver started literary beating up and chasing the other Taxis away from us, because he saw us first… Insane!

35mmPatrikWallner_Moscow_LaurenceEatingLOWQDinner in Yekaterinburg! Laurence was eating raw sausage with dry toast bread… bon appetit!

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MediumFormatPatrikWallner_Yekaterinburg_ZvereffPorLOWQWe were skating this spot, close to where I took this Portrait of Zvereff. Alexey lost his and Kirills’ passport… We thought the trip was done for them, luckily some random skaters found Alexey’s bag and found to our Hotel to bring it back! Was a pretty close call!

MediumFormatPatrikWallner_Yekaterinburg_WeddingCrashersLOWQOn the last day in Yerkaterinburg, we went to the Europe and Asia boarder. I am not going to tell you much about it right now, it will be covered in the Documentary of this trip! Should be released in the Winter!

MediumFormatPatrikWallner_Yekaterinburg_WeddingGirlsLOWQRussian people like to get married at our skate spots! But we don’t mind when beautiful women watch us film!

MediumFormatPatrikWallner_EuropeAsiaBorder_JohnTannerHIGH_JPEGJohn Tanner, sliding over from Europe to Asia!

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