The Capital of Russia

We arrived in Moscow around 8am yesterday after an 8 hour train journey. The train was amazing, we spent an hour all compacted into one cabin drinking votka then decided to crash as Monday was a long day and we were knackered! In Moscow we got some pancakes for breakfast and headed to the Red Square. There we saw Lenin's tomb and the Pevrovski Cathedral. The cathedral from the outside looked spectacular. The inside was quite disappointing though. It had been turned into a museum with some cool little gangways, but there wasn't really anything to see. Unfortunately the Kremlin in Moscow was closed so we went today instead. The Kremlin is full of churches which are stunning, though I need to read more into it as the honcho didn't really know any of it herself and we obviously didn't have a tour guide. We went to see a modern art museum yesterday which had some cool exhibitions, though I am not generally a fan of modern art.

Moscow itself is an amazing city and I am looking forward to going to the circus tonight! Wish I could spend more time here and see more of the sights as there is so much more to the city than what I have seen so far. I may be going out tonight, although I suspect it is a bad idea as tomorrow at midday I embark on
the longest train journey ever! 3 days to Irkutsk.... can't wait!!!!

Start of the Trans-Mongolian

Hello again. So the tour officially started on Monday where we met our Honcho and the rest of the tour group. There are 10 of us in total and we've gotten on with everyone so well already. We went to the Hermitage Museum, which is absolutely amazing! It is huge (supposedly would take 11 years to walk through every corridor) and the buildings are spectacular. It's like that throughout St. Petersburg. You walk round a corner and suddenly there's a huge domed Cathedral right in front of you. Unfortunately we didn't get to go inside the Church of Spilled Blood as it was closed, but looking at the building itself was an experience of its own.

Today we went to the Fort and saw the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The Cathedral had the city's tallest spire. We also went to the Vodka Museum and tried some traditional Vodka and Russian snacks. They taste a lot better than you'd imagine! Tonight we are having another meal together and getting the overnight train to Moscow.

St. Petersburg has been great, but we have been told by our Honcho not to judge Russia by St. Petersburg alone. So I'm looking forward to Russia and hope to have as much fun there as I have had here. Though I have heard it's more expensive! I hope I don't run out of moneys before I get to China!!

x

Hello Eastern Europe!

Wooo my first post! Hello everyone. Happy Mothers Day!!!

Okay so I should probably update: We are now in St. Petersburg in the Nevski Prospekt. This place is amazing though rather cold, even with the sun shining. We got here last night around half 11 (local time) after spending the whole of yesterday and the night before that on the coach. There were times when we literally didn't know what country we were even in! The journey itself went well, aided by the fact the bit of help from a couple of people on the coaches who spoke English, and that we are experts in the 'Ways of Winging It'. Our day in Warsaw on Friday was nice. We spent most of it drinking tea in a cafe and doing the crosswords/number games in the Telegraph! We spent all our money on some weird food and lots of Milka since we weren't going to be using Zloty after that day and we took about 50 pounds worth of Zloty each.

We did break one of the first cardinal rules of travelling on Friday morning though. Once we got to the airport in Warsaw and sorted out our bags (which are bloody heavy) we grabbed a taxi to the 'Old Town' of Warsaw. In doing so, however, we got into an unmarked taxi. Fortunetly he didn't stab us or steal our things, and it worked out a bit cheaper! Warsaw Old Town was very nice. When you go through Warsaw it's very grey and dull, but the Old Town is much colourful and the Palace looked amazing! It was weird to see the bullet holes in the walls left over from wars.

The hostel we are staying in does the job. It's cheap and the people are nice. The breakfast is the same as most of Europe - bread, ham, cheese, etc - so we're going to try something a bit more adventurous this evening. On Monday we're meeting the tour group for the Trans-Mongolian Railway, so I am in St. Petersburg for a few more days until I head off to Moscow.

Have a great day Mum, thanks again for everything. Hope everyone is well and I'll post again soon!!