Woohoo! We have almost made it. I am typing this from our very last night train, Moscow to St Petersburg, thank God! Currently listening to a mix of middle eastern rap music and Russian folk provided by our thoughtful cabin mates. It's been busy week so settle in....

From Yekaterinburg we decided to head to Kazan for a night, better than another night train. Kazan is the capital of the autonomous republic of Tatarstan. Yet another autonomous region that we had never heard of. The Tatars are more Central Asian peoples, predominantly Muslim and loved a fierce battle with Russia back in the day.

The city itself if nice, but currently half of it seems to be under reconstruction, which is quite common in Russia. The big draw card there is their Kremlin, now a world heritage site. Big, white and beautiful standing atop a hill. Nice. Onto Moscow!

Well as excited as I was about Moscow,I was just as nervous. Not sure what I was expecting; street crime, corrupt cops and general unsavory behavior given the stories you hear. I think that may largely be the city of old, as I LOVED Moscow.

We have just spent 4 days in the cosmopolitan, exciting, historic, fabulous city. We have walked seemingly all over Moscow, packed in the sights, eaten food that doesn't taste like dill and people watched to our hearts content.

Initially arriving at 6am, gross, we had a free walking tour booked in for 10:45am (which incidentally was great, if your ever in Moscow google them). Eager hey! We were blown away by all the fabulous, old, historically fascinating buildings. Then we got to Red Square.

Val Kilmer and The Saint introduced me to Red Square years ago and I have been somewhat taken ever since. It's more beautiful in real life. The square is enclosed by St Basil's, the Kremlin, Russian History Museum and the loveliest shopping centre, Gum. It all adds up to be breathtaking. We had at least one visit a day with Basil being one of our favorite buildings ever.

A highlight of these visits was watching the many Russian tourists taking photos of each other. The girls seem to think they are on a photo shoots. Various poses are favored, all of them amusing. Definitely a spectators sport.

For our first night we met the Dutch couple we have been shadowing for dinner. We ended up at a bar one of them had heard of, The Hungry Duck. It is a very well known bar for being completely hedonistic. I have partied with the best of them, many bars have been danced on and silly things have been done BUT clothes have always been firmly involved. What would these girls mothers think!?! We left before 1am, who knows what we missed.

Day 2 we lined up for 45 minutes to see a dead man, Vladimir Lenin. The whole process is very through, must check your bag in first so you don't sneak any photos of him in his eternal slumber. It's very quiet and very cold in there. The ever solemn guards usher you through, no stopping, just file past. I was insolent enough to have a hand in my pocket. One of the little snots (guards) started clicking his figure at me and miming I stand up straight, hands by my side. I wanted to give him a royal salute, but I also didn't want to be arrested. Instead I gave him one of my looks. The man himself is looking pretty good considering he has been dead for 89 years. A lack of sun has left him white and waxy, its very eerie. Possibly time to bury him.

Hit up the Kremlin next which houses the government buildings. Quite the digs Putin has got himself, no wonder he is reluctant to give his power away. Lots of history there, it really is fascinating all the country has gone through. The Amoury is full of all kinds of shiny treasures. Just one of the diamonds would be just fine by me.

On the communist tour, amazing to walk around and see all the normal looking buildings that had been used for extraordinary things, and not in the good sense. The KGB building was one, who knows how many people died in there. We also saw the first McDonalds ever to open in Russia. People lined up for 7 hours and they ran out of food. Imagine if you were next in line. Heartbreaking stuff.

Stalin is one man who did not come
out of things looking so rosy. During his reign he had statues of himself erected, murals of himself in the metro, basically his face everywhere. After his death when people learnt just what a monster he was Russians went about erasing him. Statutes came down, murals were erased. Any mistakes in the design of the city are attributed to him too, fair enough. He actually makes Lenin look really good.

We used the metro quite a bit to get around. Not only are many of the stations elaborately decorated, we never waited more than 2 minutes for a train and only $1 a trip. London, take note.

Walking Moscow at night is one of my all time favorite activities. Due to the heat wave, the evening temperature is perfect short and t-shirt weather. It starts getting dark around 11, and even then not overly dark, people are everywhere making the most of their very short summer. All the buildings are lit up beautifully and the 24 hour bar/restaurant scene is in full swing.

Many of the bars run on Face control, meaning if your not 'attractive' your not going in. Apparently they are quite ruthless about it. As much as we were intrigued to check out the new Russia women stalking their prey we only visited one bar sticking to the cozy pubs. And yes we got in ;)

Moscow is a city on the move. Construction everywhere, signs of wealth everywhere. Beijing has nothing on Moscow In the luxury car stakes, nor the women. We decided on a generalization; the women of Soviet times are the stereotype, heavy set and plain. The Women of New Russia are fabulously glamorous and seemingly always immaculate, maybe striving to achieve everything their mothers couldn't? They totter around the streets each day in stilettos and perfect make up. I think they survive on nicotine and vodka given their size.

In a city of 16 million it is amazing how clean the place is. No litter just the odd drunk in the parks. And they don't worry about the droughts in the country side. The main squares and monuments are pressure hosed down daily.

As much as I loved Moscow as a tourist, it's quite obvious to see something is in the air. Police are everywhere, on every corner, every street, milling in the parks. They are no longer hassling tourists for bribes, now it's illegal immigrants and protesters.

The youth of Moscow are not happy with Putin, protests are popping up everywhere and the government is cracking down. For a country with such a bloody past they have obviously come a long way, but the stories make you wonder just how democratic it is and what's going to happen next.

For us next is St Petersburg, just got to make it through this final night train!