This has been our longest train journey yet between Ekaterinburg and Irkutsk at nearly 2.5 days. It raced past though, especially as I was reading Ewan and Charley's Long Way Round. I am such a convert, as they visited Mongolia and parts of Russia and I could really relate to a lot of things they say. We shared our cabin with an old-ish Russian guy who kept himself to himself a lot of the time. On the last night on the train however we were joined by a Norweg...

Following our stay in Moscow we got the train to Ekaterinburg. The technical terms of the stretch of the journey is the Ural line, as we pass the Ural Mountains. On the train this time I was on one of the top bunks. The other person in our carriage turned out to be a young Russian about our age, but he couldn't speak a word of English. We tried to communicate via pictures and guide books but it didn't really work and he clearly looked un-inpressed! In the ...

Trans-Siberian Tour: Hello all.....well the tran-siberian tour started in Moscow. We had a free morning on the tuesday before transferring to the hotel, so we decided to get up early and go and see the Lenin Mausoleum as it is only open in the mornings and we had heard queues can be really long. On the way there we walked through Red Square (en route) and I got stopped by a russian girl dressed head to toe in white. This included knee high PVC white boots and...

Hello all, Me again! The internet in this hostel is free so we have been hogging it a bit! All my photos are now up to date on facebook and so I also have enough time to update you of our adventures since the last time I wrote! Since the last blog we went out to dinner for the last time in St Petersburg. The girl behind reception in our hostel recommended an English pub called 'Dickens'! We arrived and it was very traditional even down to the wallpaper.....o...

Hi everyone We are currently in Russia in St Petersburg. We got the train from Helsinki thursday evening and even got a free drink and snack!!!! (Take hint Southern Rail!!!!). We arrived and immediately it was obvious that this wasn't going to be as simple as it had in Scandinavia. Despite there being English signs at the station no one spoke English apart from the dodgy taxi drivers who were waiting outside the station with their Ladas!!!! It took us ages...