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 a white mini-skirt! Bearing in mind it was perhaps only 5 or 6 degrees! She asked me to take a photo of her in front of the Mausoleum which I thought was fair enough but as soon as I started lifting the camera to me face she struck a pose! Not any pose...oh no! Think Jordan glamour shot! Arms up around the head, facing sideways, with bent knee! I found it so hard not to laugh and the boys standing behind me thought it was hilarious!!!! Later in the queue (which evidently was not that long) we saw her in the park next to the Kremlin (just around the corner from the Mausoleum) asking someone else and this time she was lying on a bench in front of a guard!!!! That gives you an idea of the class of girls we have seen in Russia so far! Particularly Moscow! Anways....back to the sights....the Lenin Mausoleum was wierd! Only because I have never seen a dead body before, though this was hard to believe it was an actual body. Under the dim lights it looked like a wax model!!!! I was on edge the whole way round (you walk 3 sides of the glass cabinet he is in) as I could just imagine that the body would suddenly lurch forward and say boo!!! Sadly it didn't and we were in and out within about 5 minutes!

Once done we got transferred to the hotel (well we had to make ourselves to the hotel on the tube). At one station we got seperated as the doors on the train shut before I got on so we devised a plan to meet at one station down if that ever happened again! It worked and we were re-united! For once it was easy to find the hotel (having walked around for ages in both St Petersburg and Moscow looking for hostels) and we checked in. We went into the centre of Moscow (as the hotel was on the outskirts) for dinner and on the way back we stopped off at a supermarket near the hotel to buy some 'vodka'....turns out it was another spirit made out of horse radish! You can imagine how tasty that was.....like raw swede or something! We had to force ourselves to drink some and even with a glass full of lemonade the vile taste was not blocked out! We didn't bother taking that with us on the train!

Next day was another full day in Moscow, but with a guide in the morning. It was so nice to see the same city from a different perspective and it definately refreshed the stay for us as we were pretty fed up of being there for so long, especially being on edge that we could get fined again at any given time! Lena was fascinating and knew so much about Moscow. She showed us some amaxing Metro stations that are really famous as they are so grandly decorated with chandeliers and mosaics etc. When I upload photos you will be able to see. It is hard to believe they are actually Metro Stations! Then we went to the Cathedral of the Saviours....which believe it or not is actually very modern. Only completed in 2000 after being started in 1992. By this point we had seen everything we wanted to so Lena suggested we go to a district not to far away that had some really old 17th century buildings amongst modern ones, as well as stables that are not inhabited following the war. It said in one of our guide books that Russians are very open about money and we found this to be the case as Lena told us her wages as well as the fact she had lived through 5 de-valuations of the roubles (sp?). She is a teacher and only earns 500 pounds a month! She took us to the 'covent garden' of Moscow which was a pedestrianised area with loads of restaurants. After parting ways we had lunch at one of her recommendations....a Russian buffet restaurant and then went to the Kremlin to see the armoury. This time we managed to get in but they didn't except our student cards so cost equivalent of 7 or 8 pounds. I don't think it was worth it in the slightest! We had heard they were 10 times better than the crown jewels but the presentations was bad in poorly lit glass cabinets and we were in and out within 30 minutes.

Thats all for Moscow! I definately preferred the time on the tour as there was some structure and having an english speaking Russian with us really helped us!