Well I finally made here and Im a bit dissapointed. It feels like I am on my way home.
This morning was a beautiful morning, typical cos I am leaving.I walked up to town to get some breakfast. After I said good buy to the girls I met last night I got the hostel to get me a taxi to the avtovoxal (bus station) The taxi driver wanted extra for my bag when we got there so I told him exactly where to go. The bus to Moscow at 11.15 was sold out or not going so next bus is at 18.15. I was not gonna wait that long so there was a bus waiting to go to Vladimir so I got that one and will look at the train to Moscow. When we got to Vladimir there was a bus to Moscow just about to leave. I got a ticket and jumped on that one.
When I got to Moscow I thought I would try the Metro. They say it isnt very hard to work out. Now I dont even know where the metro is. I had an idea. "follow the crowd" The Moscow metro moves more than 9milion people every day, That is more than London and New York combined. I followed the crowd and that worked, I was soon in the metro. Next problem was to get a ticket. I wanted a card with 10 rides on so I dont have to do this every time. The babushka at the ticket window subscribed to the theory of shout slower and they will understand. I kept saying in my best Russian "cardski with 10 rideski". A nice young girl standing in the line next to me, her name was Tanya, helped out and translated for me. After I got my card she helped me find the right train and showed me where I have to change to another line. We got on the same train but she got off before me and slipped me her phone number. I made it all the way to the station I wanted without incident. The problem came when I got to my station. I couldnt find my way out. There are three stations here and they are all conected by tunnells so I kept going from one station to the next. Finally I found the longest escalator in the world and thought that must be the way to the road. Thankfully it was and I was nearly there.
I followed the map in the LP and again got lost. Another lady came to my rescue and showed me the way back to the train station. I was already headed there and would have made it on my own but I let her think she was helping. From the train station I followed the map the woman to the hostel gave me this morning. Success. I had actually walked past this place before but didnt see the sign. At long last I am here and gonna be here for at least the next 4 days.

I went out in the pissin rain to get some pics. It was as much to do with getting out of this hostel as anything. The place is a living hell. Anyway the Red Sq was locked up but I wasnt going to totally waste the night so I got some pics on the way home in the almost semi dark.

Last night I slept in the lounge. I tried to sleep in the kitchen but people kept coming in and waking me. The people in the lounge finally went to bed at about 2.30 so I got some sleep. It is soo noisey in my room from the people snoreing and the reception right next door. The place is full of people who wanna party all night and sleep all day. It makes no sense at all to me, I could do that at home. One of the girls in my room only goes out for meals and clubing at night.
Today I had a mission to get a train ticket to St Petersburg. This meant I had to go on the Metro and change stations. The metro is huge and has about 12 lines all interconecting. some stations have 2 or 3 stations on different lines above and below each other. I managed to find my way even thou it was not the way I originally intended. The problem is the changover stations have different names on different lines. At the ticket station I got sent from window to window till finally a woman from an office came out and interpreted for me and I have a ticket. Now I have to try to find somewhere to live.
While I was out I went to look at Novodevichy Convent. This is still a working convent on the banks of the river. Like all the churches here it was built to celebrate beating the **** out of someone. In this case it was built to comemorate the taking of Smolensk. It is also the place where Peter the Great imprisoned his sister and a couple of his ex wives.

I couldnt help myself, I walked down to Red Sq again. I saw a Burger King there yesterday so was gonna have that for dinner but I couldnt find it so I had 2 kebabs. And got some more pics of St Basil's, this time from the other side.