After just a 3hr flight we touched down in Moscow at 13.30 local time, being 3 hrs ahead. We wandered aimlessly, following the crowd being hurded by a large angry lady shouting in Russian. After about 30 minutes the que had not moved. The angry lady returned and using hand signals beckoned Steve and I to follow her. I was already clenching expecting her to get out the rubber gloves, but by some stroke of luck she showed us to the foreign diplomat entrance, and we where processed immediately ( she probably mistook me for prince William - it wouldn't be the first time). Getting the airport express train and the metro was easy - once you got into the spirit and started pushing people, tutting and generally scaling at people which seemed to be the done thing. We left the metro and followed the directions to the hotel, where we found what looked like our hotel, only older, dirtier and with less windows and more boards than our picture. There was a workman outside, he spoke to us in Russian, we tried to explain we where English and didn't speak Russian, but he didn't seem to mind and carried on even as we disappeared up the stairs. Inside it was an old rundown block of flats with a huge stone staircase and great big metal shutters where there should have been doors. We searched all around but found no sign of a hostel or anybody around, so returned to wandering around looking lost. A stunning young girl pulled up beside us on a baby blue vespa, she looked so out of place, she had long blond hair under her blue helmet and shiny blue shoes with really long heels and even longer legs, she asked where we where looking for in perfect English, then told us to follow her. Just when I thought I was dreaming or in a film she lead us back to the decrepit building where our Russian builder friend was waiting to continue our conversation. The girl knocked on a shutter for us and two guys opened the door, they where young and friendly and most importantly spoke a tiny bit of English. Inside the hostel turned out to be a converted flat, with no natural light and stud walls separating areas into cupboards with bunk beds inside. Luckily we had paid for a superior room so got one with a window. Happy days!