So as you can see I have succeeded in grappling with technology enough to upload some photographs. Unfortunately I have not succeeded enough to have something more symbolic of my time in Russia as the album cover than a blurry photo of a budgie. I am currently in Irkustk (it's minus 22C) waiting for the train to take us to Mongolia at 5am. I'm quite looking forward to going on the train again as it'll be an opportunity to sleep lots. My body is somewhere betwee...

Arrived in Irkutsk tonight after the longest and most surreal train journey ever. It was lots of fun, but really weird. It feels as though you're in a little bubble with some other people, and you're in this train world which isn't quite real life. I think I've finally caught up on my sleep! As I expected, once you get away from the main cities Russian people as a whole are really friendly. Well, some of them. There's less random chatting amongst strangers than ...

I'm getting used to Moscow now but it was a bit of a culture shock after St Petersburg which is tiny in comparison. St Petersburg seems to be designed by women for women with all the fairytale-esque pastel coloured buildings, not to mention the catwalk show which was Nevsky Prospect. Moscow is altogether more masculine and on a huge scale; the buildings are towering awe inspiring structures and the city is encircled by a series of ring roads which twenty lanes of...

Hey People, thanks for the mesages :) will reply as I can. Since my last blog we've come to Moscow by sleeper train, which was very exciting and I'm looking forward to our next epic train journey to Irkutsk tomorrow night. When Laura and I boarded the train it was pitch black and we spent the 20 minutes before the train set off frantically trying to put our beds together in the dark with the help of my torch and the hindrance of our rucksacks. The two Russian la...

Hello, Today is my third full day in St Petersburg, and I feel as though I'm finally getting the hang of Russia and everything that goes with it. I've spent the last couple of days wandering around trying to get my bearings. I'll admit, the first day I felt very dazed and confused and very homesick. The Russians or at least 'Pieters' came across as really unfriendly; nobody speaks English and my attempts at reading Russian from my phrase book were not well recei...