From Russia With Love! (take 2)

It's been two and a bit days since we landed in Moscow and we have finally found an internet cafe (after much guide book bashing and a wild goose chase involving a phlegmatic dog - don't ask!) to upload our first on the road entry. I had actually gotten to the end of this entry, already having battled with the world's dodgiest keyboard only for our session to terminate and all of the text to be lost. This entry has come down to a battle between me and this PC!

So what can we say about Moscow that hasn't already been said, a few things probably... Firstly we have never seen quite the variety, richness and diversity of male mullets as that which is on offer in this fair city (see picture above for a mild example of the possibilities available)

In general Moscow is quite a westernised city but there is definitely an element of time warp about it. Everyone looks like they bought there clothes in 1983 and they ain't planning on changing them anytime soon (Socks with sandals are all the rage). John however believes the "Urban Elite" as he likes to term them are quite "chic", again his wording.

Our first experince of Moscow wasn't altogether positive when we arrived in to the main train station having come from the airport express and we were greeted by the most apathetic Taxi drivers known to man. I think they probably just couldn't be bothered listening to our attempts at butchering there native tongue. We finally found one good soul though that agreed to take us to the hotel for a small fortune. Wasn't really the greatest of cab rides. He didn't offer us any bootspace for our bags, our doors had no handles, his opened with a knife, the car was full of religious statues and he performed what i suspect was a highly illegal manouvere of shimmying across four lanes of rush hour traffic to get to our hotel entrance.

The holiday inn thankfully gave us a room at 9am despite check in being at 3 which as a god send after an overnight flight from dublin. The hotel itself is actually quite nice and modern and probably is almost value for money, in a city where any kind of flee infested room goes for $500/night if it is close enough to the Kremlin. it is however like florida in russia. the whole hotel is swarming with us oaps on city tours. Frank and Sherry from Wyoming say HI!

Our hotel is about 3 miles from the Kremlin but thanks to the amazing metro beside our hotel we can be anywhere within the city in minute for less than 50p. The metro really is amazing and could only have been a product of the communist Russia. Where else on earth would you find random stations adorned with statues, chandeliers, mosaics, marble walls and floors etc.

So far we have done a little sightseeing, a boat tour and a lot of searching for places in our guide book that have either, moved, closed or never existed in the first place. Today however we are off to collect our tickets for the trans-siberian express.

If we can find another internet cafe with a proper keyboard tomorrow there may be an entry before we board the train other wise it is likely to be an update from Beijing next week!

Talk to you all soon.

Take care,

Jules and John