Privyet!

This is actually being written from Broughty Ferry where we are for a few days to take in the Open Golf at St Andrews, but we had a wonderful six days in Russia getting back late Sunday night. Due to the still fairly restricted tourism arrangements in Russia, we were on a tour for our time in the country which is not our normal style, but worked out really well.

First thing to say is that weather wise, it was like being back in the Australian summer with temperatures over 30 degrees every day and shorts and t-shirt being the order of every day. You tend to think of Russia as being freezing cold (we saw themometers going down to -40) but we now realise that summer can be the absolute opposite - literally. It also had lengthy daylight until close to midnight!

We started with three days in St Petersburg which is known as the Venice of the North and was indeed very similar to Venice and Amsterdam with canals and islands aplenty. We were very impressed with the imperial grandeur of the city and visited the overwhelming Hermitage collection, several cathedrals and Peterhoff (similar to Versailles in France). Apart from following the locals in Vodka drinking, we also went to the ballet (Swan Lake) and managed to still watch both World Cup Semi-finals.

We travelled to Moscow via the overnight train and whilst very cramped, had a fantastic time with a few late night Pivo's (beer) whilst our tour guide talked about the differences between life in the USSR and Free Russia!

Moscow is a great contrast with St P. with much Stalinist and communist architecture but was a brilliant place to spend a few days. We of course spent much time on Red Square, visited Lenin (he looked just like a wax work!), the Kremlin, a cold war nucleur bunker, St Basil's Cathedral and an excellent Moscow by Night tour. We also took in a Russian Dance Show which had amazing Cossack dancing and a moonwalking horse! We were hugely impressed with the Moscow Metro which was Stalin's gift to the people with each station meant to replicate a room in a palace! On our final morning, we visited the Park of the Fallen Monuments which is a random collection of discarded monuments to former communist leaders.

We would recommend Russia to everyone for its mix of history, culture, vodka, sights and sounds!