England 3 - Russia 0

We didn't end up seeing Lenin on Wednesday - he's definitely closed at the moment. There's preparation for some kind of military festival in Red Square at the weekend so a lot of it is blocked off. So instead we headed for the Arbat area, as according to our guidebook it is meant to be lovely to stroll down. When we finally found it, it was basically a long street with cafes, bars and stall after stall selling exactly the same stuff. Really exhausted we decided to head back (we're doing A LOT of walking - Moscow is a pretty big place especially if you factor in the number of wrong turns we make). In the evening we went in search of the post office and on our return the dorm room was in complete disarray; the 2 South African brothers (Renee and Eric) had actually returned. A picture in the photos bit illustrates what I mean by 'complete disarray'.

On Wednesday we visited the Kremlin; on the way into Alexandrovsky Garden (which houses the ticket office) for the first time we were stopped by police and asked for our passports. Thank goodness Alex had managed to sort out registering our visas for us as we had read that the police can be really funny with you if you haven't registered in time. It's a new rule Russia has; you need a visa to get into the country. Fine. Then, within 3 days you must register this visa with an immigration office or possibly face fines on exiting the country. You do this in EACH place you visit in Russia. Big hotels do this for you; we had to rely on Alex, but luckily he sorted it out and the policeman seemed happy with what we showed him. We wandered around the Kremlin and took a look at a museum in there called 'The Armoury'. My mum would like it; there was lots of gold stuff and jewellery; a crown that Ivan the Terrible wore at his coronation and the coronation gown of Catherine the Great. Matt liked the armoury, I liked the frocks; we were both happy.

Two new arrivals at the hostel; 2 Americans - in their 50s I think. They have the double room. Then a Latvian called Tom turned up (1 of the South Africans left today so there is a spare bed) he's here for a conference for the University of Nottingham, where he works at the moment, on what I can only assume is a very meagre accommodation budget. Alex returned with yet another person in tow; Frank from the UK, an older guy who had studied in Moscow in the 70s. Hmmm…6 bed dorm…7 people. Alex asked if Renee would mind sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the (small) living area.

England were playing Russia; me, Matt, Renee, Mareike, Alex and now Frank headed out to find somewhere to watch it. Alex, obviously not being a 'pub' person had suggested a place which turned out to be a somewhat plush looking restaurant. We decided not to stay among the silk scatter cushions. Not really the environment to watch football. Even I know that. It turned out that Frank, a larger than life character, speaks Russian. He found a bar; the door man initially stopped us, but Frank must have charmed him as we were led downstairs into this underground smoke filled bar with a big screen and about 30 boisterous Russians watching the match! It was fine and we tried to be discrete but Frank speaks loud so it was no secret that we were English (Mareika, Alex and Renee were, a bit begrudgingly, English by default for the evening). It was fine.

Today we packed ready to catch the 16.20 train to Yekaterinburg - a 28 hour trip. We exchanged e-mail addresses with Mareike and Alex; we got on well with them; although it turns out we might be in the same hostel in Irkutsk as them on the 19th. Alex said he'd get us a taxi so we went on the street and he flagged a car down, it wasn't a taxi, it was some random guy, but apparently this is the done thing in Moscow (!) as the taxis are so expensive. We got to Yaroslavlsky station and found our platform (eventually). The carriage attendant, Olga, checked our tickets and said something in Russian. We got on the train and couldn't find our cabin. She had obviously heard the commotion (as in, me having a strop) and came after us saying something quite forcefully, no doubt perfectly clearly if you understand Russian. I calmly explained I didn't understand a word she was saying and no matter how many different ways she was trying to tell me I still wouldn't understand. She turned and stomped off, she did then stop outside our cabin (which was, by the way, actually clearly marked) to deposit us in there. We left the station and, great, no-one else in our 4 berth…until the train stopped 2 hours later and a young Russian man and older lady got on. I tried to converse with the lady but got nowhere, I got out my phrases and pointed to 'I don't speak Russian'. The lady nodded and muttered something, probably, 'no s***, Sherlock'. And that was that. The lady got off at around 11.30pm, and another Russian man got on. We all went to bed. It was a little cosy to say the least.