Have you ever had this romanticized idealized version of what something should look like in your head and then seen what you were picturing and are totally disappointed? This has happened to me so many times, but today I got the opposite end of that concept. Today I saw the picture in my head, exactly as I imagined it and it was completely overwhelming…..

We basically had a free day today as our train to St Petersburg did not leave until 11pm. I decided to go out and retrace the steps of the orientation tour so that the route had sunk in properly for next time around. I got to the Cathedral of our Savior with no issues, but then it started snowing and soon turned into what I'm calling a mini blizzard. It snowed hard, fast and the wind was so strong I thought I was going to get blown off the bridge. I sheltered behind a statue for a while, before the blizzard stopped as quickly as it had started and the sun came out! Bizarre!

I walked through the park and up to Red Square….once in red square it started snowing again. It wasn't a blizzard like it was on the bridge, but it wasn't light either….just enough to be pretty. I looked around at St Basil's Cathedral and there it was…..the picture I'd had in my mind of what Red Square was going to look like. It almost brought me to tears, thank god it didn't because they probably would have frozen! I stood in the middle of the square absorbing the fairytale picture in front of me and getting covered in snow for ages. I then decided to venture back into the Gum centre to get warmed up before having McDonalds for lunch, shaking the snow from my coat as I went in.

After lunch I caught the metro back to the hotel station and went in the markets behind the hotel, where I managed to get gloves and a fur hat. Apparently the hat is made from the fur of the Arctic fox, but I don't know how true that claim is. I also got talking to this guy from Azerbaijan, which was fun, because I speak basically no Russian and he spoke no English. I then went back to the hotel and did paper work with Sara, before going out to KFC in a nearby shopping centre. It was so cold we almost turned back!

On the way back from the shopping centre I was wearing my new hat and this Russian guy was laughing at me. He was also making a spinning motion with his hand. Is he being funny, I thought. Does he want me to put it over my face? Then I realised...I'd had the hat on backwards! Stupid tourist!

I took one small group down to the metro station with all of their luggage a bit early and then waited at the bottom of the stairs for the others. Once on the metro, we went four stops on our line and then changed and went one stop on the Red line to get to Leningradsky station. It was a pretty full on experience having to get myself and eleven other people all with luggage, on public transport to the main train station. This tour we have the two of us doing it, its going to be pretty difficult when its just me.

We came out of the metro and went into the main station and found our train on the indicator boards. We got everyone into their four berth compartments and got all the luggage out of the way. No small feat in the tiny little berths we were in!

The train started up and I went around and chatted to people for a while, before heading off to bed in the top bunk. The motion of the train basically put me to sleep straight away.