I got up at 3:45am this morning which was exceptionally brutal for me. I got the airport hoppa bus to Heathrow, which was much cheaper than yesterdays cab ride. I got to the airport and dropped my bag off and then waited around to get on my flight.

The flight was uneventful and I landed in Stockholm on time. I had to go through passport control, even though I was transiting and not collecting my bag. I had something to eat (don't ask me what, because I still have no idea) and I ate these chips called Root Fruit, which were crisps made from Potato, Parsnip and Beetroot. They were actually awesome.

I went down to the gate to get my flight and an announcement came over the speaker that they were looking for ten volunteers to fly at a later date or on an Aeroflot flight later that night. Only about two people volunteered, so they randomly started calling names out to be bumped from the flight. Unfortunately, my name was called and they told me that I was being bumped onto the Aeroflot flight which didn't get into Moscow until 1205am!

I told them I was a tour leader and a travel agent and needed to get there. This seemed to make no difference at first. However, they had a couple more volunteers and they decided it was in their best interests to let me fly.

I got on the plane at the last minute and got settled not quite believing that dropping the Travel Agent Bomb had actually worked. The flight only took about two hours and then we descended into Moscow, which was covered in snow. It looked like a fairy land.

I got off the plane and went smoothly through passport control and collected my bag. I then went looking for the train. I followed the signs that said Public Transport, but the train was actually in the complete opposite direction, so I spent twenty minutes wandering around outside the terminal in the snow, which silly me still thought was magical.

I managed to find the airport express which took about half an hour and then had to transfer to the metro. The metro was a nightmare, nothing here is written in English and there are no real signs anyway. The metro stations don't even have their names posted anywhere. I spent a good half an hour wandering around at one station trying to figure out where to go to change lines!

I finally got to the right station (after getting off a stop too early) and Sara was waiting for me. We walked over to the hotel, which is actually two hotels, the Gamma and the Delta and checked me in and got me registered and then went out for dinner in this restaurant near the hotel, that was in a traditional old Russian building. I had beef stroganoff and they also gave us free vodka shots. The vodka was very smooth, which cold become dangerous. They also had a band playing traditional Russian music. After dinner we went back to the hotel and went over some notes before going to bed to rest up for day one on tour tomorrow!