Executive Summary - Moscow

• Saw: Red Square, Lenin's Tomb, St Basil's Cathedral, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Fabergé Eggs, Kremlin, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Izmaylovo market, Gulag Museum, Vodka Museum, Russian Modern History Museum, what must be the world's most beautiful metro stations, and the grand-daddy of communist kitsch - VDNKh ("USSR Economic Achievements Exhibition")

• Did: Walked my legs to the ground around Moscow after no sleep on the overnight train from St Petersburg, rode the ferris wheel at the VDNKh, searched desperately for a professional photography store to repair my broken lens, found several ФОТО ("foto") stores that specialised in passport shots, successfully repaired broken lens with duct tape.

• Ate/Drank: Borscht, potatoes, fried bread, minced meat, cream. Repeat.

• Favourite part about Moscow: Wandering the city and marvelling at the changes of the past 20 years and how different it must have been just a short while ago

• Least favourite part about Moscow: Wishing I read Cyrillic (and subsequently understood Russian) to better appreciate the modern history and gulag museums.

• Life-altering revelation which has contributed to my search for universal truth: Group travel is excellent at providing new travel companions and structure to one's travel schedule. But it also provides new travel companions and structure to one's travel schedule.

• Current career thought: Don't have time to think about such things when I have to keep on schedule and blitz Moscow in 3 days!