A Beginner's Guide to Cyrillic aka 'Where's My Secret Decoder Ring!' The Cyrillic Alphabet АБВГДЕФЛЖЗИЙКЛМНОПРСТУХЧХЦШЩЪЫЬЭЮЯ абвгдежзийклнопртуфхцчшщъыьэюя Reading Cyrillic is a bit like playing the memory card game from childhood, except instead of remembering which card is the red shovel you overturned 3 turns ago, you have to remember which letter you're reading looks like and stands fo...

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 af...

Executive Summary - St Petersburg Saw: St Isaacs Cathedral, Peter & Paul Fortress, Winter Palace, Hermitage Museum (and 6,000,000 works of art), Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, Summer Garden, Kazan Cathedral, palace after palace after palace, 4300 brides Did: Made it all the way from the airport to the city centre taking a minibus and a metro with no language skills whatsoever, sang 'Dancing Queen' at karaoke, wandered St Petersburg ...