January 14 - 16 We got off the train at 5.34am Moscow time, which we had been running off all week, but in fact we were five hours ahead in Irkusk. We were met at the station by Costa and driven about hour North to a little town called Listvyanka next to Lake Baikal. We stayed in log chalet and had private rooms and were provided with home cooked meals everyday. Costa suggested a walk so we walked for nearly two hours up the side of a steep hill where there w...

January 11 - 13 On our first full day we woke up about 11.30am, which was amazing. It took me a while to get used to the hard beds. I already felt like a scubber and we had another four days to go, waearing the same clothes and yes the same smelly knickers. I finally got the guts to go to the dinner cart, the lady ws a right nutter and screamed at us to get out of the cart. If hadn't bought food before hand we would have been b*****ed. We eventually persuaded ...

January 8 - 10 We got off the train and met our new honcho, Eugene and his trainee twins. He was a bit unfriendly. We went straight to our hostel, I really wanted a day of relaxation, but everyone else wanted to do the Red Square, which I thought was a lot to do in one day. We all got showered and changed and headed straight out into the cold streets of Moscow. We must have walked about three miles before we reached the square. I was really worrie about seein...

January 4 - 7 Waking up after no sleep again, the nerves had set in a little bit more. Jamie and Emma made us breakfast of bacon and eggy bread and took us to the station it was a sad farewell. as they were the last of our friends to say goodbye to. We gave them both a big hug, our front back packs getting in the way and we set off on our way. We caught a plane from Gatwick to St Petersburg with a stop over in Leningrad for a few hours. When we landed it was s...

The day finally came to go on our travels. I honestly felt like the day was never going to come. We had been talking about it for so long, but it just felt like a conversation piece. Now we were actually going, we were so scared, but really excited too. I got a wake up call from my mum at 7am and I peeled myself out of bed and threw some clothes on. I hadn't been out of bed that early for an awful long time! Outside everything looked so quiet and eery, I co...