Tried to hide Tim in an empty cabin last night because of his incessant snoring. Holiday ended when at 4am the train stopped somewhere in the middle of no where and our cabin was occupied by a very confused woman demanding her bed back. Breakfast was a peasant affair of stale bread, delicious cheese and my own coffee recipe of instant coffee and condensed milk syrup. Suffering from the 'Trans Siberian Time Warp' - all of the trains run to Moscow time, but in reality we should be 3 hours ahead. So while it is 9.30am Moscow time (and the perfect [View Full Entry]

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The romantic notion of traveling across Russia in a train ended on my first morning with a cheap vodka hangover. We are sharing a cabin with a Dutch Father (60ish) and Daughter (30ish) who are great company and didn't mind sharing our vodka on the first night. After which - at 2am - Tim decided he really needed to go to the toilet, but as we had stopped, (a constant problem on these trains!) ended up having to run off the train and use the train tracks as a depositary. Needless to say the Provista train ladies spent their time screaming [View Full Entry]

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In what has been our longest inner city train ride so far, we took a trip today out to the famous Gorky Park. Not quite sure what we were expecting, but what we got was a colossal entry into a mostly deserted amusement park. Complete with that spaceship we saw on the boat. We are not quite sure if it actually gets busy. Across the road, we entered the Sculpture Park, formerly called 'The Park of Fallen Idols', which was much more romantic. A semi-overgrown park full of Soviet Era statues; bronzed propaganda soldiers and a bunch of Lenin and Stalin [View Full Entry]

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Today is the day we are off to see the... KREMLIN! But first - a qucik breakfast of cheap and nasty pizza and our new favorite ADRENALIN drink (the Russian's haven't really caught on with cheap and easy cafes yet) Unfortunately we're not allowed to hang out with the politburo in the dumas or any of the other official looking buildings (and we weren't even allowed to walk on any of the internal roads!) - but we were able to view all of the many Golden Domed churches and cathedrals - all with such magical makes like Cathedral of Ascension, Assumption [View Full Entry]

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7.23am and we are about 32 minutes exactly (because the trains actually run on time in this country!) - before we arrive back in Moscow. Our train this time is a step up from our previous affair - Shiny and Red I believe they call it the Red Arrow. With Red and Gold trim and fancy curtains, it felt like Royalty could ride in this train. Shared with two young Russian guys who wanted to talk more than sleep - but as we had the 2 bottom bunks, Tim and I weren't quite sure the proper train etiquette... so spent an [View Full Entry]

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Waiting for Tim to wake up, I attempted to read a map all by myself and found the Kuznechny Market. An indoor fresh food market full of meat, meat, pickled vegetables and fresh honey. Tourist event for the day was the Russian Museum, where we made our way through several hundred years of Russian art - starting with the massive religious canvases (lots of halos and Jesus's on crosses). Finally did my "Must Do" and saw a couple of Kadinsky paintings (the only Russian artist I know anything about). Next stop was the Peter & Paul Fortress - which definitely needs [View Full Entry]

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Today was the day we visited the Hermitage - the largest art museum in the world. Full of gold, art, gold, statues and more gold. Dinner on Vasilevsky Island at a restaurant called 'Rssy Kitsch' - where the decor is a mixture of 1001 Arabian Nights and weird pictures of Russian politicians. Ate borsch, fish stews and... more vodka! [View Full Entry]

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8.20am and we have almost arrived in St Petersburg - we have nearly survived our first overnight train. Tim and I had the top 2 bunks and shared with two old Russian dudes. Couldn't use the toilets 20 mins before and after a stop (because the "stuff" gets dropped straight on the rails). In the morning the line for the toilet went halfway down the carriage and I tried to have my first sponge shower. Putting on more deodorant was much easier. After refusing to get ripped off by another taxi driver (who spat at us when we tried to haggle [View Full Entry]

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Discovered Moscow equivalent of Paddy's markets and managed to order a hot meaty pastry and a great coffee - like Turkish but lighter and with 3 sugar cubes. Discovered some weird Russian theme park called 'Kremlin of Izmaylovsky', complete with Vodka museum. 2 hour boat cruise through Moscow. Saw obscene statue of Peter the Great and a Rocket Ship. Evening spent hanging out in a corner of the train station waiting for our midnight train to St Petersburg. [View Full Entry]

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2.27am - we arrive in Dubai airport. Palm trees, Dunkin Donuts, Mosques and an Irish Village all under one roof. 10.17am - Arrive in Moscow. First contact with the locals is the ATM, which we think stole our money. To get into the city - we catch the metro, which is called the 'Aero Express' and is a grotty old 1970s style train that rattles and smells. Not too bad a trip, and we arrive in the city 40 mins later. After a rude encounter with several taxi drivers who try and rip us off by telling us it will cost [View Full Entry]

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