Long haul.

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My train to Kiev was at half past 4 in the afternoon. Before I said goodbye to the others there was time to go inside the Cathedral of St. Vasili for half an hour. It is majestic from the outside, but cramped and full of souvenir stalls inside.

I made my way from Red Square to Kievskii vokzal with a lot of trouble. I had never used the metro on my own before, and finding the connections I needed to make was even harder because there was such a scrum of people on each platform. Once I got to the train station I had an argument with a horrible man at the luggage storage office which made me late, so I couldn't buy most of the things I wanted to take with me. I will have to wait until I travel back to use my Christmas present for the first time!

Nevertheless I got onto the train feeling good. It was sad to think that the first chapter of my year in Russia has ended, but I was looking forward to seeing Ana again and staying in a different country.

My place on the train was in a more comfortable kupé compartment rather than platskart. The room is hot, dark and cramped, with two red leather bunk beds on each side to sleep four people. I walked in and said hello to the three men who were already there. I knew that by telling them where I was from the conversation would be about me for the whole journey, but 13 hours is a long time not to say anything.

I explained what I was doing in Russia, and they told me they were Ukrainians returning home. Apart from the oldest one telling me off for putting my feet on his bed they were good to me. They gave me a chicken wing from their basket of food and glass of Soyuz Viktan vodka to try, then another one, then another one. After that I was too drunk to do anything apart from sleep, and the compartment was too dark to start reading my books.

The youngest one woke me up at midnight to explain that I had to complete a form, then helped me fill it in. He even took my side when one of the militsiya took away my passport and shook my bed.

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