end of the line

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The end of the transsiberian journey was a fun few days and a great way to finish. Russia was occasionaly unfriendly, often confusing and always bitterly cold so to come home was not a massive wrench. If we'd been laying on a beach in a deserted island paradise the day before hometime it may have been a little harder.

The final train of the trip was one of the most luxurious on the entire network and yet again we were lucky enough to have a 4-berth cabin to ourselves. There are distance markers every 100m along the entire 9200km of the transsiberian route and, after having past every single one of them, it was a odd feeling watching the last few kilometers click by.

The Russia we'd seen in the previous 2 weeks had zero glammer, and that turned out to be because it's all in Moscow. Awesome architecture, women in furs, driven in dark cars with darker windows to the finest shopping, restaurants to rival the best in world with bars and clubs not far behind. Moscow has it all.

Upcoming New-years celebrations in 5 star hotels started at $350 and rose to $1000 per person, so it seemed Moscow residents and it's expats also have the kind of money unimaginable further east. In the snow and ice of winter, with eye-catching churches and theatres, exclusive boutiques and designer malls everywhere, Moscow would be a fine place for a weekend get-away if it was not for the off-putting visa requirements.

Our main objective arriving in Moscow on December 24th was to locate somewhere to have our Xmas Turkey dinner. Russian Xmas day is not until Jan 7th, which meant that only western hotels where preparing the festive fare. A large expat communtity, who had cleverly booked tables weeks ago, rather than turn up the day before like us, meant we had no luck in any of the smartest hotels. Holiday Inn had space for a Xmas menu without Turkey which we politely declined and so on Xmas morning we found ourselves contemplating whether we could sit in the hotel breakfast buffet long enough to have it for lunch as well.

But, as ever these days, the good old US of A came to our rescue, when on the evening of 25th December we visited one of Moscows only two American diners to find they had cleverly re-named the year-round turkey dinner to 'xmas turkey dinner', added 50% to the price and printed up some nice xmasy menus. Two turkey dinners and a jug of russia lager later we walked home, past ice-skaters in Gorky Park and 2 of the incredible Stalin Skyscrapers. Xmas wasn't cancelled after all.

so...that's that.

Our 8 month adventure is all over and we're now 3 weeks into the start of the rest of our lives, starting up all the parts of our UK existances that we so excitedly put on hold at the beginning of last year. Phones, jobs, tax returns, Big Brother - it's already like we've never been away.

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