Day 03 - 31st August 2010 - Istanbul and Moscow

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Day 03

31st August 2010 - Istanbul and Moscow

Crystal and Laetitia went for a turkish bath in the morning, and I met them outside the famous Blue Mosque. We went inside - very beautifully decorated from floor to ceiling, with soft red carpet (shoes off at the door, as with any mosque).

Caught a cab to the airport, where we departed for Moscow via Riga in Latvia.

On arrival in Moscow, we instantly noticed the massive drop in temperature after being in Istanbul for the last few days. We filled in entry cards, which we had to present to passport control after queuing for over an hour. People were pushing into the que and the ladies checking passports were very rude and abrupt, shouting at everyone. After making it through passport control, we caught a train from the airport to the city centre. We then haggled for a cab to our hostel, which was in my estimate, 20 minutes away. The first driver wanted 2000 roubles (£40) - we politely told him where to go and caught another cab for 1000 roubles. Cab kept stalling and driver could not find our hostel. After 1 hour of searching, he called the hostel for directions and got us to our location. He was a decent guy, and didn't live up to the bad reputation of Moscow taxi drivers!

Hostel was at the top of an old block of flats, but was large and nicely decorated inside. The lady running it was very friendly. Our room had a big balcony overlooking the 8 lane Moscow ring road on which the hostel was situated. We celebrated our arrival with some of Laetitia's Pinot, which she had brought for the journey.

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Photos

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Latvia from the air

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Our first Russian hostel... whats upstairs?