Today I arrived in Frankfurt airport to be greeted by a smiling Alex, a friend of Joannes from Uni. When I was coming through customs there was a queue that took about 15 mins to clear, Alex said it was because someone had left a bag unattended and the bomb disposal unit had arrived and used a robot to investigate the aforementioned bag, that turned out to be a very innocent bag left behind by a forgetaful man !! So we arrived at Alex and Timo's appartment, and they have a double decker garage, you drive in normally, then you use a hydrolic lift and it raises the car up, and tah dah !!! there is space for another one underneath...... genuis !!! After settling in and having a nice cup of tea, we went out ... read more

So I arrived safe and sound to a cloudy but dry St Petersburg at 6am, while I was on the metro, there were lots of people who were either still partying from the previous night, or were very very worse for wear !! the Metro carriage stunk to high heaven of stale booze ...... lovely at 6,30am I can tell you ! On the walk to the hostel there were lots of people still drinking out of cans and bottles and staggering all over the place. One guy was laying on the pavement with his hands down his pants, rumaging !!!! ....... my pace speeded up at this point !!!! then I was back home at Apple the hostel I stayed in last week. I was greeted with a smile and a hug from Anna, nice ... read more

So today I have been chilled to the bone .......................... relaxing wise :) Just eating every so often, reading layed on a huge bean bag on the varranda, and lots of tea (obviously) I did go for a walk to the museum of wooden houses that was really cool. Its full of replica wooden buildings that would have been around from the 15th to the 18th century. And there were even signs in english which is VERY unusual, so it was nice to know what I was looking at. They had houses of simple peasants and grander ones that were what they called "well to do peasants" a few churches and 2 windmills. Then it was time to relax again and thats what I've been doing all afternoon, reading on the bean bags and the odd ... read more

Today I was up and out at 7.45 to catch a bus to Suzdal, a small town of 15,000 people. After city life for the past 9 days I was ready for a small town and lots of open spaces. After getting to the bus station (the usual chaos) I bought my ticket and settled down for the 4 hour trip. The bus was quite comfy and while waiting for it to start I got chatting to a family from Mexico who spoke brilliant English, there was mum, dad and two teenagers, one boy one girl. It made me smile when I saw that teenagers no matter where they come from (England or Mexico) have that same "I'm bored blank looking expression !!) Sure enough after 4 hours and two rest stops and numerous bus stops ... read more

So today started off raining and a bit miserable. However it was warm, so umbrella in hand off I went to visit Catherine's Cathedral. The outside is beautifully decorated with white stone carvings and huge golden domes on top. Inside was beautiful with gold everywhere, paintings on the walls, etc. The nice thing for me was the quiet atmosphere and that it was full of "real Russians". Ladies with scarves covering their heads, old ladies shuffling alone kissing the paintings, yes kissing the paintings of Jesus, everyone constantly crossing themselves, and the cutest of all was seeing little girls with their little scarves on their heads saying mass with such dignity and sincerity. There was a choir of women singing that was so beautiful that it sent tingles down my spine. I lit a candle for ... read more