So we finally arrived in St Petersburg, a little more than a week after our epic journey began. To me, arriving in Russia signals the start of the next, and very significant, phase of our journey, the Trans-Siberian. In the land of Ladas, vodka and beef strogonoff (we tried it, the vodka and the beef, naturally, it's good), I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The guidebooks tend to paint it all in such a negative light, be wary of this and that, and of course I had visions of Russian Mafia running through my head anyway, so none of it served to put me at ease. One of our comforts though was Nikolai, our driver. We saw him every day, as he happened to pick us up from the airport the first day, drive
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