To Moscow

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Hello everyone! Thanks for signing up to our blog. It's going to be harder than we thought to add entries because we won't be able to get on t'internet much (it's expensive here!!!) and also we just tried to upload a photo but it didn't work. Hopefully this situation will improve as we head east but I wouldn't count on it!!!

So we're already in Moscow! We're a bit ahead of schedule because we struggled a bit in St Petersburg. we arrived from Tallinn on the bus on Friday afternoon and it was already nearly dark. We struggled to find the hostels on our map and whenever we did they were fully booked! So much for being spontaneous and not planning things too rigidly! We ended up in a horrid soviet-style hotel that smelt of vegetable oil and had no kitchen. we couldn't afford to eating restaurants so had bread and cheese for every meal!

The historical centre is really amazing. We were disappointed as we had hoped it would all be covered in a layer of snow but it was just wet and cold! On our first day we just wandered around (quickly to keep warm) and saw the Hermitage, Church of the Resurrection etc. from the outside. Yesterday we paid the money and went in to the Hermitage. It's absolutely huge- the biggest gallery/museum in the world so I did a lot of sitting down while Tristan looked at ll the ancient (boring) stuff. There were some classic European paintings thought that were really impressive. All in all though we weren't that taken with St. Pete. Aside from the main sights we didn't like the city that much. Not worth the money!!!

Also, we were really worried because of stupid visa issues. We knew we had to register our visas within 72 hours of entering the country but nowhere in St.P seemed to be up for registering ours so we were a bit freaked out that we'd have problems on the Russia/Mongolia boarder.

So we got the heck out of St. Petersburg and took an overnight train to Moscow last night. We got here at 04-10 this morning so we had to sit in the station for 4 hours until the city woke up! Everything has been great since we got here though. We found a hostel OK and some people we can communicate with. So we've got our visas registered! Met some Aussies who are doing the "Vodka Train" to Siberia so we hung out with them on our first trip to Red Square this morning. Red Square and St Basil's Cathedral are amazing so we are already really impressed by Moscow.

We're here for 3 nights at least. Going to see Lenin tomorrow.

Lots of love to everyone, bye bye! x x x

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Photos

Us in Tallinn
This is the first photo of us together. We're in the historical centre of Tallinn.

Picnic in St. Petersburg
Not really the season for al fresco lunches.

Comments

[Tim]

Hooray!!
Hi Charlie and Tristan, Well done so far - it already sounds as tho' it will be an epic trip. You sound as tho' you're really starting to enjoy it and I am sure you will hit some snow and ice very soon. Best wishes from polluted Shanghai and I look forward to the next blog entry Love Dadxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Mike]

YAYblog
Sounds amazing, keep us updated guys. Yay Vodka train. Say hi to Lenin.

[Phil]

Hello!
hi there you two...just read your adventure so far...sounds so cool and im so glad youre enjoying yourselves so much...long may it continue! looking forward to the next update, take care and lots of love. phil x