Moscow

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The sleep on the train between St Petersburg and Moscow was surprisingly comfortable considering I was literally sleeping on a bench, which was only long enough for 5ft11 of my 6ft3 body. On the other hand, the constant rocking motions of the train's movements were actually very soothing and I even found myself struggling to sleep whilst stationary.

On arrival at Moscow, we were greeted by our next honcho, Eugene, and a pair of twins Diana and Marina (22), who were training to become honchos themselves. Eugene instantly recognised the Welsh flag on my bag, having studied British Society at uni and we discussed the merits of Wales, which was obviously a very very lengthy conversation! We then had a minibus transfer to our hostel called 'Godzillas' - no idea why.

After sorting our stuff out at the hostel, we headed off to the Red Square. However, naturally, being in Russia, there were security checks galore to get through before you could even see a glimpse of the Square. Whilst queueing in one of these lines, I met an awesome Canadian woman who was in Moscow for the week having spent 3 months in India. We chatted about travelling in general and then randomly she began to describe how the drugs in New Zealand are mind-blowing and that I should take as many as possible when I'm there - I awkwardly nodded my head.

After finally getting passed all the guards, we headed towards Lenin's mausoleum which was very surreal. When walking passed his body, I couldn't help but notice that he looked just like a Madame Tussaud's wax model and the constant orders of the guards to keep moving didn't really give us the time to let it all sink in. Unfortunately as well, these guards were heavily armed so the possibility of persuasion or conversation was extremely limited. In fact, all throughout my time in St Petersburg and Moscow, we noticed a great number of guards, soldiers and policemen. Strangely though, many of these consisted of boys around the age of 18, probably because Russia's national service is still alive and strong. In fact I probably saw more armed men in the two cities than I have seen in my entire life in Britain - it's almost how I would have imagined the country 30 years ago. Nevertheless, despite the stern nature of almost all of these guards, I tried my luck on what looked like a 16 year old soldier outside Lenin's mausoleum and managed to engage him in conversation. He told me who all the gravestones around the mausoleum were for (most of which were members of the KGB) and he also told me that he loved Man U but, soon after, an officer walked by and glared at him, which promptly signified the end of our chat unfortunately.

After seeing Lenin, we saw all the other 'must-see' sites of Moscow - St Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin, etc. I actually had a fantastic time in the Kremlin, again due to the surrealism of the whole visit. When walking in, we saw literally thousands of children walking around a massive Christmas tree in the middle of the complex with all their parents waving to them from the side and singing songs. Generally there was a very festive atmosphere and it was difficult to appreciate the dark history of the site - "was this really the place where Lenin ordered 100 kulaks (rich peasants) to be killed in every village or where Stalin signed a series of orders to ultimately purge 50% of the entire Russian armed forces or even where Krushchev came so close to declaring war during the Cuban Missile Crisis?". Also I wasn't expecting the majority of the complex to consist of religious buildings, monuments and cathedrals, especially after the Communist Party tried so hard to rid Russia of religion for over 80 years, but yet the very offices from which they operated were surrounded by it.

Anyway, after our historical day, we headed back to the hostel where things went pear-shaped. There was a showdown between Rolf and our honcho Eugene. I'll start from the beginning....

Eugene came into our room and asked what we wanted to do the next day and so we asked what he might recommend. However he claimed that it was our responsibility to choose what to do. So Nicola asked, "well if a friend was coming to Moscow, where would you take him and what would you do?" All Eugene said was that he wouldn't do anything with his friends in the day time. So Rolf calmly asked if he could possibly list some ideas and Eugene suddenly became extremely defensive and started to get angry that we were expecting him to suggest things to do. Rolf, justifiably, pointed out that the whole point of the honcho system on this tour (which we paid for) was that the guide would be pro-active and show us around the cities, but Eugene's response was simply, "well I'm not pro-active". He then reluctantly asked if we wanted to go to a flea market and seeing that Rolf and Eugene were close to ripping each others' necks out, the rest of us, trying to defuse the tension, optimistically said "yeah that would be fantastic", after which Eugene made a very quick exit.

Fortunately the night made a swift U-turn when I went out on my own to use the hostel's computer to send some emails and met an Australian called Dale (30) from Sydney. We had a great chat for about 4 hours and shared a ton of local beers. It turned out that he'd been travelling since 2005 and had been living in Prague with his Czech girlfriend for a few months. He was in Moscow for a holiday with his mum who had been travelling for the last 20 years herself. She then joined us and reeled off a list of great travel tips for me. Whilst talking with them, I was actually invited by the hostel staff to have a drink with them which quickly turned into about 12 shots of vodka. Eventually after a great night with Dale and the locals, I stumbled back to my group and into my room.

The next day we had a bit of lie in, waking up at 10am but realising we didn't have enough time to get a proper breakfast we settled for a slice from pizza hut. We decided to take the famous Moscow Metro to the flea market and it definitely lived up to its reputation. Every station has its own unique artistic design and could be taken for wings of an art gallery. It was also clean and cheap - two things I like in public transport. We soon reached the Izmaylovo flea market and were quickly surrounded by vendors trying to flog off their tacky souvenirs ranging from communist hip flasks to "real" fur coats/hats. Despite the questionable quality of the market's merchandise, the log stalls and feathery snow made for a magical wintry atmosphere and I spent most of the time walking around with Diana, who made great conversation and was a valuable translator.

After Rolf bought a ridiculously Russian hat, we headed off to the Vodka Museum which seemed an apt destination for our Vodka Train group in the country that gave birth to the spirit. It was actually very enlightening and definitely not just an excuse to try some samples! We discovered that Monks were in fact the creators of the beverage and that Peter The Great (one of Russia's greatest heroes and founder of St. Petersburg) actually drank close to 30 jugs of vodka a day. I was also pleased to find that it is possible to buy spreadable vodka in jam-form - a must-have. There was also an AK47-shaped vodka bottle among the thousand or so other varieties of vodka on display. It was abundantly clear that vodka is more than a drink to the Russians, it is like a childhood friend who will forever be linked to the Russian way of life and is almost certainly a contributory factor to the scarily low average male life expectancy of only 59 years old.

After learning about the history of vodka, we thought we'd find out about the history of Russia (if that's something different) and paid a visit to the 'History of Russia Museum'. Unfortunately we arrived only 30 minutes before closing time and so we were essentially rushed around the exhibits by the highly vocal museum staff. There was also a tense moment when I accidentally set off the alarm by leaning over a rope to look at a machine gun and was soon the focus of the entire room's attention but luckily nothing came of it and the staff didn't seem too bothered.

Having been literally ordered to leave the museum, we headed off to a bar/club which was hosting a so-called 'British Invasion Party'. It turned out to just be a few bands playing Kinks' tracks on a small stage in a bar that charged over 5 quid for a pint. However, despite being greatly entertained by some crazy Russians dancing in front of the stage, dreaming it was the 60s, we soon left and headed back to the hostel. On the way back, though, we had showdown #2. Rolf asked what time the train was leaving Moscow the next day and Eugene said 11am but since the original itinerary had said it would be 11 in the evening, Rolf asked "are you sure it's in the morning?" and Eugene snapped, saying "don't ask such silly question!", to which Rolf replied, "what is your problem?" and Eugene repeated, "never ask me such silly question again!". Once again feeling intensely awkward, we tried to calm Rolf and Eugene down, and quickly moved on.

Although Eugene was certainly not going to go down as one of our best honchos, the twins, Diana and Marina, had definitely made up for Eugene's shortcomings. They prepared lists of what we could do, tried to help us whenever possible and were generally great to talk with. On our last night at around 10.30pm, a few of us were up for a drink and although it was clear that the twins were shattered, they were still eager to join us. Then when it came time to say goodbye, they hugged us all, pretty much on the brink of tears. We swapped details and sure enough, only a day later, I noticed they had added me on facebook. Interestingly though, Nicola mentioned that the twins had at some point said that their father works for the KGB as a communications analyst (tapping phones maybe?) but I'm not sure whether this was actually true.

The following morning was the day we were due to begin our 4 day odyssey across Siberia. Realising the gravity of such a trip, we figured that it might be worth stocking up on as much food/drink as possible before heading to the train station. After waiting in a departure lounge with a man playing a classical piano to the hundreds of people in there, we made our way to the platform. Finally, having walked through the -25C winds to our carriage, we boarded and tried to prepare ourselves for 88 continuous hours on the train.

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Photos

Red Square
St. Basil's Cathedral in the background and Lenin's Mausoleum on the right

Lenin's Mausoleum
There was an onimous sense to this place and also one of confusion - it was difficult to gauge post-communism Russia's opinion of Lenin

The Kremlin
We couldn't take pictures inside so this is just outside

The Flea Market
The girl in the foreground is Diana

The Vodka Museum
Only a few varieties of the Russian vodka on display

Enjoying a shot!
Rolf, John, Adam, Me, Nicola

Supermarket
This building was originally owned by an aristocratic family but they sold it to a man who converted it into a supermarket

Train
It was all fun and games at the beginning, but how would it be in 4 days time?

Comments

[Tom Parker]

looks good
alright dude, just caught up on the old blog. sounds like you're having an amazing time! keep it up and i got a challenge. the strongest drink in durham is an 89% vodka called bulcan. try to top that and maybe it wont taste so bad on your arrival here!!