Moscow

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So...we arrived in Moscow after our overnight train which got in at 4am!! We decided to wait around in the train station till it got light, managed to get a little bit of sleep until some security guys woke us up, turns out they just wanted to move the chairs around, so we just moved to some others, but couldn't get back to sleep. Surprisingly there were actually quite a few people about doing the same thing.

We had booked a hostel called the Trans-Siberian Hostel as they had some good rates on a double private room (about time after all these dorm rooms), we decided to go there about 7am to see if they would let us leave our bags, freshen up and come back later to check in. When we arrived I think we woke the poor woman up, she seemed a bit reluctant to let us in as one of the guests had thrown up everywhere the night before and she hadn't cleaned it up yet! But we headed in anyway, and she let us crash in the kitchen for a while, she eventually came over and asked if we were Layla & Stephen, and then asked if we didnt receive her email. I hadn't checked my email after I booked (which I have since learnt from!!), turns out the room wasn't actually available 😞....she phoned a few hostels up for us, but they were so expensive and the only reason we booked this and didn't try and couchsurf was because of the good rates. Anyway, she ended up getting us a private room in a much nicer hostel (no sick!!) it was pretty much brand new, for just 4 pounds more. And a lady from the hostel drove us to our new hostel which was really nice since we were pretty far away from it and hadn't sussed out the metro yet!!

The new hostel, called Chocolat 😊 (you got a free little chocolate with your bedding too) was sooo much nicer, and the lady (who we also woke up) let us check in 😊, so once again, we went back to bed for a few hours as we had been up since 4am!! When we were finally up and lively, we had to figure out our registration details. Basically, you have to register your visa if you are in a city for more than 3 working days, since we were in St Petersburg over the weekend we didn't have to worry about it there, but we needed to do it for Moscow. The hostel could register you only if you were stay there for 3 nights and we were hoping to couchsurf other nights in Moscow, but the lady at the hostel helped us find an agency that could register us and it was alot cheaper. She sent us all the way over where we had come from that morning, taught us about the metro system which was actually really simple, and so we arrive, gave the note the lady had written for us in Russian, paid 800rur, about 16pounds and the woman filled in some forms and told us to come back tomorrow to collect the stuff...all quite simple.

The rest of the afternoon we went straight to toursit central into Red Square which was pretty amazing. Had a good wonder round, took alot of piccies of St Basils Catheldral and The Kremlin then headed back to our hostel via little shop which was a bit of a struggle as the woman didn't speak any English and all the food was behind a counter, so a lot of pointing and directions to get what we wanted. Back at the hostel we met a few people, had a good chat about the trans siberian as most of them had just come from where we were heading. I had read in the Lonely Planet trans-siberian guide book (which has since become my bible) about these little bar in these gardens that sounded really cool. It wasn't far from the hostel and one of the lads we were talking to, Tony from America came along with us. It was a bit pricey for our usual budget but was well worth it. It reminded me of something from Glastonbury, as there were loads of sofa's with funky rugs and cushions, everyone was smoking shisha's and when it cold the waitresses came and gave us cute little blankers, we just stayed for one (made it last as long as we could!) and headed back to the hostel for an earlyish night.

Tuesday morning we were leaving our hostel as we had managed to find a couchsurfer who could host us!! She lived a bit out of the center which meant we had to get the metro in and out but it wasn't that bad as it worked out really cheap about 40p each time you used it. Near where our hostel was there was a Gulag Museum, which was about Stalin's camps where he sent loads of Russian people between 1918-1950's or something, it was really interesting and something I knew nothing about and considering we only went there as it was about 1pound to get in as a student 😊 In the musuem it was really cute as it was so small only a couple of rooms and all the information was in Russian and this old Russian lady was trying to tell us loads of information but she didn't know any English (and of course we don't know any Russian) but it was so nice of her as she was really making an effort to explain things and considering in most museums you have to pay to have a guided tour. Whilst we were in the museum there was another couple there Dan (from New Zealand) and Lisa (from Ireland) we ended going round with the same old lady and as we left we spoke to them a little, they were doing the trans siberian like us and had booked tickets to the opera that night the same as us, so we exchanged numbers and planned to meet them beforehand for a drink. The rest of our afternoon was spent finding Nataly's (couchsurfer) apartment and sorting ourselves out there. Once again we were really lucky as she seemed like a really nice girl, she was only 21 and married, her husband was away though and she shared the flat with her sister also. Her flat was ok, for Russian standards it wasn't too bad, but compared to home it wasn't that great. It seems (from other experiences I will tell you in another blog) the Russians standard of living is a lot lower. But Natalys flat has a decent shower, although her toilet didn't flush and you had to pour a bucket of water down after you went! Which was interesting! lol. She was heading into town that night too and said she would meet us after the opera and come back with us. So we had planned to meet Dan and Lisa around 6pm to grab a drink. We decided to be cheap and grab a beer (yes another beer for me the non-beer drinker) from the shop and be like the locals and abuse the fact we can drink on the streets, although we did look a bit common doing this as we got nearer the opera house. The Bolshoi theatre is one of the most well known opera houses in Russia, unfortunately the main opera house was being renovated and we were in the smaller one which was still pretty impressive. Dan and Lisa hadn't gone for the cheapest seats like us so we separated and met after. The opera was ok, not the most exciting themes. I'm ashamed to say I fell asleep in the first part!!! Ste seemed to get into and followed the story, there was a screen with the English words on so that helped!! After the opera had ended we had a text from Nataly saying she was going home and to meet us at a certain metro station, so we left Dan and Lisa pretty early which was a bit of a shame, but we got to have a bit of a walk around Red Square at night with them which was pretty cool.

Wednesday Ste and I went for a bit of a wonder around another part of Moscow we hadn't seen yet and just went for a massive long walk. We stopped of some pancakes (very popular all over Russia) I stuck to a sweet filling but they have a huge range of fillings including loads of savoury stuff. We came across some really nice sights, its good to have the guide book to help explain what everything is. When you enter the cathedrals the women have to cover their heads with a scarf or something so lucky I had a black pashmina which I could quickly wrap round. Dan and Lisa had told us about the restaurant called Moo Mood that was meant to be really cheap so we finished our walk around the city and decided to treat ourselves and eat at this restaurant. Luckily the menu on the window had some English translations and it seemed we could get some dinner for 2-3 pound. It was kinda canteen style but still a really nice restaurant. It all would have gone fine except once inside you had to tell them what dinner you wanted and we didn't have a clue, they had a menu but it was all in Russian so i pointed to the one I thought was the chicken and he was shaking his head saying none left, so we ended up just pointing at some dishes that looked nice and hoped for the best. Prices worked out a little more than we though, but still a pretty cheap dinner and it was nice to eat out somewhere as opposed to cooking some rubbish food in a hostel!

Our host Nataly was in town that night and text us asking if we wanted to meet for a drink, so we agreed and planned to meet her outside one of the metro stations. The night didn't turn out as we thought as she took us a on a massive walk for about an hour and half trying to find a bar that didnt have a charge to get in, after all this walking we were both thirsty for a nice beer and a wine, and she ended up taking us to a coffee house!! Don't think Ste was too impressed we had walked all around the city and ended up in the coffe house! It was nice though, bit pricey but nice. We went back to the flat after this and Nataly helped us look up some train times on the Russian Rail Website. Its so much easier as you can see how many seats are left and you can select which seats you want, this time we went plaskart again (3rd class) but went for 2 beds on the side so that we were on top of each other then theres no problems worrying about someone beneath you wanting to go to sleep or anything. Because we couldn't get a train till the Monday we decided to spend an extra night in Moscow, Nataly has said it fine to stay with her till then, and we were planning on spending the weekend in a little town called Suzdal before we get on our long train journey. We ended our day watching an episode of Scrubs Nataly had on her computer in english which was nice as we hadn't watched any TV in a while 😊

Thursday we hadn't really planned to do anything as we didn't know we were spending an extra night in Moscow, but Nataly had told us about a nice park/nature reserve place, just south of the centre thats really nice. So we got on the metro via an English Bookshop to grab a couple of books for our train journey. Im so glad we had this extra day to do something different and go out of the city for a bit. It was really beautilful around the river with a huge walkway surrounded by so many trees. It was a bit of a hike up to the top of the trees, wasn't long just really steep but once we were at the top it was worth as the view was amazing, you could see over the whole of Moscow. It was mad though as to our left you could see the rain clouds coming in and raining all over the centre, all the skyscraper buildings dissapeared, yet there was no rain above us, luckily!

We headed back to the flat for an earlish night in after our nice afternoon. We went to the supermarket and decided to buy beans on toast for our dinner, we both really faniced it and found a tin of heinz beans, grabbed somenice bread and some cheese. Got back to Natalys and she had cooked us dinner!! So the beans on toast went out the window and instead we had our first proper home cooked meal of chicken casserole and mash!!! Yummmmmmyyyy!!! It was really nice of her. We had a really nice evening in, caught up on some stuff on the internet, and her friend was round Tanya who made a huge Apple Pie which was quite tasty, so we got a little bit spoilt for our last day 😊

Friday morning we attempted to get up early as we were getting a bus to a Town called Vladimir where we were staying 1 night, to then get a bus the next morning to Suzdal, a pretty little town, but of course we didn't get up that early, rushed around to the bus station where our guide book said the busses leave every hour to Vladimir from outside the front of the station. So patiently we waitied, seemed to be a few other people also waiting. After an hour there was still no sign of any busses, we had tried to ask inside the station but no-one spoke any english and just pointed to where we had been standing. Eventually we asked some women standing nearby who said it was round the corner, we walked there and yes here were all the busses, we found our one to Vladimir and got on it. The book said the journey could be anywhere from 3-6 hours!! The bus was awful, hot and sweaty no air con and the weather outside was terrible, the rain was so heavy and lucky old me who likes to sit by the window had the leaky window!! But eventually our bus arrived, although it was little late in the day which pretty much left us no time to see Vladimir but it was so nice to be out of a main city!

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