Oh oh, Babuska Babuska - Moscow

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And so to the current Russian Capital, transport care of an overnight sleeper train, greeted at each carriage by a uniformed babuska. Our hopes of local banter hit a dead end when the two girls in our cabin spoke no English, and spent the night whispering to each other - they must have thought from the 4 words we knew in Russian (Yes, No, Thanks and Cheers!) that we were fluent.

Jumped on the underground - I cannot emphasize how good it is compared to the London, and the architecture puts Tottenham Court Road Station to shame! Other than having to count the stations and pretty much guess where to get on and off (The Russians have no intention of making this easy and everything is in cryllic) the journey was relatively simple.

Everything we have read about Russia stresses that you MUST get your Visa stamped otherwise you can get fined etc - well yet again this isnt easy when you are in hostels and we have been unable to get this done, add to the equation a two day national holiday in Russia and we have no hope - we're a bit nervous about what will happen when we hit the border.

This national holiday is to celebrate the end of WW2 has closed off Red Square for a big miltary parade. Moscow is full to the brim with the military and the police, talk about intimidating.

We had also read in our guide (this guide instills the fear in you, never reading anything by this author again!!!) that the police are the ones to watch out for as they request your passports and expect a bribe to give it back. Almost got caught by this, as two scary as hell police asked for ours! Luck would have it that a film crew were in the background and as soon as they noticed they threw them back at us. We did however spend the rest of our time here police dodging. One great place to hide ended up being a pub round the corner from Red Square, I as the only woman in there was starred at constantly - however the beer was cheap, dirt cheap, so we stayed for a few pints! Suddenly the police issue wasn't as daunting!

Luckily on last day here Red Square was opened as the parade finished, so after 3 metal detectors (tighter than Fort Knox this place!), in we went, at last!

We get on the Trans-Mongolian that night, so spend our last few minutes in Moscow searching for Vodka, beers and noodles. We have a bag full of chocolate, crisps, cheese and crackers so we won't starve for the next 6 days!

On a train for 6 days! What were we thinking!!!!

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