Moscow: Back in the U.S.S.R.

I've got a funny feeling that over the next few months our photo and anecdote collection will increase massively. So I have decided to attempt to write a daily post in order to make life slightly easier and not spend hours one day slogging out a huge post. It may be every other day though. I will try and keep this up but we'll see how we go. There will be times, like on the Trans-Mongolian railway, when we don't have wifi but I'll just have to catch up.

We had our flight direct to Moscow from Corfu booked up before anything else for this trip. We were up bright and early for the 7 o'clock departure. It was a nice surprise to be given a free breakfast on a flight for once but we didn't really fancy the Spinach and Feta pie at that time of the morning. One thing we have noticed after 5 flights in 3 weeks is the large amount of people who use there phone during take off and landing, despite the constant requests from airlines not to. Just turn them off for 5 minutes for goodness sake!! Anyway, by the time my mum was heading to work at 8am in the UK we were safely landed in Moscow, excited yet apprehensive. After receiving some dodgy looks and stiff questioning from passport control (I think it was the beard) we had our visas stamped and we're off into Russia. Eventually, after avoiding the thousands of taxi drivers looking to rip us off, we found the unsignposted railway station to catch the train into Moscow. An hour later we were in the Metro, which is huge and rather ornate for what it is. Also, every sign is in Russian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet, not the easiest thing in the world to decipher, particularly when your carrying 2 backpacks, a winter jacket and scared every other person might rob you. So we had to translate "Павелецкий вокзал" for example, which is just nowhere near what it is in English, "Paveletsky Station". We made it eventually though and emerged into the warm Moscow sunshine. After more struggle finding our unsignposted (again!!) hostel, we were grateful to get our backpacks off and relax. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and eating.

We didn't rush out of bed on our first full day (when do we) and it was a pleasant surprise when the receptionist came in the room and asked us what we wanted to eat as we had breakfast included in our rate. She cooked us up some French toast! Who says the Russians don't do hospitality (I'm not sure that anyone does, actually). We can't fault the people at our hostel, not only with the breakfast but the receptionist also wrote down some medicine for Charlotte's cold in Russian so we could pick some up from a pharmacist.

First port of call for the day was to pick up our Trans-Mongolian train tickets from an office somewhere in Moscow. We hopped on the Metro and after figuring out the stations, made it quite easily. The pick up went smoothly with the only disappointment being that no meals are included with out tickets but that may have been our fault when ordering them. However, thanks to Charlotte's mum we do have more Cous Cous sachets than you can shake Ainsley Harriott at, so we are well prepared.

With that job jobbed we stopped by the hostel to drop the tickets off and headed out for some much deserved sightseeing. We followed the route the receptionist had drawn on our map for us. Down a main road, right through a pedtrianised street that was full of vendors and then left onto an 8 lane motorway right in the centre of the city (only in Russia). This brought us right opposite the walls of the Kremlin. With no obvious entrance we hunted down a small alleyway through some buildings and came out onto a wide pedestrianised road. We picked up the pace as we had a funny feeling where we were going to end up. Low and behold we came right out onto Red Square, the imposing walls of the Kremlin along one side, the state historical museum at one end and at the other, looking spectacular in the afternoon sun, St.Basil's Cathedral. It really is a sight to behold, more impressive than any photo can show. The domes are so colourful and patterned that they look like edible lollipops you could just snap off and enjoy. We crossed the square, past the large amount of tourists taking selfies and photos, and snapped some for our own personal collection. Now we're getting further from home we are keen to do more than we have been, like pay entrance fees, so we headed straight for the cathedrals ticket office and paid for our ticket, quite reasonable at about £3.50. We walked through the heavily guarded door and into the gloom. We had put off going in cathedrals like this in Estonia and Latvia to really appreciate this one. It wasn't really what we were expecting. Rather than a large open hall with an organ and rows of seats, we walked through a series of dimly lit, small chambers that were filled with historic religious items. It was impressive but we just expected something grander than the pokey little rooms. We wandered around for half an hour or so and then reached the exit, deciding to avoid the gift shop, we headed out.

With 3 full days still to explore, we had a quick nose around some food stalls and picked up a snack, then decided to head back home before the sun set. We didn't feel unsafe but Moscow doesn't have a reputation for being the safest city in the world.

James and Charlotte

Paxos: A holiday from our holiday

This will be a very brief paragraph as I don't want to bore everyone with "we sat by the pool, went in the pool, sunbathed, rinse and repeat".

But we did have a lovely relaxing week, despite the fact Charlotte and I were ill for most of it. We enjoyed seeing and spending time with Charlotte's mum, dad and brother. Had a lovely time on Cat and Ali's wedding day (boy was it a hot one). We were thrilled to see Charlotte's grandparents out for the occasion and I promised I would thank Peter for his sweets and give a mention to Gillian and her trusty hat.

And that was pretty much that. After a brief stop back in Corfu with Donna and Paul, we parted ways (with a tear or 2 shed) and started on the next leg of the journey, the big one!

First stop, that little known place called Moscow.

James and Charlotte

Athens: Back on track

After a long sleepless night spent in Gatwick Airport, we were grateful to get on the plane to Athens and sneak a few minutes sleep. It was an odd feeling to be back on the road after having been to the UK. We hopped on the metro and made our way into the city, keeping a firm hand on our bags, as we'd read that Athens is overflowing with pickpockets. The other shock was going back to the heat of mainland Europe, which seemed so much worse after the cool weather of our previous week or so. We eventually found our hostel tucked down a grimy side street off one of the main squares of the city, Monastiraki Square. First impressions of the city weren't great, graffiti was absolutely everywhere, you put your life at risk crossing the road, it was filthy and the large crowds made you constantly worry about anything in your pocket.

After a brief wait to check in we made it up to our room, which for a 6 bed dorm was very spacious, had air con which is always appreciated and even a balcony with a fantastic view across the rooftops of the city towards the Acropolis. Just as we entered the room, a "roomie" was just switching beds to a bunk with 2 spare beds. We did ask if we could have it as we were a couple and she was already settled into her original bunk but she just wasn't having it. We made do with what we could get but she then preceded to hang all her clothes from the bed above hers, which was Charlotte's. We weren't impressed and told her she will have to take them down. After all this fuss she disappeared. We were absolutely exhausted from our travels over the past 2 days so had a nap to try and get some energy. This was an amateur mistake, as we woke up feeling worse than when we had gone to sleep. We went out into the chaos to find the supermarket for some dinner, picking up a pizza for ease. After eating we were heading back up to our room and passed our beloved roommate, who kindly informed us that she had switched rooms, result!

After 10 hours sleep each, we still weren't feeling great and had missed out on the free breakfast and the free walking tour. Oh well, we had a supply of brekkie bars to eat anyway. We decided to wander the streets for a little while to see what we could find, wanting to leave the Acropolis for a later day. After a couple of hours, we hadn't found much, plenty of ruins tucked inbetween the houses and a long pedestrianised shopping street leading to Syntagma Square, where the majority of the political protests have taken place in the city. We stopped along Ermou Street (the shopping one) and got a Koulouri each, which was sort of a pretzel/bagel with sea same seeds on top. Ours were a little bit dry, so they are probably best eaten freshly made. Still exhausted, we found a different supermarket to kill some time and returned to the hostel to eat and crash out.

How 2 hours time difference can cause such a problem I don't know but we were struggling to get to grips with the change. We woke up late again and still had no real will to get out and explore. Instead, we decided to do some chores. First up was the JR rail pass, which we'd need to travel on trains at a reasonable price when we get to Japan. We hunted down the travel agents required but had stupidly forgotten our passports, so ran back to grab them, not easy in flip flops! Once that was sorted and a large amount of money had been handed over we went back to hostel with the most expensive slips of paper ever. We decided to grab some famous Greek food for lunch and found a corner cafe and ordered ourselves a Souvlaki search, which is meat, veg, chips and sauce all wrapped up in a pita. It was filling and very tasty and an absolute bargain at only 2 euros each. With lunch sorted, we ploughed through the left over things we needed to book up for the remainder of our trip, all the way up to our flight from Australia to New Zealand. With only a couple of things left over, we were pretty pleased with our days work and still had enough time to recommend Brighton as a place to visit, to a couple of girls staying in London for a month. We relaxed with a disappointingly warm Greek beer on our balcony and enjoyed the view before trying to get our energy back for the next day.

Finally we awoke refreshed and ready to roll, albeit on our last day in the city. We made for the Acropolis of Athens, perched atop its hill overlooking the city. Despite looking rather high up from our distance it was a really easy stroll to the entrance and was quite quiet for a Saturday morning. We shelled out the extortionate fee of €12 each to go in despite our lack of cash on that day. The most famous building of the Acropolis is the Parthenon, which was constructed in 438BC but was partially destroyed in a war with the Ventians. Now, it's being selectively restored and is made to look resplendent covered in its scaffolding. Despite those lovely additions it was a great looking building, probably more impressive from afar than right up close. There are a few more buildings up there which, unfortunately we didn't catch the names of. The hill also provides a great panoramic view of the whole city of Athens, with it's sun faded buildings stretching far into the hills around. It was a scorching day and we were absolutely drenched with sweat but we were back in a groove and enjoying the sightseeing. After enjoying the views we sheltered in the shade  to cool off. A quick pit stop back at our room and we headed in the direction of Adrionou Street, which is the centre of all the souvenir shops and tourist trap restaurants in the city. Here, we managed to find a couple of suitable pin badges which had eluded us the previous couple of days and Charlotte also picked up something special for her brother as she missed his birthday (a photograph will follow!). Finally, we had an early dinner as we'd missed lunch. We went against tradition and decided to eat out again, finding a small restaurant in a graffiti covered square near our hostel. We enjoyed a cold beer and a huge dish, similar to the souvlaki we'd had the previous day, which was gyros pork with veg and tzatziki in a pita with chips and cheese on top. It was really good and so much it filled us up for the rest of the night. After warily watching the cats circle for a while we eventually got the waiters attention, paid the bill, wolfed down our free cake and scarpered before we became cat food.

And with that, that was Athens. It took a while for us to get back into the swing of things after the mayhem of the previous week. Despite our initial dislike of the city, it did grow on us both by the time we came to leave, even the graffiti and the killer cats! To finish our day, we enjoyed a Frappe (iced coffee) on the rooftop terrace of our hostel, as apparently they were invented in Greece.

With Europe almost at an end, we come to, what I think, is a hard earned holiday from our holiday. Off to the Greek island of Paxos for a week to relax by the pool (with our Minnie Mouse beach ball purchased from the pound shop in the St.James centre in Edinburgh), enjoy the sun and celebrate the wedding of Charlotte's cousin Catherine to her fiancé Ali.

James and Charlotte