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