Trans-Mongolian adventures continued

To continue my long-overdue update... on to Moscow:

The last morning of our train trip and the scenery gradually changed from trees and snow to suburbs, and eventually the city - and then we were in Moscow! It was all very exciting to finally hit the end of the Trans-Mongolian after such a long trip. There was a slight stuff up at the railway station - the local guide from VodkaTrain who was supposed to meet us was nowhere to be found, so eventually we decided to brave the metro and make our own way to the hotel. A little challenging given our limited Russian language skills, and an alphabet that seems like some crazy code, but we somehow navigated it quite successfully. We eventually met up with our guide, and then for the next three days we set a feverish pace as we soaked up as much of Moscow as time would allow!

Moscow is a great city - the architecture is incredible, there's a real buzz as you're walking around, it's quite a happening, modern and stylish place (oh, and the women are unbelievably hot - I mean, I knew they would be, but it's actually quite ridiculous how stunning they are).

We did a lot in Moscow, but rather than go on forever, here are a few highlights:

• The Red Square - gorgeous (especially at night when St Basil's cathedral, with all it's crazy colours and ornate towers lit up).
• The mausoleum of Lenin, with Lenin's preserved body on display for both tourists and Muscovites to appreciate (ok - it was a tad creepy, and for some reason all I could think of was the Russian version of Weekend at Bernie's...)
• The Kremlin - an amazing complex that's pretty much a huge museum - the armoury building was quite cool with a great collection of everything to do with Moscow's history - lots of treasures, art, clothes etc.
• The Sculptures park, which is a sort of graveyard for all the statues that once took pride of place in Moscow streets in the communist days - it's pretty cool to see all these amazing sculptures, some of which are massive, just put out to pasture.
• The Metro stations are amazing - easily the most impressive I've ever seen. For starters, they are quite deep underground (the metro system was built to double as an elaborate bomb shelter). The most impressive thing however is the fact that each station is a work of art - with ornate ceilings and elaborate decorations - and each is in its own style. One had mosaic tiles, another had fancy chandeliers, another had heaps of sculptures. The metro is also quite crazy, always a sea of people (it's estimated that 11,000,000 people use the metro system each day).
• I braved a Russian sauna, which was quite an experience - it's a massive complex where heaps of Russian guys hang around, steam it up in an insanely hot sauna, occasionally run out and take a dip in a freezing swimming pool, and go back in the sauna to hit each other with big tree branches called banyas - very weird, but a very Moscow thing to do... apparently.
• Arbat Road is the place to go for souvenir shopping - everything from babooshka dolls and USSR t-shirts to soviet hats and cosmonaut outfits.
• And the food is amazing - a lot more exciting than I imagined. Pancakes are great, and the meat dishes are amazing. We also sampled a bit of the local vodka - it's pretty harsh, and it's no wonder beer is actually considered a soft drink there!
• Russian drivers are crazy and stop for nobody - yet another city where crossing the road can be an amazing adventure in itself!

Anyhow, that's a quick rundown of Moscow. We had a very comfy overnight train to get to St Petersburg, where we've been for the last two-and-a-half days, and again we've made the most of it - done a lot of walking and seen quite a bit of this city. A bit of a contrast to the crazy, frantic pace of Moscow.

For the St Petersburg update, I thought I'd get Steph to write the entry - her favourite book at the moment is set in St Petersburg during the war, so she was especially excited about coming here to see all the places mentioned here. So... go for it Steph:


So, the last stop on our Trans Mongolian journey was St Petersburg,Russia...a fabulous place to end a fabulous journey!

The 'Burg' as Daniel likes to call it is an absolutely beautiful city - itis made up of about 5 or 6 islands all connected by these amazing old stylebridges, which apparently are quite a spectacle when they open up during thenights in Summer. The brigdes cross the Neva river which runs right throughthe heart of the city. It is almost completely frozen at the moment which looks amazing...we even saw a few people ice fishing the other day and also saw one very brave man skinny dipping in the middle of the city...only inRussia!!

We visited the Hermitage museum yesterday which has got to be one of the highlights of the trip. Not only is the art amazing, but the building itself is something which has to be seen to be believed - the princess wholived there, Princess Catherine, spared absolutely no expense on this place- everything is covered in a layer of gold and the ball rooms - wow...I have never seen anything like it! I was absolutely speechless through the wholetour!

Today we went and visited another very different museum - the museum ofAnthropolgy which was created by Peter the Great. He had a very biginterest in 'freaky' things! He put together a huge collection of deformed babies and children...the story goes that he collected them for scientificpurposes as in those days people with deformities where believed to bepossesed by the devil. He wanted to prove them all wrong by providingscientific explanations for them, hence the huge collection of very weird stuff! I won't go into detail as it is all really very weird, but just togive you an idea, there were things like two headed babies, babies with abnormal growths, extra limbs etc...it really was very surreal!

We have done a whole heap of walking around the city - although very large, Nevsky Prospekt is a very chique street where the Russian women love to prance up and down in in their gorgeous clothes...a very good people watching street! The Nevsky leads up to the Hermitage and the Admiralty building where the Bronze Horseman sits on the banks of the Neva river - it is a very impressive statue of Peter the Great and even more impressive in my mind as i have just finished reading a book entitled the Bronze Horseman! Big highlight of the trip for me!

We had an fanastic time here although i don't think 2 days was anywhere nearlong enough. I am very keen to visit again during Summer for the WhiteNight festival which all the locals rave about!


Cool. Well, now it's on to Prague for a week (got a flight first thing in the morning) where hopefully we can take the foot of the gas and relax a little bit. Looking forward to heading back to Prague, but can't believe this amazing trip's coming so close to the end.

I have heaps of great photos, but I haven't found an Internet cafe that will let me easily upload them, but hopefully I can get a few posted in the near future!

Hope everyone's still enjoying this blog, and hope all's well with everyone back home. Take care, and bye for now!