Moscow and the Partisans

So an overnight train from rainy Warsaw dropped us in rainy Moscow.  Our carriage was compact but private with bunk beds and our own sink.  At the station in Warsaw there were no announcements (that we could understand) and the departure boards on the platform were blank even though there was no sign of our train at the appointed time.  We stood in the rain and waited, trying to ask a few Poles what was going on without success - in fact two Polish people tried to ask me what was going on so it was obvious no-one knew.  Anyway it rolled up eventually and we settled in for the journey.  At the border with Belarus the border guards and customs all got on but it was mercifully straightforward, none of them spoke English but we got by with a bit of German.  The customs lady asked me what I had in my bag and I said "Kleidung" (clothing) - the first and only true descriptive word in my vocabulary for what was in the bag.  I think she realised progressing this conversation would be fairly fruitless and fortunately dropped it!

After border control some ladies entered the train selling beer and food. Delighted to find they accepted payment in Euro coins - which would have been otherwise worthless to us.  We had some potato cakes and two beers for 4 euros (about GBP3.50).

Strangely there was no border control at the Russian border - they obviously still consider Belarus part of the same country - they should try telling that to the visa processors in the UK!)

Arrived in rainy, damp, cold Moscow.  I think in another month the weather might be warm but it was still chilly and damp for us.  Were met by Intourist (our organising agent) and driven to our hotel through traffic alternating between static and manic.  Very frightening.  There seem to be no rules of the road - parking is as a matter of course double parking, lane discipline is non existent, red light behaviour is flexible and there certainly seem to be no speed limits.

The hotel is massive - 28 storeys - and very pleasant.  Quite upmarket actually and to my delight I saw there was no plug in the sink so I got to use my halved tennis ball specifically cut in two with the breadknife (sorry Mum and Dad) for this purpose!

Red Square and especially St Basil's Cathedral is stunning, it looks so fresh in both design and construction, it's incredible to think it was built in the 1500s.  The Kremlin is massive and contains several impressive cathedrals, each with gold (real gold perhaps?) painted domes.  Would love to upload photos - but once again no USB port.

There are many British people in the city on account of the Champions League final which we gather Man U won.  Their behaviour, apparently, has been excellent for once.  Bit of a contrast to what happened in Manchester the other week.  Many people seem to speak a smattering of English but it's amazing how much you can communicate with sign language.  We bought cyrillic maps of Russia in a map shop we stumbled across which I am very excited about - maps are my usual souvenir purchase and I know (from the itemising I had to do for the shipping company) that I have over 50 already which are being shipped from NZ.

Travelling on the metro is both challenging and interesting.  All the stations are written only in Cyrillic script, but the main problem is that you can't see the name of the station from the train.  So the only way you know where to get off (unless you can understand the spoken announcement) is by memorising the number of stops from your first station.  This failed the first time, but after that we mostly just followed the crowds.

We are just about to go to Moscow Yaroslavsky Station to board the Trans-Siberian railway to Irkutsk.  We are both excited and pleased to be leaving.  Moscow is impressive but tramping around in the rain for two days is pretty tiring.  I must say though, that Moscow has been refreshingly hassle free.  The metro (barring language problems) is simple to use, we have had no hassle from ticket touts, pickpockets or beggars whatsoever, and many people have helped us out when we needed it.  Our only complaint would be that the KGB museum was closed.  Steve was really looking forward to going and we walked around for an hour looking for it before we discovered that it had closed without warning.

Next stop: Siberia!