Aug 06

We have spent the last 10 days in Russia. We arrived Mosocw with no delays and were met at the Airport by our driver Dimitry - who preceeded to drive us at 100 mph (they drive like maniacs) across Moscow to our hotel which was comfortable enough. We had great fun getting used to the Moscow metro system which is truly huge - a maze of walkways which are daunting at first but once you get the hang of it its not too bad. Moscovites seem to spend half their time underground on the metro and in Subways because crossing the road is too risky! The most difficult thing is reading any signs, menus etc. as they use the Cyrllic alphabet, very confusing as by the time you have translated the word into the right letters you realise you have no idea what the word means!! Moscow was great, the Kremlin and Red Square were particularly impressive.

After three nights in Moscow we caught the train from Yaroslavsky station - well more of the end of several platforms than a station really, found the train with no problems really though apart from being screamed at by a paraletic tranvestite but you get used to these things!

Our journey took us 80 hours across 5000km of Siberia and we are officially now in Asia although still in Russia. The train was OK with a fairly comfy cabin and it stops periodically so you can get off and stretch your legs. During the journey various Russians attempt to sell you anything they can lay their hands on - fur hats, cardigans, sausages, berries from the forest, sweets and cakes - literally allsorts - but not a lot you would want to buy, they all seem pretty friendly though.

We have arrived now at a place called Irkutsk which is where I am writing from but we have just spent 3 nights in a village called Listvyanka which is about an hours drive away. We stayed with a Russian family, our main hostess being Margarita and she waited on us hand and foot, it is prbably a good job we didn't stay too long as I was starting to get rather comfortable there, the food being the highlight with amazing soups, cakes, salads and meat dishes.

The village was right next to Lake Baikal - the biggest lake in the world - which was beautiful and on the second day we went on a forest trek up the side of a mountain with a guy called Sasha. He was a great guide telling us about the forest and wildlife and all that. For lunch he built a fire and made sausage and mash by the side of the lake - unbelievable!!!

Tonight we catch the train to Ulan Bataar in Mongolia it will take us about 24 hours to get there. We have really enjoyed our stay in Russia and the people, especially in Siberia, have been very friendly. Not quite sure how I'm going to get pictures loaded onto this site yet but I'll try in the next couple of weeks.