14th September 2007

Moscow - we arrive on the train, the night train from Riga Latvia.

Getting in Russia was long in every way, getting the visa in Prague and getting across the border, lots of checks the night before. Luckily we were in a great train, on the hard sleepers where it
all gets very personal and you get to know your neighbours. Scowls, inquisitive or suspicious glances turned into smiles and sharing cake. We met a whole heap of Latvians and Russians.

And a common theme arose from our chats on the train.... this trip our extended holiday - just how lucky we are to be able to take time out! Russians need to queue and spend a day waiting to get a
two week visa for Latvia and get the same kind of paper checking and questions that we do when they come home to Russia. It does not appear to be an easy task to take time off.

We began entering Moscow at maybe 10:30am and got to our station in the centre at 12:30pm - we are made aware of the size of the city - huge and yes pretty grim, grey, tower blocked kind of
place.

My anticipation was high energy, I was thinking what will it be like in the big smoke? ...so many images, written text have depicted Moscow to me over my life time, I am excited about
seeing what it is all about.

Our entrance in the Moscow metro system was lovely,we had help, we have so much help from strangers on this trip. Cyrillic loomed large everywhere, we had met a great girl called Victoria (one of
the few people we met who spoke any English). She said she would show us where the metro station was, and come someway on the journey. It would have taken us hours to find the metro without her.
Instead it was a smooth 5 minutes and then we were on the platform. We had got a map before hand so we were able to navigate ourselves after that nice welcome to Moscow.

The metro trip, we are sitting ducks or slouched snails...when ever we move from place to place we are so slow and vulnerable with our huge bags. We have had some funny and some plain annoying
encounters with our packs on front and back.

Comparatively, I compare it to the London underground on a really bad day... I got well and truly brutally battered on the Moscow metro by ruthless commuters who we decided do like to aim for non
russian targets. So much so Vladimir, Victoria's husband told them off with a fist in the air and I tried to be brave, as brave as a snail can be! Hello Moscow!

It is like any other big city. It is rough and a bit abrupt to strangers visiting but I have to say it did fulfil my preconceptions to a large degree and more. Andrew and I have been trying to
keep pragmatic and objective and remember it is a big city and we have been in small places for 2 months. So we did expect a shock, but it was hard work in Moscow. What do I mean by
that? Of course we decided to visit, although we HAD to be officially invited, that is ironic as it is quite clear most Muscovites would prefer the foreigners not to be there. You don't
go to visit a place and expect the locals to all raise their arms in joy and say, "Yeah, great to see you!", but it is a bit of a culture shock to feel that you are actually getting the opposite
experience a lot of the time. The general atmosphere was harsh and the systems we needed to use to get train tickets, a cup of tea ( russian tea is ace when you get it) , the toilet, the internet
(state post office) was excruciating, laborious, confusing, soul sapping and it was not just the language barrier it was much more...

We frequently got in the way of many black windowed cars, whose drivers aimed for us on the road, and on the pavement, "Wanna-be high flyers" shouldered us, buzzing on the new found economic
growth.

Money, Gold, Cars, Bling is rife...

To be honest, I was going to find it hard because there is nowhere cheap and yummy to eat.. The history of the local cafe does not exist. We trawled for many days looking for a decent eatery. We
did find a fantastic Georgian restaurant for one great dinner for which we were very grateful. But really...for example, the Lonely Planet only came up with a couple of pseudo-western places (no
russian places). Everyone still eats at home unless they are loaded. We walked and looked for so long, so hungry we were, in the grey wet of Moscow September. People already had bobble hats on!! This
really is an admission, but might illustrate our desperation... we went to Mac Donalds twice...and were Thankful! And so were the locals judging by the length of the queues inside and out.

There are a lot of stark contrasts in Moscow and in Russia generally. People really are trying hard to feed families and have decent homes. Others are stamping down the street in breathtakingly
high social climbing spiked heels. The higher the spikier the better...! Money, Power and Beauty seem to matter to many. The capitalist dream is thriving. Hey there is nothing wrong with aspiring for
a better, easier life. I come from a place full of that kind of greed and ambition. I have been reminded frequently that I know I would not be doing this trip or seeing Moscow or anywhere else, if I
had not been born in the UK. It is just that the general atmosphere was difficult and in some way it felt like Russia may swiftly follow capitalism through to a strange and new future - not sure what
that means right now...

There are lots of helpful, friendly people, but so many that we surmised hear little or distorted infomation about other countries!

We stayed at a home stay flat on the sixth floor of a tower block close to red square, basic plumbing and nothing to steal. However every flat we saw had a door made of metal which was about 20
centimetres thick with 3 locks. They were always tastefully hidden under leatherette padding to give it a cosy look internally. Crime is high even when there is very little to steal.

I / we are glad that we spent some time there. Andrew said it has changed so much since he was last there and I was well aware that it was my first visit to the largest country with the largest
capital. It has been historically in political opposition to the west for some time. It felt strange. A really interesting culture shock for me!

As you know, we walked a lot and took in the sights (while searching for food). Moscow has the red sqaure at the centre of things and the rest of the city reaches out like the rays of the sun.
Huge four lane roads and subterranean shopping malls and pedestrian walk -ways. The centre is small in comparison to the huge suburbs we came through on the train.

For us it was an eye opening, interesting, challenging city. We found it a valuable experience with good beer and lots of lovely shiny golden turretted churches.

Next chapter the train to Kazakstan, Almaty - 4 nights....!