The image is pretty much our view when we walk out of our hotel! Cool huh?! Yeh we're right next to Red Square, with a great view of St Basils. We arrived at like 8am this morning via the overnight 'sleeper' train. What a night! We shared our 4 bed cabin with 2 English speaking Indian women, one who snored very loudly opposite me on the bottom bunk and the other that continuosly got down through the night and kept leaving our door open. To be fair they werent too bad. Myles' main annoyance with them was that the one opposite him kept coughing without putting her hand over her mouth. Sounds maybe not too bad now, but they were very small cabins so perhaps he has a point, esp as hes in our room now not feeling too perky. That also ay be due to the orange juice we had earlier that went off a few days ago. Ah well... So yeh... today we were met by our guide Lana and driver, Vladimir at thestation which was jolly nice. Especially as we had like an hr sleep tops and were feeling very out of it. We had a walk around Red Square looking at all the places we'll go to in the coming days and then we hopped in the car for a city tour. At one of our stops we saw Moscow Uni which M was very impressed with and the Luzhniki stadium where the ice skating is gonna be held. Cant wait till tomorrow night, its pairs short programme! Theres some really good couples so itll be a good competition. I havent skated yet, but Lanas gonna take us to one of the cities main rinks soon. After quite a long rest (Myles had no sleep at all on the train) we went out to see the pancake festival outside the Kremlin walls. Its the last day before Russians give up all yummy food like pancakes before lent so they have a big tradition of celebrating today and also having a straw women in a dress burnt, think similar to Guy Fawkes, not sure of the logic though! Anyway, yes back to this fair/festival of sorts. There were LOADS of armed guards. Hundreds. The Rusians are very parinoid! There were quite a few in a long line around St Basils, and loads at every entrabce way. There was also metal detectors at the entrance that everyone had to go through. There were some fun games going on, people attempting to walk about on stilts, heaps of balloons everywhere(which seemed so much moire fun than usual as they were Russian) some jolly but strange Russian singers on a big stage and yeh...massive lines for pancakes! Myles and I waited in one for 10 mins or so, but as we hadnt moved at all, gave up. We then went to GUM department store, famous for nice building and high prices. But was quite nice. Loads of people there whod had enough of the fair. I found a fun hat that is warmer than my original, and not made of some poor animal, so thats a bonus. (Russians are seriously into their fur, especially mink) Myles discovered a cafe selling larde slices of pizza, so we had a delicious dinner-Im really gonna miss normal food! Oh on our city tour, where we stopped to see the view of the stadium, uni etc, we saw people ski-ing down the slopes! This is like central Moscow! Yeh btw still lots of snow around even though temps have heated up to -1oC. (Moscows always warmer than St P as further south) I also saw people ski-ing around on the outskirts of St P. Really bizzare. Guess is a quicker way to travel mind you. The Rossiya, the hotel we're in at the mo is absolutely massive! It has like 5 thousdand rooms or something rediculous. Lana told us it is being teared down next year, which filled us with hope as we approached it for the first time! But is quite nice. We've got over the green watre, which seems to be a Russian theme. The last few days in St P were great. On our last day we went to Catherines Palace (a.k.a Tsaskoye Selo) and another palace that wasnt quite as fun, Pavlovsk or something. Paul I lived there (Catherine the Greats son). Yeh Catherines Palace was beautiful. Also as was on outskirts of the city the snow was lovely and soft looking. Glistening in the sun. (in city very sludgy) Snow everywhere. It was like a winter wonderland. We had lunch in this dinky restaurant that only had 4 tables. Is a renovated part of where the body guards used to live. Thats where we had our russian soup and other strange bits and pieces. Anna showed me her Mongolian pics, she brought like 300 of them, so became a tad tediuos towards the end. Also made me feel quite scared about going. Dawning on me how hard it might be. Language barrier and all. Anna had 4 years of studying Mongolian under her belt before spending a year there. Ooooh getting nervous again. Well no turning back now I guess.... Until next time! xxxx PS Thanks for your messages-especially mum! Am shell shocked you managed it to be honest. Well done you :) hehe