Right guys, I've been meaning to do this for ages.

Metro systems have played a big part in our travelling (less so now but hey) as we've used them in Moscow, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney and Buenos Aires and I feel they show a glimpse of the country's (or city's) culture and psyche.

We started in Moscow where the Metro is truly stunning. Probably the deepest undergound out of all of them (means it's warm) and pretty old too it had trains every couple of minutes but that wasn't even the best part of it. The stations were so ornate, full of chandeliers (see picture), pictures of Lenin, murals and the like. We even went on a trip to see the 'prettiest' stations. In showed the Russian appreciation for art and architecture, the emphasis on religion and what seemed to us to be just random beauty in an otherwise grey country. This is all evident throughout the country alongside the Soviet tower blocks which are still reminders of the time of Lenin. It's incredible how seemingly idolised he still is.

So Moscow was a good start, one of the best; quickest, could get anywhere and lovely stations. It was also very cheap with the good feature of only having to buy one ticket and then being able to swap lines as much as you wanted, London should pick it up. Interesting fact that the Moscow underground is used by more people every day than London and New York combined but it managed not to be too busy because of the frequency of the trains.

In comparision the Chinese systems were a different world. Modern, as you would expect, Beijing's had been updated for the Olympics with all the signs in English. The Olympics were China's (and Beijing's) chance to show themselves to the world and you can sense that they were eager to impress, almost dominate with their ambition and drive. Unfortunately we were slightly disappointed by Chinese etiquette - now, queueing is a very British thing and the Chinese seem to kind of give the pretense of queueing. There were specific lines for where the doors would open and therefore places where queues formed, however, when the train actually arrived all that was lost and it was a mad dash for the busy train. Somehow doesn't match with the Chinese culture as a nation of kind, friendly people, maybe they were just fed up with not making it to work on time!

Shanghai was much the same as Beijing, efficient and on time but somehow less useful with stations located further from places and still relatively long waits between trains - about 10mins to Moscow's 2. It was a bit more 'suit' orientated which I suppose reflects the more business-y element of Shanghai.

Throughout China their focus on security was evident. Before you got into the station proper you would have your bags scanned. Now you think this would be a hassle but being China it seemed crazily efficient (sometimes we seemed like the only ones complying, maybe it was something to do with size of bag) and didn't really hold us up much - apart from when we had our huge rucksacks. It showed how big the governement is in China, these security officials were in every station, the amount of people employed in some official capacity was huge with hundreds of street cleaners and of course general security. Slightly scary now I think about it but at the time seemed like a good idea and we thought; why doesnt't London have something similar? Probably would be uproar. Noone complains in China.

Hong Kong must have one of the best transport systems in the world. Consider the fact that it's a collection of islands and you marvel even more. We arrived by plane, and I know this isn't strictly metro but it deserves a mention, it was so easy to get from the airport on Lantau (if I remember correctly) to Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The airport express train was so close to the arrivals and the trains were very frequent, zipped into the city in beautiful comfort. The metro system was an odd one with one direction being above the other one but it was very efficient. Generally in Hong Kong there were very useful walkways above the roads which connected the stations to just about everything.

Sydney was a bit bog standard really. Felt just like Britain when we arrived, expensive and a bit more trainy than super fast metro. We didn't use it that much but it seemed nice enough. Instantly knew we were back in a similar culture.

Buenos Aires, the metro that was so much like the country it was in, liked doing it's own thing. Good fun though, the stations were in useful places and it was a really extensive network which we used loads to get to volunteering and around the town. It is so different to the metro system of somewhere like Hong Kong, old fashioned rickety, battered trains which clunk along at their own pace and don't seem to have much of a timetable, which mirrored the culture of South America where lateness is the norm (if not expected!)

I also witnessed an impressive (if a robbery can be impressive?) robbery in which the thief waited until the train was just about to leave the station before leaping in through the open window - the trains were slightly lower than the platform - grabbing a woman's ipod and disappearing away along the platform. Scary stuff!

Also why go shopping when you can buy plenty of random stuff from the comfort of your own seat? Another unique BA metro feature. There were people selling; tissues, socks, sim cards, memory sticks, sweets, chocolate, cds, dvds and our personal favourite; a driving theory booklet! All these salespeople were very trusting and would put their wares on your lap to give you a chance to examine it before returning later to collect them or the money. Interesting cultural practice.

We even had the occasional treat of entertainment, we had jugglers and bands, sometimes squeezing into the gap between the seats.

There was of course the other side of South America, the poverty manifested itself on the metro system through the beggars. There wasn't that many of them but enough that they formed an underlying presence. They were always there and it was easy to not notice them but it became weird if one day they weren't there. Many of them had disabilities or in the saddest cases were young children. What was noticeable was that the poor people in BA have so little that the people who have anything, even if it is not much in western standards, give what they can because chances are someone they know is in exactly the same situation, if they weren't themselves in the past.

So there you go, metro systems of the world, fair to say we've enjoyed the experiences that each of them has given us. Hope this is at best a bit interesting but even if not it's been fun to go over it for us.

Joe and Briony x