Our first experience of Moscow, besides the endless lights of apartment blocks seen from the plane, was a long, unmoving queue at passport control. We soon understood why the Russians immediately ran to be first out of the plane as soon as the wheels hit the tarmac. A short eternity later, and we found ourselves on a train into central Moscow. We then took the metro to our hostel, stopping to appreciate the interiors of the metro stations which had been ripped f...