The Journey

I've been in russia for roughly around 2 weeks now so I thought I might aswell get around to writing some of it down and letting people know what i've been up to. Hopefully you all like it and i'll try to keep it as interesting as possible!! Also, apologies for the slightly pretentious title, apparently its a russian saying because the roads are pretty much awful!

The trip started at a snails pace, going down to heathrow for midnight for a flight at 6 in the morning. We ate near Heathrow in a place full of very rowded pensioners who were getting a bit lairy by the end of the night celebrating their mates 75th birthday. I had 6 hours to kill in terminal 1, thank god costa coffee was open at this point. Some people in england were still awake at this point and throughout the night filling me in with some interesting details about their nights (you know who you are).....

We travelled down to Perm over 2 days via moscow and vienna. The major part of the journey was getting a 20 hour train journey from moscow to perm. When we arrived in Moscow we really didnt know what to expect at all. After managing to successfully fend off a gaggle of braying taxi drivers in Domodedovo aiport we reached our train and set off on the first russian stage of the journey.

The metro stations in moscow are decked out like palaces for some unknown reason, adds a little bit of class to your journey as you walk underneath the marbled ceilings and chandeliers, something that might not fit on the circle line. So far, so good, we hadnt been mugged, kidnapped or attacked, the day was going as planned. Once we reached the actual train station we had to exchange our passes for a ticket for the trans-manchurian train (final stop - Beijing). This presented a slight problem and my conversation with the ticket woman mainly consisted of shrugs and embarrassed silences as a large, possibly slightly irritated, queue began to form behind us.

Eventually, we arrived into our luxurious train apartment for '4', very small people. Sleeping through most of the night we woke up to find ourselves travelling through the russian wilderness past tiny little rustic villages with wooden houses and farmyard animals. We decided to wander down the train to the restaurant car. At this point, being russian novices we opted for a russian Baltika 7 beer rather than your standard vodka. Although this didnt stop the guy next to us hitting it hard at midday, alone with his vodka and bread, pretty much standard.

After 20 hours of awkwardly sidling past people in cramped corridors and attempting terrible photography from a moving vehicle we arrived in Perm! Now we just had to find our guide who was waiting for us and we were there, Ничего!!(no problem!)

I've got a couple of days free time at the moment so expect more soon!