Hi All,

Well we have had an intersting few days since i last wrote on my blog. Saw all the sights of Moscow which was really cool, including queing up to see Lenin which was really odd as he loked just like a waxwork model and it was so dark in there i nearly fell over and the guards scared the hell out of us coz they were so fierce!

After that we went to the Kremlin which was cool and there was a Cartier exhibition on so obviously had to take a look found there! Shame there wasnt a gift shop at the end but that would def have blown our whole budget! We met up with Rennys friends form home, Rhiannan and Fiona who were in Russia for 2 weeks and had a really fun night out.

We went for dinner and then to an Irish bar they had found. Met a few fun people in there and managed to get a gang of us to carry on drinking. Eventually ended up in Gogel, a really cool bar and sat about chatting and drinking far too much vodka! It wasd a fun night and met some guys who were living in Moscow teaching english adn another guy who was just traveling like us. It was really fun although i felt the pain the next day with a really nasty hangover! However despite the hangover we still made it to the Pushkin art gallery and looked round a really huge catherdral the next day which was cool.

On Thursday 7th June, we left Moscow heading for Nizhny Novgorod. Managed to get the train ok and it was only a few hours before we reached our destination. When we arrived there though at about 7pm we ahd to find some accomodation and it took ages to find tram no 1 which would go to the town centre. Eventually tracked it down and got on board only to be faced by a barrage of russian from the ticket lady. We kept pointing at the map and she kept speaking in Russian,which neither of us could understand! the tram took us to the town centre and the ticket lady even found a lady to walk us to the hotel which was so sweet! We arrived at the hotel but they only had expensive rooms left so the receptionist sent us a to a place down the road which had rooms for 450 roubles (cheap!)

We eventually found this palce and were met by even more russian laides who contiued to talk non stop in russian. We managed to get a room for 2 nights which was very cheap and the room was quite nice although the toilets and shower were discusting!! Nizhny Novogord was bigger than i thought it would be although practically the whole place was a building site (Thibault you can imagine how pleased i was!!) The weather has been really chilly adn my wardrobe of pretty summer skirts and tops are not holding out very well! I may have to go shopping tomorrow which is a real shame!

We left Nizhny Novgorod yesterday, after waiting at the station for hours waiting for our train. We were really confused about the timetable and what platform our train would be in and spent ages stressing about it, only to discover that it was called in English over the tannoy so we needn't have worried! Got our first night train which was actually really nice, although a little cramped. Shared our cabin with a lovely guy and his daughter who was very sweet. Had a 14 hour train ride to Perm which is where we arrived this afternoon.

Our arrival at Perm was really super easy and managed to find the tram and hotel very easily! We are staying in a basic room of a hotel which is very nice and central to the town. Lokking forward to exploring more tomorrow and want to hopefully check out Perm 36 an old soviet camp from the communist days.

Having some trouble getting the photos up but keep your eyes peeled as they will appear soon (i hope!) Right ive rambled on for ages! Hope you are all well back home

Miss and love you all lots
Sarahx x x x x x