Best Eastern Vega Hotel Moscow

... said Moscow was expensive "they" were not exagerating, for 2 nights we've cooked our own meal in the hostel and washed it down with 50p beers from the supermarket.<br><br>So for 200 pounds each we now have our trans-sib train tickets all the way to Irkutsk. So one more night in our comfortable dorm beds tonight before we brave the train, so if I don't post tomorrow the next won't be until Saturday. <br><br>Do svidaniya! x<br><br><br><br><br><br><br>

... my phone getting footy updates and Tom read his book. Line marking here is merely a suggestion to the drivers, road signs are ignored and it is every man for himself!<br><br>We passed hundreds of decrepid multi storey buildings... looked like they were falling down, can't imagine living in them. Makes us thankful for our beautiful cottage!!! <br><br>When we arrived at our 4,300 room hotel complex (small family run affair LOL), we met Olga, our guide who lives ...

... generally awful - we just paid a company to get us invitation letters from hotels we never had any intention of staying at as Ritchie had had previous experience. Then you have to register your visa within 72 hours of visiting any particular city - if you stay in a hotel this simply involves paying them an extra fee, but if you are staying with a friend then you and the friend need to report to the Police Station with your passports and get ...

... actually closed at night. I got onto the eleveator, which also held a group of Spanish businessmen who were confused about what floor they were on and tried to get off on my floor (the third floor), thinking that it was the ground floor. I managed to use my Spanish well enough to convince them that they needed to go down a few more floors, and that they should get off on the floor after the floor that I exited on. I wandered through a bunch of ballrooms ...

... but I don't think that I am teacher material. Alban, however, may be. He lead out Sabbath school Sabbath afternoon (they do late churches) and did a great job with it. I was asked to do a mission spotlight, but fortunately they found someone else. The church service was nice. Both English and Russian were used and Gina gave a good sermon. We had some delicious gluten steaks in the evening, and ...

... is the Armory, which contains the crown jewel collection, so to speak. They have vestments for the clergy, simple outfits studded with 100 carat emeralds and thousands of pearls (pearls because they represent the spiritual life), crowns, coronation gowns (Catherine I's waist was 17" - of course she fainted because her corset was too tight), Clothing of Peter the Great, including some boots he made himself. You can imagine how tall ...

... to the station there are big fans pumping warm air - this is where the homeless gather to get warm in winter. Anyway, metro is still great, fast and cheap (1 ride is about 50 eurocents no matter from where to where you take it). Cars. Driving around Moscow is something only for the brave. And unscrupulous. Some of the roads are huge, having four lines in each direction, without the lines actually being defined by any white stripes. This results in cars taking over from left and ...

... the 1980 Olympics. It took us over an hour just to check into our rooms and my room wasn't even cleaned yet! It's a ridiculously huge hotel with at least 10 restaurants, casinos, bowling, a night club (which in Russia means strip club), and tons of souvenir shops. You also get a view over all the old exhibition centers, probably for the Olympics. Oh and it's really sparkly. I have a video, but it's in a later entry. After a much needed shower, we ...

... decided that if we came back to Moscow in 20 years then everyone will be friendly. We understand why the older generation are so serious - we have seen many soviet propoganda posters telling people things like, "loose lips cause a nation to die", "watch your neighbour and report any wrong doings" etc. Quite humerous for us now, but we imagine it must have been pretty tough before 1990. We did a city tour with the classic tour guide, Nadia. She was the tour ...