Iris Congress Moscow

... quickly, as I usually seem to, before boarding the next flight. I was on my netbook for a while again, but at some point it ran low on power and I decided to find other ways to amuse myself. I tried sleeping, but I wasn't really tired and generally had issues getting comfortable, so I mostly drew/listened to music/looked out the window instead. I also watched some sort of murder mystery/political intrigue movie. I don't know what ...

... being kidnapped!

We then drove for around an hour through the 'light' Saturday afternoon Moscow traffic... light??? Talking bumper to bumper cars flying along in a 60 zone at around 130, unregistered cars everywhere, buses that look like they are falling apart, car accidents on the side of the road... it was scary... even TOM was scared and he doesnt GET scared! In the end we decided looking at the road was a bad thing and I concentrated on staring ...

... station and off we trooped, until Pasha told him that his three foreign friends were very excited about visiting the police station at which point he gave up and we got away with a telling off on the square.


With Pasha and Nicolette away in Croatia, Pasha had kindly moved us into his swanky bachelor pad in central Moscow - this was a very welcome break from hostelling. We had use of his bicycles to explore Moscow quickly and easily.
Moscow, Central Russia, Russian Federation jiewu

... the airport on the 12:05 flight so we asked reception to keep trying to get through while we went into the centre of Moscow to do a tour of the city. Our tour guide Jenya came to the hotel at 10am and took one look at me in my hoody with no gloves and scarf or hat and shook her head with a worried expression. Luckily she spoke very good English so when we explain we had no bags or clothes due to the Airline leaving them in Helsinki she told us she ...

... missa ihmiset ympari maailman voivat majoittaa reissareita ja myos sohvasurffata itse matkoillaan, tai sitten vain nayttaa kaupunkiaan. Loistava systeemi ja sita kautta olen aiemmillakin matkoilla tavannut mahtavia ihmisia ja paassyt paikalliseen elamaan paljon paremmin kiinni. Mutta miten tanne saavuttiin? Posotettiin 14 tuntia Tolstoi-junalla Tikkurilasta ja naurettiin kun Tampereelta Tikkurilaan matkalla oltiin jo etta oltais nyt jo perilla, niin etta on ...

080713 Moscow So now we are in Moscow. We did the city tour at 1pm, then the Moscow by night and metro tour at 9pm. We were unable to visit Red Square during the day because they were doing Formula 1 racing in the area. We saw many Stalinist era apartments, which are quite attractive in a kind of 19th century European way. The architecture is a wide base with a central set of towers which become increasingly narrow, and with a spire ...

... which actually proved useful on our 5th night as we were awoken at about 1am by what sounded like either someone urinating or the crackling of fire. Sadly, it was the latter & the best part of the next hour was spent watching it develop to devour a pile of general household ****. At 1st, we thought this might be the Russian way of getting rid of their waste, as nobody really seemed that bothered (apart from Sergey, who moved his car ...

This was the last full day in Russia. Moscow is a bit empty of tourist sites as it really isn't thought of as a tourist destination. So we headed back to the Red Square area and took a tour around the Kremlin. The Kremlin, today, is a mishmash of buildings dating from all the time periods including Soviet times. Interestingly enough, there's many churches and none of them were torn down despite the whole communist anti-religion phase. In fact ...

... le projet afin qu ils ne puissent plus jamais refaire un tel monument. C est the russian way : on dira! Depuis le debut du voyage en Russie on a rencontre que deux sortes de russes; les personnes genereuses qui vous accueillent comme si vous etiez de la famille et a l inverse les vraiment pas sympas qui vous haisse meme si ils vous connaisse pas. Mais on a rien trouve entre les deux. On c est fait offrir des repas, bijoux, vodka et on c est fait ...

... all. She seemed a bit taken back but accepted my answer. I didn't spend anymore time with the soldiers. Instead I stayed in my cabin with the journalist and spent two beautiful days and beautiful nights playing chess, reading and chatting over tea and beer her newspaper paid for. The entire time though, in the back of my mind I was worrying about leaving the train and who would be there waiting for me. Revenge can be sweet especially in Russia whose murder rate was growing faster ...