Novotel Centre Moscow

... had breakfast. Jam and bread and a cup of tea for me, peanut butter and bread and a coffee for Dave, and Bob Dylan on the iPod. We had never been so content. On the other side of the train were snow capped mountains and fog filled forests. It was such a beautiful, sunny day and spirits were high (well, either that or the Dutch are a bit crazy... which I think may be the case... in fact I am certain of that).

The next day we we're passing through Mongolia and the Gobi ...

... As soon as the train stopped there was a mad dash for the door chinnes stlyle with thew mongolians pushign and showing and putting boxes on the train. I am use to this after living in China for a while. When we got on the train there was a load od Mongolians in oru cabin with boxes shoved into every knock and crany. We told them to get out and they did straight away and me and tom chucked all of there boxes into the corridor and there was lots of ...

... whatsoever getting naked in public. I do, however, have a problem getting naked in public in the wrong place in a foreign country, and then getting arrested for public indecency. I gingerly asked one old lady, but didn't know how to say 'excuse me, can I get naked here?' I motioned taking off my clothes, and she let out a stream of rapid Russian. I felt uncomfortable and looked around. Everybody was looking at me....what do I do?? Taking a ...

Hi everyone, Once again internet access is very limited here in Russia, should have brought my own laptop (if I have one). Woke up this morning in a cold sweat, dreamed that I torn my gactrocnemus muscle on the left and couldn't walk and had someone (my buddy Cappelli) stitch it up more me ???? Must be walking too much Anyways, today I am finishing up the some odds ...

... to say the least seeing as all my winter clothes (apart from the jumper I had on) were in my checked in bag. Thankfully the driver was still waiting for us in the airport which at least saved us the hassle of trying to get to the hotel under our own steam. It was pitch black by the time we got to the van and it was freezing. We drove for just short of an hour to the hotel. First impressions of Moscow so far are ...

... his whistle and wave a stick at you. The visit to the armoury was eventful for the wrong reasons as one of the tour group tripped on a metal corner which badly gashed her leg and she had to go to hospital. She could not return to the cruise as yet but we all hope she gets better and is able to rejoin. The armoury itself has a magnificent display of state gifts, Faberge eggs, costumes, carriages etc and is well worth ...

... for animals rather than a zoo. Huge bears, cats etc in tiny cages, obviously going insane. A pretty unpleasant experience. Also while we were in Moscow there was the "Moscow City Racing" event, complete with F1 cars from BMW and Red Bull, pretty cool to see them blasting down the road near Red Square although it was boiling hot that day so the wait was pretty trying. It didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the many Muscovites who turned out for a glimpse of the action.

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow http ...

... her to say that he would basically fail her in phys. ed. if she quit the team. She needs three years of phys ed to graduate. The whole dinner was a lot of fun and I was also excited to have sour cream again. They just don't have it in Denmark. I sat next to Tim and I've never seen anyone eat that much in my entire life (he's really skinny). At one point, he started plopping sour cream on his plate...and just eatting it...straight. It was interesting.

... us in Beijing, Mano from Berlin (who we seemed to see everywhere!) and Tom from UK who was staying in the same hostel as us in Irkutsk. On the first night we also made a few more friends, Thomas, a big enthusiastic lad from Munich, Pascal from Belgium, Adam (film maker from UK), Charlie & his Dad Neville (South Africa). I name them all now as you will read what a great time we all had together. Not everyone was in first class so the restaurant cabin was the main ...