From Russia with love

After a slight (!!) delay at the border, we arrived in Russia!! We drove into St Petersburg only to discover that it was the anniversary of the city that weekend and there were full on celebrations in the middle of the city which meant that the metro was not running. Eventually we made it to our hostel and got to bed about 2am! So, after a rocky start, we braved the train station the next day to buy tickets for 3 days time to take us to Moscow. Slightly hairy but we managed!

Probably the highlight of St Petersburg was the Hermitage museum - such an amazing collection of art and history and the building itself is incredible - somewhat fading in splendour, though! Aside from this we also got to go to the fortress of St Peter and Paul, St Isaac's Cathedral (with great views), and a few other monuments. One thing that stood out was how much you have to pay for public toilets here - even portaloos!!

We ended up getting a fast train to Moscow - Virgin trains eat your heart out - these were very nice and it almost felt like getting on an aeroplane as we went through security, a hostess checked our ticket, and various announcement....rd - a s were made over the PA in Russian and English! In Moscow - big, noisy, scary and expensive - we made what should have been a half hour trip to our hotel in a record breaking 2 hours!! Never mind. Despite the heat (about 33 degrees!) we managed to take in the sights of the Kremlin and Red Square as well as the City's cathedral. The Kremlin was definitely worth it and the interior of the cathedrals there were quite beautiful although slightly full on.

Then, it was farewell to the capital and a 4 day onward journey to Irkutsk.