That's all from Moscow

Hello, hope you're all well. I'm leaving Moscow in a couple of hours, and since the Hostel has free internet, I thought now would be a good time to update this (now at least that I have figured out how to convert this keyboard to type with English letters. When I first used this machine I had to copy and paste the individual letters I needed from the google home page to access my email).

It was a very early arrival into Moscow so we dropped our stuff off and took showers after a pretty hot train journey. We headed straight to the Red Square to see the obvious stuff first, getting there in time to enter the huge tomb of the embalmed Lenin (pictured). It is an odd experience and difficult to describe, but a bit like a more sombre BodyWorlds exhibition with less dissection.

The Kremlin was weird too. When I'd got there they'd arranged a sort of baggage reclaim but with kids istead in the main square. There was what looked to be around a thousand children walking in a huge circle around a big Christmas Tree. Then around them were twice the amount of parents desperately waving to try and find and then drag their kid off the 'conveyor belt' system. We don't really know what was happening there but think the Kremlin had acquired the kids earlier on in the day as part of a Christmas celebration, and now it was going home time. With the huge number of people in the square, the amount of pushing, waving and shouting combined with wind and snow, the whole seen was chaotic, and to me, a bit like it belonged in a Second World War II film based over Germany way.



I much prefer Moscow to St Petersburg, although I've been far colder here than I've ever been (two layers of gloves aren't preventing my fingers from completely freezing on occasions and I've had to progress to my extra warm socks already). Moscow is also a very slippery city and most floor surfaces are made of granite which doesn't help, my shoulder is nervous here but so far I've managed to stay on my feet. Moscow snows a lot too.

It is train time again after breakfast, this time for 3-4 days, apart from fast dashes on to the platform at stops for supplies and returning before the train leaves. I'm really looking forward to it and I'll let you know how it goes, if I don't, it's because I didn't make it back on board in time at one of the stops!