From Moscow with Love

Wow! The journey has well and truly begun, right in at the deep end. Bus to Cologne was fairly easy and it was fun to go on the ferry to Calais, great to leave the 'ole White Cliffs in the darkness. After a few hours in Cologne watching street artists and marvelling at the cathedral I got on the next bus - Slightly scary as no one seemed to speak a word of English and the bus only said to 'Minsk' but they said to get on, and I thought at least it is in the right direction! (the whole trip seems to be about just going with the flow, so I will continue with my stress free attitude to it all (and allowing two hours extra to get anywhere!)) This bus was slightly more eventful, lots of views of the lovely Poland and Belarussian countryside. After leaving Germany (lots of wind turbines and bicycles! great stuff) it all got a lot more rural and more woodland. Mist over the land and great dark forests (oh to be in Wales!). On the second day I spent a long time fuelled by adrenaline, chocolate and grapes only after my bread went mouldy and we spent 2 1/2 hours at the passport control to Belarus. They took our passports off us three times and tried to sell me medical insurance (and the two other europeans who had got on the bus!) I declined. I sat through 8 Russian Dvd's in total (mainly about soldiers!) and spent 63 hours surprisingly un-bored considering I could only speak a bit of French to one guy and found one girl from Belarus who I spoke to a couple of times. I just sat back and enjoyed the scenery, tried to forget my bum had gone numb and read my book. Not much sleep was had but overall I would recommend it (but learn a bit of German and Russian first!) Now to Moscow, I have stayed in a lovely little hostel, the Yellow Blue Bus (translations sounds like 'I love You' apparently!) It is like being in someone's apartment, very cosy and friendly. Today I went to Red Square (St. Basil's Cathedral and The Kremlin) and of course saw Lenin's Tomb, ( I am going for the big three communist leaders - to see Lenin, Mao and Ho Chi Min over the next few weeks!) Also lots of wandering around lost, but I came across some nice buildings and a few good buskers playing, so it was cool (great violin player made me think of Tabitha my lovely friend and fab fiddle player!) Next to the Yaroslavsky train station to get the Trans-Siberian...I am so excited, some people I met here have just come from China on the train and have told me a bit more what to expect and from what they say it is going to be great....On a green note, I have found recycling bins so far in Cologne and Moscow so I am trying to do my bit.