From Russia With Love

Moscow is great, I like it even better than St Petersburg (although for many its the other way round). By far the best place to visit here is St Basil's Cathedral. I have also been to some interesting museums, and a very weird modern art museum. The underground here is amazing with stations having their own artwork, mosaics, statues, canderliers, etc etc, aa far cry from London's underground!!! However, there is about as many people as in London with people fighting to get on the trtains, only here they actually DO fight, pushing each other out of the way with their elbows etc!!! Today I was sure I heard "Mind The Gap" - maybe I am becoming homesick for London (although this wasnt said with a Jamacian accent!) I have yet to buy the famous furry hat that many people where, I did however, get a set of Russian Dolls. I got one with the presidents of Russia, starting with Putin, and the smallest one being Peter the Great. These 'matroskytas' come in all different types, football teams, (David Beckham), politicians (Bush, Blair), even cartoons, (Homer Simpson, Spider man), loads of famous people fictional or real are personified in the Russian markets. They even have one with Osama Bin Laden, which when opened, reveals Arafat, Hitler, etc). The man told me these where all the famous terroirsits of recent years and I asked where Vladmir Putin was, and we laughed at this before looking around checking their wasn't a KGB officer hiding in the background, (although they don't 'officially' operate anymore). -Only in London! I went to the Kremlin today and saw lots of old churches. I am leaving tomorrow for Etkinaberg tomorrow, (about 20 hours away by train). This is the city in which the Tsar Nicolas II and his family (Romanov's) where murdered a while back. This town is situated in the Ural Mountains which divide Europe from Asia, (maybe I'll see some bears?) Actually they have T-shirts here in Moscow saying "I have been to Moscow - there way no bears!", aswell as other amusing ones such as "Eat at Mc Lenin's!" There is even one with Lenin himself holding a finger up to the revolution. I am going to pay a visit to Uncle Lenny tomorrow before I go, his mausoleum is in Red Square but only open to the public on certain days.

So this is me signing off here in Moscow, about to embark on my Trans Siberian adventure, across Russia, into Mongolia, and along the Great Wall, into China. Keep me updated on your news.



P.s. Don't forget 'Loose Lips = Sunken Ships!!!