MOSCOW

NEWS FLASH: 'SPA messes up enemas' - People visiting a health resort received a crude shock when a nurse used hydrogen peroxide instead of water to give them enemas! SEVENTEEN tourists in the spa town had to be admitted to hospital after receiving this new treatment. The 'therapist' claims that the mix up was easy as water and hydrogen peroxide look the same! What a pain in the bum!


MOSCOW; The city of contradictions, beautiful people against poor, loitering alcoholics; communist architecture against elaborate buildings huddled next to extravagant religious buildings; huge new 'chelsea tractors'' next to ladas; travellers hiking boots next to leather/fur, high heeled boots.
This has been an amazing city and we have not had nearly enough time to see it all. We spent the first day strolling around the VDNKH, a totally over the top collection of huge buildings which made up the communist ideal of their social achievements. Now it is filled with the tacky, chinese made electronics, russian dolls and guns, which something they wanted to avoid in the first place (another contradiction). We then went on a rusty ferris wheel at the side of the VDNKH which was ALOT higher than it looked. However it was blue skies in early evening and the views were amazing down the 'over the top' buildings and the cosmonaut memorial. Sam also spotted the MacDonalds... After this we got the metro to red square, by now it was dusk and the seven glowing red stars above the kremlin looked lovely against the deepening blue skies. We then walked back to the hostel and started on a few beers. The arrival of Igor the Russian actor changed it all... a magnum of cizanno, bottle of martini blanco, vodka, countless beers and several lengthy russian toasts later it was early on our second day.
Our second day involved recovering on the sofas, but managing to get out to the supermarket in the evening for one of the italian girls to cook potato & tomato risotto. The thing about Moscow is the cost, someone else in the hostel had a jar of jam costing £17, Strawberrys are at a cost of £2.50 per strawberry, fresh fruit is extremely expensive and eating out - well, its our last night and we haven't even attempted it yet. Against this though cabbage must be about 3 roubles a ton and dill - of all herbs, gets put in everything free of charge - almost a public health attempt at getting your greens.
Our third and final day was an early start to to the train station to swap our email confirmation tickets for real ones. However, out time in moscow changed our minds slightly about our trip. We wanted to upgrade to second class for a couple of the longer trips, cancel one ticket totally. We managed to get the russian receptionist to write down exactly what we wanted to do. So with this statement and our email confirmations we slip it all under the glass..... we were met with much head shaking, russian arm waving and yabbing. Luckily our blank faces and silence reluctantly pushed her to give up and do what we wanted. 45 minutes later and a long queue behind us we got all our shiny new tickets!!!! We also went to the Russian armed forces museum, none of which was in english but it was very good and we got to slip and slide around a park filled with fighter jets, tanks, totally huge vehicles and other random military paraphinallia.
Our train is at 00:35 and we may well be out of web access for some time. We are heading to some more 'outback' regions of the trans-siberian and the likely-hood of internet access is slim. We will be sending an up-date and more pictures as soon as possible but this may be the last time until china which will be at the beginning of march!
SO UNTIL THEN COMRADES THIS REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE ACCESSIBLE