China - Beijing to Xi'an

After leaving Ulaan Bator the journey was short in distance, but long in time as Mongolian and Chinese customs took several hours each. Then our carriages were hauled off individually to a giant warehouse where the wheels of the trains or 'bogeys' were changed to acccomodate the Chinese tracks, which are slightly different to the European tracks in Russian and Mongolia. I'd like to say that we watched enthralled at this amazing feat of engineering, as our carriages were hauled up several feet into the air by huge pneumatic lifts and as the new wheels were rolled in and attached. However, we mostly ate noodles and slept.

Beijing was where we would start our tour, and in the pouring rain we made it to our hotel. We were worried about the tour, mostly the people who would be on it, but we met our guide Louis 'Call me Lois, like Lois Lane' Liu and the rest of the bunch who (to our relief) were all very nice. We celebrated this fact by frequenting a bar together, and quickly learning that pretty much all Chinese beer is roughly 3.3% in strength. On our tour there were: Cath and Spiv (who we had seen earlier running up and down the road outside the hotel in waterproofs and crocs) Thomas Tawn (Who was sharing a room with Rich) Sara and Orissa (who were sharing a room) Kate and Rob (who were on their honeymoon!) Jamie and Cordy (Jamie would later teach us all how to complete a Rubiks cube) Klaus and Louisa (From Denmark) and Marco, who was from Finland.

Our first group excursion was the Great Wall of China, which me and Sadie were so slow to walk up to we diddn't see anyone else all day. It was very impressive, but also very, very hot. Sweaty picture of us on the Wall to follow. Other activities in Beijing included: Tiannemen Square, the Forbidden City, the Night Markets (where Rich and Spiv ate barbequed insects - yeurgh!) exploring the fancy shopping malls on Wangfujing, and failing to find the Sanlitun bar street. Worried friends and relatives would have passed out if they'd have seen me and Sadie negotiate the Beijing traffic on cycles, which was a lot of fun amongst the other thousands and millions of cycle and moped userson the road. Another thing we found very curious about Beijing which diddn't happen anywhere else in China was that being Foreign was regarded as a huge novelty, and many many Chinese people stopped to talk, stare and take photos. This was worse for Cath and Sadie who as blondes were treated practically like celebrities!

Our next destination was Shanghai which we were getting to on an overnight train. As soon as we got to the station we were 100% sure we had made the right decicion to come on the tour, as it's unlikely we would have been able to negotiate buying tickets alone, as non-Chinese speakers. (little English is spoken in China) The train set up in our Hard-sleeper carriage was a row of twenty open-ended six bedded 'dorms'. Although clean and relatively comfortable, it was noisy and the primary source of noise was Chinese men clearing their lungs and hocking up giant gobs of phglem, a sound heard often and throughout our trip never failed to elicit a shudder - especially when I was eating.

Shanghai is very beautiful, its streets in the area we were staying were lined with trees and lots of tiny boutiques. The highlights of Shanghai for me were firstly The Bund, which is the area on the river where one side is huge Asian style skyscrapers, brightly lit with flashing lights and advertisements, then across the river is 'European style' buildings, more classical in design and tastefully uplit in white. It was beautiful, i've never seen anything like it. We'd been in the day but at night the lights, the sheer enormity of the buildings and the reflections in the water completely transformed the riverfront. Secondly, we went to see an acrobatics show which was AMAZING! All throught I was on the edge of my seat as I worried more and more for the safety of the performers as the stunts became increacingly dangerous. What started off as hat juggling escalated to a giant metal 'Ball of Death!' where five performers whizzed around inside on motorbikes passing each other with only inches to spare. That coupled with a bizzare and mainly Star Wars-based sound track made it thoroughly entertaining, and i'd reccomend anyone visiting Shanghai to go.

Our next stop was Xi'an which is famous for its Teracotta warriors, the excavated site where an Emporor had an 8,000 strong army of teracotta statues placed to guard his tomb. I won't pretend to know much about it, but its very impressive and there is a branch of Subway there. Xi'an also has some cool markets that sold all manner of wonderful tat, including fake Chanel wallets and Chairman Mao watches. There was an awesome trip to the tea wholesale market where we got to try all the different teas and see the correct way of preparing it, which seemed to involve pouring most of it away. We also sampled an array of foods which ranged from the delicious (street food including a variation of spring rolls cooked flat, and on a cart, and resturants that we followed Kate and Rob too) and the bizzare (Sheep hoves we discovered after trying to be adventurous, don't have any meat on them - just skin).

Kaz.

Mongolia, Mon-Mon-Mon-Mongolia

At long last, after battling with the lack of Google in China, the terrible internet in Nepal and then a 4 day tummy bug- here it is- Mongolia!!

"Welcome to Mongolia- Everyone speak English here, we love you!" our Hostel Manager Mr Kim informed us as he picked us up from the Ulan Bator train station at the ungodly hour of 5am. We were whisked into a minibus and transported to what looked like the sort of place your Mother would hate you to walk near let alone sleep in! Luckily once we'd lugged our rucksacs up the stairs it was much nicer inside. We filled out all of the standard forms and talked about what we were hoping to do with our two weeks, then we were taken to the next door block of flats where we were shown into a small flat with two sets of bunk-beds, a kitchen, FRIDGE, bathroom and balcony. Apart from the very 70s curtains it was not too shabby and the beer cooling facilities were very much up to standard. After a short sleep and unpacking some of our things we realised that we were going to be treated to one of Mongolia's 252 sunny days a year! It was very warm and the whole city looked a lot less intimidating in the sunshine. Despite this we were repeatedly warned by Mr Kim and other hostel staff that UB was not safe, there are pickpockets, "we have man-sized rats here, you must lock the window, lock the door!" We're still not sure if he was insinuating that there were thieves or if there really were human-sized-rodents running around!

Our first job in Mongolia was to get enough money out for the things we wanted to do, like head into the Gobi desert, visit the Terelj National Park and eat something more delicious than Russia had had to offer. Amusingly the amount all three of us got out of the ATM came to 1.5 million togrogs, and although briefly millionaires by Mongolian standards, it was actually only about 260 pounds each! Oh well... By far the second most important thing we did on the first day was eat a platter of many different meats from the 'Modern Nomads' restaurant and buy large, ice cold beers for 50p. After a somewhat dismal and scary start, Mongolia was getting better and better.

Before setting off on our one-night trip to Terejl, we did a little bit of 'sploring around UB. We walked around most of the main sights and visited the Mongolian National History Museum. Now, first off it was only about a pound, so we weren't expecting much, however, it was so awful it went past being crap and became hilarious. It was essentially a crazy collection of terrible taxidermy and dinosaur bones (the only decent bit!) We had to stifle giggles at the birds in particular, they were all so manky and most of them were upside down or their feet were backwards. There was even a penguin with a strangely long neck- David Attenborough could have told them a thing or two! The final part of our museum experience was 'animals of the ocean' and included such gems as poorly stuffed sharks and blow-fish with stick on googly eyes! Hilarious! Well worth a pound.

Rich pondering the beauty of the landscape, or considering what the future holds, or maybe just hoping Kaz won't notice how much his feet smell... :P

So... Now for the serious stuff. On Wednesday 11th we bundled into another questionably maintained minibus and set off for Terelj, accompanied by two Korean girls, a Korean guy, a Canadian English teacher who was living in Korea (more about him in the Gobi), a Chilean Doctor living in China and a silent French guy who sang to himself. We had been allocated a guide of sorts in the form of a 16 yr old Mongolian girl called Nomi. As we left the city you realised just how big it was. As it peetered out towards the edges you could see all the ger camps with their bright white tents and colourful wooden poles. As soon as we arrived at our ger camp we dumped our bags and headed straight up the nearest hill to get a good view of the landscape. We climbed up

onto some of the huge gritty rocks that were scattered all across the green hillsides and enjoyed the cool breeze that hadn't quite reached us when we had been down in the valley. On our return back down we ate mutton, rice, potatoes and carrots (the first of many mutton meals!) and weirdly- sushi!

After lunch we had another little 'splore in the other direction whilst we waited for the horses to return and go for a ride around the area. If I'm honest I was dreading it, as Mr Kim had said "horse is good animal, BUT it is still animal" Anything that has eyes that big can't be trusted if you ask me (and that includes cows, which we proved in Nepal!). As it turned out the hour or so that we went riding for wasn't a terrible ordeal at all, and apart from a slightly uncomfortable length to my stirrups- I didn't hate it, it was actually quite fun! We did a huge circuit around one of the hills before running back to the ger camp. This bit WAS scary, but in a good way and we were giggling and laughing all the way to dinner after the adrenaline rush. Unsurprisingly dinner was more mutton with pasta and carrots and after we'd eaten we headed back to our ger where we lit candles, drank vodka and apple juice and played cards with the rest of the group. A memorable moment was Yohanne, our crazy French aquaintance, acting out scenes from Monty Python's 'Holy Grail' to Mauritz, from Chile- who clearly hadn't got a clue what all this "African swallow or European swallow? I told them we already got one!" and "Ni! Ni!" was all about. Very funny for us though!

We arrived back in UB by midday the next day and after a brief wash were back in the van, with Canadian Michael and on our way to the Gobi desert. This time our guide, Tugsuu, was a little bit older and a little bit more qualified and our driver, Ott, was a no-nonsense Dad type who had an infectious laugh seemed like he'd be fun too! The plan was:

• Day 1: Erdenedalay Village
  
• Day 2: Bayanzag and The Flaming Cliffs


• Day 3: The sand dunes and camel riding


• Day 4: The Ice Valley and Dalanzadgad town (shower available!)


• Day 5: Tsagaan Suvarga, The White Mountain


• Day 6: Rock formation (??) and Buddhist ruins

Each day would involve driving for about 5 hours and for about 200km, we did a lot of sleeping, looking out of the windows and listening to Ott's mix tape of The Pussy-Cat Dolls, Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis, The Black eyed Peas and other auditory delights- all of which he'd sing along to with gusto and sometimes with Tugsuu too! Because we were travelling such large distances each day the landscape would be completely different from the morning to the evening. All very different, all very beautiful and all very fun to walk around. Each evening we were meant to sleep in a 'tourist ger' which was the same external structure as the families gers but only kitted out with beds, a table and a mirror or a chair if we were lucky. The family would bring us food in the evening and for breakfast and flasks of hot water to make tea or coffee.

The ger we randomly went inside to make lunch when it was too windy to cook. The family had gone to the next village and got stuck there due to a sand-storm. They returned as we were eating and didn't bat an eyelid to the fact we were sat on their floor and using their cutlery! Very bizarre!

However, lovely as this was- we got lucky on the first night and didn't make it far enough to get to our tourist ger camp. Sounds bad, we were in the middle of nowhere and couldn't see another ger anywhere in any direction but after another 15 mins driving Ott pulled up to some gers to ask for some floorspace for the night. After a few polite refusals we came across a tiny ger, again- in the middle of nowhere, no other gers in sight, just a small herd of goats and some horses tethered to a washing line. The family inside quietly welcomed us in and after Ott had made us all at home issuing orders in Mongolian left right and centre, the Father offered us a some of the dairy foodstuffs that they produced from their goats. We tried a hard, sharp tasting cheese called 'aro' that was a lot like Parmesan (amusingly we later realised all three of us had put it into our coat pockets after a couple of bites!). We tried a kind of fizzy yoghurt with sugar which required us to lick the bowl once we'd finished. And we tried 'urom' and 'eezgeii', a delicious clotted cream that we ate on biscuits and a weird hard cheese cluster that would have broken our teeth if Tugsuu hadn't warned us. Needless to say the cream on biscuits was mine and Kaz's favourite and we ate way more of it than is probably healthy- doubled our cholesterol in one morning for sure!

The Mongolian family who took us in on the first night, and our guide Tugsuu in the red T-shirt.

Another perk to our impromptu 'real' Mongolian experience was playing with the children. The family had five children, two were away at University in the city and the remaining children aged 19, 16 and 13 helped with the animals when they weren't at school in the village. They took us to see their goats on an old motorbike, we watched them milk them and used a half-binocular (monocular??) to watch the sun set. After that we played basketball in the dark until it got too cold to move then piled back inside to get ready for bed. There was only two beds in the ger, the parents took one and Tugsuu took the other. Ott, me, Rich, Kaz, Michael and the three children took the floor space- and there wasn't much of that! There was some pretty intense spooning going on but considering the temperature, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing!

The Flaming Cliffs, up close these were very red and it was VERY windy- cue Kaz fashioning a sort of Arab head-dress out of her multi-coloured electro scarf. Very trad-Mongolian darling...

Kaz enjoying the luxurious decor (check out the bling on the clock!)

Me, Rich and Kaz having a lovely time in the sand-dunes. This was before we took 45 mins to clamber up and 2 mins to run down! Very hot but very beautiful- definately my favourite part of our journey through the Gobi Desert.

The smelly, horrible, poo-covered camels! Maybe my least-favourite part of our trip!

All in all, a very exciting journey through a brilliant and changing landscape, made all the more awesome by our guide Tugsuu and driver Ott, who were a credit to their country. We left Mongolia feeling very happy to have seen so many beautiful things, to have had so many valuable experiences and feeling thoroughly well looked after. I'd recommend a visit to Mongolia to anyone, it was so different to anywhere else and with so many natural sights to explore in the sunshine, it'd keep anyone busy and glad to be outdoors.

Goodbye Mongolia, thank you for our lovely time!

Lake Baikal and Olkhon Island

So after a night at Golina's unamed hostel we were up for 7am to catch the minibus she said she had booked for us. Although it was a little late we finally got on our way with some people from France, Israel, Russia and Finland. The minibus was in an interesting state of repair with a very cracked windscreen, questional sealing on the doors/windows and some old vinyl flooring.

We had a 6 hour drive from Irkutsk to a small town called Khuzir on Olkhon Island. The first 3 hours of the drive were ok if not a little cramped (we were in the middle of a big rain storm and the driver didn't have any sheeting to put over the roof rack so all the bags were in the bus with us!), there was also a massive draft coming from the rear door that Kaz and Sadie were sat in so were freezing until the driver threw back a quilt for them. After a brief stop to use the most horrific toilets at a petrol station we found that the tarmac road had finished and the next 3 hours were on very bumpy, stoney and fairly dangerous tracks. This didn't stop our driver from still driving as if he was on the M42 and insisted on overtaking every vehicle we came across. To get onto the island we have a half hour ferry crossing and another hour to get to the town.

We stopped in place called Nikitas Homestead which was like a little hippy commune. We paid 800 rubles (16GPB) a night which included 3 meals a day. They didn't have room in the homestead so we stopped with an old lady just around the corner. We had electricity, water was from a bucket and a hole at the end of the vegetable patch as a toilet.  Kaz was delighted to find a stove outside so she could boil water for feet soaking and clothes washing! All the food was very simple but delicious. Breakfast consisted of porridge, eggs and pancakes. Lunch was always a pickled salad, some fish and rice. Dinners had the same fish and salad combo with some meat and rice/potatoe/pasta.


One of the highlights of an evening (apart from the stunning sunsets and stars) was the Banyas... You get to sauna first, then have a stand up bath. Unfortunatley there was no bunches of birch sticks to hit each other with, so we improvised.


The island and lake are mind-bendingly beautiful. A mixture of woodland, mountains, sand dunes and steppe. It is also has Russian's in tents listening to techno at all hours of the day and a depressing amount of litter from said Russian's (Greenpeace would have a task on their hands in some places on the island).


We walked up the coast about 5 miles and on the way had a swim in the lake. I say 'swim', it was the coldest water i have ever been in, so was a very brief dip. We also sat on the beach for several hours watching the world go by, skimming stones and Sadie and Kaz threw stones at me and at tomatoes...

In the other directions there was a number of hills so we had another day of trekking up to the tallest one (photo from the top). While taking in the views from the top, 2 bus loads of Russians turned up, took some photo's and one even stripped down to her bikini and had a quick sun bathe - wheres the sense of achievement in that?


The final evening we watched 2 very attractive women fire-dancing just outside the homestead... a great end to 4 days on the island.

Sadie's fancy long exposure shot...

Making stone monuments...

Sunset view from our room

Four days aboard the Trans-Siberian Express.

Hi! Now that we have the internet we are finally able to get stuff on here.

After sweltering in the heat of Moscow's hottest ever recorded day we were happy to be heading off to Yaroslavlsky Station to catch our train to Irkutsk. We had stocked up on noodles, coffee, biscuits and the requisite bottle of vodka (which cost roughly three pound fifty). We were in second class soft sleeper or Kupe. This meant four bunks in each compartment with a small table and room to stow your stuff. We met our first train companion Anya, who's mother introduced her as an 19 year old student going back off to uni. We bonded over a love of celebrity magazines (in particular Russian Heat! Magazine) and Brad Pitt in Fight Club and credit to Anya's English skills managed to chat away for hours with a shared understanding of about 50 words. We also met Kate and her mother and cute little brother Daniel who were from Irkutsk and spoke good English and better German than us.

After we waved Anya off at Tyumen we had a day of lounging in the carriage by ourselves which gave us a good oppurtunity to try out our 'Train Yoga' programme (We'd been on the train for over 48hrs and were a bit restless). Later that night we were woken up by a family from Kyrgystan occupying various beds up and down the carriage. I peeked out of my sheets to see a woman sat on the end of my bed breastfeeding a small baby, and a girl (who we think was the baby's aunty) moving into our spare bunk. Between the family they had two babies, two toddlers, various adults and grandad who had a full set of extremely striking gold teeth. And they were all lovely, the babies slept through the night without so much as a peep (except when Rich waved at one and made it cry) and in the day the girls sat with us and let us admire the babies, which we did for a considerable amount of time as they were ridiculously cute. And with our new improving Russian skills managed to convey our names, ages, jobs and of course the requisite showing of family pictures.

To our surprise we were given food, which after we tried to give it back as we assumed we'd be charged for it, was delicious beef goulash, a rock cake and some horrible vinegary bread. We got a food parcel every day, which was lucky as we'd only got noodles and soup to last us. At the end of each carriage there was a big water heater from which you could get absolutely scalding water from - frightning when the train is bouncing over the tracks at 50mph. Saying that, at every stop hawkers on the platforms were selling loads of things like bread, cakes, beer, ice creams, cups of berries and whole dried fish if you wanted, so we never would have starved.

The views from the windows were very similar for the first couple of days, which was dense forest right up to the tracks. This was broken up only by random things, one being an Obelisk marking the Europe-Asia border which was much lauded in the book but after we squashed our faces up the window for half an hour looking for it it turned out just to be basically just a 6ft white post with 'Europe' and 'Asia' written on it. After that the scenery opened up a fair bit and there were meadows of cows and hills covered in small wooden houses, all painted in a slightly schizophrenic combination of colours.

The next morning we arrived at Irkutsk very early and were given the perfect excuse to finally stretch our legs properly as we couldn't find our hostel and we ended up on an unscheduled tour of Irkutsk's streets full of old wooden buildings. This would have been more pleasurable if we weren't wearing our 15kg packs at the time. We finally accidentally stumbled on a hostel of which the name was never revealed to us, however Gorina the owner made us very welcome and amused us greatly with her red dressing gown, hearing aid which she kept removing and her continual shouting of 'kleine problem!' at our Swiss-German roomates. We booked the bus to Olkhon island for the next day as to get out of the town and enjoyed our first shower in four days, which is quite possibly the most I have ever enjoyed washing in my entire life!.

With Kate in our cabin.

A small part of our family from Kyrgystan. Initially unsure of the photo-taking etiquette, we knew we were okay to take pictures when they started snapping us on their camera phones.

Our first train beer.

The strange and sometimes delicious food.

Our train.

Irkutsk - 'The Paris of Siberia' (apparently)

Priviyet! Since we last posted we have been exclusively on the train. We took the Trans-Siberian Express part of the way down Russia to Irkutsk (where we are now) which took four nights, three days and covered over 5000 kilometers. We had a 2nd class cabin on the train which was roughly 6 foot square with four bunks and a small table. The four bunks meant we usually had someone in with us which included Anya (who is in the photo above) and a family from Kyrgystan who had the cutest train babies ever! Which we spent a good amount of time tickling.

We are now in Irkutsk stocking up on beers, crab crisps and misc foods we will discover the contents of later, or maybe not, its all part of the fun!

The train was an awesome experience which we will go into more detail later and post more photos when we have free internet and its a bit cooler in Mongolia. For now we catch a bus to Olkhon Island on Lake baikal tomorrow, where we will hopefully be for four days before catching our next train on saturday night. Missing you all lots, from Kaz, Sadie and Rich x

Goose-stepping guards and colossal canons...

So it's our last night in Moscow, it's flown past!

In a word, it's been HOT! When we decided to come here I had no idea what to expect and I've been pleasantly surprised at how nice and green Moscow is. It's got the usual crazy traffic and crazy people and yes, as the guide books said, it's a little unfriendly at times... But we've enjoyed quite a few little sit downs in pretty parks and gardens and had a good old people-watch. For fashion in Moscow it seems anything goes, women seem to either look like their stuck in the British 80s or prostitutes (Rich disagrees he thinks they look wonderful!). So far Kaz and I have been sad to note that the attractive genes seem to go entirely to the women, not so many pretty men... not really any... oh well! We'll stick to enjoying looking at their string vests and grandad trousers and mullets and man-bags. It's all good fun, especially if you're wearing sunglasses and can openly stare ;)

The above and below pictures are photos of St. Basil's Cathedral, which is in The Red Square.

We survived the midday heat yesterday and went for a look-see. It was beautiful from the outside, kind of like a make-believe princess castle, very bright colours and funky shapes. Inside it was just as colourful (maybe gaudy) but the style of teh paintings which covered every available surface was old and almost child-like. Whilst we were in there, we were treated to a little hymn from an acapella choir. The bass guys voice vibrated the whole room and the accoustics made the sound seriously loud. It was lovely!

After we'd been here we went 'sploring and using all our guidebook deciphering skills and some serious map work we trekked our way across Moscow to find a recommended bar, Art Garbage. It was quite well hidden from the main road and was made up of an indoor bar and dance-floor as well as a large courtyard filled with trees full of fairy lights and a fountain. We had a couple of large beers for about the same price as home, 0.5L for 120R about 2.50. There were icy cold and delivered with an almost smile! Needless to say they went down beautifully in the 35*C heat!

Goose-stepping, a fountain by a supermarket, a close up of some of St. Basil's...

In other news, Kaz got eaten by two different types of tube equipment. First the barrier tried to chomp her leg off... very scary. She hadn't swiped her card properly. As a result we're now terrified at the exit barriers where you don't swipe but the chompers are clearly visible! Sort of zoom through, flinching! The second time we had a moment of doubt as I stepped onto a tube train, Rich shouted 'no!' I stepped off and said 'yes!' we all went to get on and Kaz at the back lost a flip-flop, put it back on but was delayed enough to get chomped by the doors!! A helpful (but unattractive of course) Russian man had to help her! Poor Redmond, the Russian Metro is her nemesis!

Today we learnt our lesson about staying out in the midday heat and planned an early start with a siesta back at the hostel before hading out again. We got up early, put long shorts on (!) apparently Lenin's corpse does not approve of nekkid legs, and headed out to the Kremlin again, via the Lenin Library tube stop- complete with huge Lenin staue. We had to stow our bags etc. in a locker by the gatehouse for the reasonable sum of 40R about a pound, and queue for about half an hour, luckily this was in the shade, and again we were people watching, so not so bad! After passing through metal detectors with grim faced guards barking orders, we walked around Lenin's Mausoleum. On every corner were very young, very smart, very intimidating guards. All with stern faces and an intolerance for slow walking. Again we appreciated the air-con if not the spooky sight of a dead body. It was all very strange, cold dark marble walls and floors with sharp angles to match the guards sharp faces.

After we had a little sit-down with a ice-lol in the park we headed back towards teh Kremlin gatehouse, bought tickets and headed in. Inside the big red walls (which they actually paint!) are the government buildings as well as a small collection of huge, gold topped cathedrals and churches, all clustered together in a square adjacent to a garden area. As with St. Basil's they were stunning and physically impressive from the outside but dissapointing from within. After soaking up some religious calm we walked through the gardens and sat beside a fountain, where we lazily attempted to catch a dragonfly for a pet. We did not suceed, however we had rested up enough to march back through the heat to the hostel. Sweaty...

Here are a couple more photos to peruse. We're off on the train tomorrow so won't be quite so spoilt for internet access for a while. Although we're having a LOVELY time I'm glad to be leaving if only to escape some of the heat. Irkutsk should be a good 5-10*C cooler and theres always the icy lake to plunge into if needs be. Beautiful countryside here we come...

A map of a walk we took around the Kremlin and Red square grounds.

Kaz and me vogue-ing in The Red Sqaure, the reason it looks hazy is the smog caused by the peat-bog fires just outside Moscow, there was also a funny smell! (Not Kaz's armpits I promise!)

One of the beautiful Cathedrals inside the Kremlin.

See! It was freakin HOT!

Another golden topped tower. Used to contain the largest/heaviest bell in the world. Now outside of the Cathedral with a big crack in it.

Blog again soon guys, miss you all, wish you were here! xxx

'If you go on train you be very confused'

We were not confused!! Not one bit!We totally caught a sweaty bus and then a sweaty tube (with a minor Kaz bashing incident by a scary tube-gate-barrier thing) and now we are here! Just bought food from a teeny market and cooked in the hostel, off to bed in a bit... sight seeing tomorrow, if we don't melt in the predicted 40 degree heatwave! Love you all lots and miss you... Sadie, Kaz and Rich xxx