After 3 1/2 hour flight we landed in Russia at Sheremetyevo Airport, and then stood there for the next 2 1/2hrs just waiting to get through the Visa checking sham desks. The room was packed and it became very claustrophobic and was a huge relief to find the driver who was still waiting for us (bless him) outside the customs area. We quickly found out that driving in Russia was an eye opener, and at one point the driver used the pavement to get round congestion caused by yet another accident we encountered.

I found the scenery was not unlike I had imagined, everyone lived in flats and there was not a house to be seen. It was quite built up but still maintained a lot of woodland and open spaces and as we got closer to our destination you could see the buildings were become more plush and money was being spent on the shops and housing. We arrived at our Hotel which seemed fine and fell into our room which was very basic and small but adequate enough for us. Dinner was quite strange though, as Toby was always given his course first and I didn't get my meal until he had finished his??? the portions were very small and my starter actually came in a dish the size of an egg cup and my main meal consisted of 2 chicken wings with nothing else!!! So we stuffed ourselves with beer and bread and decided to retire for the evening and try and ring my mum, but it seemed we couldn't ring England unless we had a special card thing. So I did try mum....

Well I slept like a log and awoke to a breakfast of beetroot and salad.. We then met our tour guide for the next few hours called Leana who then proceeded to walk and talk for the next 4 hours.

I found Red Square was just like the James Bond films and was full of young soldiers much to my delight...(Lorna will confim this). We saw a pickled Lennon who looked just like a wax dummy, but with lots of makeup!

We went into a food hall which used to be a Palace and was very beautiful, still containing the massive chandeliers and ornate ceilings. I was then getting hungry so we went off to a Mongolian restaurant which was quite bizarre but tasty. The Fine Arts Museum was huge and the contents were varied, but as I am not educated in the way of the arts I found a lot of the pictures quite bland and my feet were finding it hard going by this time.... We decided to have some dinner in another strange restaurant with strange food and then went back to hotel for a quick game of pool and then bed.

I found the Kremlin fascinating and full of beautiful churches, one of the places we went into had all the clothes, furniture and jewellery which were stunning. They also had a big thing on the Anastasia Romonova from the Royal family who supposed to have survived. We then went to an Internet cafe where we answered all the lovely emails ( though I have to say Tobes got way loads than me!) Later on in the day we got taken to the train and need I say more, Tobes has described it down to a T. I do have to repeat about how naffing cold it was though, I have now caught a lovely cold thanks to the train. Could never look a cup-a-soup in the eye again........

Thought about mum a lot on the train and sent everyone my love hope it all got though..

Used the skanky toilets today but if you hold you nose there not so bad!! We laid around a lot and Tobes slept a lot!! I found the stops the most interesting because of all the Mongolian people selling all the bizarre stuff they had with them, from boot polish to microwaves. The scenery consisted of hundreds of silver birches and could leave the window open all day as the weather was very warm, that soon blinkin' changed though......

Again spent most of the day sitting around the cabin as we were wary of leaving as it seemed everyone had a key apart from us. Toby was nearly beaten up by a huge bloke in the toilet which I found highly amusing!!! The further we got into the journey the poorer people seemed to be at the stations, very worn faces and shabby clothing but found a lot of the women dyed their hair red and looked quite strange. It was now getting extremely cold and as everyone knows I hate the bloody cold. But Tobes did produce a couple of beers from the restaurant cart which cheered me up.

Went down to the food cart today for some nosh and were very surprised at how good the food was. Should have gone down before today, but quite wary of the security in our cabin. Previously in the day Tobes had bought some horrible salami that I just couldn't eat and the bread tasted of plastic? There was always a drunk Mongolian bloke on the train who was very funny and always said hello to us in a slurry kind of way, he had to be shoved into his cabin each night by some poor woman... Went and had some dinner in the restaurant today, by god it was good to eat solid food again!! might take a while for my stomach to adjust. Didn't sleep again that night as it was so cold so now I'm desperate for some sleep but still in good spirits.

Another cold day and I'm finding it quite hard being this cold all the time, can't sleep at night as my feet have lost all feeling and once my feet are cold then bang goes a good nights kip. We went down to the restaurant cart again and had some chicken which was nice and we met another couple who were doing the same trip as us, they were very friendly. Had some more beer as I thought this would help my sleep but to no avail....

We found out from Matt and Lorna that the train they had caught before was wonderful compared to this one as they had carpet on the floor! and were quite shocked at this train. All the people who are doing the trip with us were staying at the front of this train getting drunk all the time and having wild parties which is where we should have been so we seemed to be missing out on all the fun.

Came to the Russian border tonight so they kicked us out of bed to take our passports and then got off the train for about 3 hrs to give them back and check the rooms, seeing if we had smuggled anything in the cubby holes. I tried to get back to sleep before we met the Mongolian border but no sooner had I stuck my head down then the Border control people were on board checking our passports again and asking lots of questions, where we were staying and what we were doing etc. I found the Mongolian woman soldier very intimidating and once she had checked our cabin she and the rest of them pulled up all the floors in the corridor and found the hidden goods so that held us up for ages. So we had no sleep what so ever.

MONGOLIA >