Moscow: Where they speak zizz English

Moscow is really not what you would expect - luxury department stores, amazing cars (think Maserati, Ferrari, Audi R8 etc but none as fast as the Corolla), beautiful women (and yes, even I can appreciate that part) and beautiful gardens. We have taken in the main sights - St Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin, Cathedral of Christ the Savior and Lenin's Mausoleum. Lenin is starting to a look a bit rough around the edges.

Alexandrovsky Garden

St Basil's Cathedral

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Our 'picnic' lunches (i.e. pov backpacker sandwiches) have been in some pretty amazing spots, like the Alexandrovsky Garden, Gorky Park and the Novodevichy Convent. Packed lunches have proved to be the solution to avoiding me getting 'hangry'. There was an unfortunate incident last night where I became hangry, and let's just say we will be avoiding this from now on.

Snacking :)

The locals are, shall we say, indifferent to tourists. Nothing is written in English, and no-one speaks English, and if you say thank you in Russian don't expect them to crack a smile! On the plus side, once tourist places know you can't speak Russian they generally can't be bothered asking you for student IDs. Student ticket success rate currently 7  out of 8.

Kicking it with the locals on the Moscow Metro

Russians love striking alluring poses for photos, think Russian bride ads. We have tried, but I think our posing still needs some work.

Strike a pose, there's nothing to it, vogue...

Tom striking his best Asian tourist bus pose

One of the best spots we have been so far is Gorky Park, which is a big park with open air cinemas, lakes, gardens and restaurants. There are free giant beanbags and sun lounges, so we hairy eyeballed a family off a beanbag then claimed one for an hour of sunbaking and eating icecream.

Sun and ice cream in Gorky Park

We have allocated roles for the rest of the trip. Tom is in charge of PR, security, navigation and technology, while I am in charge of cuisine, photography, bookings, immigration and general admin (and also being a drip, according to Tom). Working well so far!