Red Square at Christmas time

Like most tourists in Moscow, Red Square was very high on the agenda, however, unlike most tourists, we figured that being there at 2am was a good idea - especially when it was -12 at least

What an amazing spectacle of a site - snowing and a massive Christmas tree to boot which is a little odd given that Christmas was outlawed for so long.St Basils is possibly one of the most incredible buildings I have ever seen and the opportunity to stand next to Lenin's mauseleum was pretty cool - will have to go and see the pickled person next time round. And to think that 20 years ago, it would have been nigh on impossible to get anywhere near the place!!

Moscow

Have finally made it to Moscow - it is -8 and there is a lot of snow - also, it being 2 hours ahead of Budapest is very confusing.

Everything on the outskirts seems to go up and lots of neon lights across the skyline makes it look a little like something out of Gotham but I will have more balanced sense of it all soon.

Certainly there are some incredible palaces and things in the city centre which compensate for the lack of town planning elsewhere

Weirdest thing is that there are same brands as we have in Hungary and the UK but because they are all written in cyrillic, it takes a fraction of a second to translate them into something more familiar

Have been given a taste of the legendary Moscow traffic too - if I spoke a little Russian and was more intrepid then I might try the airport train next time - but have been promised a quick trip in the Metro as apparently, that is an interesting experience - stray dogs and all!

More after when I have worked out what is going on!