Moscow

Ivan, my contact in Moscow I met on the Internet, told me we should come on the 7th to present our bikes at Moscow’s train station, so as to leave on the 8th, and because we lost some time on the way unfortunately we have to dash through St-Petersburg (not a single road sign indicating the way to Moscow in the whole freakin’ city, and it’s big!). We arrive late in Moscow but we bought a good map in a petrol station so I lead the way through Moscow to Ivan’s home. He happens to be out of town, but his wife(Gallia) is kind enough to offer us a room in her nice apartment. In fact she’s a little bored alone with her kid, so she appreciates our stay, and she’s happy to practice her English.

The next morning we leave with the bikes for the train station, which is on the other side of the city. We decide to take this ring motorway around Moscow, but it’s totally jammed from one end to the other: we end up making our way between the lanes (and the exhaust fumes) for about one hour until we reach the station. The first real challenge of our trip is to find a person who speaks a little English behind the dozens booths. After a few tries we understand that it’s not something that’s required to work on the capital’s main train station. Finally we bump into this nice lady who’s willing to help us, so she leads us to some booth where she gets us tickets for the bikes for such a low price that we don’t really believe it.. but what else can we do ? so we come back to Gallia’s place and we’ll find out tomorrow.