Vladimir

After 70 long, long, long hours on the train we arrived in Vladimir. Vladimir is a former capital of Russia but, after meeting with the Mongols, lost out to Moscow eventually. It seems to be composed of older buildings brightly painted and the odd concrete district lurking in the background. Cars range from comically old Soviet types to BMWs. No McDonalds.

One thing about Russia I should mention are the minibuses. They act like normal buses, with routes and numbers, but are faster. Their drivers never speak English but now I have mastered the Russian for Lenin Square/Street (which seems to always be our destination) we get along fine. I think they should introduce these minibuses in the UK- they'd be great for rural routes.

I am confused by the non existent level of English skills here. If they speak it in Laos, why not Russia??

Luckily my ipod speaks Russian so we can scrape by... Although Russians are rather bewildered by what I'm doing.

Our hostel is called Pilgrim Hostel. It has a rule that un-married couples can't share a room. None of this rang warning bells until I looked at the directions to the hostel today and saw it was near an Evangelical Church. And, lo and behold, there is a distinct Christian theme here. Jesus is everywhere. The wifi password is "bethlehem". Thank god it's only for one night.

Bizarrely we are rather jetlagged- even though we spent the train journey trying to adjust. 4 hours is enough to make a difference I guess.

As I was starving we traipsed around trying to find food while I got crosser and crosser, not helped by hitting my head for the millionth time on a random metal pole. Eventually we found a nice place and planted. With the cafe's most English fluent waitress and my ipod we ordered a pizza, red wine and sprite followed by cherry pie. After 3 days of jam sandwich and dreams, it was grrreat.

On the way back we went past Vladimir's Golden Gate, which had brides queuing up to have pictures taken with it. Reminded me of Qingdao. I miss Qingdao. Mostly the teppanyaki restaurant in Qingdao, but the rest as well.

P.s. I go offline for 3 days and world markets are crashing- did I miss something?