Arriving in Moscow we completed our last leg on the Tran-Siberian. We rode 3rd class platzkarny train for more than 3000 miles. And I have to say it was a great experience. The train was clean, and the atmosphere was surprisingly not rowdy at all, except when occasionally someone invites you to get totally plastered on vodka, which Greg got to partake (I was too knackered that day).

Moscow is just such a beautiful city all around, so much culture and history, we saw so many churches and more religious iconography than we could possibly digest. In the end we were on the brink of Jesus fatigue.

One night Greg’s friend Ekaterina showed us around town, and we happened to run into an illegal street racing party. Hundreds of bikers decked out in their finest leather riding outfits and showing off their rides. The girls were particularly bad-ass looking. We asked one of the bikers if there were going to be any racing that night, unfortunately the answer was no but as he put it – “we’ve got drinks, bikes and girls here tonight, what more could I want?”. Well you can hardly argue with that.

One of the coolest things we did in Moscow was going to the Tank Museum. An hour out of moscow on a historically “classified” Red Army armor testing facility, the museum displays a ridiculous number of retired tanks from various 20th century wars. It was very eerie for me to walk by these seemingly indestructible massive hunks of weaponry. These were the real thing. How many lives did these plow through and blow apart?

It felt like we were the only foreign tourists there that day and the museum seemed to be a popular choice for weekend family outings. So many families with their kids just having a great time checking out tanks. I swear almost every one of my photos had some kid in it.

Next up St. Petersburg – not too bad for a city built on a swamp! (Actually it’s absolutely gorgeous)