We got over the Russian culture shock of St Petersburg where people seem quite up themselves and unfriendly. Made it to Moscow which is much cooler. They do things big there - the State University was simiklar to the University Library in Cambridge but less like a lego building and more like something out of the original Gotham. Saw Lenin, who was njot as waxy as you'd expect for a guy who's been dead for 84 years. There's a debate whether Lenin finally gets to be buried next to his mum where he originally asked to be, but for now he's still entombed outside of the Kremlin in a room that looks not disimilar to Ming's torture chamber in Flash Gordon.

Also saw lots of art in Russia so far, which is good because not much of it ever leaves. Did not go to the Ermitage in St Petersburg because in terms of vastness driving across the world's largest country is enough for me and that justified a break for enormity. We did start to get to grips with Cyrillic though. I can now even spell my name.

Having fiound Russia's only campsite (Sweden needs to start exporting these) we spent last night by an industrial bridge some 150km outside of Nizy Novgorod. For a long time this city was closed to westerners - even those with with visas - as it was a hub of the Russian military production. Driving through it is to understand what they had not been missing - possibly the. most. depressing. place. on. the. face. of. the. planet. I can see why the Soviet regime exiled people internally here.

Thankfully the exhaust only showed signs of dropping off this morning so we pulled over after 10 minutes outside a mechanic's looked hopeful and then got down to strapping it together with wire as...[Read More]