gone living

after an epic 88-hour journey in 3rd-class on the trans-siberian railway, i have now arrived in moscow.

i stumbled off the train at 4am with a wicked vodka hangover, courtesy of the english backpackers that i met on the train, and watched some truly shifty activities at the moscow train station waiting room as we napped for a few hours and waited for dawn to arrive so we could call up the hostel and get directions.

after tromping through the moscow metro system and roaming around until we found our hostel (and then discovering the 8 flights of stairs involved in getting there... next time i'll take the elevator), dropped off our luggage, and went around moscow to explore all day. standing in red square less than a month after arriving standing tiennamen square was surreal.

things here feel much closer to europe than anywhere i've been in months. there's a lot of energy (and money) in this city, and i'm really enjoying the capitalist wild west feeling that is here. definitely a major lifestyle change from mongolia!