Don't have a Moscow man

We climbed on board of our first overnight train at 12.20am. The cabins were 4 berth and Kate and I were sharing with the 2 Irish ladies. We took the top bunks to save the oldies climbing up and we quickly settled into a good sleep due to the rocking and shaking of the carriages.

We woke up in Moscow and hit the ground running. Soaking in as many of the sights as possible, The Red Square, The Kremlin, St Basil's Cathedral, The Armory (which is so chock full of gold and jewels owned by the Czars you can understand why they were overthrown, man they lived life to the excess!), the Art Muzeon Sculpture Park, Izmailovo Markets. It was a very busy 2 days and we were knackered by the time we got back on the train to begin the next leg of the Trans Siberian

Stop Russian and slow down

We arrived in St Peterburg easy enough and decided against the taxi from the airport and to try our luck with the public transport. After seeing the buses we needed pass by 3 times and numerous confused tourists have the doors slammed in their faces when asking directions, we realised they don't really stop, they just slow down enough for you to jump on. We risked it and launched ourselves through a door and took off!

The next obstacle was the underground train system which has the longest and slowest escalators ever. Longer than any one we've seen around the world. We managed to get by fine and made our way to our hotel and met the group. The tour guide a kiwi our age, 2 fifty something ladies from Cairns and later on "an Irish couple" which turned out to be two retired friends who were even older, what a rockin group!

We spent a few days exploring St Peterburg which is really beautiful and full of bright coloured palaces and buildings. The city's founder Peter The Great thought with such dreary weather all the time it'd brighten the place up.

On our first day there Kate's camera died, the screen stopped working which was partially due to an earlier incident with a Moroccan camel. We managed to score a pretty decent deal with a nifty little camera with the twisty zoom lense on the front. If the laptop hadn't have died as well I'd be able to upload some better shots but it's all just the ones on my phone for now.

We visited the Hermitage Museum, some pretty cool cathedrals and a savory pancake place. It was good.

The mammoth in the photo is real. It was found in the ice in Siberia. Most of it's hair and half it's trunk are gone.

Next, the first overnight train...

There's no place like Stockholm

Stockholm is expensive. Like really expensive. We followed a gay Spanish guy to a bar to watch Eurovision and I saw a moose.

The Amalfi coast, Italy.

When you fly into a city that is the gateway to a UNESCO LISTED destination, you imagine that they would take some pride in the presentation of. Not Naples!
We arrived at 10am in the morning and were cheerfully greeted by hauls of black African men and a small number of dodgey Italian men trying to sell us cheap ipads, iPods and iPhones. We'd been told previously that once you have agreed to buy something and money has exchanged hands that they do some ultra cool magic and what you actually end up with is a box full of stones or salt. Gourmet stones and salt for your 200 euros though!
One of the hostel owners told us that men from America come to see how it all worked.
We stayed one night and then got the flock out of Naples. Probably would of left sooner if we could!!
We got a train to Herculeaum (Pompei's brother) where a shit load if people were killed by a eruption from Mt Vesuvius 2000 years ago, but because the houses filled with mud and not lava it preserved most if the city. We even managed to see one of the skeletons that still lies where they died. Apparently it got so hot that their brains combusted!
Pompei on the other hand was covered with ash and lava, so they died from suffocation. Both were incredible places to visit and Mt Vesuvius still lays in the background plotting it's next eruption.
From there we continued down to the Amalfi coast, similar to Frankston in that millions if people flock to the beach in summer!!
It's a smallish town that is completely over run by tourists and massive cruise ships.
We did day trips to Positano and Amalfi, both frequently visitors by celebrities with lots of money and also by lots of old ladies who wear their best clothes and pretend to be rich, but aren't!
We caught a ferry back to Sorrento (where we were living it up in a caravan park) taking in the spectacular coast line and wondering what would possess done to build on the side of a cliff!
Another day we trekked down "The path of the Gods". At the top the cloud cover was very low, but like Hercules and Neptune we strolled out of there like the Gods that we are! The views were amazing and the 1500 steps to get the bottom interesting. By the one we reached the bottom our legs were shaking all on their own, magic!! Couldn't walk properly for about three days after and confirmed my theory that exercise is overrated!
Thanks for having us Italy!