Welcome to Babushkastan

OK, just a general outline for now but I’ll fill it out when I get the chance.

1st stop Red Square and St Basils cathedral. Both smaller than I expected but still brillaint. That’s a self portrait outside Basils. I was going for a kind of grumpy Orthodox priest vibe. Like the one I saw on the Metro who was a real arse.

Next, caught up with two Aussie expats living in Moscow - Jen and Nathan. Took me to Glavpivtorg - a Soviet beer restaurant modelled on the old ones favoured by the Soviet heavies.  That’s me hamming it up in the State Room.

Then a meal in a restaurant Nathan was reviewing for the Moscow Times. Nathan and Jen taught me how to drink Vodka properly - an essential skill out in the provinces, they said.

More on that later - but it worked. I had 11 shots over the evening and felt fine.