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Monday May 7: Went couchsurfing, staying with eKaterina and her partner Ivan in their one room flat in Arbat.

It was the first time I have ever couchsurfed. My friend Brian Thacker, another Aussie travel writer, does it all the time. In fact he’s got a book coming out next year where in couchsurfs in two countries on every continent.

What can I say? It was brilliant. A real-eye-opener. And an instant insight on how many Russians live. eKaterin and Ivan live in a room, sharing a bathroom and kitchen with the people in three other rooms. eKaterina’s daughter usually lives there too but she was staying at her boyfriend’s place so I got her couch.

Apparently these kinds of living arrangements are getting rarer in Moscow. They’re called Kommunalkas and most Moscovites are ditching them for self contained flats with their own bathrooms and kitchens.  The rooms aren’t worth much on their own. But if all the owners agreed to sell Kommunalkas can go for big bikkies. Nathan reckons that the one eKaterina lives in - 50 metres off Arbat - would sell for $US 3 million. Sell the room individually and you’d only get a minute fraction of that.

I was amazed how much stuff eKaterina and Ivan fitted into the place. A huge cabinet lined one wall. There was a computer desk under the window and a piano in the right hand corner. A TV, a fridge, a double couchbed, a single couch bed, and a toilet seat to take with you when nature called. The dog lived under the couch bed I slept on.

eKaterina is a mad traveller and spends every chance she gets backpacking. She’s off to Irian Jaya in July. Ivan, from what I can gather, wears a blue dressing gown and plays online duelling games until 3 a.m. in the morning.