From Russia with love

"Mother Russia", Volgograd
(AKA The Chick with the Stick)
Originally uploaded by rtw2007.

We are writing this from the Grand Café in Volgograd. After a couple of days of turmoil; several sessions of stabbing voodoo dolls of the traffic police; and wondering whether or not this whole mad-cap trip is worth it or whether we wouldn’t be better turning round and going to Spain for six months, things are finally starting to look up.

Our replacement water system parts successfully made it all the way from Surrey to the Hotel Volgograd and, after some blood, sweat (it is 38 degrees here) and (almost) tears, we managed to fix our water pipe with the assistance of a spanner borrowed from a burly Russian workman. Which is very good news indeed given the vast quantities of water which we will need in the Central Asian heat.

We have been really surprised by Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) which has lots to see (including the huge “Mother Russia” statue in the Battle of Stalingrad memorial park, see attached photo - it is purportedly the tallest statue in the world). The city has a really laid back, distinctly un-Russian, feel: lots of pavement cafes; wide tree-lined boulevards reminiscent of France; immaculately manicured parks; and incredibly well dressed “beautiful people” who would be perfectly at home in South Kensington (Michael points out that strappy tops, stilettos and pert bottoms are very much de rigeur around here – I’m not sure that he should be looking at Russian bottoms).

Today is Day 80 of our trip. We are therefore not doing quite as well as Mr Fogg. But no matter. Our next posting will probably (hopefully) be from Kazakhstan, which will please those of you who have been waiting until the ‘Stans to post comments on our blog (hint hint!!).