A day in the life ...

Sometime - wake up and take a shower.

Walk around Ulitsa Pakrovka, ул. Покровка, and find a restaurant where to have a 'Business Lunch'. Moscow isn't a cheap place to eat but many restaurants offer a very competitive Business lunch of 3 or 4 courses for 200-250 rubles (5 or 6 quid).

Go to 'Coffee Bean' and order my hot milk, set up my computer and start to work thanks to their free wifi.

After a few hours, pause because I need to eat so walk and order cheese pancakes and buckwheat.

Either return to Coffee Bean, or go to 'White Clouds', Белые Облака, to listen to a talk on this or that spiritual theme and practise my understanding of spoken Russian.

Return to the flat hostel where I am staying, listen to some Russian on the language CDs I have, and a selection of the following; talk, sleep, meditate, then cook some noodles and cheese and head off to Krizic Jhanra, Кризис Жанра, to read a chapter of the Russian language course I am doing, and a few verses of the Dharmapada.

Drink an orange juice at Propaganda, Прораганда.

Home, meditate and sleep.

Galina's Flat, Moscow

And now I am again in Moscow staying in Galina's Flat. Voila a reiview I did about it:

Galina's Flat:

metro - Chisty Prudy

phone - 8 (919) 410-41-12

email - galinas.flat (ta) mtu-net.ru

The flat has 3 rooms two of which can host people, one with 5 beds and the other with 2. They are clean and comfortable if not modern. She is friendly and straightforward, and she has at least (at any one time) at least 4 large cats. Internet is available at one ruble a minute by not wifi and you can do your laundery by hand in the bath. She does let some guests use her kitchen, but probably couldn't cope with everybody doing so at once.

Irs an idealplace for a shoestring traveller, being very centrally located - 5 minutes walk from Chisty Prudy metro, 10 minutes walk from some of the best clubs in Moscow, and 20 minutes from the Kremlin.

She charges 400 rubles a night, or 500 if you stay just one night, which means you can stay there for 12,500 rubles for the month which is at least a third less expensive than anything else I could find in the area. To find her, you go through a tunnel into an open courtyard and turn right and find the first door on the right which has two intercom buttons one with her name on it.

And back in St Petersburg

I had hoped to write more about my life in Russia on this blog, only on my first visit I had to rely on pay as you use internet connections. This time I have my computer with me so maybe you will be able to read a little more!

Here, at least are some photos. You can see more by finding my account on Facebook. You can search for 'Suvannavira', there is only one in the world.

Tonight I get the train to Moscow where I will stay for a couple on months, before heading back to the UK overland by train stopping in Kiev, Krakow, Berlin and Paris.