Admittedly it’s not quite barbeque weather in London yet, at a “fresh” 9°C, but when Dee found a local hardware store with coals in stock (not on display – “We don’t really put them out because nobody is having barbecues just now.” “Perhaps not, but I’m Aussie.”) how could we say no? So (as alpha male?) I’m sitting outside on the balcony next to a glowing fire-pit, sipping a beer and watching England vs. Scotland (rugby) on the telly through the window.
We’ve spent much of the day figuring out the trip – taking the departure date that RealRussia gave us for the Trans-Mongolian and working backwards from there. It looks like we’ve got the dates and most of the trains sorted out now, thanks to Dee; for my part I’ve updated this website to be a bit more travel-friendly, with a new Wordpress installation and various plugins for Flickr, Youtube and Maps.
In the morning we headed to Angel Islington, to find the RealRussia offices. A bit weird — they do the VISA applications over here, but the rest of it seems to be run by the head office in Moscow, and as a result if you need to buy tickets the staff in London can’t really do much more than point you at the website. Fair enough, but weird nonetheless: after speaking to a woman there we decided to come back home and use our own broadband instead. Via an antiques market, of course — Dee loves her antique markets.
A delicious Turkish lunch on Upper Street, then back home for an afternoon of train timetables and spreadsheets. But we’re getting there!
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