During our two weeks stay in Russia we saw, heard and learned a lot of new exciting things... Our first stop was Moscow where about 12 mil. people are living. We didn't have any expectations or prejudices and i think our first thoughts were "wtf are they talking about?!" Because of the different albhabet it's really difficult to understand the language or read any signs, so we just had to go with our instincts :) The people in Russia are very friendly even though most of them don't speak english...
We realized soon that three days is not enough to get an impression of a millioncity like Moscow, even though we walked around the city for a day with our "personal guide" Venera. We didn't see the famous crazy nightlife either, which is quite sad...
From Moscow we continued our journey towards Irkutsk, a city with 600 000 people. 5000 kilometers in three days on the trans-siberian railways was an experience of its own! All the the prejudices about "the dangerous trainride trough Siberia" were swept away :)
77 hours in the 3rd class, +25 degrees and 27 persons sharing one toilet is a once in a lifetime experience, don't you think?!?
In Irkutsk we had lots of fun with our hosts Jane and Sasha :) Among other things we learned that crazy people are put in yellow houses and for example how to say "Hello old grandma' with eggs (or testicles)" in russian. One thing I also will remember is the beautiful tradition for newlyweds to put a lock on a bridge and throw the key in the water, to symbolize eternal love<3

After a couple of days in Irkutsk we left to Olkhan at Lake Baikal. There we got to know a lot of great people and hopefully made some friends. At Olkhan we experienced our first tourist resort, which was totally different from the other places we visited in Russia!
We definetly got more out of Irkutsk than Moscow, maybe because of the people there. We realized how big an inflluence the people had on us and the way we'll remember each city.. One thing we're already hooked on to is drinking tea :) The amount of tea the russians drink is ridiculous! And with lemon, stupid!