Volgograd

Cassie: What a great day. It started out with us checking out of our cool, cheap hotel that we stayed in last night. Orange was their signature colour which was interesting. All the doors were orange, the bed frame was orange, the other furniture was orange, the curtains were orange, there was a wide strip of the brightest orange tiles I’ve ever seen in the bathroom. So yeah, you get the picture. It was kinda cool in the beginning but I didn’t really feel like looking at so much orange first thing when I woke up this morning.

Now we’re staying at the Hotel Volgograd not far from where we stayed last night. It’s actually not that much more expensive which is great. It would be wonderful if the rest of Europe is this cheap but I’m seriously doubting it. Anyway, glad to say that our passports/visas have been registered by this hotel, so happy days.

So after checking out of the other hotel this morning, we went to see the monument, Mother Country, as Graeme has already explained. It was quite a powerful experience. I’ve never been so impressed or moved by a monument before. The monument is so massive I was actually getting vertigo looking up at it. The clouds were moving which made the statue look like it was moving instead. Oh my, a dizzy-ing experience! I have to say though, Mother Country does not have a bad side. She’s wonderfully photogenic.

After the visit to Mother Country we checked into our new hotel, made Skype calls to our lovely parents (nawwww) then headed out for a spot of afternoon tea. Coffee, cheesecake and a waffle consumed, we were then sufficiently fuelled up to do the grocery shopping. It’s actually something we love to do on this trip.

That’s pretty much all we’ve accomplished today and it’s now 7pm and I suppose we’ll go out for some dinner soon. We passed a bar and grill on our wandering around this afternoon, so that’s certainly on the list of possibilities.

One thing I’m hankering for in the UK is a decent bangers and mash with vegies and loads of gravy! “Vegetables” in all the countries we’ve travelled through thus far means cucumber and tomato. I also want a meat pie with tomato sauce. Yeah!

In answer to your question, Warren, no, I couldn’t see a McBorsh on the Maccas menu but there is a borsh to be had on the Subway menu! The McDonalds menu is fundamentally the same as it is in Australia with some slight differences in the burgers and salads.