On the train. Leaving Russia……don’t feel ready……but it’s done, time to go……… Still in the subhurbs of Moscow and even here is that feel of – you’re really just in the forest but there are some houses and stuff, even tower blocks, but really its all about the trees. I think every Russian at heart is a forest dweller.

My last couple of days have been spent with a lovely Russian woman who lives in a town on the outskirts of Moscow. Her town is in 2 halves – one is the usual big city tower blocks and huge roads, her half is all trees and undergrowth with wooden houses – and brick ones too – among the trees, with tiny roads, some not even made up. Its green and cool in the heat. Her garden is all apple trees and she has a fabulous upstairs living space which opens onto a balcony which has an apple tree spilling over on to it, you can lounge on the sofa and reach out and pick an apple! Her house is completely wooden inside and out – ceilings, walls, floors, stairs, everything, and its fascinating to see the construction – walls of horizontal logs with planks laid over to give a flat surface and look smart. Wooden door and window frames neatly incorporated. Tin roof – all the houses have tin roofs.

I’ve loved my time with her, she met me off the train from Kazan, and Moscow and the metro was a BIG shock to my system. No way was I ready for that. So it was great to escape to her lovely peaceful house among the apple trees, the perfect place to gather myself ready to face leaving Russia, and meet her friends – one of whom is South African, came to Russia for a work project and loved it and stayed. And stayed! We’ve ambled round huge parks that might be ex big estates but are really no more than accessible bits of forest with the odd mansion thrown in.

My last afternoon in Kazan was amazing – a friend of a friend, with typical Russian hospitality, very kindly offered to show me round. She asked what I would like to see and I said “Show me your Kazan, show me what it is, not the touristy stuff”. She took me to a bit of the old Kazan, secreted among the tower blocks – a little village that has somehow stuck in there, beautiful old wooden houses with the lace carved windows – again, all trees and undergrowth and people have planted flowers and bushes alongside the street. Again, its little unmade roads. These houses are a bit of Russian history but are privately owned and there are no grants for their preservation or restoration so people extend, some with wood, some with blocks, all higgledy piggledy. There’s a pump handle in the middle of the village – we saw a man filling some big plastic containers, he said he has no water in his house.

Its a beautiful evening outside my train window, the sun setting over the trees. My last few hours in Russia. Goodbye Russia. And thank you. Thank you thank you thank you………….