In Moscow subway stations are underground palaces. Amidst the grandeur passengers rush in an orderly fashion from platform to platform on marbled floors. Grand archways, tangled iron bridges and chandeliers mark their progress. Commuters march back and forth under the pressure of roads and buildings above. Elderly trains rumble and crash along worn iron tracks. Security guards and attendants sit quietly behind glass. While I, I stop and admire the stained glass. Guess it's because I'm the only one with time to spare; being a tourist.

Millions of lives traffic through buried palaces every day in that grand old city. I visited Moscow for a week last summer and, while I learned very little during my stay, I saw enough to be dazzled. The scale of things was most surprising: everything was just so big! Walking between the Moscow River and one of the many concentric multi-lane highways which ripple out from the city center I saw a car advertisement which spanned over 200 meters. A life-sized model of the road below was positioned perpendicular to it. Real car shells hung from it, suspended above our heads as we walked the shore, in the distance one of the huge state buildings glittered over the water, its many towers and pillars adorned with stars and heroic statues.

That week in 2008 was an eventful one. Two major events were occurring which interested and concerned me. Firstly, Beijing was hosting the 29th Olympiad. Having lived in China four years ago I was keen to see that country open its doors to the world, which they did in a magnificent, proud and very Chinese way (lots and lots of fireworks). I was happy for China to see everything go well, during my stopover in the Shanghai airport (I place I have spent many a long hour waiting in) everyone ignored the first boarding call for our flight because we were too busy cheering on the women's archery team. I figured it was safer to cheer for China than their English opponents, given the country I was in. I just want to add here that Shanghai Airport has the most ridiculous transfer system I have ever encountered. Instead of keeping us securely inside the airport and just ushering us from arrivals to departures, we were given temporary visa's only to walk out and catch an escalator upstairs, walk past check in and back through customs. It struck me as quite, quite mad, however, I took the opportunity to walk outside and take photographic proof that I was in China during the Olympics. Note my cheesy "I'm in China" grin.

The second world event to occur that week was Russia, my fun-filled holiday destination, attacked Georgia over a its mistreatment of an ethnic minority. I didn't really understand the whole situation because the news media I viewed on the topic were completely conflicting. On the one hand I saw Western coverage saying that Russia was using peacekeeping to take back some soviet land, or it was about natural resources and pipe lines. On the other, the Russian news channels were accusing Georgians of genocide and showed their peacekeeping efforts in nothing but a good light. It was all quite a to-do at the time but now, not even a year later, I have no idea how the whole situation panned out. I guess I better do a web-search and get informed.