On the train before Russia the Finns checked the passports and visas. They also gave a  migration form to fill. It had two sheets. They were almost identical but one had written arrival and the other one had departure or leaving or something like that. I filled the arrival page only as I saw that there was a line in the middle for tearing them apart. So I thought they'd take only that part. When we crossed the border we had to reconnect to the WiFi providing more details and soon we got checked by the Russians. There are professions that for some reason attract the good looking ladies. In England it's the police, in Russia I thought it's the border control.
Their uniform was forest green, they had badges and they had stars on their epaulet. They just asked if I had anything to declare.
Few minutes later a guy came and asked for the same thing in a less friendly manner. He also asked for my migration card. I start looking for my passport, because there was where I kept the card. He poked my upper arm and show a picture of the form. He was a bit impatient. I find the document and handled to him. When he noticed that I only filled one page he wasn't too happy for that. He was shaking his head and looking at me like I fucked up my own name on the form or something. I said I thought I can fill the other page latter, because the train was shaking. He said I have to fill it right then. I asked for a pen. I filled the form and gave it to him. He torn it apart took the arrival page and gave the other one back. (Facepalm).

Shortly we arrived to Saint Petersburg finnlainsky train station. My next train was departing from Moscowskij station. Checked it on Google maps few blocks on the other side of a small river, perfect.
I get of from the station everyone was smoking. I mean smoking for real... Good old killer beccies not that E fake ass vapor pacifier. I get to the closest bus stop for calibrating my direction. Some guy who parked on the pavement and was blocked by a taxi played the Swam lake from Tchaikovsky on his honk. The other guy didn't give a fuck so after he kept going on with the Nut Cracker. Still no reaction so he get off from the car. I'd expect something like "excuse me sir, could you move please?" He was shouting from 2 inches of the other guys face. The other guy was significantly bigger so he remained calm and was like "okey okey no need for trouble I am moving!" Our protagonist get back to the car and the other guy just kept doing his thing. The honk rhapsody was started again.

I start walking towards the river but on my way there was a really large square that was not shown on the map. And the river was nowhere near. In theory I was going to the right direction so I was going to check if I can see more on the other side of the square. I went there and I realized that it was indeed on the map I just didn't zoom in enough.
Probably because of the offline mode I couldn't properly use the route planner, I just had the map with the streets and saw my location. I just realized that in Russia everything is larger so a few blocks meant 40 minutes of walking. On my way I saw a tram and it looked so old, I didn't understand how it can operate without horses. Then I start seeing stars everywhere. So stereotypical. Then the 'mare: crossing the road. As someone who lives in the traffic I was kinda up to date with this kind of preconceptions. And seemly they were right. I was staying by the pedestrian's crossing for 3 good minutes when some guy who looked like some army officer just stepped down on the road and the cars just stopped. I followed him, but for the cars were like I had been invisible, even I was only a few meters behind, they would've hit me If I hadn't hurried up. That uniform gotta have some sort of respect. I followed the guy. Some young guy in an army uniform came from the opposite direction and he saluted to my guy. I almost felt on my face, it was so fluently natural to them like I say "alright mate".
Everyone who I passed had a glance on me. The big ass buildings, the traffic, the saluting army people, the attention. It was just way too intense.

The train station was a bit confusing. It was one building but there were multiple stations inside. I asked someone for direction. "Ne Angoliyskiy." Happens, next one please! No English either. I have to be a bit more specific. I went to talk to someone in a shop. In the heart of Saint Petersburg I expected people in shops to speak English, otherwise how could they rip tourists off? I was wandering for a good half an hour when I realized it is easier the decode the Russian alphabet. I found it. "Московский" Comparing to the amount of people on the station, the trains were quite infrequent. Like one in every 20-30 minutes. The departure time of the train seemed to be a good indicator, but the one that had the same time as mine had a different destination. Fortunately there was a train map on the wall Moscow was between Saint Petersburg and the town that was the destination of the train with the same departure time, but I wasn't gonna risk it so I asked the most hippie/traveller looking guy who I suspected to speak English.
Say once more not to judge someone by the look. He spoke English. He told me that I bought the wrong train ticket and that train goes to south to the see. But if I want to go to Moscow and I hurry up I have 10 minutes to catch the next fast one. I shook his hand saying thank you very much and start running towards the ticket sales. There was a queue for the tickets and people had queue numbers. Typed in Google translate: "I bought the wrong ticket and my train departures in 10 minutes, please" and when one sale person were free I run there shown her the phone and said "Mosskwaaah". She was shaking her head. Meanwhile two girls turned up. They were the next in the queue. I shown them my phone. It was probably to high for them, one took my hand and pulled it closer to her face. Few seconds later she looked at me smiled and nodded her head. Then gave me a sign to go to the guy who gave the queue numbers. I was like thank you very much for the nothing. And get a number. I got seated and realized I have no chance to get the next train departures to Moscow.
I was in my phone editing a text that I would show in Russian to the ticket sales person when I have my number called. Someone stand above me. I looked up the girls were there. They were just a little bit taller standing than me sitting. The one who had blonde hair and took my hand too read my phone asked me to show the wrong ticket I bought. I shown her. She took my arm start pulling me and talked to her friend who had black hair. I followed. The one with the black hair start typing to her phone and after a few second shown it to me. It was a bit low so I took her hand and pulled it closer to see it. In Google translate: "you have the right ticket, just come with us." - I kept following. After a half minute of walk we got to the platforms where I realized why trains are so infrequent. The train had 20 coaches. The blond girl who was still pulling me by my arm said something to the black haired girl. They swapped. The one with black hair grabbed my arm and pulled me. The blonde girl typed. "We take you to your coach." They slowed down. There was no number or anything on the train, they swapped again and the black haired girl typed: we are almost there. We stopped by a coach typed something to the phone looked at eachother smiled and with surprisingly clear accent read from the phone: this is your coach. Good luck to your journey!
- Spasibo... A lot! - I was so use to receive the "go ahead take the second right turn left go 50 yards, there will be a small alleyway go in, move the 42nd brick on the wall it will open a secret door. Go in, play a chess game against the guard if you win keep going to the next roundabout take the forth exit, run to the wall between platform 9 and 10 and you're there. You gonna find it! Have a nice day!" Kinda helps that when somebody actually took some effort for me I even felt a bit uncomfortable.
They barely just disappeared in the crowd when they suddenly turned and run back. On their way they typed and read: this is not your coach! Come with us! They both grabbed one of my hand and start running. They got me to the right one. I thanked about five times again and said goodbye.
My ticket was somewhat in English, I find out that my coach is number 7 and my cabin is number 2.
I got in cabin 2. Some guy was already there with his wife and with like seven kids. He was pushing me out from the cabin the people on the corridor were impatiently shouting and I was pushing my phone to the guys face so he could tell me which is my cabin if not that one. He turned his face away like it was a leaked nude of Donald Trump. Peace is not for the ignorant ones, I just marched in. The guy was freaking the fuck out shouting not at me just for the universe punishing him with me. Her wife tried to calm him. So she had a look on my phone. She start saying something in Russian and just keep repeating it. She was really concerned how we will overcome this problem. Some guy from the corridor tapped my shoulder and shown seven on his hands and pointed to the other end of the wagon.
Thank you very much for not being a cunt but taking 2 seconds of your life to sort out a problem in a civilized way.
My cabin was 7 and my seat was 2. I still don't know where the coach number was shown.
I get in my cabin. There were a lady probably same age as my mother and a girl probably my age wearing a flower patterned dress. I was still uncomfortable to interact because of the previous incident, but I google translated how to say "I don't speak Russian" so, they wouldn't freak out if I tried to listen their conversation to pick up the frequent words. It was a sleeping cabin but I didn't expect people actually sleep on a 9 and half hour journey. The lady start making the beds. I wasn't gonna be in her way so I went to the toilet. When I got back the girl was wearing an other dress with dots. I was a bit confused for a few seconds till her identical twin sister in the flower dress shown up. I was struggling not to laugh. I was in a chatty mood again. Typed on my phone: this is my first day in Russia and I have never seen a train with beds. Shown it to both three. They chuckled. They have never seen someone who's never seen a train with beds. After a second they realised that it might not be too polite to laugh at someone, they blushed. We started to have a conversation. The lady was Galina the twins' mother. The girl in the flower dress was Liyena and her sister is Natasha. We were talking by typing stuff in Google translate and showing it to eachother. When I asked how to turn my bed down, Galina just took the whole task from me and made my bed. Not even after the young girls help I could believe what's happening. I wasn't gonna be rude so I just kept saying "thanks" and followed. 15-20 minutes after departure they went to sleep. I hadn't had a proper sleep in the past days so it wasn't difficult to pass out. One and a half hour later I woke up. Galina brought two mugs of tea in her hands and was kicking the cabin's door trying to open it. The guy who checked the tickets followed her with two other mugs. They put the mugs on the table. The girls woke up too and came down for the chay. Galina also get some croissants for everyone.
I would consider myself as a black belt blagger. I probably had more free stuff in the UK than paid, but in that scenario I felt a bit cheeky abusing the tourist card, even it wasn't intentional. I get my bag. The only thing I had is the chocolate I bought in Helsinki the previous day. I tried to share it, but they barely had any.
While I was eating the girl's were taking turns to show me questions on their phones. They were showing genuine interest about my most casual things. I really enjoyed their company. They were in Saint Petersburg for sight seeing but didn't like it as much as they expected. We talked about traveling, Russia, Europe and all sorts of stuff before we slept again. Next I awoke for the twins' voice as they were talking to eachother. It was about one and half hour before Moscow. They asked if I know where to get off.
- Of course I do, in Moscow - I tried to pronounce it from my phone.
They were laughing.
- Is my pronunciation this horrible? - I asked.
- it isn't that simple - they showed it in Google translate. - what is your station?
I shown my ticket.
- we get off here too, we will take you off from the train.
It was really obvious when we arrived to Moscow, high buildings everywhere a proper city. But from our entrance it took at least an other 40 minutes to arrive to the proper station. I couldn't guess witch one it was.
When we get off they took me to the ticket office. If I didn't watch out they'd even purchase my ticket. I was there hesitating if I should buy a Troika card and top up or a three days ticket. A girl who witnessed the whole Google translate thing just approached us and started to talk in English explaining how the public transport works. I wanted the Troika so I could keep the plastic card as a souvenir but she convinced me to get the three days pass. It cost me the same as a 1 hour ticket in Amsterdam. They made me to take a photo of the train map and took me to the green line. It was one stop to the change where I had to take the yellow line. They also got off. I just realized that they were traveling with me to make sure I get the right transport. I was really thankful, and it felt really good, but told them I'm fine, because I wasn't gonna waste their time. We said goodbye, I took the wrong subway and smirked why women told me to be careful traveling alone in Russia.