Babushka selling strawberries

Day eight: set off for Moscow. After a final wander round Kyiv, we board our third sleeper train - beginning the last leg of our journey. This time, we have a carriage for four to ourselves, so can spread out. It's a new train - basic, but clean, and with air con, although it apparently doesn't work. As we pass through rural eastern Ukraine, the landscape changes, the houses become wooden, and babushkas on the platforms of village stations try to sell us berries. Customs is straightforward, although they seem a little confused as to how to 'process' Brits (it seems not many arrive by train). Just before midnight, we enter Russia.