Scale of Russia is breathtaking
Belgium take on Tunisia in Russia After an exciting stint in St Petersburg, we headed inland to Moscow.
Reaching the capital took just four hours on a high speed train, making the world’s biggest country feel very small - for now.
Overlooking the national Luzhniki Stadium, the riverside Fan Fest was the perfect place to soak up the friendly atmosphere created by supporters from all corners of the planet.
With visa-free access to the often mysterious city, we explored the Kremlin, Red Square and the city centre, and even managed to bump into some St Johnstone fans from Bridge of Earn whilst we were sightseeing.
With tickets to one of the final round of group stage matches in our hands, we were keen to see if getting into anymore games would be a possibility, so we took the metro out to Spartak Moscow’s stunning ultra-modern stadium on the morning of Belgium againstTunisia.
FIFA have allowed fans to return tickets for official resale, however these often don’t last long on their online marketplace, so we had hoped to chance our luck at the turnstiles.
Fans had been warned against touting tickets, with fines of £20,000 reported on social media. However soldiers, police and the city volunteers who were marshalling fans into the stadium turned a blind eye to fans looking to offload unsold tickets.
Having failed to get in, we headed across the city to pick up train tickets to our matches’cities.
We were set to watch Poland take on Japan 1100 kilometres away in Volgograd - a train journey of 21 hours.
With a very Soviet looking cabin to ourselves, we hopped onboard the archaic locomotive towards the banks of the River Volga.
FIFA has arranged hundreds of additional free trains for ticket holders, however these had been pre-booked months before we had even looked at tickets, so we had to stump up a whopping £32 for the day-long journey - less than a peak time return trip from Perth to Glasgow.
Formerly known as Stalingrad, Russia’s third city is steeped in harrowing history and is the site of some stunning war memorials.
The Motherland Calls, a striking 85m statue to remember the two million people who died at the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII looms over the stunning Volgograd Arena.
The upgraded venue provided the perfect backdrop for two plucky Scots to be interviewed live on Egyptian television.
Volgograd is closer to Iran than Moscow, and there are two host cities even further south, putting the sheer scale of the World Cup operation into perspective.
We headed to the arena on Thursday to catch our first taste of action from inside the stadium.
●See next Friday’s PA to see how the boys got on.