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Published: August 7th 2007
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This gave me nightmares Okay, so it's been a long time coming and I'm only on Moscow, this has proved a gargantuian task, with no internet cafes in Moscow (well, one underground, hidden round a corner and presided over by the KGB) and slow internet connections in Mongolia and here in China. As well as limited time. So this is a retrospective until I catch up with myself. Sorry about the wait, more photos to follow if I can find a cafe with both USB AND a CD draw (trust me, it's hard) So anyway, on with the relating.
We made it from the airport to the Moscow Metro on a train decorated in what must have been someones old living room, gold and yellow chintz, beige patterned carpets.
The Metro made me want to cry, I'll leave it at that, and I nearly lost a kidney on the evil ticket gates. But then came our first views of Moscow, emerging from the wrong metro station. Large is a good word, HUGE is a better one. And it is HOT, like 30 degrees in the day, and 25 at night. So all those thermals are going home.
We found a soviet canteen
party
First night party in Moscow on our first day, we were actually given a voucher for a free desert but my total failure at Russian caused us to miss out on that treat. Probably just as well, all the food is weighed by the gram and, whilst I got lucky with the game of 'is it vegetarian'?, practically inedible, still frozen anemic chips, cold tinned veg, carrot, potato and yogurt cake? the salads had spores growing on them, but it was an experience.
The guards - they are everywhere and they are on a power trip, on street corners, barring the entrance to shopping malls, in cafes, they will even move you on from the cashpoint if they think you are gathering! I just call it queuing, but not them. The bouncers are on a power trip too, 9 of us descended on a quiet bar on a Monday night, ready to drink the place dry and attempt Russian drinking songs, Translator in tow. The tables were small (4 chairs) but the bar was nearly empty so we decided to move some tables together. We heard a resounding disapproval of this plan, and a man dressed head to toe in black, with a big
food
Soviet Canteen food cigar told us we must sit 4 people round one table only! we were not even allowed one table with 5 chairs, which meant 2 people sat entirely on their own, the tables not even being that close together. We weren't even allowed to talk to the seperate tables, only between the 4 of us! So we left. This is something we've come across a lot in Russia, people really do not care if they get your patronage. In one cafe we ordered simple meals, it took two hours before all of us were served food sporadically. But hey, when in Moscow right? We just drank more beer.
Strangely, it seems many people in Moscow like to get around at night by horse, I'm talking, no helmet, swigging a beer and riding bareback. This the guards will not pull you up on. But if you try to cross a low wall, just hear those whistles blow!
Thankfully, the Muscovite's LOVE their sushi, oh yes, I may just come back and live here.
But Moscow is amazing, you can shop in marble halls, drink horseradish and honey vodka (not recommended) descend on their most amazing bars and clubs,
Milk
Russian Milk Cartons or just go and wave to Lenin's corpse. There is a definite underground theme here, clubs, bars, shopping malls, twisting endless subterranean walkways...adds to the atmosphere. All topped off with beautiful architecture and bookstores stacked high with volumes not out of place in Hogwarts and the most AMAZING vodka I've ever tried adds up to a rather favourable impression of the city. It's had it's dodgy moments too, one night we were set upon by a group of men with knives, thankfully we were within shouting distance of our hostel and they were wasted.
The guys we are sharing the journey with are brilliant, and the first night and innocent cup of tea turned into an all night room party when a group of German students needed our room to film a love story (they say that, we say porn), later they all joined us for Polish wine and prostest songs. It was a lot of fun and we get credits in the film for providing the soundtrack, so look out for it in your local dirty film shop.
So, looking forward to the train journey to be shared with some brilliant people: four lads from Dublin; James,
building
They moved this building (including the foundations) backward, all so they could widen the road Colin, Alan and Mel, one guy from Reading Uni, Luke, and a couple from Watford, Michelle and Tony. Three guitars, a Tin Whistle and endless Folk songs, Five days on a train with that lot should be fun!
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