Moscow: mission impossible.

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'Leningrad' is one of the biggest nightclubs in the city. The music was a lot better than Joy Party and the people are in a much better mood. Every hour or so the DJ would stop the music and six people would come up on stage for a 'konkurs', more often than not a game of strip musical chairs. I almost went up myself - I didn't quite understand what Anya was inviting me to do! Myself and Ana stayed on the dancefloor until half past 3, then left her to her crazy dancing and found a sofa to collapse on. When we weren't dancing it was interesting to see how differently young Moscow people act and dress. They (especially Anya) have a lot of energy and smile more. She found us at 4 to bring me a glass of vodka - then another one to keep me awake!

The metro is closed from 1 until 6 in the morning, so that is when we stayed until. We got back to Lena's flat at 8, absoloutely exhausted. If it wasn't my last afternoon in Moscow I could have stayed in bed all day, but I forced myself off the sofa-bed at 12.30 to have a bath, shave and pack my bag. I had another good chat with Valera; of course I didn't understand everything he said, but whenever I made a blank look he made things clear with sound effects (my favourites were wine bottles being opened, bridges being built and astonishment at Krasnaya Ploschad'!)

I went with Ana to Red Square at 4. We found a restaurant nearby, which is when I realised my Russian was still asleep. My mood turned again. I would have to say goodbye to her in the morning and we would end up so far away. We went to an exclusive shopping mall afterwards, but the only thing I could afford was a pack of postcards as a souvenir for Tamara Aleksandrovna!

I went to a hotel for the night. It wasn't fair that the couple should have to stay at a friends' to accommodate me. I didn't want to say goodbye to Lena and Valera, they were so good to me. The hotel was only a hundred yards from the flat. Opening the door to my room felt like moving into halls again - the room was almost identical.

While I was on my own I tried to understand the Russian city that I had just seen. It is a nation that spreads from Estonia in the west to China in the east, from the Arctic circle in the north to Kazakhstan in the south. But the population is only twice that of Great Britain. So why do people in Yaroslavl, Kazan, Moscow, everywhere, live so cramped in ugly blocks of flats, no person living any differently to the next? It is a great shame, and one that made me very unhappy.

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Photos

G.U.M.
The millionaires' mall.